Hooters, known for spicy chicken wings and orange-clad waitresses, is coming to Newcastle in only a few weeks.

But not everyone is best pleased about it.

The American ‘breastaurant’ chain, whose waitresses are called ‘Hooters Girls’, has branches in Liverpool and Nottingham.

Locals, women’s safety groups and animal welfare activists, however, have criticised plans to open the sports bar in Bigg Market.

A launch date for the franchise, on the ground floor of the former TJ Hughes building, has not been given.

Some hope the store won’t open anytime soon, however. ‘I understand the appeal but I am personally not a fan,’ said James Owen, a 20-year-old waiter.

‘I hope people who come here will be sensible and know Newcastle won’t just be about Hooters. What people wear or don’t wear shouldn’t encourage any harassment.’

50 job ads for uniformed Hooters Girls have been listed for the new Hooters, which will have a capacity of 200.

A woman who did not wish to be named said: ‘I would not want my daughter working there and I certainly wouldn’t want my sons to go.’

Melissa, 20, added: ‘I’m not a fan. People can do what they want to do but it doesn’t feel very liberating.

‘It feels so American. It’s funny seeing an American thing on one side of the street and Greggs on the other.’

Rowan said: ‘I think people will go once for a laugh then stop but I wouldn’t want to work there.

‘Newcastle already has a reputation for attracting the wrong crowds so maybe that’s why they’re opening it here.’

Hooters was created on April Fool’s Day in 1983 by six men in Florida.

It quickly became well-known – and infamous – for its plates of cheesy chips, mozzarella sticks and wings served by waitresses in the company’s trademark orange shorts as sports are shown on TVs behind them.

Hooters has more than 430 branches across 29 countries.

Attempts to bring the fast-food chain across the pond have had limited success. The first British branch opened in Birmingham in 1998 only to close 18 months later.

After two short-lived stints in Bristol and Cardiff, a proposal to open a site in Newcastle was shot down by council and police officials in 2015 over fears stag and hen dos could cause a spike in crime.

At the time, the bar and restaurant said in its application its style of operation was ‘no different to that of many similar operators throughout the UK’ and that its waitresses ‘dress in a similar fashion to waitresses at other units in the city centre’.

The chain has long been criticised for objectifying women. All serving staff are women and must wear the company uniform, tight low-cut white vests and tiny orange shorts.

A handbook given to staff in the early 2000s said: ‘The Hooters concept is based on female sex appeal and the work environment is one in which joking and entertaining conversations are commonplace.’

Off-shore worker Alan Fenwick said ‘Does [Hooters] have a place in 2025? I’m not sure.

‘As a concept it is dated and as a society we should probably be over that sort of thing now.’

Hooters bosses have said the role of the Hooters Girl is about ’empowerment’ and helping them ‘advance in their careers’.

A spokesperson previously told ChronicleLive that the company donates to women’s causes such as breast cancer research.

They added: ‘Hooters has built a global brand, neighbourhood by neighbourhood, for more than 40 years.

‘The same group responsible for our successful Nottingham restaurant, which has been in operation for 26 years, is opening the new location in Newcastle. Our customer base has always appreciated our commitment to giving back to community causes.’

Some Nottingham residents are more open to the idea of a Hooters on the high street.

‘It’s a fast-food restaurant where you can have a few drinks and have a laugh,’ said criminology student Hannah Devlin, 18, adding: ‘The girls don’t ask to be objectified by what they wear.

‘The issue is how men respond to it.’

Hannah’s friend on the same course, Jay Jay Ray, 19, added: ‘The people who have an issue with it won’t go.

‘If girls want to use it as an income and a job then that can be a good thing for them.’

After his wife’s agonising death two years ago, John Lydon wasn’t sure he would ever tour again.

But now he is finally going on the road, he’s hoping it will help heal him.

‘The truth of it is, I’m only half the person I was when she was alive,’ the former Sex Pistols star told Metro of his life after losing beloved wife Nora Foster.

Nora died at the age of 80 in April 2023 after being diagnosed with Alzheimer’s in 2018.

Understandably, her death rocked him to his core and John, 69, added: ‘That’s definite, I can feel that hollowness.’

However, in the last few months, the punk icon has ‘come to grips’ with the loss and is preparing to go on tour with his band Public Image Ltd (PiL) to ‘heal’.

‘I’ve come out of wallowing in alcohol and sadness and self-pity,’ he shared. ‘Which you can’t avoid, it just happens, it’s just in your nature.’

He and Nora were married for over five decades, with John becoming her full-time carer in later years as they lived in a remote home in Los Angeles.

The God Save The Queen hitmaker recalled how ‘painful’ her last day was with Nora in ‘physical and emotional torment.’

‘I’m not sure I’m quite ready to share how intense her agony was,’ he said, a reserved response for the usually outspoken anarchic legend.

He hesitated, becoming emotional before sharing Nora’s ‘whole system was giving up’ and her last day was filled with ‘screaming’, something that still haunts him.

Shortly after her death, John released Hawaii, an incredibly intimate song dedicated to his lost love.

Despite entering it into the Irish Eurovision competition in 2023, he is not yet ready to perform the song on tour as it would put him ‘in such a sad hole’.

‘It’s not the right way to end a set, leaving people feeling down or wallowing in that intense pain and pressure,’ he noted. ‘So I don’t know… but I might find a way of handling it.

‘There are many PiL songs that deal with such depth of personal tragedy, there are many, many times I delve into those emotions. But this one in particular, I think it’s too fresh in my mind.’

Thankfully, Nora did hear the song before her death, which he called a ‘blessing’.

His grief also encompasses the loss of his best friend John ‘Rambo’ Stevens to an aortic heart dissection, seven months after Nora.

He died aged 66 on December 11, 2023 and was John’s long-term manager, producer for several PiL and Sex Pistols albums, and his friend since childhood.

Despite his hesitancy around touring without Rambo by his side, John can’t help but feel excited for the upcoming shows.

The 28-date UK and Ireland tour, billed as This Is Not The Last Tour, opens in Bristol on May 22 and closes on August 16 in Belfast.

Age and loss have mellowed out the punk legend (slightly) so now his tour antics take a more disciplined approach.

As he sipped a birthday beer, John told Metro: ‘In the very early days, I was not [disciplined] at all. I think nerves played a huge part in that.

‘Being very shy — really — and just fearful of letting people down. I tried every kind of escapism, and I learned very quickly, it’s punishing to be standing up there as a sad sack drunk.’

He mentioned a gig from ‘back in the very early days’ which now he can only semi-remember and stated: ‘I never want to go through that ever again.’

Other stand-out moments from his decades of live performances include falling off stages rather more regularly than he might have hoped.

Mid-afternoon festival slots are some of John’s favourites but this comes with a downside of the sun in your eyes, making the edge of the stage hard to see.

‘I’m very prone to just falling off,’ he said as he burst into laughter. ‘I tend to ignore [injuries] and carry on to the bitter end but it’s the embarrassment of being such an ape.

‘Such a daft ape that you can fall off such an obvious thing.’

John says fans shouldn’t read too much into the tour’s name, Not The Last Tour, and has no intention of wrapping up any time soon.

The Rise singer is also embarking on a 50-date spoken word tour of the UK and Ireland almost immediately after the PiL tour from September 5 through to November 24.

Instead, he just thought it was ‘very witty’ and contrasted the ‘lying hyena nonsense’ of other artists, coyly naming no names.

The artist formerly known as Johnny Rotten says the music industry is ‘riddled’ with artists claiming to be on their final tour but have ‘already booked themselves for five years after’.

As for his old bandmates the Sex Pistols, the less said the better as John gave his unfiltered thoughts on their ‘karaoke’ tour.

‘No, I made that clear a long time ago,’ he replied when asked if a reunion tour was ever going to be on the cards.

‘Yeah, they’re impossibly heart-turgid and difficult to deal with and just basically have very bad natures,’ the Anarchy in the UK singer said, getting a little heated.

‘I think going out and doing this is in extremely poor taste. If you don’t want me around, that’s all well and fine, get your stand-up comedian in my place, but leave my words out of it, because it’s clear you don’t understand them.’

Thousands of ‘danger tourists’ have travelled to the slopes of Mount Etna in Italy to witness explosive lava flows and breathtaking ash clouds after its latest eruption.

Sicily’s iconic volcano, which is the tallest and most active in Europe, regularly erupts and has attracted tourists for decades.

But Sicilian authorities have hit out at ‘careless’ behaviour, warning that visitors are blocking the paths of rescue crews trying to provide assistance.

Footage on social media reveals just how close people are getting to one of nature’s most powerful phenomena.

One TikTok video shows dozens of tourists near a lava flow that has melted to form a stream in the snow. Skiing is prohibited in the area at the moment, but a second video appears to show skiers flouting rules by gliding past a lava flow.

Etna’s most recent eruption, which began on the night of February 11, has sparked a sudden influx of hikers, photographers and volcanologists, who officials say pose a serious safety risk. The volcano’s first eruption in 2025 has intensified in recent days.

Salvo Cocina, Sicily’s head of regional civil protection, described the tourism to Etna in recent weeks as ‘wild’ and ‘extremely dangerous’.

He said tourists parking on narrow streets in the area have obstructed emergency vehicles and made rescue attempts impossible.

‘As darkness falls, the situation becomes extremely dangerous, with rising risks of falls and people sinking in the snow,’ he wrote in a Facebook post on Sunday night.

Cocina said the majority of tourists are ‘well accompanied by alpine and volcanological guides’ and blames the ‘careless behaviour of unprepared people’ for the accidents and calls for help.

On Saturday, Mayor Fabio Mancuso also issued a warning to his town of Adrano, which is located at the foot of the volcano.

In a Facebook post, he wrote: ‘Etna is giving us a breathtaking spectacle: A lava flow has reached our territory.

‘A lot of people are trying to get closer to admire this natural phenomenon, but it is extremely dangerous!’

However, not everyone has taken the advice on board.

On Monday, Cocina said eight people attempting to hike up the mountain without a guide were lost for several hours before rescuers located them.

Hours earlier, he claimed a 48-year-old man fractured his foot after falling on the ice.

The eruption on February 12 sent a cloud of ash and lava into the air which was visible from miles around. It came from the volcano’s southeast crater, called Bocca Nuova, meaning ‘new mouth’.

During previous eruptions, nearby towns have been covered in thick volcanic ash, however, the recent eruption has caused minimal disruption – aside from delays and the diverting of flights at Catania Airport, at the foot of Mount Etna.

In April 2024, the volcano sparked fears of eruption after it was seen puffing rings of gas. It last erupted in 2023.

This story has been updated and was originally published on February 20.

Kate Hudson has revealed how she was originally offered the role of Andrea ‘Andy’ Sachs in The Devil Wears Prada.

The iconic 2006 comedy-drama saw wannabe journalist Andy butt heads against cinema’s most horrible boss—the terrifying Miranda Priestly, as played by Meryl Streep.

Of course, the role was famously played by Anne Hathaway, who won acclaim for her performance as the unlucky junior assistant turned scapegoat.

Meanwhile, star Meryl won an Oscar for her role as Miranda, said to be inspired by Vogue legend Anna Wintour, while the film went on to inspire a stage musical and rumours of a belated sequel.

However, things were almost very different, and the Almost Famous actress, 45, has revealed how she was originally approached to play Anne’s part in the film.

Unfortunately, a scheduling conflict meant she was unable to do it, and she ultimately missed out on the part. Oh, what could have been.

Speaking on Capital Breakfast, Kate described the experience of missing out on The Devil Wears Prada as ‘a bad call.’

She continued: ‘It was a timing thing; it was one of those things where I couldn’t do it, and I should’ve made it happen, and I didn’t. That was one where, when I saw it, I was like, “Ugh”.’

At the time, the star would have been filming the Owen Wilson comedy You, Me and Dupree, which may have caused the scheduling conflict responsible.

‘It’s funny; it’s waves of things that are happening and people shooting at different times. It’s not like you don’t do them because you don’t want to do them. It’s like, Oh, you’re doing something else.

‘And it just sucked, you know?’, Kate added.

Last year, it was reported that Disney had begun work on a sequel to the film, with original stars Meryl and Emily Blunt expected to return.

Puck reported that the film would follow magazine boss Miranda as she struggled to adapt to the decline of traditional print media, clashing with Emily Charlton, who is now an executive at a luxury fashion group.

Original screenwriter Aline Brosh McKenna is reportedly on board with the project, although Anne is not thought to be involved.

Original director David Frankel previously revealed to Metro that other names in the running to play Andy included Scarlett Johansson and Kirsten Dunst.

David said: ‘Annie [Hathaway] was actually the first choice and one of the last choices. She was the first and only actress I ever met for the part, and then negotiations with her bogged down while we were developing the project. And that’s when the studio said, “Well, let’s explore other options.”

‘Rachel McAdams [was who] the studio wanted; I think they offered it to her multiple times, Scarlett Johansson, Kirsten Dunst.

‘[It was] a lot of terrific actresses, and kind of surprisingly, they all turned us down. And some of them even turned us down after Meryl was involved; it was a bit surprising. And I’m just glad that we circled all the way back to Annie because she was the right one.’

The director also spoke about the chances of a sequel to the film, claiming that it would never happen.

‘There was a little bit of talk a couple of times—once after the movie was such a big hit 15 years ago,’ the director revealed in 2022.

He continued: ‘We all got on a conference call to discuss it, and it was easily decided that that was a terrible idea.

‘We had told this story; these characters were very complete in the way that they had appeared in this film and we had no imagination for where the story would go.’

Speaking to The View the same year, star Anne also dismissed the idea of a sequel.

‘I don’t know if there can be. I just think that movie was in a different era,’ she said.

‘Now, everything has gone so digital, and that movie centred around the concept of producing a physical thing. It’s just very different now.’

In February, co-star Emily told the Happy Sad Confused Podcast: ‘Sometimes things should be cherished and preserved in this bubble and it’s OK.‘

She continued: ‘And I think—didn’t Meryl say something funny about it? They asked her about it, “Would she ever do a sequel?” and she went, “Yeah, if I don’t have to lose the weight.”

If you love sports, horror movies, burgers and karaoke, then a new bar in London is going to be a must-visit for you.

That’s because the team behind MEATliquor has combined all four of these things (and more) to create what they are calling a ‘watching bar’.

The unique venue is packed with 30 screens where you can watch live sports from around the globe, as well as a number of iconic horror flicks.

If this weren’t enough, all of the screens are also set up for karaoke, so any time someone gets the urge to belt out a tune, they can. There’s also arcade games and a ‘psychobooth’ complete with a shower curtain, for taking photos with pals.

And no spot like this would be complete without a killer menu…

The 120-seater place has been inspired by dive bars in the US, and will serve up some classic Meatliquor burgers such as the Dead Hippie, as well as new items like ‘The Ripper’ – a hotdog wrapped in bacon and deep fried.

These can be paired with drinks from the ‘bloods and drips’ menu, which features a line-up of tomato-based drinks perfect for warding off horrific hangovers. Expect to see tipples like the Bloodless Mary Martini (Clarified) to Micheladas, all of which can be ordered with a side of bacon.

The wider drinks menu will include classic cocktails and boozy slushies, such as the Long Island Iced Coffee, alongside a ‘House Salad’ (definitely not one of your five-a-day), as well as highballs, boilermakers and beers.

What’s more, the bar has a late-night license meaning food and drinks can be ordered through the night up until its 2am closing time, seven days a week.

There will also be something sweeter on offer, as Hideout Coffee will be serving up caffeine and donuts from 8am until 8pm each day. This is the first time the coffee shop’s fare will be available outside of its Wes Anderson-inspired location in Portsmouth.

Speaking about the opening, Founder Scott Collins said: ‘BLOODsports has been on the cards for over 10-years, it’s just been a case of waiting for the right site.

‘It’s inspired by the best of the dive and sports bars I frequented when I lived in the US – with a carefully curated dash of horror films and our rock solid MEATliquor food menu with some BS specific dishes. In short, it’s a one stop fun shop…’

Online people are already intrigued by the unique concept, with some hailing it as ‘amazing’, ‘awesome’ and saying ‘let’s f***ing go’, while the food menu was branded ‘sexual’ in one quirky comment on the bar’s Instagram.

For those keen to check it out, BLOODsports is now open at 27-29 Endell St, London, WC2H 9BA.