Month: January 2025

Tupac was shot dead at the age of 25 back in 1996, and Biggie died a year later, aged just 24.

Ex police officer Kadling has appeared on a number of podcasts and documentaries over the years to tell us who he thinks killed the pair, sharing his evidence with the public.

Fans believe Kading and his task force’s work on the case helped lead to the 2023 arrest of Duane ‘Keefe D’ Davis for the murder of Tupac.

However, the detective believes the infamous 1996 diss track ‘Hit Em Up’ is what made the already tense feud heat up.

Pac was angry at his former friend Biggie and accused him of being involved in his 1994 shooting in New York.

In the song, he disses Puff Daddy (Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs) and boasts about his alleged affair with Biggie’s wife, Faith Evans.

‘That’s why I f**ked your b**ch you fat motherf**ker,’ being one of the most memorable lines from the record, along with, ‘First off, f*** your b**** and the clique you claim’.

Kading believes this diss track took the whole East Coast-West Coast rivalry to a new level.

“I think Biggie was a little bit more innocent in this whole chain of events than Tupac was,” he told the MAD THAT PODCAST.

“Tupac overstepped his boundaries when he got himself involved in that gang type of activity, in that gang life. It was not a place that he should have been in. Suge Knight should never have allowed Tupac to be exposed to a lot of that.

“So there was just some really bad judgment calls made.”

“Obviously I sympathise with both of them because they were young men, they had all kinds of potential, they were giving back culturally and they were going to mature into, probably, you know, leaders within their culture, and so you know the culture was robbed of their potential,” he added.

“So I sympathised with that but I also recognise that when people take the law into their own hands, and they want to enact street justice, there’s going to be a price to pay.

“And there’s an old saying, as a matter of fact, I think there’s a big mural somewhere with Tupac Shakur, it says, ‘live by the sword, die by the sword,’ and that is exactly the prophecy that came true, that he sang and spoke.

“I mean all you have to do is listen to that song ‘Hit Em Up’ and listen to the viciousness and the violence and the intention within that song that he’s directing at other people.

“And that whole energy just came right back against him.”

Baldoni and Lively have issued a few lawsuits against each other these past few months, with the Gossip Girl star initially filing her lawsuit back in December 2024.

In that complaint, Lively accused her It Ends With Us co-star of sexual harassment and partaking in a ‘social manipulation’ campaign against her.

In response, Baldoni’s lawyers called the allegations ‘categorically false’ and returned in kind with their own lawsuit.

In this new suit, the director is suing Lively, her husband, Ryan Reynolds, their publicist, Leslie Sloane and her PR firm Vision PR on grounds of civil extortion, defamation and false light invasion of privacy – to name just a few.

Lively’s legal team have since responded by claiming it is ‘another chapter in the abuser playbook’ and ‘an attempt to turn the tables on the victim’, while Baldoni’s lawyers have said it is ‘based on an overwhelming amount of untampered evidence detailing Blake Lively and her team’s duplicitous attempt to destroy Justin Baldoni’.

Baldoni’s recent lawsuit also mentions a ‘Taylor’, and while not directly referred to as being Taylor Swift, his lawyer have since confirmed to NBC News that the Taylor in the lawsuit is indeed Swift – although she is not being sued.

In his lawsuit, Baldoni claims that Reynolds and Swift had pushed for a rewrite by Lively of a scene in the movie, which was later revealed to be the scene on the rooftop where their characters Lily Bloom and Ryle Kincaid meet.

The complaint further claims that the director was ‘hesitant’ about the changes but nonetheless ‘thanked Lively for her passion and diplomatically told her that the scene would likely end up being somewhere between the original version and Lively’s version’.

In the text of the suit, Swift is referred to as a ‘megacelebrity friend’, where Lively wrote to Baldoni in a text message that his response ‘didn’t feel great for me. Or [another megacelebrity friend and Ryan Reynolds]. To have my passion praised instead of my specific contribution’.

Baldoni further claims that in her alleged text message, Lively referred to an earlier meeting with him, Reynolds and ‘a famous, and famously close, friend of Reynolds and Lively’, believed to be Swift, at the actor’s New York penthouse where the two walked in and similarly ‘began praising Lively’s script’.

Following this, Baldoni wrote to Lively: “Also was working on rooftop scene today, I really love what you did. It really hep [sic] a lot.

“Makes it so much more fun and interesting. (And I would have felt that way without Ryan and Taylor)” with a wink emoji.”

In another alleged text message two days later, the Gossip Girl star responded thanking Baldoni for his feedback, adding: “I have no motives except for you to win. As a director. As an actor. As a studio. As a writer. If you win, I win.”

She also allegedly compared herself to a Game of Thrones character and called the other two as her ‘dragons’.

The It Ends with Us co-stars have been filing lawsuit after lawsuit against one another, with Baldoni’s team today (16 January) suing Lively, Ryan Reynolds, their publicist Leslie Sloane and her PR firm Vision PR.

Baldoni and Wayfarer Studios have sued for £320 million, on claims of civil extortion, defamation, false light invasion of privacy, breach of implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing, intentional interference with contractual relations, intentional interference with prospective economic advantage, and negligent interference with prospective economic advantage.

One of the claims in the suit is that Lively took measures to gain control of the 2024 film.

The documents, which were obtained by TMZ, also included claims that the Gossip Girl star was ‘determined to make Baldoni the real-life villain in her story’ after being labelled as ‘tone-deaf’ during the film’s media tour.

Bryan Freedman, Baldoni’s lawyer, said in a statement to LADbible Group that Blake Lively was ‘either severely misled by her team or intentionally and knowingly misrepresented the truth’.

Lively first filed a lawsuit against Baldoni back in December 2024, where she alleged sexual harassment and a campaign of ‘social manipulation’ against her, as well as various other accusations.

Everything included in Blake Lively’s first lawsuit against Justin Baldoni

‘Gratuitous sexual content’ added to script after Lively signed on

According to a report from PEOPLE, the lawsuit filed alleges that Baldoni and Heath had changed the script after Lively signed on to play the role of character Lily Bloom by adding ‘improvised gratuitous sexual content and/or scenes involving nudity into the film’.

These additions are said to have included a scene which required Lively to ‘orgasm on-camera’ and one which saw their characters ‘climax simultaneously during intercourse’.

It’s understood that Baldoni ultimately removed the scenes from the film after Lively ‘objected’.

Improvised intimacy on set

Lively has accused Baldoni of improvising during intimate scenes on set which had not been ‘rehearsed, choreographed or discussed with Ms. Lively’ beforehand and without an intimacy co-ordinator present.

Wayfarer Studios would allegedly later agree to having an intimacy co-ordinator on set ‘for all scenes involving nudity and/or simulated sex’ and ‘no more improvising of kissing’ after a claimed meeting between Baldoni, producers, Lively and her husband Ryan Reynolds.

Allegations of a ‘lack of boundaries’ shown by Baldoni and Heath

The lawsuit alleges that Baldoni and Heath had displayed a ‘shocking lack of boundaries’ while on set, which included graphic discussions about their sex lives, their previously respective relationships and pornography addiction.

Heath has also been accused of showing Lively and her assistant a ‘fully nude’ video of his wife in labour without their consent.

Lively also claimed that during filming for the scene showing Lily in childbirth was ‘utterly lacking in standard industry protections’.

Comments about Lively’s weight and deceased father

Lively has accused Baldoni of regularly sharing criticisms of ‘her body and weight’ including allegations of calling her personal trainer wanting ‘her to lose weight in two weeks’ just months after the actress had given birth to her fourth child.

She has also alleged that Baldoni had claimed to be able ‘speak to the dead’ on several occasions, which included her recently deceased father Ernie Lively.

January 2024 meeting between Lively, Reynolds, Baldoni and producers

During a break in filming due to the writers strike, it’s alleged that Lively revealed her concerns before filming resumed in a meeting which took place on 4 January to address concerns of a ‘hostile work environment’ (per the BBC).

A list of 30 complaints were allegedly made on Lively’s behalf against Heath and Baldoni. Deadpool star Reynolds was also said to have attended in support of his wife.

Accusations of a targeted smear campaign against Lively

Lively has also alleged that she was the target of a deliberate smear campaign during the film’s promotion back in August in order to ‘destroy’ her reputation.

According to a copy of the complaints published by The New York Times, a subpoena revealed a series of texts between Baldoni’s team, PR veteran Jennifer Abel and crisis management expert, Melissa Nathan.

The messages include a conversation between Nathan and Abel – which allegedly shows Abel telling Nathan that ‘he wants to feel like she can be buried’ – as well as a message from Baldoni allegedly asking for only clips of him talking about domestic violence to be posted.

Blake Lively’s second lawsuit against Justin Baldoni

The 37-year-old followed up the original lawsuit, which was filed with the California Civil Rights Commission, by formally suing Baldoni in federal court in New York.

The second lawsuit from Lively is more formal, and was filed on 31 December, where the actor is demanding ‘punitive’ and ‘compensatory’ damages as well as a jury trial.

She added that they also caused ‘severe and serious emotional distress’ and ‘lost wages’.

In a statement from her legal team, they stated that ‘Ms. Lively’s decision to speak out has resulted in further retaliation and attacks’, alleging that ‘Wayfarer and its associates have violated federal and California state law by retaliating against her for reporting sexual harassment and workplace safety concerns.’

How has Justin Baldoni responded to the claims?

As well as filing a lawsuit on Thursday (16 January), the actor filed a lawsuit against the New York Times in December.

The $250 million lawsuit brought against the news publication, with the plaintiffs including Baldoni, publicists Melissa Nathan and Jennifer Abel among seven others, alleges libel and false-light invasion of privacy, Variety reports.

They claimed that the information in the lawsuit, which included text messages and emails, published by the newspaper was ‘cherry-picked’ and stripped of context to ‘mislead’.

The New York Times responded with their own statement, where they said the story was ‘meticulously and responsibly reported’ and that they ‘plan to vigorously defend against the lawsuit’.

Joe Goldberg (Penn Badgley) is back for one last helping of being a handsome b*****d who you would really not want to meet under any circumstances.

Last we left off, Joe had completed his bafflingly priced stay in London and moved on from his job that took him a six hour walk to work and returned to New York.

When this whole things started he’d been running a bookshop called Mooney’s in the Big Apple and it looks like things are going to come full circle for Joe as he seems to have returned to his former life.

Returning to his roots, the charismatic killer seems to be keeping people in cages and as you can understand they’re not best pleased with him.

Of course if everything is going to become wrapped up in a neat little bow then where does that leave Joe?

Surely he’s done enough over the course of You that some kind of massive comeuppance is in order, unless his fate is going to be left open ended and Joe’s going to get away with it all free to continue his predations far into the future.

All of those answers and more are going to be available to watch within a matter of months as the final season of You now has a release date and will land in April.

Needless to say this has fans of You very excited indeed as many of them commented ‘FINALLY’.

In fairness it is coming up on two years since You was last releasing new episodes and it’ll be beyond that point by the time we get the final season of the show.

The wait may have been long for You fans but in a smattering of weeks all that you desire will be available to see, assuming of course that You sticks the landing and ends in a satisfying way which pleases the rather sizeable audience the show has built up over the years.

While there’s plenty of excitement over the possibility of more of Joe Goldberg some viewers are eager to see him ‘brought to justice in the final season’.

Perhaps there’s only so long you can stand to see a handsome man killing people before you think it’s time to see him end up on the wrong end of things.

The big question hanging over the final season is whether Joe will get his just desserts or not.

The new laws, which are being brought in to target sites that host pornography or other adult content, will be in full effect this summer.

Porn sites across the UK must soon start to ID users before they are permitted to access any content to stop children from being exposed to the 18+ content.

The guidelines have been outlined by regulator Ofcom, who have set a deadline of July 2025 for sites to bring in these new age checks.

The likes of PornHub and OnlyFans are just a couple of the sites that will be impacted by the change, with ‘robust’ age checks soon to be a necessity.

Ofcom has detailed that services that show pornography or other forms of adult content will need to place age assurance tools in place to prove that the user is not underage – some of these methods can be photo ID matching, facial age estimation or credit card checks.

Ofcom’s chief executive, Melanie Dawes, said (via The Daily Mail): “For too long, many online services which allow porn and other harmful material have ignored the fact that children are accessing their services,

“Either they don’t ask or, when they do, the checks are minimal and easy to avoid. That means companies have effectively been treating all users as if they’re adults, leaving children potentially exposed to porn and other types of harmful content.

“Today, this starts to change.”

Essentially, using the internet might be about to get a lot harder. Pun unintended.

That’s not all though, as all of the details have been laid out in the Online Safety Act, which will come into enforcement in just six months.

Under this new act, even the likes of social media and search services will have to carry out a children’s access assessment, which will reveal if their site is likely to be visited by children – this has a deadline of 16 April to complete.

The regulator has also explained that it will publish codes of practice for said sites, which will explain how they will implement measures to keep young internet users safe.

Sites will have to implement any required measures, which could be age checks, while any site will have to add this in if they allow pornography.

Dame Melanie went on: “As age checks start to roll out in the coming months, adults will start to notice a difference in how they access certain online services. Services which host their own pornography must start to introduce age checks immediately, while other user-to-user services – including social media – which allow pornography and certain other types of content harmful to children will have to follow suit by July at the latest.”

The Ofcom CEO also said that they would be ‘monitoring the response’ from the industry, while websites that fail to comply ‘can expect to face enforcement action from Ofcom’.

They also listed a few ‘non- exhaustive’ technologies that may be implemented for age verification, such as:

• Open banking
• Photo ID matching
• Facial age estimation
• Mobile network operator age checks
• Credit card checks
• Digital identity services
• Email-based age estimation

Experts at safeguarding companies have weighed in on the move, with the head of regulatory and public affairs at Verifymy, Lina Ghazal, adding that it’s a ‘pivotal moment’ to make the internet ‘a safer place’.

She concluded: “The regulator’s long-awaited guidance on age assurance means adult content providers now have the clarity they need to get their houses in order and put in place robust and reliable methods to keep explicit material well away from underage users.”

Taking to his The Martin Lewis Money Show Live programme on ITV1 and ITVX, the financial journalist explained what is facing many of us as we settle into the new year and look ahead to the next 11 months.

But in the build up to the show, which aired on Tuesday (14 January), Lewis took to Twitter to claim that ‘10,000,000s of Brits are being ripped off by overpaying on energy, mobile, broadband, water bills and more’.

“It’s BillBuster time,” he said, with the show focusing on how many of us in the UK can cut our outgoings by just being a little more clued up about the lay of the land.

“Depending on your provider and when your contract started, your bill could rise by the rate of inflation plus a percentage on top, or by a specified amount in pounds and pence,” the Money Saving Expert team writes over on the site.

It is all to do with deals over broadband and phones allowing mid-contract price increases. This is something Lewis has been campaigning against for years.

Now, for the first time, new rules by industry regulator Ofcom mean your provider has to tell you how much more you will pay rather than give you a percentage increase linked to inflation; which doesn’t give you a realistic interpretation of the situation.

But the issue, Lewis and his team explain, is that the new rule from Ofcom doesn’t apply to contracts taken out before providers implemented these new terms, meaning millions of people still face inflation-linked rises.

“For example, BT, EE, Plusnet, and Vodafone customers on older contracts will see price rises based on inflation figures published on Wednesday, 15 January,” MSE says.

Price rises per company

BT, EE and Plusnet

The trio are increasing their mobile Sim-only and Flex Pay airtime deals by £1.50 a month, as well as £2 a month more for TV users, £3 for broadband, and £4 for bundles.

This will start from 31 March, with the price increase 6.4 percent if you joined before 9 April, 2024.

O2

The company upping its pay-monthly and Sim-only mobile packages by £1.80 a month. There’s also a 75 pence a month increase for smartwatch, mobile broadband and tablet deals. All of these will increase from 1 April.

Sky

Sky is yet to issue price increase information for broadband and TV customers or home phone customers.

Last year, bills rose by 6.7 percent.

Out of contract Sky customers will pay £1.50 more a month from 14 February but there will be no change for those still contracted.

Vodafone

For customers joining after 2 July last year, Vodafone will up ‘basic’ mobile phone plans by £1 a month. It’ll be £1.80 a month for other pay-monthly deals and £3 a month for broadband. All of these will go up from 1 April.

If you joined Vodafone before 2 July last year, bills will increase by 6.4 percent from 1 April.

Virgin Media

For customers who joined Virgin Media for broadband, landline or TV after 9 January this year, you’ll pay £3.50 a month extra from 1 April.

For those who joined before, your price rise is to be confirmed.

Three

Three customers who joined or upgraded after 8 September last year will pay £1 per month more for 4GB or less mobile data plans. It’ll go up by £1.25 a month for deals between 5GB and 99GB, and £1.50 a month for more than 99GB.

Broadband deals will cost £2 more every month, with all these prices going up from 1 April.

If you joined Three between 1 November 2022 and 7 September 2024, you’ll pay 6.4 percent more from 1 April. It’s 4.5 percent if you joined between 29 October 2020 and 31 October 2022.

Money Saving Expert warning

“Ofcom’s new rules mean an end to the common practice of linking price rises to future, as-yet-unknown rates of inflation, often with an extra percentage point rise on top,” MSE says.

“Instead, firms that had these price rises baked into their contracts will need to set out any future price increases ‘prominently and transparently’ in pounds and pence before you take out any new contract.

“While these new regulations ban price hikes directly tied to inflation, they still allow for annual mid-contract increases by a fixed amount – which means prices could still rise by more than inflation.”

The American filmmaker is best known for films like Blue Velvet and Mulholland Drive as well as the popular TV series, Twin Peaks.

The legendary director-writer’s work typically featured surrealist, dreamlike qualities and he picked up a number of awards across his 58-year career. In 2006, Lynch received the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement and an Honorary Academy Award in 2019.

His death was announced on his Facebook page by his family with the following statement: “It is with deep regret that we, his family, announce the passing of the man and the artist, David Lynch.

“We would appreciate some privacy at this time.

“There’s a big hole in the world now that he’s no longer with us. But, as he would say, ‘Keep your eye on the donut and not on the hole.’ … It’s a beautiful day with golden sunshine and blue skies all the way.”

In the summer of 2024, Lynch revealed that he has suffering from emphysema after several years as a smoker and said he was unable to leave his home due to the fear he would get Covid-19.

Then in November, the filmmaker revealed he required supplemental oxygen to be able to walk.

However, despite his health struggle, he said he would ‘never retire’ and if necessary, would direct remotely.

Incase you’ve never stumbled across the famous ad or simply weren’t born at the time, the advert came from the Milk Marketing Board during the 1980s and has arguably put the town of Accrington – and their football club – on the map.

“Milk? Eurgh,” one of the boys says after seeing his mate take a sip, to which he replies: “It’s what Ian Rush drinks. He said if I don’t drink lots of milk, when I grow up I’ll only be good enough to play for Accrington Stanley.”

The first boy still impressed, uttering the iconic line: “Accrington Stanley, who are they?”

Apparently this was all it took to get people to drink milk back in the day.

The advert went on to be hugely popular, sticking around on TV for another six years and eternally in the nation’s pop culture collective.

One of the boys in the advert is Kevin Spaine, who went on to be jailed for murder in 2023, while the other has gone on to enjoy a promising acting career.

Can you guess who?

If you’d seen the clip and been able to recognise Carl Rice, give yourself a pat on the back as this advert is the actor’s on-screen debut.

Since the advert, Rice has appeared in shows such as Brassic and Coronation Street, even having a brief cameo in 2021’s Cruella.

However if you didn’t make the connection don’t feel too disheartened, as one woman recently revealed on TikTok that she was stunned to discover that Ronnie from Brassic was the Accrington Stanley kid.

“Were other people aware that the kid in the Accrington Stanley advert was Ronnie in Brassic?” she questioned.

“I didn’t know it was him and it’s really messed with my reality for some reason. I just did not see that coming at all.”

And others could believe it either, as one person wrote in the comments: “NO!! Is it love Ronnie he’s so funny.”

Another said: “Wow didn’t know that. I love Brassic and I’ve been impersonating that advert for years.”

Meanwhile, a third said: “WHAT??? No way that’s true.”

Rice had previously spoken about his participation in the advert back in 2006, revealing to the BBC that it was originally meant to the lesser known club Tottenham Hotspur, however, the club declined.

Probably because they didn’t want anyone to bring up their lack of trophies.

But a bizarre video captured at an airport in Serbia showed one chancer seeing exactly what she could get away with.

Captured on security cameras at Nikola Tesla Airport in Belgrade, an unidentified woman can be seen rattling the barriers at electronic passport gates before deciding the best course of action is to drop to the floor and audition for a sequel to The Great Escape.

Once the woman successfully clears the initial obstacle of the passport gates she then decides it would be too suspicious to stand up and continues army crawling her way under further barriers instead of simply walking around them.

Either that, or she’s having too much fun transforming herself into a human-sized duster.

Fortunately for the woman, this entire area appears to be completely devoid of people, allowing the woman to successfully pull off her mission.

For anyone watching the clip and worrying that their next jaunt abroad could be delayed by a rogue passenger sneaking onto their flight and getting a free ticket out of the country do not worry – as our chancer was later caught out.

According to reports, the woman was able to board a Wizz Air flight to Malta before being caught out by staff who asked her to present a boarding pass. Security was then called to the situation and the woman was detained.

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It is then understood that the woman was charged with trespassing by Serbian authorities. It was also revealed the woman had arrived at the airport on a previous flight from France where she had been deported from for reasons that have not been confirmed to the public.

It’s also unknown what the woman’s motivations for sneaking onto the flight were and whether or not she had any plans to cause harm with her stunt.

Responding to the incident, airport representatives said: “Belgrade Airport is cooperating with the relevant authorities regarding this case, and while the investigation is ongoing, we are unable to provide any details.”

A WizzAir spokesperson told The Sun: “Wizz Air is aware of an incident involving a woman who attempted to board a flight at Belgrade Nikola Tesla airport without presenting to the airport security the required travel documents or a boarding pass.

“Wizz Air did not let the woman fly and alerted the relevant authorities.

“As the investigation is ongoing, we are unable to provide further details at this time.

“We remain committed to ensuring that appropriate measures are taken at the airport to prevent such incidents in the future.”