News

Mick Jagger probably shouldn’t expect Tony Parsons to send a present for his newborn son. “Man and Boy” author and British journalist Parsons hate-tweeted in the Rolling Stones singer’s direction on Thursday, after news broke that Jagger had become a father for the eighth time, at age 73. Calling the news “disturbing,” Parsons also snarkily insinuated that Jagger is a cradle robber. Also Read: Mick Jagger Welcomes 8th Child at Age 73 “Deeply disturbing that Mick Jagger, 73, has had a baby with Melanie Hamrick, 29,” Parsons wrote. “How can this possibly work? She’s far too old for him.” Deeply disturbing that Mick Jagger,...

Flagship BBC2 arts and culture show loses its weekly status but retains presenters Martha Kearney and Kirsty Wark

For nearly 20 years it has brought BBC2 viewers the latest developments in the world of arts and culture, in various incarnations and featuring bickering panellists including Tom Paulin, Allison Pearson and Tony Parsons.

But now The Review Show, one of the BBC's flagship arts programmes, is to be moved from BBC2 to BBC4 and cut from a weekly to monthly slot – as new director general Lord Hall prepares to join the BBC on 2 April from one of the UK's leading arts institutions, the Royal Opera House.

Arts coverage on BBC1 and BBC2 is being cut as a result of the BBC's £700m cost-cutting measures, Delivering Quality First.

The BBC's arts commissioning editor, Mark Bell, said the reduction in arts coverage was minimal across BBC1 and BBC2, amounting to a "couple of hours" a year.

Claudia Winkleman's debut helped reinvigorate the format – but did she really need such a large team of supporting critics to help her?

There are a few cinema critics who still exert influence in their fields – the News of the World's Robbie Collin for blockbusters, the Guardian's Peter Bradshaw for world cinema, and the Chicago Sun-Times's Roger Ebert, who has managed to retain power in the old media by embracing the new. But generally speaking, the critic's influence is quickly diminishing.

The first episode in the revamped run of Film 2010, the BBC's flagship movie show – which aired last night to 1.1 million viewers, a 65% increase on previous host Jonathan Ross's farewell episode – tackled this problem in two ways. The first was to open up the format. Instead of one man in a broom cupboard, a seat filled most comfortably by Barry Norman, we instead had nominal host Claudia Winkleman...

Jonathan Ross has been voted the worst-dressed man of 2009, according to a new survey by GQ. The television presenter beat competition from comedian Russell Brand and Prime Minister Gordon Brown to top the annual list compiled by contributors to the men's magazine. Criticising Ross's style, columnist Tony Parsons said: "His jokes aren't funny anymore and neither are the suits. His clothes make you cry." Elsewhere, David Furnish suggested that Brand resembled a "drag queen on acid", while author Irvine Welsh claimed that Brown "seems (more)...