A senior exec at the film studio Lionsgate has confirmed that the wheels are in motion on a sequel to the company’s recent controversial Michael Jackson biopic.

Upon its release in April, Michael was met with a lukewarm response from critics, many of whom took issue with the fact that the movie ended in the late 80s, meaning the allegations of child sexual abuse made against the singer in his lifetime were not addressed.

Ever since Michael’s release, there’ve been plenty of conversations about whether a follow-up could be on the cards, with Variety reporting that Lionsgate’s vice chair Adam Fogelson told employees that production on the sequel will get underway at “the end of this year or early next”.

“We do have a number of sequences, particularly some big musical sequences, that were shot previously, that are almost sure to be incorporated but we are mostly focused right now on how to make sure we can deliver, at the right price, the biggest, best sequel,” he was quoted as saying. “That is what the audience is going to want and deserve after the experience we gave them the first time.”

As for a release date, he suggested that it could hit cinemas as early as next year, if not early 2028.

Earlier this year, he was quoted by the same outlet as saying: “We are really excited about the progress we’re making with respect to a second Michael film. All the conversations that we’ve been having with all of the appropriate parties continue to go exceptionally well.”

Director Antoine Fuqua has previously made clear that it was his intention to include the allegations made against the film’s subject in the original movie, and some scenes were even shot depicting a police raid on the Neverland ranch.

However, it was later discovered that part of the settlement between the Grammy winner and one of his accusers made it clear that neither the child’s name nor likeness could ever be used, leading to costly reshoots and major tweaks being made to the film’s plot.

It had previously been reported that a sequel to Michael could focus on the chart-topping performer’s later years, and the controversies he faced around that time, which looks increasingly likely given part one’s box office success.

Fogelson also suggested that a Michael sequel would include some of the controversies that the musician faced in his later years, claiming: “From my perspective, it’s important to try to give the audience an authentic understanding of who Michael Jackson was.

“So I think that that can be done with or without some of what was in the third act that had to be scrapped.”

Richard Tice said he has been treated “worse than a paedophile, a rapist or a murderer” by the BBC and the police.

The Reform UK deputy leader made the extraordinary claim as he was quizzed about his and the party’s financial arrangements.

It emerged last month that detectives are investigating donations to Reform by a company controlled by Tice.

Parliament’s commissioner for standards also revealed that he has begun a probe into claims Tice had failed to declare an interest.

Meanwhile, an investigation by the commissioner into a £5 million gift Nigel Farage received from a Thailand-based crypto billionaire is on hold while he fights the Clacton by-election.

Appearing on Times Radio on Thursday, the Boston and Skegness MP claimed he and Reform had “observed all the rules at every level”.

“There is a lot of mischief-making, smearing, discrediting, particularly to myself and Nigel Farage in a most disgraceful way,” he said.

“Frankly, there’s been a whole lot of nonsense printed and done to Nigel and to myself and we’re done with it. We’ve had enough of some of this stuff.

“It’s frankly outrageous. Full of lies, innuendo, slander, defamatory stuff going on, particularly from some large, mainstream organisations, and we’re done with it.”

Tice added: “Let me make one point clear. I have been treated worse than a paedophile, a rapist or a murderer in terms of the legal protection and privacy that I’ve been allowed by people like the BBC and the Met Police. Just leave it at that.”

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American Horror Story creator Ryan Murphy has spoken for the first time about Ariana Grande’s departure from the next season of the hit anthology show.

Last year, Ryan announced that Ariana – with whom he previously worked on the slasher homage Scream Queens – would be joining the 13th season of American Horror Story, alongside a star-studded cast of returning faces that would include Jessica Lange, Sarah Paulson, Evan Peters, Kathy Bates, Angela Bassett and Emma Roberts.

However, last month, it was reported that she’d been forced to drop out of the series due to a scheduling conflict involving her ongoing Eternal Sunshine world tour.

The TV super-producer has finally set the record straight during an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, explaining: “I love Ariana Grande. We’re great friends. I had an idea [for a role in American Horror Story] and I came to her and she, very immediately, said, ‘I’m not sure because I think I’m going on tour’. I don’t think the tour had been announced, and she had obviously just finished the Wicked movie.

“So when it came time to do that episode, I called her up and she was like, ‘I don’t know how I’m going to juggle the tour with this’. And I said, ‘OK, if you can’t, we can push to another season’. She said, ‘Great’.”

He continued: “You have to be respectful. Who is busier than Ariana Grande? No one. She had told me at the time, ‘I have this album that’s dropping’. It was really, truly a scheduling conflict. I said, ‘OK, we’ll kick that can down the road’, and she said, ‘Great’.”

Ryan added that he will “always” want to work with Ariana again if the opportunity presented itself, insisting: “I love her, and I support her. It was a very big swing, but I might bring that back for another season, per Ariana’s availability. I think the world of her.”

Since Ariana’s exit from American Horror Story was first reported, it was also revealed that she had pulled out of a planned appearance in a London revival of the musical Sunday In The Park With George, which would have reunited her with Wicked co-star Jonathan Bailey.

In a statement last week, her team said that Ariana would be “taking a step back from visibility” when her Eternal Sunshine tour ends next month.

“She looks forward to finishing the tour and ending it on a high note, both healthily and happily, and then taking a much-deserved break from public-facing work and appearances, which has led to endless, ongoing public scrutiny,” her spokesperson explained.

“This tour has been a beautiful experience for her. She loves her fans and has loved every minute of this tour so much.”

Later this year, Ariana is set to appear alongside Ben Stiller and Robert De Niro in a reboot of the Meet The Parents franchise titled Focker-In-Law.

An email blast from President Donald Trump on Wednesday seemingly attempted to guilt his supporters into donating money to him by claiming their “supporter status” had been “cancelled.”

The email, which was archived on Politicalemails.org, began with the subject line, “I’ve got a massive headache,” followed by a supposed quote from Trump: “Don’t tell me this is true?”

“YOUR SUPPORTER STATUS HAS BEEN CANCELLED,” the email said.

A yellow link said this is the “FIANL CHANCE TO MAKE THIS RIGHT.”

“The thought of losing you makes my head hurt. I know you would never intend to cancel your journey with the MAGA Movement and me,” the purported Trump quote continued. “If you’re still with us, I need you to send me your signature to renew your MAGA Membership before the hour clock runs out.”

While the links have been removed from the archived email, several outlets reported that the link may only ask for a signature, but it redirects the user to make a financial contribution.

The email comes in the wake of a recent report from The Wall Street Journal, which said Trump was urging his aides to push supporters to donate larger amounts of money. Trump’s fundraising efforts have brought in more than $800 million since returning to office, according to the report. Much of that money has reportedly gone to fund Trump’s planned presidential library in Florida along with his White House ballroom.

I experienced a startling moment when I was working on marketing copy for my most recent novel, The Snowbirds. The story follows empty nesters who head to sunny Palm Springs, California, to escape the harsh Midwestern winter and figure out the rest of their lives.

I described my characters as “middle aged” because they are my age, 56 (now 57), and that’s how I thought of myself – and them – the whole time I was writing the book.

But my longtime editor suggested a slight modification to my text, one she never would have guessed would hit me sideways: She inserted the word “late” in front of those words.

I stared at that phrase for a good long time and thought, what exactly is that? I thought I’d written a novel about the travails of midlife. Was it possible my characters had already rounded that bend… and so, too, had I?

Even though my editor is always right, my first instinct was denial, because most of the time I feel like my young self. I still act like a dumb teenager, saying and doing all the wrong things. I take yoga and lift weights. I wear barrel jeans. I attend concerts and try to stay hip. (True confession: I had to ask my grown kids which word to use instead of “hip.” They suggested “aura,” “rizz,” “skibidi,” “steeze” and “Ohio.” I wasn’t sure if this was actual slang or if they were making fun of me).

Yet there’s no denying the old is starting to push through. The warranty on our new mattress expires after I probably will. I make 5:30pm dinner reservations. I use Hotmail. My lower back is a mess, and I get a kink in my neck unless I sleep on the exact perfect pillow.

When I was young, I liked to think my body was filled with stuffing. Now my internal organs call attention to themselves one at a time. After a few startling bouts of arrhythmia, I’ve even begun to fear my own heart.

Like most edits, this correction, once brought to my attention, seemed as obvious as the face that stares back at me when I accidentally have my phone camera on selfie mode. Honestly, how could I think I was still in straight-up midlife? Did I really expect to live to 114?

This isn’t the first time I’ve been startled off a mental set point age. For years – or even decades – I’ll see myself stuck on a certain notch on the life cycle dial until a jolt of recognition sends me reeling into a new era, like the first time a stranger called me ma’am, or when a Christmas card arrived from our kids’ former babysitter who now has her own children. I’ll never forget my late father-in-law returning from his high school reunion when he was in his 80s, dumbfounded. He couldn’t believe how old everyone else was.

When I was a kid, I loved to flip through the pages of family albums. I remember photos of my beautiful grandmother as a young woman. She’s young — flip — young — flip — young — flip — and just like that, she was the Nana I knew. There was no middle or late-middle age.

I thought ageing was a flipped switch, and it sure seems that way when I look twice at a celebrity or someone I haven’t seen in a while because they’ve turned that corner.

I guess I figured I’d linger in midlife until that happened to me, or when a grandchild or retirement pushed me into senior territory. Then again, there are places in Palm Springs where 55 is the minimum age for the senior discount. My friends are getting grandchildren. My husband talks about retirement when he wants to scare me.

Nobody I know thinks of themselves as “late middle age” because the phrase signals the end of an era, like late antiquity or late modernism. The term sounds over-ripe, but also charitable. It says you aren’t old old, but you’re in the vicinity.

While some of our friends have already put deposits on assisted living places they don’t plan to move into for a decade, my husband and I decided to shake things up once this reality set in. We recently moved from Madison, Wisconsin, the beloved city where we raised our children, to Chicago. After cleaning out our parents’ homes, it felt good to get rid of our accumulated junk – skateboards, preschool construction paper art, my graduate school notebooks and papers, musty towels, and the Crock-Pot we never use – so our kids won’t have to when the time comes.

We gave up extra rooms and a backyard to live on the third floor of a building with no elevator because we think the steps will keep us fit. Now we’re surrounded by people, traffic, concrete and activity (and Bears fans). When I search for parking or miss a bus on a subzero day, I console myself by thinking, this is good for my neural networks.

Sometimes I wonder if, after feeling constrained by jobs and kids for so long, we put our lives in a blender and hit “puree” simply because we can. It’s scary and invigorating and maybe stupid, but I find myself wondering: If we don’t do this now, when will we?

Honestly, I’m enjoying this ambiguous in-between time defined by what I no longer am and haven’t yet become: post-young, pre-elderly. Sure, I have one eye on death, and my earlobes are longer, but I’m still young enough to adopt a puppy.

Despite the occasional Mohs surgery for skin cancer, there’s a lot to love about this age. I’m still healthy enough to travel and engage in most of the same activities I’ve always enjoyed. It’s a lot more fun for me to drink beers and have conversations about Plato’s cave with our kids than it was to change diapers and worry about missed curfews. I find it such a relief to stop talking with my friends about menopause – the thing everyone says nobody talks about.

I’m also not as fearful of old age because it isn’t what it used to be. The seniors I know lead incredibly active, vigorous lives. I care a lot less about how I look and what other people think of me. Maybe I’ve grown a thicker skin (publishing three books will do that), but what used to send me into a tailspin hardly merits a shrug now.

That’s why I wish there were a phrase to describe this phase in life that’s less doleful than “late middle age.” I’ve heard it referred to as “a second adolescence,” “the third chapter,” a “free period,” and “the queenteens.” A friend jokingly defines it as “20s with money.” Another friend likes to think she’s in “the freshman year of old age.”

The closest word I can think of sounds poetic, if a bit grim: “the gloaming” – the Scottish word for the mystical end of day when light fades but darkness hasn’t descended, a twilight filled with shadows made more dramatic by the golden, glimmering light.

I have a feeling I’ll linger here longer than I should, or until something jolts me out of it, like a stranger offering me their seat on the city bus.

Christina Clancy is the late-middle-aged, USA Today bestselling author of “The Snowbirds,” “Shoulder Season,” and “The Second Home,” (All from St. Martin’s Press).

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It’s officially plum season in the UK. And if you didn’t already know, the common fruits are pretty great for us – they’ve been associated with slower brain ageing, better bone health, and even a reduced risk of some cancers.

As it happens, pears are about to reach their prime too. Some research suggests those are also beneficial for everything from the heart to the gut.

Here’s what the research says.

Around one in seven adults in the UK has constipation at any given time. Luckily, pears could help: they’re high in fructose and sorbitol, which can act as a mild laxative.

Pears also contain a decent amount of fibre, especially when eaten with their skins – just one offers around a fifth of the recommended 30g a day. This bulks out stool and can benefit our gut health.

A small study involving 40 participants found that eating two pears a day for 12 weeks appeared to lower heart disease risk factors, like high blood pressure, among those with metabolic syndrome.

We already know that fibre is good for our heart health, but pears also contain the antioxidant quercetin, linked to lower rates of cardiovascular disease.

One study found that for every serving of pear a person consumes a week, their risk of type 2 diabetes dropped by 3%.

Researchers think this might be because they contain anthocyanins, which may lead to lower diabetes risk.

Though a certain degree of inflammation can be normal and even healthy, uncontrolled inflammation – sometimes called “inflammaging” – can damage our cells and speed up the ageing process.

Pears contain powerful antioxidants called flavonoids, which some research suggests could have an anti-inflammatory effect on the body.

Pears contain compounds like anthocyanins and cinnamic acid. Anthocyanins have been shown to have anticancer effects on both tumours and lab tissues, and cinnamic acid has been shown to reverse some cancerous growth.

However, the way those compounds are used in a lab does not always translate to how they’re actually processed in the body, and we don’t have any specific studies looking at pears and cancer risk.

President Donald Trump on Thursday offered a timeline for when he might leave office. Sort of.

“We’ll have a big percentage of the chip business by the time I leave office,” Trump said. “Which could be a long time. Who knows? But it could also be fairly quick. They say two and a half years. We’re gonna find out.”

The US Constitution clearly states that Trump can’t seek the presidency again. And unless he dies, resigns or is removed from office, his term will end at 12pm on Jan. 20, 2029.

But that hasn’t stopped him from publicly musing about running for a third term, promoting the idea of “Trump 2028” on social media and selling Trump 2028 merch.

The “fairly quick” part of his claim was a new twist.

California Governor Gavin Newsom ― a longtime Trump nemesis and potential 2028 Democratic presidential candidate ― gave the president a very specific reminder about how much time was left in his term:

Trump’s 2028 talk has alarmed critics, especially given that he tried to overturn the 2020 election and whipped up a mob that stormed the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, an effort that resulted in his impeachment.

He’s also frequently promoted “Trump 2028” memes on his Truth Social website, and did so again on Thursday.

Given his history, critics on X let the president know exactly what they think: