It’s easy to forget that, in addition to the fact she was an award-winning singer-songwriter, cherished philanthropist and the co-owned of a literal theme park in her honour, Dolly Parton also forged a successful career for herself as an actor.

After establishing herself as a hugely successful figure in the country music scene, Dolly turned her hand to acting in the early 1980s, going on to share the screen with some of the biggest names in Hollywood.

Many of her films are still available to watch today – and if you’re looking for a way to celebrate Dolly’s life and legacy this summer bank holiday, we reckon checking a couple of them out could be a great way to do it.

Here are just nine of the Dolly performances you can watch at home right now…

Never one to do anything by halves, for her movie debut, Dolly shared the screen with Oscar winner Jane Fonda and nominee Lily Tomlin in the Southern workplace comedy 9 To 5.

The film saw its three female leads’ characters teaming up to get their own back on their misogynistic boss – with many hailing it as still being relevant almost 50 years after its original release.

Of course, 9 To 5 is also famous for its title track, which became one of Dolly’s signature tunes, and even earned the musician her first Oscar nod in the Best Original Song category.

9 To 5 is now streaming on Disney+

After the success of 9 To 5, Dolly’s next film venture was a screen adaptation of the stage musical The Best Little Whorehouse In Texas.

She played Mona Stangely, who ran the central brothel, leading a cast that included Burt Reynolds and Dom DeLuise, earning a Golden Globe nomination for her efforts as an actor.

Of course, a musical project like The Best Little Whorehouse In Texas also allowed Dolly ample opportunity to show off her skills as a musician as well as her acting chops, with the singer-songwriter contributing a new song to the soundtrack, which also included a new version of her song I Will Always Love You.

The Best Little Whorehouse In Texas is available to buy on YouTube, Apple TV+ and Prime Video

Dolly’s next movie projects were a little more off-the-wall, including the musical rom-com Rhinestone, in which she went head-to-head with Sylvester Stallone, and the comedy Straight Talk, about a dance instructor whose frank advice leads to her becoming a successful radio presenter (neither of these are available to stream in any official capacity, though they have both been uploaded to YouTube in full, not that we’d encourage that sort of thing…).

Nestled between the two is the tear-jerking dramedy Steel Magnolias, about a group of women in Louisiana who frequent the same beauty salon.

Dolly played Truvy, the salon’s owner, sharing the screen with some true acting greats, including Sally Field, Olympia Dukakis, Shirley Maclaine and an up-and-coming Julia Roberts.

Just be warned – if you’ve not already seen Steel Magnolias, when we say it’s a tear-jerker, we’re not kidding around.

Steel Magnolias is now streaming on Channel 4

The Simpsons’ chaotic Super Bowl episode from its 10th season is a viewing experience to truly make your head spin, cramming in controversial jokes that sparked multiple complaints from viewers, a subplot where Vincent Price may or may not have resurrected from the dead and a cameo from “billionaire tyrant” (his words, not ours!) Rupert Murdoch himself into its 20-minute runtime.

While the episode may have a bit of a mixed reputation among Simpsons fans, one thing that’s an undeniable highlight is Dolly Parton’s brief appearance as herself, during which she manages to break Homer and his friends out of prison, pie off Krusty The Klown and fabulously delivers lines like “where I come from… the south… people say please”.

The Simpsons: Sunday Cruddy Sunday is now streaming on Disney+

For many of those who grew up in the 2000s, their first introduction to Dolly Parton will have been when she shared the screen with her real-life goddaughter Miley Cyrus in Hannah Montana.

In the Disney family sitcom, the Jolene singer played Miley Stewart’s “Aunt Dolly” in numerous episodes, offering the titular character advice on both her homelife and secret career as a pop star.

Naturally, she and Miley also teamed up for some duets that allowed them to show off their vocal chemistry, as the two would throughout the Wrecking Ball star’s subsequent pop career.

Hannah Montana is now streaming on Disney+

By the 2010s, Dolly had all but taken a back from big-screen acting, aside from the occasional cameo as herself or small voice role.

However, she made a return to the movie world when she was cast opposite Queen Latifah in Joyful Noise, a musical comedy about two women tasked with saving a small-town gospel choir, with very different ideas as to how it should be run.

As if the presence of Dolly Parton and Queen Latifah wasn’t enough charisma for one movie set, the film also features Keke Palmer as the latter’s on-screen daughter, with Courtney B Vance and Jeremy Jordan among the supporting cast.

Joyful Noise is available to buy on YouTube, Apple TV+ and Prime Video

Dolly Parton spent almost 60 years living in the global spotlight, and as a result, countless documentaries have been made about her.

The difference with Dolly Parton: Here I Am is that it featured not just interviews with the superstar’s nearest and dearest, but also the woman herself, looking back at her extraordinary career while also, as always, looking ahead to what she still wanted to achieve.

It was also helmed by multiple Bafta winner Francis Whately, who previously oversaw docs about subjects as wide-ranging as David Bowie, Dame Judi Dench, Hillary Clinton and Winston Churchill.

Dolly Parton: Here I Am is now streaming on BBC iPlayer

In the late 2010s, Dolly Parton inked a deal with Netflix, the first offering from which was the anthology series Heartstrings.

Each episode of the show was based around a re-enactment of a different song from Dolly’s back catalogue – and, naturally, they also featured a cameo from the singer, who helped move the story along and ultimately save the day.

Dolly Parton’s Heartstrings is now streaming on Netflix

Now, Christmas On The Square probably isn’t something we’d be sitting down to watch in the middle of an August bank holiday. But if that sounds like your idea of a good time, we’re not here to judge.

Rumour has it, the phrase “camp as Christmas” was retired in 2020 when this film was released, as viewers agreed that it was never going to get more camp or Christmassy than Dolly as an angel, trying to convince a miserly Christine Baranski to understand the true meaning of the festive season through song.

Dolly Parton’s Christmas On The Square is now streaming on Netflix

Adam Scott has been one of the most beloved actors in film and TV thanks to his performance as Ben Wyatt in Parks And Recreation and, more recently, his work as Mark in the award-winning Apple TV+ series Severance.

Over the years, he’s proved his versatility thanks to projects as varied as comedies Knocked Up, Step Brothers and Friends With Kids and horrors The Monkey and Hokum.

He can currently be seen in action in the new Netflix crime drama The Whisper Man, sharing the screen with Robert De Niro, The White Lotus’ Michelle Monaghan and Michael Keaton.

Before his big breakthrough, though, Adam spent decades in the industry playing small roles across a range of different shows and films, many of which might have completely passed you by.

Here are just 11 of those roles you might have forgotten that Adam Scott once played…

Adam’s early TV career included a multi-episode appearance in the iconic American family sitcom Boy Meets World, playing the charismatic school bully Griff Hawkins in three episodes of the show’s second season.

During an appearance on cast member Rider Strong’s recap podcast Pod Meets World back in 2023, Adam recalled an awkward experience on set which stuck with him for years.

On the last day of filming, he went to hug his co-star Rider, but only to be pushed off him. When he recalled this story to Rider, he was surprised to hear it, and immediately apologised, claiming he didn’t even remember the interaction.

While the pair squashed the three-decade beef, Adam admitted the on-set experience had long-term effects for him.

“It took me 20 years to overcome,” he said during a 2025 appearance on Entertainment Weekly’s Awardist podcast “It’s just being so freaked out being on a movie set or a TV set, because I was so excited about it, that I couldn’t kind of calm down and just relax and not worry about all that other, all the accoutrements around you.”

Another of Adam’s first film roles came when he appeared as Jacques in the fourth instalment of the Hellraiser franchise.

The film spanned four centuries and different three timelines of a cursed family trying to destroy an evil puzzle box in a bid to stop the hex that had been placed on them.

In the horror movie, Adam played the apprentice to the occult-obsessed French aristocrat Duc de L’Isle, in the 18th-century flashback scenes.

Chatting on Late Night with Seth Meyers in May this year, he admitted he was not exactly a fan of the film series, but just wanted to land a role.

“I didn’t know about Hellraiser,” he confessed. “But I was like, ‘Oh, this is an acting job?’ And so I was so excited.”

In the same year, Adam joined another famous franchise when he played a Conn Officer of the USS Defiant in the eighth Star Trek movie.

Adam made a small appearance as an officer who reported damage to the ship after the Borg attacked them.

“[My character] was only on the screen for 15, 20 seconds. He was a crew helmsman, but as it says in his character’s name, he was defiant. And I think you have to respect that,” Adam joked in a 2015 interview with Moviefone’s Unscripted.

This appearance in the sci-fi, which starred Patrick Stewart, is an especially fun easter egg for Parks And Rec fans, as Adam’s character, Ben, is a huge Star Trek fan.

The Alan Ball drama followed the personal and professional life of a dysfunctional family, who ran a funeral home in Los Angeles.

Adam made a two-episode appearance in the second season as Ben Cooper, an office worker with whom Michael C Hall’s character, David Fisher, briefly went out.

In fact, Adam had previously been in the running to play David in the series.

During an interview on the podcast Good Hang in August 2025, he told host Amy Poehler that not landing a part in the awad-winning series was “painful”, and he almost gave up acting because of it.

“[That rejection] was the one where I was like, ‘I might stop doing this. I think that it’s time for me to read the tea leaves and walk away’,” he admitted.

He added: “Yeah, that was a blow. That was hard. But it’s also important that you have those experiences.”

Adam had a small part in Martin Scorsese’s The Aviator, which starred Leonardo DiCaprio as the aviation pioneer and businessman Howard Hughes, alongside Cate Blanchett’s Oscar-winning performance as Katherine Hepburn and Kate Beckinsale as Ava Gardner.

Adam’s brief appearance in the 11-time Oscar-nominated movie saw him playing one of Howard’s publicists, Johnny Meyer.

In April 2026, Adam told The Guardian that he had been “freaked out” making a film with such a star-studded cast.

“I’m in one scene with Leonardo DiCaprio, Cate Blanchett and Jude Law on this giant Cocoanut Grove [nightclub] set,” he explained, but later admitted he calmed down when he realised that even A-listers were “just regular people who happen to be actors figuring out a scene”.

“Everyone was extremely kind and generous to me and made me feel comfortable straight away”, he recalled.

Another project you may have forgotten Adam was involved with is the Jennifer Lopez rom-com Monster-In-Law.

The film starred Jane Fonda as a domineering mother determined to stop the wedding between her son Kevin, played by Michael Vartan, and J-Lo’s Charlie.

In Monster-In-Law, Adam played Remy, the gay next-door neighbour and confidant to Jen’s character, who she turns to after her “monster-in-law” starts to interfere with her relationship.

One of Adam’s earliest leading roles was in the short-lived drama Tell Me You Love Me.

The series revolved around three couples who all seek the help of therapist Dr. May Foster, played by Jane Alexander.

He appeared as Patek, who alongside Sonya Walger’s Carolyn, were a thirty-something professional couple trying for a baby, who visited the therapist after the pressure of conceiving a child starts to take its toll.

Tell Me You Love Me caused a stir at the time thanks to its frank depictions of sex, and while it was commissioned for a second series, the showrunner and the US network HBO were “unable to find the direction of the show”, so these plans were cancelled.

Just before Adam hit the big time as Ben in Parks And Recreation, he appeared in the ludicrous horror-comedy Piranha 3D.

A remake of the 1978 film Piranha, the film starred Kelly Brook, Elisabeth Shue and Christopher Lloyd, and parodied both the Piranha and Jaws franchises.

Adam played Novak, a seismologist diver who discovered a subterranean lake which unleashed prehistoric piranhas into the world.

Despite its wild premise, the film was a surprise hit, with critics praising how it “dishe[d] out gore, guffaws and gratuitous nudity with equal glee”.

By this point in his career, Adam had been better known for his work in Judd Apatow comedies and sitcoms, but broke type when he was cast as FBI agent Robert Fitzpatrick in the crime drama Black Mass.

The movie starred Johnny Depp as the real-life American mobster Whitey Bulger, alongside an ensemble cast that included Benedict Cumberbatch, Dakota Johnson and Jesse Plemons.

Sporting a fantastic moustache, Adam played an agent who started to rightly believe

Joel Edgerton’s character, the agent John Connelly, was working with the mob on the sly.

Black Mass was a hit among critics, with Variety calling the film an “elegantly understated crime drama”.

In a return to the horror genre, Adam appeared as a co-lead in the unconventional Christmas movie Krampus.

The film starred Adam and Toni Collette as the of a boy who accidentally unleashes the wrath of a demonic spirit that punishes bad behaviour during the festive period.

Adam compared the 2015 movie to Amblin favourites of the ’80s, like Poltergeists, Gremlins and E.T., enthusing: “I hadn’t seen a movie like that being made for years, so I was excited, because those were the movies I grew up on and that I really love.”

Despite middling reviews at the time, the film has since become a sleeper hit thanks to streaming.

After Parks And Recreation ended in 2015, Adam enjoyed more mainstream success in Big Little Lies, where he played Reese Witherspoon’s on-screen husband.

He then starred in the now-forgotten supernatural sitcom Ghosted.

In the show, Adam and Craig Robinson played two men with very different beliefs about the afterlife, who are hired to investigate paranormal activity in Los Angeles.

Adam’s character, Max, was a former Stanford professor who believed in the concept of a multiverse, as well as theorising that his wife had been abducted by aliens.

Britt Lower played Max’s wife, years before the two actors would go on to work together again when she was cast opposite him as Helly R in Severance.

After the first six episodes, the series switched from a paranormal series to more of a workplace sitcom, after The Office’s Paul Lieberstein took over as showrunner.

Sadly, it was then cancelled after one season due to low ratings.

We all remember the Dakota Johnson-led superhero clanger that was Madame Web… but you may well have forgotten Adam Scott had a supporting role in it.

The film followed Dakota’s Cassie Web, who was haunted by the tragic death of her mother and, after an accident that nearly claimed her life, discovered that she had psychic abilities.

Adam played a paramedic called Ben Parker, an alternative version of Spider-Man’s Uncle Ben from the original comics (although Peter Parker notably doesn’t technically appear in Madame Web because it was made by Sony, and was therefore not part of the official MCU).

In their scathing reviews, some critics have called Madame Web one of the worst movies ever made, with Slate declaring it a “travesty, a disaster, a blight on the history of superheroes and cinema”.

Still, despite its poor reviews, at least the superhero film did at least spawn some of the funniest memes of recent history.

The Whisper Man is streaming on Netflix now.

Let’s be real with ourselves here: by the time you add protein powder to a brownie recipe, you’ve already agreed to sacrifice some flavour to the macro gods.

Yes, you can coddle the supplement into something impressively like a “normal” dessert. But the result always ends up a little mealy and – my pet peeve – dry.

Often, the compromise is still worth it. I’m OK having a six-out-of-10 dessert on a weeknight if it means I can hit my protein goals without eating like a Flintstone.

Still, any methods to improve the texture of my existing brownie mug cake recipe – especially if it adds a bit more fibre to the dish – are welcome. Which is why I found myself buying a big can of American-style tinned pumpkin last week.

Pumpkin puree (the kind our friends across the Atlantic use for pies) is known for giving baked goods a fudgy softness.

When the high-moisture ingredient cooks, it releases steam. This is sometimes unwelcome if you want, e.g., chewy pumpkin cookies, but for foods that already lack a little hydration, it’s a gift.

The addition isn’t too sweet, either, which is good seeing as my current protein powder tastes quite saccharine.

I used 100g in place of my usual mashed banana for a protein powder “mug cake” (I mean, it’s technically made in a bowl, but it’s still microwaved).

The recipe I ended up using was:

• 100g pumpkin puree,
• 1 egg,
• 15g sugar,
• 10g dark chocolate,
• 25g chocolate protein powder,
• 15g flour,
• 1/2 tsp baking powder,
• splash of milk.

I simply mixed the lot together and put it in the microwave for about two minutes.

I’m not a pro, though. If you’re less lazy than me, other pumpkin and protein powder concoctions – like these pumpkin spice protein cookies and a five-star pumpkin custard – sound much more delicious.

Massive disclaimer here: I know this doesn’t look particularly appetising. To that, I say, read my opening comment about protein desserts and compromise.

But looks aside, I was genuinely wowed – and pleasantly surprised – by how well the addition worked.

My mug cake, which is usually a little rubbery (in fact, I slightly undercook it to ensure it’s not bone-dry) became velvety and silky, a bit like an earthier Basque cheesecake.

Given that protein powder can be a tough ingredient at the best of times (and microwave cakes tend to be rubbery no matter their contents), it’s safe to say I’ve been converted.

Dolly Parton has one last gift ready for her fans ― but they’ll have to wait until 2045 to hear it.

The legendary 9 To 5 singer spoke with HuffPost last year about the secret song she has buried in a time capsule at her beloved Dollywood’s DreamMore Resort.

Unfortunately, we have nearly 20 years until we can all hear it.

“It’s not supposed to be open till I’ll be 100, and which, that’s the day after tomorrow,” she quipped at the time.

“So I’m not supposed to say what it is, and who knows, I may be there to sing it,” the singer said at the time, though she also told HuffPost there’s no chance “they’ll let me dig it up” right now.

Dolly added: “I’ve wanted to say to them a time or two, ‘That song was so good! Can I just put another song in there? Can I dig that one up? Put something else?’. I thought, ‘No, that’s just a deal we made, and we’ll see’.”

“Some of you will be around!” the Grammy winner said of the 2045 release date, and added that the song “had a lot of meaning” to her.

“I thought very long and hard about what it should be saying, at that time,” she said. “So if there’s a way of playing it with the web music, and everything changes now, then I guess you’ll hear it then. If it’s disintegrated or something, then I guess you’ll know that I meant well.”

Dolly’s family announced on Tuesday that the iconic singer and philanthropist had died at the age of 80 in a heartfelt video posted to her social media accounts.

The late star’s nephew and head of security, Bryan Seaver, spoke in the video.

He explained: “Dolly called me and said she wants to rest in a beautiful bed of plush cotton, because after a life wearing heavy rhinestones, she finally deserves to be comfortable and have some rest. Rest in peace, Aunt Dolly.”

Dolly’s reps later confirmed that the singer died after a “brief battle with cancer.”

The singer-songwriter asked that, in lieu of flowers, friends and fans donate to her Imagination Library foundation, which aims to ensure that all children have access to books.

If you’re snacking while you type, beware: You’re going to want to blow those chip crumbs off your computer keyboard and wash your hands after reading this.

When HuffPost asked microbiologists and germ experts about how bad it is to type right after eating, they got real about how unhygienic this habit actually is. (Spoiler: It’s probably even more gross than you realise.)

“If you’re using forks and spoons, you don’t really have that much to worry about,” said microbiologist Jason Tetro aka “The Germ Guy.”

The problem is when you use your hands to eat chips or a portable lunch, and then use those same hands to type.

“Whether you’re eating something and then touching the keyboard, or whether you’re licking the keyboard directly, it’s pretty much the same thing,” Tetro warned. “Saliva is going to get onto your fingers, and then that will get transferred over to your keyboard.”

And when saliva gets coupled with food residue, it can be a match made in germ heaven. “So now you’ve incorporated food for bacteria to be able to develop biofilms on the keyboards, which is also gross,” Tetro said.

In fact, this common habit may be why you randomly start sneezing and coughing from an illness a few days later.

“You may be turning your keyboard into a bacteria cafeteria, because you’re putting food in there,” said Chuck Gerba, a microbiologist at the University of Arizona.

Tetro said that bacteria like Staphylococcus bacteria and E. coli can live for days on keyboard surfaces: “If you give them any bit of water or any bit of food, then they’re going to start growing.”

If you’re snacking while working in an office building, this can also be bad for your health because keyboards within offices are known to carry viruses. Gerba said in his virus tracer research, he has put a virus on a doorknob in an office building, “and the virus ended up on most people’s keyboard.”

What your fingers touch is what you need to watch out for.

“You pick up the virus on the doorknob, you put it on your keyboard, you go do something else, and you come back and you put it back on your keyboard to your fingers,” Gerba explained.

And this is an upcoming seasonal concern. Gerba said that cold and influenza viruses are the most likely to be lurking on contaminated hands at work, and these viruses will most likely be spreading through offices in September and October.

And your grubby hands may be making it worse. “You increase your risk because you created more exposure by contaminating the surfaces yourself,” Gerba said.

The good news is that there’s an easy fix. Ideally you would stop eating while typing, but germ experts know that is not realistic for most desk workers.

Tetro said he’s been trying to convince people not to eat at their keyboards for 20 years and has failed.

“Since I can’t get to get people to change their behaviour, just keep a wet wipe around ― it’ll help,” he said. “My recommendation is always to have wet wipes around for your hands or for your computer.”

Microbiologists recommended cleaning your hands with hand sanitiser or having a wet wipe after eating. That way you can wipe down your laptop and you can clean your fingers in between snacks.

Keeping hand sanitiser on your desk can also be a helpful visual reminder of what you need to do after your lunch break. Gerba said he has found that simply having a hand sanitiser within easy reach can make “a huge difference” in how germs spread in buildings.

So on your next snack break, remember to pause before you return back to work, and cleanse your hands. It’s a small action that will make a big difference this cold season.

“You have to look at your keyboard not as just a tool, but also as a possible route for you to get infected,” Tetro said.

A majority of UK adults say they’ve dealt with stress so intense that it’s left them feeling completely overwhelmed.

And chronic stress – worries and/or pressures that keep you in a state of high alert for long, continuous periods of time – has been linked to worse health outcomes, like sleep issues and higher blood pressure.

Sometimes, though, chronic stress lasts so long that it can be hard to tell it apart from “regular life”.

Thankfully, Dr Bijal Chheda, a consultant psychologist and founder of Nos Curare, has shared seven signs your body might give to suggest you’re dealing with the ongoing issue.

“Stress is a well-recognised trigger for tension-type headaches because it can cause the muscles around the scalp and neck to remain tense,” the psychologist said.

“Over time, the nervous system may become more sensitive to these pain signals, meaning headaches that were once occasional begin occurring more regularly.”

If you’re experiencing this symptom, keep a diary detailing when the headaches happen, how long they last, and what, if anything, helps. If the problem keeps coming back or don’t improve, speak to your GP.

Yep – stress really can mess up your stomach. For instance, the NHS said, it can slow digestion down.

“During periods of prolonged stress, communication between the brain and gut can become disrupted, affecting how the gut functions,” Dr Chheda added.

“The bowel muscles may contract irregularly, triggering cramps and leaving the stomach feeling unsettled.”

If this happens, she advised that diaphragmatic breathing may help – though again, see your doctor if the symptom doesn’t let up.

When we’re chronically stressed, “the body may remain slightly prepared for action, maintaining a low level of muscle contraction,” the expert explained.

“Over time, this can make it difficult for certain muscles to fully relax, leaving areas such as the shoulders or neck feeling tight.”

Sounds like you? Progressive muscle relaxation can help.

I know, I know: supposedly, everyone’s tired. But that doesn’t mean you have to accept constant low-level exhaustion, or that it’s normal.

“Under stress, the body shifts its energy towards responding to whatever feels threatening, and away from the processes that help it recover. This is why so many people under pressure find it difficult to fully relax, even when there is nothing immediate left to respond to,” the psychologist stated.

“Over time, chronic stress can become exhausting, causing even routine tasks to feel more physically demanding. Rather than trying to push through the fatigue, build short periods of genuine recovery into the day.”

Though settling down for a good night’s sleep sounds relaxing, Dr Chheda said these quiet periods can make stressful thoughts louder. “This may also keep cortisol levels elevated later than usual, making it harder for the body to shift naturally into rest,” she said.

“As a result, falling asleep may take longer, while small disturbances may be more likely to wake you during the night.”

Following a consistent sleep routine, avoiding screens before bed, and a relaxing hobby like reading can all help, she ended.

But if the issue persists – you guessed it – it might be time to speak to a medical professional.

We’ve written before at HuffPost UK about the higher incidence of premenstrual dysphoric disorder, or PMDD, among women with ADHD.

But according to a new analysis, it seems neurodivergent people of all genders might be more likely to face a group of conditions known as connective tissue disorders.

The finding, which is based on health data from 117 million US adults and teens aged 15 and over, found that the issues were “consistently more common” among people who weren’t neurodivergent, and “were most likely for patients who were diagnosed with ASD [autism] and ADHD”.

These include many diseases and disorders that affect the tissue that supports our organs, body structure, and muscles. They might impact people’s bones, ligaments, skin, cartilage, and tendons.

Per the Cleveland Clinic, “as these tissues are in almost every part of your body, connective tissue diseases can also affect you all over. They might affect one or two types of tissues throughout your body or many. They can also affect many organs”.

Connective tissue disorders can present as hypermobility (being able to move your joints or body parts outside of their usual range), Ehlers-Danlos and Marfan syndrome, and inflammatory conditions like lupus.

This analysis suggested that the breakdown was as follows:

• People with both ADHD and autism were 4.38x more likely to have an inherited structural connective tissue disorder and 3.4x likelier to have a hypermobility spectrum disorder,
• People with ADHD only were 1.7x more likely to have an inherited structural connective tissue disorder and 1.48x likelier to have a hypermobility spectrum disorder,
• People with autism only were 3.11x more likely to have an inherited structural connective tissue disorder and 2.03x likelier to have a hypermobility spectrum disorder.

Overall, connective tissue disorders were still relatively rare in these groups – heritable structural disorders were seen in roughly 12 out of 1,000 autism-only patients and 21 per 1,000 patients with both ADHD and autism.

But that’s a big leap from the comparison sample without either ADHD or autism – among those, the disorders appeared in 3 or 4 per 1,000 cases.

Previous research had suggested that “In neurodivergent adults, there is a strong link between the expression of joint hypermobility, dysautonomia, and pain, more so than in the comparison group”.

Some studies have shown that people with the connective tissue disorder Ehlers-Danlos syndrome are more likely to have autism and/or ADHD.

If your heart dropped when you heard the news earlier this week that Dolly Parton had died, you’re likely one of millions with that reaction.

It’s cliché, but it’s true: So many of us are shocked and deeply saddened by the legendary musician’s death. Despite not knowing her, the impact she had was real, and it will live on.

You might be wondering why it hits so hard, especially if you’ve never met her.

Here’s why Dolly’s death may feel more meaningful than the losses of many other celebrities…

Dolly was a wonderful singer and artist, but she was also so much more. She was admirable.

“While Dolly was absolutely a musician with incredible songs and talent, she represented much more than that, e.g., generosity, advocacy, kindness, humour, style, etc.,” said Suzanne Wallach, a licensed psychotherapist and the founder of SoCal DBT Center in Los Angeles.

She didn’t just talk the talk, either

“Dolly Parton publicly funded initiatives on children’s literacy, public health and mental health causes,” said Alexandra Cromer, a licensed therapist with Thriveworks.

“Throughout her extraordinary 80-year life, she did not change or waver on her fundamental message and principles of love, kindness and acceptance for all.”

Those above principles are ones we especially need to see in the world right now, right? That contributes to the grief, too.

“Especially in times like these, when our society feels so divided, we share a collective sadness at the loss of someone who loved without limits and created a common thread between people from different walks of life,” said Golee Abrishami, a psychologist and the vice president of clinical care at Octave.

Plus, there’s the time factor. Her impact spanned decades. It’s hard to forget all of the ways she changed people’s lives.

“Dolly Parton began winning the world over with her charm, beauty, style and vocals as early as the 1960s,” said Sharonda Brown, a licenced professional counsellor who specialises in grief.

“This is well over 60 years of entertainment increasing familiarity and closeness.”

Dolly also brought generations, and therefore families, together.

“Grandparents can belt Jolene with their grandchildren,” Abrishami said. “Gen X and Gen Z alike can enjoy 9 To 5, whether you listened to it more on TikTok or a record.”

People in the LGBTQ+ community may be feeling the loss particularly hard since she was an advocate for them, speaking against anti-LGBTQ+ policies and so much more.

“Especially as a queer individual, Dolly Parton was an American icon,” said Dr. Alice Hoang, a Dolly fan and owner of Brooklyn Mint Dental.

“Her messages resonated with all of us, and the community has admired Dolly throughout her career and everything she did in support of the queer community. Dolly’s messages helped us find out who we were and with purpose.”

Other individuals in the community shared similar sentiments.

“Dolly’s passing hits quite hard today, especially as a gay man from a small Midwest town,” said Nate Brooking, senior executive assistant at Octave. “Her spirit and her music got me through tough times as a child trying to figure out who I was.

“Like many others in the LGBTQIA+ community, she taught me how to be comfortable in myself and to walk proud in the world.”

Regardless of identity, the impact Dolly had on you is undoubtedly real — and that extends to the feelings you experience in the wake of her death.

Simply put by Wallach: “It makes sense that someone who has been woven into our lives in such a big way impacts us when she dies.”

Again, if you’re feeling sad about Dolly’s death, you’re not alone. Social media will tell you that.

Most of us, technically, have a parasocial relationship with her — a one-sided relationship in which she doesn’t know us and there’s an illusion of a face-to-face relationship — but that doesn’t mean your feelings aren’t real and valid.

“Grief isn’t proportional to how well you knew someone,” Wallach explained. “Sometimes we’re grieving the person, but we’re also grieving a time in our own lives that they represent. All of your feelings are real and OK.”

Knowing an experience has a name can be helpful, and what we’re looking at here does. It’s called “collective grief”.

“Collective grief is a shared emotion of pain, sadness and mourning experienced by a community somewhat universally after a loss of a well-known individual or tragic event,” Abrishami said.

That can look like a community grieving the loss of a public official, their homes after a wildfire or a favourite entertainer, Brown added.

That loss and sadness are significant. They speak to who Dolly was.

“Collective grief posits that one person had such a significant impact on society as a whole that their passing affects a large amount of people individually on a very profound emotional level,” Cromer said.

The killers of PC Andrew Harper will not be released early from prison after a major U-turn by Andy Burnham.

The prime minister announced on Sunday morning that anyone convicted of unlawful killing, including manslaughter, will not be eligible for the early release scheme.

Inmates jailed for death by drunk or dangerous driving, and historic child sex offences, will also be excluded from from sentencing changes aimed at freeing up space in England’s overcrowded jails.

Burnham said that meants “hundreds” of inmates who had been due to be let out early will now stay behind bars.

It represents a major climbdown by the prime minister, who had previously said he could not amend the policy because of the risk of prison overcrowding.

At the start of this month, the government announced that rapists and serious child sex offenders would not be eligible for early release.

The PM said he “wanted to go even further”, but couldn’t without the prison system collapsing.

But following an angry backlash from the family of PC Harper, Burnham ordered justice secretary Alex Norris to come up with a way to prevent the early release of two of his killers, Jessie Cole and Albert Bower.

They were convicted of manslaughter for their part in PC Harper’s killing in 2000.

The pair were due to be freed in January under controversial measures to stop prisons running out of spaces.

Downing Street initially said it was “not possible” to exempt “one or two offenders” convicted of manslaughter from the scheme.

But confirming the U-turn, the PM said: “We spent the summer turning over every single single stone.

“We’ve come up with a proposal that will allow not just those guilty of manslaughter, the people involved in the killing of PC Harper, but those who have been convicted for indecent assault, those convicted for death by dangerous driving, all of these offenders now will remain in prison. Hundreds of them.”

Listen to Commons People, the podcast that makes politics easy. Every week, Kevin Schofield and Kate Nicholson unpack the week’s biggest stories to keep you informed. Join us for straightforward analysis of what’s going on at Westminster.