The real-life dame and on-screen dowager countess, who has died aged 89, earned fame in her 70s and 80s for blockbuster roles. But her early work at the National Theatre marked her out as a talent for the agesDame Maggie Smith’s trophy cabinet reflected her extraordinary achievements across theatre, film and television – and in the biggest arenas of British and US culture, from the BBC to Hollywood, the West End to Broadway. A measure of her versatility and durability is that, in the 1960s, she played nine major roles in the formative years of the National Theatre, but also, from the start of the 2000s, appeared in five series of Downton Abbey, the ITV Sunday night series that became one of the biggest popular hits of the new millennium.Her role in that show was Violet Crawley, Dowager Countess of Grantham, who lived in such a bubble of exclusive comfort that, in trademark one-liners, she would drawl in mystification, for example: “What is a ‘weekend’?” That acerbic superiority was a signature throughout Smith’s career, including the part that brought her first Academy award in 1970, against a shortlist also featuring Liza Minnelli and Jane Fonda, for the title role in The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, adapted from Muriel Spark’s novel about a maverick, arrogant schoolteacher in Edinburgh. Continue reading... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'
[ The Guardian | 2024-09-27 13:37:47 UTC ]
It wasn’t just luck that steered the Guardian columnist to Oxford and into a media career ... She reflects on the subtle mechanics of class (and an early encounter with a naked future PM)Children know. They breathe it in early, for there’s no unknowing the difference between nannies, cleaners,... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2023-05-20 12:00:56 UTC ]
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Google’s annual developer conference not only delivers on the software and web-based announcements but also on whatever hardware it’s been cooking up. In the past, that included smart speakers, phones, Chromebooks and everything else. For I/O 2023, we’re expecting lots of Pixel things. Rumors... Continue reading at Engadget
[ Engadget | 2023-05-08 11:15:42 UTC ]
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Arachnophobic Harry Potter fans, rejoice. Developer Avalanche Software has added a new accessibility feature to Hogwarts Legacy that removes spiders from the game. The update coincides with the title’s arrival on PS4 and Xbox One today.The Hogwarts Legacy update (build 1140773) launched Thursday... Continue reading at Engadget
[ Engadget | 2023-05-05 19:42:15 UTC ]
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Bush's Beans gets a spot, a fake pizza brand pops up, Harry Potter gets Wes Anderson treatment and more. Continue reading at Advertising Age
[ Advertising Age | 2023-04-27 09:30:00 UTC ]
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BuzzFeed changed the way news was reported for the digital age. But it became a casualty of its lopsided relationship with FacebookThe announcement of the demise of BuzzFeed News last week felt unlike the cavalcade of media closures and layoffs of the past decade. In a sense, it represented the... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2023-04-26 03:36:53 UTC ]
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Just like that, a new Harry Potter game is on its way. On Monday, WB Games revealed Harry Potter: Quidditch Champions, a title the Hogwarts Legacy publisher is billing as a “fast-paced, competitive multiplayer” game that will be available on PC and consoles. According to the company, Unbroken... Continue reading at Engadget
[ Engadget | 2023-04-17 22:37:36 UTC ]
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Ten years—ten years!—reliving JK Rowling’s journey from underdog pastiche to problematic bajillionaire seems like a lot, doesn’t it? And yet Max (formerly HBO Max) plans on sinking millions into a long-running reboot of the YA property. Obviously a lot happens in the books—frogs are eaten, naked... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2023-04-13 15:26:29 UTC ]
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Service formerly known as HBO Max, rebranded Max, will host live-action showThe Harry Potter TV series is officially a go at Max, the streaming service known until today as HBO Max.The Warner Bros Discovery CEO, David Zaslav, announced the new service, which combines the original HBO Max with... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2023-04-12 19:48:47 UTC ]
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Max is coming to market. Following months of streaming rumors and speculation, Warner Bros. Discovery is officially combining its streaming services HBO Max and Discovery+ under one brand: Max. Launching May 23 with a new tagline, color and mission, the upcoming service will drop the iconic HBO... Continue reading at AdWeek
[ AdWeek | 2023-04-12 19:25:11 UTC ]
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Soon, when you go to stream Succession or The Last of Us, you'll no longer be looking for an app called HBO Max. As has been rumored, Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) is changing the name of the streaming service to simply "Max." The company is folding content from Discovery+ into the platform to... Continue reading at Engadget
[ Engadget | 2023-04-12 17:16:11 UTC ]
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While many Potterheads celebrated reports of HBO Max show, some feel it would be tainted by JK Rowling’s stance on genderAt Platform 9 3/4 in King’s Cross station, Harry Potter devotees from around the world gathered to take their picture in front of one of the book’s most celebrated... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2023-04-09 14:00:03 UTC ]
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Hogwarts Legacy won't be making its way to the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One until May 5th, so you'll have two more months of waiting to do if you have an older console. That is, if Warner Bros. Games and Avalanche Software don't push back its release date yet again. They had postponed the game's... Continue reading at Engadget
[ Engadget | 2023-03-07 09:41:48 UTC ]
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A new video game set in the Harry Potter universe lays bare the mediocrity of Rowling’s world. Continue reading at Slate
[ Slate | 2023-03-04 10:00:00 UTC ]
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The new Harry Potter game, Hogwarts Legacy, has generated a lot of controversy, which is reflected within the gameplay itself. Continue reading at The Conversation
[ The Conversation | 2023-02-15 04:01:53 UTC ]
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Many people in Japan have been outraged by a recent trend dubbed "sushi terrorism." Videos across social media show people carrying out all kinds of unhygienic acts, like licking the spoon for a container of green tea powder. Another video, which has more than 98 million views on Twitter, showed... Continue reading at Engadget
[ Engadget | 2023-02-13 12:15:42 UTC ]
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Hogwarts Legacy is the Harry Potter game I’ve been dreaming of since I was a teenager. I grew up alongside the Harry Potter novels and devoured them all, and I spent the time between book releases reading and writing fanfiction set in the Wizarding World. I would’ve traded my little emo soul for... Continue reading at Engadget
[ Engadget | 2023-02-10 17:00:41 UTC ]
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Five days ago, a review code for Hogwarts Legacy landed in my inbox. I’ve been thinking about this moment for more than a year, ever since the backlash against the game started gaining traction online. The author of the Harry Potter novels is transphobic and she’s targeted transgender women in... Continue reading at Engadget
[ Engadget | 2023-02-06 11:00:18 UTC ]
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Hogwarts Legacy comes out next week. It is, bar none, the biggest video game to ever use the ever-popular Harry Potter license. A Dragon Age-style open-world RPG, made by Warner Bros. Games and Avalanche Software (recently of the scuttled Disney Infinity), it’s kind of a huge deal. The... Continue reading at PC World
[ PC World | 2023-02-03 15:30:00 UTC ]
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The co-founder of Kano says that a new Harry Potter wand includes his technology; Warner Bros. disputes the claim. In 2018, Warner Bros. made waves when it announced a partnership with Kano, a U.K. kid-friendly coding firm, to release a Harry Potter coding wand that brought the magical world of... Continue reading at Fast Company
[ Fast Company | 2023-01-27 14:02:23 UTC ]
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Niantic has created some of the most popular augmented reality games like Ingress and Pokémon Go. But this week the company is launching a new title called NBA All-World that might be the best application of its location-based tech to date.For people who have played one of Niantic’s previous... Continue reading at Engadget
[ Engadget | 2023-01-25 17:00:37 UTC ]
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