Rob

In the desert around Scottsdale, Ariz., on Monday, police officers hunted for a member of an international heist ring suspected of swiping jewels and luxury goods from homes across Los Angeles. Using helicopters and drones, they eventually found him hiding under a tree. The wanted man, it turned out, was a 17-year-old from Chile.Authorities say the teenager and his two adult accomplices later admitted to breaking into multiple homes, part of a growing trend of “burglary tourism” from South America. The Los Angeles…

Was the first heavy metal record the Kinks’ You Really Got Me (1964), Steppenwolf’s Born to Be Wild (1968), Black Sabbath’s Black Sabbath (1970) or something else? VerulamiumParkRangerGotta be Black Sabbath. I love the Kinks and Steppenwolf but by definition they’re not really metal. In terms of riffage, I’ve always defined metal to the greatest extent with the bass and it’s a big, meaty, Black Sabbath-style riff – a West Midlands sledgehammer! That’s what Tony was doing, so it’s definitely Black Sabbath for me.How did…

Fans are excited to see Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman come together on the big screen this summer in the blockbuster Deadpool & Wolverine, but the friendship between these actors is nothing new. For over a decade the two have been embroiled in a faux feud, with the amount of trolling seemingly knowing no bounds. But while Jackman may show his love for Reynolds best through sharp social media burns, he took a more genuine approach with Reynolds’ Welcome to Wrexham co-star Rob McElhenney, and I can’t help but wonder…

Where to even start preparing for a Rob Reiner interview? You could rewatch his classic films, of course, namely that phenomenal eight-year streak that started with This Is Spinal Tap in 1984 and blazed through The Sure Thing, Stand By Me, The Princess Bride, When Harry Met Sally, Misery and A Few Good Men. But even that is barely scratching the surface of a career that first got going in the late 1960s. What about his years as a household name in 70s sitcoms, or his famous comic actor father, Carl, or his unique…

With a truly extraordinary voice that can go from piercing falsetto caterwauling to burly pronouncements in the space of a single song, Judas Priest’s Rob Halford is one of the defining vocalists in heavy metal – and as the band gear up to release new album Invincible Shield, he’ll be answering your questions.Halford’s history with the Midlands group stretches back almost to their very earliest days, joining them in 1973 and recording their debut album Rocka Rolla the following year. Somewhat in the shadow of punk rock…

I don’t think I’d be remiss in saying When Harry Met Sally... is one of the best rom-coms of all time. It manages to accomplish this with a neat and tidy happy ending and one of the most classic wooing lines of all time: “I came here tonight because when you realize you want to spend the rest of your life with somebody, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible.” Billy Crystal’s iconic comment has endured for decades, but if you were to ask Rob Reiner, he’d tell you that wasn’t his proposed ending to…

In a way, Rob Reiner has come full circle. Decades ago, before The Princess Bride, before A Few Good Men, Reiner first made his mark as Michael “Meathead” Stivic, the liberal son-in-law to the racist, conservative Archie Bunker on one of the biggest TV shows of the 1970s, All in the Family.  Week after week, Stivic stood up for liberal values in the face of Bunker’s jingoistic, racist nationalism.  While conservatives loathed him, for progressives, he was like one of the only voices of conscience on national…

Get our free weekly email for all the latest cinematic news from our film critic Clarisse LoughreyGet our The Life Cinematic email for freeThere was once an Oscars so bad, so haunting, so mortifyingly dark-sided, that it made people question whether the annual ceremony should be put out of its misery. It was 1989, and the Academy were keen for a shake-up. Chevy Chase had just come off a second consecutive year as host to a rash of negative reviews, with the LA Times branding the whole affair “parched, drab, and leaden”.…

Pop spectacles, Springsteen's marathon, Left Shark and loads of soul revues – we've seen 'em all There is no gig in music like the Super Bowl halftime show. You have 15 minutes to justify your legend. You have 150 million people watching, most of whom are distracted by the nachos platter, how much beer is left in the fridge or how much of the rent they bet on the game. Chances are it’s the biggest worldwide audience of your life, and getting it right means rising to the hugeness of…

Remember when the Grammys used to suck every year? These days, nobody does. The Grammy ceremony has been on a historic roll ever since 2021, when they finally figured out how to stop doing a normal award show, and turn it into (as host Trevor Noah said) “a concert where we give out awards.” Grammy Night now has blown up into a ritual that really feels like a full-blast fan celebration. Last night’s excellent Grammy bash had no stupid comedy skits, no cringey presenter chit-chat — just memorable music moments, along…