Entertainment – Brandon Sun

Edmonton's High Level Bridge is seen lit up for New Year's Eve in Edmonton, Thursday, Dec. 31, 2020. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Amber Bracken

‘Naughty list’: Alberta government looks to protect bridges from big trucks

Jack Farrell, The Canadian Press 5 minute read 3:00 AM CST

EDMONTON - Alberta's transportation minister could hear the horns blaring from inside his office.

It wasn't from a rally or protest on the Edmonton legislature grounds but, as Devin Dreeshen went outside to discover, the sound of confused and angry drivers.

"It was a truck that had hit (the bridge) and was stopped and backing up traffic all the way up 109 Street," he recalled of the summer gridlock.

Five times this year, large trucks heading onto the double-decker High Level Bridge, a stone's throw west of the legislature, have hit the structure. Ten other times, trucks stopped before it was too late.

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Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs seeks immediate release from prison in appeals argument

Michael R. Sisak And Larry Neumeister, The Associated Press 3 minute read Preview

Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs seeks immediate release from prison in appeals argument

Michael R. Sisak And Larry Neumeister, The Associated Press 3 minute read Yesterday at 9:19 PM CST

NEW YORK (AP) — Lawyers for hip-hop mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs urged a federal appeals court in New York late Tuesday to order his immediate release from prison and reverse his conviction on prostitution-related charges or direct his trial judge to lighten his four-year sentence.

The lawyers said in a filing with the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan that Combs was treated harshly at sentencing by a federal judge who let evidence surrounding charges he was acquitted of unjustly influence the punishment.

Combs, 56, incarcerated at a federal prison in New Jersey and scheduled for release in May 2028, was acquitted of racketeering conspiracy and sex trafficking at a trial that ended in July. Combs was convicted under the Mann Act, which bans transporting people across state lines for any sexual crime.

Lawyers for Combs said Judge Arun Subramanian acted like a “thirteenth juror” in October when he sentenced Combs to four years and two months in prison. They said he erred by letting evidence surrounding the acquitted charges influence the sentence he imposed.

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Yesterday at 9:19 PM CST

FILE - Music mogul and entrepreneur Sean

Movie Review: The Korean satire ‘No Other Choice’ is a masterful thriller from Park Chan-wook

Jake Coyle, The Associated Press 4 minute read Yesterday at 3:20 PM CST

Leaves and bodies fall in “No Other Choice,” Park Chan-wook’s masterfully devilish satire with a chilling autumnal wind blowing through it.

“Come on, fall,” urges You Man-su (Lee Byung-hun) as he grills an eel for dinner for his family in the opening moments of Park's film. He's eager for the season to start but unprepared for the amount of cyclical collapse — familial, economic, even existential — that Park has in store.

Man-su pronounces the very thing no movie protagonist ever should: “I've got it all.” He lives with his wife, Miri (Son Ye-jin), and two children (Kim Woo Seung, Choi So Yul) in a handsome modernist house in the woods, with two golden retrievers. But almost as soon as he says that, Man-su's fortunes turn. After 25 years at a paper mill, Man-su is laid off, as are many others, with little fanfare or apology. Desperation begins to set in. He's forced to sell the home he loves so dearly, including the attached greenhouse where he tends to plants and bonsai trees. They even have to, horror of horrors, cancel Netflix.

Another movie might have sunk with Man-su into bankruptcy and midlife struggle, following his quest to find a new line of work and restart his life. This is not that movie. Man-su, considering his prospects, decides he needs to better his odds of new employment. After posting a fake job listing and comparing all the incoming resumes, he decides he's about the fifth best option for any new paper mill managerial jobs. He decides to kill the ones with better credentials.

CBS News says Global ‘mistakenly’ posted ’60 Minutes’ segment, issues takedown order

Alex Nino Gheciu, The Canadian Press 2 minute read Preview

CBS News says Global ‘mistakenly’ posted ’60 Minutes’ segment, issues takedown order

Alex Nino Gheciu, The Canadian Press 2 minute read Yesterday at 2:20 PM CST

CBS News says it's issuing takedown orders for a shelved "60 Minutes" segment after it was posted on Global TV's app on Monday and then spread online.

A representative for the network says its Canadian broadcast partner had "mistakenly published" the segment, dubbed "Inside CECOT," after CBS News decided to delay it for a future broadcast.

Though Global has since removed the episode, the segment has been shared widely on social media.

CBS News says its parent company Paramount is in the process of issuing takedown orders to accounts that have shared the footage.

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Yesterday at 2:20 PM CST

AI-generated content wrongly accuses fiddler Ashley MacIsaac of being sex offender

Michael MacDonald, The Canadian Press 4 minute read Preview

AI-generated content wrongly accuses fiddler Ashley MacIsaac of being sex offender

Michael MacDonald, The Canadian Press 4 minute read Updated: Yesterday at 3:06 PM CST

HALIFAX - Cape Breton fiddler Ashley MacIsaac says he may have been defamed by Google after it recently produced an AI-generated summary falsely identifying him as a sex offender.

The Juno Award-winning musician said Tuesday he learned of the online misinformation last week after a First Nation north of Halifax had confronted him with the summary and had cancelled one of his concerts planned for Dec. 19.

“You are being put into a less secure situation because of a media company — that’s what defamation is,” MacIsaac said in a telephone interview, adding he was worried about what might have happened had the erroneous content surfaced while he was trying to cross an international border.

“If a lawyer wants to take this on (for free) … I would stand up because I'm not the first and I'm sure I won't be the last."

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Updated: Yesterday at 3:06 PM CST

Ashley MacIsaac plays at the East Coast Music Awards in Halifax on Sunday, March 10, 2013. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Andrew Vaughan

Movie Review: In Jim Jarmusch’s starry ‘Father Mother Sister Brother’ families struggle to connect

Lindsey Bahr, The Associated Press 4 minute read Preview

Movie Review: In Jim Jarmusch’s starry ‘Father Mother Sister Brother’ families struggle to connect

Lindsey Bahr, The Associated Press 4 minute read Yesterday at 1:10 PM CST

Jim Jarmusch invites audiences into three family gatherings of adult children in his gentle tryptic “Father Mother Sister Brother.”

Don’t worry, you won’t be resentful you’re not part of any of them, not even the one where Tom Waits plays Adam Driver’s dad. To be fair, all the groupings are pretty cool on paper. In the first chapter, siblings Jeff (Driver) and Emily (Mayim Bialik) drive together to visit their father (Waits) for the first time in a while. In the second, a mother (Charlotte Rampling) awaits her grown daughters Tim ( Cate Blanchett ) and Lilith ( Vicky Krieps ) for their annual tea. And in the third, all that’s left of Skye (Indya Moore) and Billy’s (Luka Sabbat) parents are things.

But these are awkward and strained hangouts, none connected to one another literally, and all in different parts of the world. Yet there are little threads throughout — Rolex watches, toasting with water, red clothing, and the idiom “bob’s your uncle,” for instance. And then there’s the more cosmically haunting realization that familiarity and closeness are not always in the cards when it comes to family. In “Father Mother Sister Brother,” everyone would rather be anywhere but where they are. Same same, but different, you know?

The film opens with “Father,” and siblings Jeff and Emily reluctantly doing a kind of wellness check on theirs. They’re both very buttoned up and formal, both in appearance (blazers, sweaters, combed hair) and demeanor. Waits, as their father, is very much the opposite — one might imagine that he doesn’t even own a blazer, or a comb for that matter. His home is as rumpled as his zip up hoodie sweatshirt and he is a little bumbling himself, rattling off all the drugs he’s not taking (anymore). The chasm between him and his children is vast and growing. Besides the death of their mother, it doesn’t even seem like there was even some inciting incident that might explain some level of estrangement — they’re just very, very different. And the father might not be as helpless and destitute as he’s presenting to his children. After they leave, he tidies the place up and calls a friend to go out to a nice dinner.

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Yesterday at 1:10 PM CST

This image released by Mubi shows Adam Driver in a scene from

A daring scene on Broadway this season has audiences talking, in more ways than one

Jocelyn Noveck, The Associated Press 7 minute read Preview

A daring scene on Broadway this season has audiences talking, in more ways than one

Jocelyn Noveck, The Associated Press 7 minute read Updated: Yesterday at 3:49 PM CST

NEW YORK (AP) — On any given evening as the lights come up on Act 2 of “Liberation,” Bess Wohl's intergenerational Broadway play about a women’s consciousness-raising group, you can hear supportive cheers of “Whoo!” and “Yeah!” — and sometimes, a round of applause. All before a single word has been uttered.

There’s a reason for the burst of appreciation — or solidarity? — from the crowd. Onstage, six characters are launching one of the bolder scenes on Broadway in this, and perhaps many a season. Each one — members of a makeshift group sometime in the '70s — strips naked, for some 15 minutes of dialogue.

Wohl says she wondered, back when she was writing, whether “Liberation” might become known as “that play with the naked scene” — with the rest collapsing around it. Thankfully, the playwright says, the conversation has been much larger.

“I’ve been very gratified,” she says of the reaction. “It doesn’t feel titillating or gratuitous or gimmicky. It feels like a really important piece of the work that the women in the consciousness-raising group are doing.”

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Updated: Yesterday at 3:49 PM CST

Susannah Flood, left, and Irene Sofia Lucio appear in the Broadway production of

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UK authorities bring new charges of rape and sexual assault against Russell Brand

Krutika Pathi, The Associated Press 2 minute read Preview

UK authorities bring new charges of rape and sexual assault against Russell Brand

Krutika Pathi, The Associated Press 2 minute read Yesterday at 12:08 PM CST

LONDON (AP) — British authorities on Tuesday brought new counts of rape and sexual assault against comedian Russell Brand, who is already facing similar charges involving four women.

The U.K.'s Crown Prosecution Service said the new charges — one count of rape and one of sexual assault — against Brand were in relation to two further women. The alleged offenses took place in 2009, the CPS said.

Brand, 50, had already been charged in April with two counts of rape, two counts of sexual assault and one count of indecent assault. The charges were brought following an 18-month investigation sparked when four women alleged they had been assaulted by the controversial comedian.

Prosecutors said that these offenses took place between 1999 and 2005 — one in the English seaside town of Bournemouth and the other three in London. Brand pleaded not guilty to those charges in a London court earlier this year.

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Yesterday at 12:08 PM CST

US-Audiobooks-Top-10

The Associated Press 2 minute read Yesterday at 11:09 AM CST

Audible best-sellers for the week ending December 19:

Nonfiction

1. The Let Them Theory by Mel Robbins, narrated by the author (Audible Studios)

2. Atomic Habitsby James Clear, narrated by the author (Penguin Audio)

US-Apple-Books-Top-10

The Associated Press 2 minute read Yesterday at 10:59 AM CST

Top Paid Books (US Bestseller List)

1. Heated Rivalry by Rachel Reid (Carina Press)

2. The Long Game by Rachel Reid (Carina Press)

3. Game Changer by Rachel Reid (Carina Press)

Apple TV app – Top Movies

The Associated Press 1 minute read Yesterday at 10:59 AM CST

Top Movie Purchases and Rentals (US)

1. The Running Man (2025)

2. Now You See Me: Now You Don’t

3. The Holiday

Apple Podcasts – Top New Shows

The Associated Press 1 minute read Yesterday at 10:59 AM CST

No distributor? No problem. Canadian filmmakers are reaching audiences on their own terms

Alex Nino Gheciu, The Canadian Press 7 minute read Preview

No distributor? No problem. Canadian filmmakers are reaching audiences on their own terms

Alex Nino Gheciu, The Canadian Press 7 minute read Yesterday at 9:52 AM CST

When Sasha Leigh Henry’s acclaimed TV show was canceled and development pipelines slowed to a crawl, she decided not to wait years for permission to reach audiences again.

Instead, she made her feature debut “Dinner With Friends” on a $100,000 micro-budget, and is now releasing it herself.

The Toronto filmmaker decided to act last year when Bell Media canceled her Crave series "Bria Mack Gets a Life" after one season, citing low audience numbers despite winning the Canadian Screen Award for best TV comedy, and after being denied Telefilm Talent to Watch funding.

"Nothing makes you say ‘eff it’ like your award-winning show not getting renewed," says Henry. She shot the film — an intimate look at the bonds and fractures within a Black friend group — in just nine days.

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Yesterday at 9:52 AM CST

Filmmaker Sasha Leigh Henry poses for a portrait in Toronto, on Tuesday, Dec. 9, 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sammy Kogan

Ukraine’s own ‘Dancing with the Stars’ is back on for a special episode with wartime heroes

Samya Kullab And Vasilisa Stepanenko, The Associated Press 4 minute read Preview

Ukraine’s own ‘Dancing with the Stars’ is back on for a special episode with wartime heroes

Samya Kullab And Vasilisa Stepanenko, The Associated Press 4 minute read Updated: Yesterday at 11:32 AM CST

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Before the war, Ukraine’s own “Dancing with the Stars” was a cherished and popular television show, dazzling the audiences with performances by celebrities and professional dancers. The show is now back on for one special episode — this time with Ukrainian wartime heroes as the stars, underscoring the nation's resilience in difficult times.

Many still remember how President Volodymyr Zelenskyy — then an actor — won the dance competition in 2006, the year that “Tantsi z zirkamy” as the show is known in Ukrainian, first debuted.

In the new, special episode, the dancers perform with prosthetic limbs, showcasing their strength in overcoming adversity. The lineup of participants includes public figures who rose to prominence since Russia's full-out war on Ukraine was launched in February 2022.

But like all of present-day Ukraine, the show — which is part of an international franchise — has had to deal with a multitude of wartime challenges, including frequent power outages.

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Updated: Yesterday at 11:32 AM CST

Volunteer soldier Rusya Danylkina, 21, who lost her leg in Russia-Ukraine war, and choreographer Pavlo Semakin perform during the shooting of the Christmas TV show ''Dancing with the Stars'' in Kyiv, Ukraine, Thursday, Dec. 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)

Alberta chocolatier brings Canadian magic to Harry Potter baking show

Diana Mussina, The Canadian Press 3 minute read Preview

Alberta chocolatier brings Canadian magic to Harry Potter baking show

Diana Mussina, The Canadian Press 3 minute read Yesterday at 3:00 AM CST

An Alberta chocolatier brought a distinctly Canadian flavour to the baking show "Harry Potter: Wizards of Baking," a magical experience she says taught her to think bigger.

Priya Winsor of St. Albert, Alta., a finalist on the show and the owner of Compass Chocolates, said the show pushed her well beyond her comfort zone, particularly when it came to constructing large-scale edible showpieces.

"It really gave me an opportunity to stretch my muscles and try something different—something bigger than what I thought I could do," Winsor said.

The Newfoundland-born chocolate maker grew up reading the Harry Potter books and watching the movies, so filming the Food Network show on the original movie sets in the U.K. felt surreal.

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Yesterday at 3:00 AM CST

Contestant Priya Winsor poses on the set of Food Network's

The oldest boomers are turning 80 in 2026. How much pop culture do you remember?

Mike Schneider, The Associated Press 3 minute read Preview

The oldest boomers are turning 80 in 2026. How much pop culture do you remember?

Mike Schneider, The Associated Press 3 minute read Updated: Yesterday at 8:36 AM CST

OK boomers: The oldest of you are turning 80 in 2026, the vanguard of a “rock n' roll” and “TV age” generation that left an imprint on popular culture like no other.

During the 18 years of the “baby boom” from 1946 to 1964, around 76 million Americans were born. The spike in births was magnified by couples reuniting after World War Two and the postwar prosperity that followed. Better educated and wealthier than previous generations, boomers made popular culture more inclusive and helped grow a consumer-driven economy.

Here are 20 questions to see how well you know — or remember — about the indelible imprint made on pop culture by baby boomers and those who catered to their tastes. No Google or ChatGPT allowed. You don't have to be a boomer to get them right, but it doesn't hurt.

1.

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Updated: Yesterday at 8:36 AM CST

December 24, 2025

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