Get ready for a week of exciting TV releases, celebrity gossip, and new music. Find out what’s next for ‘The Traitors’ franchise, as the US version drops on BBC iPlayer with an all-star cast. Meanwhile, Little Mix star Jade Thirlwall opens up about her early career, including a date with Harry Styles, in a candid conversation on Louis Theroux’s podcast.
A New Traitors Series and Jade Opens Up About Harry Styles Date: This Week’s Big Releases
Worried about what’s going to fill the gap once The Traitors ends on Friday? Fear not – the US version drops on Friday, with an all-star cast descending on the Scottish Highlands.
Your Next Traitors Fix is Just Around the Corner
Hot on the heels of the UK final on Friday, the third season of The Traitors US is arriving on BBC iPlayer. Five episodes will be available to stream on Friday, after which there will be a new episode available every Friday. Unlike the UK series, the contestants on the US version are celebrities.
The show is filmed at the same castle as the UK version but in place of Claudia Winkleman, Scottish actor Alan Cumming presents. Don’t worry, his outfits are just as fabulous. The cast includes Britney Spears‘ ex-husband Sam Asghari, former WWE wrestler Nikki Garcia and British aristocrat Lord Ivar Mountbatten.
Jade Thirlwall Talks New Music… and Harry Styles
Little Mix star Jade Thirlwall waited the longest of any member of Little Mix to release solo music, but she’s given fans plenty to get stuck into recently. In July, she dropped debut single Angel of My Dreams, and she kicked off 2025 with a banger: a dance-pop track called It girl, which appears to take a swipe at the wider music industry.
On Tuesday, she’s appearing on Louis Theroux’s podcast, which will be available on Spotify. I’m told it’s going to be a “candid” conversation, in which Jade will discuss her early career and the X Factor era – including a date with Harry Styles. Other topics on the agenda include fellow bandmate Jesy Nelson’s departure from Little Mix, her experience of an eating disorder, her boyfriend (Rizzle Kicks star Jordan Stephens, in case you haven’t been following), and her new album.
Is The Brutalist Too Long?
The Brutalist has already won three prizes at the Golden Globes, and picked up nine Bafta film nominations. The film, which is also tipped to be a big contender at the Oscars, is released in UK cinemas this Friday. Starring Adrien Brody, Guy Pearce and Felicity Jones, it tells the tale of a Hungarian architect who is hired by a wealthy American after World War Two.
It’s also really long: 215 minutes including a 15-minute intermission in the middle. I grew up watching Bollywood films, so a lengthy film doesn’t spook me. But my colleague Lizo Mzimba asked director Brady Corbet for his take on the duration. “I think that’s something you can’t concern yourself with,” he said.
“The length of a movie is similar to the length of a book, a double album, a painting on a big canvas. I love small portraits and I love [German painter] Anselm Kiefer. For me, there’s a space for both of them. And at the end of the day, especially if the film has an intermission, it’s only 100 minutes on each side so it’s not so bad.”
Have You Experienced Eusexua?
FKA twigs coined the phrase Eusexua to describe a feeling of euphoria that is like transcending the human form. Just “don’t call it love”, she writes, in her song by the same name. Eusexua is also the title of her upcoming third studio album, due out on Friday.
It’s inspired by the techno rave scene in Prague, and is pronounced you-sex-you-uh, in case you were wondering. Ever since it was announced, there have been near-constant memes. But many have also expressed their thanks to the singer, that this word now exists.
“Still can’t believe that the word Eusexua was literally never heard or used by a human before FKA twigs…”, wrote one X user.
Naomi Watts Dares to Say It
You probably know the actress Naomi Watts for films like King Kong and The Ring. But she also spends a lot of her time talking about the challenges she faced after experiencing early menopause. She was 36 when she started having symptoms she couldn’t explain, only to learn that she was going through menopause.
Now 56, she has written a book about her experiences and providing advice for other women. In Dare I Say It, she says she was initially wary about writing about menopause because she feared negative repercussions for her career. “No one in Hollywood was breathing a word about it. We were all behaving as if between the seductress years and the grandmother roles, women just… I don’t know, vanished?” she writes, in an excerpt of the book seen by BBC News.
But she says she then decided to write it, after realising that there “is nothing sexier than a woman who knows what she wants”. Well said.
