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Thai YouTuber MindaRyn Talks Debut as a J-Pop Anime Singer: Interview

MindaRyn spoke with Billboard Japan’s Takanori Kuroda to elaborate on why she was drawn to Japanese anime culture, the difficulty and significance of singing anime songs in Thailand, and to share her excitement about making her anime singer debut in the Japanese market.

I hear you used to watch Japanese anime from a young age because of your father.

Yes, he was a big fan of [rock band] X Japan and loved Japanese anime and culture. Lots of Japanese anime is broadcast on TV in Thailand, so I used to watch programs such as Doraemon, Pokémon, and Digimon.

Japanese anime is fascinating, with a myriad of genres and stories. As I took in these programs, I naturally gained an appreciation of the songs that accompanied them. And now it’s even easier to access Japanese anime thanks to platforms such as Netflix, so it’s very convenient.

What do

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Israeli PM Held Secret Talks In Saudi With Pompeo, Crown Prince: Media

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held secret talks in Saudi Arabia Sunday with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, several media said, in the first reported trip by an Israeli premier to the kingdom.

The meeting, reported Monday by Israeli public broadcaster Kan and other outlets, comes weeks after the Jewish state reached historic deals to normalise ties with two Saudi allies, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain.

Those deals, known as the Abraham Accords, were brokered by the administration of US President Donald Trump, who leaves office in less than two months.

There has been widespread speculation, within Israel and the United States, that Washington may push for other Arab states to join the Abraham Accords before President-elect Joe Biden is sworn in.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who was in Israel last week, was also at the reported talks, according to Kan’s diplomatic correspondent.

Pompeo has confirmed he

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Amy Adams Talks New Movie Hillbilly Elegy and Which of Her Favorite Films She Still Quotes

Amy Adams may have a new, Oscar-buzzy movie out, but that doesn’t mean she has forgotten her first. The six-time Academy Award nominee sat down with E! News to discuss Hillbilly Elegy, her upcoming film with Glenn Close from director Ron Howard, but couldn’t help but gush over the cult classic Drop Dead Gorgeous.

Amy Adams Talks New Movie Hillbilly Elegy and Which of Her Favorite Films She Still Quotes

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The 1999 mockumentary is about the Mount Rose beauty pageant and the subsequent bizarre tragedies that ensue. In addition to then Hollywood newcomer Amy, the film stars Kirsten Dunst, Kirstie Alley, Brittany Murphy, Allison Janney, and Denise Richards.

When asked about Drop Dead Gorgeous‘ cult status among fans, Amy said that while she was surprised by the continued popularity of the movie more than 20 years

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Sudan boycotts faltering talks over Ethiopia’s mega-dam

Sudan has boycotted talks for the first time between Nile Valley countries over Ethiopia’s controversial mega-dam, calling on the African Union to play a greater role in pushing forward the negotiations that have stalled for years

November 21, 2020, 3:18 PM

3 min read

CAIRO — Sudan boycotted talks on Saturday between Nile Valley countries over Ethiopia’s controversial mega-dam, calling on the African Union to play a greater role in pushing forward the negotiations that have stalled for years.

It was the first time that Sudan refused to attend talks with Ethiopia and its northern neighbor Egypt, which has expressed for years its fears that the Ethiopian Grand Renaissance dam on the Blue Nile will dramatically threaten water supplies downstream.

Sudanese Irrigation Minister Yasser Abbas said in a statement that the current approach to reaching

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Ethiopia denies talks on conflict after African Union names envoys

NAIROBI/ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) – Ethiopia denied on Saturday that talks on the growing conflict in its northern Tigray region were imminent, just hours after three African former presidents were named to help mediate the two-week-old crisis.

Ethiopian troops are taking towns and advancing on the Tigrayan capital Mekelle despite resistance from regional forces who have used bulldozers to plough up roads and are putting up resistance, the Addis Ababa government said late on Friday.

Tigrayan forces were not immediately available for comment. They said in a broadcast on Friday they were making progress on the southern and northern fronts.

Assertions on all sides have been difficult to verify because internet and phone links to the region have been down since the conflict broke out on Nov. 4.

A hint of the devastation can be seen in satellite images provided to Reuters by commercial space company Maxar Technologies. Destroyed buildings lined

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War On Drugs Frontman Talks Live LP and Remixing the Rolling Stones

While work continues on the War on Drugs’ follow-up to 2017’s “A Deeper Understanding,” which won the best rock album Grammy, the band is releasing its first live album, appropriately titled “Live Drugs.” The 10-track project is being issued today by bandleader Adam Granduciel’s Super High Quality Records imprint and will be accompanied by a four-episode podcast about its genesis, launching Nov. 23.

Granduciel says he’s always wanted to do a live record, and was sitting on more than a dozen tracks from the two-year worldwide “A Deeper Understanding” tour mixed by longtime collaborator Jon Low back in the summer of 2019. But the plan was to wait to release them until at least 2022, because “I figured we’d do another record and have another cycle, and then be able to pull from five or six records worth of material,” Granduciel tells Variety.

Indeed, before the COVID-19 pandemic, the

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Jim Sheridan Talks Joe Biden, Daniel Day-Lewis, Future Projects

Six-time Oscar-nominee Jim Sheridan (“In the Name of the Father,” “My Left Foot”) is busy these days with Sky Studios documentary series “Murder in the Cottage,” but he has plenty more on his plate.

One of Sheridan’s most celebrated films is “In America” (2002), where a family of Irish immigrants adjusts to life in New York’s Hell’s Kitchen while grieving the death of a child. A series based on the film was in the works.

“I tried to do it with HBO and it was difficult because they wanted it to be more dramatic,” Sheridan tells Variety. “I’d still like to do it. I love the immigration story in America.”

“It got very politicized with Trump and everybody wanted higher level, more drama, and it just got difficult to do,” Sheridan adds.

Now with Joe Biden, a President elect with Irish ancestry, Sheridan hopes that the journey will be

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Jonathan Bennett talks LGBTQ representation in new Hallmark movie, ‘The Christmas House’

The actor said this is the most important role he’s ever played.

November 20, 2020, 4:11 PM

8 min read

The Hallmark Channel’s new film, “The Christmas House,” is both a feel-good holiday story and an important step toward more inclusive storytelling on the network.

Premiering Sunday, Nov. 22 at 8 p.m. ET on the Hallmark Channel, “The Christmas House” is the network’s first film featuring a same-sex couple as the lead characters.

Actor Jonathan Bennett plays Brandon, a man who travels home with his husband, Jake (played by Brad Harder), to decorate his childhood home for the holidays. The couple is hoping to start a family and is waiting to hear if their adoption will go through.

Bennett described it as “an honor” to star in the film and showcase the LGBTQ love story. “This is the first gay

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Emmy Best Actor Nominee Arjun Mathur Talks ‘Made In Heaven’

Ever since he made his debut in Mira Nair’s 2008 HIV-awareness short “Migration,” Indian actor Arjun Mathur has been a constant film and television screen presence. But it is Amazon Prime Video series “Made In Heaven” that has made him a global face, earning him an International Emmy best actor nomination.

In “Made In Heaven,” Mathur plays the lead, a New-Delhi based gay wedding planner who battles job stress and prejudice. When the series was being filmed, homosexuality was illegal in India. That archaic law has since been revoked, but India remains a deeply conservative society.

“At the time it did not feel so much as it does today that there is so much of a hold over our art, to be honest,” Mathur tells Variety. “And the feeling is much stronger today, the trepidation of, ‘can we put this out?,’ can this be said? will this be okay?”

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John Belushi’s Widow Talks About Late Actor Supporting Women

At least one comedy classic from years past would not have survived today’s standards for commercial production, according to the widow of one of those comedic movie stars.

“I think in terms of the political correctness, I mean, certainly, ‘[National Lampoon’s] Animal House’ would not be made today,” Judy Belushi-Pisano said of her late husband, who emerged as the toga-wearing, fraternity-slob star from that 1978 film.

Pisano was speaking on Wednesday night during a virtual Q&A for the upcoming release of Showtime’s 108-minute documentary, “Belushi.”

“I think John actually was a woman’s libber before I was, sometimes contrary to some things you might hear, John was very good with women, in general,” Pisano said of the comedian, regarded in Hollywood history as an influential comedic actor 38 years after his death. In one of the well-known “Animal House” scenes, Belushi spits food at a table of men and women while

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