Idol Conjectures<\/p>\n
Finally, following prolonged conjecture about whether Pakistan Idol Season 2 would ever resume after being abruptly discontinued in the middle of its new and affectionately watched set of episodes, the news is that the music reality show will continue from where it had left off \u2014 in July, that is. Pre-production and planning for post-production have begun for the remaining episodes of the popular programme. We\u2019re assuming there will be a few changes to the technical staff, but the judges will remain the same. Some might wish it were the other way around.<\/p>\n
Reshared Moments<\/p>\n
Yumna Zaidi has been saving her Instagram stories \u2014 which usually disappear from view after a day \u2014 for a while. There\u2019s a reason for it. The actress has re-shared some of them and told her admirers: \u201cSharing some of the reels on my stories\u2026 I saved them in the lowest and happiest moments of my life.\u201d Although she did not go into the details of the \u2018lowest\u2019 and \u2018happiest\u2019 moments, she offered the following nugget of wisdom: \u201cBe the reason why people believe in beautiful souls, kind hearts, and good energy. Never stop being a good person.\u201d Sounds like a piece of advice for her showbiz colleagues, doesn\u2019t it?<\/p>\n
Professor Blanchett<\/p>\n
Two-time Oscar winner Cate Blanchett will teach at one of the world\u2019s most prestigious universities. It was announced on June 16 that she is now a new visiting professor at the University of Oxford. What will she teach? Well, Cate B will share her knowledge and experience of contemporary theatre at St Catherine\u2019s College throughout the 2026-27 academic year. This is surely one of the best decisions that Oxford has taken in recent times. Instead of holding inconsequential \u2018union debates\u2019, it should rope in great artists to talk about art. Our conflict-driven world needs that.<\/p>\n
Funny? Fired!<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s an unusual story told last week on a podcast by The Usual Suspects actor Stephen Baldwin. He said that, in 1998, he started working with Jennifer Aniston on a movie titled The Object of My Affection. After two days of filming, one of the producers of the project came to his trailer and said, \u201cThere\u2019s a problem. You can\u2019t be funnier than Jennifer\u2026\u201d He then fired Stephen B. We don\u2019t get it. Anyone can be funnier than her. She was funny in Friends because there were funny actors around her. The producer must have been kidding with Stephen B.<\/p>\n
Nigam\u2019s Nerves<\/p>\n
No one can escape the vagaries of, and the ups and downs in, life \u2014 the artist community included. Take the example of Indian playback singer Sonu Nigam. Who would have thought that the man with a soft, melodious voice would one day be suffering from a serious ailment? The artist has revealed to his fans that he has a serious \u2018nerve-related\u2019 condition, which is having a terrible effect on his neck and throat and has been having extensive treatment for a few weeks. And yet, the true artist that he is, the vocalist remains committed to his upcoming live stage assignments. Sonu N, we wish you a full, speedy and melodious recovery.<\/p>\n
Janus-Faced<\/p>\n
Indian filmmaker Imtiaz Ali\u2019s latest offering, Main Waapis Aaunga, has been garnering praise lately for its Partition-era story that some have felt echoes the trauma of those displaced around the world but particularly Palestinian refugees forced to flee their homeland. The filmmaker has been happy to lap up that praise. Unfortunately, that would have been more convincing had people not pointed out online that Imtiaz A had gone on an Israeli government-funded visit to the apartheid state in 2017 as part of a move to use Bollywood to counter the pro-Palestinian Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement. Images of Imtiaz A posing with the architect of the Gazan genocide Benjamin Netanyahu and his statements praising Israel also were dredged out. Turns out Imtiaz A is more of an actor than a director.<\/p>\n
Published in Dawn, ICON, June 28th, 2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Idol Conjectures Finally, following prolonged conjecture about whether Pakistan Idol Season 2 would ever resume after being abruptly…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":499756,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[430,156,111,139,69],"class_list":["post-499755","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/499755","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=499755"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/499755\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/499756"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=499755"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=499755"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=499755"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}