English Entertainment
Star World to air season 8 of ‘MasterChef Australia’
MUMBAI: One of the most popular cooking shows, MasterChef Australia returnsin its eighth season to Star World and Star World HD witha diverse group of contestants. This season brings a list of brilliant home chefs to showcase new levels of skill, passion and their home cooking talents in the hope of taking home the title of Australia’s next MasterChef.In India, the popular show will air close to the international airing on Star World and Star World HD next month.
With a section of contestants vying for the coveted white apron in the audition rounds, the names of some contestants have already been revealed. The first contender to be a part of the Top 24 and get a step closer to the grand title is the 30 year old, Indian-born home cook who has also impressed the celebrity chef Marco Pierre White on the show – Nidhi Mahajan. Speaking about this opportunity, the 30-year old call-centre worker Nidhi said in an interview with Confidential, “I had tears in my eyes….I had always wanted to cook for Marco. He’s like a God of food for me, I was so overwhelmed at the time, I was not thinking that it was real. He’s been telling me that he wants me to open a restaurant in London near his place and he can come every day to eat my food. That’s the best compliment I have ever got, and from someone like Marco…please hit me over the head I must be dreaming! It was a great moment for me.”
A few other contestants’ names have also been announced but it is unclear if they have made it to the pointy end of the competition. That includes a 31 year old high school teacher, Cecelia Vuong, who withdrew from the show in the 2014 series after sustaining a head injury.
Matt Sinclair, another contestant has already become famous for his ‘MasterChef’s death dish’ that failed to impress the judges. On the other hand Western Australian waitress Karmen Lu is making a big impression on the judging trio with her incredible chocolate dishes.
There are also other contenders who believe in taking risks, such as Michaela Johansson, a 23 year old student from New South Wales who attempted a croquem bouche in just one hour and Queensland Park Ranger Miles Pritchett who cooked a pie in a tin.
Rounding out the list of cooking show hopefuls is a pair, the likes of which has not been witnessed on the show before – a brother-sister duo, Jimmy Wongand Theresa Visintin.
With a batch of contestants that appear to be the best group yet, the wait for the show has become more difficult.
English Entertainment
Ellison takes his Paramount-Warner Bros case straight to theater owners
The Skydance chief goes to CinemaCon with promises and a skeptical crowd waiting
CALIFORNIA: David Ellison strode into a room packed with thousands of cinema owners and executives at CinemaCon in Las Vegas on Thursday and did something rather bold: he looked them in the eye and asked them to trust him.
The chief executive of Paramount Skydance vowed that his company would release a minimum of 30 films a year if regulators greenlight its proposed $110 billion acquisition of Warner Bros Discovery, a deal that has made theater owners deeply, and loudly, nervous.
“I wanted to look every single one of you in the eye and give you my word,” Ellison told the crowd. “Once we combine with Warner Bros, we are going to make a minimum of 30 films annually across both studios.”
It was a confident pitch. Whether it landed is another matter. Cinema operators have already called on regulators to block the deal, and scepticism in the room was hardly concealed.
Ellison pushed back by pointing to recent form. Paramount, born from the merger of Paramount Global and Skydance Media last August, plans to release 15 films this year, nearly double the eight it put out in 2025. Progress, he argued, was already underway.
He also threw theater owners a bone they have long been chasing: all films, he pledged, would run exclusively in cinemas for a minimum of 45 days, drawing applause from a crowd that has spent years fighting for exactly that commitment across the industry.
“People can speculate all they want,” Ellison said, “but I am standing here today telling you personally that you can count on our complete commitment. And we’ll show you we mean it.”
Fine words. The regulators, however, will have the last one.
