All posts tagged: Lesley

Jeffrey Epstein assistant Lesley Groff questioned by House panel

Jeffrey Epstein assistant Lesley Groff questioned by House panel

Published by Sam Flores

Lesley Groff (C), a former assistant to Jeffrey Epstein, arrives to testify at a closed-door interview with the House Oversight Committee on Capitol Hill on June 09, 2026 in Washington, DC. Chip Somodevilla | Getty Images Lesley Groff, the former executive assistant to notorious sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, began a transcribed interview on Tuesday morning by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee behind closed doors. Groff’s appearance before the committee comes a day before Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates is due to speak to the same panel, which for months has interviewed a range of high-profile people connected to Epstein. “I never saw anything improper,” Groff told the committee, according to a source familiar with the matter who was cited by MS NOW. Groff denied she knew about Epstein’s crimes, the source said. Groff worked for Epstein for nearly 20 years, and her name appears more than 150,000 times in the Epstein files released by the Department of Justice. Groff was responsible for arranging Epstein’s meetings with prominent people and scheduling massages for him from …

Lesley Manville Joins Brett Goldstein in ‘Escorted’ at Prime Video

Lesley Manville Joins Brett Goldstein in ‘Escorted’ at Prime Video

Published by Daniella Wilson

Prime Video‘s comedy Escorted, starring and created by Brett Goldstein, is adding Lesley Manville to its cast. The newly crowned Tony Award winner will play the mother of Goldstein’s character in the series. Her casting marks a return to Prime Video for Manville, who also stars in the Amazon-owned streamer’s Citadel. Escorted, which Prime Video ordered to series late last year, stars Goldstein (Ted Lasso, Shrinking) as Denny, a divorced dad in Manhattan who accidentally becomes a male escort. Prime Video describes the show as a “romantic comedy about sexual dynamics, keeping secrets, and whether real intimacy can ever be bought.” Manville (The Crown, Phantom Thread) will play Terri, Denny’s mother and a “charisma bomb” cabaret singer. Her character is a force of nature with a voice to match. Manville won a Tony Award on Sunday for best lead actress in a play for Oedipus. She was nominated for an Oscar in 2018 for her role in Phantom Thread; her recent credits also include FX’s Grotesquerie, the Amy Winehouse biopic Back to Black, Mrs. Harris …

’60 Minutes’ Correspondents to Stay: Lesley Stahl, Bill Whitaker

’60 Minutes’ Correspondents to Stay: Lesley Stahl, Bill Whitaker

Published by Daniella Wilson

The three remaining correspondents at CBS newsmagazine 60 Minutes will remain with the show for its next season. In a memo to the show’s staff, Lesley Stahl, Bill Whitaker and Jon Wertheim said that, while they had a hard time deciding whether to stay at 60 Minutes after the ouster of top producers and correspondents like Tanya Simon, Scott Pelley, Cecilia Vega and Sharyn Alfonsi, they have opted to stay with the show. “We feared that our returning might be construed as an endorsement of the existing power structure. That is simply, categorically not the case,” they wrote. “Here’s why we’re are staying: We don’t want to see 60 Minutes die.” Read their memo, below: TO All our colleagues at 60 FROM Lesley, Bill and Jon We have had a hard time deciding whether to stay at 60 Minutes. We’re still deeply upset by the firings of Tanya and Draggan, strong leaders who everyone respected. As far as we can tell – because no explanation has ever been offered, they were expelled because they fought …

Lesley Manville ignites theatre debate after saying photos during curtain calls are ‘insulting’

Lesley Manville ignites theatre debate after saying photos during curtain calls are ‘insulting’

Published by Daniella Wilson

Get the latest entertainment news, reviews and star-studded interviews with our Independent Culture email Get the latest entertainment news with our free Culture newsletter Get the latest entertainment news with our free Culture newsletter To snap or not to snap – that is the question: Lesley Manville has ignited an impassioned debate after criticising “insulting” theatregoers who take photos during curtain calls. According to the Olivier Award-winning star, she believes phones should be kept in pockets until after the cast have given their bows to an applauding audience. Manville, who currently stars in Les Liaisons Dangereuses at the National Theatre, urged people to “take the digital out of it for just a moment”, stating: “Come on, it’s theatre – let’s preserve it!” Lesley Manville urges theatregoers to leave phones in their pockets during curtain calls (Getty) “We are all in this room, we are telling you a story, you’re listening – clap or don’t clap, but don’t just stick your phone in our face. I find it insulting,” she said on Radio 4. The Phantom …

Lesley Manville stars in exclusive sweet moment from heartbreaking new film

Lesley Manville stars in exclusive sweet moment from heartbreaking new film

Published by Daniella Wilson

In a clip from her upcoming film, Midwinter Break, exclusively shared with Radio Times, Lesley Manville and co-star Ciarán Hinds’ characters share a tender moment in an Amsterdam bar. The clip – which you can watch above – shows Manville and Hinds as they each drink jenever, a Dutch gin that is traditionally preceded by a beer. Hinds watches on as his wife handily polishes off both the beer and the gin before holding his face and kissing him in a heartwarming moment that is tinged with a sense of sadness, hinting at the larger themes of love, faith and memory the film will go on to explore. Midwinter Break is based on the 2017 novel by Bernard MacLaverty and sees Manville and Hinds playing Stella and Gerry, a married couple who travel to Amsterdam to rekindle the passion that seems to have all but disappeared from their increasingly comfortable relationship. The couple fled their home of Belfast during the Troubles after Stella had a traumatic experience that the film slowly reveals across its 90-minute …