JAMES Meadows hopes to further prove to rugby league that London cannot be ignored when it comes to finding talent.

After five years, the top rugby competition returns to the capital tonight.

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The Broncos’ top stay could be short-lived after they ranked a lowly 24th in IMG’s initial league table of clubs before coming in strong this year.

But after a stream of players at the club progressed to English honours, and in Kai Pearce-Paul’s case, the NRL, there is no doubting the potential.

And Teddington lad Meadows sees no reason why more people in the south can’t be set to the 13-a-side code, and why other clubs shouldn’t look there.

He said: “There is an insane amount of talent in London.

“It’s such a diverse community and a broad talent pool. If people don’t take advantage of it now, they’re missing a trick. That’s where the game should produce players.

“There will be a lot more coming through in the future. The London community game is growing and the game is here. We need to make sure that as many people from London as possible can find it.

“It’s not usual. There aren’t many rugby league players from Teddington, but my dad and granddad are from Leigh.

“More people are finding it. At home, more and more people I never thought would talk about the game are speaking up. Hopefully there will be more Teddington players in the future.

“And the club works so hard to do what it needs to do. A lot of people are putting in a lot of work in the background, I just hope this comes through.”

London’s life at the top began with defeat to a St Helens side doing everything they could to regain the Super League trophy.

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Now AFC Wimbledon’s Plow Lane will play host to the visit of the Catalans Dragons, with more than 4,500 people – more than double the number attending the last capital battle between the top-level sides – expected.

And Meadows will know better what boss Mike Eccles is saying as he remains coach of the Leeds University side even though he has returned from Batley.

The 24-year-old halfback added: “I have a bit more sympathy now. If I make a bad decision and he pulls out his hair, I understand it now.

“And I still do as much as I can at Leeds Uni, even though I live in London.”

When reconstructing the In the 'Talented Mr. Mark Meadows' Ripley'-esque trajectory, I found that the usual elements of an upwardly mobile politics—origin story hyperbolization, shamelessness, promises made and soon broken—all emerge. Still, as a journalist who has watched Meadows' charm offensive at work in recent years, I have been struck by how much he is loathed by many people who once admired him. Some of these bad feelings can be traced back to what many have cited as Meadows' continued need to be liked, which in turn would seemingly force him to say what he thought someone would want to hear at that moment. After winning his western North Carolina congressional seat in 2012, he promised two different aides they would become his chief of staff, only to award the job to a third person. (Meadows informed one of the unhappy aides by text message that he was “going in a different direction.” The other aide, when confronting Meadows face to face, was met with a display of tears and an explanation that “Debbie is afraid we're having too much fun in Washington.” .”)

Seven years later, after withdrawing from Congress to make himself available to replace his friend Mick Mulvaney as Trump's chief of staff, Meadows promised two different Republican friends who hoped to fill his seat that he would stay out of the race. Instead, he endorsed a third candidate, his wife's friend Lynda Bennett, and then persuaded Trump to do the same. (Bennett was defeated in the primaries by a fourth Republican candidate, Madison Cawthorn, who would serve one short term.)

When I reached out to those who knew Meadows well, I expected wariness from Republicans who felt loyal to him and distrustful of the mainstream media, and there were certainly some who fit that category. It is also the case that many, if not most, Republicans see little to be gained and much to be lost by officially criticizing a key Trump ally like Meadows, whose influence, if not what it once was, is still not worth worth testing.

But just as often, I encountered conservatives who seemed to have an aversion to the subject of Meadows, as if simply acknowledging their former admiration for him would amount to some kind of self-contamination. Some of them noted how easily Meadows cried; Others noted how willing he was to lie, even when it seemed completely unnecessary for him to do so. Many of those I spoke with who soured on Meadows happened to be conservative Christians, like Meadows himself. Someone told me that he got over his bitterness toward Meadows by thinking of the other blessings in his own life, including his 51 years of marriage. Another, who worked with Meadows in the small western North Carolina resort town of Highlands when both were real estate agents, politely objected, saying in a text message, “Mr. Draper, I'm a Christian and I don't want to be involved in anything related to Mark. Yes, I worked with him in the beginning and I know him very well. I'm not protecting him, it's just not right. That's what's wrong with the country right now. One day he will be accountable. We all will.” When I then asked her if she could help explain how Meadows became such a successful real estate agent in such a short time, she replied, “That's a can of worms, and I don't want to go down that path.”

Although Meadows has never been shy about discussing his Christian faith, he has rarely acknowledged the role it played in his professional development. Instead, the streamlined story he has offered shows a young married couple from Tampa restarting their lives in the mountains of western North Carolina, where they spent their honeymoon eight years earlier. real estate and then, after accumulating wealth, into public service. His short path to prosperity was certainly made possible by Meadows' unctuous gift of gab; as he often bragged to staffers during his first congressional campaign in 2012, “I could sell ice cream to an Eskimo.”

The former queen of Denmark has won a prestigious award for her costume and set design for a Danish Netflix film, just weeks after her abdication.

Margrethe, who shocked royal watchers when she announced her unexpected abdication on December 31, announced her award on Instagram.

She worked on the Netflix film Ehrengard – The Art of Seduction, for which she received a Robert Award as costume designer of the year.

On Instagram, the royal family wrote: 'I am deeply grateful, moved and proud of the recognition that the Robert Award represents.

'Receiving an award given by the industry itself makes me extremely happy, and it was a great joy and pleasure to be able to contribute to the expression of the film.

'I would like to thank the whole team behind the film, but especially everyone who turned my ideas, sketches and drawings into reality – not least the talented people who sewed and worked with the many costumes.'

Many are unaware of the former monarch's creative talents, but as a child she dreamed of becoming an artist.

According to the Royal website: 'Princess Margrethe started attending the Royal Theater with her parents at an early age, where she attended August Bournonville's ballet Napoli in 1948, which made a deep impression on the princess.'

According to Danish law, only men were allowed to ascend the throne until she was thirteen. But when the constitution was changed to allow women to rule, Margrethe became the heir presumptive, changing the course of her life and becoming queen in 1972.

However, she continued to work on her drawings and other works of art until about the age of twenty.

After studying a degree in prehistoric archeology at the University of Cambridge, as well as Aarhus University in Denmark, the Sorbonne and the London School of Economics, she was inspired to take up art again after reading JRR Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings.

According to the Danish royal family: 'As an adult, The Queen herself became involved in ballet as a set designer and costume designer.

'From the mid-eighties and thirties, The Queen helped with the annual ballet performances at a friend's dance school in Næstved, where the grand piano sets and costumes were conjured up with enormous imagination from the available materials. Very special were the numerous paper hats at the performances, which The Queen herself devised and made.'

After working on amateur productions, Margrethe turned more professionally, after being approached by Danmarks Radio's TV theater, which approached 'The Queen in 1987 and persuaded her to help as a set designer and costume designer for a TV production of HC Andersen's fairy tale. The Shepherdess and the Chimney Sweep'.

For an ambitious new production of August Bournonville's ballet A Folk Tale, at the Royal Theater in 1990, the then Queen designed the scenography and many costumes.

The Royal Theater followed in 1990 with an ambitious new production of August Bournonville's ballet A Folk Tale, for which The Queen designed the scenography and many costumes.

Around 2000, Margethe joined Tivoli's Pantomime Theater.

Her goal was to “revive the theater's small ballets, which are performed free of charge for amusement park visitors.”

Her first performance as a set designer and costume designer was the HC Andersen-inspired ballet Love in the Dustbin in 2001.

“Since then, ballets based on several of the author's fairy tales have been published, including Thumbelina, The Tinder Box, The Steadfast Tin Soldier, The Swineherd and The Snow Queen, as well as The Nutcracker and Cinderella,” her biography says.

Ehrengard: The Art of Seduction, which was announced last year.

According to Netflix: 'In the fairytale kingdom of Babenhausen, a young, self-proclaimed love expert, Mr. Cazotte (Mikkel Boe Følsgaard), is hired by the scheming Grand Duchess (Sidse Barbett Knudsen) to help her secure an heir.

While searching for a suitable future princess, Mr. Cazotte teaches the timid and introverted Crown Prince Lothar (Emil Aron Dorph) the art of seduction and lovemaking.

'But their plan soon fails when an illegitimate heir is conceived and the royal family is forced to take refuge in Rosenbad Castle. Here, as rivals within the royal family move toward their plan, Cazotte himself falls in love with Ehrengard (Alice Esther Bier Zandén), the bridesmaid, and gradually discovers that he is, in fact, no expert on love at all.”

Speaking about her role in the design department when the project was announced, Margrethe said she was “very happy” to be part of this project.

Praising the author, she described the work as “aesthetic” and revealed: “I have tried to interpret Blixen's fantastic universe in the creation of the découpages and costumes and I look forward to seeing Ehrengard's story come to life in this film.”

Ehrengard: The Art of Seduction is now streaming on Netflix in Denmark.

Lindsay Lohan will reunite with her again Mean girls Co-star Tim Meadows for a new Christmas movie.

Lohan, 37, and Meadows, 62, will star in the new Netflix holiday film, Our little secret. The film – which currently has no release date – will focus on two resentful exes who are forced to spend Christmas in the same house after learning that their current partners are siblings.

Ian Harding, Jon Rudnitsky, Chris Parnell, Dan Bucatinsky, Henry Czerny, Katie Baker, Ash Santos, Jake Brennan And Brian Unger will complete the cast.

Meadows and Lohan first shared the screen in the original 2004 film Mean girls film and appeared in the new 2024 musical film.

While Lohan's role of Cady Heron was reprized Angourie Ricethe Parent trap star made a brief cameo at the end of the film.

Earlier this month, Mean girls Creator Tina Fey discussed how she made Lohan's appearance happen in the new version of the film.

“Paramount said, 'Can you get one of the original ladies? And I thought, 'I can't fit five people in there,'” Fey, 53, explained Entertainment weekly at the time. “I feel like if I could just have one person as a surprise, the original movie is really Lindsay's movie. As great as they all are, she is the heart of the film.”

While Fey tried to come up with something for Lohan that “you wouldn't expect,” she ultimately settled on having Lohan appear in the film's third act as a moderator during the Mathletes competition, which Rice's Cady is a part of.

“Just to have her do that late in the movie, it also feels like it comes, I hope, at a time where fans weren't expecting a little surprise anymore,” Fey said. “It also lets her be smart, which Cady is.”

Lohan also showed her support for the new Mean girls film by attending the premiere on January 8.

“[Mean Girls] has stood the test of time,” she said Entertainment tonight at the time. “I feel really grateful. I mean, it's not often that you have all these movies that do that. Mean Girls has really opened the doors to a lot of things happening in schools. I also think it's a really nice movie, so it's really a blessing.”

Chloe Meadows and Chloe Brockett joined their TOWIE cast members as they filmed the ITVbe show’s finale in Cyprus on Tuesday.

The reality stars have been staying in the lavish £500-a-night Cap St Georges Hotel and Resort as they have been topping up their tans between scenes.

And Chloe Meadows, 31, sizzled in a skimpy crochet beach co-ord as she filmed some scenes in the Paphos sunshine earlier this week.

She showed off her toned abs in a skimpy yellow and blue crocheted bralet and a matching maxi skirt complete with a dainty belly chain.

The bombshell further accessorised her look with a dainty choker necklace, some bracelets, and a pair of small hooped earrings.

She also toted her essentials around in a cream tote bag featuring a chic black handle and strap.

Sporting a radiant palette of make-up, Chloe styled her luscious blonde locks into loose beachy waves and let them tumble down her shoulders.

Meanwhile, Chloe Brockett, 22, slipped into a paisley print co-ord consisting of an off-the-shoulder flared sleeve bandeau crop top and a pair of high-waisted flared beach trousers.

The beauty, who had a glimpse of her tanned mid-riff on show, also opted for further elevating her height with a pair of strappy brown heels.

She also sported a radiant palette of make-up and styled her brunette locks up in a loose ponytail with a scarf headband.

To further accessorise the look, she opted for a pair of cream dangle earrings and adorned a pair of classic aviator sunglasses before later changing into a pink pair to match her ensemble.

New parents Amy Childs, 33, and Billy Debosq, 40, were also spotted arriving at their hotel later on in the day after they spent an afternoon filming with their newborn twins.

Amy looked positively glowing as she donned a black lace beach cover-up dress and a matching black swimsuit.

The new mum, who looked the epitome of chic, also further accessorised her look with a large sun hat, a pair of strappy gold wedged heels, and a pair of black aviator-style sunglasses.

Meanwhile Billy sported a crinkle white T-shirt and a pair of swim shorts as he opted for a more laidback look.

The group were also joined by fellow cast members Junaid Ahmed and Danni Imbert who posed up a storm in the Paphos sun. 

The cast members looked ready for the day ahead as Junaid donned a blue linen co-ord set consisting of a long-sleeved shirt and a pair of matching trousers.

Meanwhile, Danni, looked nothing short of sensational as she donned a skimpy black jumpsuit that featured a strapless corset-style bodysuit and flared lace trousers.

Roman Hackett, 21, also took up the chance to shoot some scenes in the sun and posed up a storm in a similar ensemble to Junaid.

He donned a cream linen co-ord consisting of a short sleeve shirt with a structured collar and a pair of matching slim-fit trousers.

Jordan Brook, 25, donned a brown relaxed-fit T-shirt, a pair of skinny cream trousers, and chunky trainers for the sunny day ahead.

Ella Rae Wise, 22, was also spotted soaking up the sun and looked nothing short of sensational as she donned a pearlescent beach cover-up and a figure-hugging white swimsuit.

Later on in the evening, cast members Dan Edgar, Junaid, Elma Pazar, Jordan Brook, Roman Hackett & Danni Imbert all hit the local club to film upcoming scenes for the show.

And Elma Pazar, 29, donned a stunning cream corset top and maxi skirt.

The brunette beauty also opted for styling her hair in loose waves and further elevated her height with a pair of perplex clear heels as she danced the night away with her fellow cast members.

The luxury five-star hotel the cast are currently staying in as they shoot the finale scenes boasts panoramic views of the Mediterranean sea and has a whopping ten restaurants.

The swanky hotel also features a luxurious spa, a tennis court, a football pitch, and a buggy rental to explore the surrounding areas.

TOWIE’s season 32 is set to air on ITVBe later on this year with ‘juicy gossip, major LOL’s and serious drama’ being teased.