By Savanna Young for Daily Mail Australia

Published: 5:12 PM EDT, March 21, 2024 | Updated: 5:23 PM EDT, March 21, 2024

Princess Aiko of Japan beamed as she attended her graduation ceremony at Gakushuin University in Tokyo.

Aiko, the only daughter of Emperor Naruhito, 63, and Empress Masako, 60, wore a navy blue kimono with pale pink sleeves as she braved a storm on Wednesday.

The 22-year-old, who studied Japanese language and literature for four years, wore traditional Japanese split-toe shoes called Tabi, which are an important part of Japan’s fashion and history.

The princess appeared cheerful as she walked through the university grounds on her way to her graduation ceremony in Tokyo’s Mejiro district.

She carried a cream handbag and pink flowers in her raven locks to match her colorful kimono.

Aiko plans to work at the Red Cross after his studies.

Her contractual role with the Red Cross will not impact her official duties, and she plans to perform both simultaneously Kyodo News.

It is believed the princess will commute to the company’s headquarters in Tokyo’s Minato district, although her exact role has not been revealed.

“I am happy to become involved in the work of the Japanese Red Cross,” Princess Aiko said in a statement released by the agency. She added: “At the same time, I feel determined.”

The Japanese Imperial Family has a long-standing association with the charity, and Empress Masako currently serves as honorary chairman of the organization.

Aiko said, “I am happy and humbled to work for the Japanese Red Cross, which I have always been interested in.

‘I continue to learn different things and work hard knowing that I am a member of society. I hope that, even if only on a small scale, I can do something for people and society.’

The exact nature of the Aiko’s role in the Red Cross is unknown. The princess leads a private life and she previously went through a period of bullying and fear during her childhood, which caused her to leave school.

It comes after Princess Aiko’s aunt, Princess Kiko, reportedly underwent a medical test to determine the cause of her mysterious illness, but to no avail.

Crown Prince Akishino’s wife, 57, underwent an endoscopy at a Tokyo hospital earlier this month, but no abnormalities were discovered.

Kiko has been suffering from an unknown illness since last year The Mainichi.

The royal family has experienced painful symptoms related to the gastrointestinal tract, leaving her unable to eat normal meals.

The mother of two has been advised to “rest and focus on recovery,” the Japanese newspaper said.

Although doctors have advised Kiko to rest, they have suggested she may face painful symptoms in the coming months.

It comes after claims that Crown Princess Kiko of Japan is unable to eat ‘normal meals’ after contracting a mystery illness.

The Imperial Household Agency said the royal mother of two has been unwell since last year, according to the national newspaper The Mainichi.

Doctors have ruled out Covid-19 as the cause of Kiko’s ill health after the princess tested negative for the virus and flu.

Since the cause of Kiko’s illness is still unknown, medical professionals are conducting tests to find a solution.

The princess recently attended the New Year celebrations and appeared to be in a positive mood as she beamed in family portraits released to mark the New Year.

By Chikamso Chukwuenyem for Mailonline

Published: 10:10 PM EDT, March 19, 2024 | Updated: 10:10 PM EDT, March 19, 2024

This James Bond news has shocked us And stirred.

Aaron Taylor Johnson According to rumors, he will take over the role of James Bond The sun.

Taylor-Johnson, 33, best known for his roles in films like 2010 Super awesome and 2022 Bullet trainreportedly has a ‘formal offer’, which the actor is expected to sign in the coming days.

Production on the next Bond installment will begin later this year.

Once the paperwork is complete, Taylor-Johnson will take over the iconic role of Daniel Craig, which played Bond in five films over the course of 15 years. Craig, 56, last appeared as 007 in 2021 No time to die.

The sun reported that Taylor-Johnson was in the running alongside a number of high-end competitors, including the recent Oscar winner Cillian Murphy, Idris Elba, Henry Cavill And Happy Valley star James Norton.

Just last week, Taylor-Johnson was asked about the possibility of playing Bond, which has been rumored since Craig announced his departure.

“I find it charming and wonderful that people see me in that role,” he said Number in an interview published on March 13. “I consider it a great compliment.”

Taylor-Johnson, who also won a Golden Globe for his performance in 2016 Nocturnal animalscan next be seen in May The autumn mannext Ryan Gosling And Emily Bluntand that of Augustus Kraven the Hunterwhere he plays the titular superhero.

As for Craig, he first played Bond in 2006 Casino royalehe said he had no regrets about leaving the franchise behind.

“No, none at all,” Craig said on BBC Radio 4’s “Best of Today” podcast in December 2022. “I have spent 17 years of my life incredibly happy making this. I literally want to spend the next twenty years of my life trying to unpick everything and put it in one place, because it was incredible. I left it where I wanted it. And that with the last film I got the chance to do that.”

During his last appearance as in No time to die, James Bond’s character appears blown up and killed at the end of the film. According to Craig, it gave the franchise an opportunity to reinvent itself in his absence.

“I don’t know if it sounds insincere,” I said [James Bond producer] Barbara [Broccoli] Way back in 2006, ‘If I make all these movies, and we do it right, can we kill him,’ and she said, ‘Yes, we can,'” Craig recalled. “I thought about myself, about my postponed career and I tried to think about how that would work, but I also thought about what they were doing with Casino royale.”

Craig continued, “They had a chance to reset with that because they went back to the beginning. I thought you’d get another chance to reset. That seems like a good move to us.”

Gillian Anderson has revealed she initially turned down the role of Emily Maitlis in Netflix film Scoop.

The acclaimed actress will play the Newsnight presenter in the anticipated film which dramatizes the infamous 2019 interview between Prince Andrew and Emily.

But Gillian has admitted it took some persuading to take on the role, insisting it was ‘just too scary to play Emily Maitlis because she’s still alive.’

“She’s so formidable because people know her so well,” she explained in a new one BBC interview.

The actress admitted that her fear pushed her to say yes to the project. “I thought I probably should do it because I’m so scared of it,” I commented.

Gillian met ‘amazing’ Emily at a party last year and she admitted: ‘I behaved towards her as if I knew her. Like we’re best friends.’

Whiule Emily knew Gillian played her in the Netflix movie. She did not consult on the film because she serves as executive producer on a rival three-part Amazon series titled A Very Royal Scandal, which will star Luther’s Ruth Wilson as Maitlis and Michael Sheen as Prince Andrew.

Rufus Sewell stars as Prince Andrew in Scoop, based on the memoirs of former Newsnight producer Sam McAlister, who secured the royal interview.

McAlister plays Billie Piper in the drama.

The full trailer for Netflix drama Scoop was unveiled on Monday with a standout moment in the trailer comes from Billie trying encourage the prince to talk to the BBC about his friendship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

Sam probes: ‘With respect, you know how people see you.’ As the late queen’s third child watches blankly, he muses, “Spell it out,” prompting Sam to blurt out “Randy Andy…”.

Keeley Hawes also stars in the film as Prince Andrew’s private secretary, Amanda Thirsk.

In the infamous 2019 interview, Emily discussed Virginia Giuffre’s claims that she was forced to have sex with Andrew three times when she was 17 on Epstein’s orders.

The prince strongly denied the claims during the interview.

The discussion, in which Andrew made a series of claims – including claiming that he could not have been with Virginia at the time of the alleged meeting because he was dining at a Pizza Express in Woking and that a medical condition prevented him from sweating – has since gained notoriety and is widely acknowledged to have embarrassed the royal family.

The interview was described as a ‘car crash’ and on November 20, 2019, a statement from Buckingham Palace said Prince Andrew had been suspended from public duties ‘for the foreseeable future’.

In May 2020, it was announced that the prince was permanently resigning from his public positions.

In January 2022, Virginia was given the green light to sue Andrew for unspecified damages in a civil court in New York.

Despite promising to fight the claims and repeatedly protesting his innocence, the prince agreed to pay a huge sum to settle the case before it ever reached a jury. interview and then the film.

Netflix describes the production as follows: ‘The inside track of the women who broke through the Buckingham Palace establishment to secure the scoop of the decade that led to the catastrophic fall from grace of the Queen’s ‘Favorite Son’ .

‘From navigating vetoes at the Palace, to breaking Prince Andrew’s inner circle, the high-stakes negotiations and the intensity of the rehearsal – to the breathtaking interview itself.

‘SCOOP is the insider’s account of the inner workings of the Palace and the BBC, two bastions of the British establishment, spotlighting the journalists whose tenacity and courage broke through the highest ceilings – and into the inner sanctum and calculations of one man with losing everything.”

Channel 5’s All Creatures Great & Small is always a crowd-pleaser: warm, evocative and full of much-needed bonhomie.

And you can experience some of that heart-warming fun by visiting the Yorkshire village of Grassington, where the series was filmed.

Grassington, in the Wharfedale Valley, replaces the fictional Dales town of Darrowby from James Herriot’s beloved book series, It Shouldn’t Happen to a Vet.

James Herriot – real name Alf Wight – was a Scottish veterinarian who practiced in Thirsk for almost 50 years and based his books on real characters.

The center of Thirsk has changed a lot since the 1930s and 1940s, when Wight’s books were set, which is why filmmakers use nearby towns and villages as stand-ins. The much-loved BBC series – broadcast between 1978 and 1990 – was filmed in Wensleydale and Swaledale, with the village of Askrigg taking the place of Darrowby.

I chose to stay with my wife, just outside Grassington, in beautiful surroundings Netherside Barnwith three bedrooms, two bathrooms and an outdoor terrace where you can enjoy enchanting views of Yorkshire.

Best of all, it was just a short walk from Grassington’s main cobbled square.

It’s where a lot of the TV series are set and we visited the modern businesses that look strangely familiar.

The Channel 5 series revolves around a trio of vets working in the Yorkshire Dales in the 1930s. Grassington is relatively easy to convert into a historic-looking Darrowby/Thirsk, clearing the cobbled village green of modern cars and replacing them with 1930s vehicles.

The fictional Drovers Arms is in reality the Devonshire Inn. The Rustic Rabbit gift shop is the bakery from the TV show.

The Stripey Badger bookshop – where you can buy All Creatures Great & Small jam and other trinkets – is dressed for the TV series to resemble wartime greengrocer Endelby’s. And forget buying a book at Handley’s, today you’ll only find shoes.

Grassington has regularly starred in film and TV productions including Dolittle, Wuthering Heights, The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby and A Boy, A Girl and A Bike.

Thanks to its global fame, All Creatures Great & Small became a big hit in the US during the pandemic. As a result, Grassington now plays host to American visitors all year round.

It’s hardly surprising. Travel company Expedia says that more than half of international travelers make travel plans inspired by TV shows and movies.

According to the British Film Institute, Britain is hugely popular for the phenomenon of ‘set jetting’, with incoming tourists spending £892.6 million in 2019. Castle Howard in North Yorkshire reported a 3,400 percent increase in visitors to its website after Bridgerton was released.

If that’s not an example of the potential of set jetting, I wonder what is.

Messi – the dog star of Anatomy of a Fall – was the standout star at the 96th annual Oscars ceremony in Hollywood on Sunday night. 

The seven-year-old collie from France made a surprise appearance in the audience where he was seen ‘clapping’ for Robert Downey Jr after his Best Supporting Actor win for Oppenheimer – in a moment that has since gone viral. 

He quickly became a firm favorite among guests and spectators alike, even earning a delighted nod of approval from Barbie star Ryan Gosling. 

Amid a slew of disasters from the show’s human attendees – as Al Pacino announced Oppenheimer as Best Picture without naming the other nominees, while Emma Stone suffered a wardrobe malfunction while claiming the prize for Best Actress in Poor Things – it was left to Messi to win over crowds. 

Messi flew over to LA from France in business class for the occasion with his trainer Laura Contini. 

On the night, he was the toast of Hollywood, cuddling up to the likes of Olivia Wilde, while Emma Stone and Gosling have also sung his praises. 

But his trainer Laura has revealed that his journey to stardom was not a simple one, partly down to his distinctive blue eyes and unusual looks. 

Laura adopted Messi when he was two months old from a neighbour – whose children had named him after the Argentine football player – and he’s the first dog she’s ever trained to be a cinema star. 

But the neighbour was surprised that Laura had chosen him, calling him the ‘ugliest dog’ of the litter – and it would take years of failing to crack the final stages of auditions before Messi landed his starring role.

Laura and Messi initially struggled to break into the film industry, and she calls her dog a ‘misunderstood artist’, meaning that he has only become a ‘canine celebrity’ later in life. 

Prior to Anatomy of a Fall, Messi had only landed French commercials like Pedigree, Truffaut, and a short film and music videos. Anatomy of a Fall was his breakout role and his ‘one chance’ to make it big, according to Laura. 

In an interview with IndieWire, Laura said their struggles were down to ‘something in his gaze or his eyes. [Anatomy of a Fall] is really the biggest film he’s ever made. He had one chance, and he gave it his all.

‘He gets calls now because he is now a star.’ 

She also told GQ: ‘He always went to the end of the auditions but was never accepted often because of his [unusual] look and his eyes.’ 

In French legal thriller Anatomy of a Fall, German actress Sandra Hüller plays a writer and a mother who is put on trial after her husband mysteriously falls to his death from the top floor of their chalet in the mountains. 

Messi stars as Snoop, the support dog of her blind 11-year-old son, Daniel (Milo Machado-Graner), who becomes a major witness in the film’s court case scenes.

In the role of Snoop, Messi took part in several difficult scenes, including wandering through the house as police gather evidence, and lying on the bed next to Sandra near the end of the film.   

His most significant scene comes when tensions are at an all-time high: after being poisoned by Daniel, who is trying to gather evidence for the case, Snoop almost dies. 

Messi put on a world-class acting performance for the intense scene as he ‘played dead’ and managed to remain completely still even while being picked up.

Although it now seems like acting came naturally for Messi, in reality, Laura said it was a long and slow process and they had to start out by focusing on basics such as sitting, staying and lying down.

They then added cameras and boom mics so Messi would get used to the idea of being on a film set, as well as surrounding noise.

Laura worked hard to make sure Messi’s attention always stayed on her and managed it with the help of tasty treats. 

To land his coveted role in Anatomy Of A Fall, it took seven or eight in-person auditions, including a chemistry test with Milo, who plays Daniel. 

They trained every day for two months for the ‘playing dead’ scene, teaching him not to react even when being picked up, and managing to stick his tongue out to heighten the dead effect. 

On Sunday night at the Oscars, Anatomy of a Fall writers Justine Triet and Arthur Harari won the award for Best Original Screenplay, adding to a stellar awards season that has seen them claim, two Golden Globes, the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival and a BAFTA, also for Best Original Screenplay. 

But Messi himself was the star of the show – even featuring in a promotional video with Jimmy Kimmel before the ceremony began, where he barked at the comedian’s jokes. 

He also concluded the ceremony with a video of him appearing to wee on Matt Damon’s star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. 

His starring moment came when he appeared to be ‘clapping’ the Iron Man star after his Best Supporting Actor win for Oppenheimer. 

While behind-the-scenes images revealed the moment to have been cleverly engineered with the use of two fake paws, that didn’t stop social media users from voicing their delight over the French dog’s appearance, with one hailing the pup as the ‘true star’ of this year’s ceremony. 

Other behind-the-scenes clips shared to social media that Messi’s ‘clapping’ moment had in fact been pre-recorded and was not part of the live Oscars broadcast, that didn’t stop the dog from becoming one of the most talked-about stars of the night. 

Some couldn’t help but gush over a clip that appears to show Ryan, 43, breaking into a huge grin at seeing the dog perched in his very own seat at the ceremony, looking incredibly dapper in a bow tie. 

Adding to seven-year-old Messi’s rising profile was a mention by host Jimmy Kimmel in his opening monologue, with the comedian joking that Messi ‘gave the performance of the year’. 

‘Messi, who even though he’s a dog, may have given the performance of the year in Anatomy of a Fall,’ Kimmel joked. ‘Messi has an overdose scene, if you’ve seen it you’ve known it. It’s incredible.

‘Honestly I haven’t seen a French actor eat his own vomit like that since Gérard Depardieu.’

Messi’s attendance at the ceremony came as a surprise to fans – after it was reported just days before the awards show that the French-based pooch would not travel to Los Angeles for the Oscars, despite already earning himself a reputation as one of this season’s most beloved guests. 

Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, a source from Anatomy of a Fall claimed that Border Collie Messi would not travel from his native France to California for the awards show. 

But as the ceremony began to kick off, Messi was seen making his way to a reserved seat alongside his trainer and owner Laura Martin, who sat beside the pup throughout the awards show. 

Earlier this year, Messi’s trainer Laura opened up about his sudden fame, explaining that the attention on her pup began at Cannes – but quickly skyrocketed in the US. 

‘All of this attention began at Cannes,’ she told The Hollywood Reporter. 

‘There were a few interviews in France but what we’ve been experiencing here in America — with the attention to this dog and his acting — it’s beyond anything we anticipated. It’s probably the maximum that you can accomplish in this field.’

Although Messi was not nominated for an Oscar, much to the upset of his biggest fans, he did walk away from this year’s Cannes Film Festival with an unofficial trophy: the Palm Dog – the canine equivalent to the prestigious Palme d’Or. 

Palm Dog awards have previously gone to the pooches of famous owners, such as Tilda Swinton and Quentin Tarantino – so Messi’s win from obscurity is unusual.  

After proving his acting chops in the five-time Oscar-nominated movie, Messi earned a place among some of this year’s biggest stars when he was invited to the annual nominees’ luncheon in Los Angeles – earning some one-on-one time with several A-list stars. 

‘The big moment was with Billie Eilish, who bonded with Messi for almost 10 minutes,’ trainer Laura told The Hollywood Reporter. 

‘They were hugging and petting and they really had a vibe. Then Bradley Cooper bumped into him in the hallway. The dog went right to him, so they also had a connection.’

Messi even reprised his ‘playing dead’ trick from Anatomy of a Fall, falling Gosling with his antics who rushed over to help him, before placing his hand over his heart when he realised Messi had only been pretending.

Emma Stone also could not believe it, telling Variety at the Oscars luncheon: ‘The dog pretended to die inside of the room! And everyone was really worried… but then the dog was like ‘hello’ and everybody was like ‘he’s an actor!’ It was crazy!’ 

The dog seems to have cemented his status amongst Hollywood royalty as he is gaining more and more A-list pals.  

At a live reading of the film last month, where he once again played Snoop, he also snuggled up to director Olivia Wilde. 

Messi seems to be enjoying life in the USA so far, and has spent time running along the sands of Venice Beach during his time in the USA – as documented by Laura on their Instagram account @lauraandmessi.  

Messi’s next role is set to be in a French TV show, although his trainer Laura said this is yet to be confirmed.