LONDON- A showbiz decade marked by the emergence of the #MeToo movement, drama at Oscar time and a clutch of star-studded royal weddings is drawing to a close. Following are selected highlights.
2010
– Kathryn Bigelow becomes the first woman to win best director at the Oscars for “The Hurt Locker”, a low-budget Iraq war drama that also beats blockbuster “Avatar”, directed by ex-husband James Cameron, to the best picture award.
– Model Naomi Campbell testifies at former Liberian leader Charles Taylor’s war crimes trial, saying she was given “dirty looking pebbles” but did not know if they were blood diamonds.
– Fashion designer Alexander McQueen and actors Dennis Hopper and Tony Curtis die.
2011
– Britain’s Prince William marries Kate Middleton.
– Designer John Galliano loses his job at fashion house Christian Dior after a widely-shared video shows him hurling anti-Semitic abuse in a Paris bar.
– Michael Jackson’s personal doctor, Conrad Murray, is convicted of involuntary manslaughter in the singer’s 2009 death from a fatal dose of the powerful anaesthetic propofol.
– Actress Elizabeth Taylor and singer Amy Winehouse die.
2012
– Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie get engaged.
– Beyonce and rapper Jay-Z welcome their first child, daughter Blue Ivy.
– Actress Katie Holmes files for divorce from Tom Cruise after nearly six years of marriage.
– Singers Whitney Houston and Robin Gibb die.
2013
– William and Kate welcome their first child, son George, as do reality TV star Kim Kardashian and rapper Kanye West, who name their daughter North.
– Singer Miley Cyrus takes the stage at the MTV Video Music Awards in a latex bikini and twerks with a foam finger during a performance with Robin Thicke, sparking a media furore.
– Singer Lou Reed, actors Peter O’Toole, Paul Walker, James Gandolfini and Cory Monteith die.
2014
– Jolie and Pitt tie the knot in France, George Clooney marries human rights lawyer Amal Alamuddin in Venice and Kardashian and West wed in Florence.
– Actors Robin Williams, Philip Seymour Hoffman and comedienne Joan Rivers die.
2015
– Comedian Bill Cosby is criminally charged with indecent assault against one woman after dozens accuse him of sexual misconduct dating back decades. He denies the allegations.
– Former Olympic athlete Bruce Jenner, stepfather of Kim Kardashian, becomes the most high-profile American to publicly come out as a transgender woman, taking the new name Caitlyn Jenner.
– Johnny Depp marries Amber Heard.
– Actors Omar Sharif and Leonard Nimoy and director Wes Craven die.
2016
– Director Spike Lee and actress Jada Pinkett Smith boycott the Oscars because no black actors are nominated for a second straight year. The ensuing uproar leads the Academy of Motion Pictures to expand membership to more women and people of colour.
– Jolie and Pitt split; Heard files for divorce from Depp.
– Kardashian is robbed of millions of dollars of jewellery at gunpoint in Paris.
– Music stars David Bowie, Prince and George Michael, and actors Alan Rickman, Carrie Fisher and Gene Wilder die.
2017
– A blunder overshadows the Oscars as “La La Land” is wrongly named best picture. African-American drama “Moonlight” is the actual winner. PricewaterhouseCoopers, which oversees the ballots, says presenter Warren Beatty had been given the wrong envelope.
– The New York Times and the New Yorker publish accounts by numerous women accusing film producer Harvey Weinstein of sexual misconduct, fuelling the #MeToo movement across entertainment, politics and business. Weinstein denies any non-consensual sex.
– A suicide bomber kills 22 people at the end of an Ariana Grande concert at Manchester Arena. Grande later holds a benefit concert for the victims.
– After winning six Grammys five years earlier for smash hit album “21”, Adele triumphs again, taking five awards for follow-up “25”.
– Actors John Hurt, Roger Moore and Bill Paxton, and musician Chuck Berry die.
2018
– Cosby becomes the first celebrity to be convicted of sexual abuse since the #MeToo movement began.
– Weinstein is arrested in New York and charged with rape and sexual assault. He will stand trial in January 2020 on charges involving two of the more than 80 women who have accused him of sexual misconduct. He denies any non-consensual sex.
– Britain’s Prince Harry marries U.S. actress Meghan Markle.
– Singer Aretha Franklin, actor Burt Reynolds, comicbook supremo Stan Lee, designer Hubert de Givenchy and chef Anthony Bourdain die.
2019
– Documentary “Leaving Neverland”, in which two men say they were abused as children by Michael Jackson, renews scrutiny of the singer’s legacy. Jackson’s estate calls it a “rehash of dated and discredited allegations”.
– Prosecutors drop a sex assault case against Oscar winner Kevin Spacey after the alleged victim refuses to testify.
– Harry and Meghan welcome their first child, Archie.
– Hit medieval drama “Game of Thrones” wraps up after eight seasons. The ending divides fans.
– The Rolling Stones temporarily postpone their North American tour after singer Mick Jagger undergoes heart surgery.
– Fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld, actors Doris Day, Peter Fonda, Carol Channing and Luke Perry and Nobel Prize-winning author Toni Morrison die.
(Content and photos syndicated via Reuters)
