Cruise has reportedly been venting his frustration to Paramount execs about having to compete with Nolan's 'Oppenheimer' for IMAX screens

Celebrities having birthdays during the week of Sept. 3-9 include comedian Jeff Foxworthy, singer Beyonce’ and actor Idris Elba

Four 'AGT' judges said yes to Noodle & Bun and an animated dog's audition

Dolores Catania made her support for Teresa Giudice clear after 'RHONJ' reunion fight

Taylor Swift's re-recorded 2014 album 1989 has dropped just in time for diehard fans to enjoy a weekend filled with nostalgia. The album marks an era when the star transitioned from country to pop muic, and saw her bag a Grammy for Album of the Year. Alongside her impressive spanning career in the limelight, comes trash talk. More specifically, years of misogynistic "slut shaming" surrounding Swift's dating history. Subsequently, Swift took a break from dating for two and a half years – which meant she naturally spent more time with her female friends. From doing so, baseless online rumours were birthed about her sexuality. Now, in a letter written for the re-release of the album, Swift shared her inspiration behind writing 1989, and in doing so, thanked fans for not leaning into claims online. "The voices that had begun to shame me in new ways for dating like a normal young woman? I wanted to silence them," the star wrote. "You see – in the years preceding this, I had become the target of slut shaming – the intensity and relentlessness of which would be criticized and called out if it happened today. The jokes about my amount of boyfriends. The trivialization of my songwriting as if it were a predatory act of boy-crazy psychopath. The media co-signing of this narrative. I had to make it stop because it was starting to really hurt." Swift continued: "It became clear to me that for me there was no such thing as casual dating, or even having a male friend who you platonically hang out with. If I was seen with him, it was assumed I was sleeping with him. And so I swore off hanging out with guys, dating, flirting, or anything that could be weaponized against me by a culture that claimed to believe in liberating women but consistently treated me with the harsh moral codes of the Victorian era." She went on to say that she assumed she "could fix this" by changing her behaviour. "I swore off dating and decided to focus only on myself, my music, my growth, and my female friendships," she explained. "If I only hung out with my female friends, people couldn’t sensationalize or sexualize that – right? I would learn later on that people could and people would." Swift went on to thank fans who didn't buy into spiralling rumours online and who "knew that maybe a girl who surrounds herself with female friends in adulthood is making up for a lack of them in childhood." How to join the indy100's free WhatsApp channel Sign up for our free Indy100 weekly newsletter Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

People have been holding events in memory of a murdered rapper this week - but what made him special?

The first five episodes of 'America's Got Talent' showed some outstanding acts in the first round of auditions

The new Wagatha Christie documentary has exposed how Wayne Rooney's secret vasectomy allegedly helped wife, Coleen, figure out who was behind leaking her private social media posts to The Sun. The 37-year-old revealed her husband had gone for 'the snip' after the birth of their fourth child, however, she posted a fake Instagram Story claiming to be going to Mexico for 'gender selection'. It ended up in the newspaper shortly after. "I'd heard about this procedure where you could choose the gender of your children but it's something I'd never considered", she said. "So I came up with this idea about doing a story." Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter

Megyn Kelly calls out NPR for running news headlines about Gaza casualties without 'sourcing' it accurately

The first Republican primary debate of the 2024 campaign season hosted by Fox News averaged 12.8 million viewers, according to viewership data, a larger than expected audience given the notable absence of frontrunner and disgraced former President Donald Trump.

Move around the board with just a quick spin of the ovaries.

Jessica Lange said her time in the film-making industry may be coming to an end