Nicole Kidman gave Sydney moviegoers an unexpected thrill on Friday when she walked into a special Practical Magic 2 screening at HOYTS Cinemas Entertainment Quarter.

The audience erupted in cheers and applause as the 59-year-old Hollywood icon appeared without warning, joking to fans: “I couldn’t let you have margaritas without me!”

Kidman made a striking entrance in an ivory satin-and-lace floral dress from Erdem’s Resort 2027 collection, looking radiant as she stepped into the packed theatre.

The elegant design was detailed with soft draping and red rose embroidery, while the Australian actress added a bold pop of colour with vivid red heels.

Addressing the crowd, Kidman reflected on the lasting affection for Practical Magic nearly three decades on. “It’s really lovely 28 years later, as women, to still be here,” she said. “So thank you for decades and decades of support. I love you.”

The movie star went on to reveal she had flown to Australia to surprise her fans Down Under after walking the red carpet for the Los Angeles premiere on Monday.

Kidman’s daughter Faith was also in attendance at the Sydney premiere. 

She went on to bring the magical evening to a close by leading the audience in a final midnight margarita toast, wishing her fans well before departing. 

It comes after Kidman made headlines for her jolly antics at the Practical Magic 2 premiere in LA on Monday night.  

The Aussie A-lister, along with co-stars Sandra Bullock, Maisie Williams and Joey King, turned out for the US premiere of the long-awaited sequel to the 1998 romantic fantasy film.

In an interview with Entertainment Tonight shared online this week, Kidman was asked what designer she was wearing.

She stumbled over her words at one point, asking the interviewer, ‘Huh?’ before rambling: ‘This is Versace. Have fun. Let’s party!’

The clip amused scores of social media users, who flooded the comments section on Instagram with their thoughts about the ‘iconic’ actress.

‘She makes me want to wear a wig and get drunk,’ joked one fan, while another said, ‘She’s such an icon.’

‘”This is Versace. Have fun. Let’s party!” My new life motto,’ said someone else, quoting the actress.

‘It’s the “HUH?!” for me,’ said someone else, while one more chimed in, ‘Oh she had a TIME.’

‘I’m living for Nicole. She’s the prettiest, most real and fun, down-to-earth Hollywood lady and cameras love her too,’ wrote one fan.

The star put on a bewitching show on the red carpet as she arrived in a sheer, black-lace gown designed by Pieter Mulier for Atelier Versace and paired with a lace choker.

Her asymmetrical dress featured a thigh-high slit that showed off her toned legs.

In the sequel Bullock, 62, reprises her role as Sally Owens alongside Kidman as her sister Gillian, two witches attempting to live normal lives despite their family curse.

The film marks Bullock’s first movie project in four years following her hiatus from acting.

The movie takes place 25 years after the original film and is adapted from Alice Hoffman’s 2021 sequel story, The Book of Magic.

The sequel also brings back Stockard Channing and Dianne Wiest, who play Kidman and Bullock’s eccentric aunts in the original movie.

Practical Magic 2 will be in cinemas only on September 10. 

Richard O’Sullivan, the much-loved sitcom actor who became a household name in the 1970s through Man About the House and Robin’s Nest, has died at the age of 82.

O’Sullivan died yesterday with his family by his side at Brinsworth House, the Royal Variety charity’s care home in Twickenham, west London. He had spent the past 23 years living there after suffering a stroke.

Across a long television career, the actor also took on the title role in the adventure series Dick Turpin, playing the famous highwayman. But for many viewers, he will forever be associated with trainee chef Robin Tripp in the hit British sitcom Man About the House.

A defining comedy of its era, Man About the House followed Robin’s comic misadventures after he moved into a London flat with two single women, portrayed by Sally Thomsett and Paula Wilcox. The series aired from 1973 until 1976.

O’Sullivan later reprised the character in the successful spin-off Robin’s Nest, which ran from 1977 to 1981 and cemented his place among Britain’s best-known television comedy stars.

O’Sullivan’s son James said in a statement: ‘My dad was as funny and charming in real life as he appeared on our TV screens over the years.

‘Always kind spirited, good humoured, a doting grandfather and a wonderful dad – I will miss him dearly.

‘Although much of his career happened before I was born, I was fortunate enough to be able to enjoy and witness his incredible talents on the countless re-runs of his shows that made him the respected and loved actor that he was.

‘I would like to thank the incredible team at Brinsworth for their love, kindness and care over the last 23 years.

‘They have been truly amazing and will always hold a special place in my heart.’ 

O’Sullivan met the Duchess of Sussex during a visit Meghan paid to the home in December 2018.

She spoke to him in the home’s bar as he drank a cup of tea and when she asked: ‘Do you miss acting?’ He replied: ‘No.’

Giles Cooper, life president of the Royal Variety, said: ‘Richard O’Sullivan was a master of effortless charm and impeccable comic timing, bringing pure warmth, wit, and unforgettable joy to millions of living rooms as a true giant of British television.

RELATED: Mamdani’s Race Plan Raises Alarms — But Its Biggest Promises May Never Happen

‘He will be sorely missed by us all at the Royal Variety charity.’

Born in Chiswick, west London, to John and Ellen O’Sullivan, the star was sent to the Corona Theatre School by his parents to soften a strong Irish accent he had picked up on a family holiday to Ireland.

He landed his first TV role aged eight in The Yellow Balloon in 1952, before playing the main character in The Stranger’s Hand the following year.

In the years that followed he played roles in numerous television series including Redcap, Danger Man, No Hiding Place, Now Look Here and Strange Report and also appeared in two Cliff Richard films in the early 1960s: The Young Ones and Wonderful Life.

His career really took off in the early 1970s when he began to star in sitcoms.

Following success in Doctor at Large and medical show’s spin-off Doctor in Charge, he landed the role of Robin Tripp, a trainee chef, in the flatshare comedy Man About The House. He continued in the role in the spin-off – Robin’s Nest – in which the character founded a bistro.

He had relationships with two of his co-stars, Ms Thomsett from Man About the House, and Tessa Wyatt, who played his girlfriend Vicky in Robin’s Nest.

During his seven-year relationship with Ms Wyatt the couple had one son, James. 

O’Sullivan had previously married the model Diana Terry in 1971, though the pair divorced the same year.

He played highwayman Dick Turpin until 1982 before playing the widower Simon Harrup in the sitcom Me and My Girl in the mid 1980s.

His final acting role was in a one-off 1996 golfing satire named Holed with Tony Robinson.

Three years later he was a guest on This is Your Life, as part of an episode honouring his former Doctor in the House co-star George Layton.

O’Sullivan had been the subject of an episode in 1974 – his participation in Mr Layton’s edition would mark his final television appearance.

After suffering a stroke in 2003, O’Sullivan moved to the Royal Variety Charity’s retirement home in west London, where he remained until his death. 

A private jet thought to be carrying Jared Kushner, the son-in-law of US President Donald Trump, and special envoy Steve Witkoff has landed in Moscow.

The arrival follows Trump’s comments on Friday that the envoys were traveling to both Moscow and Kyiv as part of Washington’s latest effort to broker a peace agreement between Russia and Ukraine.

Axios reported that Kushner and Witkoff were expected to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Saturday before holding talks with President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv on Sunday. The Kremlin declined to comment on the report.

Speaking to reporters, Trump said the two negotiators would try to determine whether there was any realistic chance of making progress toward ending the war.

The diplomatic push comes as Zelensky said today that Russia had carried out “deliberate” overnight strikes on Ukrainian airports in Kyiv and Boryspil.

‘Clearly, these Russian strikes on the airports are a reaction to the discussions and preparations for the possibility of the U.S. side using an aircraft to travel to Ukraine and land at Kyiv Airport or Boryspil Airport,’ he wrote on X.

He added:  ‘We have taken note of this Russian move, and next week we will adjust our operation accordingly regarding Russian airspace, which has become dangerous because of our drones and missiles in the sky. 

‘Of course, there are and will be no threats to diplomacy from our side. Ukraine is interested in bringing peace closer. Russia will be held accountable for what it does.’

The Ukrainian president added that four people were killed and five others injured after a Russian strike in Kamianske, in the Dnipro region.

Peace efforts have stalled due to Washington’s war with Iran, while Moscow and Kyiv have intensified long-range attacks, driving up civilian casualties to levels not seen since the start of fighting.

‘I sent Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, two great negotiators. They’ve done a great job, and we sent them over to see whether or not we can get something done. And there may be a good chance that we’ll do it,’ Trump said.

‘They’re bringing with them a proposal to end the war,’ he said.

The US president would not say whether the plan involved Ukraine ceding territory as he has previously suggested, but added: ‘We have an idea for peace.’

It will be the first time that Trump’s businessman friend Witkoff and son-in-law Kushner have visited war-torn Kyiv since Trump returned to office last year with a pledge to resolve the conflict.

Witkoff and Kushner, who have been involved in negotiations for ceasefires in Gaza and Iran, have travelled repeatedly to Moscow in previous attempts at diplomacy.

The renewed push for peace comes as Russia and Ukraine continue to trade fire with long-range missile and drone attacks.

Just hours before Trump’s announcement, a Russian drone struck the headquarters of Ukraine’s SBU security service in central Kyiv, according to Zelensky.

The strike, which Zelensky said was aimed at the office of the agency’s acting chief, was the first on its headquarters since the start of the invasion.

Despite the unprecedented nature of the strike, the Ukrainian president proposed observing a ceasefire with Russia for the duration of the US envoys’ trip.

‘There will be no airstrikes on our part, and Russia must reciprocally ensure a ceasefire – without its own airstrikes – for the duration needed to conduct these talks,’ he said in his evening address.

Russia did not immediately comment on the proposal.

Hours later, Oleksandr Ganzha, head of the Dnipropetrovsk regional military administration, said a Russian strike killed four people and wounded five in the southeastern city of Kamianske.

Zelensky had said on Wednesday that Russian airspace would be ‘completely unsafe’ and filled with Ukrainian drones as long as Moscow continued its war.

Witkoff and Kusher’s trip comes more than week after a rare visit to Moscow by CIA director John Ratcliffe, who warned Russia against any attack on NATO member states, according to US media.

Earlier this week, the United States welcomed the Russian finance minister at a G20 gathering in North Carolina.

On Wednesday, Putin smirked as he renewed his threats to target Britain – with the taunt that attacks UK factories were a ‘military secret’.

During an interview with Russian state media RT, the Kremlin dictator issued an ominous warning after the UK agreed to supply Ukraine with classified blueprints for long-range missiles last week.

When asked ‘Could British military industrial facilities located on British territory become military targets?’ Putin replied with a smirk: ‘That’s a secret, a military secret.’

He made clear any ‘British military facilities’ inside Ukraine were ‘absolutely’ a Russian target.

The Russian leader was speaking at a nighttime press conference in Bishkek, capital of Kyrgyzstan, after attending the Shanghai Co-operation Organisation (SCO) summit.

His taunt was the latest increasingly brazen threat from Moscow to target British military and defence companies after the UK increased its support for Ukraine.

Russian foreign ministry spokesman Maria Zakharova warned last week that ‘any British military installations and equipment in Ukraine and beyond its borders’ could be attacked in retaliation for Ukrainian strikes on Russia using British weapons.

Yesterday, Trump insisted Putin is ‘not looking to attack Nato territory’ despite a suspected Russian drone attack on a German airport that sparked outrage across Europe. 

When questioned in the Oval Office on Friday about the incident, the US President said: ‘I speak to him. I know him very well. Putin’s not looking to attack Nato territory.’ 

The discovery of drones packed with explosives, including one found alongside a Ukrainian jet and another at a Nato logistics hub, has raised alarm across Europe. 

European security officials believe the incidents form part of Russia’s hybrid warfare campaign against countries that have supported Ukraine since Putin launched his full-scale invasion in 2022. 

It is understood US intelligence believed Russian secret services were likely behind the attack in August, having reportedly matched DNA found on the drone with a suspected Russian sabotage attack at the same airport two years ago. 

Trump’s refusal to condemn the Kremlin on Friday is likely to fuel new concerns over the US’s commitment to Nato. 

A long-running neighbourhood row over four trees dividing two New South Wales properties has taken an unexpected turn, with a court uncovering that one of the neighbours had been poisoning the trees throughout the dispute.

Denis Cartledge, a resident of Tenterfield in the Northern Tablelands, launched legal action against his neighbours Ranjit and Baljit Dhadlie, seeking an order that would force them to remove four trees growing on their land.

Mr Cartledge, who has lived at his property for more than 16 years, argued the four pine trees, each about 20 metres tall, posed a risk to his home if they were to fall.

He said the trees stood roughly three metres from the shared boundary on the Dhadlie family’s property and claimed they were nearing the end of their natural lives, with dead and dangerous branches hanging above.

After years of unsuccessfully trying to persuade the Dhadlies to cut the trees down, Mr Cartledge escalated the matter to the NSW Land and Environment Court.

However, his plan became unstuck when Acting Commissioner of the Court, David Galwey, inspected the trees and found Mr Cartledge had been poisoning them himself, leading to their decline.

Mr Galwey, an experienced arboricultural consultant, said he found three of the trees had a deliberate hole drilled on the southern side of their stems, which aligned with the condition of the trees’ crowns.

‘The pattern of dieback is consistent with the effects of poison being applied to trees through drill holes,’ Mr Galwey said in his judgment.

‘That the pattern of dieback aligns with the presence and depth of drill holes seems more than coincidental – I find it most likely that poison has been applied to the trees, resulting in dieback and the presence of dead branches.’

When Mr Cartledge was asked about the presence of the drill holes, he told the court, in words to the effect of: ‘Holes appear in trees all the time.’

Mr Galwey later found, on the balance of probabilities, that Mr Cartledge, or a person associated with him, caused dieback in the trees, resulting in the presence of dead branches near and above his property.

He was ordered to pay for any works needed to prevent the dead branches falling and the removal of any other hazardous branches.

Mr Galwey also found that the effects of the poison may not ‘yet have been fully realised’ with further tree decline to come.

Therefore, Mr Cartledge was also ordered to pay for the removal of any further deadwood after 12 months.

The court ordered both Mr Cartledge and Mr and Mrs Dhadlie to obtain, and provide to each other, a quote from an experienced tree contractor to remove dead branches from the three poisoned trees.

And if Mr Cartledge wishes to have the trees pruned, he must pay for the works.

Mr Cartledge must also provide Mr and Mrs Dhadlie with at least seven days’ notice of the works.

However, Mr Cartledge told the court he was unable to pay for the works due to his ‘financial circumstances.’

So he was granted discretionary orders that would allow him to only carry out the tree works if he could afford it.

‘I have found that Mr Cartledge’s actions led to the risk; and he now has the opportunity to mitigate the risk,’ Mr Galwey said.

Under NSW’s Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979, the illegal removal or destruction of trees carries a maximum criminal penalty of $1.1million, plus an additional fine of $10,000 for each day the offence continues.

The Daily Mail has contacted Mr Cartledge and Mr and Mrs Dhadlie for comment.

Tyson Fury has taken aim at Anthony Joshua’s public push to stage their long-discussed heavyweight showdown in England, questioning his rival’s patriotic stance by revisiting a controversial speech in which Joshua appeared to support avoiding spending money in white-owned businesses.

Fury, 38, and Joshua, 36, remain locked in a tense back-and-forth over the location of their blockbuster boxing fight, with the debate understood to be focused on whether the event should take place at London’s Wembley Stadium or at Madison Square Garden in New York, the venue reportedly favoured by Netflix.

On Tuesday, Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn suggested talks over a Wembley date had been revived, despite the contest previously appearing close to being finalised for New York in November. The development has added fresh momentum to the campaign to keep the all-British heavyweight clash on home soil.

Fury, however, has now sought to challenge the idea that Joshua’s position is driven by affection for Britain. Earlier this year, Daily Mail Sport reported that Joshua had relocated from the UK to Dubai, at a time when many were attempting to leave the region amid escalating fears linked to conflict in the Middle East.

Fury, who himself is based in the Isle of Man for tax reasons, also referred back to Joshua’s appearance at a Black Lives Matter march in 2020. During that event, Joshua read aloud a letter written by his friend Reece Campbell, which called on those present to stop spending with white-owned shops and businesses.

‘Show them where it hurts,’ Joshua had said. ‘Abstain from spending your money in their shops and economies, and invest in black-owned businesses.’

Fury re-posted the video of the speech, writing: ‘This is the man who loves England, absolute s*** bag! Total peice of s*** bully with zero guts! Don’t let them deceive you! & Living in Dubai.’ 

In an address to camera, Fury accused Joshua of trying to derail their fight to avoid being embarrassed: ‘If I agreed to tie both hands behind my back and wear solid cement boots, Anthony Joshua would never get in the ring with me because I’ll annihilate him.

‘And he’s a piece of s*** bully, and that’s his game—bullying people like he tried to do to Daniel Dubois, and he got knocked spark dead out. 

‘The latest news from them is, “Tyson don’t want to fight in England”. Why the f*** wouldn’t I want to fight in England, you sausage? “Tyson only wants to fight in America”. Are you joking or what?

‘Tyson is not in charge of this fight. Tyson didn’t put the money up for this fight. Tyson is not the paymaster. Netflix are and Turki Al-Sheikh. Lovely. If it’s in England, even better. I’ll knock the motherf***er out even quicker. Prime time England, 10 o’clock, Wembley Stadium, 100,000 people. Why the f*** wouldn’t I want it in England? Doesn’t make any sense, does it?

‘Like I said, who do you think you are? You and your little pathetic puppet Eddie Hearn trying to save you. There’s no escaping, you know. I’ll come to Watford (Joshua’s hometown) and I’ll set about you. I’ll batter you in your own front garden, you piece of s***.’

‘There is no getting out of this one. There is no getting out of this one. Get ready for this fight. I’ve had enough of your sauce to last me 11 years. I’m battering the f*** out of you, you useless dosser, piece of s***. That’s what you are. And you know it as well, and everybody else knows what you are: a coward.’

Roaring out his title of the ‘Gypsy King’, Fury added: ‘You’s are going down, and the cash cow is getting knocked out. Because after this, he won’t be able to show his face in public ever again.

‘You’re a useless dosser, a big bodybuilding piece of s***. Too many weights, not enough speed. When I crack a big right hook off it, you’ll go over like spaghetti legs Deontay Wilder. But he’s 10 times the man you’ll ever be, because he’s got a pair of b*****ks like King Kong, and you’ve got a pair of b*****ks like two f***ing garden peas, you piece of s***.’

Joshua has still not signed his contract for the Battle of Britain fight. Promoter Frank Warren, who suggested that in reality boxing’s longest hatching deal had to be finalised by this weekend, told Daily Mail Sport’s Jeff Powell: ‘AJ hasn’t signed yet.

‘Tyson signed in January. He’s training in Miami for the fight in early November and doesn’t care where it takes place.’ 

The original agreement stipulated England, putting Wembley Stadium on alert.

But Netflix, the mega-paymasters for the broadcast, have joined their Saudi partners in insisting on New York’s fabled Madison Square Garden so as to maximise US revenue. 

Joshua will need at least a two-month training camp for a fight of this magnitude and ideally nine to ten weeks.

It comes after Joshua was given 10 days to agree a deal on August 26 with Warren previously warning: ‘Unless AJ commits by the end of next week I’m afraid this will slip away like so many of those great fights which never happened.’

He added: ‘At some point everyone has to say the most important thing is that it happens. Not this bulls*** about money.

‘That everyone wants the fight. Does AJ really want it? I don’t know. He’s been through that tragedy of the car crash which killed two of his closest friends. Only he knows what he wants.’

Much of the discussions around Wembley centre on a willingness to allow a late start time – and late curfew – to suit the American TV market. Mayor Sadiq Khan this week stated that he is keen to host the fight and find a solution.