National Entertainment

MONTREAL — Perennial anxieties around the state of the French language in Quebec have boiled over in the past week, with politicians seizing on a Liberal legislator's initial brush-off of the issue as evidence of indifference to a crisis.

LONDON — Back in the Premier League after a 16-year absence, Leeds is now being assisted by the sports and entertainment marketing agency founded by Jay-Z to grow the northern English club's brand and global appeal.

MADRID — No one performing onstage in Spain’s Teatro Real opera house is masked, and that alone looks odd these days amid a pandemic.

LOS ANGELES — A contestant on “Wipeout” has died after completing the game show's obstacle course, authorities and sources close to the production said Friday. The man in his 30s was declared dead at a hospital shortly before 7 p.m.

NEW YORK — Federal authorities in New York City have brought charges in the armed robbery of Jonathan Cheban, a reality TV pal of Kim Kardashian.

EDMONTON — Indigenous illustrator Kyle Charles says hundreds of people have reached out to congratulate and thank him for his creations in a new Marvel anthology that tells the story of an Aboriginal mutant.

Writing a novel is one of the hardest — but most cathartic — things former pro lacrosse player Delby Powless has ever done.

TORONTO — Two of the Canadian literary industry's biggest brands are calling on the Ontario government to designate bookstores as essential services — even as COVID-19 cases continue to surge. Retailer Indigo Books & Music Inc.

NEW YORK — Jan Morris, the celebrated journalist, historian, world traveller and fiction writer who in middle age became a pioneer of the transgender movement, has died at 94.

Actor Joaquin Phoenix stopped by a regular vigil outside a slaughterhouse in Burlington, Ont., on Friday.