The Saudi documentary film "Horizon" has won the prestigious Platinum Hermes International Creative Award for 2024 in the Strategic Campaigns Category. The film faced tough competition from several other renowned international works.

Produced by Saudi Arabia’s Konoz Initiative, one of the initiatives of the Government Communication Center of the Ministry of Media in collaboration with the National Center for Wildlife (NCW), the film showcases a diverse range of wildlife, including the dugong (sea cow), dolphins, the Arabian leopard, various gazelle species, and oryx.

It also highlights Saudi Arabia's rich biodiversity, with over 10,000 species, each uniquely adapted to its environment.

Filming for the documentary took over 200 days, with a specialized crew of 50 people traveling over 4,700 km to shoot in 28 locations. The project involved 13 Saudi wildlife experts.

The Konoz initiative is part of the Human Capability Development Program under the Kingdom's Vision 2030 realization programs. It aims to visually document the Kingdom's treasures and contribute to an artistic shift in film production.

The initiative has produced several works, such as "A Difficult Stage," "Nawras Al-Arab (Arabian Gull)," "Ala Hadden Sawa (Alike)," "What Do Saudis Eat," and "Saudi Atlas."

"Horizon" aims to raise awareness of about the Kingdom's environmental diversity, introduce its unique geographical areas, showcase efforts to protect wildlife and conserve rare species by highlighting the breathtaking nature teeming with plant and animal life.

The Kingdom is committed to environmental protection as a program and goal of Vision 2030, prioritizing wildlife conservation and enacting strict regulations to protect it under NCW supervision.

The Hermes Creative Awards have received over 325,000 entries from 135 countries since their inception. The American International Award was launched 27 years ago and is among the oldest and largest international creative competitions.

The awards honor the most distinguished entries from individuals and media institutions each year for their excellence in marketing, creativity, communication, advertising, and impact.

The Rolling Stones kicked off their North America tour at a sold-out venue in Houston on Sunday, with people traveling from various cities to watch one of the world's most enduring rock bands amid worries that this could be their last tour.

The show was the first of 16 performances, set across the US and Canada through July.

Fans flocked to the NRG Stadium in Houston in Rolling Stones T-shirts showcasing the band's iconic lips and tongue logo.

The band, formed more than six decades ago, opened with "Start Me Up" with Mick Jagger walking onto the stage in a shiny striped jacket, a gray sequined shirt and black jeans. People immediately started to dance along to the 1981 classic.

Jagger, who is 80, danced, skipped and ran across the stage while showcasing his vocal range.

"Hello Houston, it's good to be back in the lone star state," Jagger said, adding that band visited NASA's Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center in Houston and making quips about Texas-based convenience store chain Buc-ee's.

He performed alongside Keith Richards, 80, and Ronnie Wood, 76, the surviving core of the band.

"Every time I see them, it's such a joy. They're amazing. They take such true joy in playing," said Greta Brasgalla, 56, who traveled from El Paso, Texas, to watch the band for the seventh time. She also plans to watch the Rolling Stones in Atlanta in June.

The band attracted people of all ages to the stadium, with a significant proportion of the audience over 60.

The 18 songs played over two hours included a mix of classics and three from the latest record "Hackney Diamonds", the Stones' first album of original material since 2005 and the first recording since drummer Charlie Watts died in 2021.

Other songs they played included "Jumpin' Jack Flash", "You Can't Always Get What You Want" and "Out of Time", all to massive applause.

Richards, whose song-writing partnership with Jagger is one of the most enduring and successful in rock, sang "Little T&A."

The Stones closed the show with "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction". They head to the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival for a special performance this week.

Fans, however, worried that this could be one of the last tours by the Stones.

"Every time we see them, we wonder if it's going to be the last. That's our fear," said Savannah Welch, who traveled from Austin and brought along her son Charlie.

John Krasinski doesn’t usually fret about reviews. But for his new film “IF,” he is terrified of the response from two people: His 7 and 10-year-old daughters.

“I’ve never been worried about two reviews more in my life,” Krasinski told The Associated Press in a recent interview. “I’m genuinely terrified. I hope it goes well.”

“IF,” about a young girl (Cailey Fleming) and her neighbor (Ryan Reynolds) who can see everyone’s imaginary friends including those that have gotten left behind, is one of this summer’s major studio releases opening on May 17.

In a landscape full of brands and franchises, it’s the rare original idea that has the backing of a big studio, Paramount, and an ambitious scale and scope. It was shot largely in New York by Oscar-winning cinematographer Janusz Kaminski and blends live-action and animation with an army of celebrity voices including Steve Carell, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Matt Damon, Jon Stewart, Maya Rudolph and the late Louis Gossett Jr.

The idea to make a film about imaginary friends started and evolved with his kids, whom he shares with actor Emily Blunt (who also voices a character). At first, it just sounded like a fun, family friendly idea.

“My kids are extremely imaginative,” Krasinski said. “I always used to say to Emily, ‘I just, I wish we could go wherever it is they go, just for a little bit.’”

Paramount agreed and in October 2019 signed on to help make and distribute the film, with Krasinski and Reynolds’ Maximum Effort. Then the pandemic hit and like so many parents of young children, he saw his daughters’ worlds alter dramatically.

“They started asking questions like, ‘Are we going to be okay’ and ‘what’s going on?’ I got so panicked. I just said, no way, we’ve got to do something about this,” he said. “That’s when it hit me to make this movie about something a little bit more, a little bit deeper than just imaginary friends.”

When he started to look into the psychology behind imaginary friends, he began to understand that these weren’t just whimsical creations. They were in fact coping mechanisms to “metabolize” daily life, whether it’s bullies at school, a divorce at home, a projection of dreams and ambitions, or any number of stressors that find their way into young minds. He understood it now as a sacred place.

“Once I realized that we were dealing with some high-level stuff, some highly imaginary, flammable stuff, I was like, this is really, really exciting,” he said. “I knew we were on to something special, and I just wanted to take it as seriously as I could.”

DIRECTING WITH FIGMENTS OF THE IMAGINATION To play the young girl, Bea, Krasinski cast 15-year-old Cailey Fleming (she’s now 17), an actor who “Walking Dead” fans will know as Judith Grimes. She’d just wrapped season 11 of the show and was getting ready to take a break and go back to high school when she got the call that Krasinski wanted her to audition.

“I’ve never had a lead role in a movie,” Fleming said. “I was so nervous. But I couldn’t have asked for a better cast or crew.”

On a set where most of the characters would be added in post-production, Krasinski took pains to ensure that they weren’t just acting with tennis balls as stand-ins. Sometimes he’d have puppets, or a picture, or even a friend to be Carell’s character, Blue. Other times he’d just jump in and do it himself (in addition to directing and playing Bea’s dad).

“Cailey is Meryl Streep-level. She could have acted with a hot dog on a stick,” Krasinski said. “I’ve been there, I’ve acted with the tennis ball. You just try to create a world where everyone feels not only safe and excited, but also feels like their imagination takes over.

“My job as a director is to try and make every day feel like you’re doing a play rather than a movie, that it feels intimate and it feels for today only,” he added.

Many of the starry voice actors are people whom Krasinski considers friends. He wasn’t sure how they’d respond to his idea, but he said he got some of the quickest “yesses” in his career whether they had kids or not.

“It’s about this little girl but it has adults asking when they gave up on their imaginary friends and imaginations and dreams,” he said. “The beauty of the movie is it tells you that all you’ve got to do is turn around and you can always go back.”

Recently a friend of his said “IF” reminded them of “Some Good News,” the popular web series Krasinski started during the pandemic. He hopes that like “Some Good News, “IF" is something that can bring people a little joy.

GIVING UP ‘A QUIET PLACE’ Taking on “IF” also meant passing the torch on the new “A Quiet Place” prequel. “A Quiet Place” helped put Krasinski on the map as a filmmaking force and its sequel was an early and important boon to struggling movie theaters during the pandemic. But between “IF” and the “Jack Ryan” show, something had to give.

He’d developed a story about the first day of the invasion in New York City, and sought out “Pig” filmmaker Michael Sarnoski to see if he was interested.

“(John) really helped me early on. Then he let me run free and explore things,” Sarnoski said. “He came to set the first day and sort of passed the baton symbolically. I got really lucky that he was like, ‘Hey this is a Michael Sarnoski film. Make this your own.’”

Far from being bittersweet, Krasinski said it’s exciting and an honor “to have created a sandbox that anyone can play in.” Another big summer release, “A Quiet Place: Day One” opens in theaters on June 28.

Both films he’s done in partnership with Paramount, a studio he credits for trusting and supporting his vision.

“Once ‘IF’ became more emotional and had more of a backbone to it, I think they leaned in even further. Some studios would go like, ‘Oh, no, we want the zany version,’” Krasinski said. “I think because ‘A Quiet Place’ had that same backbone, that same emotional motor, they just said, ‘Go do what it is you’re seeing in your head.’”

Krasinski has just put the finishing touches on “IF,” which means that his daughters will be seeing it very soon. They’re planning to do “a little family premiere.”

“We’re going to get all dressed up,” he said. “Basically, we’re going to pretend it’s their own special premiere. Don’t tell them that it’s not the real thing.”

Taylor Swift continues to dominate in the week following the release of her 11th album, “The Tortured Poets Department.” The 31-track album has hit No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart, tying Swift with Jay-Z for second-most No. 1 albums at 14. Only The Beatles, with 19 No. 1 albums, have had more.

The double album has amassed 2.61 million equivalent album units, according to Luminate, the industry data and analytics company. A shocking 1.91 million of those units come from traditional album sales — people purchasing downloads, CDs, cassettes and vinyl. Vinyl accounts for 859,000 units sold, the highest number of vinyl sales in modern history.

It is the top-selling album of 2024, eclipsing Beyoncé's “Cowboy Carter,” which sold 228,000 units. (But streaming was a boon: “Cowboy Carter” hit 407,000 equivalent album units, a combination of pure album sales and on-demand streams, earned in the U.S. in its first week.)

“The Tortured Poets Department" hit 891.34 million album streams, according to Luminate, the biggest streaming week for an album in history.

She's broken the highest single-week mark for an album, passing Drake's 25-track “Scorpion” with 745.92 million in 2018, his 21-track "Certified Lover Boy" with 743.67 million in 2021, and her own “Midnights” in 2022 with 549.3 million streams.

“My mind is blown. I’m completely floored by the love you’ve shown this album,” Swift wrote on X. “2.6 million are you actually serious? Thank you for listening, streaming, and welcoming Tortured Poets into your life. Feeling completely overwhelmed.”

French screen legend Gerard Depardieu was detained for questioning on Monday in connection with alleged sexual assaults against two women on separate film sets, police sources said.

Depardieu, one of France's top movie stars, has been at the center of a growing number of sexual assault allegations in recent years that have tarnished his legacy and exposed broader divisions about sexual conduct in France.

Lawyers for Depardieu, who has consistently denied wrongdoing, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Two senior police sources told Reuters Depardieu was being held at a police station in Paris' 14th arrondissement, where he is being questioned by judicial police.

Investigators are probing alleged groping by Depardieu on two film sets, with one alleged case in 2014 and the other in 2021, one of the sources said.

Paris police and the public prosecutor's office both declined to comment.

Depardieu's case has become a dividing line in French society, with some women viewing him as a symbol of the country's inability to tackle sexual abuse by powerful men in the wake of the #Metoo movement.

Others, including French President Emmanuel Macron and several well-known actors, have rallied to his defense.

"He's an immense actor, a genius of his art," Macron said late last year. "He makes France proud."

The tennis drama “Challengers” won the box office this weekend with $15 million in ticket sales, according to studio estimates Sunday.

Zendaya and castmates Mike Faist and Josh O’Connor have been on a globetrotting press tour to get the word out about Italian director Luca Guadagnino's original film, which opened in 3,477 locations in the US and Canada.

Ticket sales from large format screens, including IMAX, made up about 40% of the opening weekend grosses. According to PostTrak exit poll reported by Deadline, 55% of audiences said they went to see the film because of Zendaya. In fact, this weekend, Zendaya movies accounted for around 26% of the overall box office with the re-release of “Dune: Part Two” in IMAX.

The 27-year-old actor has been part of some of the most successful franchises of the last few years, including the “Spider-Man” and “Dune” movies. In both cases those were supporting roles in massive brand-name properties, but her eye-catching red carpet looks also often make headlines. “Challengers” would be the first real test of her ability to “open” a film on her own star and MGM and Amazon were not going to risk doing it without her.

The studio had originally planned to release “Challengers” in the fall of 2023, with a picturesque launch at the Venice Film Festival. But when the actors went on strike last July, the studio made the decision to scuttle the festival premiere and move the film to this weekend when they could safely assume the strike would be resolved. Zendaya sported many tennis-themed looks, styled by Law Roach, for her appearances.

Reviews have been largely positive for the R-rated movie, which teases a steamy and competitive love triangle between the tennis players. It currently has an 88% on Rotten Tomatoes and got a B+ CinemaScore from opening day audiences. Women made up 58% of ticket buyers, who also skewed younger overall: 41% were between the ages of 18 and 24.

Guadagnino’s last film “Bones and All,” starring Zendaya’s “Dune” co-star Timothée Chalamet made $15.2 million in its entire run. By mid-week, “Challengers” expected to surpass “Call Me By Your Name” ($18 million) to become Guadagnino's highest grossing film.

For Amazon MGM Studios, the value also extends beyond the box office driving a “downstream value” for Amazon, including when “Challengers” eventually makes its way to Prime Video.

Second place went to the faith-based film “Unsung Hero,” which made an estimated $7.8 million from 2,832 locations. It’s based on the true story of the Smallbone family, and the rise of their children Rebecca St. James, and sons Joel and David (for KING + COUNTRY) in the country music scene. Joel Smallbone directed, co-wrote and portrays his father David.

The Lionsgate film, which was made for only $6 million, scored a rare A+ CinemaScore and has a 100% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes. The critic’s score is a much more tempered 58%. Audiences were overwhelmingly female (69%) and over 25 (91).

A24's “Civil War” also added $7 million in its third weekend, bringing its domestic total to $56.2 million.

Morgan Freeman spoke the words, but pretty much everyone who took the stage at the presentation of the AFI Life Achievement Award agreed: “ Nicole Kidman. She makes movies better.”
The line came in a video parody of Kidman's AMC Theatres “we make movies better” ad that opened the Saturday night ceremony at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood. It got huge laughs from the crowd of multigenerational A-listers there to honor the 40-year career of the 56-year-old Australian that has included roles in “Moulin Rouge,” “Eyes Wide Shut” and an Oscar-winning turn in “The Hours.”
Meryl Streep, Kidman's “The Hours” co-star who presented to Streep the Life Achievement Award that she won herself in 2004, got laughs nearly as big when, in a mock-boastful voice, described the hardest part of being “incessantly called the greatest actress of gemy generation.”
It's when you come up against someone else who is “really, really, really, really, really, really great” and you realize they did things you couldn’t do, as happened with Kidman the first day they worked together on the HBO series “Big Little Lies," Streep said.
Streep and their “Big Little Lies” co-star Reese Witherspoon both did spot-on, Australian-accented impressions of Kidman that had the audience in stitches.
Streep also drew tears from Kidman when describing what she believed motivated her.
“People call it bravery when an actress bares all and leaps off into the unknown and she dives deep into the darker parts of what it is to be a human being,” Streep said. “But I don’t think it’s bravery. I think it’s love. I think she just loves it.”
Kidman teared up for the first time in the evening when her husband and fellow Australian, singer Keith Urban, said she showed him “what love in action really looks like” when his substance abuse problems emerged almost immediately after they wed in 2006.
“Four months into our marriage, I’m in rehab for three months,” Urban said, looking at Kidman where she sat on a dais with their two daughters and other family. “Nic pushed through every negative voice, I’m sure even some of her own, and she chose love. And here we are 18 years later.”
Kidman said the night was the first time she allowed their teenage daughters to join her on a red carpet. She also has two children with her first husband, Tom Cruise.
She accepted the AFI award in the same venue where she accepted her Oscar in 2003 for playing Virginia Woolf in “The Hours."
She thanked by name every director she has worked with, including Stanley Kubrick, Jane Campion, Baz Luhrmann, Sofia Coppola, Yorgos Lanthimos, Sydney Pollack and Lars von Trier.
“It is a privilege to make films. And glorious to have made films and television with these storytellers who allowed me to run wild and be free and play all of these unconventional women," Kidman said, wearing a floor-length, glittering-gold gown. “Thank you for making me better at my craft and giving me a place, however temporary, in this world.”
It was announced back in November of 2022 that Kidman would receive the award, first handed out in 1973, whose previous winners include Orson Welles, Bette Davis, Alfred Hitchcock, Gene Kelly, Sidney Poitier, Barbara Streisand, Tom Hanks, Robert De Niro, Denzel Washington and Julie Andrews.
The ceremony originally was scheduled for June of 2023, but delayed because of Hollywood’s strikes. It will air on TNT on June 17.
Kidman also was nominated for Academy Awards for “Moulin Rouge,” “Rabbit Hole,” “Lion,” and “Being the Ricardos," whose director, Aaron Sorkin, also sang her praises at the ceremony.
Others honoring her included Zac Efron, Miles Teller, Zoe Saldana and Mike Myers, who came on stage in disguise in one of the eerie orgy masks from “Eyes Wide Shut.”
Kidman began her career as a teen in Australia in films including “Bush Christmas” and “BMX Bandits." Naomi Watts, a friend from those days, described meeting Kidman when both had to sit in a waiting room in bathing suits for two hours at an audition. Aussies Russell Crowe, Hugh Jackman and Cate Blanchett all gave video tributes to the first from their country to win the award.
Kidman said in a video played at the ceremony that her appearance in the 1989 thriller “Dead Calm” brought her to the attention of, among others, Cruise, the only time his name was spoken Saturday night.
She had her breakthrough Hollywood role alongside him in 1990's “Days of Thunder" — they would marry the same year — and also starred together in 1992's “Far and Away” and in 1999 in Kubrick's final film, “Eyes Wide Shut.”
She divorced Cruise in 2001, but her stardom only grew in his wake. Some of her biggest roles, and her Oscar, were still to come.
The role most often cited as a favorite during the awards show Saturday night was her musical turn in Luhrmann's 2001 “Moulin Rouge.”
Freeman, the 2011 AFI honoree, in his in-person presentation that followed the video spoof, serenaded Kidman with the modified Elton John lines she sings in the film: “How wonderful life is, now you're in the world.”

Prince Harry will celebrate the 10th Anniversary of his Invictus Games at a service in St Paul's Cathedral in London on May 8th, making a rare visit back to Britain for the international sporting event he founded.
Harry, who lives in the United States with his wife Meghan and two children, launched the Games in 2017, a multi-sport event for military personnel wounded in action, Reuters said.
Harry, the youngest son of King Charles, served as a military helicopter pilot in Afghanistan.
The service will celebrate the event and include readings by Harry and the British actor Damian Lewis. Wounded veterans and members of the Invictus community will also attend.
It will mark "a decade of changing lives and saving lives through sport," organizers said.
Harry has only returned to Britain on a few occasions since he quit working as a member of the royal family in 2020, arriving for major events such as the 2022 funeral of Queen Elizabeth and his father's coronation in May 2023.
He was last seen in Britain in February this year for a brief meeting with his father after the monarch announced that he had been diagnosed with cancer.
The palace said on Friday that Charles would return to public duties after he made good progress following treatment and a period of recuperation.

The Moroccan city of Tangiers, which has a long history as a haven of inspiration for American jazz musicians, will host UNESCO's International Jazz Day for the first time on Tuesday.
Over the last century, jazz greats such as Randy Weston, Idrees Sulieman and Max Roach all crossed the Atlantic to play and record music in the North African port city, perched on the edge of the Strait of Gibraltar.
"The city has had a fascinating power of attraction on a wave of intellectuals and musicians," Philippe Lorin, the founder of an annual Tangiers jazz festival, told AFP.
"It's not for nothing that a writer once said there was always a cruise liner in New York preparing to sail for Tangiers."
This year's Jazz Day will be held over four days starting on Saturday, during which talks and open-air performances will be held in Tangiers.
The festivities will culminate in an "All-Star Global Concert" on Tuesday led by jazz icon Herbie Hancock, also featuring bassists Marcus Miller and Richard Bona, as well as guitarist Romero Lubambo.
The city's cosmopolitan artistic reputation stems from its location between Africa and Europe as well as its history, having been administered by several colonial powers from 1923 to 1956, the year Morocco gained independence.
This melting pot of influences prompted visits from international writers and poets, notably from the Beat Generation movement, as well as African American musicians seeking to find "their African roots", Moroccan historian Farid Bahri told AFP.
Lorin said that Tangiers "was a haven of freedom -- just like jazz music".
'He gave a lot to the city'
A pivotal moment in the city's musical history came in 1959, when Tangiers jazz promoter Jacques Muyal -- then just a teenager -- recorded a session with trumpeter Idrees Sulieman, pianist Oscar Dennard, bassist Jamil Nasser and drummer Buster Smith at the Radio Tanger International studio.
The recording gained renown in jazz circles decades before its distribution as "The 4 American Jazzmen In Tangier" album in 2017.
Bahri, the author of "Tangiers, a world history of Morocco", said "the presence of American musicians in Tangiers was also linked to a very active American diplomacy".
Famous US pianist Randy Weston settled in Tangiers for five years after visiting 14 African countries in 1967 during a tour organized by the US State Department.
The Brooklynite virtuoso would play a key role in building the musical reputation of the city, to which he dedicated his 1973 album "Tanjah".
"Randy was an exceptional, kind and respectful man," said Abdellah El Gourd, a 77-year-old Moroccan legend of gnawa music, a centuries-old style played with a three-stringed lute and steel castanets, rooted in West African rituals and Sufi traditions.
"He gave a lot to the city and its musicians," added the friend and collaborator of Weston, who died in 2018.
'Our language was music'
Together, El Gourd and Weston blurred the lines of their respective genres, creating the beginnings of jazz-gnawa fusion, which remains a key part of Tangiers' musical legacy.
"The language barrier was never a problem because our communication was through (musical) scales," El Gourd recalled in a rehearsal room lined with old photos and memorabilia from the years he toured with Weston and jazz saxophonist Archie Shepp.
"Our language was music."
The two men's collaborative work would years later yield the acclaimed 1992 album "The Splendid Master Gnawa Musicians of Morocco".
Two years after settling in the city, Weston opened the African Rhythms jazz club, above the iconic Cinema Mauritania in downtown Tangiers.
"We used to rehearse there," El Gourd recalled. "Randy would invite his musician friends. It was a beautiful time."
With El Gourd's help, Weston launched Tangiers' first-ever jazz festival in 1972, featuring big names such as drummer Max Roach, flautist Hubert Laws, double-bassist Ahmed Abdul-Malik, and saxophonist Dexter Gordon.
"It was quite a unique experience, because it was the first time we played in front of such a large audience," said El Gourd, who was then used to small crowds for gnawa performances.
Weston and El Gourd's festival was only held once.
But three decades later it inspired Lorin to create the Tanjazz festival, which is held in the port city every September.

Chicken Kiev, AI-generated press releases and the annoyance of fan selfies while performing — there was a lot on the minds of the Pet Shop Boys as the iconic British duo prepared to release a new album.

Their 15th studio album, “Nonetheless,” comes Friday — 40 years (and 50 million record sales) after Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe rose to fame with the single “West End Girls.” Bands of any longevity — especially such a long one — are often asked the cliche: “How do you stay relevant?” For them, it's about never trying to be cool.

“That’s something a lot of people try and do, to be somehow cool, which is therefore completely uncool, because it’s trying too hard,” Tennant told The Associated Press recently. “So we have just followed our own instincts.”

“We’ll always be relevant in our world,” Lowe added, laughing.

A testament of that relevance? Classic Pet Shop Boys hits were used as plot points in two cult movies last year: a karaoke scene in “Saltburn” featuring “Rent” and a key Christmas scene in “All of Us Strangers” soundtracked by “Always on My Mind.”

“Nonetheless” remains upbeat despite being written in the UK during the coronavirus pandemic, when most people were locked down at home.

“Well, the weather was nice, wasn’t it?” Lowe jokes.

“It was a very productive time,” Tennant adds, noting that the cancellation of their tour eased the pressure.

“I think that’s why it sounds in a way quite optimistic, because life was different. It was a different sort of life with no pressure, apart from not trying to catch the virus,” he says.

The first single, “Loneliness,” addresses the social isolation of the pandemic but was written as a positive message. Another lockdown-themed track, “Why Am I Dancing?” was Tennant asking himself: “Why are you enjoying this situation of being by yourself so much so that you can actually dance?”

“And I’m probably cooking at the same time,” he is quick to add.

“Cooking and dancing, now that’s a little podcast idea, isn’t it?” Lowe jokes.

And while Lowe says he’d be popping a ready-made pie in the oven, Tennant would be making dal, brown rice and vegetables or a chicken Kiev.

“You’ve got a good story for that,” Tennant says, looking to his bandmate.

“I wrote to (UK supermarket) Marks & Spencer... asking them to change the spelling of chicken Kiev to chicken Kyiv because of the war,” Lowe says. They did eventually change it.

Despite living through big changes in the way music is consumed, the band remain philosophical. Despite new ways of listening and discovering music, “music is still music.”

And when it comes to Spotify, while Lowe says it has helped him discover a lot of new music, both hate the app’s recommendations.

“With us, The Pet Shop Boys, it will say, ‘If you like this, you might like Duran Duran,’ so it thinks you’re all '80s,” Tennant explains. “And if you’re us you say: ‘You might like Years and Years electronic pop music or Kraftwerk from before us.’”

Pet Shop Boys will perform five special performances at London’s Royal Opera House in July, but please don’t run to the front of the stage and then turn your back for a selfie.

“I just deliberately move out the way. Sorry to be a spoilsport but I find it really, really rude,” Tennant says.

Cellphone users aren’t all bad for business though.

“You now know when something is working because all the phones come out,” Tennant explains.

“Cigarette lighters are replaced with phones for a ballad it looks really quite gorgeous, it’s really quite moving,” he adds.

Artificial intelligence is changing the industry, but the band doesn't have any plans to use it anytime soon — well, at least not in its music.

When their publicist called for a quote on the album for a press release, they turned to ChatGPT, which described the album as “a celebration of the unique and diverse emotions that make us human.” They went with it.

“It’s a great quote” Tennant admits. “We sort of agree with it. We normally make some flippant remark, whereas ChatGPT gave us this very earnest description which is actually accurate.”