Maxi Shield, beloved Australian drag queen and Drag Race Down Under star, dies aged 51

One of Australia’s best-known and loved drag queens, Sydney’s Maxi Shield, has died after being diagnosed with throat cancer, prompting tributes from around the world.Kristopher Elliot, who performed drag under the name Maxi Shield, was 51. Shield was a mainstay of the Sydney drag scene and brought Australian drag to the world as contestant in season one of RuPaul’s Drag Race Down Under.Shield revealed she had throat cancer in September, which forced her to step down from performing in a Kath & Kim show at Edinburgh fringe with a fellow Drag Race Down Under season one alum, Art Simone.Sign up: AU Breaking News emailShe returned to performing at the Oxford Hotel and Palms on the gay strip of Oxford Street in Sydney this month, and was set to host a sold-out Mardi Gras viewing party at the Oxford Hotel on Saturday

Kenneth Williams and racist attitudes | Brief letters

While appreciating Kenneth Williams’ humour, I felt uneasy that your article (‘He loved showing his bum. Loved it’: the subversive genius of Kenneth Williams, 20 February) didn’t simply state he had racist attitudes. Referring to a dislike of Sid James and people of colour seems to water down unacceptable views.Catherine UtleyLondon When I can’t sleep because my brain is too busy, I have my own method of “cognitive shufflng” (I tried the latest sleep trick – and my husband and I were up all night, 18 February). I choose a subject and try to think of an example for each letter of the alphabet

Philippe Gaulier obituary

In 1980 the École Philippe Gaulier opened its doors in Paris to help performers find and celebrate their “inner idiot”. The school quickly became the prime destination for clown training, attracting theatre students, actors and curious others from around the world.Philippe, who has died aged 82 following a lung infection, made the concept of le jeu – play – central to his teaching. For him, comedy was not about jokes but about danger: the moment when a performer risks failure or ridicule in pursuit of delight. His clowns were not sentimental innocents but mischievous creatures who loved the audience and longed to be loved in return

‘Musicians drank too much and slept on my barn floor’: Andrew Bird on making cult album The Mysterious Production of Eggs

We had a family farm three hours west of Chicago, and when I was scoping out potential studio spaces I remembered some barns where my brother and I used to make forts out of hay bales when we were little. One was in rough shape and had racoons living in it, but I got a local carpenter to do the skilled jobs and I did the mundane stuff such as boards for the ceiling. Then I just moved in, but I hadn’t realised how isolating it would be. It was February and snowing and none of my friends had cars. I’d go for two weeks at a time without speaking to anyone

Is the UK’s golden era of free museum entry coming to an end?

For a quarter of a century, visitors to the UK’s national museums and galleries have enjoyed universal free entry to see permanent collections.The policy, introduced by the New Labour government in 2001, has been widely credited with improving access to culture and significantly increasing footfall to some of the country’s best-known attractions.But as funding pressures deepen across the sector, and running costs increase, a policy once treated as untouchable is now under renewed scrutiny.The tension was brought into focus this week, when the National Gallery announced it was to make significant cuts in the face of an £8.2m deficit in the coming year, which could mean fewer free exhibitions, reduced international borrowing of artworks and higher ticket prices

The Guide #231: ​How the ​hunt for the ​next James Bond ​became the ​franchise’s ​best ​marketing ​tool

Callum Turner’s turn as James Bond lasted at most a couple of weeks. No sooner had he been enshrined as frontrunner to succeed Daniel Craig, than he was nudged from the DB5 driver’s seat by the latest heir apparent, Jacob Elordi, installed as the new bookies’ favourite after his smouldering, highly profitable performance in Wuthering Heights. Smarting somewhere in the background is Aaron Taylor-Johnson, who seemed locked in for the job a couple of years ago, enjoying the backing of former 007s Pierce Brosnan and George Lazenby, but now seems to have fallen out of favour. And don’t forget the succession of other dead cert Bonds now banished to the back of the odds market: the long-rumoured likes of Tom Hardy and Idris Elba (both now likely to have aged out of the role); Theo James; James Norton; Josh O’Connor; Harris Dickinson; Bridgerton’s Rége-Jean Page; and approximately 5,000 other predominately British actors who have enjoyed box office success/led a successful TV drama/look good in a tuxedo.On and on the hunt goes