“I love Hitler,” the fashion designer John Galliano announced to two Jewish Italian women in a Paris bar in December 2010. “People like you would be dead today. Your mothers, your forefathers would be fucking dead, fucking gassed.” Such an outburst leads, it appears, to a sentence – in the fashion world – of a couple of years: last month, it was announced that Galliano would take up a three-week residence with the New York designer Oscar de la Renta. US Vogue editor Anna Wintour is said to have brokered the deal and the Anti-Defamation League has given his return their cautious blessing Photograph: Joseph Kerlakian/Rex Features
In 2010 – around the time that AA Gill referred to her as a “dyke on a bike” – the BBC declined to renew Clare Balding’s contract. “It wasn’t my choice,” she admitted soon afterwards. “I was terrified.” She didn’t sleep much and was diagnosed with thyroid cancer. A couple of years on, the 42-year-old presenter is on the verge of national-treasure status thanks to her unshowy competence during the Olympics and the Paralympics. Her 2012 memoir, My Animals and Other Family, was an instant bestseller. A triumph of, in her words, “warmth, humour, intelligence, doing your homework” Photograph: Julian Andrews/Rex Features
Five years ago, vinyl seemed an obvious candidate for extinction but recently records have seen an extraordinary revival: in 2011, around 250,000 vinyl albums were sold in the UK, an increase of 44% on the previous year. One of the most desired presents last Christmas was the complete Beatles catalogue on vinyl, costing £350. A boom is also being seen in the US, Australia and Germany. An explanation is not clear – some have compared it to the Slow Food movement or to the increasing popularity of “living offline” – but outlets report an unexpected popularity with the youth market
Photograph: Martin Godwin for the Observer Photograph: Martin Godwin/Action images
The 37-year-old actress is getting pretty good at second acts. She comes from an acting dynasty, her godfather is Steven Spielberg, and an early role was Gertie in E.T. But by the age of 11 she had alcohol problems and by 13 she was in rehab for cocaine abuse. She rebuilt her film career in the mid-90s, and went on to appear in the Charlie’s Angels revamp and win a Golden Globe for 2009’s Grey Gardens. Her latest incarnation, though, is as a vintner: her company Barrymore Wines is winning awards for its pinot grigio. And when she says, “I’ve always loved wine,” she really means it Photograph: NBC/Getty Images
At this month’s Oscars, Adele will perform her theme song from Skyfall; there is also speculation that the Academy will pay a special tribute to the 50-year-old franchise and perhaps even bring together the previous five 007s with incumbent Daniel Craig. This follows the news that Skyfall has become the first film to take more than £100m at the UK box office (and more than $1bn worldwide). For so long the idea that Bond could be both credible and successful was preposterous – the last time Bond headed the UK charts was The Living Daylights in 1987. Who would bet against another 50 years? Photograph: Greg Williams/Getty Images
When the US network Fox axed Arrested Development in 2006, it had just 3 million viewers; the show’s creator, Mitch Hurwitz, explained its failure: “Make a show for British sensibilities. And then show it in America.” But ever since it was cancelled, a groundswell has been building for the return of what basically everyone calls “the defining sitcom of our times”. The wait is now almost over: a fourth series of 14 episodes (each based around a different character) will be released on Netflix in one block in May. “It’s this one giant, 700-minute Arrested Development,” says Hurwitz. A film may, or may not, follow in due course Photograph: Everett/Rex Features
Back in the day, there were Burt Reynolds and Tom Selleck (above), but moustaches spent a decade or two in the wilderness. Now they are well and truly back: pioneers include Jason Schwartzman (Moonrise Kingdom), Brad Pitt (Inglourious Basterds) and Tom Selleck once again (Blue Bloods). Meanwhile Movember, a global campaign that encourages men to grow moustaches in November, increases in popularity each year: in 2012, the UK had the most participants – 362,828, including Stephen Fry, Jamie Oliver and Theo Walcott – contributing to a record-breaking worldwide total of nearly £80m raised for male cancer charities Photograph: Everett/Rex Featur
The Time Lord, now approaching his 50th year, is so much a part of the British firmament that he was recently compared to Sherlock Holmes. Whovians can collect a set of Royal Mail stamps, read short stories inspired by the doctor (Eoin Colfer wrote the first, perhaps JK Rowling will follow) or attend a convention in Tunbridge Wells. The new series starts on 30 March and “showrunner” Stephen Moffat has predicted that “We’re going to take over television”. It’s easy to forget then that the series was dropped in 1996 because of consistently low ratings and was far from a surefire hit when it was regenerated in 2005 (above) Photograph: Colin Bell/AP
The career of slightly creepy Hollywood heartthrob Matthew McConaughey looked set to be summed up by the title of his 2006 romcom Failure to Launch. After early promise (Dazed and Confused) he became better known for his abs (and naked bongo-playing) than his acting. But he started to turn it round in 2012, with unexpected turns in Killer Joe and Steven Soderbergh’s Magic Mike. It looks even better for this year: his new movie Mud wowed Sundance (US Weekly thought it Oscar-worthy) and later in the year he stars in Martin Scorsese’s The Wolf of Wall Street. “Yeah, it’s a McConaugh-aissance,” he has said. “I like that phrase” Photograph: PR
After the release of a couple of mostly ignored albums in the early 1970s, Rodríguez, a folk musician from Detroit, went to ground. In fact, he returned to working in construction. But halfway round the world, something strange was happening: bootlegged copies of his albums were much cherished in South Africa, even becoming a soundtrack for protests against apartheid. Now the rest of the world is finding out about Rodríguez, thanks to the documentary Searching for Sugar Man. The film is nominated at this year’s Baftas and Oscars, and has led to appearances for Rodríguez on David Letterman and Jay Leno’s chatshows Photograph: Antonio Olmos for the Observer
