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As one of reality TV’s royal family crossed the line, striking film and television writers joined forces on Wednesday in New York City with another group of culture workers involved in a pay dispute: musicians.

While a five-piece band played bopping brass and percussion music, members of the Writers Guild of America, in their fifth week on strike, joined in solidarity with musicians, music-industry workers and their supporters in Midtown Manhattan.

Their meet-up spot on the curb was outside the headquarters of Penske Media Corporation, owner of Austin-set South by Southwest aka SXSW. The conference is facing criticism for how it compensates bands. (Pmc also owns Deadline and other media- and culture-focused publications including Rolling Stone and Billboard.)

Musicians returned the gesture by joining the writers at another rally on Wednesday afternoon outside the headquarters of Paramount Global.

Outside Paramount, a queen of stage and screen was on the line.

Triumphs, tragedies and lots of nuts... It's only The X Factor!

Tonight saw a host of eccentric acts as well as some well-deserved second chances - yes, we still haven't recovered from Monica being sent home last year, even if she did come back "stronger" and better than ever.

Here is Digital Spy's round-up of some of the top tweets of tonight's proceedings.

There's something hypnotic about watching every #XFactor judge from the last 12 years flash in front of your eyes pic.twitter.com/gM0E8v1A8Z

— Digital Spy (@digitalspy) September 12, 2015

X Factor drinking game for every time simon tells someone to sing their second song #XFactor

— Freelance alcoholic (@behlul_official) September 12, 2015

This is just my favourite thing though. @CherylOfficial to shriek more names, please. Niiiiiiick! https://t.co/x7q72XAG11 #XFactor

— Catriona Wightman (@catrionaw890) September 12, 2015

Jenesa's 'sexy' antics confused people:

Us in the pub celebrating Happy Hour #XFactor pic.

Fillip Cornershop Satiediously, vol. 2 (Unheard Universe)   Following up on last year's initial Satie volume, Cornershop now delivers a unique reading of Satie's notorious "Vexations," the one-page piece which Satie said should be performed with repeats until it totaled 840 times through the printed text (or perhaps not; debate has raged since its 1949 publication). Cornershop brings the piece in at a monumental 48 hours (more traditional performances of the 840-times length range from 18 to 28 hours). 

As I was wondering how Cornershop could achieve such a performance without the aid of caffeine, which in turn would mitigate against his chosen slow tempo, I noticed a splice after the 168th time through and then, in turn, after the 336th. Shortly after the latter, and concurrent with my wife's threat of divorce, I had to stop listening, but a little math revealed to me that 1 through 168 and 169 through 336 were precisely the same length, so it appears...

Complete list of winners and nominees of the 2014 Grammy Awards, held in Los Angeles at the Staples Center on Sunday February 8. Winners will be updated as they're announced during the telecast and pre-telecast. Record Of The Year “Fancy,” Iggy Azalea Featuring Charli Xcx “Chandelier,” Sia **Winner** “Stay With Me (Darkchild Version),” Sam Smith “Shake It Off,” Taylor Swift “All About That Bass,” Meghan Trainor Album Of The Year **Winner** “Morning Phase,” Beck “Beyoncé,” Beyoncé “X,” Ed Sheeran “In The Lonely Hour,” Sam Smith “Girl,” Pharrell Williams Song Of The Year “All About That Bass,” Kevin Kadish & Meghan Trainor, songwriters (Meghan Trainor) “Chandelier,” Sia Furler & Jesse Shatkin, songwriters (Sia) “Shake It Off,” Max Martin, Shellback & Taylor Swift, songwriters (Taylor Swift) **Winner** “Stay With Me (Darkchild Version),” James Napier, William Phillips & Sam Smith, songwriters (Sam Smith) “Take Me To Church,” Andrew Hozier-Byrne, songwriter (Hozier) Best New Artist Iggy Azalea Bastille Brandy Clark...

There were, however, many arts practitioners on the list. Is the Diary the only one surprised (and pleased) to see Steve McQueen get a Cbe, given the artist's marathon battle with the establishment to get the Iraq war dead printed on stamps? Among the other recipients of a Cbe – and the Diary apologises to the names omitted here – are producer Trevor Horn, sculptor Richard Wentworth, theatre director Howard Davies, choreographer Wayne McGregor, trumpeter John Wallace, actors Sheila Hancock and David Suchet, and composer Howard Goodall. OBEs went to Annie Lennox, folkie Richard Thompson, director Andrea Arnold, actor Burt Kwouk, costume designer Sandy Powell and composer Colin Matthews. And there are damehoods for actor Harriet Walter, mezzo-soprano turned professor Felicity Palmer and writer Antonia Fraser.

Disappointingly, despite the Diary's call for a triple whammy of knighthoods for Ken Dodd, Ronnie Corbett and Brucie Forsyth, they got nothing.

New Year honours listSteve...

Why is five inches of snow shutting down London's Heathrow airport? Because it's more concerned with being a mall than plowing runways, writes aviation expert Clive Irving.

One airport sits at the center of Europe's travel chaos, spreading its failures like a raging virus throughout the international routes-crippling trans-Atlantic flights, aborting connections throughout Europe and the Middle East and causing cancellations as far away as Sydney, Hong Kong, and Singapore. It's the world's busiest airport for international flights: London's Heathrow. If you wanted to choose the perfect choke point to cripple the world's air traffic, this is it.

Related story on The Daily Beast: How to Make Your Trip Run Smoothly

As an example of basic strategic policy, you might think that, given its importance, the ability of Heathrow not simply to wreck the holiday travel plans of hundreds of thousands of people but to undermine economies, disrupt international air cargo and,...