Oasis star Noel Gallagher has filmed hours of interviews with his brother Liam for a forthcoming ‘tell all’ documentary about how and why they reunited last year.
But one thing they won’t be discussing is the end of Noel’s marriage to Sara MacDonald – even though it played a key role in the siblings’ rapprochement.
This is due to a ‘non-disparagement agreement’ which was signed as part of Noel and Sara’s divorce deal in 2024.
The couple announced they had split in 2023 after 12 years of marriage and 22 years together, and Noel is thought to have forked out £20million – plus their £8million country house in Hampshire – to his ex.
Sara and Liam never got on and he has blamed her (along with other factors) for the decades-long rift with his big brother, which intensified after Oasis broke up in 2009.
Liam said in 2016: ‘His missus, Sara MacDonald, won’t let him get that band back together. She wears the trousers, mate.’
During the years that Noel was married to privately educated Sara, Liam would rage about his brother’s ‘social pretensions’ and accuse him of being a traitor to the working class, dubbing him ‘tofu boy’.
The feeling was obviously mutual. When asked on Instagram if she was planning to watch Liam perform at the 2019 Glastonbury Festival, she replied: ‘Think I’m going to swerve that. The fat t*** doing his tribute act balancing a tambourine on his head is going to look pretty dated after Stormzy.’ So I guess that’s a no, then.
An Oasis documentary film by Steven Knight is coming to cinemas and Disney+ this year
Liam retaliated by sending a message to Noel’s daughter Anais which ran: ‘Tell your step mam to be very careful.’ He later apologised for the apparent threat, but Noel said that Liam had left a number of menacing messages for Sara and Anais and he could not forgive him.
For her part, Sara stayed on great terms with Liam’s exes, even inviting two of them – second wife All Saints’ Nicole Appleton and Lisa Moorish (mother of his daughter Molly) – to Noel’s 50th birthday bash in 2017.
Noel and Liam reconciled in 2024 at the urging of Liam’s girlfriend Debbie Gwyther, who somehow managed to get them into a room together. Within weeks, they announced they’d agreed to reunite for a series of shows in summer 2025.
The pair shared a black-and-white image of themselves, side by side, with the caption: ‘The guns have fallen silent. The stars have aligned. The great wait is over. Come see. It will not be televised.’
The ‘landmark’ Oasis documentary film, made with Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight, will hit cinemas in September and then stream on Disney+.
An insider reveals: ‘The film is going to cover every cough and spit of how the brothers went from being sworn enemies to being Britain’s biggest band again – and then as close as ever.
‘The camera crew captured the moments when the discussions started, and that first meeting to discuss the potential of a reunion.
‘People who have seen it say that the footage is incredible and the sit-down interviews are very moving, powerful and have the pair displaying real emotion.
The subject of Sara MacDonald, the ex-wife of Noel Gallagher, will be cut from the film
‘However, the subject of Sara and the problems between her and Liam, as well as her and Noel, are being cut. There is a binding legal agreement which permits neither party from discussing one another in media projects – and certainly not disparaging one another.
‘That is the point where the lawyers and managers take over from the filmmakers and producers.
‘So that means that the full picture of the comeback will not be presented to fans this time around.’
A spokesman for the band and for Noel declined to comment this week.
Get ready for a live action Scooby snack
Ruh roh! Baby Scooby looks utterly adorable in this first image from Netflix’s live action adventure, Scooby-Doo: Origins.
The TV series will see Shaggy and Daphne team up with a lost Great Dane puppy which may have witnessed a supernatural murder – and form Mystery Inc with friends Velma and Fred. Those meddling kids!
Filming with the fresh-faced new cast started in April and the show will be out next year.
The original animated Scooby-Doo stories started running as Saturday morning cartoons back in 1969.
The new baby Scooby looks utterly adorable in Netflix’s new action adventure ‘Scooby Doo: Origins’
Masters of the film universe? Not for Gen X…
Masters of the universe? They can’t even master the box office!
Based on the 1980s He-Man cartoons, Amazon’s new action film with Nicholas Galitzine as musclebound Prince Adam and Camila Mendes as warrior Teela, opened last weekend taking a disappointing $54million – against a reported budget of $170million.
And there are plenty of other 1980s nostalgia flops in the rear-view mirror – see The Fall Guy (2024) and last year’s The Running Man. The underwhelming performance of Masters Of The Universe adds weight to suspicions that Gen X (46 to 61-year-olds) are staying away from the cinema, in droves.
Analyst Christopher Rosen says of Gen X: ‘That’s an audience that maybe doesn’t even go to the [movie] theatre any more.’
Luckily, somebody else is going. Hollywood insiders are talking – and talking – about the coming of the new generation of YouTube horror auteurs.
Directors Curry Barker and Kane Parsons are riding high on enthusiasm from Gen Z audiences, who have turned their films Obsession and Backrooms into box office hits.
Obsession’s executive producer Jason Blum gave a talk in LA last week in which he likened Barker and Parsons to the 1970s new wave – Lucas, Spielberg and Coppola. Just as I did in this column last month.
Camilla Mendes attending the ‘Masters of the Universe’ UK Premiere in London on May 27
David Baddiel, 62, had a tense moment in his back garden the other evening.
‘I normally have a sauna late at night,’ the comedian admits. ‘And every so often I have gone in naked to the sauna.
‘Unfortunately, I forgot that we have a security light fitted.
‘I was literally outside in my own back garden in the middle of the night, thinking: ‘This is fine, it’s dark, no one can see me … f***! All the lights have come on!”
He has now bought a pair of disposable ‘sauna pants’ to cover his shame. Is that preferable?
Be warned: Dua Lipa plays to win
Pop icon, fashion queen, and book enthusiast Dua Lipa has another string to her bow – she is also a board game fiend.
Husband Callum Turner tells The Hollywood Reporter that they popped round to film director James Gray’s house in Los Angeles recently.
‘We had this little tete-a-tete, all of us, and then we chilled for an hour or so. Then Dua beat them all at backgammon. She’s a killer at backgammon.’
British pop star Dua Lipa pictured with her now-husband, actor Callum Turner
Alan Davies admits he’s not the most generous tipper.
The comedian says: ‘I do tip, but not well. I’m the sort of tipper where the waiter goes: ‘Who’s left their bus fare?”
May we have a quiet word, Mr Clarkson… Jeremy’s pub gives council a headache
Spare a thought for Jeremy Clarkson’s local parish council. They seem to spend half their time dealing with complaints about his super-successful pub, The Farmer’s Dog in Asthall, Oxon.
Minutes from their meetings reveal that issues over the pub – which Clarkson bought in 2024 during his reinvention from petrolhead to son of the soil – are a staple topic of discussion.
The Farmer’s Dog opened in August of that year and has been enormously popular, with Clarkson fans packing it out daily.
However, at last month’s parish council annual meeting, the chair Lynne Hughson noted: ‘The Farmer’s Dog has taken up quite a lot of time.’
Indeed. Complaints were lodged in September last year, with councillor Ruth McCalman raising ‘the problem of very loud music on Saturday night, causing a problem in Worsham’. (That’s the nearest hamlet, barely a mile’s walk from the pub.)
The minutes go on to say that since the din stopped at 10pm, it was felt there was no legal breach – but a ‘quiet request to turn the volume down’ might not go amiss.
Jeremy Clarkson manning the bar at his super-successful pub, The Farmer’s Dog in Asthall, Oxon
The issue was meant to have been resolved by a West Oxfordshire District Councillor speaking to Clarkson or the pub’s manager.
In February, there were more complaints – this time about lights – after locals expressed concern that the venue was still lit up after closing time.
They worried about the effect on wildlife and local ‘dark skies’ policies (planning guidelines against light pollution).
Once again, it was agreed a district councillor should have a word.
Since then, Clarkson has been given permission for a permanent 61-space car park, staff parking for 20 vehicles has been ‘formalised’, and he’s been allowed to continue using a nearby field for overflow parking (with room for 360 cars).
His planning team has submitted a lighting scheme for the permanent car park, which will mean 44 new external lights being installed.
At the last parish council meeting on May 12, music and lights were back on the agenda, with the council opting yet again to contact the pub’s manager to ask them to turn the lights out after hours.
Clarkson spent £1million to get his hands on The Farmer’s Dog.
The fifth series of Clarkson’s Farm launched this month on Prime Video with 4.4million viewers in its first week – down on the 5.3million who watched the launch of the third series.
