As the year 2023 is coming to an end in a few short months, there are plenty of noteworthy events that have generated significant buzz and sparked excitement in the world of celebrities. Celebrity weddings, whether intimate and private or star-studded and extravagant, have taken up a lot of space in the media, with a number of high-profile couples taking their relationship to the next level by saying “I do.” Chris Evans, Sofia Richie, Simone Biles, and Margaret Qualley are among a growing list of celebrities that have taken vows to spend the rest of their lives with their significant others this year, and the weddings don’t stop with them. Their relationships are generally kept private, take off quickly, or end surprisingly, so it isn’t always easy to keep up with who is dating whom, or better yet, which celebs are married. Thankfully, we’ve compiled a list of the biggest and best celebrity weddings of 2023, from quiet nuptials to lavish destination weddings, to keep you updated.
Keep reading to find out which celebs tied the knot in 2023, as well as more details about their relationships, engagements, and special ceremonies! Cheers!
Would you want to revisit your life and your past in order to share it all, both the good and the bad?
I certainly wouldn’t, but I’m not famous nor do I have famous people problems (knock on wood). Being a celebrity is something many people dream about, but while the riches certainly make life more comfortable, what comes a long with it probably isn’t what most of us would want.
Let’s talk about it.
Both Britney Spears and Jada Pinkett Smith grasp the concept that drama sells.
Before their memoirs – Spears’ book is titled “The Woman in Me” and Pinkett Smith’s is “Worthy” – were recently released, there were plenty of tabloid treats from them teased throughout the media landscape.
The two biggest revelations from the stars’ tomes both happened to involve their celebrity relationships.
Spears shared that she had an abortion during her time with Justin Timberlake in the early aughts, while Pinkett Smith went public with the news that she and Will Smith have been living separate lives since 2016.
While both of these revelations sparked conversation, they also showed how there’s a delicate dance when it comes to the art of publishing a celebrity tell-all.
On the one hand, you have to share enough to get people excited for the book. Yet at the same time you don’t want to reveal too much, because then what is the incentive to purchase said book?
It should be said, though, that both Spears and Pinkett Smith are most probably used to a lot of attention by now.
Another instance of a star laying it all out there for public consumption is the “Beckham” docuseries on Netflix.
I am far from a soccer fan, but I greatly enjoyed visiting the highs – and lows – of David Beckham’s stellar career. The series is really well done and filmmaker Fisher Stevens got both Beckham and his wife, Spice Girls member Victoria Beckham, to open up about difficult times.
One of those tough times featured in the doc is the decades-old alleged affair between David Beckham and his former personal assistant Rebecca Loos.
In a recent interview, Loos complained that Beckham was portraying “himself as a victim” in the series. That’s another tricky area when it comes to celebs telling their life stories – it affects others who were also there, and who are portrayed via the star’s lens and recollections.
At this point I am aiming to see how many newsletters in a row I can talk about Taylor Swift.
This time it’s the fact that she’s dropping “1989 (Taylor’s Version),” Swift’s latest rerecording of her old music after losing her masters.
Yes, much of the recent attention paid to Swift has more to do with her love life than her love of music, but if you know Swift you know that there is a direct correlation between the two.
I don’t even have to sell it here because it’s Taylor Swift, the star of the moment, and her music. Enough said – except that the new(ish) album debuted Friday.
Reader you know it’s true – Milli Vanilli was the duo to beat back in the day. Rob Pilatus and Fab Morvan had hits in the late 1980s/early 1990s and were flying high in the music industry.
Until they weren’t.
A new self-titled documentary traces their rise and eventual fall when the world learned they weren’t actually singing on those songs. It’s a more tender look at the pair than one might expect, given the vitriol that was spewed about the controversy at the time which resulted in their best new artist Grammy being revoked.
The “Milli Vanilli” documentary is streaming on Paramount+.
Weeks before Halloween, Hannah Montoya was busy crafting her first ever couples costume, collecting a blonde wig, friendship bracelets, and an NFL jersey emblazoned with the name and number of Kansas City Chiefs tight end, Travis Kelce. Inspired by the apparently blooming romance between Super Bowl champ Kelce and superstar Taylor Swift, Montoya’s all-time favorite singer, the 22-year-old content creator from North Carolina decided it was the right time to debut a costume with her partner.
“They’re the perfect couple to idolize from both a girlfriend and boyfriend standpoint,” she tells TIME. “My boyfriend’s super into football and I’m super into Taylor Swift, so this was just the perfect combination for us.”
Only one other high-profile pair is rivaling Taylor and Travis in costumes this spooky season: Barbie and Ken. Versions of each famous duo are expected to be seen all over the place this Halloween. According to insights from Semrush, ever since Swift and Kelce were rumored to be dating in July 2023, searches for “Taylor Swift Halloween Costume” grew by 1021.2% and searches for “Travis Kelce costume” grew by 9,400%. And per Google’s “Frightgeist” analysis of annual searches for Halloween costumes, Barbie was the overall top search for costumes nationally, while Barbie and Ken dominated searches for couples. Mattel tells TIME that Barbie is the number one costume searched for at Goodwill. On TikTok, searches for “Travis Kelce and Taylor Swift Halloween costume” have garnered nearly 427 million views, while “Barbie and Ken Halloween costume ideas” has racked up over 241 million views, with hundreds of videos of users showing off their costumes or making tutorials on how to recreate the looks.
Unsurprisingly so: Barbie was a box office hit with a ubiquitous marketing campaign and countless merchandise collaborations, and Swift’s Eras tour broke attendance and tickets sales records, while her high-profile romance with Kelce has only increased her momentum, most recently resulting in Saturday Night Live cameos for the couple. But their popularity also points to a cultural fascination with the “all-American” couple, a concept whose most dominant interpretation is a specific reading of convention—that is, white, straight, and monogamous.
“Barbie and Taylor Swift are emblematic symbols of a specific kind of American femininity,” says sexologist and dating coach Myisha Battle. “Both [couples] are hyper representations of masculinity and femininity.”
This surge in interest in dressing as both couples marks a fascinating response to shifting views on marriage and relationships, she says. A September 2023 Pew Research survey found that 71% of Americans think that a job or career they enjoy is important to have a fulfilling life, compared to the 23% who believe that a marriage will lead to a fulfilling life. The face of marriage is also changing; Pew reports that since the 1970s, the number of Americans in an interracial or interethnic marriage has risen from 4% to 16% and that since same-sex marriages have become legal nationally in 2015, the number of same sex marriages had increased by over 60%.
“People might feel comforted by hearkening back to a time where whiteness and heteronormativity were the accepted standard,” says Battle. “What better way to to get to that end goal of an all-American nuclear family than to be a heterosexual couple? For people who are cisgender or heterosexual, this is a way to sort of reclaim that identity in a really public way. That’s scary and spooky—it’s appropriate for Halloween.”
There’s also the element of projected nostalgia, adds Darnell-Jamal Lisby, a fashion historian and an assistant curator of fashion at the Cleveland Museum of Art.
“There’s a fantasy about that, which is why it’s not surprising people would emulate it with a costume,” he says. “My question is intention—someone like Taylor represents a reinforcement of a world that they may have once been attached to, a world that wasn’t as politically correct or that was as diverse.”
For Jerome McLeod, a 31-year-old manager in New York, dressing up as Ken this Halloween is less of an embrace of what the doll has long represented and more of a subversion of it. McLeod, who’s planning on donning a blonde wig with an “I am Kenough” tie-dye sweatshirt for his look, decided to dress up as Ken after seeing the Barbie movie this summer, where he says he was inspired by its “irony of embracing convention, while critiquing systems.” That—and he was eager to have a costume that would be easily identified.
“Instant recognition—that’s all I really want,” he says.
For AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc., “Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour” is the gift that keeps on giving.
Taylor Swift’s record-breaking concert film, which opened Oct. 12, is in its third weekend at the box office and has already brought in more than $178 million worldwide, according to IMDbPro’s Box Office Mojo.
“Weekend #3 for Taylor Swift The Eras Tour: Thursday through Sunday,” tweeted AMC CEO Adam Aaron Wednesday. “Playing at all AMC & Odeon theatres in the U.S. & Europe. The highest grossing concert film of all time. CinemaScore A+, RT 99%/98%. See the phenomenon that has captivated the world.”
Earlier this week Aaron tweeted that the movie enjoyed a successful second weekend in theaters. “It’s such a privilege to report that Taylor Swift The Eras Tour won the weekend again!” he wrote on Monday. “The first ever movie distributed by AMC, it had the biggest box office gross last weekend and this weekend! Grossed $179 million so far. All the credit goes to the extraordinary Taylor Swift!”
Set against this backdrop AMC AMC, -0.87%
shares rose 1.9% Friday and are on pace to snap a two-day losing streak.
In addition to showing “Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour” in its theaters, AMC is also the theatrical distributor for the movie. AMC Theatres Distribution and subdistribution partners Variance Films, Trafalgar Releasing, Cinepolis and Cineplex Inc. have clinched deals with movie-theater operators representing more than 8,500 theaters globally to show the film, according to AMC.
“Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour” remained atop the domestic box office last weekend, ahead of Martin Scorsese’s “Killers of the Flower Moon,” which brought in an estimated $23 million on its debut weekend, according to Comscore data released Sunday. The new Scorsese movie, which stars Leonardo DiCaprio, also enjoyed a strong opening weekend internationally, bringing in an estimated $21 million.
Shares of movie theater chain and meme stock darling AMC have fallen 73.8% in 2023, compared with S&P 500 index’s SPX
gain of 7.2%.
The summer and fall of 2023 have offered music fans endless opportunities to drop big dollars on concerts. Artists ranging from pop icons like Beyoncé and Taylor Swift to newer acts like Olivia Rodrigo have announced tours or hit the road, giving fans a reason to splurge on tickets, merchandise and rhinestone cowboy boots.
The latest hitmaker to confirm they’re hitting the road is Puerto Rican singer Bad Bunny, who announced the dates for his “Most Wanted” North American tour on Oct. 19.
Some fans who participated in the tour’s presale were surprised to see the prices. Several took to social media to express their sticker shock, noting that even nosebleed seats were listed at a few hundred dollars each. The exact prices could only be viewed by select fans who were granted access to the sale.
“Benito should’ve named this tour ‘most expensive tour’ cause what are those prices,” one user posted.
Another called Bad Bunny “disrespectful,” and posted a screenshot showing nosebleed seats going for $300 and a floor seat priced at $1,101.95.
Americans have spent big on entertainment this summer and fall, shelling out on recreational expenses like movies, shows and travel. A study from QuestionPro found that concertgoers who went to Taylor Swift’s The Eras tour spent an average of $1,300 per show, including tickets, clothing, merchandise, food, and travel.
That kind of spending has fueled the country’s still-pumping economy, which grew at a 4.9% clip in the third quarter.
That being said, dropping four figures on one ticket can put a serious dent in your savings — or your credit-card balance. But who among us hasn’t considered blowing our budget to scream our favorite songs in a packed stadium? MarketWatch talked to experts for advice on how to bounce back from doing just that.
United Talent Agency, which represents Bad Bunny, did not respond to requests for comment. Ticketmaster directed MarketWatch to an FAQ page about tickets and ticket prices on their website.
Step 1: Don’t freak out
First things first, “take a deep breath,” said Emy Lee, a former accountant and spending coach with more than 40,000 followers on TikTok. A one-time purchase like a concert ticket likely won’t ruin your finances for good, she said — but it can pose a much bigger risk if it sends you into a cycle of shame and overspending.
“I see this in my clients, too: somebody will make a big purchase, and then they beat themselves up for it and feel guilty,” she said. “Then they just keep spiraling and making impulsive purchases.”
There’s nothing inherently wrong with spending a lot of money on a concert ticket, said Kimberly Palmer, a personal-finance expert at NerdWallet.
“For a lot of people, buying a concert ticket, even though it’s a huge splurge and outside of their normal budget, is not necessarily a bad choice. It’s spending money that really aligns with their values,” she said. “What’s a good choice for you is not necessarily something that can be answered just by looking at numbers or your budget or your income.”
Tours for huge artists like Beyoncé or Taylor Swift can also create a huge sense of FOMO, Lee noted, piling on even more pressure to snag a ticket no matter the cost.
Jack Heintzelman, a certified financial planner from Needham Heights, Mass., recommended giving yourself some grace.
“Life happens! This is completely okay and very common,” he said over email. “That’s what we save money for in the first place.”
Step 2: Make a plan
After you’ve cleared your head, it’s time to make a plan. The steps to getting back on track financially will look a little different depending on how you paid for the ticket.
Did you put the purchase on a credit card? Then you’ll want to make a plan to pay down the balance as quickly as you can, Palmer said — ideally by the end of the month, before it starts accruing interest.
But even if it will take a little longer, you should prioritize those payments, she said.
“You want to make sure you have a plan where you’re paying it down so it doesn’t snowball and become an even bigger amount of debt,” Palmer said. “You can get hit with late fees, and it can quickly get out of control.”
That’s especially important in a high-rate environment, where interest rates on many credit cards are especially high.Last year, the average late payment fee for credit cards was $32.
If the cost of the ticket came out of your savings account, you’re not in danger of the debt ballooning over time. Still, Palmer said, you should focus on replenishing your savings so you’re still in a good position to weather any emergencies that come your way.
“That could mean setting aside a small amount from every paycheck until you feel comfortable again,” she said.
Step 3: Move on
After making a plan, it’s time to start thinking about how to avoid overspending like this in the future, experts said.
“Planning is way easier than recovering as far as big purchases go,” Lee said.
That doesn’t mean you have to sit on the sidelines every time your favorite artist comes to town. In fact, part of smart money management is spending intentionally on the things that are truly important to you, Palmer added: “For plenty of people, buying that concert ticket is going to bring them a lot of joy.”
But sticking to a monthly budget will help you make big purchases with confidence, experts noted.
Building a budget often starts with tracking your income and expenses to understand just how much money you’re making and what you’re spending it on. The primary part of your budget should cover your needs. What’s left over can be split between savings and variable expenses — like entertainment.
“Entertainment gets tricky, because a lot of people feel that it’s a need because it makes you happy,” Lee said. But most often, it should be considered a variable expense.
After you have a sense of where your money is going, you can trim unnecessary costs, and allocate a portion of your income each month to saving or other financial goals.
Heintzelman recommended automating a portion of your income to deposit straight into your savings account.
“That savings will start to build up and be available for that next ‘unexpected’ expense that comes up,” he said over email. “If you automate your savings you can be less stressed about these times where you have to spend down your emergency reserve, because you know you’ll build it over time.”
Sometimes, making a savvy financial decision will entail finding a more cost-effective way to celebrate your favorite artist.
That could mean something like skipping the concert in favor of throwing a themed party at home, Lee said. You can still get dressed up and dance to your favorite songs with your friends — just with cheaper concessions and no lines for the bathroom.
Keeping a budget and making a financial plan will save you a lot of stress in the future, Palmer said. Sticking to one now means you can buy another ticket stress-free when the next tour comes around.
“Focusing on making a budget means you have a framework for these decisions,” she added. “It takes the guilt out of the equation.”
The ending of the partnership between the artist Kanye West, who now goes by Ye, in October 2022 appeared to come after weeks of his comments about Jewish people and Black Lives Matter, but the New York Times is reporting that the relationship was troubled from the very start.
At a meeting on the collaborative creation of the very first shoe in 2013, Adidas ADS, -0.10%
ADDYY, -0.03%
designers were stunned when West rejected all of the ideas that were presented using fabric swatches on a table and a mood board, the seven-month investigation found. Instead, West, the Times reports, grabbed a sketch and drew a swastika in marker.
The move shocked the Germans in the room. Germany has a strict ban on displaying the symbol of the Nazi era apart from for artistic purposes. Adding to the sense of horror, the company’s founder — Adolf, or “Adi,” Dassler, who died in 1978 — was a Nazi Party member, and the meeting took place close to Nuremberg, where leaders of the Third Reich were famously tried for crimes against humanity.
“A year ago this week, Adidas threw in the towel.”
West’s fixation on the Nazi era continued, the Times reports, when he later told a Jewish manager at Adidas to kiss a portrait of Adolf Hitler every day. He also told Adidas workers that he admired Hitler’s use and command of propaganda.
West also brought porn to the workplace and made crude, sexual comments at meetings, according to the Times report. Before the swastika episode, West, according to the Times, had made Adidas executives watch porn at a meeting in his Manhattan apartment.
In 2022 he reportedly ambushed executives with a porn film. Other workers complained to top managers that he had made angry sexual comments to them.
The artist, said to have been diagnosed with bipolar disorder, also frequently cried or became angry during meetings, according to the Times investigation. In one instance in 2019, he reportedly moved the operation designing his shoes to Cody, Wyo., and ordered the Adidas team to relocate. In a meeting to discuss his demands with executives, he threw shoes around the room, the Times reports.
Adidas sought to adapt to this behavior, given how valuable the West-established Yeezy brand was to the company, locked in a perennial battle for both revenue and buzz with its U.S.-based rival Nike Inc. NKE, -2.04%.
Yeezy sales would rapidly surpass $1 billion a year and help Adidas resonate with young American customers.
Managers launched a group text chain they called the “Yzy hotline” to discuss his behavior. To reduce stress on individuals, the company is said to have rotated managers in and out of dealing directly with West.
Over time, meanwhile, Adidas sweetened the terms of West’s deal. Under a 2016 contract, he was entitled to a 15% royalty on sales with a $15 million upfront payment as well as millions of dollars in Adidas stock. In 2019, a further $100 million a year was earmarked for marketing, but, in reality, West could spend those funds at will.
When a decision was reached to sell the product — in release batches — with some of the proceeds directed to charity and most of the rest flowing to Adidas, West, even then, was entitled to royalties.
After bottoming in October 2022, Adidas shares have mounted a 67% comeback, with relief over the company’s not having had to book a damaging loss on the Yeezy line one factor in the restoration of investor confidence.
Adidas is quoted as having told the Times that it “has no tolerance for hate speech and offensive behavior, which is why the company terminated the Adidas Yeezy partnership,” while West reportedly declined requests for interviews and comment.
The Times investigation is said to have been based on access to hundreds of previously undisclosed internal records.
Rap and basketball are inextricably linked—the majority of entertainers in both fields typically hail from the same communities and grew up in the same culture. It’s more than likely that if you made it doing one, you probably had dreams and aspirations of doing the other too. As such, crossover is inevitable and endless. J. Cole’s recent stint as a pro player is an echo of the real run Master P tried to go in in the late ‘90s. Everyone from Kobe to Allen Iverson has a rap song or five to their name if not a whole project. Kevin Durant executive produced the latest Drake album. LeBron James, one of our most important music critics, also invented the deluxe track. The list goes on, but one take is universally held as fact: if we’re talking crossover success stories, Shaquille O’Neal is the Gold Standard. And he just hit everyone with a big reminder last night.
First, let’s back up: Rick Ross and Meek Mill are releasing a new album, called Too Good to Be True. The title is an accurate description of most collab projects, but this is a big deal—Ross and Meek’s reunion is as close as we’ll get to the halcyon early 2010s of Maybach Music Group, when they were one of, if not the hottest label squads out, with Ross’s roster spearheaded by Meek and DC rapper Wale minting club hits, street bangers and radio smashes with ease. It was a time when every Meek verse sounded like he needed to be extinguished after leaving the booth, Wale churned out melodic radio hits like it was nothing, and people of taste knew there was a real, credibleargument to be made for Ross’ lifelong friend Gunplay being one of the best rappers out. French Montana, also at his peak, was a close family friend despite being formally beholden to Bad Boy Records. Even bemusing decisions like signing Omarion yielded an undeniable track or two (and later, in true Ross fashion, A1 punchlines admitting it didn’t work out.)
All of that is to say, while Ross and Meek have been no stranger to featuring on each other’s albums still, it’s a thrill to see them really back together, trading verses over a mean, gritty beat for “Shaq and Kobe,” mean-mugging in a music video that feels like Michael Mann directing Bad Boys 4 and in full album rollout mode up at radio stations with Funk Flex like it’s 2011 again. They kept the momentum going with an only slightly-less-hard album cut that flips Jay-Z’s classic “Lyrical Exercise.” And last night was their biggest coup yet, with a “Shaq and Kobe” remix that gets one of its namesakes back in his rapper bag. (The original song, save a “hustling 24 hours” double entendre, is light on overt NBA references and moreso just alludes to the duo’s historic dominance. Rap and ball, linked as ever.)
Nineties babies and NBA/hip-hop fans alike are all too familiar with Shaq’s rap career, which began not long after his 1992 draft to the league, peaked with his 1996 album You Can’t Stop the Reign, and petered out right before the start of the new millennium. The annals of rap history are littered with aspiring-rapper-athletes—All-Stars who despite their achievements on the court couldn’t resist the urge to be an entertainer of a similar but different cloth. Most of the music merits participation trophies at best; few ballers came as correct as Shaq did in the 90s, with albums graced by production from the likes of RZA and Erick Sermon and features from the hottest singers and rappers of the moment. Who else can boast having the first track with Jay-Z and Nas together (in ‘96 no less, what taste) or delivering a true-blue rap classic alongside prime-era Notorious B.I.G. with the titanic yet still smooth “You Can’t Stop the Reign.” It’s not even a case of letting the smooth beat ride out until you get to Frank White’s verse—Shaq is actually spitting. (Extra Credit homework: the late, great DJ Kay Slay’s underrated 2006 flip with Shaq, Papoose and Bun B.)
Here is a look at the life of Britney Spears, pop singer and Grammy Award winner.
Birth date: December 2, 1981
Birth place: McComb, Mississippi
Birth name: Britney Jean Spears
Father: Jamie Spears, former building contractor and chef
Mother: Lynne (Bridges) Spears
Marriages: Sam Asghari (June 9, 2022 – present); Kevin Federline (September 18, 2004-July 30, 2007, divorced); Jason Alexander (January 3, 2004-January 5, 2004, annulled after 55 hours)
Children: with Kevin Federline: Jayden James, September 2006 and Sean Preston, September 2005
Number one hits on the Billboard Hot 100 chart include: “Baby, One More Time” in 1999, “Womanizer” in 2008, “3” in 2009 (debut), and “Hold It Against Me” in 2011 (debut).
Six albums have reached #1 on the Billboard 200 chart: “Baby One More Time” (1999), “Oops!…. I Did It Again” (2000), “Britney” (2001), “In the Zone” (2003), “Circus” (2008), and “Femme Fatale” (2011).
1993-1994 – Cast member on “The Mickey Mouse Club.”
1997 – Signs a contract with Jive Records at age 15.
January 12, 1999 – Releases her debut album “…Baby One More Time.”
May 16, 2000 – Releases her second album “Oops!…I Did It Again.”
2002 – Is named Hollywood’s Most Powerful Celebrity by Forbes magazine.
November 17, 2003 – Receives a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
February 13, 2005 – Wins a Grammy Award for Best Dance Recording for “Toxic.”
February 16, 2007 – Shaves her head at a beauty parlor in Tarzana, California.
October 1, 2007 – Temporarily loses physical custody of her children after failing to attend court hearings.
January 3, 2008 – Spears is hospitalized over issues involving the custody of her children. Kevin Federline, her ex-husband, is awarded sole custody on January 4, 2008.
February 1, 2008 – A Los Angeles court grants temporary conservatorship to Spears’ father, Jamie Spears, after Spears is taken to a hospital and deemed unable to take care of herself.
July 18, 2008 – In a custody agreement, Spears gives Federline sole custody of the children, but retains visitation rights.
August 2008 –Becoming Britney, a musical based on her life, debuts at the New York International Fringe Festival.
October 28, 2008 – Jamie Spears is granted permanent conservatorship of his daughter’s affairs.
February 3, 2009 – Sam Lutfi, Spears’ former manager, sues Spears and her parents for defamation and breach of contract in Los Angeles Superior Court. A judge dismisses the lawsuit on November 1, 2012.
September 8, 2010 – Is accused of sexual harassment and sued by her former bodyguard, Fernando Flores. The lawsuit is settled in March 2012.
January 11, 2011 – Her single, “Hold It Against Me,” is released and debuts at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100.
March 30, 2011 – A $10 million lawsuit is filed by Brand Sense Partners against Spears and her father for breach of contract relating to a perfume deal between Spears and the Elizabeth Arden company. The lawsuit is settled in February 2012.
May 15, 2012 – “The X Factor USA” announces that Spears, along with Demi Lovato, will join Simon Cowell and L.A. Reid on “The X Factor” judging panel. On January 11, 2013, Spears announces that she will not be returning as a judge.
September 2014 – Releases her own lingerie line, “Intimate Britney Spears.”
November 5, 2014 – Clark County, Nevada, proclaims November 5th as “Britney Day” on the Las Vegas Strip.
September 9, 2015 – Spears announces that she has extended her residency at Planet Hollywood Resort and Casino in Las Vegas for two more years.
August 26, 2016 – Spears’ ninth studio album, Glory, is released.
April 12, 2018 – Spears is honored at the GLAAD Media Awards as the recipient of the Vanguard Award, an award that goes to a performer for making a difference in promoting and supporting equality.
November 10, 2020 – Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Brenda Penny declines Spears’ application to remove her father as her conservator, but says she would consider petitions “down the road” to remove her father as the head of her estate. The move comes amid the #FreeBritney social media movement, driven by some fans who believe she is a prisoner in her own home because of the court-ordered conservatorship.
June 23, 2021 – Spears appears remotely in court to request her court-ordered conservatorship be lifted, calling it “abusive.” During the hearing, she speaks for more than 20 minutes, saying she felt she had been forced to perform, was given no privacy and was made to use birth control, take medication and attend therapy sessions against her will.
July 14, 2021 – Judge Penny accepts Ingham’s resignation, along with the resignation of Bessemer Trust, a wealth management firm that had been appointed co-conservator of the singer’s estate. Spears is granted permission to hire her own attorney. During a hearing, Spears calls for her father to be charged with conservatorship abuse.
September 1, 2021 – The Ventura County District Attorney’s Office says in a press release they decline to file charges against Spears. Last month Spears’ housekeeper alleged that the singer struck a cell phone out of her hand during an argument over the veterinary care of her dog.
January 18, 2022 – Spears’ lawyer, Mathew Rosengart, sends a legal cease-and-desist letter to the singer’s younger sister, Jamie Lynn Spears, regarding her new memoir, “Things I Should Have Said.” In Rosengart’s letter, he calls the book “ill-timed” and that it makes “misleading or outrageous claims about her.”
January 19, 2022 – Judge Penny rules against a request from Spears’ father to set aside money from her $60 million estate in a reserve to potentially cover legal fees, which would include her father’s.
The woman who accused actor Jonathan Majors of assaulting her during a dispute in March was arrested Wednesday night on suspicion of assault and criminal mischief related to the same incident, according to a source with knowledge of the matter.
Grace Jabbari, Majors’ former girlfriend, voluntarily surrendered to police in New York City and was given a desk appearance ticket to appear in court at a later date, the source said. The charges are both misdemeanors.
Jabbari and her attorney have not publicly commented on the case, which will not be prosecuted. CNN has been unable to reach Jabbari.
“The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office has officially declined to prosecute the case against Grace Jabbari because it lacks prosecutorial merit. The matter is now closed and sealed,” Doug Cohen, a spokesman for the Manhattan DA, told CNN in a statement on Thursday.
In a Sept. 21 court filing in the case against Majors, the DA’s office said it did not plan to prosecute Jabbari.
Majors is charged with assault and aggravated harassment related to the dispute with Jabbari on March 25. Through his attorney, Majors has denied the allegations against him, which, according to the complaint, include striking her “about the face with an open hand, causing substantial pain and a laceration behind her ear.”
Majors filed a counter-complaint against Jabbari in June, claiming he was assaulted by her in the same March dispute, according to court filings obtained by CNN.
A New York judge on Wednesday denied a motion to dismiss the case against Majors.
Dame Maggie Smith, the British actress acclaimed for her appearances both on stage and in cinema, has taken on a new role — and this time it’s in the world of luxury fashion.
Loewe has cast the 88-year-old, known for roles such as Professor McGonagall in the “Harry Potter” film franchise, in its spring/summer 2024 pre-collection campaign.
The pointed hat and cape of Hogwarts are a distant memory as Smith sports three cosy and stylish looks for the campaign. Shot by German photographer Juergen Teller, it also stars American actresses Dakota Fanning and Greta Lee, American actor Mike Faist, British actor Josh O’Connor, South Korean music artist Taeyong, British artist Rachel Jones and Chinese model Fei Fei Sun.
In one image, she sits on a sofa wearing a black and white turtleneck dress, with a small, pleated, burgundy Loewe Paseo handbag.
In another, Smith is adorned in a floor-length faux fur coat and holds Loewe’s signature Puzzle bag.
“Heartstopper” actor Sebastian Croft commented under an Instagram post by Loewe Creative Director Jonathan Anderson in which he shared the looks, saying: “It’s so perfect.”
Smith — who is more recently known for her supporting role as Countess Violet Crawley in the British drama series “Downtown Abbey,” for which she won three out of her four Emmy Awards — garnered international acclaim and received a Best Actress Oscar for her portrayal of an eccentric schoolteacher in the 1969 romantic comedy “The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie.”
She won another Academy Award nine years later for her supporting role in the 1978 romcom “California Suite” and received a Tony Award for the Broadway production of “Lettice and Lovage” in 1990.
The actress is one of several older women who have fronted fashion lines and magazine covers in recent years. In March, tattoo artist Apo Whang-Od became Vogue’s oldest cover star with her appearance for Vogue Philippines at the age of 106 and in 2020, aged 85, Oscar-winning actress Dame Judi Dench became the oldest person to ever grace the cover of British Vogue.
Following that Twitter-imploding leg moment, though, Pascal has been largely out of the public eye in recent months. Which is why, upon his reemergence on SNL this past weekend, the 48-year-old star brought out his menswear fastball to remind everyone he’s still at his blush-inducing best. Popping up for a quick cameo during host Bad Bunny’s monologue, Pascal sported one of the most iconic ensembles in all of fashion—a breezy pleated Issey Miyake suit—only revved up via a clash of electric hues and an alluring lack of a shirt. Combined with Bad Bunny’s own oversized double-breasted number, it was about as compelling a case for non-traditional tailoring as you’re ever likely to see.
Brittany Romano contributes to Apartment Therapy’s Kitchn, focusing on shoppable content. She holds a sociology degree from New England College and started her career as a freelance market assistant at Marie Claire. She’s held positions as an editor at Future PLC, overseeing their five home brands, and most recently, as a Celebrations Editor at USA Today’s Reviewed. She contributes to Forbes Vetted, Glamour, and Teen Vogue. When she’s not writing or editing, you’ll find her trying out yet another DIY project or changing her removable wallpaper in her apartment for the millionth time.
Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger made two surprise cameos on the new episode of “Saturday Night Live,” hosted by musician Bad Bunny.
In the first sketch, Jagger crashed the set of a Spanish-language soap opera, playing the father of a character who was involved in a bitter on-screen fight.
Bad Bunny starred in the sketch alongside and “SNL” cast member Marcello Hernández.
Bad Bunny and Hernández were attempting to film a scene where their character were engaged in a verbal argument that resulted in the two slapping each other. Jagger, 80, sported a pencil mustache and a cream colored leisure suit for his part of the sketch, which ended with him slapping both actors in the scene-gone-awry. (The fictional production had already been marred by delays caused by a supporting actor who didn’t speak Spanish, played by Punkie Johnson.)
Jagger later appeared in a second sketch playing a not-so-innocent nun.
Jagger’s appearance on Saturday comes after the Rolling Stones released “Hackney Diamonds” on Friday, their first new album since 2005.
The Stones also announced that they’ll begin a new tour next year.
The Rolling Stones, including members Jagger, Keith Richards and Ronnie Wood, also performed a surprise album release party Friday night in New York City. Lady Gaga joined the band on stage to perform their single “Sweet Sounds of Heaven.”
Lady Gaga also made a cameo on “SNL” on Saturday to introduce Bad Bunny, who pulled double duty as the episode’s host and musical guest.
Meryl Streep and her husband Don Gummer have been living apart in recent years.
The news was confirmed by a representative for Streep in a statement to People on Saturday.
“Don Gummer and Meryl Streep have been separated for more than 6 years, and while they will always care for each other, they have chosen lives apart,” a representative for Streep told the outlet.
CNN has reached out to the actor’s publicist for comment.
The three-time Oscar winner and Gummer, a sculptor, first married in 1978. Last month marked their 45th wedding anniversary.
Streep and Gummer were photographed at numerous events together over the years, but largely kept their personal lives out of the press.
“There’s no road map on how to raise a family: It’s always an enormous negotiation,” Streep old Vogue in 2002. “But I have a holistic need to work and to have huge ties of love in my life. I can’t imagine eschewing one for the other.”
Streep paid tribute to Gummer in her best actress Oscar acceptance speech for her performance in “The Iron Lady” in 2012.
“First, I’m going to thank Don because when you thank your husband at the end of the speech they play him out with the music, and I want him to know that everything I value most in our lives, you’ve given me,” Streep said at the time.
The two are parents of four now-adult children, a son, Henry, and three daughters, Mamie, Grace, and Louisa.
Britney Spears’ new memoir, The Woman in Me, is a heartbreaking story about a life spent at the mercy of others. She spares no detail, for instance, in describing her time spent in a conservatorship overseen by her father.
However, the book, a copy of which was obtained by TIME ahead of its Oct. 24 release, also includes some lighter moments—including a number of run-ins with A-list stars and other public figures. From Madonna to Natalie Portman to Lenny Kravitz to Justin Timberlake, the book details the many actors, musicians, and journalists she’s spend time with.
Cher gets a reference, as Spears at one point moves into a New York City apartment once owned by the icon, and Robin Williams, Mel Gibson, and Olivia Newton-John make quick cameos as Spears’ neighbors in various locations. “Sandy from Grease lived nearby, too. I’d see her and call out, ‘Hi Olivia Newton-John! How are you, Olivia Newton-John?” she writes. Missing from the celebrity laundry list? Surprisingly, Lindsay Lohan only receives a single mention, and Jessica Simpson isn’t named at all.
Below, find a comprehensive list of the A-listers Spears mentions.
Actors
Keri Russell
Spears’ parents put her to work at a young age. She picked up prizes across regional talent shows and the family started to set their sights onbigger opportunities. Spears writes that whenJamie and Lynne Spears saw an open call for The All New Mickey Mouse Club, the family packed up their bags and drove the eight hours to Atlanta for the audition. Over 2,000 kids auditioned, including Keri Russell—who Spears describes as “a beautiful girl from California,” and Christina Aguilera, who, like Spears, didn’t make the cut.
Later, Spears auditioned again. This time, she made it. She was reunited with Aguilera and Russell—and met other castmates who would go on to have significant careers, like Ryan Gosling and Justin Timberlake, for the first time.
Natalie Portman
Spears writes that she and Portman first crossed paths as understudies in the off-Broadway show Ruthless! They both played a “sociopathic child star” named Tina Denmark, a role which Spears writes “hit close to home.” Following Spears’ breakup with Timberlake, Spears and Portman co-hosted a New Year’s Eve party in New York—a call back to their theater days.
Rachel McAdams
Following her turn in Crossroads, Spears auditioned for The Notebook. According to her memoir, casting came down to her and Rachel McAdams. In the end, Spears says she’s “glad” she didn’t get the part, because she’d struggled to separate herself from her character in Crossroads while making the film. “If I had,” she writes, “I’d have been acting like a 1940s heiress day and night.”
Singer Britney Spears and actor Colin Farrell arrive at the premiere of ‘The Recruit’ at the Cinerama Dome in Hollywood, on January 28, 2003.Kevin Winter—Getty Images
Shortly after her breakup with Timberlake, Spears writes that she laid eyes on a “handsome” guy, Colin Farrell. She got in her car and drove up to the set of S.W.A.T., which Farrell was filming at the time. There was no security, so Spears walked right onto the soundstage where the director invited her to sit in his chair, and Farrell approached her. Spears refers to their fling as a “two-week brawl.” “Brawl is the only word for it—we were all over each other, grappling so passionately it was like we were in a street fight,” she writes. He even took her to the premiere of The Recruit, where she accidentally wore a pajama top. She met his family, who she describes as “warm,” but it was simply too soon, she writes. She wasn’t over Timberlake yet.
In 2007, Spears’ was slated to perform “Gimme More,” at the VMAs. That night, Sarah Silverman took the stage to roast her, saying that by age 25, Spears had done everything worthwhile in her life she’d ever do; she even called her babies “the most adorable mistakes you’ll ever see.” Backstage, Spears writes that she was “sobbing hysterically.”
Reese Witherspoon
Though Spears doesn’t describe any interactions with Reese Witherspoon in her memoir, the actor and producer is namechecked.Spears writes that during her third year of her Las Vegas residency, she knew something had to change. She cites Witherspoon as a great example of a woman who wields her power in a positive way, writing that, “Once you start to see yourself that way—as not just someone who exists to make everyone else happy but someone who deserves to make their wishes known—that changes everything. When I started to think that I could be, like Reese, someone who was nice but also strong, it changed my perspective on who I was.”
Musicians
Christina Aguilera
Britney Spears (left) and Christina Aguilera at the 2000 MTV Video Music Awards at Radio City Music Hall in New York City, on Sept. 7, 2000.Frank Micelotta Archive/Getty Images
Spears and Aguilera first met while auditioning for The All-New Mickey Mouse Club. Neither made the cut the first time around, but they were reintroduced after they were later cast, even sharing a dressing room during their time on the show in the ’90s. In the early aughts, the up-and-coming starlets were pitted against each other in the media, often portrayed as rivals. Spears doesn’t shed much light on any tension between the twoin The Woman in Me. But she does note her confusion when Aguilera voiced her support for the idea of Spears and Timberlake reconciling in a 2003 Rolling Stone interview, writing that she was surprised by Aguilera’s comment considering “how negative she’d been elsewhere.” Aguilera is also completely missing from Spears’ account of her iconic kiss with Madonna at the VMAs, despite performing alongside them.
Elsewhere in the book, while discussing her own nerves when it comes to television appearances, Spears compliments Aguilera, writing that she—and Gwen Stefani—always are “really professional on TV.” “When the camera is on them, they thrive,” she writes.
The only other appearance Aguilera makes is brief. Spears shares how during one tour, she and Aguilera employed a lot of the same dancers. They all went out together, but while under the conservatorship, Spears was barred from drinking and had to stay sober. Aguilera, meanwhile, “seemed pretty messed up,” according to Spears, who wished she could have let loose too. “It would have been nice to have drinks with them, to get rebellious, sassy, fun,” she writes.
Justin Timberlake
Justin Timberlake and Britney Spears at the 44th Annual Grammy Awards in 2002.L. Cohen—WireImage/Getty Images
There may be no other romance that signals early-aughts celebrity culture like Britney and Justin. Timberlake and Spears first met in 1992 when they were both cast as “Mouseketeers” on the Disney variety show The All-New Mickey Mouse Club. In the book, Spears recalls that they had an instant connection, and that Timberlake was even her first kiss. The pair later reconnected in 1998, when Spears joined NSYNC as the opening act for the group’s tour; Spears and Timberlake began dating in 1999. Though the relationship only lasted for three years, their relationship and subsequent messy breakup became the stuff of pop culture legend. In Spears’ memoir, however, readers get the most candid look at their relationship yet: Spears reveals that she had a medical abortion while they were dating because Timberlake “didn’t want to be a father.”
“But Justin definitely wasn’t happy about the pregnancy,” she writes. “He said we weren’t ready to have a baby in our lives, that we were way too young. If it had been left up to me alone, I never would have done it.”
Spears also shared that Timberlake broke up with her via text and believes that he prompted a split because he wanted “ammunition for his record,” his first solo album, Justified. Spears also cleared up longtime speculation about infidelity in their relationship. While she was heavily scrutinized post-split, in part because of Timberlake’s framing of the breakup and implication that she cheated on him, she alleges that he was unfaithful to her several times. Spears shares that she cheated on him when she made out with her backup dancer, Wade Robson, a move she says was motivated by Timberlake’s indiscretions.
While working on her first album, Spears was urged by record label execs to meet a “producer from Sweden.” She and Max Martin, who went on to become one of pop music’s most successful songwriters and producers, met for a private dinner—no assistants or label representatives. Within seconds of sitting down, a candle flipped and their table went up in flames. “We should go now, yeah?” Martin said to Spears. They started working together immediately after, with Spears frequently flying to Sweden to record.
Mariah Carey
Spears may have had her biggest fan girl moment with Mariah Carey. In the early years of her career, Spears—a longtime fan of Carey’s (as a child she would practice performing by making homemade music videos of herself dancing and singing to Carey’s music— introduced herself to the legendary singer by knocking on her dressing room door backstage at an awards show. Spears detailed that she asked Carey for a photo and that the singer kindly obliged, but in true Mariah fashion, would not accept anything but good light and the right angles for the photo.
“I did everything Mariah Carey told me to do and we took the photo,” she writes. “Of course she was completely right about everything—the photo looked incredible. I know I won an award that night, but I couldn’t even tell you what it was. The perfect photo with Mariah Carey—that was the real prize.”
Madonna
Singers Britney Spears and Madonna perform on her “Sticky and Sweet” Tour at Dodger’s Stadium in Los Angeles, on November 6, 2008.John Shearer—WireImage/Getty Images
Madonna’s name is mentioned a whopping 17 times throughout The Woman in Me. As a young girl, Spears idolized the star—and wanted to be like her. Once Spears was on the awards show circuit, she started running into Madonna “all over the world.”
Later, when Spears decamped in Cher’s old NoHo apartment, Madonna droppedby for a visit. “She walked into the place and immediately, of course, she owned the room. I remember thinking, it’s Madonna’s room now,” Spears writes.
In Madonna, Spears found a mentor. “Madonna’s supreme confidence helped me see a lot about my situation with fresh eyes. I think she probably had some intuitive sense of what I was going through. I needed a little guidance at that time,” she writes. Madonna performed a red-string ceremony with Spears to initiate her into Kabbalah; she also gifted Spears a “trunk full” of Zohar books.
It was while rehearsing for the VMAs that Spears had the idea to feature Madonna on Me Against the Music, her latest single at the time. She approached Madonna directly with the request, and the rest was history.
Spears’ admiration for Madonna, and her “supreme confidence,” is made clear. “If I could go back now, I would try to become my own parent, my own partner, my own advocate—the way I knew Madonna did,” she reflects. During their Me Against the Music shoot, Spears was in awe of how Madonna refused to compromise her artistic vision and integrity. “It was an important lesson for me,” Spears writes. “One that would take me a long time to absorb: she demanded power, and so she got power.”
It was when Spears and Timberlake were in New York that the couple ran into Ginuwine.
According to Spears, Timberlake got excited: “Oh yeah, fo shiz, fo shiz! Ginuwiiiiiine! What’s up, homie?” After Ginuwine walked away, Spears’ personal assistant Felicia Culotta poked fun at Timberlake and impersonated what he just said, but Timberlake “wasn’t even embarrassed,” writes Spears. “He just took it and looked at her like, Okay, f-ck you, Fe.”
“Sometimes,” she writes of NSYNC, “I thought they tried too hard to fit in.”
Elton John
Sir Elton John plays a pivotal role in helping Spears to find her musical voice after her struggles with her conservatorship. In her memoir, Spears shared that she hadn’t been thinking about recording music until John reached out to her to collaborate on “Hold Me Closer,” a modern duet version of his hit song, “Tiny Dancer”—a song that Spears had listened to frequently as a child. Spears and John had met a decade earlier and gotten along well, but she was excited to now work with him—the result was her first number one song and longest-charting single in nearly 10 years.
“I was so honored,” she writes of the experience. “Like me, Elton John has been through so much, so publicly. It’s given him incredible compassion. What a beautiful man on all levels.”
Steven Tyler
Britney Spears performs with Steven Tyler of Aerosmith during the Super Bowl XXXV halftime show in Tampa, Fla., on Jan. 28, 2001.Brian Bahr—Allsport/Newsmakers/Getty Images
According to Spears, one of the highlights of her early career was performing at the 2001 Super Bowl halftime show, which was headlined by Aerosmith and NSYNC and included appearances by her, Mary J. Blige, and Nelly. She has positive memories of getting to meet Steven Tyler..
“I was brought to Steven Tyler’s trailer to meet him right before the show, and his energy was incredible: he was such an idol to me,” she writes.
Lenny Kravitz
Two mentions of Lenny Kravitz prove that the rocker left his mark on Spears. Upon getting a glimpse of him at the VMAs, Spears was stunned. “Legends! Legends everywhere I look!” she writes.
In September 2002, Spears attended a party thrown by Donatella Versace. The guest list, she writes, was full of cool people, but the only attendee she names is none other than Kravitz.
Journalists
Diane Sawyer
Singer Britney Spears and anchorwoman Diane Sawyer celebrate Britney’s birthday after her performance on ABC’s “Good Morning America” in New York City, on Dec. 2, 2008.Michael Loccisano—FilmMagic/Getty Images
In 2003, fresh off the success of her fourth album In the Zone—and in the shadow of her high-profile breakup with Timberlake—Spears sat down (on a sofa she still has to this day) for a now infamous interview with Diane Sawyer. Sawyer seemed focused on Spears’ image, deeming it “racier than ever,” and pressed her about drug use, shopping habits, and her relationship with Timberlake.
“It was completely humiliating,” she writes. “I wasn’t told what the questions would be ahead of time, and it turned out they were 100 percent embarrassing. I was too vulnerable then, too sensitive, to do this type of interview.”
The interview, she says, “was a breaking point.”
“I didn’t want to share anything private with the world,” Spears writes. “I didn’t owe the media details of my breakup. I shouldn’t have been forced to speak on national TV, forced to cry in front of this stranger, a woman who was relentlessly going after me with harsh question after harsh question. Instead, I felt like I had been exploited, set up in front of the whole world.”
Following her breakup from Timberlake, Spears’ squeaky-clean image was criticized, especially after he talked about their sexual relationship in interviews. Spears suffered public backlash, but found support from an unlikely ally in Oprah during this time.
“I’d appreciated it when Oprah told me on her show that my sexuality was no one else’s business,” she writes. “And that when it came to virginity, ‘you don’t need a world announcement if you change your mind.’”
Matt Lauer
In 2006, after the birth of her second son, Spears largely shied away from doing press in an attempt to protect her children from the relentless scrutiny. She did grant an interview to Matt Lauer, who interrogated her about her parenting skills and the media frenzy that surrounded her.
“He said that people were asking questions about me, including: ‘Is Britney a bad mom?’ He never said who was asking them. Everyone, apparently,” she writes. “And he asked me what I thought it would take for the paparazzi to leave me alone. I wished he’d ask them—so whatever it was, I could do exactly that.
Ryan Seacrest
Spears’ sole interview for her 2007 album Blackout was a live radio chat with Ryan Seacrest. She remembers being frustrated by Seacrest’s focus on her personal life, particularly her custody battle with her ex husband, Kevin Federline, as opposed to her music.
“It felt like that was the only thing people wanted to talk about: whether or not I was a fit mother,” she writes. Not about how I’d made such a strong album while holding two babies on my hips and being pursued by dozens of dangerous men all day every day.”
Other Icons
Donatella Versace
In September 2002, in the throes of heartbreak after her split from Timberlake, Spears took a trip to Milan to visit Donatella Versace. While she was originally slated to perform at the designer’s runway show, she didn’t feel up to it, opting instead to meet the models and attend the after party, which Spears remembers fondly.
“That trip invigorated me—it reminded me that there was still fun to be had in the world,” Spears writes. “Donatella is known for her lavish parties and this one was no exception. I remember seeing Lenny Kravitz there, all these cool people. That party was really the first thing I did to put myself out there after the breakup with Justin—on my own, innocent.”
Paris Hilton
TV Personality Paris Hilton and Singer Britney Spears at the 2008 MTV Video Music Awards at Paramount Pictures Studios in Los Angeles on Sept. 7, 2008.Chris Polk—FilmMagic/Getty Images
In Paris Hilton, Spears found a kindred spirit and some levity during some of the darker moments of her life. Hilton, no stranger to the relentless scrutiny of the public eye and the harshness of tabloid culture, was in Spears’ words, “one of the people who was kindest to me when I really needed kindness…she encouraged me to have fun for the first time in a long time.” Hilton was part of the Vegas crew that Spears frolicked with before she got spontaneously married for 55 hours to her childhood friend, Jason Alexander. And Hilton became Spears’ partner in crime for her “party stage,” although Spears makes it clear in her memoir that “it was never as wild as the press made it out to be.”
Revelations from Britney Spears‘s love life continue to roll in thanks to pre-release copies of The Woman In Me making their way into the media universe. Colin Farrell, you’re up.
“Brawl is the only word for it—we were all over each other, grappling so passionately it was like we were in a street fight,” Spears writes of their short-lived romance in her memoir, which Time obtained ahead of its official October 24 publication date.
Spears and the actor briefly connected in 2003 shortly after her very public breakup with Justin Timberlake, whom she called her first love. During her relationship with Timberlake, from 1999 to 2002, Spears became pregnant and then got an abortion at Timberlake’s urging, and was later broken up with via text message and subsequently portrayed as “a harlot” in the singer’s “Cry Me a River” music video, all of which she writes about in the forthcoming book.
Elsewhere in the memoir, Spears writes that Timberlake slept with “six or seven girls” in the weeks after their relationship “officially” ended, so she went out to have a little fun of her own in the midst of her heartbreak. “He was a girl’s dream,” she said of Timberlake. “I was in love with him.”
She writes that a “club promoter” friend set her up with Farrell, and they had a “two-week brawl.”
The two attended the premiere of Farrell’s movie The Recruits together, where Farrell insisted they weren’t dating and Spears reportedly dipped as soon as the cameras were gone.
“We’re not dating,” Farrell said at the time. “She’s a sweet, sweet girl. There’s nothing going on—just mates.”
Later that year, Spears would tell W Magazine, “Yes, I kissed him… He’s the cutest, hottest thing in the world—wooh!… But it was nothing serious.”
In her book, per Time, Spears writes of Farrell “for a brief moment in time, I did think there could be something there. The disappointments in my romantic life were just one part of how isolated I became. I felt so awkward all the time.”
“As I had before when I’d felt too attached to a man, I tried to convince myself in every way that it was not a big deal, that we were just having fun, that in this case, I was vulnerable because I wasn’t over Justin yet.”
Representatives for Britney Spears and Colin Farrell did not immediately return requests for comment.
It’s a crisp fall evening in Soho, but Jeremy Pope is dressed for summer in a sensual, back-baring halter top and oversized Persol sunglasses. “It’s a backless fall,” says the 31-year-old actor, who shot to fame on hit shows like Pose and Hollywood before breaking out in last year’s A24 drama The Inspection. “That’s where we’re at today.”
Given the summer Pope just had, it’s hard to blame him for wanting to extend the season as long as possible. A dedicated member of the Bey Hive, the Emmy and Tony nominee spent a good chunk of the year going to as many Renaissance World Tour shows as his schedule would allow. “There’s the initial shock viewing,” Pope explains, “and then there’s the second viewing where you can really receive the queen.”
While Pope got to rub elbows with the likes of Jay-Z and Kris Jenner at various tour stops, the most memorable show he attended was the one he went to with his mom. “The last time we saw Beyoncé [together] was when I was 16, and she took me for my birthday,” he says. “I was at the show where she fell on them stairs! It was giving drama… That’s a YouTube staple.”
Watching concerts with your mom? Just one of the many things Jeremy Pope Strongly Endorses these days.
Scaring yourself with style
Pope is known for his revealing red carpet looks, from his almost-shirtless moment at last summer’s Loewe show to tonight’s dangerously low-cut Fendi halter. “Me and my stylist, we always have a rule that if I’m not nervous or scared when we’re going to an event or a carpet that maybe we didn’t challenge ourselves enough,” he says. “And it’s not necessarily that we’re looking for the gag effect.”
Instead, Pope explains, he dresses to express himself and radiate confidence, after a childhood spent feeling uncomfortable in his own body. “My dad was a pastor and a professional bodybuilder,” he says. “And those spaces really occupy extreme ideas of masculinity. Being a skinny little kid who was into the arts, it was always trying to find where I felt confidence in my boyhood, into manhood. Now, when it comes to fashion, I love using it as a tool to just express different energies—the yin and the yang, the mother and the father, the masculine and the feminine.”
Apple Music’s Spa playlist
Given his hectic travel schedule—jetting off to Paris Fashion Week one day, flying back to New York for a Broadway performance the next—Pope has developed several methods for creating comfort on the go. One of his go-to moves is spacing out to Apple Music’s Spa playlist. “It’s giving me spa as I’m in the air,” he says, laughing. “I don’t know what it is about just sleeping with the spa music… I need the massage part, but it gets me in the zone, you know what I mean?”
The Wiz
Another thing Pope loves to do while flying? Rewatching Sidney Lumet’s classic 1978 film The Wiz, starring Diana Ross and Michael Jackson. “It’s the Black people version of The Wizard of Oz,” he says. “It’s now on Netflix. There’s something about that movie—give it to Ms. Ross and Mr. Jackson. It’s just this iconic, feel-good, nostalgic movie. It has this Afro Harlem, New York feel.”
Persol shades
The night we meet, Pope is the guest of honor at the launch of Persol’s newest collection. Given the Italian eyewear label’s long-held association with iconic leading men—from Paul Newman to Steve McQueen—its alignment with a Black, queer actor like Pope seems like a clear salute to Hollywood’s more diverse future. “That’s where we’re at right now,” Pope says. “I love that they were down to call me.”
Just seconds before this interview is supposed to start, I panic. How am I supposed to address the person I’m talking to? He was born Zhou Yinghua, and took the name Michael Chow when he moved to the U.K. as a young man, but I’ve never heard anybody call him either of those names. People in his orbit famously refer to him simply as M, but the optimal word here is “famously”— I don’t think I quite rank with Chow’s famous friends past and present, like David Hockney, Michael Caine, or Jean-Michel Basquiat, so I’m uncomfortable just using the letter. I go with the third option, addressing him as Mr. Chow—but even that makes me feel a little strange, because that’s the name of the string of restaurants he began opening in the 1960s, always in the right place at the right time.
As it turns out, none of this matters to the man I’m about to speak to.
“I don’t even know who the fuck Mr. Chow is. I’ve never heard of him. I don’t know who the fuck I am. I still think I’m nobody,” he says before pausing. “Not nobody. That’s not true, but I’m not conscious of that shit.”
The new HBO documentary AKA Mr. Chow, which premieres this Sunday, is a look at Chow’s life and times, his philosophies, and the decades he’s spent blurring the lines between art and dining at his restaurants in London, Beverly Hills, and Manhattan. When Chow made his way to America in the 1970s, Chinese food was supposed to be inexpensive. It was served in paper oyster pails that you’d take home to eat, and what you got when you opened up the white boxes often didn’t resemble anything they served in China. Chow’s goal was to elevate the cuisine of his homeland. Instead of the chop suey or General Tso’s chicken that Americans were familiar with, he gave customers Peking duck pancakes, a quail’s egg fried in shrimp toast, and noodles—pulled in-house and tossed with bits of pork, cucumber, and a little hot sauce. Reviews from the era suggest diners typically paid about $20 a person before tax, tip, or cocktails– or about $87 in 2023 currency.
For the people who frequented his restaurants, the food—which generally earned mixed reviews—was never the point, nor was the price. It was never about going there because you had to try the minced squab nested in lettuce leaves; it was about eating it off of plates designed by Cy Twombly. You didn’t decide to dine there because you wanted a quiet meal; you hoped to be in the same room as Jack Nicholson, Julian Schnabel, Tina Brown, or any of the other famous people that Mr. Chow has counted among its patrons over the years. If you used matches from the restaurant to light your cigarette, you struck a matchbook with art by Ed Ruscha. If you were somebody people talked about, or you at least wanted to be associated with those people—in swinging ‘60s London, the Hollywood of the Easy Riders, Raging Bulls era, or New York during the neo-expressionism boom—all roads led to Mr. Chow, a place subsequently name-checked as shorthand for luxury by everyone from Steely Dan to Jay-Z.
But as the documentary shows, there’s a lot about the famous restaurateur that most of us didn’t know or consider. It shows Chow the personality as well as Chow the boss, Chow the painter, and Chow the immigrant. Everybody from art world maven Jeffrey Deitch to Grace Coddington—ex-wife number one—shows up to talk about him. But the documentary also explores the more painful experiences Chow has dealt with over the years, from the racism he faced as a Chinese man moving to the West to the AIDS-related death of his second wife, Tina Chow.
Heartstopper breakthrough Kit Connor has, unsurprisingly, got the world’s biggest brands calling. After a slew of left-field fits in Loewe, he likely has creative director Jonathan Anderson on speed dial. He’s a fan of Chinese-born, London-based designer Feng Chen Wang. There are too many nice suits from Scandi brand Acne Studios to mention. But for all the exclusive fresh-off-the-runway designs, he’s got a deep-rooted love for a brand that every guy can get their hands on: Carhartt. And listen: nothing says Big Fit™ like Carhartt.
Dave Benett
This week, Connor attended the premiere of Black Dog during the 67th BFI London Film Festival in support of his mate Georges Jacques. It was a red carpet gig, sure. But the 19-year-old dressed down in a muted fit made up of a Carhartt chore jacket, emblazoned with the brand’s offshoot WIP branding on the left breast and a molecular logo that reads ‘89: a reference to the sub-label’s birth year. Paired with clean black slacks (probably Carhartt too) and beater sneakers, it was a simple look executed exceptionally well.
This isn’t the first time that Connor has gone down the Carhartt trail. He’s tapped into the curious case of the sudden Carhartt boom alongside the likes of Justin Bieber,Channing Tatum, Austin Butler and Kaia Gerber. Earlier this year, he linked up with his Heartstopper castmates for a little reunion in London’s Covent Garden. And yes, there was a Carhartt-heavy fit. Where his mates wore rainbow flags and shorts, he wore a washed-out navy jacket to London Pride with a pair of jeans. He’s worn black Carhartt zip-ups to other premieres. And his on-screen character Nick has his own tan Carhartt zip-up.
It’s Normal Guy stuff. Because, aside from being one of the UK’s most recognizable 19-year-olds, Connor is just a normal guy who likes to dress like one in the stuff that always looks good. Connor told British GQ last year that he was “finding that fashion can be used as a suit of armour,” and it seems his Carhartt jacket is just that.
This story originally appeared on British GQ with the title “Kit Connor is a dyed-in-the-wool, card-carrying Carhartt guy”
John Mulaney loves a suit. The comedian retired his on-stage hoodies and flannels sometime around 2010 and has never looked back. Since then, it’s been one well-tailored ensemble after another, from his stand-up specials and Saturday Night Live monologues to late-night guest appearances and beyond. And throughout the years, the cut of Mulaney’s suits has stayed as trim and neat as a pin—even in 2023, a year where the big suit has reigned supreme, he’s stuck to his slim-cut guns.
Mulaney leaving The Late Show in his slick black suit—no tie necessary.
Jason Howard/Bauer-Griffin
You’d think a celebrity with access to professional stylists and designer threads might be tempted to dip their toes in the slouchy suit waters, but not Mulaney. On The Late Show last week, he appeared in an immaculate black two-piece. It looked like could’ve worn at any point in the last 10 years—sharp and slim but not suffocating. However, there were a few subtle signals that Mulaney’s sartorial habits have evolved. “So…didn’t shave. No tie. You’ve changed,” quipped Stephen Colbert. “This is not the John Mulaney I remember.” It’s an astute observation from the host. Yes, Mulaney mostly looked and dressed as he had many times before, but the details were different.
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