Both men made their trade in brutality, but while Crowe’s warrior was a master of control, Pascal says his character is someone who finds himself carried away by circumstance. “I think that a lot happens before you can stop and question what you’ve done. And then of course there’s no changing it,” he says. “He’s a very, very good general, which can mean a very good killer.” To Lucius, Acacius is a symbol of everything he detests. “The film begins with the raiding party of the Roman fleet, which comes in from the sea and decimates Numidia,” Scott says. “It’s pretty gnarly.”
Brick Wall Paul: “He got so strong. I would rather be thrown from a building than have to fight him again,” says Pedro Pascal.
Aidan Monaghan/Paramount Pictures.
Lucius, once the grandson of the emperor of Rome, finds himself a prisoner of it. “When you’re a POW in Rome, if you are damaged, you are killed. If you are fit, you’ll get put into some kind of service, as in slavery, or you would go into the arena to die,” the director says. That leads to a twist the filmmaker is willing to reveal now: “The wrinkle is, when he gets to Rome as a prisoner and has a first round in the arena, he sees his mother—to his shock. He doesn’t know whether she’s alive or not. How would he know? You don’t have telephones. There’s no press. And there’s his mother in the royal box looking pretty good after 20 years. And she’s with the general who he came face-to-face with on the wall in Numidia.”
Lucilla doesn’t recognize the battered creature in the Colosseum as her son, and has no idea about the bloody history between him and the man she loves. “She’s a woman who has had a huge loss, and in the middle of that, a gift that is Pedro Pascal,” Nielsen says. “What a gift that guy is. Even to play with, to work with, I just absolutely love him, and he’s so perfect for this role. He is one of those rare actors who really has heart, soul, and at the same time this incredible gift of transformation.”
One of the selling points of Google’s flagship generative AI models, Gemini 1.5 Pro and 1.5 Flash, is the amount of data they can supposedly process and analyze. In press briefings and demos, Google has repeatedly claimed that the models can accomplish previously impossible tasks thanks to their “long context,” like summarizing multiple hundred-page documents or searching across scenes in film footage.
But new research suggests that the models aren’t, in fact, very good at those things.
Two separatestudies investigated how well Google’s Gemini models and others make sense out of an enormous amount of data — think “War and Peace”-length works. Both find that Gemini 1.5 Pro and 1.5 Flash struggle to answer questions about large datasets correctly; in one series of document-based tests, the models gave the right answer only 40% 50% of the time.
“While models like Gemini 1.5 Pro can technically process long contexts, we have seen many cases indicating that the models don’t actually ‘understand’ the content,” Marzena Karpinska, a postdoc at UMass Amherst and a co-author on one of the studies, told TechCrunch.
Gemini’s context window is lacking
A model’s context, or context window, refers to input data (e.g., text) that the model considers before generating output (e.g., additional text). A simple question — “Who won the 2020 U.S. presidential election?” — can serve as context, as can a movie script, show or audio clip. And as context windows grow, so does the size of the documents being fit into them.
The newest versions of Gemini can take in upward of 2 million tokens as context. (“Tokens” are subdivided bits of raw data, like the syllables “fan,” “tas” and “tic” in the word “fantastic.”) That’s equivalent to roughly 1.4 million words, two hours of video or 22 hours of audio — the largest context of any commercially available model.
In a briefing earlier this year, Google showed several pre-recorded demos meant to illustrate the potential of Gemini’s long-context capabilities. One had Gemini 1.5 Pro search the transcript of the Apollo 11 moon landing telecast — around 402 pages — for quotes containing jokes, and then find a scene in the telecast that looked similar to a pencil sketch.
VP of research at Google DeepMind Oriol Vinyals, who led the briefing, described the model as “magical.”
“[1.5 Pro] performs these sorts of reasoning tasks across every single page, every single word,” he said.
That might have been an exaggeration.
In one of the aforementioned studies benchmarking these capabilities, Karpinska, along with researchers from the Allen Institute for AI and Princeton, asked the models to evaluate true/false statements about fiction books written in English. The researchers chose recent works so that the models couldn’t “cheat” by relying on foreknowledge, and they peppered the statements with references to specific details and plot points that’d be impossible to comprehend without reading the books in their entirety.
Given a statement like “By using her skills as an Apoth, Nusis is able to reverse engineer the type of portal opened by the reagents key found in Rona’s wooden chest,” Gemini 1.5 Pro and 1.5 Flash — having ingested the relevant book — had to say whether the statement was true or false and explain their reasoning.
Image Credits: UMass Amherst
Tested on one book around 260,000 words (~520 pages) in length, the researchers found that 1.5 Pro answered the true/false statements correctly 46.7% of the time while Flash answered correctly only 20% of the time. That means a coin is significantly better at answering questions about the book than Google’s latest machine learning model. Averaging all the benchmark results, neither model managed to achieve higher than random chance in terms of question-answering accuracy.
“We’ve noticed that the models have more difficulty verifying claims that require considering larger portions of the book, or even the entire book, compared to claims that can be solved by retrieving sentence-level evidence,” Karpinska said. “Qualitatively, we also observed that the models struggle with verifying claims about implicit information that is clear to a human reader but not explicitly stated in the text.”
The second of the two studies, co-authored by researchers at UC Santa Barbara, tested the ability of Gemini 1.5 Flash (but not 1.5 Pro) to “reason over” videos — that is, search through and answer questions about the content in them.
The co-authors created a dataset of images (e.g., a photo of a birthday cake) paired with questions for the model to answer about the objects depicted in the images (e.g., “What cartoon character is on this cake?”). To evaluate the models, they picked one of the images at random and inserted “distractor” images before and after it to create slideshow-like footage.
Flash didn’t perform all that well. In a test that had the model transcribe six handwritten digits from a “slideshow” of 25 images, Flash got around 50% of the transcriptions right. The accuracy dropped to around 30% with eight digits.
“On real question-answering tasks over images, it appears to be particularly hard for all the models we tested,” Michael Saxon, a PhD student at UC Santa Barbara and one of the study’s co-authors, told TechCrunch. “That small amount of reasoning — recognizing that a number is in a frame and reading it — might be what is breaking the model.”
Google is overpromising with Gemini
Neither of the studies have been peer-reviewed, nor do they probe the releases of Gemini 1.5 Pro and 1.5 Flash with 2-million-token contexts. (Both tested the 1-million-token context releases.) And Flash isn’t meant to be as capable as Pro in terms of performance; Google advertises it as a low-cost alternative.
Nevertheless, both add fuel to the fire that Google’s been overpromising — and under-delivering — with Gemini from the beginning. None of the models the researchers tested, including OpenAI’s GPT-4o and Anthropic’s Claude 3.5 Sonnet, performed well. But Google’s the only model provider that’s given context window top billing in its advertisements.
“There’s nothing wrong with the simple claim, ‘Our model can take X number of tokens’ based on the objective technical details,” Saxon said. “But the question is, what useful thing can you do with it?”
Generative AI broadly speaking is coming under increased scrutiny as businesses (and investors) grow frustrated with the technology’s limitations.
In a pair of recent surveys from Boston Consulting Group, about half of the respondents — all C-suite executives — said that they don’t expect generative AI to bring about substantial productivity gains and that they’re worried about the potential for mistakes and data compromises arising from generative AI-powered tools. PitchBook recently reported that, for two consecutive quarters, generative AI dealmaking at the earliest stages has declined, plummeting 76% from its Q3 2023 peak.
Faced with meeting-summarizing chatbots that conjure up fictional details about people and AI search platforms that basically amount to plagiarism generators, customers are on the hunt for promising differentiators. Google — which has raced, at times clumsily, to catch up to its generative AI rivals — was desperate to make Gemini’s context one of those differentiators.
But the bet was premature, it seems.
“We haven’t settled on a way to really show that ‘reasoning’ or ‘understanding’ over long documents is taking place, and basically every group releasing these models is cobbling together their own ad hoc evals to make these claims,” Karpinska said. “Without the knowledge of how long context processing is implemented — and companies do not share these details — it is hard to say how realistic these claims are.”
Google didn’t respond to a request for comment.
Both Saxon and Karpinska believe the antidotes to hyped-up claims around generative AI are better benchmarks and, along the same vein, greater emphasis on third-party critique. Saxon notes that one of the more common tests for long context (liberally cited by Google in its marketing materials), “needle in the haystack,” only measures a model’s ability to retrieve particular info, like names and numbers, from datasets — not answer complex questions about that info.
“All scientists and most engineers using these models are essentially in agreement that our existing benchmark culture is broken,” Saxon said, “so it’s important that the public understands to take these giant reports containing numbers like ‘general intelligence across benchmarks’ with a massive grain of salt.”
Claudia Doumit often feels like she’s in a very exclusive book club. When the cast of Prime Video’s hit series The Boysreceives the next round of scripts from showrunner Eric Kripke, the group chat goes nuts. You see, they’re only given their character’s basic arc at the beginning of the season, and more information is drip-fed as filming commences.
“It’s so funny because not everyone has read the script at the same time,” she tells StyleCaster. “They’ll say, ‘You won’t believe how it ends for you,’ so it’s really exciting … Every cast member is so enthralled with what’s essentially the next installment in our book club.”
As Congresswoman Victoria Neuman, Doumit joined the cast as somewhat of a secret antagonist. She’s originally portrayed as an Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez-like figure—one hell-bent on dismantling Vought, regulating Supes, and reclaiming America for us regular folk. In the season 2 finale, though, there’s a huge twist: She’sa supe! Not only that but the head-popper from the congressional hearing.
The following season, Vicky’s powers remain secret from the public—they have to be because she teams up with Hughie (Jack Quaid) at the Federal Bureau of Superhuman Affairs to regulate supe activity. We learn that Stan Edgar (Giancarlo Esposito), the former CEO of Vought International, is Vicky’s adoptive father and he injected her with Compound V as a child. He’s eventually arrested for keeping classified documents from Vought and it’s Vicky who puts him behind bars.
Going into season 4, Doumit says it was exciting to explore that relationship further as well as slowly reveal Vicky’s true motivations. “She’s incredibly manipulative,” says Doumit. “She operates in the shadows. And she is a character that wears many masks. So to be able to see the cracks start to come through—those masks are such a gift as an actor and it’s just wonderful to explore.” Is she a villain? It’s just not that simple.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
Your character’s relationship shifts a little bit in this seasonbecause Stan Edgar didn’t know Vicky shot up her daughter, Zoey, with Compound V. Can you speak to that? I think it’s really interesting because where we left it off in season three, there was such a great loss in that relationship and heartbreak on both sides.
But also, Victoria Neuman has always had the safety net of Stan Edgar, and this season, she very much does not have that safety net, so she’s finding out what it’s like to go out into the world on her own. It’s something that she wanted, it’s something that she thought she’d be better at, but she’s very quickly realizing that that’s not the case. She’s walked into a shitstorm. So it’s quite hard for her to navigate through that without Stan. And it only gets worse and worse.
Vicky and Stan have a reunion in episode 5. After learning she dosed her daughter with V,Stan strikes a deal with The Boys to take down Vicky in return for his freedom. It’s another betrayal. She’s still quite hurt. She still doesn’t trust him, and rightfully so, because he’s taken the very people who want to kill her to a top-secret facility where she’s working on a virus to kill supes. It’s it’s quite a chaotic reunion.
I think Neuman seeks out control and positions of power to feel safe and secure, which is a really interesting thing when it comes to someone who has the ability to pop someone’s head.
Claudia Doumit
And we knew your character was coming because everyone got nosebleeds. It’s always a fun little precursor to whenever I get to make an entrance [laughs]. In the arc of this episode, she comes back to Stan Edgar. And I think that has to do with the fact that she’s lost Sameer, the father of her child and the only man she’s ever loved. I think she feels very lost at the end of that episode and then detached, like she has nowhere else to turn. And I think that’s when a lot of kids go home.
It’s interesting you phrase it that way because Homelander (played by Antony Starr) went home in the previous episode, butchering all but one scientist responsible for his creation. There are a lot of parallels to draw between Vicky and Homelander. I think that too! I’ve said that many times. There’s a far deeper understanding between Neuman and Homelander and how their psyches operate. They’re the only two supes who have grown up as test subjects, the difference is that Neuman got to go to boarding school, but Edgar still used her like a lab rat.
It’s a different environment, sure, but the same test. Neuman has just had this false backdrop of normalcy. But between the two of them, that’s how they ended up. She’s had a father figure, and she’s had some sense of human experience, whereas Homelander has been locked in this underground space for years and years.
In this episode, we meet Vicky’s husband and suped-up farm animals. Can you talk me through the mechanics of the chicken fight? It’s really funny because a lot of that is just us looking at a spot. Sometimes it’s a tennis ball, but mostly the first assistant director will walk us through the areas that we’re supposed to look at—”This is one, that over there is two, there’s a spot by the door, that’s three.” Then when they call “action,” they’ll call out the numbers so you know where to look, which is hilarious. So when we’re supposed to look up at the sky, you’re clocking everyone else’s eye line.
The final scene in this sequence is Stan Edgar being driven back to prison. Then his driver’s head explodes, so we know Vicky’s caught up to him. You two exchange a look, and I’d love to know what the direction was. Shana Stein was the director and it’s a conflicting moment. They’ve been through so much and they both betrayed each other to an extensive degree. So, in that moment, for me as Neuman, there’s a sea of emotions that I’m experiencing. And it’s really supposed to leave you in a place of questioning which emotion is coming through the strongest.
I remember Shana saying, ‘We don’t want to know exactly what’s going on, we want to feel like, ‘Is she going to pop his head? Is she going to embrace him? Is she gonna slam the door and leave?’ It’s all of those thoughts and emotions all at once. What Neuman lands on is that she’s scared and she needs a parent.
I read somewhere that Vicky was more dangerous than Homelander, do you agree? I don’t think so. Based on the emotional state of these characters alone, Neuman is quite strategic and she keeps her emotions at bay. She’s very logical. Homelander is a quite volatile and erratic character. You don’t know if he’s going to kill you based on what kind of a day he’s having, and that isn’t really the case for Neuman.
What are Vicky’s motivations, do you think? For a large portion of her life, she has been operating in a manner that suits Stan Egdar’s needs. Essentially, what she is for him is a weapon. That’s quite hard for her because all she ever wants from Stan is to be loved as a daughter, but she only ever gets praise from him when she’s a weapon.
So I think that’s been the goal for many, many years. I think she’s been Stan Edgar’s weapon and on this track for so long that in this season, she realizes the cost of it. It, perhaps for the first time, begins to stir something within her, and because she’s been alone for so much of this season and because she finds herself in so many compromising positions, it actually forces her to really look at herself in the mirror and assess what she actually wants and what she’s doing all of this all.
I think Neuman as a character, in general, seeks out control and positions of power to feel safe and secure, which is a really interesting thing when it comes to someone who has the ability to pop someone’s head.
I don’t think that she ever pursued politics in the first place as a means to do better or to help the world in any way. I think it’s always been something that has been in service of her own safety and security, or something to make Stan Edgar approve of and love her. It’s very human. I think a lot of us do things without actually realizing why.
The Boysis available to stream on Prime Video, with new episodes dropping each Thursday.
Morgan Wallen and Eric Church‘s shared appreciation for nature served as the main inspiration behind their latest collaboration.
The country music stars purchased the outdoors brand Field & Stream earlier this year and launched plans to revamp its magazine and website. The duo also announced plans for the inaugural Field & Stream Music Fest festival, which will take place in Winnsboro, South Carolina, this October.
“My grandfather always kept a few of his favorite issues on the dash of his truck, and I all but memorized the stories and pictures,” Church, 47, exclusively shares in the newest issue of Us Weekly. “It’s both an honor and a huge responsibility to be carrying on that legacy for future generations.”
It’s Church’s grandfather who sparked his love of nature. “My grandfather had 100 acres in North Carolina when I was growing up and that land was heaven to us kids,” he explains. “There’s something special about the Appalachia region and the majesty of those mountains — you can’t help but reflect in that environment.”
It’s easy being green! Jane Fonda, Leonardo DiCaprio and more celebrities have made it their mission to make the world a more eco-friendly place. The Oscar winner and longtime activist has made headlines for her involvement in the Fire Drill Friday protests, kickstarted by Greta Thunberg to raise awareness about the dangers of climate change. […]
Wallen, 31, shares his fellow musician’s sentiment, telling Us, “Being outdoors is my favorite place to be. Life moves so fast, and nature forces me to slow down and be grateful for what God has created.”
Their shared attachment to the outdoors helped spark a friendship between the two musicians, who collaborated on the 2023 country track “Man Made A Bar.” Church and Wallen also share similarities as fathers and enjoy spending time outdoors with their kids. (Eric and his wife, Katherine Church, are parents to sons Boone McCoy, 12, and Tennessee “Hawk” Hawkins, 9. Wallen shares his son Indigo, 3, with his ex-girlfriend KT Smith.)
John Shearer/Getty Images for ACM
“[As a kid,] I spent a lot of time outside running around in open spaces,” Wallen tells Us. “I bought a farm with loads of land to give my son the same feeling — space to roam and fish and hunt. As he gets older, I can’t wait to do these things together.”
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Church and Wallen announced their relaunch of Field & Stream, which was first established in 1871, in January. “It is both this responsibility to an American Icon and also to a young boy in his papaw’s truck that will be the compass that guides our steps,” Church captioned an Instagram video of him and Wallen fishing.
In an Instagram post of his own, Wallen wrote, “There’s nothin’ I love more than being with friends around a campfire, on a boat or in a deer stand – and Field & Stream represents all of those to me. Being part of its future is incredible and we want to keep bringing people together outdoors, makin’ memories, for generations to come.”
Church is set to perform at this year’s Field & Stream Music Fest along with some of music’s biggest stars, such as Lainey Wilson, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Riley Green, ZZ Top and more.
Caitlin Clark, Diana Taurasi and Angel ReeseGetty Images (3)
While celebrating her historic 20th season in the WNBA, Diana Taurasi is busy looking out for the league’s next generation of superstars.
Taurasi, 42 — who spoke to Us Weekly to discuss his partnership with eczema medication Dupixent — pushed back at some of the early criticism that has been thrown in the direction of this year’s WNBA rookie class, including Caitlin Clark, for an arguably underwhelming start to their respective seasons.
“Transition periods don’t escape anyone,” Taurasi said. “That is something we all have to go through. Sometimes you find a way to get through that your first year, sometimes it takes you two years, sometimes it takes you three years. Sometimes it takes you two years to go overseas and really hone your craft and be very confident in what you can do.”
Taurasi added, “Everyone has a different journey and different path. Sometimes you gotta give these kids some grace. Their careers are so long. They’re a month into their WNBA careers. They’re only gonna get better. They’re only gonna get more comfortable with everything around them.”
Stephen A. Smith knows a thing or two about stirring up debate, but when it comes to the success of Caitlin Clark, he’s not taking the bait. In an exclusive interview with Us Weekly, the cohost of ESPN’s First Take, 56 — who appears in the ESPN+ docuseries Up for Debate, available to stream now […]
The Phoenix Mercury star also acknowledged the other side of the coin, arguing sometimes “the praise and the critical jabs, they’re just too extreme.”
Angel ReeseCooper Neill/Getty Images
“There’s gotta be a middle ground,” Taurasi urged.
Taurasi further contended that much of the venom being spewed in the direction of Clark, Angel Reese, Cameron Brink and other first-year players is from male journalists who are just starting to open their eyes to women’s basketball.
“You have to be educated in the topic. You have to have the information. You have to know the history of the sport,” Taurasi said. “A lot of the time, it is men on the forefront of the media. They know the history of the NBA. They can tell you who was the Cy Young winner in 1943. They can tell you who won the Kentucky Derby in 1944. But can you tell me who was the first champion of the WNBA?”
Caitlin ClarkHarry How/Getty Images
She continued, “I think that’s where we’re missing a little bit of the respect for women’s sports. All of a sudden there’s a lot of eyeballs and everyone has a lot of opinions. A lot of them, in many ways, are not educated enough to make those types of opinions.”
Love the Las Vegas Aces or hate them, there’s never been a question that their star A’ja Wilson understands the moment. Wilson, 27, is a two-time WNBA MVP, two-time WNBA champion and a five-time All-Star. As one of the faces of a league burgeoning in popularity, she’s also vocal about continuing to grow it. “I […]
On the personal side of things, Taurasi is opening up about her battle with moderate-to-severe eczema for the first time.
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After she began taking Dupixent as a treatment option, Taurasi partnered with Sanofi and Regeneron to raise awareness about the everyday challenges of dealing with the skin condition — and how getting it under control has made her feel even more confident on the court.
“I don’t know how many times in my day-to-day life I would have to worry about, ‘Where are my creams? What is the weather going to be like?’” Taurasi recalled. “Those things, you take for granted how much they were on your mind all the time.”
She added, “Now I can say I have clear skin and it helps me on a daily basis.”
ComingSoon is excited to debut the Ashes to Dust trailer for Clark Childers’ upcoming short film. It will debut at Dances With Films on Wednesday, June 26, at 5 p.m. PT. It is the first film from Childers’ Bats at a Birthday Production and stars Adam Walton and Diane Gaeta.
“If Susan Anne Pratt Hanesley ever wanted something for her two children, it was that they would simply get along. Now that she’s gone, Danny and Elizabeth find themselves in uncharted but familiar territory. Danny moved in with Mom to help her in her final years, and Elizabeth was left in charge of the will. The only problem is, there is no will,” says the synopsis.
“Ashes to Dust is a story about two very different-minded siblings who must navigate the passing of their mother as best they can and figure out a way to come out whole on the other end. There are big questions regarding the family home, her things, and most importantly, where to put her ashes. Danny believes a Ouija board might give them the answers they so desperately seek. Elizabeth thinks he’s ridiculous. When the power goes out, they have little else to do, so they give the board a shot, and it appears ‘Mom’ just might have something to say. What they determine is a most fundamental lesson: she’s gone, and it’s about them now.”
Written and directed by Childers (Making the Yuletide Gay: A Very Special Paul Lynde Christmas), the 15-minute film was produced by Childers, Walton, Ben Ilisun, and Liz Rogers. The crew also features editor Brian Wessel (Dead Boy Detectives), composer Greg Laswell (The Final Destination), and cinematographer David Arteaga (Parker’s Anchor).
Summer House’s Ciara Milleris all about glowy skin.
Miller, 28, exclusively opened up to Us Weekly about her go-to skincare routine and the best beauty advice she’s ever been given while gushing about her partnership with Soap & Glory.
Ciara MillerUs Weekly
“Never leave the house ashy,” Miller instructed Us, explaining she relies on Soap & Glory’s Body Butter to make her shine. “Best beauty advice ever. Always be shiny and glimmery,” she said. Miller added that she “never” leaves home without the product, as well as the brand’s Righteous Body Butter. “My hands are always ashy so I need moisture at all times.”
Miller’s hydrated skin commands attention in every photoshoot she stars in, including her March 2023 campaign with Victoria’s Secret. Before arriving on set, she makes sure to exfoliate and shave her legs. “I always go in with the Flake Away Exfoliating Body Scrub by Soap & Glory,” Miller told Us.
What happens in the Hamptons rarely stays there — at least when it comes to the cast of Summer House and their romances. In fact, some of the show’s biggest stars, including Lindsay Hubbard and Carl Radke have a history of dating their costars. Lindsay began her time on Bravo during season 1 with then-boyfriend Everett […]
Next, she locks in “that moisture for 72 hours” with the brand’s body butter to ensure she looks “nice and shiny and reflective on set.”
Finally, she removes dead skin from her face with a dermaplane razor and depuffs with a jade roller.
Miller is just as focused on her skincare routine while filming Summer House. Throughout the show, she’s constantly applying sunscreen to protect herself from the harmful UV rays of the sun.
“I preach sunscreen everywhere — on every nook and cranny of your body and especially on your face,” she told Us. “It’s the only anti-aging product on the market.”
Ciara MillerUs Weekly
While she is careful about her skin, Miller still suffers from an occasional hangover on Summer House. To replenish her body, she told Us she takes “two capsules of charcoal” and enjoys a “Coca-Cola” before going back to bed.
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“Don’t bother me,” she joked, noting her key to having a Summer House-inspired party is “a good costume, prosthetics” and getting “into character.”
Summer House star Ciara Miller sees her fair share of drama on the Bravo reality series, but when she’s not filming, her daily routine is actually pretty chill. Miller, 28, takes Us Weekly exclusively through a day in her life — from photo shoots to dirty martinis — in the latest issue of the magazine, […]
Fans can watch part 2 of the season 8 reunion on Bravo Thursday, June 13, at 9 p.m. EST.
LOCASH’s Preston Brust gearing up to celebrate Jana Kramer’s upcoming nuptials to Allan Russell in Scotland — and he’s already picked out the perfect outfit.
“I actually ordered [a kilt]. It’s camo — I ordered a cam kilt, ” Brust exclusively told Us Weekly at CMA Fest on Saturday, June 8. He is set to attend the July nuptials without the other half of LOCASH, Chris Lucas. “I actually told Chris he should come and bring his wife and we should sing ‘Hometown Home’ at the wedding, and Jana was all about it. And he was like, ‘I’m not going to Scotland.’”
While Lucas said he “never got that invite,” Brust assured his musical partner that it may not be too late to make the performance a reality. “I could get the two of us to sing ‘Hometown Home at the wedding if you agree to it right now,” he told Lucas, who replied, “I’m gonna check my schedule.”
Kramer, 40, and Russell, 43, got engaged in May 2023 after six months of dating. Kramer went on to welcome their first child, son Roman, that November. (She also shares kids Jolie, 8, and Jace, 5, with her ex-husband Mike Caussin.)
Jana Kramer’s relationship with soccer coach Allan Russell started out slow, but the pair’s connection was hard to deny for long. “I don’t know if this is my forever person. … But, like, I’m not going to push away love just because I’ve been hurt before. I’m going to embrace it,” the One Tree Hill […]
In addition to teasing that there are “gonna be so many” country stars at the couple’s nuptials, Preston told Us he and his wife, Kristen Brust, are turning the wedding weekend into a mini vacation. (Kramer cohosts her “Whine Down” podcast with Kristen and Kathryn Woodard.)
“We’re gonna go over a couple days early. We’ve never done anything like this since we’ve been married, really,” he explained. “We got to go to The Bahamas one time for, like, a weekend.”
Preston Brust, Jana Kramer.Getty Images(2)
Lucas hilariously butted in, reminding his fellow LOCASH member that they and their wives “went to Paris” together. “We went to London. We played London, great place, and we had one day off,” he shared. “And we’re like, ‘You know what? Let’s take the girls to Paris.’ They had never been to Paris. And we went, took a train ride there, saw the Eiffel Tower, had a blast in Paris. One of the best days of my life.”
Just as Brust is getting ready to travel across the pond for Kramer’s big day, she is putting the final touches on her wedding preparations. Earlier this month, Kramer exclusively told Us that she has said “yes” to her wedding dress and revealed the roles her kids will take on for the “very small” ceremony.
Jana Kramer and Mike Caussin are still making every moment count with their daughter, Jolie, and son Jace despite their split. The former couple welcomed Jolie one year after tying the knot in 2015, followed by Jace in 2018. In September 2019, Kramer exclusively told Us Weekly that Jace’s birth helped improve her relationship with […]
“Jolie’s going to be the flower girl. Jace is the ring bearer,” she shared. “And Roman’s just going to be the little pumpkin with his little kilt.”
Kramer went on to tell Us that she’s “gotten it wrong a few times” when it comes to love, having previously been married three times, but knows she’s found her perfect partner in Russell. “I do believe in love and I’m not ashamed of it because of where I am now,” she added. “I’m grateful to be with Allan and this family, so how could I regret the past?”
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In addition to a trip to Scotland, LOCASH will be traveling to join Kane Brown for a handful of his “In The Air” tour dates. “It’s gonna be a great tour. We did the arenas with him last year, and then he moved us up to the stadiums this year, Preston teased. “So, it’s our first time playing stadiums and we’re pretty pumped up about that.”
Lucas added: “Stadium’s gonna be a little different. And they’re all baseball stadiums too, and [we’re] huge baseball fans. So, we’re playing Fenway [Park], which is awesome, and Arlington [Texas], Coors [Field].”
“I’m so proud that — that I am part of that, and that I was picked out, singled out to do that,” Peters, 76, exclusively told Us Weekly last month. “People ask me why I think that happened.”
The Tony Award winner explained that “gay people are extra sensitive and have beautiful souls and beings,” adding, “Because I think they had to, as a young person. You have to really figure out what you’re about. But we all do that.”
“I think it’s a little harder being gay,” she added. “It’s getting easier, I think, but sure. It’s been harder. So I think what I bring to a song connects with them… they recognize that.”
When asked what life lessons she would tell the ‘90s version of herself — a decade she opened with Woody Allen‘s 1990 film Alice andclosed with her second Tony Award for her performance as Annie Oakley in the 1999’s Broadway production of Annie Get Your Gun — Peters said she be less “apprehensive” and “a little more brave.”
Bernadette PetersMichael Loccisano/Getty Images for Jazz At Lincoln Center
“I don’t know if I told her then, if she would’ve understood, because you have to live life a bit to kind of get to where you are,” she explained. “And to me, life is all about growth. And so I look forward to more growing, more learning.”
Peters is traveling around the country to promote Breyers’ Carb Smart — a reprisal of her popular ‘90s ad campaign for the ice cream brand. She told Us those original over-the-top ads were “so much fun” to film.
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“It was written well, shot well, it was conceived well,” she added. “I was eating ice cream, you know, what could be better?”
Of that time period, Peters told Us there were “good clothes” in style and “a lot of nice shoulders.” In the present, Peters says she focuses on self-care rituals as part of her daily routine.
“The best thing I do is meditate every day,” she said. “I think that really, really pursuing a great way to a great space. Also, I have my animals. So in the morning, I get to hug and say ‘good morning’ and kiss my two dogs, which already puts you in a great head space.”
Dancing With the Stars pro Gleb Savchenko has compared finding The One to a “full-time job.”
“I’m still single. Am I ready to mingle? To be honest with you, dating is so f—king hard,” Savchenko, 40, exclusively told Us Weekly at Gurus magazine’s #30Voices30Days launch party on Saturday, June 1. “Sometimes, if I like the girl, I DM her. She [gives] me her phone number. I text her and she doesn’t reply for what feels, like, forever. Why am I trying so hard? Do I really need that? Am I so desperate to take you out?”
He continued, “I just want to have dinner with her. I just want some companionship. I don’t want to have sex with you right away.”
Savchenko was previously married to Elena Samodanova, with whom he shares two daughters, between 2006 and 2020. Following their split, he moved on with Elena Belle and they were together for three years. Savchenko and Belle, 39, split in April. As the choreographer has tried to put himself back out on the market, he realized that one of his dates last month was a “total catfish.”
Flying solo! Celebrities are known for making headlines for their romances, but the single life can be just as fulfilling as being part of a twosome. Jennifer Aniston has enjoyed her fair share of high-profile relationships including marriages to Brad Pitt from 2000 to 2005 and Justin Theroux from 2015 to 2017. The Friends alum […]
“She did not look like her [Instagram and] she did not want to give me her phone number and preferred Instagram messages,” he told Us on Saturday at the event, which was held at the Godfrey Hotel Hollywood. “I think that’s kind of a red flag right away.”
By the time, Savchenko met the woman at a restaurant “where she [wanted] to go,” he noticed that she did not look like any of her social media pictures.
“She comes in [a] sweatsuit, no makeup, no hair done. No effort, zero effort,” he recalled. “I felt, like, she just came to eat. She doesn’t even want to have a conversation with me. She said, ‘Oh, my God, you’re so different. You’re not even trying to flirt with me.’ I was like, why would I?”
While Savchenko did not see the individual again after the “depressing” outing, he’s not giving up hope of finding love — and he knows who his ideal partner is.
“Emily Ratajkowski,” he gushed. “I don’t have her number. Am I gonna DM her? She’s never gonna see it. She’s hot. She’s got kids. I got kids. She’s single. Let’s go have dinner. Let’s have fun.”
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Ratajkowski, 32, shares son Sylvester, 3, with ex-husband Sebastian Bear-McClard, and Savchenko already has a pitch for a perfect date idea.
“I’m a normal, simple dude. I’m from Russia. In our culture, we worship women,” he told Us. “That’s how we treat our women. I would ask her whether she wants me to pick her up or not. That’s her choice, whatever she’s comfortable with. We’ll meet, book a place [and] go have a nice dinner. I’m not looking for sex. I’m looking for conversation and connection. … I’m more of a relationship guy.”
Snoop Dogg and Earl “E-40” Stephens are skilled not only in the recording studio, but also in the kitchen.
The rappers teamed up to create a delicious take on a classic meatloaf recipe, which they exclusively shared in the latest issue of Us Weekly. “We put our own creative spin on it, stuffed with mozzarella and other special ingredients,” E-40, 56, tells Us of the versatile dish.
“You can eat it with rice, potatoes, vegetables macaroni and cheese or make a sandwich out of it,” he adds. “And it’s absolutely delicious along with a glass of Earl Stevens Selections’ Function Red Blend wine, owned by yours truly.”
Comprised of typical meatloaf ingredients, including bread crumbs, onion, salt and pepper, the pair’s version swaps traditional ground beef for ground turkey and turkey sausage, as well as red bell pepper, jalepeños and, as the recipe’s name suggests, mozzarella cheese. Not to mention, the meatloaf is covered in mouth-watering barbecue sauce.
Sharing their culinary expertise! While not all stars love to cook, a handful of those who do have taken things to the next level and released cookbooks packed with their favorite recipes. Take Kris Jenner, for example. While one could argue that the Kardashian-Jenner family matriarch has her hands full producing Keeping Up With the […]
The recipe is one of many tasty dishes featured in Snoop, 52, and E-40’s cookbook, Snoop Dogg Presents Goon with a Spoon, which hit bookshelves in November 2023. The book’s title is a nod to E-40’s food brand of the same name, which he launched in 2021. The company’s products include burritos, sausages and several flavors of ice cream.
The cookbook also served as a follow-up to Snoop’s 2018 debut cookbook, From Crook to Cook: Platinum Recipes from Tha Boss Dogg’s Kitchen. Included in the book is a recipe inspired by his 1993 hit track “Gin and Juice.”
Snoop’s dive into the culinary world is partially thanks to his friendship with Martha Stewart, with whom he hosted the cooking show Martha & Snoop’s Potluck Party Challenge from 2016 to 2020. The VH1 series saw the duo team up with celebrity guests to compete for the prized Potluck Party Platter.
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“This show is not just about us, it’s about the people that we bring together,” Snoop exclusively told Us Weekly in April 2019 ahead of the show’s season 3 return. “How could you be mad, or have hate in your heart after watching this show?”
Snoop has kept up his passion for cooking over the years, making headlines earlier back in March for hosting Robert De Niro and Austin Butlerat his house for dinner. “Champ DeNiro Elvis Snoop ✅🦅 Dinner @ the Malibu house talking numbers,” Snoop’s son Champ Medici (real name Cordell Broadus), captioned a pic of himself, his dad and their famous guests via Instagram at the time.
Keep scrolling to check out Snoop and E-40’s full meatloaf recipe:
Antonis Achilleos
Mozzarella-Stuffed Turkey Meatloaf with BBQ Sauce
Serves 4, with leftovers
Ingredients
1 lb ground turkey
1 Ib uncased turkey sausage
2 eggs, beaten
½ cup breadcrumbs
1 medium white onion, chopped
1 red bell pepper, chopped
1 jalapeño, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 tsp salt
½ tsp cracked black pepper
2 cups shredded mozzarella
2 cups barbecue sauce, plus more for serving
Instructions
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a rimmed baking sheet with aluminum foil.
2. In a large bowl, combine the ground turkey, turkey sausage, eggs, bread crumbs, onion, pepper, jalapeño, garlic, salt and pepper. Combine the mixture well with your hands. Divide the mixture in half.
Friends come in all shapes and sizes — but we were surprised to learn of these celeb friendships. Martha Stewart and Snoop Dogg first connected in 2008 when Snoop appeared on Stewart’s show Martha. Their chemistry was easy to see and led to their own cooking show, Martha & Snoop’s Potluck Dinner Party. “This is magic right […]
3. Transfer one half of the mixture to the prepared baking sheet. Form into a 10-inch disc about 2 inches thick. Pile the shredded mozzarella on top of the disc, spreading it to the edges.
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4. Form the remaining turkey into a ball, then flatten it into a disc. Place the disc on top of the mozzarella and pat it so it covers the bottom round of meat. Pour the barbecue sauce on top, spreading it to the edges and over the sides.
5. Bake 1 to 1½ hours, until cooked through or it measures 160 degrees on a meat thermometer inserted at the thickest part of the loaf. Let cool for 10 minutes before slicing to serve, passing around additional sauce, if desired.
Struggling EV startup Fisker has laid off hundreds of employees in a bid to stay alive, as it continues to search for funding, a buyout or prepare for bankruptcy.
Workers suspected layoffs were coming when the company directed everyone to work from home on Wednesday — an out-of-character directive, according to multiple current and former employees. The layoffs were announced during an all-hands meeting held Wednesday morning.
Founder and CEO Henrik Fisker told employees that the large investor his company owes money to — and the chief restructuring officer working on the investor’s behalf — wanted to let more people go, according to employees who attended. Fisker has never disclosed who is ultimately behind the convertible debt investment in question, though Henrik Fisker did reference Heights Capital Management during Wednesday’s meeting when discussing the layoffs, according to the two employees. Heights Capital Management is an affiliate of financial services giant Susquehanna International Group.
One current and one laid off employee estimated that only about 150 people remain at the company.
Fisker has already gone through several rounds of layoffs. It announced cuts of 15% in February. Fisker employed 1,135 people as of April 19, according to a regulatory filing. Those workforce numbers were reduced by an unknown amount after another round of layoffs in late April, and another series in late May before Wednesday’s cuts.
Fisker did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Restructuring officer John DiDonato also did not immediately respond to a request for comment. DiDonato previously told California’s Employment Development Department on April 29 that it planned to lay off more than 300 workers on June 28 if the company was “unable to address its operating cash requirements,” according to documents obtained by TechCrunch.
Despite the widespread cuts, Henrik Fisker struck a somber-but-determined tone during the call, according to sources. At one point, he noted that the company built “something great” and would continue to sell its one and only EV — the Ocean SUV — to people who want to buy them.
He also suggested that laid off workers would be re-hired once the company is back up and running, according to the account of one person who attended the meeting.
Many workers initially learned they were laid off after losing access to Microsoft services like Teams or Outlook. Later in the day, some employees received an email officially announcing they were terminated with one week of severance. Laid-off employees echoed similar details in posts on LinkedIn.
These new layoffs come after months of troubles at Fisker, and less than a year after the company began full-scale deliveries of the Ocean SUV.
Manoj Bajpayee’s recently released film Bhaiyya Ji, directed by Apoorv Singh Karki, is his 100th film. In an exclusive chat with Filmfare, he speaks about the challenges of doing an action film, spending 30 years in the industry, and his never-give-up attitude.
After doing films like Ek Hi Banda Kaafi Hai, Killer Soup and Silence, how much fun was it to work in an action-based commercial film?
I’m really having fun. Also, I have been offered these kinds of films in the past, but somewhere the director’s intention was different, and I always waited for a director who had conviction in me and wanted to make a film for fun rather than just to make money. I had a story in my mind that I was in the middle of the road genre or looking to work in the independent film genre. Apoorva Singh Karki wanted to make this film with me. He said, “Sir, I have been watching Telugu and Tamil mainstream films since childhood and I want to make a similar film, and that too with you. If you do it, it will be an innovation.” Then I decided to just go and have fun, even if it meant risking my life.
What was the most challenging part of playing Bhaiyya Ji?
Action. Because acting is all about emotional challenges, but here it was more of a physical challenge. There were a lot of injuries, and we did not have many days or much money, but we still had to make it grand. We did not use many duplicates for the action scenes. Action Director S. Vijayan, a legend of the South, is a non-compromising action director. So, you have to forget the injuries, shoot every day, and finish it. It was such a big task. Any action film will be a cakewalk for me after the way action director Vijayan has trained me.
When you think about commercial cinema, what comes to your mind?
I don’t understand any other actor apart from Amitabh Bachchan, Vinod Khanna, and Shatrughan Sinha. This is the effect of my growing years. It’s the right film to be my 100th film. Right? Because those were the films I watched growing up, and now my 100th film is similar, so yes, I am very happy.
Has your acting process changed over the years?
I am not the kind of actor who does only one genre of film. This is the most difficult thing. On one hand, I did Killer Soup and just before that, I had a release like Gulmohar. When you constantly change genres, it does not allow you to be content or to relax. In such a situation, you are learning, then unlearning, because by constantly changing genres, the acting process becomes different and there is no repetition.
30 years in the industry… So when you look back, what clicks in your mind?
My first shoot, with Seema Biswas for Bandit Queen. Whenever I meet Shekhar Kapur, I cannot believe that it has been so many years since we did that film. It is a very big thing for me that I have spent 30 years in this industry with all the failures, rejection, and a little bit of success. The only thing that kept me going was my never-give-up attitude. I always say that if you come here, decide that you will keep walking. No matter how much you fall, you will get up and keep moving.
There must have been some sacrifices to achieve success.
The only sacrifice I made was my time with my parents. I have never seen them growing old, and now they are no more. I have never stayed with them. I was in a hostel when I was a child, then I left for Delhi. And then from Delhi to Mumbai. My life in Mumbai was such that I could never call them because I knew that they would struggle here alone.
Do you regret doing any film in the past?
When I look back, I remember that I did some rubbish films in between which I should not have done. But then I did such films for money because the household needs to run. Some films I also did for friendship…
How have you changed as a person in the last few years?
I have calmed down quite a bit. Maybe because of my experience and also with age you keep calming down. Earlier, I used to get very angry, but spiritual practices helped me deal with anger management. This is only possible when you realise that something is wrong. Until you understand that it is wrong, you cannot work on it. I knew from my childhood that my anger hurts people. It offends them. Being angry also caused problems for me, and I suffered from it too. So, I worked on it and now I’m able to control my anger.
Stephane Cardinale – Corbis/Corbis via Getty Images
Lucien Laviscount knows how to prioritize staying in shape while being so booked and busy.
“The key for me is balance, balance in everything,” Laviscount, 31, exclusively shared in the latest issue of Us Weekly while promoting his partnership with Smirnoff ICE SURPR-ICE. “I’d say my lifestyle in general is healthy, I love keeping active and getting out there trying new things.”
“It’s difficult with work commitments and traveling to always be eating right and having that structure to be as disciplined as I would like,” he continued. “So it’s important to give myself grace and enjoy the journey.”
As these Hollywood celebrities show in their words, actions and online posts, the body-positivity movement has officially entered the mainstream. Well-known activists have used social media as a tool to spread more messages of self-love to their fans. Mindy Kaling made a splash when she posted a series of photos of herself wearing different two-piece […]
Laviscount rose to fame playing Earl Grey in Fox’s cult classic Scream Queens. From there, Laviscount appeared on TV shows such as Snatch and Katy Keene. He is currently stealing fans’ hearts playing Alfie on Netflix’s Emily in Paris.
“That’s exactly what you see on Emily in Paris — a character that I’ve loved playing for three seasons now,” he shared with Us about the fan-favorite character. “I feel so grateful to have been able to bring Alfie to life on screen.”
Despite his love for Alfie, Laviscount said he is very different from the character — starting with their style.
“My own style — that’s a different thing altogether. I wear what I want, depending on how I’m feeling,” he noted. “To describe it, I guess I’ll let it speak for itself, for better for worse.”
Laviscount also weighed in on the odds of him portraying Earl Grey again in a potential revival of Scream Queens, adding, “That seems like such a long time ago. Think it’s fair to say we had such a great time on that show, who knows. I wouldn’t be against the idea.”
Scream Queens had a short-lived time on screen, but the star-studded cast has continued to find success following the show’s cancelation. The satirical slasher, which ran from 2015 to 2016, featured an ensemble cast including Emma Roberts, Jamie Lee Curtis, Billie Lourd, Lea Michele, Abigail Breslin and Keke Palmer. The first season of the Fox […]
“I’d love to dive into more action roles, we shot a movie last year that was one fight sequence after another with explosions going off left and right,” he recalled. “I absolutely loved it. I think at some point to play James Bond would be the ultimate.”
Stéphanie Branchu/Netflix
In addition to TV and movie projects, Laviscount caught Us‘ eye when he appeared in Shakira‘s “Puntería” music video. Laviscount said his casting in “Puntería” happened “pretty quick” while he was filming Emily in Paris season 4.
“I remember getting the call saying that there was some interest in me being a part of the video,” he told Us. “I was shooting Emily in Paris at the time but we managed to figure out the dates and I was on the next flight out to Miami.”
Emily in Paris raised the bar with its season 3 finale — and now fans want to know what happens next. During the dramatic conclusion, which aired in December 2022, Gabriel (Lucas Bravo) and Camille (Camille Razat) break up at the altar due to his feelings for Emily (Lily Collins). After Alfie (Lucien Laviscount) catches […]
“Shakira is one of the most incredible artists to ever grace the planet. Her dedication to her craft, to her fans and her love for life is truly inspiring,” he gushed. “She’s one of the most beautiful, hard-working people I’ve ever met.”
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Laviscount might be very in demand but he has found time to relax. When he does, Laviscount has preferred drinking a Smirnoff ICE, which he called “summer in a bottle.”
“I’m more low-key, take me back to Antigua with my people and let the good times roll,” he told Us.
For more on Laviscount’s health and fitness routine, watch the exclusive video above — and pick up the latest issue of Us Weekly, on newsstands now.
Indian startup Zypp Electric plans to use fresh investment from Japanese oil and energy conglomerate ENEOS to take its EV rental service into Southeast Asia early next year, TechCrunch has exclusively learned.
The company aims to be in 15 markets over the next two years. Of those 15 markets, Zypp Electric plans to launch its pilot in at least one Southeast Asian market early next year, co-founder and CEO Akash Gupta told TechCrunch in an exclusive interview. The latest funding, which amounted to $15 million and is led by ENEOS, is part of Zypp Electric’s Series C round, which Gupta projects will be between $35 million to $40 million and will be closed in six to eight weeks.
Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines are potential markets for Zypp Electric. All of these countries are two-wheeler-centric and handle a lot of deliveries, the co-founder said, adding that Indonesia will be the first market to begin in.
“There are different ways we are thinking and discussing that [Southeast Asia launch plan] with a few players. We’ll lay out that in the next two to three quarters,” Gupta said.
He also mentioned that the startup is in early talks to foray into the Middle East as part of its global expansion. However, the exact details of the Middle Eastern launch were not disclosed.
The Gurugram-based startup, which currently operates in major Indian cities Delhi, Bengaluru, Mumbai and Hyderabad, offers an EV-as-a-service platform that caters to e-commerce companies and gig workers. The platform includes an app and accompanying software that provides data and analytics for fleet and delivery management as well as a fleet of electric two-wheelers. Gig economy workers, which can rent the ebikes via a daily, weekly or monthly subscription, make up about 28% of Zypp’s revenue. The remainder of its business serves courier, e-commerce, food and grocery delivery and ride-sharing companies such as Amazon, BigBasket, DHL, Uber, Swiggy, Zepto and Zomato. The startup’s platform is used to make 5 million deliveries every month.
Zypp Electric has been working to expand its business — geographically and by volume. The company earlier planned to expand its fleet to 200,000 electric two-wheelers and enter 30 Indian cities by the end of 2025. However, Gupta told TechCrunch that the startup has decided to go deeper into markets rather than launching in new cities with minimal presence.
The startup has also started offering electric three-wheelers in Delhi and Bengaluru and plans to expand to Mumbai very soon. The three-wheeler fleet already contributes to 10% of the startup’s total revenue, the co-founder said.
Today, Zypp has about 15,000 electric two-wheelers in Delhi, 5,000 in Bengaluru, 1,000 in Mumbai and 500 in Hyderabad.
“The idea is to go deeper in these markets and, in parallel, launch a new market every quarter,” Gupta said. The company plans to grow its fleet of 22,000 electric two-wheelers to 50,000 over the next year. The company wants to expand further to a fleet of 200,000 electric two-wheelers over the next two and a half years, according to Gupta.
In February last year, Zypp Electric raised $25 million in a Series B round led by Taiwan’s battery-swapping company Gogoro. It also counts Goodyear Ventures, Google for Startups and Shell E4 among its key backers.
Gupta said Zypp Electric is already operationally profitable and on track to become EBITA (earnings before interest, taxes and amortization) positive in six to eight months and achieve profit after taxes in 12 to 14 months.
North West, Kim Kardashian and Kanye WestGetty Images (2)
Kim Kardashian and Kanye Westlooked on proudly as their eldest daughter, North West, took over Pride Rock — and Hollywood.
North, 10, starred as Young Simba at the live Lion King concert at the Hollywood Bowl on Friday, May 24. North sang “I Just Can’t Wait to Be King” in a lion-inspired costume after an introduction by Jason Weaver, who voiced the cub’s singing voice in the 1994 animated film.
“She smiled and seemed nervous yet confident. She definitely seemed to be having fun and trying her best,” an eyewitness exclusively tells Us Weekly, noting that North “never forgot the words,” and “danced all around the stage.” The insider adds, “[She] looked really happy [and was] always smiling.”
North, who performed one song on Friday, was supported by her famous family, including both of her parents. Kardashian, 43, shared behind-the-scenes snaps before North hit the stage via her Instagram Story while West, 46, never put down his phone during the show.
“Kanye whipped out his phone to film as soon as she began,” the source says of the rapper, who was sitting near Kardashian and their younger kids. (West and the reality star also share Saint, 7, Chicago, 6, and Psalm, 5.)
Kim KardashianCourtesy of Kim Kardashian/Instagram
According to the insider, Kanye wore black sunglasses and a white hood covering over his face.
“Kanye filmed the whole time and gave North a standing ovation,” the source adds, noting the performance proved the preteen’s singing talent. “She was absolutely adorable and you can tell she will be a good singer. She has a good voice. She danced and moved across the stage and had good rhythm.”
At the end of the Friday concert, North reunited with the rest of the cast — including Jennifer Hudson and Billy Eichner — for the curtain call. Kourtney Kardashian, Travis Barker and Kris Jenner were in the audience to cheer on their family member.
“North waved and clapped along with the others,” the source says. “She was so cute, waving and smiling to those in the crowd as she exited the stage. She looked like she didn’t want the night to end!”
Tons of celebrity kids have followed in their musical parents’ footsteps over the years, starting pop careers of their own — and racking up awards in the process. Miley Cyrus, whose dad Billy Ray Cyrus is a country superstar, is one of the most notable examples of a famous kid following her parents into showbiz. […]
North previously announced that she is working on her debut album, titled Elementary School Dropout, which is presumably a reference to West’s 2004 College Dropout LP.
“It’s gonna be great,” North teased to Jazzy’s World TV in March, noting there is no confirmed release date just yet.
Music is just one of North’s passions.
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“[I want to be a] basketball player, a rapper,” she said in ani-D magazine cover story in October 2023, noting she also plans to run Kardashian’s Skims empire eventually. “Well, when I was 7, I wanted to be a boxer. But now I don’t want to be a boxer.”
North continued, “I’m going to do art on the side. When I’m, like, 13, I want to walk dogs to make money to buy art supplies, because everything around here is so expensive. So a rapper, a basketball player, and I’m going to make artwork that I sell.”
It’s 6.30pm. I’m sitting in my kitchen waiting for my zoom interview with global reality star Khloé Kardashian to start. I had considered interviewing her in my bedroom, just so I could say, “Welcome to my bedroom.” But I then decided that would be weird. Khloé is not only one of the most famous women on the planet, she comes from probably the most influential family in the world.
For the last 17 years the Kardashian family have impacted our style and shopping habits in a way that I don’t think has ever happened before. If they are buying it, so are we. Which makes it even more interesting when they lend themselves to a brand that isn’t Kardashian owned. This brings me as to why I have thrown my kids out the house and I’m sat anxiously waiting for her to pop up on screen.
Confidentially I have been told she is to become the face for UK lash brand Tatti Lashes, this isn’t just another celeb collaboration, this is the celebrity collaboration of dreams.
Tatti Lashes was launched by two friends in 2017. Charlotte Tiplady and Elliot Barton were determined to rejuvenate the lash category in the north west of England, however within six months of launch its distinctive false lashes not only won over everyone from Cheshire to Merseyside, this small homegrown brand was being mentioned by the likes of Nicki Minaj, Cardi B and the Kardashians themselves.
This is what makes this collaboration so interesting as I know Khloé, specifically, is a fan of the brand – so it’s not just come out of nowhere thanks to a big paycheque. It’s also interesting that the brand wanted more than just her endorsement, they wanted her face, name and even signature on its products. Obviously, I had to ask all of these questions and a few more to get the exclusive inside story.
Read on to find out why she’s counting down the seconds until she’s 40, how this collaboration is the perfect marriage and how we should all be chasing happiness not perfection.
The Story Behind Tatti Lashes X Khloé Kardashian
I was intrigued to find out how a US star ended up working with the Liverpool-based Tatti Lashes, and it seems I wasn’t the only one. “When I got the call I was so excited!” Kardashian tells PS UK exclusively in her famous LA accent. “I have used the lashes for years so it was the perfect marriage. I love when it works out like that, when it is so organic, that is my favourite part,” she adds excitedly.
I also wanted to know how the reality star felt creating a product aimed at the UK consumer. “I think that’s what made the experience so cool,” she says. “The brand let me have a lot of creative freedom, but I know and understand that this is a UK brand and trends differ. Even in the US, one state to another, can have a different style to the next. I wanted to talk to the experts, which is them, I made sure I asked them will your demographic like this? Luckily we all had similar visions and had the same notes and understanding.”
She insisted the team worked well together and I wondered if this mutual admiration was another reason Tiplady described her as a beauty icon. “Wow, that is a very generous title,” Kardashian bashfully replied. “It is so sweet, and it’s funny because it’s not how I look at myself.” I found this really refreshing, often we think celebrities are immune to doubts in confidence, but it seems that’s not the case at all. “I don’t mean that in a negative way,” explains Kardashian. “We are all hard on ourselves in different ways and I don’t view myself like that because I am always so inspired by other people’s beauty.”
What Beauty Means to Khloé Kardashian
“I love makeup and love to play with makeup,” Kardashian tells me. “I find it so fun that we can create different characters of ourselves when we want to and that it’s temporary.” We then both shared our admiration for those on social media using their channels to expose the power of makeup and how it can transform the way we look. “Beauty especially in the last five, eight years has exploded and people’s creativity and dependency on glam is fascinating in a fun, positive way,” she says. “It is so individual and personal what people want to apply to themselves. If you want to try a blue eyeshadow or coloured lash, great, you can as it’s temporary and you can wash it right off if you don’t want it anymore.”
“I think trying trends here and there is fine and acceptable but chasing perfection – you are never going to win… There is no such thing as perfection.”
There seems to be a constant need to chase trends and people are always looking for the next style, which concerns me, especially with a young daughter. I wanted to know how she felt about the fact it feels like we are always being told to look a certain way. “I think trying trends here and there is fine and acceptable but chasing perfection – you are never going to win,” she tells PS UK. “There is no such thing as perfection,” she adds.
“I think we have to chase happiness, because you will always win there. And if you have your eye on happiness and think of makeup and glam as fun and as bonus extras that enhance who we are, then that’s beautiful.”
I have to say its a hard agree from me, makeup and beauty should always feel fun and if it doesn’t we may need to look further than our palettes to find out why. “I do think we all get caught up in chasing perfection,” she says. “We have to know it’s all smoke and mirror, what we are seeing on social media. It’s great and amazing, but none of it is perfection – comparison is the thief of joy,” she adds.
Related:
When It Comes to Khloé Kardashian’s Beauty Regrets – There’s Been a Few
“I’ve had hundreds of beauty regrets,” Kardashian exclaims. “You know the bump it? I had no business doing that! Also the Amy Winehouse winged eyeliner? My eyes aren’t shaped like that,” she reminisces. “Now, I know what fits my face shape, my skin tone. You learn a lot from trial and error – and also with age. Age is wisdom and I now feel comfortable in my own skin, I don’t need as much makeup as I once thought I needed or the security blanket it gave me.”
We then got onto discussing age. Next month, Kardashian turns 40 and as a new member of this age group I couldn’t help but reassure her that there was nothing to fear. “I am counting down the seconds,” she replies. “I am like get me out of these 30s. I think it’s really so liberating and a privilege that we get to age and I cannot wait!”
“I am like get me out of these 30s. I think it’s really so liberating and a privilege that we get to age and I cannot wait!”
“I’ve learned what I like for my face,” she continues. “Contour is great, I love it, but maybe sometimes too much makes me look harsh, and not like myself in photos.”
Finally, I couldn’t resist asking how she manages to do any beauty at all with those nails, specifically putting on false lashes. “I can’t function without them!” she laughs. “I can’t do anything with my nails off – on I can do anything and everything under the sun.”
What’s in the Tatti Lashes X Khloé Kardashian Collection?
The collection can purchased from 28 May 2024 online at Tatti Lashes (available worldwide) and bought as one large gift set (£36) which includes one set of strip lashes, individual day to night lash duo set, a curved applicator and a long lasting lash remover, or as individual items (prices start from £10).
Lauren Ezekiel is an associate editor at PS UK, where she writes about all things beauty and wellness. With a degree in journalism and 12 years’ experience as a beauty editor at a leading Sunday supplement, she is obsessed with skincare, hair and makeup, and is often found offering advice to innocent bystanders. Her work has been published in Grazia, OK, Health and Beauty, The Sun, ASDA, Dare and Metro.
Officials behind a new city proposed for Solano County shared new renderings of what the community would look like, including residential options and the public transit system.The images, provided exclusively to KCRA 3 by California Forever, show row houses with private backyards. Residents could decide to have a garage and an accessory dwelling unit in the backyard, or they could opt for more open space. In an exclusive interview with KCRA 3’s Orko Manna, California Forever Head of Planning Gabriel Metcalf said the idea is to provide residents with several choices.“It’s up to each homeowner what they want to do. Do they want a private garden? Do they want to have it be grass? They all face onto an alley in the back, and in the alley, you can of course park your car, but it can also be where you put an accessory dwelling unit, so it can be an office, it can be where your mother lives, or you can just have a bigger backyard. So, what we’re showing here is that range of options of very private intimate quiet backyards but also opening up onto an alley where all kinds of different things are going on,” Metcalf said.Metcalf added that the unnamed city, with an estimated residential population of 400,000 people, would have a wide variety of options when it comes to types of housing, including starter homes.“We really are focused on enabling first-time homeownership. We think there’s a really big need for that, it’s a very big market for us to try to serve. The Bay Area has gotten so expensive. We think if we can find a way to provide homeownership at a more affordable price point, it’s going to be really popular,” Metcalf said.Another new rendering given exclusively to KCRA 3 shows the bus rapid transit system that would be available for people to get around the city. Metcalf said the buses would function more like trains.“They have their own right of way in the middle of the street, they have boarding islands and they’re never stuck in traffic,” Metcalf said. “This is going to be a quality of public transit service that people have not seen before in this part of California.”Metcalf said another main goal of the proposed city is to have each resident only about a 5-to-10-minute walk away from schools, parks and shopping streets. Metcalf also said that people would still be able to drive, adding that there would be ample parking throughout the city including communal parking structures for each neighborhood.“What’s different from most of America is in this community, you have a choice. You can drive when you need to drive, but you don’t have to drive for everything. You can also get to things other ways, so this is going to be quite eye-opening for some people to experience that kind of freedom of choice on how they get around,” Metcalf said.But not everyone supports the proposal. In order for the new city to be built, the roughly 17,500 acres of land north of Highway 12 in between Travis Air Force Base and Rio Vista would need approval for urban development. Currently, the land is zoned for agriculture. Solano County Farm Bureau President William Brazelton said the bureau wants to keep it that way.“There’s a long, long history of agriculture in this county,” Brazelton said. “We’re not opposed to new housing. There’s a lot of, there’s actually quite a bit of space inside the city limits around the county, and that’s what we will advocate be built out before there’s sprawl, not just planting a brand-new 400,000-member community in the middle of ag land.”The Solano County Farm Bureau is part of a recently formed group called the Solano Together Coalition, which has concerns about what they call “California Forever’s sprawl development plans.”Suisun Mayor Pro Tem Princess Washington is also part of the coalition. She wants more details about the proposal, which she said she has not received from California Forever.“There is opposition to the overall plan, but I think that’s coupled with the lack of transparency when questions are asked. No answer is given. For example, the question of what would be the price point for housing. There has been no direct answer,” Washington said.Washington also said she wants people to understand that while the ideas for the proposed city may look good in renderings, the implementation of the plan would entail going against longstanding agriculture practices that have served Solano County well for years.“Everyone wants a good paying job, everyone wants affordable housing, but I think it’s very dangerous to use that as a carrot to change a policy,” Washington said.In response to the criticism, Metcalf said opponents should trust the process and understand that the new city could be a game-changer in helping solve the region’s housing crisis.“I think we have to look at the state of housing honestly in the Bay Area and in Northern California. What we’re doing right now is not working. Saying ‘no’ is not working. We need to create a place where we can say ‘yes,’” Metcalf said. “I am very hopeful and very cautiously optimistic that as people learn more about how this new community could work, that people are going to be really excited about it.”KCRA 3 confirmed with the Solano County Registrar of Voters office that California Forever has submitted a petition with more than 20,000 signatures, in an effort to allow urban development on the land where they want to build the new city. Election officials are in the process of verifying the signatures to make sure they are from valid Solano County voters. They said they expect to have a final determination by mid-June on if it can be put on the ballot in November.Even if the land-use change gets on the ballot and voters approve it, Solano County officials said a development agreement would need to be reached between the county and California Forever before any construction could begin.See more coverage of top California stories here | Download our app.
SOLANO COUNTY, Calif. —
Officials behind a new city proposed for Solano County shared new renderings of what the community would look like, including residential options and the public transit system.
East Solano Plan
Exclusive new rendering of examples of residential backyards for the proposed new city in Solano County.
The images, provided exclusively to KCRA 3 by California Forever, show row houses with private backyards. Residents could decide to have a garage and an accessory dwelling unit in the backyard, or they could opt for more open space.
In an exclusive interview with KCRA 3’s Orko Manna, California Forever Head of Planning Gabriel Metcalf said the idea is to provide residents with several choices.
“It’s up to each homeowner what they want to do. Do they want a private garden? Do they want to have it be grass? They all face onto an alley in the back, and in the alley, you can of course park your car, but it can also be where you put an accessory dwelling unit, so it can be an office, it can be where your mother lives, or you can just have a bigger backyard. So, what we’re showing here is that range of options of very private intimate quiet backyards but also opening up onto an alley where all kinds of different things are going on,” Metcalf said.
Metcalf added that the unnamed city, with an estimated residential population of 400,000 people, would have a wide variety of options when it comes to types of housing, including starter homes.
“We really are focused on enabling first-time homeownership. We think there’s a really big need for that, it’s a very big market for us to try to serve. The Bay Area has gotten so expensive. We think if we can find a way to provide homeownership at a more affordable price point, it’s going to be really popular,” Metcalf said.
East Solano Plan
Exclusive new rendering of bus rapid transit system for the proposed new city in Solano County.
Another new rendering given exclusively to KCRA 3 shows the bus rapid transit system that would be available for people to get around the city. Metcalf said the buses would function more like trains.
“They have their own right of way in the middle of the street, they have boarding islands and they’re never stuck in traffic,” Metcalf said. “This is going to be a quality of public transit service that people have not seen before in this part of California.”
East Solano Plan
Exclusive new rendering of a business plaza for the proposed new city in Solano County.
Metcalf said another main goal of the proposed city is to have each resident only about a 5-to-10-minute walk away from schools, parks and shopping streets. Metcalf also said that people would still be able to drive, adding that there would be ample parking throughout the city including communal parking structures for each neighborhood.
“What’s different from most of America is in this community, you have a choice. You can drive when you need to drive, but you don’t have to drive for everything. You can also get to things other ways, so this is going to be quite eye-opening for some people to experience that kind of freedom of choice on how they get around,” Metcalf said.
But not everyone supports the proposal. In order for the new city to be built, the roughly 17,500 acres of land north of Highway 12 in between Travis Air Force Base and Rio Vista would need approval for urban development. Currently, the land is zoned for agriculture. Solano County Farm Bureau President William Brazelton said the bureau wants to keep it that way.
“There’s a long, long history of agriculture in this county,” Brazelton said. “We’re not opposed to new housing. There’s a lot of, there’s actually quite a bit of space inside the city limits around the county, and that’s what we will advocate be built out before there’s sprawl, not just planting a brand-new 400,000-member community in the middle of ag land.”
The Solano County Farm Bureau is part of a recently formed group called the Solano Together Coalition, which has concerns about what they call “California Forever’s sprawl development plans.”
Suisun Mayor Pro Tem Princess Washington is also part of the coalition. She wants more details about the proposal, which she said she has not received from California Forever.
“There is opposition to the overall plan, but I think that’s coupled with the lack of transparency when questions are asked. No answer is given. For example, the question of what would be the price point for housing. There has been no direct answer,” Washington said.
Washington also said she wants people to understand that while the ideas for the proposed city may look good in renderings, the implementation of the plan would entail going against longstanding agriculture practices that have served Solano County well for years.
“Everyone wants a good paying job, everyone wants affordable housing, but I think it’s very dangerous to use that as a carrot to change a policy,” Washington said.
In response to the criticism, Metcalf said opponents should trust the process and understand that the new city could be a game-changer in helping solve the region’s housing crisis.
“I think we have to look at the state of housing honestly in the Bay Area and in Northern California. What we’re doing right now is not working. Saying ‘no’ is not working. We need to create a place where we can say ‘yes,’” Metcalf said. “I am very hopeful and very cautiously optimistic that as people learn more about how this new community could work, that people are going to be really excited about it.”
KCRA 3 confirmed with the Solano County Registrar of Voters office that California Forever has submitted a petition with more than 20,000 signatures, in an effort to allow urban development on the land where they want to build the new city. Election officials are in the process of verifying the signatures to make sure they are from valid Solano County voters. They said they expect to have a final determination by mid-June on if it can be put on the ballot in November.
Even if the land-use change gets on the ballot and voters approve it, Solano County officials said a development agreement would need to be reached between the county and California Forever before any construction could begin.
Harry Jowsey.(Photo by Steve Granitz/FilmMagic via Getty Images)
Too Hot to Handle alum Harry Jowsey is feeling grateful after his skin cancer diagnosis.
Jowsey, 26, spoke to Us Weekly about his health status on Friday, May 10, during the Race to Erase MS Gala at Fairmont Century Plaza in Los Angeles. “It’s just a bit scary, bit of a rude awakening, but it humbled me,” he told Us, adding, “The fact that I’m able to inspire people to get their skin checked is awesome.”
Jowsey, who was wearing Giorgio Armani and styled by Monty Jackson for the charity event, revealed his skin cancer diagnosis in April; he explained that he had gone to a dermatologist to get his skin checked and they had “found some skin cancer.” He did not reveal what kind of skin cancer it was, but he did share that the cancer was found on his shoulder and had been there for over a year.
“I’m gonna be all good. Everything’s going to be okay, but I just wanted to make this post to let you know that summer is around the corner,” Jowsey said via TikTok on April 26, before imploring his followers to “please wear sunscreen.”
“I had a lot of friends call me and [say], ‘I actually haven’t had my skin checked ever so the fact that you posted what was going on made me want to go and get myself checked out to make sure I was all in the clear,’” the former Dancing With the Stars contestant told Us on Friday. “But the thing is, 1 in 5 people have skin cancer. It’s just better to go get checked and just to be safe and wear your sunscreen.”
Jowsey went on to say that discovering he had skin cancer was “the scariest moment” of his life.
Harry Jowsey, Alan Bersten and Barry Williams attend the 31st Annual Race To Erase MS Gala.Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images for Race to Erase MS
“I thought it was like a fungal thing on my shoulder,” he explained. “I went to the dermatologist saying, ‘I’ve been putting fungal cream on it for the last year.’ When [the] doctor said it was skin cancer, it was the scariest moment of my life because you don’t know how serious it is, but luckily I’m doing okay.”
The reality star’s health isn’t the only reason he’s thinking about the future. His new podcast, “Boyfriend Material,” is full of relationship advice, and it has helped Jowsey realize he is ready to settle down.
For love and money! Too Hot to Handle has generated several successful couples, despite its forbidden-romance premise. The Netflix reality show debuted in April 2020. The series centers around people who are typically involved in meaningless flings and struggle to form long-term relationships. In an effort to win $100,000, contestants living in a house together […]
“I love my friends, but I’m over them. I just want to have a girlfriend and grow old together and be us and have a little family and just have someone that I can build with and grow with,” Jowsey shared with Us.
“There’s nothing better than having your best friend, your lover with you,” he continued. “Being in a relationship is so special and I really missed that feeling. Hopefully one day. The premise of the [podcast] is to grow together and to learn to become boyfriend material. I’m a work in progress.”
He joked, “I can get advice, I can give advice and hopefully, I can get married and then it turns into daddy advice.”
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Following his diagnosis, Jowsey received an outpouring of support from his followers, including Vanderpump Rules star and fellow DWTS alum Ariana Madix. (Madix had skin cancer in the form of a melanoma removed in 2018.)
“She’s the best,” Jowsey told Us of Madix on Friday. “She’s such a sweetheart. She always reaches out and talks about things like this. She’s just like a big mom or big sister. She just cares so much.”
Did it feel different filming this episode at all, given the reversal in your dynamic and the connection you have over the loss of your mothers?
Quinta knows that I have readily available emotions. In any scene where crying is easy for me, I can access it. When they wrote this, they knew that if we had to play that we had both lost our mothers, that it would be battle of the network tears. I don’t need to play that every time. [Laughs] So they gave it to Sheryl, and of course I could feel what her emotions were, but my character wasn’t feeling it. Melissa was intent on noticing what was happening and saying, “I see what’s going on, and you need to take a little step back. You’re hurting.”
Do you feel more comfortable making suggestions for your character now that you’re in season three and have more of a dynamic with Quinta and the writers? How has that evolved?
Always, from the beginning, it’s like working with a great repertory company. When I was coming up as an actor, doing the Greeks and Shakespeare, I thought I was going to be a stage actress. I thought I was going to go work at Arena Stage or go to New York and do off-Broadway. That’s what I thought I would do my whole life. I never saw TV in it. This [is] like the best repertory company I’ll ever get to be a part of, and playing with them, every episode is just beyond my wildest dreams. With Tyler[James Williams], who plays Gregory, he and I have done a couple of things together where we just feel it—we know what each other is doing, and we’ll just look at each other like, Yeah, let’s do that again. It’s the finding of it in the work. Sometimes it’s just that, or sometimes you say to the writer on set, or Quinta, “Hey, can I do this?” Sometimes she’ll say yes. Sometimes she’ll say, “Well, no, because you don’t know, but in two episodes, X is going to happen.”
But you know the character; you’re living inside of the skin of that person. I do come from a Sicilian family. I do know how they behave. And the more I’m living in that world too, the more the writers understand that—that we’re an incredibly pessimistic people. [Laughs] We believe that the worst is going to happen because we were invaded by every country in Europe and Africa for 1,000 years.
Watching the “Mother’s Day” episode, I was thinking about you rattling off Melissa’s many siblings’ very specific names. The audience gets information about Melissa in the best, most chaotic way.
That was actually a good example. They had names—and I knew what they were going for with the joke—but I said to someone, “We wouldn’t name two people in our family Anthony. In the same family, you would have 18 Anthonys, but it would be Anthony, Tony, Big Red. Everybody would have their own name.” [Laughs] So I adjusted the names just a little bit to make it make sense.
