Arts

Take a stroll through the US president’s backyard

General public gets to visit White House grounds in spring and fall
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Old Hollywood glamour sizzles at National Portrait Gallery exhibit

He captured the most famous faces in 1930s and early ’40s cinema — Garbo, Crawford, Bogart and Gable. Now the work of George Hurrell, one of Hollywood’s greatest portrait photographers, is on display at Washington’s National Portrait Gallery. For VOA News, Cristina Caicedo Smit has the story. Videographer: Hakim Shammo; Video editor: Cristina Caicedo Smit
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Miniature poodle Sage fetches top prize at Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show 

NEW YORK — A sprightly miniature poodle named Sage was crowned “Best in Show” on Tuesday at the 148th annual Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show, winning the grand prize in the most prestigious competition among pure-bred canines in the United States.

Sage, the finalist representing 21 breeds classified as non-sporting dogs, triumphed over more than 2,500 top-ranked dogs competing in the two-day contest, held at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in the Queens borough of New York City.

Sage, a 4-year-old black-colored female groomed in the fine, fluffy topiary style traditional for poodles, competed head to head against the winners in six other groups — terriers, hounds, herding dogs, working dogs, sporting dogs and toy dogs.

She was the first female to win the top prize at Westminster since 2020, according to commentators on the Fox Sports channel, which broadcast the event live.

And she became the fourth miniature poodle to claim the top prize in the 148-year history of the contest, with the trophy previously going to her breed in 1943, 1959 and 2002, according to kennel club records.

The larger “standard” poodle breed has been declared Best in Show five times, most recently in 2020, and the smaller “toy” poodle breed has won twice.

The poodle originated as a hunting dog in Germany and is now recognized as the national dog of France.

Sage’s handler, Kaz Hosaka, cried tears of joy and carried his prized poodle in his arms around floor of the auditorium to cheers of the crowd as he celebrated what he said was his 45th year participating at the Westminster dog show and the last of his career.

The Westminster dog show bills itself as the second-oldest U.S. sporting event, behind only the Kentucky Derby thoroughbred horse race. This year’s competition drew a field of contenders representing 200 breeds from all 50 U.S. states and 12 other countries.

Mercedes, a female 4-year-old German shepherd, was named runner-up for the overall contest, after first winning the top prize in the herding dog group.

Along with Sage and Mercedes, the two other finalists chosen on Monday were Comet the Shih Tzu, representing the toy group, and Louis, the Afghan hound leading the hound group.

Rounding out the finalists were three group winners chosen on Tuesday – Micah the black cocker spaniel, representing sporting dogs; Monty, the giant schnauzer, leading the working dogs; and Frankie, a colored bull terrier from the terrier group.
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Alice Munro, Canadian Nobel Prize-winning author, dies at 92

ottawa — Nobel Prize-winning Canadian writer Alice Munro, whose exquisitely crafted tales of the loves, ambitions and travails of small-town women in her native land made her a globally acclaimed master of the short story, has died at the age of 92, her publisher said on Tuesday. 

Munro died at her home in Port Hope, Ontario, said Kristin Cochrane, chief executive officer of McClelland & Stewart.  

“Alice’s writing inspired countless writers … and her work leaves an indelible mark on our literary landscape,” she said in a statement. 

The Globe and Mail newspaper, citing family members, said Munro had died on Monday after suffering from dementia for at least a decade. 

Munro published more than a dozen collections of short stories and was honored with the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2013. 

Her stories explored sex, yearning, discontent, aging, moral conflict and other themes in rural settings with which she was intimately familiar, the villages and farms in the Canadian province of Ontario. She was adept at fully developing complex characters within the limited pages of a short story. 

“Alice Munro was a Canadian literary icon. For six decades, her short stories captivated hearts around Canada and the world,” Canadian Heritage Minister Pascale St-Onge said on the X social media network. 

Munro, who wrote about ordinary people with clarity and realism, was often likened to Anton Chekhov, the 19th century Russian known for his brilliant short stories, a comparison the Swedish Academy cited in honoring her with the Nobel Prize. 

Calling her a “master of the contemporary short story,” the Academy also said: “Her texts often feature depictions of everyday but decisive events, epiphanies of a kind, that illuminate the surrounding story and let existential questions appear in a flash of lightning.” 

In an interview with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation after winning the Nobel, Munro said, “I think my stories have gotten around quite remarkably for short stories, and I would really hope that this would make people see the short story as an important art, not just something that you played around with until you’d got a novel written.” 

Munro’s works included “Dance of the Happy Shades” (1968), “Lives of Girls and Women” (1971), “Who Do You Think You Are?” (1978), “The Moons of Jupiter” (1982), “Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage” (2001), “Runaway” (2004), “The View from Castle Rock” (2006), “Too Much Happiness” (2009) and “Dear Life” (2012). 

The characters in her stories were often girls and women who lead seemingly unexceptional lives but struggle with tribulations ranging from sexual abuse and stifling marriages to repressed love and the ravages of aging. 

“Last month I reread all of Alice Munro’s books. I felt the need to be close to her. Every time I read her is a new experience. Every time changes me. She will live forever,” Canadian author Heather O’Neill said in a post on X. 

Munro’s story of a woman who starts losing her memory and agrees to enter a nursing home titled “The Bear Came Over the Mountain,” from “Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage,” was adapted into the Oscar-nominated 2006 film “Away From Her,” directed by fellow Canadian Sarah Polley. 

‘Shame’ a driving force of characters 

Canadian novelist Margaret Atwood, writing in The Guardian after Munro won the Nobel, summarized her work by saying: “Shame and embarrassment are driving forces for Munro’s characters, just as perfectionism in the writing has been a driving force for her: getting it down, getting it right, but also the impossibility of that. Munro chronicles failure much more often than she chronicles success, because the task of the writer has failure built in.” 

American novelist Jonathan Franzen wrote in 2005, “Reading Munro puts me in that state of quiet reflection in which I think about my own life: about the decisions I’ve made, the things I’ve done and haven’t done, the kind of person I am, the prospect of death.” 

The short story, a style more popular in the 19th and early 20th century, has long taken a back seat to the novel in popular tastes and in attracting awards. But Munro was able to infuse her short stories with a richness of plot and depth of detail usually more characteristic of full-length novels. 

“For years and years, I thought that stories were just practice, ’til I got time to write a novel. Then I found that they were all I could do and so I faced that. I suppose that my trying to get so much into stories has been a compensation,” Munro told the New Yorker magazine in 2012. 

Second Canadian to win Nobel

Munro was the second Canadian-born writer to win the Nobel literature prize but the first with a distinctly Canadian identity. Saul Bellow, who won in 1976, was born in Quebec but raised in the U.S. city of Chicago, Illinois, and was widely seen as an American writer. 

Munro also won the Man Booker International Prize in 2009 and the Giller Prize — Canada’s most high-profile literary award — twice. 

Alice Laidlaw was born to a hard-pressed family of farmers on July 10, 1931, in Wingham, a small town in the region of southwestern Ontario that serves as the setting for many of her stories, and started writing in her teens. 

She married James Munro in 1951 and moved to Victoria, British Columbia, where the two ran a bookstore. They had four daughters, one died just hours old, before divorcing in 1972. Afterward, Munro moved back to Ontario. Her second husband, geographer Gerald Fremlin, died in April 2013. 
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Iranian director Rasoulof urges film world to support colleagues

cannes, france — Film director Mohammad Rasoulof, who has secretly fled Iran for an undisclosed location in Europe, urged the world film community on Tuesday to provide “strong support” to his colleagues.

Rasoulof, who was sentenced to jail on national security charges, and whose latest movie will compete at this month’s Cannes film festival, said he fears for the “safety and well-being” of fellow filmmakers still in Iran.

“The global film community must provide strong support to the makers of these films,” Rasoulof said in a statement to Agence France-Presse.

Rasoulof announced on Monday he had escaped clandestinely from Iran, just days after it emerged that he had been sentenced to eight years in prison for “collusion against national security.”

Rasoulof had been under pressure from Iranian authorities to withdraw his latest film, “The Seed of the Sacred Fig,” from Cannes, where it will compete for the prestigious event’s top prize, the Palme d’Or.

Cannes director Thierry Fremaux said the festival was working with the French Foreign Ministry in the hope of ensuring that Rasoulof, 51, can attend his premiere next week.

Rasoulof’s statement said he did not yet know if he could attend the premiere.

“I arrived in Europe a few days ago after a long and complicated journey,” said Rasoulof, who won the Berlin International Film Festival’s Golden Bear in 2020 for “There Is No Evil.”

He said his latest movie set out to portray a version of Iran “that is far from the narrative dominated by censorship in the Islamic Republic and is closer to reality.”

After he and his filmmaking colleagues came under pressure from the authorities, Rasoulof learned that his “unfair” eight-year sentence would be enforced imminently, and he felt he had no choice but to flee.

“I had to choose between prison and leaving Iran,” he wrote. “With a heavy heart, I chose exile.”

While some colleagues involved in the film were also able to leave the country, others remain there.

“My thoughts go to every single one of them, and I fear for their safety and well-being,” he said.
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‘Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes’ reigns at the box office with $56.5 million opening

LOS ANGELES — “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes” reigned over the weekend box office with a $56.5 million North American opening, according to studio estimates Sunday, giving a needed surge to an uncertain season in theaters.

The film from 20th Century Studios and Disney that built on the rebooted “Apes” trilogy of the 2010s had the third highest opening of the year, after the $81.5 million debut of “Dune: Part Two” in early March and the $58.3 million domestic opening of “Kung Fu Panda 4” a week later.

The strong performance for “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes” — it played even better internationally with a global total of $129 million — comes a week after a tepid start for Ryan Gosling’s “The Fall Guy” signaled that the summer of 2024 is likely to see a major drop-off after the “Barbenheimer” magic of 2023.

“Planet of the Apes” easily made more than the rest of the top 10 combined.

“The Fall Guy” fell to No. 2 with a $13.7 million weekend and a two-week total of $49.7 million for Universal Pictures.

Zendaya’s “Challengers” was third with $4.7 million and has earned $38 million in three weeks for Amazon MGM studios.

The opening for “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes,” helmed by “Maze Runner” director Wes Ball, was the second best in the series, after the $72 million opening weekend of 2014’s “Dawn of the Planet of the Apes.”

It’s the 10th movie in the “Planet of the Apes” franchise that began in 1968 with the Charlton Heston original with a twist ending.

“This franchise has never been allowed to lose its momentum,” said Paul Dergarabedian, the senior media analyst for Comscore. “There are very few franchises that have this kind of longevity.”

And it really is the property itself. The new film shares no central actors or characters with its predecessors.

“There’s just this love for the way it melds sci-fi with social commentary and straight-up popcorn entertainment,” Dergarabedian said.

“Kingdom” came with strong reviews and positive buzz (80% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes and a “B” CinemaScore). It was especially praised for its visual effects and the way its CGI has caught up with its primates-on-horseback aesthetic even since the last film, 2017’s “War for the Planet of the Apes.”

Mark Kennedy of The Associated Press called it “thrilling” and “visually stunning.”

The shot in the arm is welcome for the movie business, but there is little certainty in the forthcoming summer.

The year so far, lacking an early Marvel movie like 2023’s “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3,” is running 21% last year’s mid-May total.

While there are potential blockbusters that feel like safe bets including “Despicable Me 4” and “Deadpool & Wolverine” in July, others like “Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga” later this month and “Twisters” later in the summer feel like they could break either way.

Pixar once brought almost guaranteed hits, but June’s “Inside Out 2” may not thrive like the 2015 original.

“There used to be sure bets we cannot necessarily bank on anymore,” Dergarabedian said. “It is going to be a bit of a hit-or-miss slate.”

Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Comscore. Final domestic figures will be released Monday.

1. “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes,” $56.5 million.

2. “The Fall Guy,” $13.7 million.

3. “Challengers,” $4.7 million.

4. “Tarot,” $3.45 million.

5. “Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire,” $2.5 million.

6. “Unsung Hero,” $ 2.25 million.

7. “Kung Fu Panda 4,” $2 million.

8. “Civil War,” $1.8 million.

9. “Star Wars: Episode 1 – The Phantom Menace,” $1.5 million.

10. “Abigail,” $1.1 million.
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Cannes film festival set to unfurl against backdrop of wars, protests, potential strikes

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‘The Fall Guy’ gives Hollywood muted summer kickoff with $28.5M opening

New York — “The Fall Guy,” the Ryan Gosling-led, action-comedy ode to stunt performers, opened below expectations with $28.5 million, according to studio estimates Sunday, providing a lukewarm start to a summer movie season that’s very much to be determined for Hollywood.

The Universal Pictures release opened on a weekend that Marvel has regularly dominated with $100 million-plus launches. (In 2023, that was “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3” with a $118 million debut.) But last year’s strikes jumbled this year’s movie calendar; “Deadpool & Wolverine,” originally slated to open this weekend, is instead debuting in July.

So in place of a superhero kickoff, the summer launch went to a movie about the stunt performers who anonymously sacrifice their bodies for the kind of action sequences blockbusters are built on. Going into the weekend, forecasts had the film opening $30 million to $40 million.

“The Fall Guy,” directed by former stuntman and “Deadpool 2” helmer David Leitch, rode into the weekend with the momentum of glowing reviews and the buzz of a SXSW premiere. But it will need sustained interest to merit its $130 million production budget. It added $25.4 million in overseas markets.

Working in its favor for a long run: strong audience scores (an “A-” CinemaScore) and good reviews (83% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes). Jim Orr, distribution chief for Universal, believes things line up well for “The Fall Guy” in the coming weeks.

“We had a very solid opening,” said Orr. “We’re looking forward to a very long, very robust, very successful run throughout the domestic box office for literally weeks if not months to come.”

But the modest start for “The Fall Guy” hints at larger concerns for the film industry. Superhero films haven’t been quite the box-office behemoth they once were, leading studios to search for fresher alternative. “The Fall Guy” seemed to check all the boxes, with extravagant action sequences, one of the hottest stars in the business, a director with a track-record for crowd pleasers and very good reviews.

But instead, the opening for “The Fall Guy,” loosely based on the 1980s TV series, only emphasized that the movie business is likely to struggle to rekindle the fervor of last year’s “Barbenheimer” summer. “The Fall Guy” stars one from each: Gosling, in his first post-Ken role, and Emily Blunt, of “Oppenheimer.” Both were Oscar nominated.

“It’s going to be a very interesting, nontraditional summer this year,” said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst for Comscore.

In part due to the effects of last year’s work stoppages, there are fewer big movies hitting theaters. Expectations are that the total summer box office will be closer to $3 billion than the $4 billion that’s historically been generated.

“The summer season is just getting started, so let’s give ‘The Fall Guy’ a chance to build that momentum over time. It’s a different type of summer kickoff film,” said Dergarabedian. “There’s always huge expectations placed on any film that kicks off the summer movie season, but this isn’t your typical summer movie season.”

In a surprise, No. 2 at the box office went to the Walt Disney Co. rerelease of “Star Wars: The Phantom Menace.” The first episode to George Lucas’ little-loved prequels collected $8.1 million over the weekend, 25 years after “Phantom Menace” grossed $1 billion.

Last week’s top film, the Zendaya tennis drama “Challengers,” slid to third place with $7.6 million in its second week. That was a sold hold for the Amazon MGM release, directed by Luca Guadagnino, dipping 49% from its first weekend.

The Sony Screen Gems supernatural horror film “Tarot” also opened nationwide. It debuted with $6.5 million, a decent enough start for a low-budget release but another example of horror not quite performing this year as it has the last few years.

Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Comscore. Final domestic figures will be released Monday.

1. “The Fall Guy,” $28.5 million.

2. “Star Wars: The Phantom Menace,” $8.1 million.

3. “Challengers,” $7.6 million.

4. “Tarot,” $6.5 million.

5. “Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire,” $4.5 million.

6. “Civil War,” $3.6 million.

7. “Unsung Hero,” $3 million.

8. “Kung Fu Panda 4,” $2.4 million.

9. “Abigail,” $2.3 million.

10. “Ghostbuster: Frozen Empire,” $1.8 million.
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Prada focuses generational transition on Italian artisans

TORGIANO, Italy — The Prada Group is expanding its production footprint in Italy, including dozens of new jobs at its knitwear factory in Umbria, leaning into “Made in Italy” as integral to the brand’s ethos and developing new artisanal talent to ease the luxury group through a generational shift in its workforce.

Prada CEO Andrea Guerra, who was brought in last year as part of the generational change in family-run Prada’s management, said at an unveiling of the expanded plant Tuesday that the company is investing 60 million euros ($65 million) in production this year.

At Torgiano, Prada has added 30 new jobs this year, alongside 65 last year, bringing the workforce to some 220 employees, mostly women, to create knitwear for the Prada and Miu Miu brands, a key category for the group. The site had just 39 employees when Prada bought it in 2001.

“For many years, Torgiano was a small, important place, linked to the Umbrian knitwear tradition,” mostly dedicated to product research and development, Guerra said. “In the last six or seven years, with the extraordinary growth in knitwear, we decided to create an all-around industrial hub,” adding production to a reinforced R&D center.

The innocuous low-slung plant, identified by a simple, small Prada nameplate near the gate, is at the heart of a network that includes dozens of smaller companies that together create some 30,000 pieces of knitwear a month for the global luxury group. They include red crocheted Miu Miu culottes to soft gray Prada cardigans that have become a trademark.

Guerra described the Milan-based fashion group’s manufacturing footprint in central Italy as a “network of intelligent relationships and craftsmanship merged with a constant capacity to bring innovation to the market.”

Prada’s investments to exert greater control over its supply chain stand out against the backdrop of a recent investigation that revealed sweatshop conditions in Chinese-owned factories producing luxury goods for other Italian brands in the Lombardy region, where the Italian fashion capital Milan is located. The production arm of Giorgio Armani has been put under receivership as part of an ongoing supply chain probe.

Prada has focused on what it calls vertical integration of its supply chain — working with smaller companies, some with just a handful of craftspeople, that provide specific, sometimes unique, skills. For its knitwear operation, Prada works with some 60 smaller companies that it refers to as “partners” or “collaborators.”

“Contractors, subcontractors, that is not something tied to this world. There are production phases that are assigned to our collaborators, our partners,” Guerra said, adding: “The way I work inside, and the way I work outside needs to be the same.”

Lorenzo Bertelli, marketing director and head of corporate social responsibility who is slated to take over the company from his parents Patrizio Bertelli and Miuccia Prada, said a strong governance is the key to avoiding “such incidents.” He credited his father with starting Prada on the road to integrating its supply chain in the 1990s.

Audits of suppliers, which have so far been voluntary, will become mandatory in 2025 under the Corporate Sustainability Reporting legislation, aimed at controlling abuses, said Stefania Saviolo, a fashion and luxury expert at Milan’s Bocconi University. Publicly quoted companies like Prada, which are used to a level of transparency and reporting, will likely have an easier time than others, she said.

Integrating the supply chain doesn’t just mean that a major player buys up smaller companies, she said, but they may invest in specific machinery, or help them secure bank financing. “It is not ownership, it is a longer transaction along the model of partnership,” Saviolo said, adding that such relationships also provide a sense of security to the smaller companies more vulnerable to market crashes.

Noting that the luxury and fashion industries have long relied on third-party manufacturing, Bernstein global luxury goods analyst Luca Solca said the kind of investments by Prada to integrate manufacturing processes in-house “is a sort of catch-up with best-in-class-players in the industry.”

A key part of Prada’s investments are aimed at securing know-how into the next generation, a transition the company has been preparing also in its management and creative roles.

Finding new workers with both experience and passion is difficult, even in a region where knitwear is part of the local tradition, said Lorenzo Teodori, who runs the Torgiano plant.

To fill that gap, Prada runs an internal academy as needed at its 23 Italian production sites to train young craftspeople. The next one in Torgiano starts in the fall, with experienced workers training the next generation.

“Through the Prada Academy, we have seen how this dialogue is still alive and successful,” Bertelli said. “We need it to train the future technicians of tomorrow, who in turn will be the teachers in the future. It is a fundamental cycle for our group.”
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Vatican and Rome begin dash to 2025 Jubilee with papal bull, construction

VATICAN CITY — The Vatican crossed a key milestone Thursday in the runup to its 2025 Jubilee with the promulgation of the official decree establishing the Holy Year. It’s a once-every-quarter-century event that is expected to bring some 32 million pilgrims to Rome and has already brought months of headaches to Romans.

Pope Francis presided over a ceremony in the atrium of St. Peter’s Basilica for the reading of the papal bull, or official edict, that laid out his vision for a year of hope: He asked for gestures of solidarity for the poor, prisoners, migrants and Mother Nature.

“Hope is needed by God’s creation, gravely damaged and disfigured by human selfishness,” Francis said in a vigil service afterward. “Hope is needed by those peoples and nations who look to the future with anxiety and fear.”

The pomp-filled event, attended by cardinals, bishops and ordinary faithful, kicked off the final seven-month dash of preparations and public works projects to be completed by December 24, when Francis opens the basilica’s Holy Door and formally inaugurates the Jubilee.

In a novelty, Francis announced in the papal bull that he would also open a Holy Door in a prison “as a sign inviting prisoners to look to the future with hope and a renewed sense of confidence.”

For the Vatican, the Holy Year is a centuries-old tradition of the faithful making pilgrimages to Rome to visit the tombs of Saints Peter and Paul, and receiving indulgences for the forgiveness of their sins in the process. For the city of Rome, it’s a chance to take advantage of some 4 billion euros ($4.3 billion) in public funds to carry out long-delayed projects to lift the city out of years of decay and neglect.

“In a beautiful city, you live better,” said the Vatican’s Jubilee point-person, Archbishop Renato Fisichella, who himself is not indifferent to the added bonus of Jubilee funding. “Rome will become an even more beautiful city, because it will be ever more at the service of its people, pilgrims and tourists who will come.”

Pope Boniface VIII declared the first Holy Year in 1300, and now they are held every 25 years. While Francis called an interim one devoted to mercy in 2015, the 2025 edition is the first big one since St. John Paul II’s 2000 Jubilee, when he ushered the Catholic Church into the third millennium.

As occurred in the runup to 2000, pre-Jubilee public works projects have overwhelmed Rome, with flood-lit construction sites operating around the clock, entire swaths of central boulevards rerouted and traffic snarling the city’s already clogged streets.

The Tiber riverfront for much of the city center is now off limits as work crews create new parks. Piazzas are being repaved, bike paths charted and 5G cells built. The aim is to bring the Eternal City up to par with other European capitals and take advantage of the 1.3 billion euros ($1.4 billion) in special Jubilee funding and some 3 billion euros ($3.2 billion) more in other public and post-pandemic EU funds that are available.

“It’s really putting our patience to the test,” said Tiziana Cafini, who operates a tobacco shop near the Pantheon and says she has taken to walking to work rather than riding a bus into the city center because it gets stuck in traffic. “And it’s not just in the center. There are an infinite number of construction sites all around Rome.”

Though she knows the discomfort will be worth it in the end, the end is still pretty far off. In addition to the Jubilee construction, there’s a longer-term, separate project to extend Rome’s Metro C subway line into Rome’s historic center which has encountered years of delays thanks to archaeological excavations of ancient Roman ruins that must be completed first.

For the next four years at least, central Piazza Venezia and its Imperial Forum-flanked boulevard to the Colosseum are scheduled to be congested and blighted by giant, 14-meter-high green silos that are needed for the subway drilling operation.

“We’re upset, but we’re Romans, we’ll make do,” Cafini said.

Rome Mayor Roberto Gualtieri said recently he was satisfied with the pace of the Jubilee works so far, noting that they got off to a months-delayed start due to the 2022 collapse of Premier Mario Dragi’s government.

But Gualtieri promised they would be completed on time. And in a nod to Romans and tourists who have suffered from the traffic chaos and acute shortage of taxis already, he promised that an extra 1,000 taxi licenses had been approved and would be in use by December.

Yet as of late last month, only two of the 231 city projects had been completed; 57 were under way and another 44 were expected to be started by the end of May, Gualtieri told reporters. Another 18 are up for bids, seven have been assigned, 90 are planned. Thirteen have been canceled.

“We have recovered a lot from the initial delay,” Gualtieri told the foreign press association, adding that he expected the “essential” projects to be completed on time. Other projects were always planned to take longer than the Jubilee but were lumped into the overall project to take advantage of the accelerated timeframe.

The most significant project, and one that has caused the greatest traffic disruption to date, is a new Vatican-area piazza and pedestrian zone connecting Castel St. Angelo with the Via della Conciliazione boulevard that leads to St. Peter’s Square.

Previously, a major thoroughfare divided the two landmarks, causing an unsightly and pedestrian-unfriendly barrier.

The new works call for a tunnel to divert the oncoming traffic underneath the new pedestrian piazza. But that project required re-routing and replacing a huge underground sewage system first, which has only recently been completed. Now crews are working through the night to try to complete the tunnel in time.
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Switzerland wins Eurovision Song Contest 2024 with Nemo’s ‘The Code’

MALMO, Sweden — Switzerland won the Eurovision Song Contest 2024 on Saturday in the Swedish host city Malmo, beating runner-up Croatia.  

Billed as a feel-good celebration of European diversity, this year’s contest was thrust into the political spotlight with calls for Israel to be excluded because of its military campaign in Gaza, triggered by Hamas’ deadly attack on October 7 in Israel.  

Swiss rapper and singer Nemo, 24, won the contest with “The Code,” a drum-and-bass, opera, rap and rock song about Nemo’s journey of self-discovery as a non-binary person. 

“I hope this contest can live up to its promise and continue to stand for peace and dignity for every person in this world,” Nemo said, after receiving the Eurovision trophy on stage. 

“To know that a song that has changed my life and a song where I just speak about my story has touched so many people and maybe inspired other people to stay true to their story is the most insane thing that has ever happened to me,” Nemo said later during a press conference. 

Swiss sing along

Cheers of joy broke out in bars in central Zurich when the winner was announced, and Swiss revelers sang along as Nemo tore through a victory rendition of “The Code.” 

“I think it’s just great, Nemo is fantastic,” said Maha Nater, a 24-year-old kindergarten worker celebrating the win after watching the marathon contest. 

One karaoke bar began blasting out Queen’s “We Are The Champions” as patrons joined in. 

Nemo’s victory would blaze a trail for others who had had to cope with prejudice against non-binary people, Nater said. 

“It sets an example to follow,” she said. 

Croatia places second

Croatia’s Baby Lasagna, real name Marko Purisic, 28, came second with “Rim Tim Tagi Dim,” a song about a young man who leaves home aspiring to become a “city boy” with better opportunities. 

Israel’s Eden Golan, 20, finished fifth in the contest despite demonstrators’ calls for a boycott of the country. 

The female solo artist on Thursday emerged as one of the leading contenders to win after qualifying for the final. 

Booing was heard during Golan’s performance but also applause, a Reuters photographer in the auditorium said. The noise was partly audible in the broadcast viewed by tens of millions of people in Europe and around the world. 

There was also booing when the points of the Israeli jury were presented. 

Protesters claim Eurovision supports genocide

Several thousand protesters gathered in central Malmo ahead of Saturday’s final, waving Palestinian flags and shouting “Eurovision united by genocide,”  The contest’s official slogan is “United by music.” 

A few hundred people later also protested outside the venue, chanting “Eurovision, you can’t hide, you’re supporting genocide.” 

Protesters have been pointing to double standards as the European Broadcasting Union banned Russia from Eurovision in 2022 because of its invasion of Ukraine. 

Police hauled away some protesters before surrounding them and ushering them away, a Reuters reporter outside the arena said. Some protesters were seen lying on the ground after police used pepper spray to disband the demonstration. 

25 countries compete

Twenty-five countries competed in the final after Dutch artist Joost Klein was expelled earlier on Saturday because of a complaint filed by a production crew member. 

Viewer votes made up half of Saturday’s final result, while juries of five music professionals in each participating country made up the other half. 

The Eurovision winner is awarded the contest’s official glass trophy, which is shaped like a classic, old-fashioned microphone, with sand blasted and painted details. The winner also gets to host the competition the following year. 

Nemo broke the fragile prize shortly after receiving it but was given a new one to replace it. 

“I didn’t just break the code, I also broke the trophy,” Nemo said, laughing, at the press conference after the win. 
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Dutch contestant kicked out of Eurovision hours before final

MALMO, Sweden — The Netherlands’ contestant in the Eurovision Song Contest was dramatically expelled from competition hours before Saturday’s final of the pan-continental pop competition, which has been rattled by protests over the participation of Israel.

Competition organizer European Broadcasting Union said Swedish police were investigating “a complaint made by a female member of the production crew” against Dutch performer Joost Klein. The organizer said it wouldn’t be appropriate for Klein to participate at the event in Malmo while the legal process was underway.

Although Eurovision’s motto is “united by music,” this year’s event has proven exceptionally divisive. Israel’s participation has attracted large pro-Palestinian demonstrations, with protesters saying the country should be excluded because of its conduct in the war in the Gaza Strip.

Klein, a 26-year-old Dutch singer and rapper, had been a favorite of bookmakers and fans with his song “Europapa.”

He failed to perform at two dress rehearsals on Friday, and the EBU had said it was investigating an “incident.” Although rumors had been flying that the incident was connected to Israel’s delegation, organizers said that it “did not involve any other performer or delegation member.”

Dutch broadcaster AVROTOS, one of dozens of public broadcasters that collectively fund and broadcast the contest, said that it “finds the disqualification disproportionate and is shocked by the decision.”

“We deeply regret this and will come back to this later,” AVROTOS said in a statement.

It all makes for a messy climax to an event that draws both adoration and derision with its campy, kitschy ethos and passion for pop.

Thousands of people gathered in central Malmo on Saturday to march for the second time this week through Sweden’s third-largest city, which has a large Muslim population, to demand a boycott of Israel and a cease-fire in the seven-month war.

In Finland, a group of about 40 protesters stormed the headquarters of public broadcaster YLE on Saturday morning, demanding it withdraw from the song contest because of Israel’s participation.

Several kilometers from the city center at the Malmo Arena, 25 acts — narrowed from 37 entrants by two semifinal runoffs — are scheduled to perform three-minute songs in front of a live audience of thousands and an estimated 180 million viewers around the world.

Tensions and nerves were palpable in the hours before the final. Several artists were absent from the Olympics-style artists’ entrance at the start of the final dress rehearsal, although all but Ireland’s Bambie Thug went on to perform.

The Irish performer issued a statement saying the absence was due to a situation “which I felt needed urgent attention from the EBU” and telling fans: “I hope to see you on the stage later.”

French singer Slimane cut short his song “Mon Amour” at the dress rehearsal to give a speech urging people to be “united by music, yes — but with love, for peace.”
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Haitians seeking solace from unrelenting gang violence turn to Vodou

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — The Vodou faithful sing, their voices rising above the gunfire erupting miles away as frantic drumbeats drown out their troubles.

They pause to swig rum out of small brown bottles, twirling in unison as they sing in Haitian Creole: “We don’t care if they hate us, because they can’t bury us.”

Shunned publicly by politicians and intellectuals for centuries, Vodou is transforming into a more powerful and accepted religion across Haiti, where its believers were once persecuted. Increasingly, they seek solace and protection from violent gangs that have killed, raped and kidnapped thousands in recent years.

The violence has left more than 360,000 people homeless, largely shut down Haiti’s biggest seaport and closed the main international airport two months ago. Basic goods including food and life-saving medication are dwindling; nearly 2 million Haitians are on the verge of famine.

From January to March alone, more than 2,500 Haitians were killed or injured, up more than 50% from the same period last year, according to the U.N.

Amid the spiraling chaos, numerous Haitians are praying more or visiting Vodou priests known as “oungans” for urgent requests ranging from locating loved ones who were kidnapped to finding critical medication needed to keep someone alive.

“The spirits help you. They’re always around,” said Sherly Norzéus, who is initiated to become a “mambo,” or Vodou priestess.

In February, she invoked Papa Ogou, god of war and iron, when 20 armed men surrounded her car as she tried to flee the community of Bon Repos.

Her three children and the two children of her sister, who died during childbirth, sat next to her.

“We are going to burn you alive!” she recalled the gunmen yelling.

Gangs had invaded their neighborhood before dawn, setting fire to homes amid relentless gunfire.

“I prayed to Papa Ogou. He helped me get out of the situation,” Norzéus said.

When she opened her eyes, the gunmen signaled that she was free to leave.

Vodou was at the root of the revolution that led Haiti to become the world’s first free Black republic in 1804, a religion born in West Africa and brought across the Atlantic by enslaved people.

The syncretic religion that melds Catholicism with animist beliefs has no official leader or creeds. It has a single God known as “Bondye,” Creole for “Good God,” and more than 1,000 spirits known as the lwa — some that aren’t always benevolent.

During Vodou ceremonies, lwa are offered treats ranging from papayas and coffee to popcorn, lollipops and cheese puffs. A ceremony is considered successful if a Vodouist is possessed by an lwa.

Some experts consider it a religion of the exploited.

“Vodou is the system that Haitians have developed to deal with the suffering of this life, a system whose object is to minimize pain, avoid disaster, soften losses, and strengthen the survivors as much as the survival instinct,” Haitian sociologist Laennec Hurbon wrote in a recent essay.

Vodou began to take shape in the French colony of Saint-Domingue during funeral rituals for enslaved people and dances called “calendas” that they organized on Sunday evenings. It also was practiced by slaves known as Maroons who escaped to remote mountains and were led by François Mackandal, a Vodou priest.

In August 1791, some 200 slaves gathered at night in Bois-Caiman in northern Haiti for a Vodou ceremony organized by Dutty Boukman, a renowned enslaved leader and Vodou priest. They sacrificed a pig, drank its blood and swore to keep secret an imminent revolt against slavery, according to a surgeon present at the ceremony.

After a 13-year revolution, Haiti became independent, but Vodou remained oppressed.

The country’s new leaders condemned Vodou worship, as did the Catholic Church.

Catholic leaders demanded parishioners take an oath renouncing Vodou in 1941.

Thousands of Vodou followers were lynched and hundreds of symbolic spaces destroyed in what became the most violent attack in Haiti’s history against the religion, according to journalist Herbert Nerette.

But Vodou persisted. When François Duvalier became president in 1957, he politicized the religion during his dictatorship, appointing certain oungans as its representatives, Hurbon wrote.

By 2003, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, a Salesian priest who became Haiti’s first democratically elected president, recognized Vodou as one of Haiti’s official religions.

Despite the formal recognition, Vodou remains shunned by some Haitians.

“When you say you are a Vodouist, they stigmatize you,” said Kadel Bazile, a 42-year-old civil engineer.

Until recently, Bazile was a practicing Catholic. But when he lost his job and his wife left him nearly two years ago, a friend suggested he try Vodou.

“What I find here is spirituality and fraternity. Being here is like being with family,” he said while attending a May 1 ceremony to honor Kouzen Zaka, the lwa of harvest.

He identifies the most with Erzulie Dantor, the divinity of love represented by a Black Madonna with scars on her right cheek.

“That is the spirit who lives in me,” he said. “She is going to protect me.”

As the ceremony started, Bazile smiled and moved to the beat of the drums while dancers twirled nearby, their long earrings swaying to the rhythm.

Vodou is attracting more believers given the surge in gang violence and government inaction, said Cecil Elien Isac, a fourth-generation oungan.

“Whenever the community has a big problem, they come here, because there is no justice in Haiti. You find it in the ancestral spirits,” he said.

When Isac opened his temple years ago in Port-au-Prince, about eight families in the area became members. Now he counts more than 4,000, in Haiti and abroad.

“We have a group of intellectuals who have joined,” he said. “Before, it was people who couldn’t read or write. Now it has more visibility.”

Credited with that turnaround are thinkers like Jean Price-Mars, whose 1928 book, Thus Spoke the Uncle, visualized Vodou as a religion, “without making the Haitian elites blush,” wrote sociologist Lewis Ampidu Clorméus.

“Until the 1920s, Haitian Vodou was generally regarded as a string of superstitions, witchcraft and ritual cannibalism,” Clorméus wrote. “Talking about Vodou constituted a shame for Haitian intellectuals.”

Vodou has since become a key ingredient in Haiti’s rich cultural scene, inspiring music, art, writing and dance.

It’s unknown how many people currently practice Vodou in Haiti, but there’s a popular saying: “Haiti is 70% Catholic, 30% Protestant and 100% Vodou.”

Vodou also has countless lwas, although Ogou Je Wouj — the god of red eyes — has grown more significant to Haitians given the lack of security in the country, said Erol Josué, a singer, oungan and director of Haiti’s National Bureau of Ethnology.

Ogou Je Wouj is a manifestation of the god of war and is believed to wield a machete.

“They want power in their body and in their mind,” Josué said of those who seek the god.

While spirits infuse believers with energy and hope, Vodou priests warn they don’t perform miracles.

“We’re praying, but we’re also taking precautions,” Isac said. “There are a lot of lwas to protect you from kidnapping, but if you walk through certain areas, no lwa is going to protect you.”

On a recent afternoon, hundreds of Haitians gathered on a steep hill and squeezed into a small church to celebrate St. George, a Christian martyr believed to be a Roman soldier revered by Catholics and Vodouists alike.

They offered him money and prayers in hopes they would make it through Haiti’s deepening crisis.

“It’s very important to be here,” said Hervé Hyppolite, a chef who practices Christianity and Vodou. “You find force, courage and also protection.”

Surrounding him was a sea of people clad in khaki and red, the saint’s colors. Some held candles as a handful of women danced nearby.

“St. George!” the priest leading the celebration yelled. The crowd shouted in response, “We need you!”

Josué, the singer and oungan, noted that some young people becoming Vodouists are trying to change traditional prayers or certain practices, but he said oungans and mambos are not embracing the push.

“We make them understand that those spirits are a symbol of resistance of the Haitian nation,” he said. “There’s a lot of substance in Vodou that can lead to a renaissance of Haiti.”
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Liam, Olivia still the most popular US baby names

WASHINGTON — Liam and Olivia have for a fifth year together topped the list of baby names for brand new boys and girls born in the U.S. in 2023. And Mateo joins the top 10 baby names list for the first time.

The Social Security Administration annually tracks the names given to girls and boys in each state, with names dating back to 1880. The agency gathers the names from applications for Social Security cards.

Based on cultural and population trends, the list shows how names can rise and fall in popularity. The latest was released Friday.

Liam has reigned supreme seven years in a row while Olivia has topped the girls’ list for five, after unseating Emma, previously No. 1 for five years.

After Liam, the most common names for boys are, in order: Noah, Oliver, James, Elijah, Mateo, Theodore, Henry, Lucas, and William.

And after Olivia, the most common names for girls are Emma, Charlotte, Amelia, Sophia, Mia, Isabella, Ava, Evelyn and Luna.

The Social Security Administration’s latest data show that 3.58 million babies were born in the U.S. in 2023. That’s a slight decrease from last year’s 3.66 million babies, representing an overall decline in the American birthrate.

Social media stars and popular television shows are having some impact on the rising popularity of certain names, Social Security says. The fastest rising name for boys is Izael while the second fastest rising, Chozen, shot up to number 813 in 2023.

The character Chozen was a protagonist in the last season of the Netflix show Cobra Kai.

For girls, one of the fastest rising baby names is Kaeli, which rose 1,692 spots. “Parents must have really smashed the ‘like’ button for YouTube and TikTok star Kaeli McEwen, also known as Kaeli Mae, who routinely promotes a clean, tidy, and neutral-aesthetic lifestyle,” Social Security said in a news release.

The complete, searchable list of baby names is on the Social Security website.
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President Biden cheers Las Vegas Aces and women’s basketball

washington — President Joe Biden welcomed the reigning WNBA champion Las Vegas Aces to the White House on Thursday, celebrating what he called a “banner year” for women’s basketball.

“It matters to girls and women, finally seeing themselves represented,” Biden said during the celebration held in the East Room of the White House. “It matters to all Americans. That’s why as a nation, we need to support women’s sports.”

Both he and Vice President Kamala Harris were given the customary jerseys from the winning team. As he held his up, Biden yelled, “Put me in Coach, I’m ready to play!”

In her own remarks, Harris praised the team for playing with “such joy” and being role models both on and off the basketball court.

“You simply inspire people across our nation and around the world,” Harris said.

The Las Vegas Aces defeated the New York Liberty in the WNBA championship last October to win their second consecutive WNBA title. As he began his remarks, Biden made a not-so-veiled reference to his own reelection prospects, noting, “I kind of like that back-to-back stuff.”
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Torchbearers in Marseille kick off Olympic flame’s journey across France

MARSEILLE, France — Joyful crowds gathered along the streets of France’s southern port of Marseille on Thursday to see torchbearers carrying the Olympic flame through the city’s most emblematic sites, a day after it arrived on a majestic three-mast ship for a welcoming ceremony. 

It was the first leg of an 11-week journey across the country for the torch, which will be carried by about 10,000 bearers as it passes through more than 450 towns until the Games’ opening ceremony in Paris on July 26. 

Former soccer player Basile Boli, who played with the Marseille team in the 1990s, kicked off Thursday’s relay from the Notre Dame de la Garde basilica that overlooks Marseille and the Mediterranean. 

“I’m very proud,” Boli said. “You feel like you’re on top of the world, because with an Olympic flame there’s a special fervor. … It’s the symbol of sport!” 

Basketball player Tony Parker later took his turn in the relay, praising “a great honor.” On a nearby crowded beach, swimmers and sunbathers cheered the torch bearers as the flame passed. 

“The enthusiasm of Marseille for the flame is phenomenal,” said Maurice Genevois, a local resident. “Honestly, I have rarely seen such a celebration.” 

Magali Evrard, who came from the town of Martigues, in Marseille’s region, said “it’s been so long since we started talking about this and now we’re in it! 

“We are on the road to Paris. We can’t wait, it’s great,” she added. 

A fencing champion, a skateboarder, a Michelin-starred chef and a comedian were also chosen to carry the flame on Thursday. 

“Let’s go for a fantastic celebration,” said Tony Estanguet, president of the Paris Olympics organizing committee. “The Games are back in our country. … Let’s share this fantastic moment of celebration with millions of people in the country.” 

Participants were scheduled to run all day past landmarks in the city to bring the torch to the roof of the famed Stade Vélodrome, home to Marseille’s passionate soccer fans. 

Sports Minister Amelie Oudea-Castera said “it’s fantastic to give that sense of pride to the French people and to show to the whole world what we’re capable to achieve.” 

“‘We’re going to give happiness to the whole world,” she added. 

Torchbearers included Ukrainian gymnast Mariia Vysochanska, who won two gold medals at the 2020 European Championships and competed at the Olympic Games in Tokyo. 

Her inclusion was an expression of solidarity with Ukraine as well as a symbolic gesture to mark Europe Day, which falls on May 9 each year. Vysochanska led a group of 27 other athletes who represent all European Union member states. 

“It’s a way to really celebrate Europe, its values and also to demonstrate our attachment to the European sport model,” Oudea-Castera said. Ukraine received the green light last year to start accelerated talks on joining the EU. 

“(Ukrainians) face that terrible war of aggression, and we want to really express that we support them the best we can,” she added. “This is unity. This is hope. This is solidarity. And we want their victory.” 

Marseille on Wednesday celebrated with great fanfare the flame’s arrival, with more than 230,000 people attending the ceremony in the Old Port, according to the city’s mayor, Benoit Payan. 

During the Games, the sailing competition and some soccer matches will be held in Marseille. 
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Heavy metal music finds a home in Indonesia

Heavy metal music is controversial in some conservative societies but quite popular in the world’s largest Muslim-majority country. As VOA’s Dave Grunebaum reports, heavy metal has a home in Indonesia.
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Heavy metal music has a home in Indonesia

Jakarta, Indonesia — The sounds from guitars strumming and drums beating sears through the air. Crowds dance in circles while thumping their heads back and forth.

Some 38,000 fans attended Hammersonic this past weekend, according to organizers of Southeast Asia’s largest annual heavy metal music festival. Featuring 55 bands, the event is held in Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia, the world’s largest Muslim majority country.

One of the groups performing, Lamb of God, was barred from performing in neighboring Malaysia in 2013 after Islamic leaders there said some of the band’s songs were blasphemous. Interestingly, the current president of Indonesia, Joko Widodo, talks openly about his passion for heavy metal and says he’s a fan of Lamb of God.

“We’re a moderate Muslim country and that’s why we’re more open to foreign influence including heavy metal music than some more conservative countries” said Pri Ario Damar, dean of the performing arts faculty at the Jakarta Institute of Arts.

Damar, 49, was a bass guitarist in a local heavy metal band back in the 1990s and currently plays with his students from time to time. “Heavy metal has been popular here for decades,” he says. “So there are several generations of listeners here who appreciate it as an outlet to comment on society, politics and the environment.”

At 6 p.m. local time, during a break in the live performances at Hammersonic, many fans went to the designated prayer area. Some of them prayed wearing heavy metal t-shirts simultaneously showing their Muslim faith and favorite music.

While bands from around the world took the stage, Dian Ranidita, a 40-year-old Indonesian mother of three, tapped her feet to the rhythms while her husband Yanuardi gently bobbed his head up and down.

“The stereotype of heavy music is always dark, violent, aggressive and also like a devil, but actually heavy metal is not like that,” Dian said, adding that she’s been a heavy metal fan since high school because of the different themes in the music that she relates to.

“For instance, romantic themes when you have a broken heart or feeling like fall in love with someone. And also if you’re feeling depressed, there are also depression themes, and when you’re feeling like you want to release your adrenaline,” she said. “Those are some of the many themes in heavy metal.”

Sisi Selatan is a heavy metal band from the Indonesian city of Solo. The group performed songs about love and social activism while fans in front of the stage jumped up and down. Band members say Indonesia is a country that embraces foreign cultural influences.

“We [Indonesians] absorb foreign cultures,” said guitarist Adi Wibowo. “Not only metal music, but also Korean, Japanese, Indian music and more. We embrace these types of music.”

Denisa Dhaniswara is a 24-year-old heavy metal vocalist from Jakarta. Like many singers, she writes songs based on her own personal experiences in life.

“A lot of my lyrics are filled with grief and greed. So, I really want people to feel unsettled when you listen to my music,” she said. “It’s a way of saying: I’ve been feeling like this, do you relate? If you relate that’s good. I mean I’m not alone here.”

Dhaniswara says Indonesia’s heavy metal fanbase is growing as performers get better and better.

“Indonesia has a lot of newer heavy metal bands and that makes me very happy because we’re always emerging,” she said. “Always finding out new stuff. Everybody’s so creative.”
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Met Gala in full bloom with Zendaya, Jennifer Lopez, Mindy Kaling among stars

New York — It’s Met Gala time and the fashion parade of A-listers Monday included a swirl of flora and fauna looks on a green-tinged carpet surrounded by foliage. Jennifer Lopez went for silver leaves in a second-skin goddess gown and Zendaya was all vamp and fantasy.

Both are co-chairs of the annual fundraiser at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. And both received cheers from the crowd of fashion enthusiasts packed behind barriers outside.

Flowers were everywhere, in line with this year’s theme: “The Garden of Time.” Lopez (in Schiaparelli) was all va-va-voom in a near-naked gown that hugged like a second skin. She’s got the Meta Gala down: It’s her 14th.

This year’s theme is inspired by J.G. Ballard’s 1962 short story of the same name.

Zendaya put on her fashion face in hues of blue and green, with a head piece to match and leaf accents.

It’s been five years since Zendaya last attended the Met Gala. Her look, in peacock colors, was by Maison Margiela. Lopez went with Tiffany & Co. diamonds, including a stunning bird motif necklace with a diamond of over 20 carats at its center.

Mindy Kaling is sure to make the best-dressed lists in sand-colored swirls that towered over her head at the back. No worries about dinner. The back was removable. Her look was by Indian couturier Gaurav Gupta.

Fashion kings and queens … and a good witch

Gigi Hadid brought the drama in a look by the drama king himself, Thom Browne. her white look was adorned with 2.8 million microbeads with yellow flowers and green thorns. She was high glam in a wavy bob and crimson lips.

If there’s a queen of the Met Gala besides the evening’s mastermind, Anna Wintour, it’s Sarah Jessica Parker. The long-time attendee takes each year’s theme seriously, researching every detail. This year she was in an Alice in Wonderland dress with a lavender overlay and a Philip Treacy topper on her head. The dress was by Richard Quinn. Her long hair tumbled behind her back in beachy waves, a look that built into a beauty trend of the evening.

Serena Williams took metallic gold to another level in a shining one-shoulder statement look. Ariana Grande was all Glinda the Good Witch, making the most of her pale-colored strapless look with 3D eyelashes at the side of each eye. She arrived with her “Wicked” co-star Cynthia Erivo, dressed in black with pink petals in a darker, edgy look.

Cardi B., who has THE most fun at the Met Gala, struck a pose or three in statement black with a huge tulle train. She paired the look with green jewels and a high black turban. She needed multiple helpers to move her dress up the stairs

Channeling Sleeping Beauty and the garden

Penelope Cruz, meanwhile, went goth in black by Chanel. It had a bustier top and a Sleeping Beauty-like off-shoulder silhouette. There was another Sleeping Beauty-ish guest: Kendall Jenner in a Givenchy look done by Alexander McQueen in 1999.

Kendall’s sister, Kylie Jenner, was more Old Hollywood than storybook in a chic low-cut strapless look, a white bloom in her clicked-back updo and a train behind. Oddly, older sister Kim Kardashian tightly covered up her gorgeous silver corset look with a leaf motif by Maison Margiela with a lumpy gray sweater.

Dua Lipa was a whole different kind of princess. She went full rock ‘n’ roll in black by Marc Jacobs, who accompanied her.

The princess vibes were in apparent reference to the Met’s spring exhibition that the gala kicks off. It’s called “Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion.” While it doesn’t actually have to do with Disney, or even princesses, some of the 400 guests went there.

Demi Moore stuck to the garden in a Harris Reed look with huge wings encircled by arrows and handpainted with pink and white blooms.

Diesel broke through on the gala red carpet on Dove Cameron. It was about as unlike Diesel as it gets, also going for the garden. The look had sleeves attached to her train.

Finding deeper meaning in the theme

Lily Gladstone went for black by Gabriela Hearst.

“We wanted me to feel draped in the power of my ancestors,” she said. “For Kiowa and Blackfeet, our ancestors are the stars, that’s where we come from. … I feel like it’s so long overdue that we have so much Indigenous representation and this sort of upper echelon world of high luxury fashion, because that is our aesthetic, you know, Natives have always loved luxury.”

Floral looks and a special plus-1

Colman Domingo donned a white jacket with a cape and extra-wide trousers, holding a bouquet of white calla lilies, while Tyla chose a gown made to look like sand using actual sand on the fabric. She needed help with the hourglass she held as she made her way up the museum stairs. Domingo’s designer was Willy Chavarria.

Sam Smith wore silver and gold metal roses tucked into the waist of a jacket, and Jack Harlow also channeled florals, but subtly with a silver and pearl floral boutonniere.

Wintour wore a black coat adorned with multicolored flowers. Her fellow co-chair Bad Bunny donned all black. A pregnant Lea Michele wore Rodarte, inspired by the brand’s 2012 spring/summer collection.

“I’m honored to be here and bring my baby with me,” Michele said. “”I don’t think I was allowed a plus one, but I’m bringing” one, she said with a laugh. “I’m so grateful. I feel really beautiful, you know, in this pregnancy.”

Looking to follow along? Here’s a quick primer on what you need to know about the palooza of A-list celebrities from film, fashion, music, sports, politics and social media.

Among those who had way BIG fun with the nature and garden theme was Lana Del Rey. She walked up the museum steps as an actual tree, her face shrouded by fabric held up by her branches.

How to watch the Met Gala

That’s tricky. Vogue has the exclusive livestream, which starts at 6 p.m. Eastern at Vogue.com. The feed will also be available on Vogue’s digital platforms, including TikTok and YouTube.

Tons of other media will be on site, too. Catch the action on E!, also starting at 6 p.m., with livestreams on X, TikTok, Instagram and Peacock.

The Associated Press will be live outside the Mark Hotel, where many celebs get ready before heading to The Metropolitan Museum of Art for their walk up the grand staircase. That livestream will begin at 4:45 p.m. Eastern and will be available on YouTube and APNews.com.

Only the event’s stacked red carpet is watchable — the gala’s cocktail hour and dinner are notoriously private events.

What’s the point of the Met Gala?

It’s a party, for sure, with cocktails and dinner for about invited 400 guests, but it’s also a huge fundraiser for the Met’s Costume Institute, the only department at the museum required to pay for itself. Last year, the gala raised about $22 million. Wintour, a Met trustee for whom part of the institute has been renamed, organizes the whole shebang. No phones are allowed, adding to the allure.

It also promotes the museum’s exhibit, which this year is called “Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion.” It includes 250 items from The Costume Institute’s permanent collection, including some garments very rarely seen in public and so fragile they need to be under glass. Curators wanted to engage all the senses, including smell.

The exhibit opens to the public Friday and runs through Sept. 2.
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‘The Fall Guy’ gives Hollywood a muted kickoff with $28.5M   

New York — “The Fall Guy,” the Ryan Gosling-led, action-comedy ode to stunt performers, opened below expectations with $28.5 million, according to studio estimates Sunday, providing a lukewarm start to a summer movie season that’s very much to be determined for Hollywood.

The Universal Pictures release opened on a weekend that Marvel has regularly dominated with $100 million-plus launches. (In 2023, that was “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3” with a $118 million debut.) But last year’s strikes jumbled this year’s movie calendar; “Deadpool & Wolverine,” originally slated to open this weekend, is now debuting in July.

So in place of a superhero kickoff, the summer launch went to a movie about the stunt performers who anonymously sacrifice their bodies for the kind of action sequences blockbusters are built on. Going into the weekend, forecasts had the film opening $30 million to $40 million.

“The Fall Guy,” directed by former stuntman and “Deadpool 2” helmer David Leitch, rode into the weekend with the momentum of glowing reviews and the buzz of a SXSW premiere. But it will need sustained interest to merit its $130 million production budget. It added $25.4 million in overseas markets.

Working in its favor for a long run: strong audience scores (an “A-” CinemaScore) and good reviews (83% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes). Jim Orr, distribution chief for Universal, believes things line up well for “The Fall Guy” in the coming weeks.

“We had a very solid opening,” said Orr. “We’re looking forward to a very long, very robust, very successful run throughout the domestic box office for literally weeks if not months to come.”

But the modest start for “The Fall Guy” hints at larger concerns for the film industry. Superhero films haven’t been quite the box-office behemoth they once were, leading studios to search for fresher alternatives. “The Fall Guy” seemed to check all the boxes, with extravagant action sequences, one of the hottest stars in the business, a director with a track-record for crowd pleasers and very good reviews.

But instead, the opening for “The Fall Guy,” loosely based on the 1980s TV series, only emphasized that the movie business is likely to struggle to rekindle the fervor of last year’s “Barbenheimer” summer. “The Fall Guy” stars one from each: Gosling, in his first post-Ken role, and Emily Blunt, of “Oppenheimer.” Both were Oscar nominated.

“It’s going to be a very interesting, nontraditional summer this year,” said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst for Comscore.

In part because of last year’s work stoppages, there are fewer big movies hitting theaters. Expectations are that the total summer box office will be closer to $3 billion than the $4 billion that’s historically been generated.

“The summer season is just getting started, so let’s give ‘The Fall Guy’ a chance to build that momentum over time. It’s a different type of summer kickoff film,” said Dergarabedian. “There’s always huge expectations placed on any film that kicks off the summer movie season, but this isn’t your typical summer movie season.”

In a surprise, No. 2 at the box office went to the Walt Disney Co. rerelease of “Star Wars: The Phantom Menace.” The first episode to George Lucas’ little-loved prequels collected $8.1 million over the weekend, 25 years after “Phantom Menace” grossed $1 billion.

Last week’s top film, the Zendaya tennis drama “Challengers,” slid to third place with $7.6 million in its second week. That was a sold hold for the Amazon MGM release, directed by Luca Guadagnino, dipping 49% from its first weekend.

The Sony Screen Gems supernatural horror film “Tarot” also opened nationwide. It debuted with $6.5 million, a decent enough start for a low-budget release but another example of horror not quite performing this year as it has the last few years.

Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Comscore. Final domestic figures will be released Monday.

1. “The Fall Guy,” $28.5 million.

2. “Star Wars: The Phantom Menace,” $8.1 million.

3. “Challengers,” $7.6 million.

4. “Tarot,” $6.5 million.

5. “Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire,” $4.5 million.

6. “Civil War,” $3.6 million.

7. “Unsung Hero,” $3 million.

8. “Kung Fu Panda 4,” $2.4 million.

9. “Abigail,” $2.3 million.

10. “Ghostbuster: Frozen Empire,” $1.8 million.
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In photos: Orthodox Easter throughout the world

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Madonna’s biggest-ever concert transforms Rio beach into a massive dance floor

RIO DE JANEIRO — Madonna put on a free concert on Copacabana beach Saturday night, turning Rio de Janeiro’s vast stretch of sand into an enormous dance floor teeming with a multitude of her fans.

It was the last show of The Celebration Tour, her first retrospective, which kicked off in October in London.

The “Queen of Pop” began the show with her 1998 hit Nothing Really Matters. Huge cheers rose from the buzzing, tightly packed crowd, pressed up against the barriers. Others held house parties in brightly lit apartments and hotels overlooking the beachfront. Helicopters and drones flew overhead, and motorboats and sailboats anchored off the beach filled the bay.

“Here we are in the most beautiful place in the world,” Madonna, 65, told the crowd. Pointing out the ocean view, the mountains and the Christ the Redeemer statue overlooking the city, she added: “This place is magic.”

Madonna performed her classic hits, including Like a Virgin and Hung Up. For the introduction to Like a Prayer, her head was completely covered in a black cape, a rosary gripped in her hands.

The star paid an emotional tribute to “all the bright lights” lost to AIDS as she sang Live to Tell, with black and white photos of people who died from the illness flashing behind her.

Later, she was joined on stage by Brazilian artists Anitta and Pabllo Vittar.

Rio spent the last few days readying itself for the performance.

An estimated 1.6 million people attended the show, G1 reported, citing Rio City Hall’s tourism agency. That is more than 10 times Madonna’s record attendance of 130,000 at Paris’ Parc des Sceaux in 1987. Madonna’s official website hyped the show as the biggest ever in her four-decade career.

In recent days, the buzz was palpable. Fans milled outside the stately, beachfront Copacabana Palace hotel, where Madonna is staying, hoping to catch a glimpse of the pop star. During the sound check on the stage set up in front of the hotel, they danced on the sand.

By midday Saturday, fans crowded in front of the hotel. A white-bearded man carried a sign saying, “Welcome Madonna you are the best I love you.”

Flags with “Madonna” printed against a background of Copacabana’s iconic black and white waved sidewalk pattern hung from balconies. The area was packed with street vendors and concert attendees kitted out in themed T-shirts, sweating under a baking sun.

“Since Madonna arrived here, I’ve been coming every day with this outfit to welcome my idol, my diva, my pop queen,” said Rosemary de Oliveira Bohrer, 69, who sported a gold-colored cone bra and a black cap.

“It’s going to be an unforgettable show here in Copacabana,” said Oliveira Bohrer, a retired civil servant who lives in the area.

Eighteen sound towers were spread along the beach to ensure that all attendees could hear the hits. Her two-hour show started at 10:37 p.m. local time, nearly 50 minutes behind schedule.

City Hall produced a report in April estimating that the concert would inject 293 million reals ($57 million) into the local economy. Hotel capacity was expected to reach 98% in Copacabana, according to Rio’s hotel association. Fans hailing from across Brazil and even Argentina and France sought out Airbnbs for the weekend, the platform said in a statement. Rio’s international airport had forecast an extra 170 flights during May 1-6, from 27 destinations, City Hall said in a statement.

“It’s a unique opportunity to see Madonna, who knows if she’ll ever come back,” said Alessandro Augusto, 53, who flew in from Brazil’s Ceara state — approximately 2,500 kilometers from Rio.

“Welcome Queen!” read Heineken ads plastered around the city, the lettering above an image of an upturned bottle cap resembling a crown.

Heineken wasn’t the only company seeking to profit from the excitement. Bars and restaurants prepared Like a Virgin cocktails. A shop in the downtown neighborhood famed for selling Carnival attire completely reinvented itself, stocking its shelves with Madonna-themed costumes, fans, fanny packs and even underwear.

Organization of the mega-event was similar to New Year’s Eve, when millions of people gather on Copacabana for its fireworks display, local authorities said. That annual event often produces widespread thefts and muggings, and there was some concern such problems might occur at Madonna’s show.

Rio state’s security plan included the presence of 3,200 military personnel and 1,500 civilian police officers on standby. In the lead-up to the concert, Brazil’s navy inspected vessels that wished to position themselves offshore to follow the show.

A number of huge concerts have taken place on Copacabana beach before, including a 1994 New Year’s Eve show by Rod Stewart that drew more than 4 million fans and was the biggest free rock concert in history, according to Guinness World Records. Many of those spectators also came to see Rio’s fireworks show, though, so a more fitting comparison might be to the Rolling Stones in 2006, which saw 1.2 million people crowd onto the sand, according to Rio’s military police, the newspaper Folha de Sao Paulo reported at the time.

Ana Beatriz Soares, a fan who was at Copacabana on Saturday, said Madonna has made her mark across the decades.

“Madonna had to run so that today’s pop artists could walk. That’s why she’s important, because she serves as an inspiration for today’s pop divas,” Soares said.

“And that’s 40 years ago. Not 40 days, 40 months. It’s 40 years,” she said.
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Chinese hip-hop performers seek a voice that reflects their lives

CHENGDU, China — In 2018, the censors who oversee Chinese media issued a directive to the nation’s entertainment industry: Don’t feature artists with tattoos and those who represent hip-hop or any other subculture. Right after that, a well-known rapper, GAI, missed a gig on a popular singing competition despite a successful first appearance. Speculation went wild: Fans worried that this was the end for hip-hop in China. Some media labeled it a ban.

The genre had just experienced a banner year, with a hit competition-format TV show minting new stars and introducing them to a country of 1.4 billion people. Rappers accustomed to operating on little money and performing in small bars became household names.

The announcement from censors came at the peak of that frenzy. A silence descended, and for months no rappers appeared on the dozens of variety shows and singing competitions on Chinese TV.

But by the end of that year, everything was back in full swing. What had looked like the end for Chinese hip-hop was just the beginning. “Hip-hop was too popular,” says Nathanel Amar, a researcher of Chinese pop culture at the French Center for Research on Contemporary China. “They couldn’t censor the whole genre.”

Since then, hip-hop’s explosive growth in China has only continued. It has done so by carving out a space for itself while staying clear of the government’s red lines, balancing genuine creative expression with something palatable in a country with powerful censors.

The effort has succeeded: Today, musicians say they’re looking forward to an arriving golden age.

Much of the energy can be found in Chengdu, a city in China’s southwestern Sichuan region. Some of the biggest acts in China today hail from Sichuan; Wang Yitai, Higher Brothers and Vava are just a few of the names that have made Chinese rap mainstream, performing in a mix of Mandarin and the Sichuan dialects.

Although Chinese rap has been operating underground for decades in cities like Beijing, it is the Sichuan region — known internationally for its spicy cuisine, its panda reserve and its status as the birthplace of the late leader Deng Xiaoping — that has come to dominate.

The dialect lends itself to rap because it’s softer than Mandarin Chinese and there are a lot more rhymes, says 25-year-old rapper Kidway, from a town just outside Chengdu. “Take the word ‘gang’ in English. In Sichuanese, there’s a lot of rhymes for that word ‘fang, sang, zhuang,’ the rhymes are already there,” he says.

Part of the city’s hip-hop lore centers around a collective called Chengdu Rap House or CDC, founded by a rapper called Boss X, whose fans affectionately call him “Xie laober” in the Sichuan dialect. The city has embraced rap, as its originators like Boss X went from making music in a run-down apartment in an old residential community to performing in a stadium for thousands.

“When I came to mainland China, they showed me more love in like three or four months than I ever received in Hong Kong,” says Haysen Cheng, a 24-year-old rapper who moved to the city from Hong Kong in 2021.

The price of going mainstream means the underground scene has evaporated. Chengdu was once known for its underground rap battles. Those no longer happen, as freestyling usually involves a lot of curse words and other content the authorities deem unacceptable. These days it’s all digital, with people uploading short clips of their music to Douyin, TikTok’s Chinese version, to get noticed.

Rarely can a single cultural product be said to have originated a whole genre of music. But the talent competition/reality TV show The Rap of China has played an outsized role in building China’s rap industry.

The first season, broadcast on IQiyi, a web streaming platform, brought rap to households across the country. The first season’s 12 episodes drew 2.5 billion views online, according to Chinese media reports.

In the first season, the show relied on its judges’ star power to draw in an audience. Two winners emerged from the first season: GAI and PG One. Shortly after their win, the internet was awash with rumors about the less than perfect doings of PG One’s personal life. The Communist Youth League also criticized one of his old songs for content that appeared to be about using cocaine, very much violating one of the censor’s red lines.

Then came the 2018 meeting where censors reminded TV channels of who could not appear on their programs, namely anyone who represented hip-hop. PG One was finding that any attempts to release new music were quickly taken down by platforms. The platform, IQiyi, even took down the entire first season for a while.

But by late summer 2018, fans were excited to hear that they could expect a second season of The Rap of China, though there was a rebrand. The name in English stayed the same, but in Chinese the show’s name changed from China Has Hip-Hop to China Has ‘Shuochang,’ a term that also refers to traditional forms of storytelling. Regulators had given the go-ahead for hip-hop to continue its growth in China, but artists had to obey the government censors. Hip-hop had to stay away from mentions of drugs and sex. Otherwise, though, it could proceed.

“It was a success for the Chinese regulators,” Amar says. “They really succeeded in coopting the hip-hop artists.”

With tight censorship on the entertainment industry and a ban on mentions of drugs and sex in lyrics, artists have reacted in two ways. Either they wholeheartedly embrace the displays of patriotism and nationalism or they avoid the topics.

Some, like GAI, have fully taken on the government’s mantle in the mainstreaming of hip-hop. He had won The Rap of China with a song called Not Friendly in which, in classic hip-hop fashion, he dissed other rappers. Just a few years later, Gai is singing about China’s glorious 5,000 years of history on the CCTV’s Spring Festival New Year’s Gala broadcast.

The red lines have also pushed artists to be more creative. But developing a genuine Chinese brand of rap remains a work in progress. Hip-hop got its start from New York’s boroughs of Brooklyn and the Bronx, where rappers made music from their tough circumstances. In China, the challenge is about finding what fits its context.

Wang Yitai, who was a member of Chengdu’s rap collective CDC, is now one of the most popular rappers in China. His style has infused mainstream pop sounds.

“We’re all trying hard to create songs that not only sound good, but also topics that fit for China,” Wang says. “I think hip-hop’s spirit will always be about original creation and will always be about your own story.”
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Kentucky Derby could be a wet one

LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY — Twenty horses stampeding toward the first turn in a battle for position. A screaming crowd of 150,000 and maybe some showers that dampen the Churchill Downs dirt strip.

It’s the 150th Kentucky Derby. Beyond a couple early wagering favorites, it’s a wide-open race.

Post time is 6:57 p.m. Saturday. The forecast calls for 27 Celsius (81 Fahrenheit) with a 60% chance of scattered showers and thunderstorms.

That kind of weather could benefit six horses that have won in the mud or slop before, including early favorites Fierceness and Sierra Leone. The others with experience on messy surfaces are Dornoch, Just a Touch, Mystik Dan and Society Man.

The Derby will answer the perennial question of which 3-year-old can best handle running 1¼ miles in front of the biggest crowd they will ever see and hear.

Fierceness and jockey John Velazquez will break from the No. 17 post, which has never produced a derby winner.

The costliest colt in the 20-horse field is Sierra Leone at $2.3 million.

“A lot of times you buy an expensive horse like that, and they can’t run,” said Peter Brandt, one of the six owners. “We’ve very, very lucky he’s made it this far. We’re looking forward to this race but also looking forward to the future of taking care of this horse.”

Conversely, Larry Demeritte shelled out just $11,000 to buy Saratoga West. The 74-year-old Bahamas native has won 180 races and nearly $5 million in purse money since he started training in 1984. Demeritte is just the second Black trainer since 1951 to saddle a horse for the derby.

“This is truly amazing how we got to this position with this horse,” he said.

The Derby winner earns $3.1 million from the record purse of $5 million.

For the second straight year, Japan has two entries: Forever Young and T O Password. The country has never won the race.

This year’s race is one for the ages, too. D. Wayne Lukas, the 88-year-old trainer with four derby wins, saddles Just Steel. Frankie Dettori, the famed Italian jockey, is back to ride Society Man at age 53 after a 24-year absence.

Trainer Todd Pletcher, who saddles Fierceness, is in the derby for the 24th year and it never gets old. He’s won it twice.

“If anything, it just becomes more nerve-wracking,” he said.
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