Paul Haggis: Rape case against Oscar-winning writer dropped in Italy
He added: "I feel very grateful to the judiciary, the judge, and for my avvocato [lawyer] for his incredible strength and for his ability to see the truth and lay it out simply and understandably so that everyone can see."Haggis's lawyers told the Reuters news agency that a court judge had ruled no sexual act took place without consent."For Mr Haggis, it is the end of a nightmare that has unfairly shattered the career of a film genius and 2006 Oscar winner," they said in a statement.The Canadian film-maker, 72, added that he had applied for residency in Italy and planned to live there permanently.In a separate case in 2022, Haggis was ordered to pay $10m in damages after being found liable in a civil trial for raping a woman. He denied the allegations and never faced any criminal charges in the case.
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The Guardian
27 minutes ago
- The Guardian
‘As if we're real guests': the startup selling strangers invites to weddings
When Jennifer, an actor, visited a Paris wedding fair with her future husband as they planned their big day, she noticed a company offering something that seemed bizarre. A Paris startup was proposing couples sell tickets to their wedding to a handful of strangers via an app in order to help pay their costs. In return, the paying ticket-holders, who may not otherwise be invited to many weddings, could mingle with other guests and enjoy somebody's happy day. 'I thought: 'woah, that's quite something', having people you don't know at your wedding,' said Jennifer. 'But we took the flyer, went away to think about it and decided why not? If we can see the profiles beforehand on the app and choose who to accept, it could be something quite original to do.' Jennifer, 48, and her husband, Paulo, 50, who met on a dating app during the pandemic and have an 18-month-old son, will marry later this month at a country manor an hour east of Paris. Theirs is the first wedding to have paying guests. Their friends and family will number 80 adults and 15 children, some travelling from England, Germany and Portugal. But alongside those loved ones, there will be five paying strangers who have bought tickets. The ticket-holders will be present for the whole day, from the afternoon wedding ceremony and vows in the garden, to outdoor drinks on the lawn with live music, then a sit-down dinner in a vast dining room, with a choice of fish or vegetarian options – no meat because the bride is vegetarian. Then there will be the traditional partying on the dancefloor. The paying guests have to abide by the dress-code – defined on the wedding invitations as 'chic and elegant' – and Jennifer and Paolo vetted their profiles before choosing who will attend. 'It's not only about the money, which is a drop on a hot stone in terms of the overall wedding cost,' said Jennifer, 'although it will help a bit in terms of the cost of things like decoration and the dress. It's also because we thought it could be fun and we're extrovert and open to sharing things.' Jennifer, who acts on stage and TV, and Paulo, a former athlete who works in the building trade, also thought that the five paying strangers – one couple and three single men – could be a boost for their other guests. 'We have a lot more single women friends coming to our wedding than single men, so we thought this could balance things out a bit,' Jennifer said. Laurène, 29, a toymaker living in the Paris area, and her husband, a landscape gardener, will be among the handful of strangers paying to attend. 'I thought selling tickets to your wedding to strangers sounded interesting,' Laurène said. 'I don't have a big family so I don't get to go to lots of weddings, it's great to be able to experience a wedding and different traditions, even if it's strangers. I'm keen to check out the decoration and music, and we'll be partying on the dancefloor.' Katia Lekarski, who founded Invitin earlier this year to match wedding couples with paying guests, said six marriages so far were due to take part, mainly in the Paris area. 'I was renting my house in south-eastern France to some people who were attending a wedding, and my five-year-old daughter asked: 'Why aren't we also invited to weddings?' I thought: what if we could pay for tickets to a wedding and help the couple getting married in that way?' Lekarski's view was that with so many apps proposing meeting up with strangers – from tour-guides to dating or dinners with groups of new people – why not add weddings into the mix. In India, the company, Join My Wedding, already connects foreign tourists with couples having traditional weddings, as a cultural experience under the line: 'You haven't been to India until you've been to an Indian wedding'. In France, the idea was for local people to attend a wedding as a day out and shared experience, with Invitin taking a commission. Lekarski, a former fashion model who previously ran an online platform selling and distributing interior design goods for children, described the project as at a very early stage and said her biggest challenge was finding couples and guests to take part. Couples who have shown interest in opening up their wedding to paid ticket-holders have been mostly between 25 and 35, Lekarski said, but there was one much older couple preparing to renew their vows. Only a small number of paid guests would attend – five to 10, each paying an average of €100 to €150, but tickets can be higher depending on the venue. They would have to sign up to strict rules including dressing appropriately, arriving on time, drinking with moderation, and not publishing or sharing photos without authorisation. The wedding couple, who usually have so many of their own guests to talk to, aren't obliged to meet the paying guests and chat to them. 'A wedding has its own ecosystem where guests get chatting to each other of their own accord,' Lekarski said. The paying guests Laurène and her husband, who got married themselves a month ago at a historic farm building south of Paris, are taking it very seriously. 'We're going to go about it as if we're real guests, we'll dress up nicely and bring a little gift.' Laurène's grandparents met at a wedding in Dijon and she thinks weddings are the ultimate social feelgood event. 'Everyone is in a kind and happy mood, dressed up and celebrating love. This is not something you can do too often as tickets are quite expensive, but it's a great opportunity.' The only thing they're not sure about is whether they'll be in the wedding pictures. 'We'd love to be in the group photo, but I'm not sure how that will work, it is a bit bizarre after all.'
The Sun
27 minutes ago
- The Sun
Kelly Brook shows off curvy figure in tiny white plunging bikini as fans praise her ‘natural beauty'
STUNNING actress and model Kelly Brook has wowed her fans yet again with another offering from her sunkissed holiday abroad. The 45-year-old and her husband Jeremy Parisi, 40, are currently enjoying a lavish vacation in Latina, Italy. 4 4 4 During the week, Kelly was seen jumping off of a yacht while donning a black two-piece bikini. And now Kelly has stripped off beneath the sunshine yet again for another post. Posing in a tiny white bikini, Kelly left her fans swooning over her figure. Captioning the stunning post, Kelly wrote: "Italian Summers !!! Made the Hubby take some pictures of me." In the photos, the beautiful starlet was seen posing up a storm in Italy. Standing by the ocean, Kelly rocked a baseball cap and a tiny white bikini that displayed her ample assets for all to see. Her toned stomach and thighs were visible, as was her cleavage, and makeup free face. Commenting underneath the sizzling set of snaps, fans went wild and were quick to swoon over her "natural beauty". KELLY IS A 'NATURAL BEAUTY', SAY FANS One person wrote: "Been an absolute natural beauty from the beginning! never change! X." "You are absolutely stunning and so natural It's also very refreshing Kelly," said another. Kelly Brook looks incredible in a bikini as she jumps off yacht - after revealing two stone weight loss A third person added: "Naturally beautiful. Sexy. Lovely inside and out and nothing fake about you at all. A rare gem these days. Keep being you @iamkb xx." While a fourth said: "Absolute peak woman. You have only got better with age." "Does this woman never age?" asked a fifth, adding: "From many years ago to now I have admired her. "Not only is she a natural beauty and all woman she has the most wonderful sense of humour absolutely hilarious on times on the radio. "Her husband struck gold when he married her. Stunning!!!" A sixth then said: "You're my dream. I've had a crush on you since about 1997. I used to have posters of you on my bedroom wall." While a seventh swooned: "Best figure ever." And an eighth declared: "Wow….. Jeremy is one lucky fella." KELLY'S 2 STONE WEIGHT LOSS Kelly previously opened up about how she lost two stone with the help of SlimFast after being unveiled as its brand ambassador in 2019. She told the Daily Star: 'I've dropped two dress sizes, thanks to SlimFast. "It's a simple and effective plan, which is perfect for anyone like me who is always on the go! "I also love that you can eat up to six times a day."
BBC News
27 minutes ago
- BBC News
'It becomes more about status signalling': Is £7m for a handbag absurd or justified?
As a pop-up handbag auction opens in London, a fashion frenzy is gripping venerable auction houses – and sending prices sky high. Can fashion ever be on a par with a Picasso? "I like my money where I can see it. Hanging in my closet," says Carrie Bradshaw in the 2000s TV series Sex and the City, and it would appear that an increasing number of collectors do, too, with archival fashion auctions fetching record prices. Just last month, Sotheby's auction house in Paris sold a battered Hermès bag owned by its namesake, Jane Birkin, for £7m ($9.2m). And now Sotheby's in London has just opened a luxury pop-up salon, auctioning pieces by Hermès, Rolex and Cartier, running until 22 August. But it wasn't always like this. Many auction houses have traditionally viewed their fashion divisions as tangential, with the brand-name recognition of some of the items drawing buyers in, and towards bigger-ticket items like paintings or sculptures. Clothing belonging to celebrities, like Princess Diana or Marilyn Monroe, have historically fetched more than garments without a celebrity provenance, though nothing quite like the £7m Birkin bag. Monroe's infamous "Happy Birthday Mr President" dress, known as the world's most expensive dress, sold in 1999 for $1.3m, and again in 2016 for $4.8m to Ripley's Believe It or Not! Museum. It currently resides there when it's not being taken for a spin by Kim Kardashian, who wore it to the 2022 Met Gala. Cora Harrington, fashion historian and author, says the dress's association with Kardashian will likely increase the value the next time it comes up for auction, despite any wear and tear caused by the star. "I think that would have been true regardless of whether Kim wore it because it's Marilyn Monroe, but there are enough fans of Kim Kardashian that would likely result in a higher price," she tells the BBC. "Usually when an object is damaged it would devalue it, but it's the opposite in this case." Conversations around auction items online and in the media, whether positive or negative, influence the sale price. For example, the furore surrounding Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy's costumes in the upcoming Ryan Murphy TV series American Love Story will be likely to escalate the value of the ur-influencer's garments the next time they go up for auction. The real deal Modern-day influencers are also swaying how we think of luxury fashion, including the online communities dedicated to finding the best dupes, which Harrington says has added more value to the real thing – and created more work for luxury authenticators. Then there's the popularity of resale sites like Depop, Vinted, eBay, Vestiaire Collective and TheRealReal lowering the barrier of entry to the luxury market. "Dupes have driven more people to buy authentic," says Michael Mack, president of Max Pawn Luxury, which has one of the largest collections of Hermès bags for sale in the US. "It's not just Gucci, Hermès or Chanel; we sell Coach, Michael Kors and Kate Spade. Those are $300, $400, $500 bags and we do big business in that." And it's not just big-ticket items like the $180,000 and $240,000 Himalayan albino crocodile diamond-encrusted 25cm Birkins he's sold to celebrity clients, Mack adds. Could resale's democratisation of luxury be in turn driving up these auction prices? Usha Haley, W Frank Barton Distinguished Chair in International Business at Wichita State University, Kansas, thinks so. "If investors begin flipping [buying then quickly re-selling for profit] items purely for short-term gain, it could destabilise the market and drive prices to be unsustainable," she tells the BBC. "The rising value of archival pieces may further detach fashion from everyday people, turning symbols of culture and identity into ultra-exclusive status objects out of reach for most, even as fashion becomes more democratised in digital spaces." More like this:• How Gwyneth Paltrow became a divisive icon• The icon who inspired the Birkin bag• How Scandinavian dressing can make us happier Meanwhile, social media is exposing new audiences to style icons from the past and historical garments featured in the annual Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute exhibition, kicked off by the Met Gala, which this year brought in record profits. This brings up the argument that items of such delicacy and historical relevance should be in a museum – one with stronger collection, conservation and loan policies than Ripley's. It's a valid one, to be sure, but just because an item is acquired by a museum doesn't mean it will necessarily be accessible to the public, as the majority of pieces in most institutions are not on display. "There are services [that care] for private collections that are on the same level or even better than museums," Harrington says, pointing to companies such as Uovo. But shouldn't clothing be worn? Jane Birkin certainly had no qualms about using her Hermès bag, its battered state causing as many headlines as – and comparative to – its sale price. The experts I spoke to agreed. "There's a collectable function, but the point of clothing is to wear it," Harrington says. "Wear it. Use it. Enjoy it," Mack concurs. "I think you see more people wearing these luxury items, and not so much of the collectability [aspect]." They are also in agreement about the notion that fashion is wearable art. According to Harrington, the argument that fashion is not art – and therefore shouldn't be fetching high prices on par with a Picasso – is rooted in "larger structural conversations around misogyny and women's work and the fact that when women are interested in things they must be inherently less valuable". Viewing fashion and art as commodities concerns Haley. "The escalating prices become less about fashion as creative or social expression and more about status signalling and speculative investment," she says. "Auctions then can sideline the deeper cultural conversations that fashion artefacts could inspire – about sustainability, labour, craftsmanship, or even the identity of the women who made them famous." Arguably, decades of experience on the part of designers, centuries of establishment for houses like Hermès, which launched in 1837, and the many hours of craftsmanship that go into these pieces is what people are paying for. The Jean Paul Gaultier denim and ostrich feather gown from the 1999 spring couture collection – that sold for €71,500 (£61,900) last year – springs to mind. In the end, says Harrington, "the very nature of an auction is the thing is worth what someone is willing to pay for it. If a dress sells for $300,000, then the dress is worth $300,000." Sotheby's London Luxury Pop-Up Sale is on until 22 August. -- For more Culture stories from the BBC, follow us on Facebook and Instagram.
