Latest news with #VeniceProtests
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Rosie O'Donnell Calls Out Oprah for Attending Jeff Bezos' Wedding: ‘How Is That Possible? He Treats His Employees With Disdain… He Is Not a Nice Man'
Rosie O'Donnell wrote in an Instagram post that she was sickened by Jeff Bezos' lavish wedding to Lauren Sanchez in Venice, Italy. The days-long event featured a ton of A-list celebrities, from Sydney Sweeney to Leonardo DiCaprio, and prompted widespread backlash and protests from Venice locals. 'The Bezos' wedding. It turned my stomach seeing all these billionaires gathering in the gross excess of it all. The show of it,' O'Donnell wrote before calling out Oprah for her attendance at the event. More from Variety Italian Press Plays Up 'No Space for Bezos' Versus 'Welcome, Mr. Amazon!' Plus a Bomb-Sniffing Dog Named Elvis The Jeff Bezos-Lauren Sanchez Wedding Extravaganza Is the Ultimate Billionaire Flex by a Couple Flying Above Cost-Cutting Times Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sánchez Forge Ahead With Venice Wedding After Activists Threaten to Block a Canal With Inflatable Crocodiles 'Is Oprah friends with Jeff Bezos? Really? How is that possible? He treats his employees with disdain. By any metric he is not a nice man. And his fake fem bot wife who looks like that… Why would he choose her after the salt of the earth Mackenzie [Scott]? Sold his soul is what it looks like from here. The devil is smiling at all his conquests.' Oprah attended the Bezos wedding with longtime friend Gayle King, who is well-acquainted with Lauren Sanchez after their space flight together earlier this year courtesy of Bezos' Blue Origin company. O'Donnell expanded on her anti-Bezos thoughts in a post on her Substack page. Other celebrities who criticized the Bezos wedding include Oscar winner Charlize Theron, who made a quip about Bezos' wedding guests while hosting her annual party for the Africa Outreach Project. She told attendees: 'I think we might be the only people who did not get an invite to the Bezos wedding. But that's ok because they suck and we're cool.' O'Donnell made headlines earlier this year for revealing she fled America after the re-election of Donald Trump. She currently lives in Ireland and told Variety she has no plans on returning to the U.S. until Trump is out of office. 'With the current political climate, when would it be safe to come back with my child?' she asked. 'I'm not going to push it before this administration is completely finished, and hopefully held accountable for their crimes.' View this post on Instagram A post shared by Rosie O'Donnell (@rosie) Best of Variety New Movies Out Now in Theaters: What to See This Week 'Harry Potter' TV Show Cast Guide: Who's Who in Hogwarts? 25 Hollywood Legends Who Deserve an Honorary Oscar
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Rosie O'Donnell Calls Out Oprah for Attending Jeff Bezos' Wedding: ‘How Is That Possible? He Treats His Employees With Disdain… He Is Not a Nice Man'
Rosie O'Donnell wrote in an Instagram post that she was sickened by Jeff Bezos' lavish wedding to Lauren Sanchez in Venice, Italy. The days-long event featured a ton of A-list celebrities, from Sydney Sweeney to Leonardo DiCaprio, and prompted widespread backlash and protests from Venice locals. 'The Bezos' wedding. It turned my stomach seeing all these billionaires gathering in the gross excess of it all. The show of it,' O'Donnell wrote before calling out Oprah for her attendance at the event. More from Variety Italian Press Plays Up 'No Space for Bezos' Versus 'Welcome, Mr. Amazon!' Plus a Bomb-Sniffing Dog Named Elvis The Jeff Bezos-Lauren Sanchez Wedding Extravaganza Is the Ultimate Billionaire Flex by a Couple Flying Above Cost-Cutting Times Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sánchez Forge Ahead With Venice Wedding After Activists Threaten to Block a Canal With Inflatable Crocodiles 'Is Oprah friends with Jeff Bezos? Really? How is that possible? He treats his employees with disdain. By any metric he is not a nice man. And his fake fem bot wife who looks like that… Why would he choose her after the salt of the earth Mackenzie [Scott]? Sold his soul is what it looks like from here. The devil is smiling at all his conquests.' Oprah attended the Bezos wedding with longtime friend Gayle King, who is well-acquainted with Lauren Sanchez after their space flight together earlier this year courtesy of Bezos' Blue Origin company. O'Donnell expanded on her anti-Bezos thoughts in a post on her Substack page. Other celebrities who criticized the Bezos wedding include Oscar winner Charlize Theron, who made a quip about Bezos' wedding guests while hosting her annual party for the Africa Outreach Project. She told attendees: 'I think we might be the only people who did not get an invite to the Bezos wedding. But that's ok because they suck and we're cool.' O'Donnell made headlines earlier this year for revealing she fled America after the re-election of Donald Trump. She currently lives in Ireland and told Variety she has no plans on returning to the U.S. until Trump is out of office. 'With the current political climate, when would it be safe to come back with my child?' she asked. 'I'm not going to push it before this administration is completely finished, and hopefully held accountable for their crimes.' Best of Variety New Movies Out Now in Theaters: What to See This Week 'Harry Potter' TV Show Cast Guide: Who's Who in Hogwarts? 25 Hollywood Legends Who Deserve an Honorary Oscar
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Bezos wedding protesters demand the billionaire ‘get out of our lagoon'
After Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez tied the knot in Venice on Friday, a few hundred protesters gathered Saturday at a city train station for a march, united with one message for the Amazon billionaire and his bride: go away. 'Bezos, f**k off,' they chanted in Italian. 'Out of our lagoon!' One bearded man toted a Shrek-themed placard with the same message: 'Get Out of Our Lagoon,' the 'a' in lagoon sprouting Shrek ears, with a Spotify link below for the theme song from the first movie in the series, Smash Mouth's 'All Star.' 'Bezos goes hand-in-hand with (US President Donald) Trump, who's fueling more money in war,' one woman bellowed into a microphone by the station. 'We are for peace.' '(Bezos) has such a lot of power,' Austrian protester Hans Peter Martin told CNN. 'And now he's abusing this city as a place to show off. So, he's not welcome here.' Sofia D'Amato, a 22-year-old Venetian, emphasized that the protests weren't about envy for Bezos' wealth or power. 'We are not jealous of the fact that he earns so much money, that he is one of the most powerful men in the world,' D'Amato told CNN. 'We are jealous when his wealth hits us in the face.' Venice's Ministry of Tourism says the three-day wedding, which reportedly cost $55 million, could provide a boost of almost 68% of the city's annual tourism turnover. On top of that, Sanchez and Bezos gave 1 million euros each to three Venetian cultural institutions, according to Reuters; a total of 3 million euros worth of donations. Their philanthropy left D'Amato unimpressed. 'They say that Jeff Bezos donated money to Venice,' D'Amato said. 'It was donated after our dissent. Such a sum for a magnate is paltry.' Protesters drew a stark contrast between the decadence of Bezos and Sanchez's wedding the day before and the harsh realities of working at the billionaire's company. 'We can barely pay the rent,' one woman, who identified herself as an Amazon worker, told a crowd of demonstrators. 'Many of us come from far away to reach the warehouse. We make do … we don't see these millions.' Some protesters joined in an old leftist chant as the demonstration moved toward the Ponte delle Guglie: 'The people united will never be defeated.' At least one protester took aim at the couple's fashion sense with a sign declaring that 'Money Can't Buy Style.' Many held aloft Amazon boxes with various messages inscribed: 'Rejected,' 'No Space for Bezos.' Multiple flags were visible among the protesters: Palestinian flags, pride flags, anti-fascist flags and Venice's fimbriated red standard were among the popular choices. A few individuals waved a modified version, the sword-bearing golden lion at its hoist wearing a black balaclava. Venice city officials were unamused by the protesters, denouncing them in a press release as 'ridiculous' and 'grotesque.' 'Contesting a wedding (any wedding) is already ridiculous in itself. But here we have exceeded all limits of common sense,' read a municipal statement released Saturday. 'We have descended into the folklore of 'No to everything.''
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Venice protests target Bezos over mounting grievances
By Sara Rossi and Gavin Jones ROME (Reuters) -Mass tourism, impossibly high rents, worker exploitation, inequality and elitism: Venice, Italy's protests in recent days against Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez's high-profile wedding have highlighted growing global grievances. Local politicians dismissed protesters as a fringe minority. Bezos's fame and Venice's stunning visual backdrop have offered them international visibility which they effectively exploited. "No Space for Bezos" banners draped over the iconic Rialto Bridge and a huge canvas laid out on St Mark's Square urging the tech billionaire to pay more taxes have been seen all over the world. Concerns of greater disruptions forced Bezos and his bride to move their final and biggest celebrity party from the central district to a more isolated venue in the eastern part of the lagoon city. "The idea that the city should be seen as a set, a stage, or an amusement park has been highlighted like never before by Bezos' wedding," Tommaso Cacciari, a frontman for the No Space for Bezos movement, told Reuters. In the final protest on Saturday, around 1,000 residents and activists rallied in front of Venice's train station under a scorching sun, before marching roughly 1.5 kilometres (0.93 miles) to the Rialto Bridge. They carried banners including one proclaiming 'Kisses yes, Bezos no', playing on Venice's reputation as the city of love, and another one saying 'No space for Bezos' with a rocket, in a reference to his Blue Origin space technology company. Venetian businesses and politicians, however, welcomed the event, hailing its major boost for the local economy. Luca Zaia, the regional governor of Veneto around Venice, said the city should be proud of hosting the wedding. TRUMP TIES Alice Bazzoli, a 24-year-old university student, called Bezos a "hypocrite" for donating 3 million euros ($3.5 million) to Venice while flooding its fragile ecosystem with high-polluting private jets and yachts. Bezos and Sanchez have given 1 million euros each to three Venetian institutions: CORILA, an academic consortium that studies the lagoon, UNESCO's local office, and Venice International University. "I'd love Venice to be tailored for citizens, not for tourists, with affordable housing," Bazzoli told Reuters, complaining that students were being priced out of the market, with the best accommodations offered to visitors. Andrea Segre, a 49-year-old Italian film director born in Venice, said the city was also pushing out ordinary residents. "People aged 25 to 35 — the age group that starts families — cannot afford to live in Venice. The consequence is a lack of diversity and social liveliness," he said. Venice is rapidly depopulating, largely because of the cost of living crisis. Its historic city centre now has fewer than 50,000 residents, compared to more than 100,000 some 50 years ago. The city has hosted scores of other VIP weddings, including that of actor George Clooney and human rights lawyer Amal Alamuddin in 2014, but the latest luxury nuptials have attracted far greater resentment because of Bezos' corporate and political role. The Amazon founder is the world's fourth richest man, and has developed ties with U.S. President Donald Trump, whose daughter Ivanka and son-in-law Jared Kushner were in attendance at the wedding. "Bezos is the embodiment of the most absolute wealth gained through the exploitation of everything around you," 28-year-old student Giulia Cacopardo told Reuters in the run-up to Saturday's march. In Italy, the e-commerce giant has faced criticism and strikes from trade unions over labour practices, and scrutiny over tax compliance. Reuters reported in February that Italian prosecutors were investigating alleged tax evasion worth 1.2 billion. "I would have protested against Bezos even if he had come on a rowboat with just a handful of people ... because he contributed practically, materially and politically to Donald Trump's re-election," protest leader Cacciari said. ($1 = 0.8533 euros) (Writing by Angelo Amante; editing by Alvise Armellini and Diane Craft)
CBC
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- CBC
'Kisses Yes, Bezos No': Hundreds protest 3rd and final day of billionaire's Venice wedding
Hundreds of protesters marched through Venice's central streets on Saturday to say "No" to billionaire Jeff Bezos, his bride and their much-awaited wedding extravaganza, which reached its third and final day amid celebrity-crowded parties and the outcries of tired residents. On Friday, the world's fourth-richest man and Lauren Sanchez tied the knot during a private ceremony with about 200 celebrity guests on the secluded island of San Giorgio Maggiore. The wedding, however, angered many Venetians, with some activists protesting it as an exploitation of the city by the billionaire Bezos, while ordinary residents suffer from over-tourism, high housing costs and the constant threat of climate-induced flooding. As the two newlyweds prepared for the final party on Saturday evening, hundreds of Venetians and protesters from across Italy filled Venice's tiny streets with colourful banners reading, "Kisses Yes, Bezos No" and "No Bezos, No War." The demonstration contrasted with the expensive wedding bonanza, seen by critics as an affront to the lagoon city's fragile environment and its citizens, overwhelmed by throngs of tourists. "We are here to continue ruining the plans of these rich people, who accumulate money by exploiting many other people — while the conditions of this city remain precarious," said Martina Vergnano, one of the demonstrators. The protest organizers claimed a victory after Saturday's wedding party, which was initially to be held in central Venice but which they said was later moved to a former medieval shipyard, the Arsenale. Bezos donated one million euros ($1.6 million Cdn) each to three environmental research organizations working to preserve Venice, according to Corila, the Venetian environmental research association. But many protesters blasted the move as a clear attempt to appease angry residents. "We want a free Venice, which is finally dedicated to its citizens. Those donations are just a misery and only aimed at clearing Bezos's conscience," said Flavio Cogo, a Venetian activist who joined Saturday's protest. Details of the exclusive wedding ceremony on Friday night were a closely guarded secret, until the new bride, now Sanchez Bezos, posted a photo to Instagram of herself beaming in a white gown as she stood alongside a tuxedo-clad Bezos. Athletes, celebrities, influencers and business leaders converged to revel in extravagance that was as much a testament to the couple's love as to their extraordinary wealth. WATCH | Day 1 of wedding draws A-list celebs, angry protesters: Bezos-Sanchez wedding draws A-list celebs, angry protesters 2 days ago Duration 2:00 A-list celebrities including Oprah Winfrey, Mick Jagger and Leonardo DiCaprio are in Venice for the wedding of Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez. The massive event has also drawn protesters, angry over the income inequality they say Bezos exemplifies. The star-studded guest list included Oprah Winfrey and NFL great Tom Brady, along with Hollywood stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Orlando Bloom, tech entrepreneur and philanthropist Bill Gates and top socialites, including the Kardashian-Jenner clan. Ivanka Trump, her husband, Jared Kushner, and their three children also joined the celebrations. The bride and groom stayed at the Aman Venice hotel on the Grand Canal, where Bezos posed for photos and Sanchez Bezos blew kisses to the press. "The planet is burning but don't worry, here's the list of the 27 dresses of Lauren Sanchez," read one protest slogan, a reference to the bride's reported wedding weekend wardrobe. It featured a mermaid-lined wedding gown by Dolce & Gabbana and other Dolce Vita-inspired looks by Italian designers, including Schiaparelli and Bottega Veneta. The city administration has strongly defended the nuptials as in keeping with Venice's tradition as an open city that has welcomed popes, emperors and ordinary visitors alike for centuries.
