Author: NY TIMES

“If you guys are furniture people, because I’ve really gotten into furniture lately,” Kim Kardashian said in a YouTube video, gesturing toward a large wooden table and set of chairs, “these Donald Judd tables are really amazing and totally blend in with the seats.”When the video — a tour of the Los Angeles offices of Ms. Kardashian’s skin-care company, Skkn by Kim — was released in 2022, few so-called “furniture people” raised an eyebrow. Most viewers likely assumed that the reality-star-turned-businesswoman-turned-actress-turned-criminal-justice-advocate had real Donald Judd tables, which cost $90,000, and chairs, which go for $9,000 each. The artist’s furniture is…

Shari Redstone, the owner of Paramount, has tried to resist the erosion of her media empire over the last decade as she confronted the death of cable TV, the rise of streaming and even a failed boardroom coup from a longtime ally.By her side through it all has been Bob Bakish, Paramount’s chief executive. For years, she saw him as a loyal lieutenant who could navigate the treacherous entertainment industry with the financial dexterity of the management consultant he once was. As Paramount’s share price sagged, she was patient with him — even as she steered the company toward an…

Blue Ivy Carter will be joining her mother, Beyoncé Knowles-Carter, in the movie musical “Mufasa: The Lion King,” which is expected in theaters in December.The movie — a prequel to “The Lion King,” the 2019 hyperrealistic remake of the Disney classic starring Beyoncé as the voice of Nala — will be directed by Barry Jenkins, who won a best adapted screenplay Oscar for “Moonlight.”Blue Ivy, 12, will make her feature film debut by voicing Kiara, the daughter of Nala and Simba, who will again be voiced by Donald Glover. (Billy Eichner, Seth Rogen, Mads Mikkelsen and Thandiwe Newton will also…

Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken spoke with Arab officials on Monday in Saudi Arabia about the war between Israel and Hamas and the difficult issues it has created, from humanitarian aid to hostages. Mr. Blinken plans to travel to Jordan and Israel on Tuesday.After landing in Riyadh, the Saudi capital, shortly after dawn, Mr. Blinken met with Prince Faisal bin Farhan, the foreign minister of Saudi Arabia, and then with foreign ministers and a top foreign policy adviser from five other Arab nations in the Persian Gulf that, along with Saudi Arabia, form the Gulf Cooperation Council. Prince Faisal…

Gérard Depardieu was ordered on Monday to stand trial on criminal charges that he sexually assaulted two women during a 2021 film shoot in France, deepening the French actor’s legal woes and further tarnishing his global reputation as he faces a growing number of accusations of sexual violence.The Paris prosecutor’s office announced that Mr. Depardieu, 75, would be tried in October over allegations that he sexually assaulted the two women on the set of “Les Volets Verts,” or “The Green Shutters,” a movie by the French director Jean Becker that was released in 2022.The prosecutor’s office did not identify the…

PHOENIX — Anthony Edwards had just taken the field for arguably the biggest performance of his young career, hovering over him in a white vest and a baggy all-black Atlanta Braves hat. Perched above his crisp hairline, sitting in front of the world – he looks more like an extra in Outkast’s “Players Ball” video than the future face of the NBA.Edwards is who he is. stupid. cute. clever. nation. He wore it all, loud and proud. He is also a competitor. A trash talker. He wore them all equally loudly and equally proudly.You add it all up and you…

Nick Joseph Viall is used to his dating life being on public display. From 2014 to 2017, he appeared in four seasons of the “Bachelor” franchise: two seasons of “The Bachelorette,” one season of “Bachelor in Paradise” and, finally, “The Bachelor.”That’s all experience that has helped inform his relationship podcast, “The Viall Files,” and his 2022 book, “Don’t Text Your Ex Happy Birthday: And Other Advice on Love, Sex and Dating.”But his relationship with Natalie Joy, whom he began dating in 2019, remained out of the public eye for several years. On April 27, the couple exchanged vows on an…

Tesla has concluded a series of arrangements with regulators and a Chinese artificial intelligence company during a quick trip to Beijing on Sunday and Monday by Elon Musk, the car maker’s chief executive, potentially clearing the way for the company to offer its most advanced self-driving software on cars in China.Tesla had faced a couple hurdles to offering the latest level of autonomous driving, which it calls supervised Full Self-Driving. It has needed approval from Chinese regulators, who questioned whether the company took adequate precautions to protect data. And it has needed access to extremely high-resolution maps across the country.Mr.…

It sold 1.9 million copies in traditional album sales, including 859,000 for vinyl alone, which blew away Swift’s own previous record of 693,000 LPs, set just six months ago. Advance sales through Swift’s website — begun the day Swift announced the album, at the Grammy Awards — were key. She offered an array of tinted vinyl variants and CDs, some in “deluxe” versions advertised with autographs or on-brand trinkets like engraved bookmarks that went for as much as $50 apiece. According to Billboard, 1.4 million copies of the album were sold on its first day, many preordered over the last…

Hamas’s military wing said on Monday that it had launched a salvo of rockets from Lebanon into northern Israel, an apparent attempt by the group to signal that it is still capable of striking within Israel’s borders even as it studies the latest proposal for a cease-fire in Gaza.The Qassam Brigades, Hamas’s military wing, said in a statement that it had targeted an Israeli military position in Kiryat Shmona, the largest city in Israel’s far north, with a “concentrated rocket barrage” from southern Lebanon. The Israeli military said in a statement that most of the roughly 20 launches that crossed…