South Korean actor Song Young-kyu, known internationally for his memorable turn as Chief Choi in the 2019 box office hit “Extreme Job,” died on Monday. He was 55.
Song was found unresponsive inside a parked car in Cheoin-gu, Yongin, south of Seoul, around 8 a.m. local time, according to local authorities. Police confirmed there were no signs of foul play and no suicide note was found. An acquaintance discovered his body.
Song made his stage debut in 1994 in the children’s musical “Wizard Mureul” and built a steady three-decade career across theater, film and television. He was best known for supporting roles in projects including “Trick,” “Stove League,” “Baseball Girk” and “Hyena.” His appearance in “Extreme Job” — one of the highest-grossing films in Korean cinema – cemented his status as a reliable character actor with a knack for dry humor and gritty realism.
In June this year, Song was involved in a DUI incident in Yongin, reportedly driving five kilometers with a blood alcohol concentration high enough for license revocation under South Korean law. He was referred to prosecution without detention. In the aftermath, Song stepped down from the stage production of “Shakespeare in Love” and was removed or minimized in two dramas airing at the time – ENA’s “The Defects” and SBS’s “The Winning Try.”
Song’s gravitas and consistency made him a go-to supporting actor in the Korean entertainment industry. His performances often grounded large-scale productions with quiet authority, a presence that resonated with audiences even in ensemble-heavy works. His unexpected death adds another chapter to the ongoing conversation about mental health and media scrutiny in the South Korean entertainment landscape. Earlier this year, actor Kim Sae-ron was found dead at her home.
Prince Harry has publicly denied allegations from the newly released biography Entitled: The Rise and Fall of the House of York that he physically assaulted his uncle, Prince Andrew, during a 2013 family gathering.
The book, written by Andrew Lownie and first reported by the Daily Mail, claims that a heated argument escalated into punches thrown, leaving Andrew with a bloody nose and following comments about Meghan Markle.
The claims surfaced after the Daily Mail published excerpts from the book ahead of its release.
According to the book’s account, the conflict began after Andrew allegedly made derogatory remarks about Meghan Markle, calling her an “opportunist” and predicting that their marriage would end quickly.
The biography further asserts that Harry told Andrew he was a coward for not addressing the issue directly, which led to the alleged physical altercation.
Afterward, Harry reportedly told his brother, Prince William, that he “hated Andrew”.
In response, a spokesperson for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex issued a firm denial, stating: “Prince Harry and Prince Andrew have never had a physical fight, nor did Prince Andrew ever make the comments he is alleged to have made about the Duchess of Sussex to Prince Harry”.
Legal action has reportedly been initiated, with a letter sent to the Daily Mail over what the spokesperson described as “gross inaccuracies, damaging and defamatory remarks”.
The story has emerged amid longstanding tensions within the royal family, including disputes over Prince Andrew’s past controversies related to his association with Jeffrey Epstein and his subsequent removal from public duties.
The new biography also raises claims that Prince William urged eviction of his uncle and former sister-in-law from royal property due to ongoing conflict.
South Korean fantasy comedy “My Daughter Is a Zombie” dominated the Korean box office over the Aug. 1–3 weekend, earning $8.3 million from 1.17 million admissions.
According to KOBIS, the tracking service operated by the Korean Film Council, the film has grossed $12.5 million since its July 30 debut. The film drew over 430,000 admissions on its opening day, setting a new 2025 record and surpassing “Mission: Impossible – Final Reckoning.”
Directed by Pil Gam-seong, the film stars Cho Jung-seok, Lee Jung-eun, Cho Yeo-jeong, Yoon Kyung-ho, and Choi Yu-ri. The story follows a devoted father – an animal trainer – who brings his infected teenage daughter to his mother’s rural home while society hunts the infected. Despite her transformation, the daughter retains fleeting signs of humanity, and he uses his animal training skills to guide her toward normalcy.
Holding strong in second place was Brad Pitt racing drama “F1,” which added $3 million for a robust cumulative total of $23.8 million. South Korean animated biblical tale “The King of Kings” took third with $966,839, lifting its total to $6.9 million.
Fantasy action film “Omniscient Reader” – last week’s box office leader – slipped to fourth, bringing in $708,446 for a cumulative gross of $6.7 million. Animated sequel “The Bad Guys 2” debuted in fifth with $769,611.
Marvel reboot “The Fantastic Four: First Steps” dropped to sixth with $574,540, pushing its total to $4.2 million. In seventh place, “Detective Conan the Movie: One-Eyed Flashback” earned $332,845 for a cumulative $4.6 million.
Children’s musical adventure “Bebefinn Sing-Along Movie: Into the Pinkfong World” added $264,713, pushing its total to $1 million. Another children’s title, “GoGo Dino the Movie: Gecko’s Dream,” opened in ninth with $130,974. Rounding out the top ten, Korean thriller “Noise” added $127,866 for a total of $12 million.
The top ten films collectively grossed $15.2 million over the Aug. 1–3 weekend, a strong uptick from the previous frame’s $12.3 million, and making it the year’s highest weekend total.
Leveraging the popularity of the Netflix series Wednesday, General Mills is set to introduce a new line of limited-edition products under its Betty Crocker brand.
This initiative highlights the growing trend to align product launches with entertainment franchises.
The new offerings include a Super Moist Dark Chocolate Cake Mix and Whipped Cream Frosting, both designed to appeal to fans of the show. The cake mix aims to provide a rich flavour experience, while the frosting is positioned as a complementary product for baking applications.
Additionally, General Mills will reintroduce its Blueberry Grape Despair Gushers, a fruit snack that aligns with the show’s dark themes.
The alignment with a popular series not only serves to attract consumers but also demonstrates a proactive approach to market trends, particularly in the realm of themed and experiential products.
These products will be available on Amazon starting mid-August 2025, with a wider retail rollout planned for early September 2025. This timing coincides with the release of Wednesday season 2, which premieres on August 6 and September 3 2025.
Behind the elegant but unassuming entryway to an apartment near London’s Hyde Park, one of Europe’s most prominent collectors has amassed a remarkable trove of Surrealist and postwar art in a home bursting with color and eclectic design.
Now in her 80s, Pauline Karpidas is selling nearly all of the art and custom furniture housed in her dwelling, where major contemporary artists and other cultural figures have socialized among works by René Magritte, Salvador Dalí, Yves Tanguy, Max Ernst, Pablo Picasso and Andy Warhol.
As a patron, she’s been an influential and connecting force in the art world for decades, yet Karpidas has remained a private figure who rarely speaks to press. But her upcoming sale, expected to fetch some £60 million, ($79.6 million), will be the most expensive collection from a single owner ever offered by Sotheby’s in Europe.
“I cannot think of a more comprehensive place, outside of any major museum collection, really, to study and to look and to be encircled with so many core masterpieces from the surrealist movement and beyond,” said Oliver Barker, the chairman of Sotheby’s Europe, in a phone call from London.
Out of the sale’s 250 artworks and design pieces the top lot is a later Magritte painting “La Statue volante,” estimated to sell for £9-12 million ($12-$16 million). Other highlights include two Warhol works inspired by the painter Edvard Munch; a Dalí pencil drawing of his wife, Gala; a Hans Bellmer painting made just before the artist was imprisoned in France during World War II; a formative, mystical Dorothea Tanning painting of her dog; and the collector’s bed, made of sculptural copper twigs and leaves, by Claude Lalanne. The sale will take place on September 17 and 18, and the works will also go on view in London earlier in the month, providing a rare glimpse at many artworks that have been off the market for decades and will soon be scattered into private hands.
The landmark auction comes just two years after Sotheby’s sold off the contents of Karpidas summer home in Hydra, Greece, which became a summer hotspot for artists through her Hydra workshops. In that sale, which more than doubled its high estimate, works by Georg Baselitz, Marlene Dumas and Kiki Smith earned a combined €35.6 million ($37.6 million).
“She’s a real diva, in the most positive sense of this word,” said the Swiss artist Urs Fischer in a video call. “She’s also a bit of a mystery to me, despite knowing her for a long time.”
Fischer met Karpidas more than two decades ago when he was in his twenties, participated in one of her Hydra gatherings in the mid-2000s, and has regularly attended art-world parties with her. Fischer noted her “larger-than-life” presence: She’s often in striking hats, cigarette in hand, and has the tendency toward telling grand stories and scrawling, multi-page handwritten letters, he said.
“When I think of any memory of her, she’s always at the center of a place — she’s not the person on the periphery,” he recalled.
Karpidas, originally from Manchester, was introduced to art collecting through her late husband, Constantine Karpidas, known as “Dinos,” whose own eye was fixed on 19th-century art including Pierre-Auguste Renoir and Claude Monet. Then by meeting the art dealer Alexander Iolas, Karpidas found her own path. Iolas, nearly retired by that point, had been a formidable dealer of major 20th-century artists, particularly Surrealists, and his approach was the “blueprint” for international mega-galleries such as Gagosian and Hauser & Wirth today, according to Barker. But with Karpidas’ financial means and determination, he worked with her to build a singular collection of 20th-century art.
Karpidas is part of the lineage of “grande dames,” Barker said — the affluent 20th-century women who built social networks across the most prominent artists, fashion houses and designers of the time — and she may be the last of her kind, he noted. She was close friends with Andy Warhol and frequented his parties at The Factory, she was dressed by Yves Saint Laurent, and her homes were the efforts of prominent interior designers Francis Sultana and Jacques Grange. She’s been compared to the late, great female patrons Peggy Guggenheim and Dominique de Menil, both of whom she knew. But though her counterparts’ collections have become important cultural instructions, accessible to the public at institutions, through Sotheby’s, the bulk of Karpidas’ collection will be disseminated across the art market.
In her London residence, Fischer said, “the whole space became one artwork. Every fragment of that apartment has its own little story.” While he’s been in many homes of affluent collectors over the years, Karpidas’ apartment stands out for how personal and exuberant it is.
“In some way, it’s probably a mirror of her interest and her psyche,” he said. “It’s not just like a wealthy person’s home. It’s like a firework.”
Barker explained that Karpidas’ acquisitions have not only been the result of her financial means, but her judicious timing, too. She was well-positioned in 1979 for the record-breaking sale of the collector and artist William Copley’s personal collection, netting a 1929 painting by the French Surrealist Yves Tanguy, which will be resold in September. Many works owned by Karpidas have been passed down through famous hands, such as Surrealism founder André Breton, poet Paul Éluard, gallerist Julian Levy, and the family of Pablo Picasso.
“She was not only there at the right time, but she was choosing the right works,” Barker said.
Important patrons have often become subjects themselves, and the same is true of Karpidas. In 2023, Fischer depicted her in an ephemeral piece, with a lifespan of a single gallery show. On the floor of LGDR (now Lévy Gorvy Dayan) in New York, he cast a sculpture of the collector gazing at a reproduction of the 2nd-century “Three Graces,” an iconic Ancient Greek statue symbolizing beauty and harmony in art and society, which Karpidas purchased in 1989 before selling it to the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
In Fischer’s version, he rendered the three female nudes, as well as Karpidas, as life-size wax candles. All white except her dark oversized jewelry, the wax effigy of Karpidas looked to the sculpture she’d purchased decades before, all of the figures’ wicks’ aflame. Eventually, like many of Fischers’ works, they all melted down, the fire winking out.
Sabrina Carpenter surprised fans with an appearance from Earth, Wind & Fire during her headlining set at Lollapalooza on Sunday night. The singer enlisted the group two of their classic hits, “Let’s Groove” and “September,” joining the band members on vocals and dancing around the stage.
The unexpected guest appearance came midway through the “Manchild” singer’s set, which also included “Please Please Please” and “Espresso.”
Elsewhere during the performance, Carpenter fake arrested Twice band members Sana, Jihyo, and Momo. “If I were to give you these handcuffs… then I could marry all three of you, right?” Carpenter said as she offered the trio a pair of pink fuzzy handcuffs.
Carpenter headlined the final night of Lollapalooza, which also featured performances by Gracie Abrams, Luke Combs, Tyler, the Creator, Twice, Doechii, Chance the Rapper, and Olivia Rodrigo. The pop star has regularly collaborated with classic artists during her current tour. In July, while playing two back-to-back nights at BST Hyde Park in London, she brought out surprise guest Duran Duran to perform their 1982 Rio single, “Hungry Like the Wolf.”
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Carpenter’s new album, Man’s Best Friend, is set to drop on Aug. 29. It’s the follow-up to 2024’s Short n’ Sweet, the album on which she’s still currently touring. The second leg of her North American tour runs through November. In her July-August cover story for Rolling Stone, she explained why she didn’t want to wait long between album cycles.
“If I really wanted to, I could have stretched out Short n’ Sweet much, much longer,” she said. “But I’m at that point in my life where I’m like, ‘Wait a second, there’s no rules.’ If I’m inspired to write and make something new, I would rather do that. Why would I wait three years just for the sake of waiting three years? It’s all about what feels right. I’m learning to listen to that a lot more, instead of what is perceived as the right or wrong move.”
Prince Harry is strongly denying shocking claims made in a new royal book, ‘Entitled: The Rise and Fall of the House of York’. The book suggests that he once got into a physical fight with his uncle Prince Andrew at a family gathering in 2013, and that Andrew later insulted Meghan Markle.As reported by PEOPLE, a spokesperson for the Duke of Sussex said, “I can confirm neither of those things are true. Prince Harry and Prince Andrew have never had a physical fight, nor did Prince Andrew ever make those comments about the Duchess of Sussex to Prince Harry.”
Legal action already underway
Along with denying the claims, Prince Harry has also taken legal steps against the Daily Mail, which published parts of the book. His team further confirmed, “Such are the gross inaccuracies, damaging and defamatory remarks made in the Daily Mail’s story, I can confirm a legal letter from Prince Harry’s counsel has been sent to the Mail.”
Book claims punches were thrown
The book, written by author Andrew Lownie, describes a “heated argument” in 2013 that reportedly turned physical. It alleges the row was sparked by “something Andrew said behind Harry’s back.” According to the book, things escalated until “punches were thrown” and Andrew ended up with a bloody nose.
Meghan called ‘opportunist’, says book
In another major claim, the book says that Andrew later made harsh comments about Harry’s then-girlfriend Meghan Markle. He reportedly told Harry that Meghan was an “opportunist” and said he didn’t think their marriage would last.
Tensions with Prince William too
The book also claims that Prince Andrew has had long-running tensions with both Harry and his brother William. It says Prince William has worked behind the scenes to remove Andrew from Royal Lodge, the estate in Windsor that he still lives in. According to the author, William has “privately expressed disdain” for both Andrew and his ex-wife Sarah Ferguson.
Book looks at Andrew’s past
The book also digs into Prince Andrew’s reputation and controversies. It mentions his past ties to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, which led to him stepping back from royal duties and being stripped of official roles. It paints a picture of Andrew as a troubled and controversial figure within the royal family.
Royal family stays silent
While Prince Harry has spoken out through his spokesperson and taken legal action, the rest of the royal family is staying quiet. As per the above mentioned report, Kensington Palace declined to comment, and Buckingham Palace did not respond to their request for a statement.This is just the latest book to stir up trouble for the royal family. Since Prince Harry and Meghan stepped down from royal duties and moved to California in 2020, there have been several tell-all books and interviews revealing behind-the-scenes tensions.
Harry and Meghan’s new life
Prince Harry, now 40, and Meghan, 43, are living in Montecito, California. They are raising their two children, Prince Archie, 6, and Princess Lilibet, 4, away from royal life. The couple now focus on philanthropic work and building their own projects.
Meghan Markle rings in her 44th birthday with Prince Harry, Archie, Lilibet
Meghan Markle is set to celebrate a special day with her loved ones in Montecito amid Prince Harry’s peace talks with King Charles.
Today, August 4, the Duchess of Sussex turns 44 and is expected to mark her birthday with her husband and their two adorable children, Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet.
There is a high chance that Meghan will be expanding her lifestyle brand, As Ever Pantary, which her team hinted at in a newsletter released a few days ago.
The former Suits actress’ spokesperson said, “We hope you’ve been having a beautiful summer – enjoying the adventure of travel or the calm of home, finding beauty in the little things, and perhaps trying something new.”
In a special message, Meghan expressed gratitude towards the positive reviews received by the public.
“This affirmed all of the love, time and effort our team and our founder, poured into curating this blend to evoke the sun-drenched spirit of Napa Valley, and the breathtaking tenor of the California Coast.”
Meghan made an exciting announcement, sharing that the 2024 Napa Valley Rosé will be available for purchase “next week,” which is the Duchess of Sussex’s birthday week.
On the other hand, fans are looking forward to a birthday post from King Charles’ daughter-in-law as she often gives rare insight into her family’s heartfelt moments since returning to social media.
