Category: 5. Entertainment

A federal judge is pondering the nature of rap battles and the cutting wordplay in Kendrick Lamar’s “Not Like Us,” the megahit diss track that spurred a defamation lawsuit from his fellow superstar Drake.

Drake sued Universal Music Group — both his and Lamar’s record label — over “Not Like Us,” saying the company published and promoted a song he deems slanderous. Universal says the lyrics are just hyperbole in the tradition of rap beefing, and the label is trying to get the case dismissed.

U.S. District Judge Jeannette Vargas didn’t immediately decide after a lively hearing in New York on Monday, when the raw creativity of hip-hop brushed up against the staid confines of federal court.

“Who is the ordinary listener? Is it someone who’s going to catch all those references?” Vargas wondered aloud, addressing a legal standard that concerns how an average, reasonable person would understand a statement. “There’s so much specialized and nuanced to these lyrics.”

Neither artist attended the hearing.

The case stems from an epic feud between two of hip-hop’s biggest stars over one of 2024 biggest songs — the one that won the record of the year and song of the year Grammys, got the most Apple Music streams worldwide and helped make this winter’s Super Bowl halftime show the most watched ever.

Released as the two artists were trading a flurry of insult tracks, Lamar’s song calls out the Canadian-born Drake by name and impugns his authenticity, branding him “a colonizer” of rap culture who’s “not like us” in Lamar’s home turf of Compton, California, and, more broadly, West Coast rap.

“Not Like Us” also makes insinuations about Drake’s sex life, including “I hear you like ’em young” — implications that he rejects.

Drake’s suit says that the song amounts to “falsely accusing him of being a sex offender, engaging in pedophilic acts” and more. Contending that the track endangered him by fanning notions of vigilante justice, the suit blames “Not Like Us” not only for harming Drake’s image but for attempted break-ins and the shooting of a security guard at his Toronto home. The mansion was depicted in an aerial photo in the song’s cover art.

“This song achieved a cultural ubiquity unlike any other rap song in history,” Drake lawyer Michael Gottlieb said. He argued that Universal had campaigned and contrived to make it “a de facto national anthem” that didn’t just address hip-hop fans who knew the backstory and were accustomed to over-the-top lyrical battling.

The average listener could be “a 13-year-old who’s dancing to the song at a bar mitzvah,” Gottlieb suggested.

“That would be a very interesting bar mitzvah,” the judge opined. (The song has indeed been played at some such celebrations.)

Universal, meanwhile, has emphasized that “Not Like Us” was part of an exchange of barbs between Drake and Lamar.

“Context is key,” label lawyer Rollin Ransom argued Monday, at one point apologizing for having to use profanity while reciting some of the lyrics Drake aimed at Lamar in a track called “Taylor Made Freestyle.”

“What you hear in these rap battles is trash-talking in the extreme, and it is not, and should not be treated as, statements of fact,” the attorney said.

The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages.

Drake also went after iHeartMedia, claiming in a Texas legal petition that the radio giant got illegal payments from Universal to boost airplay for “Not Like Us.” IHeartMedia has denied any wrongdoing. That dispute was resolved in March.

Drake hasn’t sued Lamar himself.

Punjabi film ‘Sardaar Ji 3’, starring Diljit Dosanjh and Pakistani actress Hania Aamir, has achieved a record-breaking opening in Pakistan, surpassing previous box office records held by Bollywood movies.

The movie stirred controversy in India due to the casting of Pakistani actress Aamir amid the ongoing India-Pakistan conflict.

The producers didn’t release the film in India. Released internationally on June 27, the film garnered approximately PKR 9 crore (approx $500,000) in Pakistan over its opening weekend, setting a new record for the highest three-day gross by an Indian film in the country.

Nadeem Mandviwalla, a prominent exhibitor and distributor who owns a multiplex in Karachi, confirmed the film’s exceptional performance. He noted that the movie had already raked in around PKR 9 crore in its opening weekend.

“I think this is the best opening ever for any Indian or Pakistani film in our theatres,” Mandviwalla said.

Dosanjh
, who plays the lead role in the film along with Canadian Indian actor Neeru Bajwa, posted clips of the response of the Pakistani audience in theatres to the film.

Mandviwalla said the success of Sardaaji was a breath of fresh air for the Pakistani entertainment industry, particularly for the cinema house owners.

“I think despite the high ticket rates and the weather, the audience has come out because of the summer holidays and because Pakistani people still want to watch quality films on the big screen,” he said.

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The 156-year-long journey for the royal family’s private “royal train” is set to come to an end after King Charles decided to scrap it in a bid to reduce costs. The decision taken by Buckingham Palace to decommission Britain’s royal train, a service dating back to Queen Victoria, comes as maintenance and storage were getting costlier by the day.

Victoria, King Charles’ great-great-great-grandmother, commissioned the first royal rail carriages back in 1869. The Royal Family will still travel on regular train services. According to the BBC, the annual report revealed that 141 helicopter trips were taken in 2024, costing £475,000 ($652,348).

According to Reuters, the latest incarnation is made up of nine carriages, the most recent of them added in 1986. The royal train was used just twice during the financial year 2024-25, with the two journeys together costing almost 80,000 pounds ($109,869).
Speaking on the end of the royal train, James Chalmers, the king’s treasurer, said the monarch had now agreed that the train, which critics had long said was a waste of money, would reach the end of the line in 2027.

“The royal train has … been a part of national life for many decades, loved and cared for by all those involved, but in moving forward we must not be bound by the past,” Chalmers, officially known as the Keeper of the Privy Purse, told reporters.

“The time has come to bid the fondest of farewells, as we seek to be disciplined and forward-looking in our allocation of funding.” While the king had fond memories of the train, palace officials said it would require significant funds to pay for its long-term use, although it was not clear how much scrapping it would save.The announcement came as Chalmers, on Monday, June 30, 2025, unveiled the annual report of the Sovereign Grant, the government handout that covers staffing costs, upkeep of royal palaces, and travel expenses and is currently set at 12% of the profit from the Crown Estate, a property portfolio belonging to the monarchy.In November 2024, the Sunday Times and a TV documentary accused Charles and his elder son, Prince William, of making millions from the country’s health service, army, and schools from charges imposed by the monarch’s Duchy of Lancaster estate and the heir’s Duchy of Cornwall estate.

William Bax, the chief executive of the Duchy of Cornwall, acknowledged that criticism as he detailed its annual report on Monday, saying they were making changes at a time of “reflection and evolution.” Bax said they intended to end or reduce rents charged to some community groups and charities, while the report showed William’s personal income from the Duchy had fallen slightly to just under 23 million pounds.

Anti-monarchists said the annual reports were misleading, claiming that the monarchy’s price tag amounts to more than half a billion pounds. “The cost of the monarchy is out of control, and these reports receive almost no political scrutiny,” Graham Smith, chief executive of campaign group Republic, said.

Chalmers said the global significance of the royals could not be underestimated, citing a Global Perceptions Survey that found the monarchy the single biggest influence on perceptions of the UK among international audiences.

The fashion crowd was back at the New York Public Library on Monday night ahead of the Fourth of July holiday weekend to revel in Marc Jacobs latest collection of dreamlike Victorian beauties.

Per usual, Jacobs’ show notes set the stage for the five minute fall collection runway show of concise 19 looks, which each packed a punch to the soft tune of ‘Song for Jesse’ by Nick Cave and Warren Ellis. 

“Beauty,” the notes read. “A quality or combination of qualities that gives pleasure to the mind or senses and is often associated with properties such as harmony of form or color, proportion, and authenticity.”

Jacobs, during a recent conversation with author and former WWD executive editor Bridget Foley at La Maison Orveda’s debut fireside chat of its Cultural Tastemakers programming series, spoke about his ongoing inspirations and evolution.

“It’s been more interesting to think about clothes in a sculptural way and without being pretentious or arrogant — we do it our way, which usually has a reference to something known,” he said. “When I wear fashion, I want a real shoulder commitment, I want a silhouette going, and I want to feel involved. Fashion is really special and it’s something you don’t need. It’s not a mere piece of cloth to cover your body. It’s something that pulls at your heart.”

His words came to mind on Monday night, seen through through the fall collection, a fabulous continuation of the larger than life, twisted, doll-like takes on the familiar – the vocabulary he’s been developing strongly over the last few years. Jacobs leaned into Victorian shapes mixed with a bit of grunge, as seen through look one model’s giant lilac lace blouse, grounded with extra large and baggy cargo pants featuring a big bow on its rear. There were bows galore, also seen on the backs of almost every look, including gorgeous sculptural lace gowns (in pretty pastels or darker, vampy hues) and cinched up or pin-tucked big pants; in the models’ hair, or twisted into a bulbous, pale pink layered lingerie dress that fell off the body just-so.

Jacobs continued his story with ditsy wallpaper floral prints and pastel lace, whipping them into exaggerated Victorian doll silhouettes, some of which hugged closer to the body than in recent seasons before exploding out into pouffed shoulders and hems. His sculptural blouses were knockouts – a billowing floral version on Alex Consani; a rounded, polka-dot rendition on model Wali Deutsch, or a sweet but strong white lace one worn by Sascha Rajasalu – but really, so were each of the designer’s sixteen other looks.

Once again through fashion, Jacobs transported his guests into an otherworldly escape of fairytale, dreamlike beauty.

When it comes to sharing her beauty regimen, Khloé Kardashian is taking a page from sister Kylie Jenner’s digital book.

The reality TV star and media mogul, 41, opened up about her history of cosmetic procedures in the comments section of a June 28 Instagram post. Following her recent appearance at Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sánchez’s Italy wedding, Kardashian received a shout-out from Dr. Jonny Betteridge, a London-based aesthetician, who praised her as the “standout face” from the celebrity nuptials.

Betteridge, who said Kardashian’s physical appearance has “changed a lot over the past few years” speculated that “The Kardashians” star’s “transformation” likely included cosmetic procedures such as a “temporal brow lift,” a rhinoplasty (nose job), lip filler, and a face and neck lift.

“She looks dramatically different from a few years ago,” Betteridge concluded. “And whether you see it as glow up or glam makeover, there’s no denying she’s created a bold new look for herself.”

The following day, Kardashian responded to Betteridge’s assessment by confirming the cosmetic work she’s had done in a detailed list, including the doctors and service providers who oversaw her procedures. “I take this as a great compliment!” she wrote.

“In 2025 there are many other things we can do before surgery,” Kardashian added. “But when it’s time, and if I choose to, I know some great doctors 😉💞”

10 bingeable memoirs to check out: Celebrities tell all about aging, marriage and Beyoncé

What cosmetic work has Khloé Kardashian done? See the full list

• Nose job (Dr. Raj Kanodia)
• Laser hair removal (SEV Laser)
• Botox and sculptra (7Q Spa Laser & Aesthetic Center)
• SoftWave laser treatment for “skin tightening” (SoftWave)
• Dermal fillers (unspecified)
• Collagen baby threads treatment for chin and neck (The Things We Do)
• Salmon sperm facials and peptides (unspecified)

“445 cc”: Kylie Jenner gives out breast implant order on TikTok

Khloé Kardashian’s beauty candor follows Kylie Jenner’s breast implant confession

Earlier this month, Kardashian’s younger sister got candid about her own cosmetic history. The Kylie Cosmetics founder, 27, revealed her exact breast implant order after a fan, social media influencer Rachel Leary, complimented Jenner’s bust in a TikTok video published June 2.

“445 cc, moderate profile, half under the muscle!!!!! silicone!!! garth fisher!!! hope this helps lol,” Jenner wrote in the comments section.

Kardashian previously opened up about her relationship with body image, including her explorations of plastic surgery, in the June 2021 reunion for “Keeping Up with the Kardashians.” Kardashian revealed at the time that she’d had a nose job, as well as unspecified “injections.”

“When the show first started, I was very secure, very secure,” Kardashian said. “Then, during the first couple seasons I became insecure because of the public opinions of myself. Then, I had a good run of being secure. Then, recently I’ve become now insecure again. So, I guess it just goes up and down.”

Contributing: Erin Jensen, USA TODAY

Seth Rollins’ plans for domination of WWE have been made clear, though he has yet to be able to fully kick his plan into action. Rollins’ group was able to get a win in the main event of Raw on Monday, with Bron Breakker and Bronson Reed defeating Sami Zayn and Penta, but it came after Rollins was attacked on multiple fronts.

Rollins was attacked by CM Punk and LA Knight after coming to the ring to confront world heavyweight champion Gunther. That led to a match between Rollins and Knight being set for the upcoming Saturday Night’s Main Event.

Even the Breakker and Reed win wasn’t what the group wanted after Jey Uso ran in to save Zayn and Penta from a post-match beatdown.

CBS Sports was with you all night with recaps and highlights of all the action from PPG Paints Arena in Pittsburgh.

Jey Uso saves Sami Zayn and Penta from a Bron Breakker and Bronson Reed beatdown

CM Punk brawled with Seth Rollins after Rollins interrupted a Gunther promo. After talking about how he was going to beat Goldberg at Saturday Night’s Main Event, Gunther said he would be the one asking, “Who’s next?” This brought out Rollins, who talked about how winning Money in the Bank meant he could go on an all-out assault on both world titles. Rollins also said that as long as there was breath in his body, Punk would never hold another world title. This brought Punk running to the ring, where he brawled with Rollins until Rollins escaped through the crowd. LA Knight then jumped Rollins in the crowd and they brawled into the concession area before Rollins ran off.

Bron Breakker & Bronson Reed def. Sami Zayn & Penta via pinfall after Breakker hit a spear on Zayn. As Zayn was warming up backstage, he was attacked by Karrion Kross. Ross ended his attack by hitting Zayn in the ribs with a pipe, compromising Zayn before the night’s main event. Seth Rollins had already left the arena after being attacked multiple times earlier in the evening and Paul Heyman told Breakker and Reed to stick to the plan of taking out Zayn and Penta. Breakker finally got the win for his team after a lengthy match and then hit a spear on Penta for good measure. Reed and Breakker were set to continue the attack after the match, but Jey Uso ran in with a steel chair to make the save. Uso stood tall with Zayn and Penta after he took out both Reed and Breakker with the chair.

The main event was a fine match, as is to be expected from any televised wrestling show at this point. But the show as a whole felt like it was missing something. Instead of feeling like a significant show, everything felt like a set-up for Saturday Night’s Main Event or Evolution with very little meat for the show itself. Grade: B-

What else happened on WWE Raw?

• Iyo Sky challenged Rhea Ripley to a match at Evolution. Sky said Adam Pearce said she could choose who to defend her women’s world championship against and wanted to face the best, and that meant she wanted to face Ripley.
• Dominik Mysterio taunted AJ Styles with a doctor’s note saying he is not medically cleared to compete. Because of this, if Styles touches Mysterio before he is cleared, Styles will not get a shot at the intercontinental championship.
• World Tag Team Championship – Finn Balor & JD McDonagh def. New Day (c) via pinfall to win the titles. McDonagh hit a moonsault on Xavier Woods followed by a Balor Coup de Grace to score the win.
• Rusev def. Sheamus via pinfall with a jumping side kick. The hard-hitting match finally turned when Rusev exposed the steel turnbuckle connector and rammed Sheamus into it, leading to the finish.
• Lyra Valkyria vs. Bayley ended in a double pin. Adam Pearce told the women they would meet for the No. 1 contender spot to the intercontinental championship. The match ended after a pin where both women’s shoulders were down. The two then brawled through the crowd.
• Roxanne Perez officially became part of Judgment Day. After Balor and McDonagh won the tag titles, they spoke to Adam Pearce about the women’s tag title situation with Liv Morgan injured. They suggested Perez be made Raquel Rodriguez’s new partner, which was accepted with the caveat that Perez and Rodriguez would have to defend the belts at Evolution against teams from Raw, SmackDown and NXT.

Two era-defining avant garde fashion designers, Vivienne Westwood and Rei Kawakubo, will be brought together in a blockbuster summer exhibition announced on Tuesday by the National Gallery of Victoria.

It has been more than 20 years since Westwood’s work has been exhibited extensively in Australia, and the NGV show will be the first since the designer’s death in December 2023.

Curated by the NGV, with works drawn from the museum’s extensive fashion collection supplemented by loans from the Metropolitan Museum, the V&A and others, Westwood | Kawakubo will open in Melbourne on 7 December.

Westwood came to prominence as the designer behind the tattered, torn and often obscene garments of London’s 1970s punk scene, before moving towards irreverent but historically grounded tailoring and corsetry in the early 1980s. Later her climate activism became a critical component of her life and work.

After establishing Comme des Garçons in her native Japan, Kawakubo appalled the fashion establishment when she began showing in Paris in 1981. Her deconstructed and distressed designs won her a fervent underground fanbase and, with the hindsight of history, they have gained critical approval too. In 2017 Kawakubo was the subject of a rare standalone exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum; it was only the second time the Costume Institute had run an exhibition of a living designer, the first being Yves Saint Laurent in 1983.

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Katie Somerville, the NGV’s senior curator of fashion and textiles and the exhibition’s co-curator, says while Westwood and Kawakubo’s works are aesthetically distinct, there is “a lovely symmetry” in the designers’ lives and practices. Both designers were self-taught and they were born a year apart. They also built businesses in an industry that was, and remains, male-dominated in its upper echelons.

When planning the exhibition, Somerville researched whether the pairing had ever been made before, “and no one had”, she says. “So that’s always a really exciting space to be in … when you can present an exhibition concept that does break new ground.”

Rather than a chronological retrospective, the exhibition will be curated thematically, with rooms devoted to punk, the designers’ engagement with the body and their historical influences.

More than 140 works will be on display, including early-career punk ensembles by Westwood, alongside a tartan gown worn by Kate Moss in the designer’s 1993-94 Anglomania collection. From Comme des Garçons there will be a custom dress worn by Rihanna to the 2017 Met Gala and 40 garments donated by Kawakubo for the exhibition.

The NGV has become known for its double-bill blockbusters, including Warhol | Ai Weiwei and Keith Haring/Jean-Michel Basquiat: Crossing Lines. Westwood | Kawakubo will be the first fashion pairing and the first to feature female artists. “I think when you bring two individual artists together … [there are] wonderful new ways of seeing their work that come out of that comparison,” Somerville says.

“We’re not for a minute saying that they’re the same or similar, but there’s enough there that connects them to make that sort of back and forth of looking at their work together … really exciting and productive.”

Iain Stirling, the comedian and narrator of  “Love Island” and “Love Island USA,” is shutting down rumors that he’s leaving the dating show competition.

Back in May, a TikTok account claiming to be Stirling announced his departure from the U.K. version to focus solely on “Love Island USA.” The post sent shockwaves among the fandom, since Stirling’s voice has become synonymous with the British dating show since its launch on ITV2 in June 2015.  

“I’m staying, OK,” Stirling told Variety over Zoom. “I love both of them so much. I’m going nowhere. It was a fake account that made a fake post.”

Stirling is well known to American audiences as the voice behind the Peacock mega-hit reality dating series “Love Island USA,” and has been narrating the islanders’ activities since joining for Season 4 in July 2022. While the cast and crew film in Fiji, Stirling records his quick and witty voiceovers from his in-home recording studio in London.

“Love Island USA” has experienced a significant increase in viewership after the immense popularity of Season 6. Currently in its seventh season, the show’s success has continued, with this season drawing more than 1.6 billion minutes watched the week of June 13-19, according to Luminate‘s streaming data.

When asked what makes this season different than last year, Stirling talked about the team dynamic among the current islanders. “Last year had legendary love islanders, and you never have that many excellent contestants on one series,” he said. “It was a weird fluke. This season is more of a team sport. Everyone’s just moving mad, and creating this beautiful synergy. This year, the show’s doing all the work, and last year, the individuals were.”

In an interview later in the day, “Love Island USA” host Ariana Madix said: “Going into this season, people would ask me what advice would I give for the islanders going into Season 7. My biggest thing was to not try to be anything like anyone in the past season, and I feel like they’ve lived up to that.” 

She continued: “What’s really beautiful about this show in general is that the audience can always suss out if they feel like someone’s being genuine and authentic. As the season gets closer to ending, people’s true colors will continue to come out, and the audience will have their say.” 

Here, Madix spoke with Variety about the dynamics of Season 7.

Some viewers feel like the islanders this season seem more cautious and strategic, given how huge last season was. What do you think of that?

I immediately felt that going into night one — they seemed more nervous and reserved. And I thought, “Is this a Gen Z thing? Am I witnessing the difference between being a millennial and being Gen Z right in front of my face? That they’re just more scared of being perceived?”  I don’t think it’s more about the audience or wanting to be a certain way because of cameras. I think it’s genuinely being nervous just to be open, because they have been perceived their whole lives online, and there’s a genuine fear sometimes of being called cringe. I wish people would take a tip from the older millennials, such as myself, that to be cringe is to be free.  As the season has progressed, you’re seeing a lot more of their inner cringe come out, and they feel a lot more relaxed.

As the show has grown in popularity, so has the toxicity in its fandom. Do you feel protective of the cast, given how much cyberbullying has gone hand in hand with the show’s increase in popularity?

I feel protective of them because I know — regardless of whether the audience likes them or not — every single one of them is in that villa doing their absolute best. Even if they make a wrong choice or they do something that people watching the show say they would never do, no one can ever know what it’s like until you’re in their shoes. I love our passionate fan base and engaging with a lot of the online discourse about the show, because the community is part of what makes the show so amazing. But if you are harassing, doxing and cyberbullying, that’s not a true fan of the show — because our fans wouldn’t do that. Those are people who I would rather they either don’t engage at all or find a way to engage in your group text.

The islanders delivered their best performances in the heart rate challenge, but some felt that certain boundaries had been crossed. What’s your take on Chelley Bissainthe‘s reaction to Huda Mustafa‘s performance with Ace Greene?

There’s a conversation that could be had with Ace as well, because he seemed very enthusiastic about Huda’s performance. But when I watched the whole episode, it was hard for me to pinpoint where they said that she went too far, because I felt that all of the islanders were participating to the fullest. We’ll have to see how that conversation pans out with Chelley and Huda. With Huda’s skills, I would feel some way, too, just because I can’t do that. 

Do you think Huda and Ace took it too far?

It’s hard to say. Moments before that, I saw people doing splits on people and three-way kisses. I saw a lot happening that makes it difficult for me to say, because I’m curious about what the line is.

Chelley expressed that she felt disrespected, and pointed out that Huda expected the same respect during challenges when she was coupled with Jeremiah Brown. From your perspective, how has this desire for sisterhood impacted the dynamics of the women and couples this season? 

I love sisterhood. I love it when girls support each other. Sometimes, this season, it has felt a little like they wanted to be a sisterhood before they got to know each other well enough to say that. It feels like that makes them scared to be honest with each other. Hopefully, this will be a moment of honesty between them. Although, I didn’t like when Huda was mad during those challenges. Now, I don’t like when anyone gets mad during the challenges. I support people not getting mad in challenges and going all out. It is interesting that [Huda’s] feelings have changed, although I wish her feelings would have changed back then.

Casa Amour just ended, and it looked different this year. What was the reason for the shakeup?

That shakeup was so necessary, because we’ve seen season after season girls go to Casa and not engage whatsoever, only to be loyal to people who are then not loyal in return. We also see people try to use their return from Casa as a way to garner goodwill with the audience. It’s happened where it’s been very genuine. However, we’ve also seen people try to use being loyal or doing a lot in Casa just to come back single to be with their partner. I don’t want to see people try to recreate things from the past because they think that that’s going to be their way to skate through to the finale. Making it so the islanders don’t know what to expect prevents anything like that. It was necessary because we also see some Casa people come in every year and not have any choice in anything that goes on. They come in for a few days, and then they’re gone. We don’t get to know them. We also see Casa people come in every season and be villainized entirely because they did exactly what Casa people are supposed to do.

This year, I love that we gave the Casa people agency over who they wanted to get to know. I loved the way that we made it so that everybody was going to recouple; nobody was singled out and couldn’t be villainized for the crime of just getting to know a new person. 

This interview has been edited and condensed.