Category: 5. Entertainment

[This story contains major spoilers from season two, volume one of The Sandman, as well as from the comics.]

At the start of the second season of Netflix’s hit fantasy drama series The Sandman, the Fates — a trio of goddesses consisting of the Maiden (Dinita Gohil), the Mother (Nina Wadia) and the Crone (Souad Faress) — delivered an ominous, ambiguous prophecy to the eldest Endless sibling, Destiny (Adrian Lester): “A king will forsake his kingdom. Life and death will clash and fray. The oldest battle begins once more.”

That prophecy will seemingly be fulfilled by the Sandman himself a.k.a. Dream of the Endless (Tom Sturridge), the powerful cosmic being who controls all dreams. After reclaiming the powers he had previously lost in captivity, destroying the dangerous dream vortex and unmaking the Corinthian at the end of the first season, the moody Morpheus has been quietly rebuilding his kingdom, the Dreaming, with an eye towards the future. But the past will always come back to haunt the King of Dreams.

In the first half of the second and final season of The Sandman (now streaming), largely adapted from the creator Neil Gaiman’s comic collections Season of Mists and Brief Lives, Dream is forced to come to terms with the fact that his actions have hurt the people he loves most. While he is not able to make amends with everyone — who could blame an ex-lover for holding a grudge against him after he condemned her to Hell for 10,000 years? — Dream is able to heal some rifts in his own immediate family.

Three hundred years ago, Dream’s brother, Destruction (Barry Sloane), abandoned his realm, and now the only person who can locate him is Orpheus (Ruairi O’Connor), Dream’s estranged son with the Greek muse Calliope (Melissanthi Mahut). Thousands of years ago, Orpheus had gone against his father’s wishes and accepted a life of immortality in exchange for a trip to the Underworld, where he was unable to rescue his new wife Eurydice (Ella Rumpf). In a last-ditch attempt to be killed and reunited with Eurydice in the Underworld, Orpheus put himself in the path of the Sisters of the Frenzy, a vicious cult of the Greek god Dionysus, who attacked and dismembered him, reducing him to only a severed head.

Desperately wanting to be put out of his misery, Orpheus begged his father to kill him, but Dream could not bring himself to commit the act — in part because the Endless are not allowed to “spill family blood.” Instead, Dream left Orpheus’ head in the care of priests on an uncharted island and told his son they could never see each other again. But centuries later, in exchange for Orpheus’ help in locating Destruction, Dream agrees to grant Orpheus the one boon he has always wanted: the sweet release of death. It’s a loving gift that could very well cost Dream everything.

“When you pared The Sandman comic down to Dream’s emotional arc, it really is so clear that this is a man who has gained some self-knowledge and some self-awareness through his imprisonment, through having to live in the waking world and the mortal world and having to reflect on his past behavior and sins,” showrunner Allan Heinberg tells The Hollywood Reporter.

“In Dream’s mind, he’s the hero of his story. I think he’s very surprised to realize in season two that he is the villain in several people he loves’ stories,” Heinberg continues. “At the end of episode six, the choice is, ‘Do you sacrifice your life for your son?’ And there’s no other choice [but yes] for him — not just because of his own honor, but because he didn’t love his son well thousands of years ago. And now, he has a chance to be a good father, brother and former lover, even though it costs him everything to do so.”

Below, Heinberg unpacks his decision to end The Sandman after two seasons (despite initially conceiving of a three-season adaptation), what Dream’s interactions with his Endless siblings and estranged son reveal about his evolution as a character — and why viewers should not expect Dream to take his fate lying down in volume two. He also teases the final bonus episode centered around Kirby Howell-Baptiste’s Death. (Stay tuned for part two of THR’s conversation with Heinberg, which will be released after the final episodes drop later this month.)

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You’ve maintained that the second season of The Sandman was always meant to be its last, even as fans began to speculate that those reasons weren’t purely creative. Can you walk me through the rationale behind that decision? And on a macro level, how did that affect the structure of this final run of episodes?

We learned making season one that we were only going to focus on the stories where Dream was the protagonist. In the comic book, it has more of an anthology structure. There are long story arcs where he may appear in one or two scenes, but there are other people’s stories. We realized that the audience, for a serialized drama, needs a character that they can follow and root for throughout the entire run of the show. Anthologies are very difficult to pull off [because] every time you introduce a new cast of characters, you have to earn the audience’s trust, love and rooting interest. And with this show, we watched the audience reaction to the first episode and then the second episode, and their interest was always held when Dream was either onscreen or the subject of the scene. But anytime we drifted into other people’s storylines, they got confused and lost interest because it’s called The Sandman and they thought the show was about the Sandman, which we all understand.

So, by the end of season one, we started looking at the stories that were going to be part of a proposed second season. The biggest question mark was around a graphic novel called A Game of You, where Dream has two or three appearances, but it’s not his story. It’s Barbie’s story, who we introduced in season one. So there was some debate about how we would do it. The writers and I actually spent two months, because it was a three-episode arc, building a story for Dream to be part of A Game of You that was not in the comics. In order to tell that story, it would have to become a Dream story, and we labored a long time over it.

In the end, Netflix came to us and said, “What if we skipped it storywise? Since we are focusing on Dream, what if we went straight from the end of Season of Mists into Brief Lives [for volume one]?” It was a proposal. They asked me, “How do you think you would do that?” And because Dream isn’t in A Game of You, it was fairly easy [to adapt]. So, from the comics, we substituted his affair with the witch Thessaly, and we concentrated on Nada — Season of Mists is all about Nada [the Queen of the First People who Dream condemned to hell for 10,000 years after she rejected his proposal to be with him]. So him proposing to Nada again and Nada rejecting him took the place of Thessaly’s rejection, and it was a very seamless way of transitioning into Brief Lives.

I had always thought of The Sandman as a three-season show with 11 episodes in each season, and initially I had crafted season two to end with Orpheus’ death and Dream’s response to it. And then the third season was going to be The Kindly Ones [the ninth and penultimate installment of the original Sandman comics], and everything that comes after. And when we took A Game of You out of the mix, it created all the space we needed for The Kindly Ones and everything that came after. So it was a very organic process of looking at the comics and saying, “If we’re just telling Dream’s story, what are those elements, and can we do it in the 11 episodes that we had? And then [we’ll have] the additional Death episode at the end.”

You’ve always said that your adaptation of The Sandman, at its core, is a family drama centered around Dream. What new facets of Dream did you want to reveal through his interactions with the other Endless siblings? How did you want to humanize him in this second batch of episodes?

Death [Kirby Howell-Baptiste] is really honest with him about his behavior in Season of Mists and Destruction basically tells him several times, “I could not handle it. I could not handle my responsibilities.” Throughout season one, we discovered that Dream has a curiosity and a longing to do things that are outside of his calling, outside of his realm. And every time we see him with another member of the family, it brings out a different side of Dream.

For me, watching his progress over season two, he just becomes more and more and more vulnerable and more emotionally present to the point where — well, you haven’t watched it yet — by the end of the season, he’s so authentically himself with Death at the end. He’s so raw and so naked, and so the opposite of who we met at the beginning of season one. I don’t want to spoil anything for you, but it is profoundly moving. We were able to tell the story as we have because of Tom Sturridge’s phenomenally nuanced, intelligent, deeply felt performance.

Dream is an impossible character to play, especially if you look at the comics, because he reveals nothing. He doesn’t have eyes; he’s got black pits with stars in them. So it’s impossible to tell what he’s thinking or feeling. And the biggest shift for me, as the primary storyteller of the show, is that I had to allow myself in script to let the reader know everything that Dream was thinking and feeling along the way, which was a huge leap for me. Neil Gaiman created this character. I am doing my interpretation, but it took a certain amount of chutzpah, as they say, to put down on the page what I think is going on in the scenes and hope that the writer who created this character agrees and is OK with it.

So that’s the way we were able to tell Dream’s story and focus on it. Tom and I, together with the director Jamie Childs, were constantly transparent about what moments mean, how he’s feeling, and how his feelings dictate his next action in a way that is not in the comic. He is a mystery in the comic; he’s opaque. There are times when in the comic Neil gives him a voiceover and he gives you some insight, but you’re not tracking him emotionally the way that we have had to because we’re a television show. So the bones of the story are the same, but the way we tell the story is very different because we’re telling it from the inside out as opposed to the comic, which is very outside in, I guess. I don’t know if that makes sense, but I’m articulating this for the first time!

Dream’s relationship with Orpheus is such a key part of the comics — and, for me, the relationship that humanizes Dream the most in this adaptation. What was your take on the complexity of their relationship? Why are they both unable to realize that they are more alike than they’re willing to admit until it’s too late for Orpheus?

I love Ruairi’s performance so much. Dream and Orpheus don’t live together. Their time together before [Orpheus’] marriage is limited, but Orpheus clearly adores him. They adore each other. I think that with Orpheus, Dream is warmer and more unguarded than he is even with Calliope. But I think with a young man in love, you watch Dream try to parent him as best he can. You watch him try to put his foot down. He does what I think any protective parent would do in that moment. And Orpheus’s passion, his youth, and maybe some resentment that he didn’t have a full-time father there — there’s something in him that forces him to rebel and need to seek his own course. He’s the hero of his own story. And as a parent, you are powerless to stop your child from doing enormous harm to himself. And at every turn, Dream isn’t evolved enough in that moment to make an emotional appeal to Orpheus, right?

The way that Dream and Orpheus speak to each other at the end of episode six is very different from the way they speak to each other in episode five. You’ve got hundreds of years of regret and recrimination in episode five. They’re very much father and son — “I tell you what to do and how to behave, and you do it because I am your father, and I know more than you.” By the end of it, there are just two people who love each other enormously. In some ways, Orpheus is a much wiser soul by the end of episode six than Dream is and knows so much more about humility and patience and gratitude. Dream is just learning these things now, and his son’s been ahead of him for hundreds of years and you see it in their interaction.

There are two one-on-one scenes between Dream and Orpheus which absolutely gutted me as a viewer: the first being when Dream refuses to kill Orpheus post-decapitation, and the second being when they come face-to-face for the first time at the temple. What did you want to accomplish with those two bookends in the characters’ relationship? How did you want to show the way they’ve evolved or not evolved during their time apart?

It’s interesting because I had to look at that scene on the beach in episode five where Orpheus has been decapitated and he’s begging for his own death. Our dialogue is very similar to the dialogue in the comic. Dream, as a comics reader [myself], always seemed very much like an Old Testament God: “I gave you an order, you disobeyed me, and now you must be punished.” And I couldn’t find a way into writing the scene in a way that made sense to me with Tom’s Dream.

I just thought to myself, “[Dream’s] behaving this way because his heart is broken.” The reason he says we will not see each other again is that Dream can’t handle [seeing him like that]. It is too much for him. From that point of view, as Dream’s walking away from Orpheus, we can see that he is absolutely shattered instead of stone-faced and punishing. You understand how hard this is for him.

And then in the last scene that you referred to, Dream says, “Do you know why I said those things to you? I couldn’t kill you because I couldn’t imagine living in a world without you. There’s no way that I could kill the person I love most in this world and have tried so hard to protect.” Interestingly, that scene doesn’t exist in the comic. There’s an omission, and I was hoping I wouldn’t have to write the scene where Dream and Orpheus face each other for the first time [in a long time]. (Laughs.) In the comic, Dream leaves Delirium [Esmé Creed-Miles] outside the temple, and we stay with Delirium. Dream comes back out and says, “It is done.” So I thought it was a perfect opportunity.

Orpheus, at that point, is so philosophical about his fate and trying to spend his days as best he can. Even though he longs for the peace of death, he’s not an unhappy man. He’s not suffering, and Dream is suffering and has been suffering since he left him on the beach. So there were a lot of ways to go in that scene. Orpheus could have been angry or resentful, but casting Ruairi made it so easy to just have him be loving, accepting and forgiving: “Let’s not waste another minute fighting. Let’s just start loving each other as best we can right now.” It’s such a relief for Dream in that moment because he’s been dreading having to face the biggest mistake he’d ever made.

How did you decide to write Orpheus’ death scene? And what stands out to you about the way Tom chose to play the aftermath of Orpheus’ death?

That’s very much from the comic. I think I added some dialogue, but how difficult it is for [Dream] in the moment and the breakdown in the palace — that’s from the original comic. I think Tom’s performance is absolutely staggering all the way through and so moving. I love that scene in the library with Lucienne [Vivienne Acheampong], the way it was staged. He hides behind a bookcase and Lucienne doesn’t see him, and it was not scripted to have him like that. It was our DP Will Baldy’s idea in the moment, like, “What if it’s too much for him and he can’t face her? And his not showing himself to her shatters her.” It was such a lovely collaborative idea and it sets up that scene in his private quarters where he’s washing the blood off his hands in such a beautiful way. I’m absolutely indebted to Will for having suggested that and to Jamie for the way that it’s shot.

At the end of volume one, Dream is able to reconnect with not only Orpheus but also Destruction. You’ve previously described Destruction’s story as “a soul that’s in conflict.” He doesn’t want to destroy; he wants to create. Can you unpack Destruction’s decision to abandon his realm and his final conversations with Dream before vanishing?

I love that Destruction has the same sense of honor and responsibility about his realm and what his job is that Dream has. But in the end, it became too much for him. He could no longer be the destroyer of lives and universes, and he could not handle it anymore. It really broke him. And he did what no Endless had done previously, which was to essentially just abandon his realm. Dream has been livid with his brother making that decision for 300 years, but I also think that Dream was resentful because he’s jealous. What Dream does takes an enormous toll on his soul and his psyche, and to be able to just leave and pursue a life outside of one’s calling — it’s everything he has wanted and it’s unthinkable to him. In some ways, I think he knows that this job is too much for him.

(Major spoiler alert!) So by becoming more human himself and allowing himself to be reborn through Daniel, which is obviously a spoiler [from the comics] for the end of the series, he understands that the new Dream has to be more human and less Endless in order to serve mankind the right way, in ways that he was not able to. So I think Destruction teaches him that.

What I find so compelling about Barry’s performance is you see Destruction, who is Dream’s younger brother, has also evolved more than Dream has. Having fallen in love with humanity before Dream did, he knows so much more about his own heart — and he wishes he could help Dream. You saw it in episodes five and six, especially in episode six. He’s trying so hard to help Dream out of this prison that he’s created for himself. I think he does get in, obviously, but in that moment, Dream can’t really hear it or respond to it. So I find it really powerfully moving where Destruction is basically saying to him, “I have been here. I have felt these things. I know exactly what you’re going through, and you don’t have to.” Dream obviously shuts down and isn’t ready for that advice at that moment.

Volume one ends with the Fates seemingly divided about taking action against Dream, but regardless of how they personally feel about him, the fact that Dream has spilled family blood means that he will now have to face the consequences of his actions. What can you preview about the final five episodes of his story and the bonus episode involving Death?

In the back half, Dream is going to do everything he possibly can to keep his life and his kingdom, and the people who work with him, whole and safe and alive. He’s not just going to give up. He’s not just going to resign himself to his fate. He’s going to fight for the next five episodes, because that’s who he is. So it’s not over, and there are lots of surprises along the way.

That final episode is a very interesting episode for us. It’s freestanding. It doesn’t really have anything to do with the 11 episodes prior to it, but it’s a continuation of all the themes that we’ve been exploring the entire time. It’s especially topical now — I mean, I guess it’s always going to be topical — because the world is a very dark place at the moment, and we are all trying to figure out how to live in it with love and with hope. That’s what Dream is trying to do the entire time in the body of the season, and that’s what Death is trying to convey to Colin Morgan’s character, Sexton. So that’s our goodnight kiss to the audience, and our thank you to the audience for staying with us through these two seasons.

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The Sandman is now streaming on Netflix. The next five episodes, which will conclude Dream’s story, will drop on July 24, with a bonus episode centered around Death set to drop on July 31.

Billie Eilish, Shakira and more stars are speaking out amid the deadly floods in Texas.

Starting on the Fourth of July, natural disaster swept through much of central Texas as torrential rains caused catastrophic damage across multiple counties. At press time, CNN reports that at least 89 people — including 27 young girls and counselors belonging to the Camp Mystic summer camp along the Guadalupe River — have died as a result, while others are missing.

In response, Eilish shared a video capturing some of the flood damage and wrote Sunday (July 6) on her Instagram Story, “this is so sad.”

“sending love to Texas,” she added, following it up with a reshared video of a meteorologist warning how budget cuts to the National Weather Service under Donald Trump’s administration would inhibit its ability to properly warn people of disastrous weather crises such as the floods.

Shakira encouraged fans to join her in donating to Texans in need, sharing a link to a local crisis response charity and revealing that a portion of the proceeds from her July 5 concert in San Antonio would go toward the cause. “Our hearts and prayers are with those affected by the flood in Central Texas,” she wrote on X. “Your help is important and appreciated.”

Miranda Lambert also sprung into action, sharing posts on Instagram about how her pet charity, Mutt Nation, would be assisting displaced animals in her home state. “I can’t even come up with the words for the loss everyone is suffering,” the country star says of the floods in a video posted on her Instagram, after which she shared resources about fostering pets, dropping off supplies and donating on her Story.

Other Texas natives who posted about the disaster were Maren Morris and Hilary Duff. Sharing old photos of herself performing in the Lone Star State, the former wrote on Instagram that she was “thinking of my home state right now.”

“the floods are devastating and people are still missing,” she added in her post. “there are several places to donate but i’ll be donating to an incredibly impactful fund called the Texas Hill Country Community Foundation.”

The Lizzy McGuire actress shared a statement decorated with bluebonnets — the state flower of Texas — on Instagram. “Heartbroken doesn’t begin to cover it,” she wrote. “Praying for even a shred of a miracle — to find a child alive in the wake of this boundless disaster … I’m just so deeply, absolutely sorry. Your loss is felt across the world.”

Lana Del Rey mourned the loss of lives in both the Texas floods and the ongoing conflict in Gaza, sharing in a statement on Instagram, “We’ve been thinking of you every day since the floods … May all the angels be with you as you search for even more lost loved ones.”

“And yes of course we pray for Palestine every day,” Del Rey added in a comment on the post. “There is never a good way of wording things that will make all people happy but that is my personal truth. Politically I do keep up and have been very much hoping for cease fire.”

The musicians’ posts come as responders are still searching for survivors on rescue missions across the impacted areas in Texas. Even days after the disaster began, active flood warnings are currently still in place across the state.

State representatives are also now grappling with how they could have better protected citizens amid the crisis. Sen. Ted Cruz told reporters Monday (July 7) that “if we could go back and do it again, we would evacuate,” while Mayor Joe Herring Jr. of the heavily affected Kerrville, Texas, revealed in an interview with CNN that he hadn’t even received an alert before the floods hit seemingly out of nowhere.

“It all happened upriver at the worst possible place,” he told the news network. “And I think everyone in Kerrville, everyone in Kerr County, wishes to God we had some way to warn them. To warn those people … Everyone here, if we could’ve warned them we would have done so. And we didn’t even have a warning. We did not know.”

Netflix‘s limited series adaptation of the Julia May Jonas novel “Vladimir” is rounding out its main cast.

Nine new cast members have joined the series alongside previously announced leads Rachel Weisz and Leo Woodall. Variety has learned that John Slattery (“Mad Men,” “Spotlight,” “Nuremberg”), Jessica Henwick (“Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery,” “Silo”), and Ellen Robertson (“Mickey 17,” “Black Mirror,” “Too Much”) have been cast as series regulars in the roles of John, Cynthia, and Sid respectively.

The new recurring cast members are: Kayli Carter (“The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,” “Mrs. America,” “Private Life”) as Lila, Miriam Silverman (“Your Friends and Neighbors,” “The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window”) as Florence, Mallori Johnson (“Is God Is,” “Steal Away”) as Edwina, Matt Walsh (“Veep,” “Ghosts,” “Novocaine”) as David, Tattiawna Jones (“Murderbot,” “Station Eleven”) as Alexis, and Louise Lambert (“Chucky,” “Doc,” “Ginny & Georgia”) as Dawn.

In addition, the Oscar-nominated and Emmy-winning team of Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini (“Fleishman Is in Trouble,” “American Splendor”) are set to direct three of the show’s eight episodes, including the pilot. They will also be executive producers on the series.

The official logline for the show states, “As a woman’s (Weisz) life unravels, she becomes obsessed with her captivating new colleague (Woodall). Full of sexy secrets, dark humor and complex characters, ‘Vladimir’ is about what happens when a woman goes hell-bent to turn her fantasies into reality.”

Jonas is adapting her book for the screen and also serves as executive producer on the series. Weisz will executive produce in addition to starring. Sharon Horgan, Stacy Greenberg, and Kira Carstensen executive produce via Merman along Jason Winer & Jon Radler of Small Dog Picture Company, as well as Springer Berman and Pulcini. 20th Television is the studio.

(Pictured from top left, left to right: John Slattery, Jessica Henwick, Ellen Robertson, Kayli Carter, Matt Walsh, Tattiawna Jones, Mallori Johnson, Louise Lambert, Miriam Silverman)

Louis Vuitton reentered the novelty bag space with the release of its Lifebuoy bag.

Designed with the French luxury fashion house‘s signature craft, the bag was teased by guests at the Louis Vuitton men’s spring 2026 show in Paris in June. Featuring its iconic logo on the leather canvas material, the bag is now listed on the brand’s website as “Notify Me” with a retail price of $10,000.

Despite the unique circular design, the bag is functional, featuring three separate zipped compartments and an adjustable leather strap for shoulder or cross-body carry. The accessory is already catching the attention of social media.

This is not the first time the French house has had a novelty purse making waves online. In 2021, Louis Vuitton debuted a viral airplane bag, created by the late Virgil Abloh, which retailed for roughly $39,000. Other entries into the brand’s novelty bag list include the LV Fan bag, from the spring 2025 runway, the LV Monogram LV Paint Can Bag and the LV x Yayoi Kusama Pumpkin Shoulder Bag.

Over the course of the last several seasons, luxury brands have released a selection of novelty bags that stand out for their playful and unconventional designs. Notable examples include Moschino’s Teddy Bear purse, Balenciaga’s trash bag and Loewe’s tomato clutch.

“There’s been always a pendulum on what rises and falls and swings and sways,” said Susan Korn, designer of accessories label Susan Alexandra, about the trend in an interview with WWD in August 2024. “In the past couple of years we’ve seen there’s been this return to a very serious suit dressing — like neutral suit dressing, the vest as a shirt and the return to the traditional black bag. On the other end of the spectrum, you have a really fun, ridiculous, outrageous, not so serious bag. When you go too far in one direction, you always want to go to the other.” 

Prior to the 2024 resurgence of novelty bags, signs of the trend’s rise were evident in 2020, amid the COVID-19 pandemic. In February 2020, novelty handbags were spotted at the Fame and Moda trade shows in New York City. Heather London, a sales rep for Mary Frances Accessories, noted how the trend was making a comeback at the time.

“You’re seeing it on the runway; you’re seeing it with the major designers,” London told WWD in February 2020. “It trickles down and it just keeps getting more and more popular.” 

NEW ROLE: Massimiliano Giornetti has a new role. The designer, who in the past most notably served as creative director of Salvatore Ferragamo, has been tapped by Drumohr as its creative director.

Giornetti’s vision for the brand will be revealed at a press event on July 16 in Milan, when the spring 2026 collection will be presented. 

Reached for a comment, the company released a statement to WWD underscoring this is the first time in its history it has named a creative director. “We are happy to begin this new chapter with Massimiliano Giornetti, whose refined and contemporary style will guide the development of the men’s and women’s collections, in the name of an authentic and timeless elegance,” read the statement. “His experience and the professionalism demonstrated in years of success, even in product categories still unexplored for us, will be a strategic lever for the evolution of the Drumohr lifestyle.”

Established in 1770 in Drumfries, Scotland, Drumohr is known for its high-end knitwear collections that over time have attracted an elite clientele, ranging from the British royal family to the King of Norway, in addition to celebrities spanning from Audrey Hepburn to James Stewart. 

In 2006, the brand was acquired by the Gruppo Ciocca holding company, which operates sock businesses Ciocca and Sozzi, as well as knitwear brands Rossopuro and Heritage. The new owner transferred production from Scotland to Italy, where it also opened stores in key locations such as Milan, Turin, Rome and luxe resort destination Forte dei Marmi, part of its growth strategy that also sees a stronger push on womenswear, hospitality and home decor.

Giornetti will be tasked with propelling the revamp. After starting his career in womenswear with the Rome-based haute couture designer Anton Giulio Grande, Giornetti first joined the Salvatore Ferragamo company in 2000, to head up the design and development of its menswear. In 2009, his tasks expanded to also include the design of women’s collections and the following year he was promoted to oversee the creative development of all categories of the Florence-based luxury house, which he eventually exited in 2016.

In 2017, Giornetti took the design reins at Shanghai Tang as the premium Chinese brand underwent a revamp after Compagnie Financière Richemont sold the company to Italian textiles businessman Alessandro Bastagli and venture capital firm Cassia Investments. He exited the label at the end of 2018.

The following year, Florentine fashion school Polimoda tapped Giornetti as its first head of fashion design, tasking him with defining a creative angle to allow the institution to stand out among international competition, identifying the guidelines for the fashion design course’s final show and boosting the accessories, footwear and knitwear divisions, in addition to selecting new teachers for his department.

A Polimoda alumnus himself, Giornetti was promoted to director of the school in 2021, succeeding Danilo Venturi in the role. He will continue to retain the post at the school while working for Drumohr.

THE TAILOR’S TABLE: Canali is ramping up its global lifestyle proposition with a new venture in food and hospitality.

After last month naming tennis player Stefanos Tsitsipas its first brand ambassador, the Italian menswear tailoring brand has revealed the opening of its first branded restaurant in Hong Kong.

Dubbed Locanda Canali, the Italian word for inn, the dining space curated by chef Gianni Caprioli is located inside Harbour City Gateway Arcade, one of Hong Kong’s leading shopping destinations.

“The opening of Locanda Canali represents a strategic step in our lifestyle journey. This concept enhances our customer experience by integrating hospitality into our identity,” said Stefano Canali, president and chief executive officer of the brand.

“We believe strongly in the cultural vitality and economic relevance of Hong Kong and the Greater Bay Area and are pleased to continue our development in this dynamic region,” he added.

The space is decked in soft and soothing tones, ranging from champagne-toned tapestry and wavy curtains on the walls to forest green upholstery on the wooden seats and banquettes. The checkerboard flooring is done in marble, a material reprised also in the tabletops and bar counter. Artworks and photographs hanging on the wall depict Milan landmarks.

Serving food from breakfast through dinner, the restaurant’s menu revisits Italian and Milanese cuisine with an international flair, building on Caprioli’s previous experiences across Italy, Europe and the U.S.

The unit is located next door to the existing Canali boutique in Hong Kong’s luxury shopping mall.

At a time of sluggish sales for luxury, hospitality is viewed as a strategic avenue to revive business, as customers increasingly pour their money into experiences rather than products.

Last month, the Canali CEO told WWD that despite the complex scenario the company is not skimping on investment. This month the brand will inaugurate a new store in Los Angeles, proving the centrality of the U.S., he said, while India and Italy remain solid markets.

Canali was founded in 1934 and, now in its third generation, it remains an independent family-run business that retains tailoring at the core, integrating technology into the artisanal process.

In case anyone was wondering if the headline-grabbing Irish hip-hop insurgents Kneecap were backing down in light of blowback for their pro-Palestine beliefs, the band’s new video makes that answer clear: No.

Two weeks ago, the band officially released “The Recap,” a collaboration with British drum-and-bass producer Mozey that was first heard as a “bootleg” on Soundcloud in May. The group has now followed it with a video, which further addresses the blowback the group has faced during some of its recent live shows at the Coachella and Glastonbury festivals. (At the former, a sign reading “Fuck Israel. Free Palestine” appeared behind them.)

Over frenetic beats, the “Recap” single addressed criticism from the British government and Tory party leader Kemi Badenoch: “It’s Kneecap the Recap/West Belfast/Na na na/Disappear forever you Tories.” Referencing much-despised former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, they went on, “The writings on the walls/You like to think that you’re fooling everybody/But you’re not/Just like the iron lady/Your career is gonna rot/You’re just shit/Not in control.” The song ends with: “Onwards and upwards/Free Palestine.”

The video, directed by Finn Keenan, takes those lyrics to the next level. After opening with a barrage of newspaper headlines (“Rapper in court over use of flag”), the clip includes surveillance-camera footage, clips of Buckingham Palace and the Royal guards, an altered sign for a statue of Queen Victoria (“A million Irish dead under her reign”), and a cartoon of British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who said the thought of the group playing Glastonbury was not “appropriate.” The clip ends with a crowd chant of “Free Palestine” at one of their festival gigs.

The Belfast band, who rap in Gaelic as a political statement of its own, has been in the crosshairs this year more than ever. At Coachella in April, they started one of their sets with a screen message that read, “Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinian people,” followed by, “It is being enabled by the U.S. government who arm and fund Israel despite their war crimes.” At Glastonbury last month, the band led the crowd in a chant of “Fuck Keir Starmer.”

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The description of Israel’s reprisals in Gaza after the Hamas attacks of Oct. 7, 2023, as genocide has been highly contentious. Humanitarian groups including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have used that term, as have many others; former president Joseph R. Biden and the American Jewish Committee, among other groups that support Israel, have strongly objected to this framing.

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Following the group’s set at Glastonbury, Kneecap (along with fellow festival act Bob Vylan) are reportedly being investigated by police, who will “consider all appropriate legislation, including relating to hate crimes.” Earlier, band member Mo Chara was charged with a terror offense after he allegedly held aloft a Hezbollah flag onstage last year, and the video for “The Recap” includes footage of him exclaiming, ““Glastonbury I’m a free man!”

Two nights ago, Kneecap opened for fellow Irishmen Fontaines D.C. in London, again accompanied by screen signage that read, “Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinian people.” They once more led the crowd in an anti-Starmer sing-along, but the performance has been described as less incendiary than those in the past.

The revered Swedish actor Stellan Skarsgård will sit down with yours truly to record a special episode of The Hollywood Reporter’s Awards Chatter podcast in front of an audience at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival on Friday, July 11. The taping will take place at 11 a.m. local time, at Karlovy Vary’s historic Congress Hall. No ticket or pass is required for entry — admission is free — but seating is limited to the first 250 people to arrive.

The 74-year-old is at the fest to receive KVIFF’s Crystal Globe for Outstanding Artistic Contribution to World Cinema, previous recipients of which include Robert De Niro, Judi Dench, Michael Caine, Isabelle Huppert, Richard Gere, Helen Mirren, John Travolta, Willem Dafoe, Julianne Moore, Mel Gibson, John Malkovich, Susan Sarandon, Johnny Depp, Jude Law and Russell Crowe.

He is being celebrated for a film career that has included standout performances in numerous Lars von Trier projects (1996’s Breaking the Waves, 2000’s Dancer in the Dark, 2003’s Dogville, 2011’s Melancholia and 2013’s Nymphomaniac), as well as 1988’s The Unbearable Lightness of Being, 1990’s The Hunt for Red October, 1997’s Good Will Hunting and 2011’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo; the Dune, Pirates of the Caribbean and Mamma Mia! franchises; and several Marvel films. His TV credits include the 2019 limited series Chernobyl, for which he won a Golden Globe and was nominated for an Emmy, and the drama series Andor, which ran from 2022 through 2025.

The honor comes at the outset of an awards season that could bring Skarsgård his first Oscar nomination. Indeed, he has received some of the best reviews of his career for his portrayal of a famous filmmaker who has a complicated relationship with his daughters (Renate Reinsve and Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas), but has charmed the star of his latest film (Elle Fanning), in Joachim Trier’s dramedy Sentimental Value. It premiered — and was awarded the Grand Prize — at May’s Cannes Film Festival, and will be released by Neon in the U.S. on Nov. 7.

Feinberg’s Awards Chatter podcast is nearing its 10th anniversary and 600th episode. Past guests have included Martin Scorsese, Sean Penn, Oprah Winfrey, Elton John, Barbra Streisand, Jerry Seinfeld, Al Pacino, Meryl Streep, Steven Spielberg, Jennifer Lawrence, Bruce Springsteen, Snoop Dogg, Julia Roberts, Norman Lear, Sophia Loren, George Clooney, Will Smith, Carol Burnett, Robert De Niro, Angelina Jolie, Kevin Hart, Lorne Michaels, Kate Winslet, David Letterman, Lady Gaga, Eddie Murphy, Will Ferrell, Natalie Portman, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Bono, Nicole Kidman, Daniel Craig, Dolly Parton, Spike Lee, Tom Hanks, Margot Robbie, Denzel Washington, Ariana Grande, Kevin Costner, Jane Fonda, Robert Downey Jr., Olivia Rodrigo, Quincy Jones, Billie Eilish, Michael B. Jordan, Selena Gomez, Timothée Chalamet, Tina Fey, Adam Sandler, Ken Burns, Malala Yousafzai, Bill Gates, Hillary Clinton, Al Gore, Jane Goodall, Kobe Bryant, Gloria Steinem and Buzz Aldrin.

Three previous episodes of the podcast were recorded at KVIFF: Clive Owen (2024), Robin Wright (2023) and Liev Schreiber (2022).

Crazy Rich Asians and Wicked director Jon M. Chu is set to helm the live-action Hot Wheels feature, the big screen take on Mattel’s iconic toy cars for Warner Bros.

The screenwriting duo of Juel Taylor and Tony Rettenmaier will pen the script, with J.J. Abrams’ Bad Robot Productions, which has longstanding ties with Warner Bros., and Chu’s Electric Somewhere producing.   

The hiring of the director and writers is a major development for the project that originated with Warner teaming with Mattel Studios in January 2019 to develop and produce a big-screen project. The action film promises to bring the iconic Hot Wheels franchise to the movies screen.

“Jon’s ability to craft rich, elaborate worlds with a distinct point of view makes him the ideal storyteller to bring Hot Wheels to life. His films are visual spectacles — true eye candy — but what sets them apart is how he weaves unforgettable narratives within those stunning frames. Paired with Juel and Tony’s compelling storytelling, this team is uniquely positioned to capture the heart, adrenaline, and spirit of Hot Wheels, a leading brand in car culture.,” Robbie Brenner, president of Mattel Studios and chief content officer, said in a statement on Monday.

The collaboration between Warner Bros. and Mattel Studios follows the box-office success of the Greta Gerwig-directed Warner Bros. tentpole Barbie. 

Chu added in his own statement: “Hot Wheels has always been about more than speed — it’s about imagination, connection and the thrill of play. Bringing that spirit to the big screen is an incredible opportunity. I’m excited to partner with Mattel Studios, Warner Bros. Pictures and Bad Robot to create an adventure that honors Hot Wheels’ legacy while driving it somewhere entirely new.”

Chu recently directed Universal Pictures’ Wicked starring Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande. He also directed In the Heights for Warner Bros.

The film’s producers — including Mattel as it looks to its toy properties to become a franchise-driven entertainment giant — have yet to lift the hood on the movie’s plotline. “We already felt incredibly lucky to collaborate with Mattel on this special film. Having Jon, Juel and Tony come aboard takes our excitement to a whole new level,” said Abrams in his own statement.

Taylor and Rettenmaier have worked on projects like Creed II and They Cloned Tyrone,  which marked Taylor’s directorial debut. Brenner is producing for Mattel Studios alongside Chu, Abrams and Michael Bostick.