Category: 5. Entertainment

Alanis Morissette’s headline show at the Lytham Festival has been cancelled due to 40mph winds being forecast on the Fylde coast, organisers have confirmed.

In a statement, organisers said the decision had been taken because of “adverse weather conditions”.

A TK Maxx presents Lytham Festival spokesperson said: “The safety of our customers, staff and artists is our priority and increasing high winds mean it would not be safe to go ahead.

“All customers will receive a full refund for tonight’s show. Please wait to hear from your ticket agent for further information.”

The four-day music festival at Lytham Green, which runs until Sunday, was headlined on Thursday by legendary singer-songwriter Stevie Wonder.

Rock band Kings of Leon had been due to open the festival, but had to cancel their appearance in May after lead singer Caleb Followill broke a bone in his heel in a “freak” accident.

Canadian singer-songwriter Morissette shot to fame with her 1995 album Jagged Little Pill, which contained hits including Ironic, You Oughta Know, and Hand In My Pocket.

Other acts who were due to play on Friday included Train – best known for their hit single Hey, Soul Sister – Greater Manchester indie band The Lottery Winners, and US singer Liz Phair.

Justin Timberlake is due to headline on Saturday while Sunday’s closing night will feature dual headline slots from Simple Minds and Texas.

Other acts booked for the four-day festival – expected to attract more than 100,000 music fans – include Corinne Bailey Rae, Jess Glynne and Cast.

There will also be a special tribute to Welsh musician, songwriter and cancer campaigner Mike Peters of The Alarm.

Catching Ben Hemsley play at Amnesia last year was undoubtedly one of the highlights of my 2024 summer. Returning this year, not for a one-off, but for his debut residency at the superclub. It’s already shaping up to be a weekly ritual for me and the Ibiza Spotlight crew, so naturally, the opening party was firmly marked on my personal party calendar.

Not only is the superstar from Newcastle at the helm of this new dawn of Amnesia Presents, but he will be joined by Kettama, the Irish tastemaker of everything underground, bringing his fresh blend of Hard House, Trance and Techno into the fray.

Boasting a summer-long lineup of the biggest artists in the underground scene, the night is shaping up to be a serious contender for Mondays on the island. The opening party lineup did not disappoint, with Trance and Breakbeat specialist Leena Punks, and the ever flamboyant Scottish multi-genre wizard, dance music don, Denis Sulta, also on hand.

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Arriving at the venue for 01:00, we were stoked to catch Sulta mid-action, dropping a slew of groovy House bangers. Heart rates were already high, with the tempo sitting comfortably above 130 BPM.

Sulta bounced around the booth with his infectious energy, and hands in the air, as the screen behind him cycled through a wild palette of colours and effects, broadcasting his every movement to the crowd.

In a quick trip down nostalgia lane, Sulta effortlessly took us back to the ’80s with Irene Cara’s Flashdance… What a Feeling. Another standout tune came courtesy of Chloé Caillet and Luke Alessi’s The One. Kudos where it’s due, it’s been making serious waves internationally, and it’s great to hear it resonating in the dance music capital of the world.

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Kettama then took the helm, gearing up for an hour and a half of no-nonsense bangers, full throttle from the very first drop. His set was relentless from the start, with big-room underground energy, his signature sound.

A standout moment came when he dropped a bouncy Tech House remix of Need to Feel Loved by Reflekt, teasing out with that unmistakable vocal “come and catch me baby, I’m falling”. It perfectly aligned with Kettama’s blend of trancey euphoria and pumping House.

Notably, few phones were out, which is a rare and refreshing sight!

At around 02:15, we were treated to a surprise appearance by John Summit. Got to give it to the bloke, he was all smiles and clearly enjoying himself as hype man, bopping side to side, relishing his moment on stage, off the decks for once.

As the night progressed, Kettama showcased a wide range of tunage, from UK Garage vibes to a breakbeat Techno remix of John Summit’s own track, Shiver, injecting fresh energy into the floor.

Throwing in Fly Away XTC from Kettama’s own catalogue, he layered in his unique sonic signature, melodic yet driving. The highlight for many was his remix of Pretty Green Eyes by Ultrabeat, a timeless anthem reimagined with modern flair, which sent the crowd into a euphoric frenzy.

Throughout, Kettama’s impeccable track selection and mixing skills maintained a pulse that was both nostalgic and forward-thinking, and the atmosphere was electric from start to finish.

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We were all lost in the groove, barely noticing the time slip by as Ben Hemsley took to the stage, bringing the Trance sound we all know and love, offbeat basslines, supersaws galore and to our surprise, adding in a bit of Funk and Disco into the mix, he kept us on our toes (literally).

Throughout his set, the energy surged with standout moments like the unmistakable vibes of Ben’s Bebé Música and Armand Helden’s I Want Your Soul, a guaranteed crowd pleaser whenever it drops. Through 2 You, one of Hemsley’s most recognisable tunes, triggered one of the night’s peak moments, the crowd turning full choir, screaming the lyrics back at him with unfiltered joy. It was pure, communal rave energy.

Ben expertly paced the night, blending classic Trance elements and Psy-Trance with modern touches. When Go With The Flow by Miguel de Bois hit, hands shot into the air, the screen lit up, strobes and moving heads flashed wildly, and lasers sliced through the air in a dazzling flurry.

The visuals deserve a special mention, mesmerising liquid-like movements of shapes and a binary blaze of 0s and 1s that materialised on screen.

Track after track, Ben had the crowd in the palm of his hand. He weaved effortlessly between moments of pure euphoria and pounding, trance-fuelled chaos. At times, the entire dancefloor felt suspended in a shared high. When the breakdowns hit, there was space to breathe, and when the drops landed, they hit like a freight train.

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As the first hints of morning crept in, it was clear we’d been part of something special. The energy surged right up until the very end. From Sulta’s playful grooves to Kettama’s relentless drive and Hemsley’s classic headline set, it was a night that celebrated every shade of rave culture on the island with total conviction.

If you’re looking for a proper rave, you can’t go wrong with the revamped Amnesia Presents. Scroll down to find out who will be joining Hemsley and Kettama and to pick your date!

Polydor Label Group is officially on a hot streak. 

That’s the verdict from label group president Ben Mortimer, as the Universal Music company marks a run of success for artists new and established.

The latest chart result for the label is the No.1 comeback for Lewis Capaldi (previously with EMI), who debuted at the singles summit with Survive on consumption of 68,414 units (including a whopping 25,415 physical copies).

Following Capaldi’s surprise Glastonbury performance, his new partnership with Polydor has delivered his fastest-selling single to date as well as the biggest opening week for any single this year. In fact, Polydor has achieved both the biggest opening week of the year on the singles chart (Survive) and on the albums chart with Sam Fender’s People Watching, which opened with 107,124 units in February.

Fender’s highest-selling week one album result (the only one to break 100,000 in a week so far) has yet to be surpassed. It also had the biggest vinyl sales of any release week and was the fastest-selling vinyl release by any British act this century.

With consumption of 191,724 units so far, People Watching is the biggest-selling album released in 2025 and No.3 overall. The album was further boosted by Fender’s record-breaking stadium shows in London and Newcastle. He recently secured a Top 10 single with Rein Me In, which features PLG artist Olivia Dean.

Richard O’Donovan, head of A&R, Polydor, said: “I couldn’t be more proud of everything Sam and the team have achieved here in the UK. It’s been such an exciting journey so far, and we’re now looking forward to taking Sam’s story to the rest of the world. There’s so much more to come, plenty of exciting plans in the works and new music on the way later this year.”

We’re on an exhilarating run at Polydor Label Group

Ben Mortimer

Another returning artist, Olivia Dean, has reached a new peak this week with her latest single, Nice To Each Other, moving 18-15 (22,608 units – up 4.2% week-on-week). Dean, who is signed to Capitol (part of Polydor Label Group), has a simultaneous Top 20 single with Sam Fender collaboration Rein Me In at No.12 (26,001 units in the past week). 

Dean has also made her first appearance in the Spotify Global chart. Her second album, The Art of Loving, lands on September 26.

Capitol’s Sammy Virji is also breaking new ground, with his latest single Cops & Robbers (featuring Skepta) becoming his first Top 40 single. Virji’s global rise includes headlining at the 13,000-capacity Forest Hills Stadium in Brooklyn last month, as well as immediately selling out a show at Manchester’s Warehouse Project in October this year.

Jo Charrington, president, Capitol UK, said: “This is an immensely exciting time for Capitol. The rise of Olivia and Sammy from different worlds but both with huge global momentum is testament to the talent and drive from the artists and their teams. With albums coming from each artist later this year, we are very ambitious about the heights they can reach.”

PLG’s dance label imprint Chaos is thriving, too, with a catalogue of over 1.5 billion streams in just over two years since inception. Music Week reported on the launch of Chaos at the time.

Chaos has made an impact with two Top 5 singles, a Top 10 album, a nomination for Best Label at the Radio 1 Dance Awards 2024, two BRIT Award nominations and four artists featured across the Glastonbury 2025 line-up. 

Chrystal’s The Days charted on the US Hot 100 and broke into the Global Spotify Top 50, and is the seventh biggest-selling song of 2025 in the UK. Meanwhile, the collaboration between Jazzy and Rossi, High On Me, has secured a new peak of No.28 (13,909 units – up 15.6% week-on-week).

This is an immensely exciting time for Capitol

Jo Charrington

Across the label’s international roster, Olivia Rodrigo closed Glastonbury Festival and has seen a 60.2% consumption boost for current album, Guts, which has moved 24-8 (6,374 units). It has consumption to date of 601,278. There was a similar gain for debut album, Sour, (up 48.1%), which climbed 25-11 (5,849 units). Sour has consumption to date of 1,155,725.

Doechii and Gracie Abrams both had significant breakout performances at the festival too. 

Meanwhile, Sabrina Carpenter has spent two weeks at No.1 with new single Manchild, and her Short N’ Sweet album stands as the UK’s top-selling album of the year to date (728,884 sales to date) . 

As it secures 45 consecutive weeks in the Top 5, Short N’ Sweet breaks a chart record with the longest Top 5 run ever for a solo artist.

Polydor-signed Lana Del Rey is also set for a consumption boost. She is currently on a stadium tour, including sold-out concerts at Wembley Stadium (July 3-4). While the chart impact of those will be seen in the next week, the Born To Die album has already had a 10.3% week-on-week consumption increase, climbing six places to No.32.

Ben Mortimer, president, Polydor Label Group, said: “We’re on an exhilarating run at Polydor Label Group. We have domestic success stories from across the group, in multiple genres, and from brilliant artists at all stages of their careers. This isn’t a case of one week at No.1, then done. This is real, sticky artist development in action. Plus, our international roster continues to go from strength to strength. PLG is on a hot streak, and, thankfully, it feels like just the start.”

PHOTO: Hannah Daisy Braid

 

CKE: The bleaching process seems to be a rather slow, almost meditative, process. Do you like to take time with the productions of your paintings? How long does it actually take for them to be fully bleached?

DB: That varies a bit from how much sun they get, and how good the weather is where they bleach. In the hotter climates, they obviously bleach much, much faster. In Berlin, it sometimes takes up to seven weeks. I think the fastest was at Joshua Tree—it was maybe two and a half weeks. And then with the oil—it happens over the course of maybe a couple of days. It’s quite quick. It’s more of a drying process. That takes a while and takes out the quickness of the painting. The oil has to dry for up to five months until they’re ready to be transported. It’s quite nice for me, because I have to be more structured in terms of when I start and finish something. It’s not like I can produce a show in a week. Also I can’t participate with new works in something that’s more spontaneous, but I also like that.

CKE: Your work is very much interested in the grid, not only as a visual structure but also as a conceptual one. How do you relate to Rosalind Krauss’s interpretation of the grid as both a Modernist ideal and a transcendent form?

DB: I like her viewing or reading of the grid with a rationalist and spiritual meaning at the same time. And I think it gives the painting a formal organization. But for me, it’s important not to be dogmatic. That’s why my grids can also dissolve, and why there’s more chaos and it’s more spontaneous.

CKE: What is your intention with destabilizing the grid?

DB: It just gives me more painterly freedom. But it’s also about the viscosity of the oil paint, and how I apply it. I could 3D print it, but then it would be very straight and the human touch would be non-existent. I like all these errors and failings that make the grid something that isn’t perfect.

Jonathan Bailey sent fans in frenzy with his latest move with Amelia Dimoldenberg.

The Bridgerton star is set to make an appearance at Dimoldenberg’s YouTube show, Chicken Shop Date.

In the teaser posted by the host on Instagram, the Wicked star is won fans’ hearts with a sweet gesture.

In the flirtatious video, Bailey gave Dimoldenberg a flying kiss which she pretends to catch, sparking reaction from fans.

She captioned the post, “you asked, I slid into the dms… @chickenshopdate with @jbayleaf out FRIDAY [red heart emoji].”

Soon fans flooded her comment section, sharing their excitement.

A fan wrote, “my dream date. and he knew that.”

“The duo we totally knew we needed,” another said.

“His such a flirt… I’m blushing already [laughing emoji],” third penned.

Fourth user added, “He’s such a natural flirt, I have to look away.”

In the upcoming episode of Chicken Shop Date, Bailey and Dimoldenberg are set to discussed several things including, new film Jurassic World Rebirth, his rise to fame and his thoughts on dating.

Apple had two major launches last month. They couldn’t have been more different.

First, Apple revealed some of the artificial intelligence advancements it had been working on in the past year when it released developer versions of its operating systems to muted applause at its annual developer’s conference, WWDC. Then, at the end of the month, Apple hit the red carpet as its first true blockbuster movie, “F1,” debuted to over $155 million — and glowing reviews — in its first weekend.

While “F1” was a victory lap for Apple, highlighting the strength of its long-term outlook, the growth of its services business and its ability to tap into culture, Wall Street’s reaction to the company’s AI announcements at WWDC suggest there’s some trouble underneath the hood.

“F1” showed Apple at its best — in particular, its ability to invest in new, long-term projects. When Apple TV+ launched in 2019, it had only a handful of original shows and one movie, a film festival darling called “Hala” that didn’t even share its box office revenue.

Despite Apple TV+ being written off as a costly side-project, Apple stuck with its plan over the years, expanding its staff and operation in Culver City, California. That allowed the company to build up Hollywood connections, especially for TV shows, and build an entertainment track record. Now, an Apple Original can lead the box office on a summer weekend, the prime season for blockbuster films.

The success of “F1” also highlights Apple’s significant marketing machine and ability to get big-name talent to appear with its leadership. Apple pulled out all the stops to market the movie, including using its Wallet app to send a push notification with a discount for tickets to the film. To promote “F1,” Cook appeared with movie star Brad Pitt at an Apple store in New York and posted a video with actual F1 racer Lewis Hamilton, who was one of the film’s producers.

Although Apple services chief Eddy Cue said in a recent interview that Apple needs the its film business to be profitable to “continue to do great things,” “F1″ isn’t just about the bottom line for the company.

Apple’s Hollywood productions are perhaps the most prominent face of the company’s services business, a profit engine that has been an investor favorite since the iPhone maker started highlighting the division in 2016.

Films will only ever be a small fraction of the services unit, which also includes payments, iCloud subscriptions, magazine bundles, Apple Music, game bundles, warranties, fees related to digital payments and ad sales. Plus, even the biggest box office smashes would be small on Apple’s scale — the company does over $1 billion in sales on average every day.

But movies are the only services component that can get celebrities like Pitt or George Clooney to appear next to an Apple logo — and the success of “F1” means that Apple could do more big popcorn films in the future.

“Nothing breeds success or inspires future investment like a current success,” said Comscore senior media analyst Paul Dergarabedian.

But if “F1” is a sign that Apple’s services business is in full throttle, the company’s AI struggles are a “check engine” light that won’t turn off.

Replacing Siri’s engine

At WWDC last month, Wall Street was eager to hear about the company’s plans for Apple Intelligence, its suite of AI features that it first revealed in 2024. Apple Intelligence, which is a key tenet of the company’s hardware products, had a rollout marred by delays and underwhelming features.

Apple spent most of WWDC going over smaller machine learning features, but did not reveal what investors and consumers increasingly want: A sophisticated Siri that can converse fluidly and get stuff done, like making a restaurant reservation. In the age of OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Anthropic’s Claude and Google’s Gemini, the expectation of AI assistants among consumers is growing beyond “Siri, how’s the weather?”

The company had previewed a significantly improved Siri in the summer of 2024, but earlier this year, those features were delayed to sometime in 2026. At WWDC, Apple didn’t offer any updates about the improved Siri beyond that the company was “continuing its work to deliver” the features in the “coming year.” Some observers reduced their expectations for Apple’s AI after the conference.

“Current expectations for Apple Intelligence to kickstart a super upgrade cycle are too high, in our view,” wrote Jefferies analysts this week.

Siri should be an example of how Apple’s ability to improve products and projects over the long-term makes it tough to compete with.

It beat nearly every other voice assistant to market when it first debuted on iPhones in 2011. Fourteen years later, Siri remains essentially the same one-off, rigid, question-and-answer system that struggles with open-ended questions and dates, even after the invention in recent years of sophisticated voice bots based on generative AI technology that can hold a conversation.

Apple’s strongest rivals, including Android parent Google, have done way more to integrate sophisticated AI assistants into their devices than Apple has. And Google doesn’t have the same reflex against collecting data and cloud processing as privacy-obsessed Apple.

Some analysts have said they believe Apple has a few years before the company’s lack of competitive AI features will start to show up in device sales, given the company’s large installed base and high customer loyalty. But Apple can’t get lapped before it re-enters the race, and its former design guru Jony Ive is now working on new hardware with OpenAI, ramping up the pressure in Cupertino.

“The three-year problem, which is within an investment time frame, is that Android is racing ahead,” Needham senior internet analyst Laura Martin said on CNBC this week.

Apple’s services success with projects like “F1” is an example of what the company can do when it sets clear goals in public and then executes them over extended time-frames.

Its AI strategy could use a similar long-term plan, as customers and investors wonder when Apple will fully embrace the technology that has captivated Silicon Valley.

Wall Street’s anxiety over Apple’s AI struggles was evident this week after Bloomberg reported that Apple was considering replacing Siri’s engine with Anthropic or OpenAI’s technology, as opposed to its own foundation models.

The move, if it were to happen, would contradict one of Apple’s most important strategies in the Cook era: Apple wants to own its core technologies, like the touchscreen, processor, modem and maps software, not buy them from suppliers.

Using external technology would be an admission that Apple Foundation Models aren’t good enough yet for what the company wants to do with Siri.

“They’ve fallen farther and farther behind, and they need to supercharge their generative AI efforts” Martin said. “They can’t do that internally.”

Apple might even pay billions for the use of Anthropic’s AI software, according to the Bloomberg report. If Apple were to pay for AI, it would be a reversal from current services deals, like the search deal with Alphabet where the Cupertino company gets paid $20 billion per year to push iPhone traffic to Google Search.

The company didn’t confirm the report and declined comment, but Wall Street welcomed the report and Apple shares rose.

In the world of AI in Silicon Valley, signing bonuses for the kinds of engineers that can develop new models can range up to $100 million, according to OpenAI CEO Sam Altman.

“I can’t see Apple doing that,” Martin said.

Earlier this week, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg sent a memo bragging about hiring 11 AI experts from companies such as OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google’s DeepMind. That came after Zuckerberg hired Scale AI CEO Alexandr Wang to lead a new AI division as part of a $14.3 billion deal.

Meta’s not the only company to spend hundreds of millions on AI celebrities to get them in the building. Google spent big to hire away the founders of Character.AI, Microsoft got its AI leader by striking a deal with Inflection and Amazon hired the executive team of Adept to bulk up its AI roster.

Apple, on the other hand, hasn’t announced any big AI hires in recent years. While Cook rubs shoulders with Pitt, the actual race may be passing Apple by.

The interior designer Peter Mikic stands in the kitchen of Keepers Farm, the home in Oxfordshire he shares with his television-producer husband, Sebastian Scott, and their dogs, Trigger and Henry. The space is filling up with lunch guests. A long dining table, hewn from a single piece of wood cut from a London plane tree, is decorated with vases of spring flowers and surrounded by Pierre Jeanneret-style chairs. It is positioned in front of a vast wall of glass, designed to slide open in summer to bring the indoors into the walled garden where overflowing borders and structured yew bushes designed by gardener Tom Stuart-Smith frame a sleek swimming pool. 

The guests include broadcaster Mariella Frostrup and her husband, the human-rights lawyer Jason McCue, Me + Em founder Clare Hornby, Chanel’s president of arts, heritage and culture Yana Peel, Agent Provocateur co-founder Serena Rees, and other friends from the worlds of fashion, media and the arts. Yet, despite the bustle around him, Mikic is preoccupied with something more immediate – a large hunk of beef resting on the counter, fresh from the bright-yellow Lacanche oven. “It’s not falling apart,” he mouths in despair. I take a poke and the meat collapses into tender strands. Mikic sighs with relief and starts carving, while Scott stirs a copper pot of polenta. The man is a perfectionist.

This is the essence of their world: a space created for gathering friends. Once a small weekend retreat, Keepers Farm has since been transformed into a striking architectural statement. From the outside, it appears almost minimalist – an industrial-inspired structure in Herefordshire stone. Inside, however, the space becomes a riot of exuberance and creativity, reflecting the couple’s bold sensibilities. The glass walls wrap the house, inviting the wild beauty of the surrounding 170 acres – meadows of bluebells, dense woodlands, sprawling wildflowers – into its very heart. “I wanted light everywhere,” Mikic explains. “It’s a real nod to my Australian roots.”

The house encapsulates the bold, playful design aesthetic that Mikic has espoused throughout his career, first in fashion and subsequently at the namesake studio he founded in 2010. He credits his great friend, the late interior designer David Collins, with teaching him about colour. “He used to let me go to his studio and play with fabrics long before I thought of working in interiors,” he says. “He taught me to love yellow!” And his adoration of design legends – David Hicks, Ettore Sottsass and Jean Royère – is evident throughout. The floors are covered in rugs featuring ’60s-style swirls, dashes and dots. Sofas are as plump and inviting as marshmallow puffs. The house is filled with ceramics; a glass coffee table, laden with books and vintage glassware, holds one of his favourite reads, Maximalism: Bold, Bedazzled, Gold and Tasseled Interiors by Simon Doonan. “It sums me up,” he chuckles. 

An invitation to Keepers Farm makes for an indulgent escape: long lunches stretching into the evening, countryside walks with the dogs, swims in the pool, film screenings in the deeply cushioned private cinema, late-night saunas and, invariably, dancing in the aptly named playroom. It’s the embodiment of a lifestyle that has drawn an impressive clientele of film producers, media moguls and hedge-fund executives. “My clients live well, they love to entertain,” says the designer. “I create the environment for them to do that.”

As such, his design theory is loose and occasionally eccentric. He values a flea-market gem as much as a pair of Giacometti bedside tables. He likes to buy pieces from young artists at the graduate shows. His appreciation for midcentury furniture sits comfortably alongside his own custom designs like the sideboard he designed for his friend Laura Bailey, complete with compartments for her sunglasses collection. “Peter is an empath, he gets me, there is an ease and comfort to his vision that feels joyous and welcoming rather than show-off,” she says.

He instils a sense of adventure in every interior he creates

Another friend, Caroline Massenet, the French ex-model, stylist and founder of leather clothing brand SKIIM, credits Peter’s fashion background as a key factor in the Holland Park house he designed for her: “I had such a clear sense of what I wanted. Peter’s understanding of that and his playfulness related so well to my own style,” Massenet says. Whatever the challenge, such as tackling large-scale projects like private planes and yachts, Mikic has an innate ability to translate his clients’ ideas. “When I started, I had never designed a plane or yacht before. I had to Google what ‘aft’ was in the middle of a meeting,” he says.

Mikic has been commissioned to collaborate with Argentinian hotelier Alan Faena on a range of hotel projects, which will see him bringing his theatrical maximalism to venues in New York’s High Line, Tulum, Saudi Arabia or the Red Sea. With each project, however, he brings the same ethos. “Alan has taught me so much,” Mikic says of Faena, who is more impresario than hotelier, creating immersive experiences that fuse theatre, art, fashion, food and music. “He has taught me about storytelling through design. He told me that if it doesn’t have a story it’s just decorating – and that has no life.” Faena is clearly delighted: “Peter has a one-of-a-kind, holistic way of interpreting the Faena spirit – translating his vision into spaces that feel layered and alive. Collaborating with him has been a true joy.”

Mikic was born in Australia in 1968. His parents, both Yugoslavian refugees, had fled to Vienna before emigrating in 1950. “They arrived with nothing but $20 and a hostel bed. My father started working on building sites before eventually launching his own business: in time he built a beautiful house for us above a surf beach south of Sydney,” he says. He has fond memories of what seems a very glamorous, somewhat bohemian childhood: “We would drive in a camper van to stay on the site, we would barbecue – it was an amazing time.” His mother had a great sense of style. “There are old photos of her in knee-high boots and go-go dresses,” he says. “My parents weren’t wealthy but they had incredible taste.”

After earning a BA in fashion from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, he co-founded the successful menswear label Stonewood & Bryce with his friend Theo Vanderzalm. They both moved to London in the early ’90s to become part of the emerging scene. “It was the era of the supermodels. I was obsessed with the theatre, the glamour – all of it.” 

Glamour, however, did not immediately await them. “We were really quite poor – we rented rooms in some very dodgy places,” he says. “I remember one landlady wouldn’t let us bring in a heater, and the bathroom window wouldn’t shut. But we didn’t mind, we were so thrilled to be in London.” The label started gaining traction. “We were selling in Selfridges and Harvey Nichols, showing in Milan – our slot was right between Prada and Dolce & Gabbana,” he recalls. “But I wasn’t wedded to fashion. I liked challenges.”

A commission from the property developers the Candy brothers to design uniforms for their yacht crew precipitated Mikic’s move towards furnishings and interiors. He gradually phased out the fashion brand. Having entered as an outsider, today he sits at the centre of the new establishment. Mikic is one of a group of interior designers creating rooms at the WOW!house, presented by London’s Design Centre, Chelsea Harbour, and sits on the PAD art fair judging panel, alongside names such as Jacques Grange, Peter Marino, Veere Grenney and Tom Dixon.

Claire German, CEO of the Design Centre, Chelsea Harbour, credits Mikic for “bringing his glamorous style and love of colour to our designer showcase. He instils a sense of adventure in every interior he creates. He is also a dream to work with, an industry treasure.”

Today, Mikic leads a team of 32 in east London’s Charlotte Road. Despite an ever-growing roster of high-profile clients – he has just been awarded a new Burberry store in Milan as well as the redesign of its London flagship – he remains grounded. “I ride everywhere on my Tokyo bike, rain or shine,” he says. Neither is he the party boy that one might be forgiven for assuming him to be. In fact, he’s quite the hermit. “During the week, I stay in my tiny flat above the office, cook just for myself and see no one. I love it – I need it,” he says. 

Lunch at Keepers Farm finally draws to a close and the guests set off to make the one-hour journey back to London. After some vigorous washing-up, Mikic and Scott light the fire in the teak-lined snug and sink into a huge sofa upholstered in a graphic black and white fabric by Schumacher. “This is where we watch TV. We had to remake the sofa,” he admits. “It just wasn’t deep enough for the dogs to be able to sprawl out and we simply could not have that!” 

SPOILERS: This post contains details about the Poker Face, Season 2 penultimate episode ‘Day of the Iguana’

As Patti Harrison‘s Alex becomes the latest suspected killer on Poker Face, the big role was a long time coming for the comedian.

While discussing her character’s arc in the back half of the Peacock series’ sophomore season with Deadline, Harrison was surprised to learn ‘The Big Pump’ episode director Clea DuVall recommended her casting as the quirky new friend of Natasha Lyonne‘s Charlie Cale, years after she was sure she’d “done such a bad job” with her audition for the 2023 pilot.

“Wait, I didn’t know this. What did you hear?” Harrison asked me, following my interview with Lyonne and series creator Rian Johnson at the beginning of the season.

What I heard from Johnson was they “had kind of toyed a little bit—and we do a little bit with Steve Buscemi‘s Good Buddy on the CB radio—one of the tropes of this type of TV is the sidekick, basically. And we had just been thinking about what kind of a character could work for Charlie for that.”

“Patti came in and was the Watson to her Holmes,” raved Johnson, as Lyonne noted her casting came “off a suggestion on the cell phone from Clea DuVall, who was in the middle of directing her episode with Method Man—not to drop a major name.”

After she played Charlie’s sister Emily in the Season 1 finale (and starred opposite Lyonne in 1999’s But I’m a Cheerleader), Johnson referred to DuVall as “the casting whisperer,” explaining, “I discovered she has this skill, I would check in with her and she was just like, ‘Oh yeah, cast Patti.’ And she’s awesome.”

Harrison told me ahead of Season 2’s two-part conclusion, “I’m literally learning this from you. Clea! She’s so nice. … That is, like, liquefying my mind, body and soul right now. That is so nice. I really just got the email and an offer. I didn’t audition for it.”

The comedian’s exciting arc in the final four episodes comes after she “was not proud of my audition” for the Jan. 26, 2023 pilot ‘Dead Man’s Hand’. She originally went out for the role of Charlie’s best friend and casino co-worker Natalie Hill (which went to Dascha Polanco), whose murder sets off the chain of events that sends the troubled protagonist on the run, solving other mysteries across the country.

“I didn’t hear back for, I feel like years, because from that audition process, I think I was in lockdown,” she noted. “And then I got the offer email, and I was like, ‘Oh my gosh!’ And I was truly so mortified because it’s my dream to work with Rian Johnson.

“After those first auditions, in my mind, I’ve done such a bad job that I was like, they’re gonna be mad, like, ‘that dumb ass bitch can’t act,’ and I’ll never get to have the opportunity to work with them again. So, when I got the email, I was so ecstatic, and then to get to work on the show, I just kind of dove into it,” added Harrison.

Harrison debuted as the awkward entrepreneurial Alex in Season 2’s ninth episode, ‘A New Lease on Death’, having since proven to be a rare friend and ally for Charlie, who is reluctant to put down roots after being on the run and getting right with the mob.

In the penultimate ‘Day of the Iguana’, directed by Ti West, an assassin (Justin Theroux) frames Alex for murdering the groom (Haley Joel Osment) at a wedding she and Charlie are catering. The Lyonne-helmed finale ‘The End of the Road’, available to stream July 10 on Peacock, sees the duo on the run from the FBI and the mob as they get to the shocking truth behind who placed the hit and framed Alex.