Category: 5. Entertainment

Justin Bieber is once again placing his marriage at the center of his music. The pop star released his seventh studio album, SWAG II, on September 5, just two months after the debut of SWAG. The 23-track project includes collaborations with Tems, Lil B, Bakar, and Hurricane Chris, and according to Bieber, it also serves as a deeper expression of his devotion to his wife, Hailey Bieber.

Since the release, Bieber has been sharing fan reactions on Instagram, often alongside images of Hailey. While SWAG introduced love songs such as “GO BABY,” the follow-up expands on this theme, with tracks that reflect on their relationship, marriage, and family life.

One of the most personal songs, “I DO,” mirrors wedding vows, with Bieber repeating promises of commitment and declaring Hailey as “the one.” Elsewhere on the album, he takes a more vulnerable tone. In “LYIN,’” he admits to struggles when the couple fights but ends the song with reassurance: “Oh, I’ll never leave, baby.”

The theme of gratitude surfaces in “EVERYTHING HALLELUJAH,” where Bieber sings about family milestones and simple moments like walks and kisses in the sun. Songs such as “PETTING ZOO” and “BETTER MAN” continue the narrative of growth and love within their marriage.

The couple, who married in 2018, has often faced speculation and divorce rumors. Despite this, they have appeared together at public outings, sharing affectionate moments and celebrating life with their son, Jack.

With SWAG II, Bieber positions his music as a direct response to ongoing scrutiny, making clear that Hailey remains, in his words, “the one.”

How much is too much money to spend on a pair of sunglasses? Do you draw the line at $245 Ray-Bans? Or $500 Tom Ford shades?

Those numbers might sound like high price tags to some — but not to fans of Jacques Marie Mage. The luxury eyewear brand is known for its glasses, which can cost upward of $800 per pair.

Of course, celebrities love them, but so do everyday fashion fans. The once-niche designer shades have become the ultimate symbols of status and style, especially in corporate men’s fashion circles.

An unofficial Jacques Marie Mage fan club

Designer sunglasses had never really piqued my interest — until March. I had been interviewing successful men about their daily essentials when a 29-year-old CEO mentioned Jacques Marie Mage in passing.

He said he’d tried every “midlevel name brand” of aviator glasses before landing on the glasses. When I later researched Jacques Marie Mage, I saw that my source’s preferred pair of sunglasses cost $870.

Then I learned that Jacques Marie Mage — a California-based brand created in 2014 by French designer Jérôme Jacques Marie Mage — has a cultlike following.

Men regularly show off their collections of the brand’s luxe sunglasses on TikTok, and fans discuss new designs on a dedicated subreddit.

Even people who aren’t familiar with Jacques Marie Mage notice them.

“I have never gotten more compliments on sunglasses in my life,” Brent Comstock, the CEO mentioned above, said about his sold-out Zephirin shades. “People just point them out on the plane and at meetings, like, ‘Oh, these are cool.’”

Interest is only growing stronger by the day. Lyst reported in its 2025 Q2 Index that the designer brand experienced a 34% increase in demand between May and June.

Representatives for Jacques Marie Mage did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

Quality craftsmanship and vintage flair

There’s a reason the brand has cultivated a growing fan club. Getting your hands on a pair can be hard.

Jacques Marie Mage glasses, which are designed in Los Angeles and made in Japan and Italy, are produced in small, limited-edition batches that aren’t made again after selling out. When available, each pair retails between $800 and $2,050.

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Menswear stylist Lily Montasser describes the brand’s glasses as “minimalist statement pieces” that immediately signal a person’s style and confidence.

“When I see someone wearing JMM, I’m like, OK, you are willing to take a risk. You appreciate craftsmanship and you’re confident to show your personality,” she told Business Insider.

She also said that vintage sunglasses are popular now. Not everyone, though, has the time or interest to search for the perfect pair.

“JMM glasses have that look, so people who appreciate something unique will be drawn to the brand,” she said.

The brand is also big on quality. Its website says the sunnies are “responsibly produced and philanthropically aligned.” That’s one of the reasons 29-year-old content creator Niko Arredondo has invested in three pairs.

“They’re the kind of quality that makes me want to hold onto them,” he told Business Insider. “If someone were to stumble upon them in my room after my demise or something, they’d be like: ‘Oh my gosh, I found dad’s Jacques Marie Mage sunglasses.”

Yes, they are expensive. Arredondo has spent more than $2,000 combined on his three pairs. Still, he said it’s a worthy investment.

If he keeps each pair for at least five years, he told Business Insider, the price-per-wear, he feels, is fair. There’s also always the option to resell them to other collectors.

The ultimate accessory

As fans and stylists alike note, Jacques Marie Mage offers men a unique opportunity: to elevate casual and formal outfits with something other than wrist candy.

“Men really only have watches and jewelry,” Montasser said. “Some wear bags, but not all. Sunglasses can be your opportunity to make a statement.”

And Jacques Marie Mage designs are arguably one of the best to do so.

“The brand celebrates a man’s willingness to go bold and not hide but shine within their clothes,” Montasser said. “It’s a celebration of yourself, having fun, and buying the expensive thing.”

Sally Mann is chatty and open about nearly any subject imaginable. The photographer easily gets carried off in conversation, finding it hard to resist sharing stories about anything from her friend’s mother who had a lobotomy, to the time the poet Forrest Gander happened to drop by unannounced (the moment turned into a lifelong friendship).

Her disarming trust belies her 74 years on this planet – and brief moment at the centre of a culture wars storm, which we’ll get to later. Via video call from her beloved farm in Lexington, Virginia, she’s gabbing with me as if we are long-lost friends, breezily dropping one-liners and only occasionally invoking an internal censor that tends to arrive a little too late. All this energy services a profound curiosity, an intense work ethic and a meagre capacity for sitting still that has seen her declared one of the most influential photographers working today.

Born in Lexington in 1951, Mann was, she has said, a “near-feral” child, the last of three children in a bohemian family, who hardly wore clothes until she was five. Her father, a country doctor, gave her her first camera. At school, she emerged from the darkroom “ecstatic” with the results.

She gradually built a respectable following for her atmospheric photos that drip with the soul of the US south. But in 1992, she was catapulted into the centre of the US’s culture wars when she released her third book of photos, Immediate Family. The book was ostensibly a homage to life with her husband, Larry, and three young children on her beloved farm, and was chock full of beautiful black-and-white images capturing family moments shaded with ethereal transcendence, loving intimacy and bracing intrusiveness.

Seeing the photos in Immediate Family can feel like glimpsing private family events. With a wash of overexposed light, an image such as The Perfect Tomato turns her daughter Jessie into a literal angel ballet-dancing naked on the family picnic table. It could rightfully be called a perfect photograph, but it – and others like it – also pushed a lot of buttons. After the book’s publication, Mann faced a torrent of criticism. She was declared an unfit mother, branded a child pornographer, excoriated in the New York Times, and found herself hunted by a stalker. Though criticism has softened as her work has been reappraised in recent years, it’s still a live issue for Mann – The Perfect Tomato was recently among five photos seized by police at an exhibition of her work at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Texas, after it caught the attention of religious conservatives.

Mann doesn’t shrink from controversy, and doesn’t take kindly to having her artistic expression curtailed. “What’s the risk of being honest,” she asks, “other than ridicule, which I’m used to.” But she also says that she probably wouldn’t release Immediate Family today, because parasocial relationships enabled by the internet have changed the equation.

“My family pictures were an unanticipated risk, in that they made people think that they knew us. A lot of people feel like they know you because you’ve made yourself available. I don’t think the family pictures would have been prudent going out in the world now, because there’s so much access to people. That just gives me the willies – what goes on to the internet and how available people are now.”

But as much as Mann says she doesn’t like the spotlight, her oeuvre does indicate a certain willingness to share. In 2015, she published her memoir, Hold Still, an extremely open book that found her airing all kinds of family history, while sharing personal diaries, letters and photographs. The book dives into the dark heart of racism in the US south and considers her immigrant family’s background of desperate poverty and death. It shocked readers with just how macabre and forthcoming she could be, and also featured startling images of personal vulnerability – we see Mann’s spread legs and pubic hair in a photo she orchestrated to capture the moment her third child emerged during delivery. (Sadly, Mann labels the photo a “dud”.)

The memoir was highly acclaimed, labelled the autobiography of the year, and once again brought the photographer into the spotlight. Though for Mann – who has a master’s degree in creative writing and has described writing and photography as her “twin artistic passions” – the move wasn’t easy. “Switching from being a photographer to writing a book felt a little risky to me,” she says. “I thought I was going to get humiliated. Of course I was thrilled when it was well received, but I did spend five years on it, so I would have been gutted if it hadn’t gotten some attention.”

But she hasn’t left photography behind. Her eerie black-and-white landscapes of the American south have been collected in Deep South (2005) and Southern Landscape (2013), and she documented the effects of her husband Larry’s muscular dystrophy on his body in the intimate 2009 series Proud Flesh. (“The pictures are like one big caress,” she has said.) “I get this little frisson of excitement every time I pick up those cameras and head out to take pictures,” she says. “I like risk. I couldn’t take the same pictures over and over again. If it’s not challenging, it’s probably not good.”

Now, 10 years on from her memoir, she is releasing her follow-up piece of writing, Art Work, a book of advice for budding artists. “It’s a how not-to, rather than a how-to,” she says in her deadpan, slightly self-deprecating way. Just like her memoir, this book contains personal stories – many of them humiliating and vulnerable. Talking to her, it’s clear that Mann has been telling these stories for a long time and truly enjoys sharing their every twist and turn. “There were so many stories I thought of after Hold Still,” she said. “This new book seems to be all the stories I tell at dinner parties, stories that just stick around in my head that I think are funny. I made a list of all the things that didn’t get in Hold Still that I wanted to write about. It sort of grew on me after a while.”

Mann agrees that some of the tales in Art Work stray from the book’s ostensible purpose of imparting artistic advice in favour of telling a great yarn. This is particularly evident in the aptly titled chapter Distraction, a twisty story of two ne’er-do-wells armed to the teeth, to whom Mann has the misfortune of renting a refurbished trailer. Before long she’s talking with a bomb squad and watching her beloved trailer get demolished into splinters.

As fascinating as the story is, one might ask what it has to do with making art. But Mann says it has a purpose. “It seemed a bit of a stretch at first, but I thought it was really important for people to know that you can lie fallow for a period while your mind processes. The whole time I was dealing with that trailer, I was just furious about it. That incident didn’t immediately redound to good art, but it gave me some sense of perspective. It made me want to get back to my art. Maybe that’s the point of enforced fallowness, that you really want to get back to work. When you get to the point that it’s harder not to work than to work.”

The stories in Art Work frequently sound a little too good to be true. Here’s another: as a cocky young twentysomething in the early 1970s, Mann becomes taken with a man on a plane wearing a pocket square and unceremoniously seats herself beside him. (This was back when air passengers could just saunter up to any empty seat.) After chatting with him, she learns that he is a wealthy astrophysicist named Ron. By the time they land, this stranger is giving Mann the key to his mansion smack in the middle of Manhattan’s choicest real estate. Ron, it turns out, is Ronald Winston, son of the late jewellery magnate Harry Winston.

Wouldn’t we all be so lucky? Reading Art Work, you might be excused for thinking that Mann has lived a charmed life – one moment she’s getting the key to Ronald Winston’s home, the next the emir of Qatar is positively begging her to take his money in exchange for a portrait.

But for whatever dumb luck she has managed to fall into, she has shown an equally intense amount of grit. From her teenage years, she was hustling for every photographic opportunity she could get. Living in the middle of nowhere, the self-taught photographer had to work hard to make her mark. In fact, Mann has folders and folders full of rejection letters on her computer hard drive, which she charmingly shares in Art Work.

Today, Mann still lives on her farm, and spends her days tending her 45 acres of land while keeping up with her art. “I spend enormous amounts of time running a weed eater [strimmer], or taking my chainsaw and cutting trees off my trails,” she says, detailing the impressive work she undertakes in between the equally intense work of shooting and printing photos. “I’m a worker, I’m a peasant, I’m really strong, I can do almost anything.” She’s currently working on two new photography projects: one is digital, a medium she’s never fully explored before, and which represents a huge artistic departure given that she’s known for not only making her own darkroom prints but also for using challenging large-format cameras. The other project uses an archaic form of film rarely employed these days.

Surprisingly, Mann tells me that her favourite piece of advice for younger artists didn’t make it into the book. “I get asked ‘What would you say to artists?’ a lot. If I could say one thing, it’s to always have another body of work waiting in the wings that you’re equally excited about,” she says. “It’s so easy to get discouraged when you finish a body of work, you think you’ll never do anything as good. I always think that I have nothing left, and then I go out and find something.”

It’s this restlessness that probably has her continuing to fret over Art Work. “Just the other day I thought of four things I wanted to add to this book,” she says. “I ran them by my editor and he said: ‘Sally, the book is shipping today. It’s already printed. It’s done.’”

At the end of our time together, Mann seems downright disappointed. As I wrap up by asking if there’s anything else she wants to say, explaining that it’s common practice to do so, because people are usually holding back on something, she promptly declares: “I never hold anything back.” She’s probably very right about that.

Birthday wishes go out to Gloria Gaynor, Corbin Bernsen and all the other celebrities with birthdays today. Check out our slideshow below to see photos of famous people turning a year older on September 7th and learn an interesting fact about each of them.

Top celebrity birthdays on September 7, 2025

Singer Gloria Gaynor turns 82

Fun fact: Was recently nominated for Kennedy Center Honors.

Rocker Chrissie Hynde turns 74

Fun fact: Her middle name is Ellen.

Actor Corbin Bernsen turns 71

Fun fact: Played Roger Dorn, the starting third basemen for the Cleveland Indians in the film “Major League.”

Singer and pianist Michael Feinstein turns 68

Fun fact: Has been nominated for multiple Grammys and a Daytime Emmy Award.

Actress Leslie Jones turns 58

Fun fact: Voiced a character named Eunice in the Hulu animated series “Hit-Monkey.”

Actress Shannon Elizabeth turns 52

Fun fact: In addition to appearing together in the “American Pie” films, Shannon and Jason Biggs both appeared in a pair of “Jay and Silent Bob” movies.

Actress Evan Rachel Wood turns 38

Fun fact: Portrayed the vampire queen of Louisiana on “True Blood.”

Actress Hannah John-Kamen turns 36

Fun Fact: Played a character on “Game of Thrones” named Ornela.

More celebrities with birthdays today

Jazz saxophonist Sonny Rollins is 95. Actor Susan Blakely (“The Towering Inferno,” ″The Concorde: Airport ’79″) is 77. Actor Julie Kavner (“The Simpsons”) is 75. Keyboardist Benmont Tench of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers is 72. Actor Michael Emerson (“Lost”) is 71. Songwriter Diane Warren is 69. Singer Margot Chapman (Starland Vocal Band) is 68. Actor W. Earl Brown (“Deadwood”) is 62. Model Angie Everhart is 56. Actor Diane Farr (“Numb3rs,” “Rescue Me”) is 56. Actor Monique Gabriela Curnen (“The Dark Knight”) is 55. Actor Tom Everett Scott (“Southland,” ″That Thing You Do!”) is 55. Drummer Chad Sexton of 311 is 55. Actor Oliver Hudson (“Nashville”) is 49. Actor Devon Sawa (“Slackers,” ″Final Destination”) is 47. Actor Benjamin Hollingsworth (“Code Black”) is 41. Actor Alyssa Diaz (“The Rookie”) is 40. Contemporary Christian musician Wes Willis of Rush of Fools is 39. Actor Jonathan Majors (“Lovecraft Country”) is 36. Actor Ian Chen (“Fresh Off the Boat”) is 19.

Other popular or historical birthdays on September 7th

• Queen Elizabeth I, English monarch
• Grandma Moses, painter
• Paul Brown, NFL coach
• Buddy Holly, musician
• Kevin Love, NBA All-Star (37)

with The Associated Press

Celebrity fun facts

Recent lists: Drew Barrymore fun facts | Kaley Cuoco fun facts | Margot Robbie fun facts | Kevin Costner fun facts | Tom Cruise fun facts | Gal Gadot fun facts | Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson fun facts | Reese Witherspoon fun facts

Popular lists: Robert Downey Jr. fun facts | Emma Watson fun facts | Jason Momoa fun facts | Miley Cyrus fun facts

Check out our full list of more than 40 celebrity fun facts.

Movie and TV fun facts & more

Recent lists: 19 actors recast in the MCU | ‘How I Met Your Mother’ guest stars | ‘Groundhog Day’ fun facts | ‘Yellowstone’ trivia

Popular lists: Canadian celebrities | ‘Friends’ guest stars | Celebs on ‘The Office’

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Want to see more celebrity birthdays as well as additional fun facts posts? Follow me on Facebook for more.

Bridgerton star Luke Newton has treaded his horse for pins, needles and fabrics in his new project.

The actor, best known for playing Colin Bridgerton in the hit Netflix series, has stepped out of the drawing rooms of Regency London and into the dramatic world of high fashion. 

From the mansions of Bridgerton to the House of McQueen, Newton is making his New York theater debut as designer Alexander McQueen, staged at The Mansion at Hudson Yards, a newly created theater space in Manhattan.

Fun fact: McQueen was a real person. The East Londoner designed stunning pieces for a major fashion house. Upon his death by suicide at the age of 40 in 2010, he left behind a vast archive of video footage that offered a vivid glimpse into who he was and what he was like.

Seemingly portraying McQueen is both rewarding and a challenging task for an actor like Newton, who takes research seriously when preparing for a role.

Since McQueen was a real person, there’s plenty of material to study which helps, but also creates pressure to portray him accurately and respectfully.

For the Lodge actor, it’s his first time playing a real-life figure, and the emotionally charged role is a major shift from his previous work in Bridgerton.

He became a lead character in the third season of the period drama, which focused on his relationship with Penelope Featherington.

House of McQueen, meanwhile, is an immersive, Off-Broadway theatrical show that explores the life and work of legendary fashion designer McQueen, from his working-class London roots to becoming a global icon.

Name: Falco
Breed: Dutch Welsh pony
Year of Birth: 2013
Sire: Leuns Veld’s Winston
Dam sire: Hagelkruis Valentijn
Gender: Gelding
Height: 148 cm (149,9 cm with shoes)
Price category: 150,000 – 200,000 euro

Falco is the 2024 Swedish Pony Champion and a triple European Championship Team Pony, having twice won team bronze.

This eye-catching palomino is one of Europe’s top contending international dressage ponies with an impressive performance record. He competed at the European Pony Championships in 2021, 2024 and 2025 with two different riders for The Netherlands and Sweden, winning team bronze in 2021 and 2024 and placing 15th in the Kur to Music finals in 2025.

He won the 2024 Swedish Pony Championships and captured bronze in 2025.  Falco is a very experienced pony with international wins and results up to 74%. He has competed in many international shows since 2020, including Hagen Future Champions and the Sweden International Horse Show.

In the same ownership for the past five years, Falco is a member of the family. Sadly his rider has aged out of ponies, while Falco is still in his prime and, therefore, looking for a new home.  

Falco is the pony that made all dreams come true, always trying his heart out and never having a bad day. He is very well trained and is a fantastic dance partner. He is an energetic pony with natural go. 

He is very easy to travel with and has always been very fit and healthy.

A loving home is absolutely necessary to consider a sale. 

Located in Stockholm, Sweden

Video on request or ClipMyHorse

Owner Contact info:

Damien Hauser blends speculative sci-fi, mockumentary and romance in his Venice-premiered feature Memory of Princess Mumbi. Shot in Kenya with non-professional actors and improvised scenes, the film explores the ethical and creative tensions of using artificial intelligence in cinema, while embracing its imaginative potential.

Damien Hauser, 24, likes to make films quickly, joining the ranks of prolific festival luminaries such as the Romanian Radu Jude or South Korean, Hong Sang-soo.

With three other feature films and numerous shorts already under his belt, Hauser’s latest, Memory of Princess Mumbi, which premiered at the Venice Film Festival this week, is a wild blend of speculative sci-fi, AI special effects, mockumentary and heartfelt romance. Swissinfo met him at the Lido to discuss his new film.

When it was revealed that director Brady Corbet used AI to lightly augment some scenes in his Oscar-nominated The Brutalist (2024), the resulting furore nearly derailed its awards campaign. Against this backdrop, many younger filmmakers are learning to shrug off those anxieties and embrace these tools with a sense of cautious optimism rather than fear.

Memory of Princess Mumbi stands as a striking example of that: a film made with open acknowledgment of the ethical implications of AI’s role yet one eager to act on its creative potential – and act quickly.

AI against AI

“When I started making films at age seven, it was like playing a game,” Hauser tells Swissinfo after the Venice premiere. “Shooting a film in an hour, no script, just experimenting with friends. But eventually, things became more professional, and I made fewer films each year – so I didn’t do 20 per year, but three, and now one.” He looks a little sad as he says this, as if one feature a year is a pitifully small number.

Set in 2093, Memory of Princess Mumbi follows Kuve, a young filmmaker who travels with his friend Damién, played by the director, to the fictional African city of Umata, attempting to document the aftermath of a devastating war. There are widespread social movements to renounce the digital technologies that nearly destroyed humanity in the middle of the 21^st century.

Letting go

In auditioning female performers for the film-within-a-film, Kuve encounters Mumbi, a free-spirited local actress who is bound, he later finds out, to marry a prince. Kuwe and Mumbi fall in love, and she urges him to make the film without the use of artificial intelligence, but rather one more closely related to the expressed desires of the working people they meet along the way.

Despite this intricate sci-fi premise, Memory of Princess Mumbi was “very much improvised”, Hauser says, and shot through with this boundless spirit of invention. He travelled alone to Kenya with only a rough guide of what he had in mind. He enlisted the help of family friends and distant relatives, and he cast mostly non-professionals for the main roles.

“There was no formal script, but I wrote an elaborate 40-page outline – very nerdy, very specific about the world, the histories and mythologies.” He laughs thinking about it. He then explains how, as he began to watch the footage back, he realised he needed to put much of that aside and focus on the emotional core of the story.

“My younger brother passed away around the time I started to play around with these AI tools, which themselves led to this film. Maybe I wouldn’t have otherwise made it, but I needed to be distracted. After we got started, none of us worried too much on set about where we were going with it; it felt like just hanging out in front of the camera,” he says.

“When I was younger, I loved making fantasy films set in other worlds. Seeing what these [AI] tools could do – and with my visual effects background – I realised I could finally let my inner child out and make a film in these imagined worlds. Like the film, the post-production had to be improvised too – I had done some tests [of the AI special effects], but ultimately, they force you to improvise. If you want control, avoid AI when making films.”

The Kenyan setting and cast anchor the film in a tangible reality, and the approach to time in the village they shot in, “where it’s not possible to plan more than a day or two in advance”, meant total freedom. “This was only possible there. Back in Zurich, for example, [convincing my] friends to take a month off work is more difficult because life is more expensive and structured.”

‘Time capsule of the technology’

Hauser mainly uses AI to extend real-world sets and locations digitally in Memory of Princess Mumbi, blending filmed Kenyan environments with AI-generated backgrounds to create an epic, futuristic African backdrop. Like matte paintings in classic cinema, they give an artificial but powerful sense of scale.

“The film doesn’t pretend to be completely real,” he adds. “It’s a time capsule of the technology as it is when I made the film.”

In one scene, Mumbi herself suggests to the in-film filmmaker that all his AI-generated images should be clearly marked as such. “Honestly it’s incredibly important to acknowledge what’s AI-generated and what isn’t when you’re making use of these tools,” Hauser adds. “Today, it’s hard for people to know what’s real based on what they see online made from AI, and we should be responsible with the ways we include it [in our films].”

Coincidentally, Nairobi has become a major AI hub in Africa, but also a site where predatory tech companies can exploit cheap labour and an open market. Hauser smiles at the unexpected connection. “Well, I discovered a major problem when making this film; often, when I’d upscale my images, the AI would make my black characters white. It would remove their dreadlocks and bleach their skin. So that was disturbing and strange – but also oddly funny.”

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Culture

Young filmmakers target Africa and hit Switzerland’s post-colonial legacy 

This content was published on

May 11, 2025


This year, the Visions du Réel Film Festival’s national competition featured three Swiss documentaries set in Africa.

Read more: Young filmmakers target Africa and hit Switzerland’s post-colonial legacy 

Edited by Virginie Mangin & Eduardo Simantob/ts

When Sydney Sweeney took on the lead role in Christy, a boxing biopic inspired by real-life champion Christy Martin, she knew it would demand more than just emotional range; it would take physical grit. The Euphoria star is almost unrecognisable in this raw, stripped-down performance where she swaps red carpets for boxing rings. But behind the bruises and training montages lies a surprising and even transformation journey, one powered by peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, milkshakes, and some serious dedication.

How Sydney Sweeney gained 30 pounds?

To fully embody the role of a fighter both in and out of the ring, Sweeney underwent a gruelling physical prep. She revealed that she gained 30 pounds for the part, not through fancy shortcuts but with an intense mix of calorie-dense foods and non-stop training. “I was constantly eating,” she shared in a TIFF interview.

During the conversation, she shared that her diet included Smuckers, a lot of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, milkshakes, protein shakes, and anything high in calories. Her activity level was so high that burning it all off wasn’t even a concern.

She worked closely with a nutritionist, a weight trainer, and a boxing coach to ensure she could safely put on weight while building muscle. In fact, most of the boxing sequences were shot over just one intense week. Sweeney was on set for 12 hours a day and still trained for two more hours after wrapping, pushing her body to its limits.

One scene, which recreated a famous real-life fight between Christy Martin and Laila Ali, left Sweeney with a full black eye and serious bruises. “They were holding ice packs to my face between takes,” she said. The physical toll was real, but it helped her tap into the pain and strength of her character, a woman celebrated in the ring but suffering behind closed doors due to domestic abuse from her husband, played by Ben Foster.

More about the movie Christy

The film premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) on September 5 and received a standing ovation. It’s already generating Oscar buzz, with many calling this Sweeney’s most powerful performance to date.
Director David Michôd, who previously worked on The King, said casting Sweeney was an easy decision after watching her in HBO’s Reality. “I knew she was already a fighter,” he said. Christy is set for release on November 7 and could be a defining moment in Sydney Sweeney’s rising career.

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In the heart of Lawrence Gardens, a colonial-era botanical park in the center of the bustling Pakistani city Lahore, stands something new: the country’s first public skatepark. Founded in the spring of 2023 by the nonprofit Skate Pakistan, the skatepark was built with the help of professional skateboarders Kenny Reed and Nestor Judkins, the volunteer group Salad Days of Skateboarding, and the nonprofit Wonders Around the World. In just two years, a small grassroots initiative has grown into a vibrant, lasting community.

 

The need for safe play spaces could hardly be greater. Pakistan is among the countries most vulnerable to climate change; in Lahore, smog and extreme heat have made childhood staples like swimming and street cricket nearly impossible. The Ravi River has dried up, the Nehr Canal is too polluted to enter, and the city’s traffic-choked streets leave little room for games.

 

Against this backdrop, Skate Pakistan has become a rare refuge. Skaters of all ages, backgrounds, and skill levels roll side by side. First-timers share ramps with seasoned riders; friendships cut across class lines. In a country where identity is often bound up in caste and status, the skateboard is a rare equalizer—an object that, quite literally, levels the playing field.

Warner Bros. Discovery on Thursday filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against AI image and video company Midjourney, making it the third major entertainment company to do so following Disney and Universal’s similar lawsuit filed earlier this year. 

The lawsuit alleges the AI company violated the entertainment company’s copyright protections by allowing AI users to create images with characters like Batman, Scooby Doo and Bugs Bunny.

“Midjourney thinks it is above the law,” Warner Bros. Discovery said in the complaint. “Midjourney has made a calculated and profit-driven decision to offer zero protection for copyright owners even though Midjourney knows about the breathtaking scope of its piracy and copyright infringement.”

Midjourney is one of the most popular AI image generators, allowing anyone to create AI images and video clips with simple text prompts. The lawsuit covers Warner Bros. Entertainment and its subsidiaries, including DC Comics, The Cartoon Network and Hanna-Barbera Productions. 

In the lawsuit, Warner Bros. Discovery notes that Midjourney recently dropped a video generation model as evidence that the AI firm knew it was infringing on copyrights. In the first few days of releasing the video model, the lawsuit alleges, Midjourney stopped users from animating scenes with characters. The restrictions were eventually lifted, but the entertainment giant calls this out as Midjourney’s knowledge of wrongdoing. Warner Bros. Discovery also alleges the AI company updated its terms of service to prohibit redteaming, a safety process tech companies use.

Copyright infringement claims aren’t new for Midjourney. In June, Disney and Universal sued the AI program, calling it “a bottomless pit of plagiarism” and “textbook copyright infringement” in its filing. Warner Bros. Discovery is represented by the same law firm that filed the suit on behalf of Disney and Universal. 

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A Warner Bros. Discovery spokesperson told CNET, “The heart of what we do is develop stories and characters to entertain our audiences, bringing to life the vision and passion of our creative partners. Midjourney is blatantly and purposefully infringing copyrighted works, and we filed this suit to protect our content, our partners, and our investments.” Statements from Disney and NBCUniversal spokespeople expressed similar sentiments. Midjourney did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

This lawsuit is further evidence that copyright is one of the most contentious legal issues in the age of AI. Concerns exist at every stage of AI content creation, including whether copyrighted materials are used to train AI models and whether those models can create content that meets the legal definition of infringement. 

There are also ongoing cases between publishers, creators and AI companies. AI-makers Anthropic and Meta recently scored two victories, with courts claiming that training their models on authors’ books constituted fair use. But there are still a lot of questions and legal uncertainties.

(Disclosure: Ziff Davis, CNET’s parent company, in April filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, alleging it infringed Ziff Davis copyrights in training and operating its AI systems.)

This is just step one for the lawsuit. Midjourney users shouldn’t expect any interruptions to service as a result of the legal battle.