Category: 5. Entertainment

SUMMER OF SOUND: Selfridges is launching a series of music-themed events and merch across its locations in London, Manchester and Birmingham this July and August with collaborators including Bravado, Young Space, Manchester International Festival, Are We On Air?, Elevator Music, Pirate Studio, Not/Applicable, Josh Baker and Nadine Noor.

In London, the windows of its Oxford Street flagship are set up as deconstructed gigs capturing the vibe of live music in the forms of a stage set and lights, a tour bus and a dance floor.

The corner window space by Oxford and Orchard Streets will host weekly live performances, programmed by Studio Inside Out. 

From July 14, a record shop will open in the Wonder Room on the ground floor, featuring vinyl favorites, both old and new, curated by Rough Trade, the cult London-based independent record label and retailer founded in 1976.

Judd Crane, executive director of buying and brand at Selfridges, said the Summer of Sound initiative is billed as “a celebration of the culture of music fandom, the influence of music merch and the unmistakeable sound of our cities.”

“Selfridges stores become places for fans to come together for live performances, workshops and talks, and the best merch. Building on a legacy of music-led collaboration, Selfridges will share its point of view at the intersection of fashion, retail, and pop culture,” he added.

In Birmingham, home of Heavy Metal, a special experience titled “Back to the Beginning” will be dedicated to Black Sabbath fans. The store’s windows feature visual creations by local artist Mr. Murals paying tribute to the band’s legacy and visual identity.

Selfridges will continue its partnership with the Manchester International Festival with its Exchange Square store, with three days of performance from Friday to Sunday. Additionally, an Epiphone Riviera donated and signed by Liam and Noel Gallagher of Oasis went on public display from Monday in store.

Merchandise and memorabilia exclusive to Selfridges from Oasis, Prince, Nirvana, Smashing Pumpkins, Rolling Stones, Post Malone, Lola Young and Gracie Abrams will go on sale in the period as well.
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Widely regarded as one of the biggest DJs on the planet, Calvin Harris pulls fans from every corner of the globe. No stranger to sellouts, he has played to packed crowds at Playa d’en Bossa’s open-air super club, Ushuaïa Ibiza, since summer 2019.

But this year marks a bold new chapter: for the first time, Harris is taking on a double residency at the iconic venue, adding Tuesdays to his already dominant Friday slot. It’s an ambitious move. No other DJ has attempted to fill Ushuaïa twice a week. The question on our mind: will he be able to pull it off?

We joined the masses to find out. Catching some of that infamous Ushuaïa action where sunset euphoria meets stadium-scale production, and commercial dance music reigns supreme. Accompanying Harris for his grand opener was Australian up-and-comer Tyson O’Brien, followed by Steve Angello, who brought a dose of unmistakable Swedish House Mafia magic to the fray.

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Arriving at Ushuaïa around 20:30, Steve Angello was well in control, laying down a sunset vibes set full of nostalgia. He tapped into the golden era of 2010s EDM with a very energetic crowd dancing to the beat, with hands in the air all around.

Naturally, Angelo dropped a few classics from Swedish House Mafia’s catalogue, including the decade-defining Don’t You Worry Child, alongside crowd favourites like Save the World and Gala’s classic sing-along, Freed from Desire, setting the tone perfectly for the night ahead. Angelo’s set was proof that some tunes just don’t age. It was a full-tilt throwback, and by 21:15, the stage was well and truly warmed up for the main act, Calvin Harris.

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We snuck around to the back of the venue to witness his walk on stage – a small but eager bunch of fans lay in wait, phones in the air and eyes locked forward. Calvin emerged, striding out with calm confidence and laser focus. A few moments later, the main crowd erupted as he made his appearance on stage.

It’s challenging to pin down highlights from the set, especially when you’re working with a catalogue as stacked with bangers as Calvin Harris’s Sweet Nothing lit up the venue, while Armand Van Helden’s You Don’t Know Me was one of those classics that kept everyone dancing. Then came You’ve Got the Love, punctuated by a full-blown pyro explosion on the drop, with Calvin slipping in a bit of acid to spice things up before Feel So Close sent the crowd into full choir mode.

A surprise drop of Insomnia by Faithless, followed by Children by Robert Miles blended with vocals from Under Control, brought a wave of nostalgia, with Harris fully embracing the deeper legacy of classic dance music. His latest tune, Blessings, popped off, raising heart rates, triggering a huge sing-along and a burst of fresh energy on the floor.

We stayed until the very end, tossing around guesses among ourselves about what Calvin would choose as his closing tune. After a set packed with hits, throwbacks, and surprises, he delivered a perfect send-off with his ‘2009 classic I’m Not Alone. As the opening notes rang out, hands shot into the air for one final moment. A fitting end to a night that balanced nostalgia, energy, and pure mainstage magic.

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Calvin Harris’s Tuesday night Ushuaïa opener was everything you’d expect from one of the biggest names in dance music: slick, high-energy, and packed with timeless anthems. With a production scale to match the music and a crowd that was a vibrant mix of old and young who didn’t let up from start to finish, it was a reminder of why he remains a global force with universal appeal.

If this night was anything to go by, Harris, will definitely have what it takes to fill the venue twice a week, for the first time in Ibiza’s history.

Don’t miss out. Find out who is joining Calvin each week and bag your tickets below.

Alex Warren’s “Ordinary” continues as the biggest song in the world, as it tallies a landmark 10th week at No. 1 on the Billboard Global 200 and an eighth week atop Billboard Global Excl. U.S.

In a busy top 10 on the Global 200, two tracks from the soundtrack to Netflix’s KPop Demon Hunters storm the region: “Golden,” by HUNTR/X, EJAE, Audrey Nuna and Rei Ami (vaulting from No. 52 to No. 2), and “Your Idol,” by Saja Boys, Andrew Choi, Neckwav, Danny Chung, Kevin Woo and samUIL Lee (73-10). The former also bounds 51-5 on Global Excl. U.S.

aespa’s “Dirty Work” debuts at No. 5 on the Global 200 and No. 2 on Global Excl. U.S. The South Korean pop group scores its highest ranks and second and third top 10 on the respective charts.

Plus, Ravyn Lenae’s “Love Me Not” rises 11-10 on Global Excl. U.S., where it’s her first top 10.

The Billboard Global 200 and Global Excl. U.S. charts, which began in September 2020 — and two weeks earlier marked their 250th week — rank songs based on streaming and sales activity culled from more than 200 territories around the world, as compiled by Luminate. The Global 200 is inclusive of worldwide data and the Global Excl. U.S. chart comprises data from territories excluding the United States.

Chart ranks are based on a weighted formula incorporating official-only streams on both subscription and ad-supported tiers of audio and video music services, as well as download sales, the latter of which reflect purchases from full-service digital music retailers from around the world, with sales from direct-to-consumer (D2C) sites excluded from the charts’ calculations.

“Ordinary” leads the Global 200 with 66 million streams (essentially even week-over-week) and 11,000 sold (up 2%) worldwide June 27-July 3. The song becomes the seventh to have topped the Global 200 for double-digit weeks — here’s a rundown of the list’s longest-leading hits:

• 19 weeks at No. 1, “All I Want for Christmas Is You,” Mariah Carey, 2020-25
• 18, “Die With a Smile,” Lady Gaga & Bruno Mars, 2024-25
• 15, “As It Was,” Harry Styles, 2022
• 13, “Flowers,” Miley Cyrus, 2023
• 12, “APT.,” ROSÉ & Bruno Mars, 2024-25
• 11, “Stay,” The Kid LAROI & Justin Bieber, 2021
• 10, “Ordinary,” Alex Warren, 2025

Two songs from the soundtrack to Netflix’s KPop Demon Hunters blast to the Global 200’s top 10: “Golden,” billed to HUNTR/X, EJAE, Audrey Nuna and Rei Ami (52-2), and “Your Idol,” credited to Saja Boys, Andrew Choi, Neckwav, Danny Chung, Kevin Woo and samUIL Lee (73-10). The former soared by 135% to 48.4 million streams and 48% to 4,000 sold worldwide in the tracking week; the latter leaped by 117% to 37.6 million streams and 25% to 3,000 sold globally.

The KPop Demon Hunters soundtrack surges 8-3 on the U.S.-based Billboard 200, becoming the highest-charting soundtrack of 2025.

Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars’ “Die With a Smile” holds at No. 3 on the Global 200, after 18 weeks at No. 1 starting last September, and Sabrina Carpenter’s “Manchild” slips to No. 4 from its No. 2 high.

aespa’s “Dirty Work” opens at No. 5 on the Global 200 with 48.4 million streams and 6,000 sold worldwide following its June 27 release. The act adds its second top 10 on the tally — and first top 10 debut and first top five hit — after “Whiplash” hit No. 8 in November.

“Ordinary” leads Global Excl. U.S. with 47.7 million streams (down 1%) and 4,000 sold (up 1%) outside the U.S.

“Dirty Work” launches at No. 2 on Global Excl. U.S. with 45.2 million streams and 5,000 sold. aespa claims its second top 10 on the chart — and first top 10 debut; “Whiplash” reached No. 5 in November.

“Die With a Smile” dips 2-3 after 17 weeks atop Global Excl. U.S. starting last September and “APT.” steps down 3-4, after reigning for a record 19 weeks beginning in November.

“Golden” shines 51-5 on Global Excl. U.S. with 35 million streams (up 137%) and 2,000 sold (up 46%) beyond the U.S.

Plus, Ravyn Lenae’s “Love Me Not” lifts 11-10 on Global Excl. U.S., powered by a 5% gain to 27.4 million streams outside the U.S. The Chicago-born singer-songwriter earns her first top 10 on the chart with the track, which hit No. 7 a week earlier on the Global 200, where it’s also her first top 10.

The Billboard Global 200 and Billboard Global Excl. U.S. charts (dated July 12, 2025) will update on Billboard.com tomorrow, July 8. For both charts, the top 100 titles are available to all readers on Billboard.com, while the complete 200-title rankings are visible on Billboard Pro, Billboard’s subscription-based service. For all chart news, you can follow @billboard and @billboardcharts on both X, formerly known as Twitter, and Instagram.

Luminate, the independent data provider to the Billboard charts, completes a thorough review of all data submissions used in compiling the weekly chart rankings. Luminate reviews and authenticates data. In partnership with Billboard, data deemed suspicious or unverifiable is removed, using established criteria, before final chart calculations are made and published.

This article contains spoilers for all episodes of Outrageous

BritBox’s newest period drama, Outrageous, portrays the true story of how the turbulent politics of the 1930s simultaneously tore a family apart and also forged their desire to rebel against their upper-class sheltered background.

Nancy Mitford (Bessie Carter), the eldest sibling, acts as the narrator who explains that her younger sister Diana fell in love with the leader of the British fascists Oswald Mosley (Joshua Sasse), and another sister Unity (Joanna Vanderham) became obsessed with Hitler. On the other side of the spectrum, sister Jessica (Zoe Brough) joined the Communist movement, after seeing how her upper-class family lived in comfort while others were starving.

Previously, GBH Drama interviewed the Executive Producers on their creative process. In the second part of our coverage, GBH Drama spoke with actress Bessie Carter about her perspective on Nancy’s journey throughout the season, the scenes she struggled with most, and what’s next if the series gets renewed.

GBH Drama: What drew you to the role of Nancy? 

Bessie Carter: I was saying “I’m not going to do another period drama.” Then my agents sent me this audition. They were like, “I don’t think you’re going to want to say no to this, though, because it is the lead of a show.” I’d never played a lead before. Then I read the script, and I knew loads about Nancy Mitford; I had weird connections to Nancy Mitford. I [narrated] her book “The Pursuit of Love” five years ago. I went to the same school as her. I lived near where she and Peter Rodd ended up living.

The script is the most important thing in any job. If you have a good script, it’s hopeful that [the product] might be good. If it’s a bad script, there’s no chance. This script was brilliant, and I thought it was funny, and intelligent, and heartfelt. I thought it was mad, the fact that we’d never seen the Mitford Sisters on screen before. I thought, “Oh, my God. I want to be in the first version that tells their story.” Then, to be honest with you, when I went in for my audition, I met Joss Agnew, the director, and Rachel Sheridan, the casting director. I had the best audition in my life, because they were so nice and kind and open and curious. It felt collaborative and energetic. I left with a skip in my step and thinking, “I might have got that job.” Not in an arrogant way, but I got a good feeling. I waited two weeks, and then I got the job. It was great.

GBH Drama: How did being the eldest affect Nancy’s relationship with her parents and her younger siblings throughout the season?

Bessie Carter: They have a close relationship. Her parents put a lot of responsibility on her to look after the brood. It was quite natural for Nancy to look after them. There was a 16-year difference between Nancy and Debo, the youngest. There was some pressure from her parents to keep them all together, but Nancy also feels increasing pressure from her parents to be successful in love and to find an appropriate person. She continually doesn’t do that. Nancy feels quite ashamed towards the end. She then comes back and spends a lot more time with her parents when her relationship with Peter starts to go down the drain. And that’s quite human, isn’t it? You go, “Let’s go back to mum and dad’s,” if you’ve got the privilege of having mum and dad who can have you. She wanted to be looked after.

GBH Drama: Do you believe that if Nancy knew more about the world, she would have made different relationship choices?

Bessie Carter: Her marriage was a rebound because of Hamish. She was with Hamish for four years in an unofficial engagement. She didn’t want to look beyond what she had with Hamish; she wanted to hope for the best. Nancy decided, “okay, I’m going to take the lead,” but it failed. Poor Nancy. When the relationship fell through, I think she felt the shame and the pressure from society to hurry up and get on with it. She never acted or behaved like a victim or felt like a victim, but I think she was a victim of her time. I believe she did have time to potentially find someone else, but I don’t think she let herself. She was a hopeless romantic, and Hamish was very charming, and we’ve all been there. If it were in modern days, she probably would’ve dated Hamish for about six months and then realized the red flags were far too loud to ignore. I think they got married within a month in those days, which is remarkable.

GBH Drama: Nancy narrates the stories of her sisters as well as telling her own. What were the most difficult scenes of hers to portray and why?

Bessie Carter: The scene where Nancy finds her husband cheating on her. When I read the script and I came to the end, I saw Nancy didn’t forgive him, but also made the choice to stay married. When I read that, the 21st-century feminist in me struggled with it. I was like, “No, he’s a shitbag and she should walk away. She should leave.” Sarah Williams, our amazing writer, was like, “No, well. This is just what happened. Nancy made this decision, but not from a place of being a victim who was staying stuck, but from an empowered place where she goes, if he can do whatever he wants, he can never tell me I can’t do what I want.” You have to be true to what their actual story was. It is in some ways very empowered to say, “Right, okay. I see him now for who he is.” There is power in that, but I found that difficult. I found that journey from the betrayal, which she did feel, and the hatred and all of that, to then come to that place of peace… I found that as Bessie, the actor, I had to quieten her opinions about it and step up as Nancy.

GBH Drama: Nancy’s eventual falling out with Diana on the surface is about politics. What else do their conversations reveal?

Bessie Carter: I believe Diana was seduced by a man who needed her and her brain. With a lot of the sisters who went down the extreme paths, they went to places where they felt heard and respected. They weren’t being heard or respected in their normal society, where they were told, “no, you’ve just got to be a wife or a mother,” and “you’re not allowed to go to school. School is for boys.” They then go to the corners of the world where they do feel heard, and I think Diana felt heard by Mosley. She lost interest or connection with her friends in the love affair. Nancy’s continually trying to say, “where are you going? Where have you gone? We are here. What are you doing?” I believe the love story between Nancy and Diana is the interesting love story of the series.

GBH Drama: Do you believe that Nancy had it in her to stop Unity from going off the rails into extreme fascism?

Bessie Carter: Unity was completely ignored and taken the mick out of, and none of them took her seriously. I don’t believe they could see where that path was going to lead. She was a child who was not being heard, and if you think about 18-year-olds in 1930, they’ll be even younger than 18-year-olds today, who look about 25. Nancy didn’t take it seriously; thought it was harmless until it was too late and they received that letter. Then they realized the severity of Unity’s ambition and drive, which [all the sisters] had in different areas, and it probably came from their parents. Nancy had it with her writing. She wrote under her own name. She didn’t care about being a female author.

GBH Drama: Circling back to the age gap, can you elaborate on how that is presented through Nancy’s interactions with Debo, Pam, and Decca?

Bessie Carter: Nancy and Decca have that big sister/little sister thing. They argue, they butt heads; “oh, shut up,” and “oh, no. You.” Pamela was different; very independent from the family. She had her car, so she could drive around. Debo was a lot younger. She was like a child. We were all just trying to honor what was written in Sarah Williams’ scripts. What’s great is that this series is only a tiny fraction of their lives. There’s so much more to go. You see, there are many more dynamics that happen between them all, carrying on. This is very much the setting up; the first few steps leading up to the war. The dream is to do a series two and three as a complete story.

GBH Drama: Were you surprised by the ending in the script? Is there a possibility for more episodes of Outrageous, and what would you like to see from Nancy’s story in the future?

Bessie Carter: It was a clever ending with the photograph. Knowing what has happened in between, it’s excellent. I’d like to see Nancy get to Paris, mainly because I’d love to spend some time in Paris. Nancy felt Paris suited her. I can imagine her with her chic little bob sort of trotting down a pristine cobbled alleyway. That’s probably around the era where Nancy’s voiceovers come from. It would be cool to get to the person who is doing the reflecting.

All episodes of Outrageous are currently streaming on BritBox.

[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.

***

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.