عربي English Türkçe اردو فارسى
Logo
Latest News
Entertainment

Final Bash Set to End Lavish Bezos Wedding Party in Venice

Lauren Sanchez Bezos and Jeff Bezos depart from the Aman hotel to attend the last party of their wedding celebrations the day after their wedding in Venice, Italy, 28 June 2025. (EPA)
Lauren Sanchez Bezos and Jeff Bezos depart from the Aman hotel to attend the last party of their wedding celebrations the day after their wedding in Venice, Italy, 28 June 2025. (EPA)
TT
TT

Final Bash Set to End Lavish Bezos Wedding Party in Venice

Lauren Sanchez Bezos and Jeff Bezos depart from the Aman hotel to attend the last party of their wedding celebrations the day after their wedding in Venice, Italy, 28 June 2025. (EPA)
Lauren Sanchez Bezos and Jeff Bezos depart from the Aman hotel to attend the last party of their wedding celebrations the day after their wedding in Venice, Italy, 28 June 2025. (EPA)

Newlyweds Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and journalist Lauren Sanchez left their luxury hotel on Venice's Grand Canal on Saturday for a final night of partying, crowning a three-day star-studded wedding extravaganza.

Bezos, 61, and Sanchez, 55, exchanged rings on Friday evening on the small island of San Giorgio, across the water from Saint Mark's Square, accompanied by singing from Matteo Bocelli, son of Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli.

Bill Gates, Leonardo DiCaprio, Orlando Bloom, Tom Brady, Jordan's Queen Rania, Oprah Winfrey, Kris Jenner and Kim and Khloe Kardashian, as well as Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner were among the A-listers present.

Saturday's evening bash -- wrapping up celebrations for 200-250 guests estimated to have cost some $50 million -- was due to take place in the Arsenale, a former medieval shipyard in an eastern district of the lagoon city.

Around 1,000 people marched against the event on Saturday, groups of activists and residents who object to the wedding and to seeing Venice being gift-wrapped for the uber-wealthy.

Some guests were seen leaving the Gritti Palace hotel in central Venice wearing their pyjamas, sometimes beneath colorful dressing gowns, before boarding small boats to reach the party.

Bezos and Sanchez had a more sober style. He was sporting a black shirt and suit, while she wore a soft-pink off-the-shoulder dress. They kissed on the boat while greeting those around them.

At the ceremony the bride wore a high-necked silhouette dress and a tulle and lace veil by Dolce & Gabbana, which she told magazine Vogue was based on Sophia Loren's dress to marry Cary Grant in the 1958 film, Houseboat.

Sanchez was also wearing a pair of diamond earrings by Dolce & Gabbana, which, according to Vogue, was lent to her in keeping with the tradition that it brings good luck for a bride to wear something borrowed.

Bezos, who is No. 4 on Forbes' global billionaires list, donned a black tuxedo and bow tie over a white shirt.

BUSINESSES, POLITICIANS WELCOME EVENT

Friday's ceremony had no legal status under Italian law, a senior city hall official told Reuters, suggesting the couple may have previously wed legally in the United States to avoid the bureaucracy associated with an Italian marriage.

While some residents and activists raged against Bezos as a symbol of inequality and arrogance, Venetian businesses and political leaders welcomed the luxury nuptials, hailing them as major boost for the local economy.

"Those who protest are in contradiction with the history of Venice, which is a history of relations, contacts and business," Mayor Luigi Brugnaro told Reuters.

"Bezos embodies the Venetian mentality. He is more Venetian than the protesters," said center-right mayor, adding that he hoped Bezos, who donated 3 million euros ($3.51 million) to local institutions, would return to the city to do business.

Brugnaro said Bezos had attached no conditions to holding his wedding celebrations in Venice, and City Hall had only learned about his donations after they had already been made.

Bezos, Amazon's executive chair, got engaged to Sanchez in 2023, four years after the collapse of his 25-year marriage to novelist and philanthropist MacKenzie Scott.

Most Viewed

 
 
Entertainment

Movie Review: Caleb Landry Jones Is a Lovesick Vampire with a Fabulous Wig in Besson’s ‘Dracula’

Caleb Landry Jones attends a premiere for the film Dracula in Los Angeles, California, US, February 3, 2026. (Reuters)
Caleb Landry Jones attends a premiere for the film Dracula in Los Angeles, California, US, February 3, 2026. (Reuters)
TT
TT

Movie Review: Caleb Landry Jones Is a Lovesick Vampire with a Fabulous Wig in Besson’s ‘Dracula’

Caleb Landry Jones attends a premiere for the film Dracula in Los Angeles, California, US, February 3, 2026. (Reuters)
Caleb Landry Jones attends a premiere for the film Dracula in Los Angeles, California, US, February 3, 2026. (Reuters)

“I haven’t eaten in centuries,” says the stooped, wrinkled man knocking at a convent door, seeking food and shelter.

LOL! It’s a funny line, given that this is a disguised Count Dracula — who indeed has not eaten in centuries, unless you count human blood. And it’s especially funny given that “Dracula” is not now, nor has ever been, a comedy.

But the humor’s a nice touch, as are the splashes of color, the lovely 19th-century gowns, the rendering of Parisian salons and vivid street celebrations that are part of Luc Besson’s reimagining of the oft-told tale (more like the told-all-the-time tale), starring Caleb Landry Jones. And yes, the story of Dracula is not usually set in Paris. There’s a lot that’s familiar in this version, but enough variety, panache and bravado to raise it up a notch and give it, well, a raison d’être.

Writer-director Besson’s calling card is romance. Unlike Robert Eggers’ 2024 “Nosferatu,” which was beautiful but bleak to look at and featured an ugly, fearsome vampire, Besson imbues his main character with a swashbuckling sexiness that suits his star's craggy appeal.

We begin back in the year 1480, in a remote castle, where a handsome prince — Vlad’s his name, for now — is with beautiful bride Elisabeta (Zoë Bleu). They are interrupted suddenly by Vlad’s men: War is at hand, and it’s time to fight.

Vlad’s main concern is his wife. He asks the Orthodox priest to protect the life of Elisabeta. Alas, escaping through the forest in the snow, Elisabeta is killed in an ambush. A grief-stricken Vlad returns to kill the priest and is thus cursed with immortal life. A life he will spend trying to find his wife, reincarnated.

Four hundred years later, Vlad, now Count Dracula, resides — shriveled but stylish, with an incredible flowing, white wig that looks like something Elvis might have worn if he were a 400-year-old vampire — in the Carpathian Mountains. But the action shifts to Paris, mainly just because Besson loves Paris, where citizens are joyously celebrating the centenary of the French Revolution.

Paris is also where we meet a prominent vampire-hunter from Bavaria — and unnamed priest — played by Christoph Waltz, who you might imagine is perfect for this role. Like Javert hunting Valjean in “Les Miserables,” this priest is determined to find his prey, wherever that takes him.

And Dracula's on his own mission. In his gloomy castle, where he lives with a gaggle of CGI gargoyles, he prepares to kill a young solicitor (Ewens Abid) who came to see him about his property, hanging him upside down until the blood pools in his head.

But then he sees a picture of the frightened young man’s intended, Mina, and becomes obsessed with finding her, certain she's his reincarnated bride. He spares the man’s life and heads to Paris.

The scenes in the French capital are full of welcome color and life — everything from receptions in salons or at Versailles to a street carnival to a mermaid swimming in an aquarium — all chances to display sumptuous costumes by Corinne Bruand.

When, aided by one of his vampire followers, Maria (Matilda De Angelis), Dracula finds Mina — also played by Bleu (the real-life daughter of Rosanna Arquette) — he immediately knows she’s his eternal love. Now, all he needs to do is win her heart, and get back to Transylvania to escape the vampire hunters. Luckily for him, he’s looking good — those nuns at the convent gave him all the fresh blood he needed to look young and handsome again.

There are plenty of Bessonian flourishes along the way — those gargoyles sure are weird, and they don't remain gargoyles — but in the end, it’s too bad there weren’t even more, to further distinguish this “Dracula” telling from many before it. In any case it all leads to a fairly satisfying confrontation between Dracula and the priest, saved until the very end, a la Pacino and De Niro in “Heat.”

Here, it’s fun to watch Jones and Waltz sink their teeth — well for Jones, his fangs — into a story that’s old as time, but can always use another fairly watchable remake.

Entertainment

‘Doctor Who’ Auction to Fire Up Global Interest

Propstore employees pose with a screen-matched TARDIS (C), a Bronze Asylum Dalek (R) and a Sardickton Clock (L), which were used in the filming of the "Doctor Who" TV series, during a photocall for the upcoming "Doctor Who" auction by Propstore auction house in Rickmansworth, Hertfordshire, Britain, 30 January 2026. (EPA)
Propstore employees pose with a screen-matched TARDIS (C), a Bronze Asylum Dalek (R) and a Sardickton Clock (L), which were used in the filming of the "Doctor Who" TV series, during a photocall for the upcoming "Doctor Who" auction by Propstore auction house in Rickmansworth, Hertfordshire, Britain, 30 January 2026. (EPA)
TT
TT

‘Doctor Who’ Auction to Fire Up Global Interest

Propstore employees pose with a screen-matched TARDIS (C), a Bronze Asylum Dalek (R) and a Sardickton Clock (L), which were used in the filming of the "Doctor Who" TV series, during a photocall for the upcoming "Doctor Who" auction by Propstore auction house in Rickmansworth, Hertfordshire, Britain, 30 January 2026. (EPA)
Propstore employees pose with a screen-matched TARDIS (C), a Bronze Asylum Dalek (R) and a Sardickton Clock (L), which were used in the filming of the "Doctor Who" TV series, during a photocall for the upcoming "Doctor Who" auction by Propstore auction house in Rickmansworth, Hertfordshire, Britain, 30 January 2026. (EPA)

From a TARDIS to a Dalek, "Doctor Who" fans can bid from Tuesday to own a piece of television history as the BBC auctions off props from the cult sci-fi series.

The 17-day online auction features items from the modern era of the decades-spanning show, which first appeared on British TV in 1963 and relaunched in 2005 after a 16-year small-screen hiatus.

The longest-running science fiction series by episode numbers, according to the Guinness Book of World Records, it has drawn fans globally after airing in scores of countries over the years.

Memorabilia auctioneers Propstore, managing the sale, anticipate worldwide interest, boosted by Disney+ streaming episodes outside the UK and Ireland since 2023.

"It's gone absolutely global," Sian Taylor, a Propstore manager, told AFP of the current popularity of "Doctor Who" as the firm previewed some of the items going under the hammer online until February 19.

"There will be people buying from in Europe, North America, East Asia, Australia, everywhere across the world. It truly is a worldwide phenomenon."

Some buyers will need plenty of space, given several of the series's heftier staples are among the lots.

That includes a TARDIS, the nearly three-meter- high (ten-foot) police box that is a disguised fictional hybrid time machine and spacecraft used by the Time Lord.

Also up for grabs is a bulky Dalek -- one of the fictional extraterrestrial mutant enemies of the doctor, mounted on wheels, that have featured in numerous episodes.

"It's possibly one of the best pieces in the auction," noted Taylor.

- 'Doctor Who history' -

Sitting in a repurposed cattle stable in countryside northwest of London as they await their new owners, the more than 200 lots have all come from the BBC.

On a rainy morning, white-gloved Propstore assistants showed off some other highlights, including costumes, sonic screwdrivers and an anti-cyber gun used by character Clara Oswald (Jenna Coleman) in episode 12 of the seventh series.

Miranda McCabe, Propstore's director of marketing, noted that one of the sonic screwdrivers -- which she described as like an "alien Swiss Army knife" and one of the Doctor's key tools -- was a so-called hero version, used for close-up shots.

"That's why this one lights up and looks so nice ... which is super special," she said.

As part of its partnership with the BBC, Propstore staged a similar, smaller "Doctor Who" memorabilia sale last February which raised around £250,000 ($342,500) for the broadcaster's Children in Need annual fundraising drive.

The 2026 auction will again donate a fifth of the proceeds to the charity.

"Everything starts at £100, so in theory everything is accessible to pretty much everybody," Taylor explained.

"We will see where the prices end up but hopefully some people will be able to get a piece of 'Doctor Who' history to take home with them."

However, those hoping to snag the TARDIS or Dalek for that price are likely to be disappointed: similar versions sold last year for £12,600 and £2,520 respectively.

Entertainment

Netflix to Livestream BTS Comeback Concert in K-Pop Mega Event

Pedestrians walk along the stairs displayed with the BTS logo and release date of BTS' 2026 album at Gwanghwamun Square in Seoul on January 14, 2026. (AFP)
Pedestrians walk along the stairs displayed with the BTS logo and release date of BTS' 2026 album at Gwanghwamun Square in Seoul on January 14, 2026. (AFP)
TT
TT

Netflix to Livestream BTS Comeback Concert in K-Pop Mega Event

Pedestrians walk along the stairs displayed with the BTS logo and release date of BTS' 2026 album at Gwanghwamun Square in Seoul on January 14, 2026. (AFP)
Pedestrians walk along the stairs displayed with the BTS logo and release date of BTS' 2026 album at Gwanghwamun Square in Seoul on January 14, 2026. (AFP)

Streaming giant Netflix said Tuesday it will livestream BTS's comeback concert to around 190 countries in what could be the largest live K-pop event to date as the megastars return from military service.

The global stars and South Korea's biggest music act have been on a hiatus since 2022 while members completed mandatory military service.

All seven members were discharged last year, and the band have confirmed they will release a new album, ARIRANG, on March 20 and stage a free comeback concert in central Seoul's Gwanghwamun Square the following day before heading on tour.

"BTS THE COMEBACK LIVE | ARIRANG will stream live exclusively on Netflix March 21," the streaming giant said.

It said the performance would be broadcast live to viewers in more than 190 countries.

Their new album, ARIRANG, named after a Korean folk song about longing and separation often seen as an unofficial national anthem, will be their first since the anthology "Proof", which became South Korea's bestselling record of 2022.

The new album "contains a deep reflection on the team's origins and identity", Netflix said, adding a new documentary featuring the band's return, titled "BTS: THE RETURN" will be launched on March 27.

Their world tour, kicking off in April, will span 34 cities with 79 shows -- the largest single tour by a K-pop group by total performances and the widest regional reach for a South Korean artist, according to their label HYBE.

BTS are big business in South Korea. Before their military service, they generated more than 5.5 trillion won ($3.8 billion) for the country a year, according to Seoul's Korea Culture and Tourism Institute.

The figure is equivalent to 0.2 percent of South Korea's total GDP.

HYBE shares were up 2.5 percent in the morning trade in Seoul.