Kardashians kick off Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez's star- studded wedding in Venice
Photo: AFP
Photo: AFP
Photo: Reuters
The event, set across multiple historic venues, began today and includes a guest list of nearly 200 of the world's most high-profile figures.
The Kardashians arrived via water taxi after landing at Marco Polo Airport. Kim, a close friend of Sanchez, also attended her lavish Paris hen weekend in May, reportedly costing $635,000.
Joining the festivities are Oprah Winfrey, Tom Brady, Gayle King, Ivanka Trump and husband Jared Kushner, Ellie Goulding, Bill Gates, Usher, Leonardo DiCaprio, Vittoria Ceretti, Diane von Furstenburg and Eva Longoria. British actor Orlando Bloom was seen greeting Kim in Venice amid reports of his split from Katy Perry.
Photo: Reuters
Photo: AFP
Photo: Reuters
In an unfortunate turn of events, a thunderstorm cut the party short. Guests were seen fleeing the Madonna dell'Orto church under umbrellas as water taxis arrived early.
The rain ended festivities 45 minutes ahead of schedule. Despite the weather, spirits remained high.
Local reports confirm that 95 private planes have requested landing slots for the occasion, with luxury hotels in the city fully booked. The bride and groom are staying at the Aman Venice, where rooms cost up to $12,700 per night.
Security has been heightened following recent global tensions and protests. Bezos' $470M yacht Koru, originally meant to be part of the celebration, remains anchored off Croatia for safety reasons.
The ceremony takes place at the Madonna dell'Orto church, followed by a dinner on the island of San Giovanni Evangelista and a grand ball at the Arsenale shipyard. Lauren is expected to wear Dolce & Gabbana, with other dresses possibly by Versace and Oscar de la Renta.
This three-day celebration marks a milestone for the couple, whose relationship began in 2019. Bezos proposed in 2023 with a $4.6M ring.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Express Tribune
14 minutes ago
- Express Tribune
'Ketamine Queen' will plead guilty in Matthew Perry case
Cast member Matthew Perry poses at the premiere for the television series 'The Kennedys After Camelot' at The Paley Center for Media in Beverly Hills, California US, March 15, 2017. Photo: File The accused Los Angeles drug dealer known as the "ketamine queen" has agreed to plead guilty to charges that she supplied the dose of the prescription anesthetic that killed "Friends" star Matthew Perry, prosecutors said on Monday. Jasveen Sangha, 42, who authorities said ran an illegal narcotics "stash house" in the North Hollywood district of Los Angeles and was due to stand trial in September, will plead guilty to five charges under a deal with federal prosecutors, according to the US Justice Department. Four other co-defendants in the case — two physicians, Perry's personal assistant and another man who admitted acting as an intermediary in selling ketamine to the actor — have already pleaded guilty to various charges, though none has yet been sentenced. All five were charged in the case one year ago. Prosecutors said Sangha agreed to plead guilty to one count of maintaining a drug-involved premises, three counts of illegal distribution of ketamine, and one count of distribution of ketamine resulting in death. Sangha, a dual US-British citizen, is expected to formally enter her plea in the coming weeks, the Justice Department said in a statement. The charge of maintaining a drug den carries a statutory maximum sentence of 20 years in prison. Sangha faces up to 15 years in prison for ketamine distribution that killed Perry, and 10 years for each of the three other distribution counts. Medical examiners concluded that Perry died from acute effects of ketamine that combined with other factors to cause the actor to lose consciousness and drown in his hot tub on October 28, 2023. He was 54 years old. Perry had publicly acknowledged decades of substance abuse, including periods that overlapped with the height of his fame playing the sardonic but charming Chandler Bing on the 1990s hit NBC television comedy "Friends". Perry's death came a year after publication of his memoir, "Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing," which chronicled bouts with addiction to prescription painkillers and alcohol that he wrote had come close to ending his life more than once. His autopsy cited interviews with associates who said Perry had been sober for 19 months prior to his death with no known substance abuse relapses. Ketamine, a short-acting anesthetic with hallucinogenic properties, is sometimes prescribed to treat depression and anxiety but also is abused by recreational users. According to Sangha's plea agreement as outlined by the Justice Department, Sangha had supplied 51 vials of ketamine from her stash house to a go-between dealer, Erik Fleming, 55, who in turn sold the doses to Perry through his live-in personal assistant, Kenneth Iwamasa, 60. It was Iwamasa, prosecutors said, who later injected Perry with at least three shots of ketamine from the vials Sangha supplied, resulting in the actor's death, and who subsequently found him lifeless in the hot tub. In her plea agreement, prosecutors said, Sangha also admitted selling ketamine to an individual in August 2019 who died hours later from a drug overdose. Known to her customers on the street as the "ketamine queen," according to prosecutors, Sangha had used her North Hollywood home to store, package and distribute various narcotics, including ketamine and methamphetamine, dating back to at least June 2019. After learning of news reports of Perry's death, prosecutors said, Sangha tried to scrub her Signal app of all her communications with Fleming and urged him to do likewise, instructing him to "Delete all our messages." Her plea deal came three weeks after a doctor who ran an urgent care clinic, Salvador Plasencia, 43, pleaded guilty to four counts of ketamine distribution and admitted to having injected Perry with the drug at the actor's home and in the back seat of a parked car. Reuters
Express Tribune
14 minutes ago
- Express Tribune
300-year-old violin to star at UK music festival
Berlin-based South Korean violinist Inmo Yang plays the 'Carrodus violin' in Berlin, Germany on August 18, 2025. A rare violin, one of the most valuable in the world crafted by an Italian violin maker three centuries ago, is to be played for the first time as part of the BBC Proms by South Korean violinist Inmo Yang. Photo: AFP One of the most valuable violins in the world, crafted three centuries ago and once owned by composer Niccolo Paganini, is to be played at a top UK classical music festival. The violin, known as the Carrodus, is one of only around 150 made by Giuseppe Guarneri del Gesu known to have survived down the centuries, and was acquired by a philanthropic group for $20 million in June. It was crafted in 1743 in Cremonia, northern Italy, and will be played for the first time as part of the BBC Proms by South Korean violinist Inmo Yang. The violin once owned by Italian virtuoso Paganini will be seen on August 28 at London's Royal Albert Hall. "I can't believe how lucky I am to have this instrument. This is easily one of the greatest instruments ever made," Yang, who is also making his debut at the Proms, told AFP. "I feel a duty to take good care of the instrument and make a beautiful sound, so that people know that it's worth playing these instruments rather than having them in a vault in a museum." The Stretton Society, a network of philanthropists, patrons and sponsors that has loaned the violin to Yang, seeks to acquire rare and valuable instruments to lend to the world's leading musicians. Guarneri was one of the most important violin makers of all time, alongside Italian luthier Antonio Stradivari, said the society's co-founder Stephan Jansen. Whereas Stradivari made instruments for the Church and the nobility, Guarneri's violins were made for musicians, and they became renowned for their deep and sonorous tones, Jansen said. "Inmo is one of the finest musicians of his generation," Jansen told AFP. "When he came to my house and I showed him the fiddle, it was clear from the very first second that this is a match," he said. "Because in the end, it's also about chemistry, you know?" Yang will perform Pablo de Sarasate's "Carmen Fantasy", which he described as "a virtuoso piece for the violin". The broad palette of the violin adds the "strong, at times flirty character of the Carmen character," said Yang. The instrument's sound is also "quite unpredictable," he said, and "this kind of capricious nature really gives more liveliness to the piece". "Thinking that Paganini used this instrument is kind of spiritual, and I think people also want to hear Paganini's music played on his own violin," Yang added. mct/jkb/jxb One of the most valuable violins in the world, crafted by an Italian maker three centuries ago and once owned by composer Niccolo Paganini, is to be played at a top UK classical music festival. The violin, known as the Carrodus, is one of only around 150 made by Giuseppe Guarneri del Gesu known to have survived down the centuries, and was acquired by a philanthropic group for $20 million in June. It was crafted in 1743 in Cremonia, northern Italy, and will be played for the first time as part of the BBC Proms by South Korean violinist Inmo Yang. The violin once owned by famed Italian composer and violin virtuoso Niccolo Paganini will be seen on August 28 at London's Royal Albert Hall. "I can't believe how lucky I am to have this instrument. This is easily one of the greatest instruments ever made," Yang, who is also making his debut at the Proms, told AFP. "I feel a duty to take good care of the instrument and make a beautiful sound, so that people know that it's worth playing these instruments rather than having them in a vault in a museum." The Stretton Society, a network of philanthropists, patrons and sponsors that has loaned the violin to Yang, seeks to acquire rare and valuable instruments to lend to the world's leading musicians. Guarneri was one of the most important violin makers of all time, alongside Italian luthier Antonio Stradivari, said the society's co-founder Stephan Jansen. Whereas Stradivari made instruments for the Church and the nobility, Guarneri's violins were made for musicians, and they became renowned for their deep and sonorous tones, Jansen said. "Inmo is one of the finest musicians of his generation," Jansen told AFP. "When he came to my house and I showed him the fiddle, it was clear from the very first second that this is a match," he said. "Because in the end, it's also about chemistry, you know?" Yang will perform Pablo de Sarasate's "Carmen Fantasy", which he described as "a virtuoso piece for the violin". The broad palette of the violin adds the "strong, at times flirty character of the Carmen character," said Yang. The instrument's sound is also "quite unpredictable", he said, and "this kind of capricious nature really gives more liveliness to the piece". "Thinking that Paganini used this instrument is kind of spiritual, and I think people also want to hear Paganini's music played on his own violin," Yang added.
Express Tribune
a day ago
- Express Tribune
Terence Stamp: from arthouse icon to blockbuster villain
Whether starring as a road-tripping transgender woman in "Priscilla, Queen of the Desert", an intergalactic supervillain in "Superman" or a mysterious beauty in "Theorem", Terence Stamp, who died Sunday at 87, captivated audiences in experimental films and Hollywood blockbusters alike. His bold, decades-long career swung between big productions Michael Cimino's "The Sicilian" to independent films such as Stephen Frears's "The Hit" or Steven Soderbergh's "The Limey". An emblem of London's "Swinging Sixties", he showed off a magnetic screen presence from his earliest roles, immediately gaining awards and fans. He made his breakthrough in 1962 playing an angelic sailor hanged for killing one of his crewmates in Peter Ustinov's "Billy Budd", earning an Oscar nomination and a Golden Globe. He would also win best male actor at Cannes in 1965 for "The Collector", a twisted love story based on a John Fowles novel. Stamp was born in London on July 22, 1938. His father stoked ship boilers and his family of seven crammed into a tenement with no bathroom in east London. In later interviews, he would recount experiencing hunger during his childhood, as well as facing problems at school because of his working-class accent. Inspired by Gary Cooper and James Dean, he dreamed of being an actor from an early age and left home at 17 -- taking a scholarship to a drama school against his father's wishes. In the early 1960s, British cinema began to take an interest in the working class and Ken Loach hired Stamp for his first film, "Poor Cow" in 1967. His meeting with Italian director Federico Fellini that same year was decisive. While searching for "the most decadent English actor" for his segment of "Spirits of the Dead", Fellini cast Stamp as a drunk actor seduced by the devil in the guise of a little girl. Another Italian director, Pier Paolo Pasolini, cast him in 1969's "Theorem" as an enigmatic outsider who seduces the members of a bourgeois Milan family. But Stamp's scandalous roles fell out of fashion and he struggled to find work for a decade. He embarked on a mystical world tour and settled in India, where he was studying in an ashram in 1977 when his agent got in touch and offered him the role of General Zod in "Superman". His career took off again and he soon became a go-to face for Hollywood directors looking for British villains. The role of Bernadette in "Priscilla" came in the mid-1990s, just as he was growing weary of those Hollywood hardmen roles. A few years later though, he returned to familiar stomping ground for the "The Limey", playing a British ex-con who travels to California to find out who killed his daughter. Director Steven Soderbergh used scenes from "Poor Cow" that capture Stamp in his dazzling years as a sixties English beauty. One of his last films, Last Night in Soho (2021), was a supernatural thriller in which a teenager was haunted by characters from London's Swinging Sixtiesbringing Stamp full circle on a dazzling career.
