Everything you need to know about Lauren Sanchez's $100k pre-wedding gown
Stepping out onto their waiting water taxi, ready to traverse the Venetian canals and get the party started at their glamorous, celebrity-filled rehearsal dinner, Jeff and the soon-to-be second Mrs. Bezos finally gave onlookers a glimpse of what we can expect from a wedding said to cost up to $20 million.
While most might have expected the blushing bride to be allowed her moment of triumph, it was Bezos rather than Lauren Sanchez who stepped to the fore.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Times
40 minutes ago
- Times
Jeff Bezos's three-day wedding party in Venice gets under way
Jeff Bezos arrived in Venice on Thursday night and lavished praise on the lagoon city that has been blighted by days of protest over his star-studded, three-day wedding party. 'We love Venice, look at this!' he told The Times, waving his arms around him as he sped down the Grand Canal in a water taxi beside his bride-to-be Lauren Sánchez. 'It can't exist and yet here it is!' the Amazon tycoon added as he passed The Times's boat. Bezos, 61, and Sánchez, 55, a journalist, were on their way to the first party of their nuptials — an event dubbed by locals 'Jeff in Venice'. The event was being held behind a police cordon at the 14th-century cloister of Madonna dell'Orto, where guests took cover when a violent thunderstorm and downpour drenched Venice during the evening. Officers on jet skis patrolled the canals of the surrounding Cannaregio district to keep out protesters who claim the 'wedding of the century' has helped turn Venice into a theme park for the famous. After weeks of speculation about the guest list, Bill Gates, Kim and Khloé Kardashian, Oprah Winfrey, Tom Brady, Queen Rania of Jordan, the singer Usher and the actors Orlando Bloom and Leonardo DiCaprio arrived on Thursday. They joined President Trump's daughter Ivanka and her husband Jared Kushner, who earlier visited Venice's Jewish ghetto. Before Bezos and Sánchez left the Aman Hotel on the Grand Canal, a Bezos lookalike posed for selfies with tourists. Two well-dressed women in a water taxi came alongside a boat containing photographers and handed over ice creams and cold water. 'From Jeff and Lauren,' said one of the women. The Italian designer Domenico Dolce was seen arriving at the Aman on Thursday afternoon, raising speculation that fashion duo Dolce and Gabbana are dressing Sánchez for the wedding's central event on Friday — a party in an open-air amphitheatre on the Venetian island of San Giorgio Maggiore. The island is ideal for a wedding party. When the Vatican decided to enter Venice's architecture Biennale exhibition, it commissioned ten architects to build avant-garde chapels among the trees, including one by the British architect Norman Foster. The couple will round off the weekend with a party on Saturday at Venice's former shipyard — the Arsenale, which is set to be filled with 80,000 roses, according to Italian media. Elton John and Lady Gaga are said to be among the performers at a concert during the weekend. Extinction Rebellion staged a protest in St Mark's Square on Thursday afternoon, in which an activist unfurled a banner stating 'The One Per Cent Ruins The World', a reference to Bezos's estimated $224 billion fortune. The activist was later detained by police. • I flaunted it like Lauren Sánchez! My day dressing as Bezos's bride Over at the supporters' club of local football team Venezia, a group of men enjoying mid-morning glasses of white wine with ice said they did not agree with the protests. 'Why shouldn't they get married? For us it's meant more police, less rubbish and fewer pickpockets,' said gondolier Roberto Orio, 63. 'My only gripe is I wasn't invited,' said retired postman Livio Cappello, 68.
Times
40 minutes ago
- Times
Banijay boss on why YouTubers couldn't have made Peaky Blinders
Marco Bassetti has been struggling to extricate himself from the huddle gathered to watch the Italian executive speak at London's inaugural South by Southwest, the tech, film and music festival that has made the trip across the Atlantic. It turns out that arranging to meet the boss of Banijay Entertainment — the television production juggernaut behind Peaky Blinders, MasterChef and Big Brother, to name but an eclectic few — 15 minutes after he was due to come off stage was a touch optimistic. Predictably enough, he's just had a grilling on the company's potential interest in a takeover of ITV's studios arm, among other things. It's a move the French production house is rumoured to have been exploring, but which he is as reticent about when I ask as he was when he was on stage. • French media group Banijay considers bid for ITV We meet for lunch at Boundary Brasserie, a laid-back bar-restaurant in Shoreditch, chosen for its close proximity to the Rich Mix indie cinema and arts hub where Bassetti has been sparring with Jordan Schwarzenberger, co-founder of Arcade Media, which represents The Sidemen, a YouTube group that has built up a loyal following among Gen Z viewers, a cohort that is increasingly eschewing television in favour of 'snack-length' online content. 'I like Jordan. He's a very interesting guy and to be honest I have a lot to learn [from] him and [from] what he's doing, much more than I can teach him about the past,' he says, shortly after taking a seat at our corner table on a glorious sunny afternoon in east London. The session, titled Building a Powerhouse, was seemingly designed to pit the old guard versus the new, although it's a characterisation he doesn't think is quite right. 'There are two different businesses,' Bassetti, 67, says diplomatically. 'One is a very new business, another one is a traditional business for premium content.' It is the 'premium' element in scripted TV that is still the differentiator between the likes of Banijay and the YouTubers, the Italian executive says. Yet for Banijay, which makes its money by pitching ideas for shows to TV and streaming executives, the emergence of the so-called creator economy, where influencers and online personalities can deliver content straight to their audience, is a direct challenge to its business model. YouTube and TikTok are said to be not just drawing audience numbers, they are also giving creators a shop window to take proven concepts to major streamers. It's not quite that simple, according to Bassetti. For a start, there is an inherent issue for those creators that rely on a single, dominant platform like YouTube, that dictates — and can easily change — the terms of business. There is also the key-person risk: 'It is not really based on the IP or brand but it is based on the face.' He is less concerned right now about the direct impact on Banijay, but acknowledges that the rise of YouTube is a 'huge threat' for the 'big traditional broadcasters … for each cent that is going out of digital advertising television investment, in most of the cases it is going to YouTube.' He says 'the biggest competitor of ITV is not Netflix, it is YouTube, by far', noting the video platform's decision to start hosting longer-form content, which could tighten the screws still further. Neither of us has yet looked at the menu when the waiter appears but Bassetti insists he can choose on the spot. We both opt for a relatively light lunch. They've sold out of tuna tartare so Bassetti orders a classic tuna niçoise, while I choose the chargrilled peach salad along with a couple of burrata salads, focaccia and french fries to share. A producer by trade, Bassetti has been chief executive of both Banijay Entertainment and Live, two of Banijay Group's three arms — the third is an online gambling business — since 2013. From Paris, he now oversees Europe's largest producer and distributor of television shows, which has expanded rapidly through a series of acquisitions that has taken the number of labels in its stable to 130 globally, 20 of them in the UK. He prefers to talk today about the general merits of scale, refusing to be drawn on the topic of ITV. 'We believe that scale is important, it can create value for everybody. So any kind of merge in the future, with us, without us, I think that can create value.' • YouTube is the new television — but what is everyone watching? He got his start in TV more by luck than any well-engineered designs on his part — a far cry from most looking to break into the notoriously difficult industry, I point out. 'Different times,' he replies. A chance meeting with the manager of a local TV station while in his second year of university studies landed him a part-time assistant role near where he was studying in Milan. The station was among the first wave of private TV channels springing up in Italy in the late 1970s. He knew nothing of the practicalities of the job at first, he admits, but the offer of 300,000 lira a month — roughly £5,500 even in today's money — was far too tempting. 'So, I said, why not? I can invite my girlfriend to a better restaurant. I can buy another motorbike.' After graduating, he went full-time at a national station. But it was his time at Endemol, which he joined to oversee the launch of the independent TV producer in Italy in the late 1990s, that has proven most instrumental. It was there that he met Stéphane Courbit, the founder and chairman of Banijay Group, who eventually poached him, with the pair later working to acquire the Dutch-based production company several years later. Few have as good a bird's-eye view of the pressures facing the industry as Bassetti. After a post-pandemic boom in spending, traditional broadcasters have been particularly badly hit by a downturn in TV advertising and the rising cost of production, which has delayed the recovery from the Hollywood writers' strike in 2023. In general, commissioners are more 'picky', he tells me as our plates arrive, but they are more 'keen to experiment' with new formats than they have been during the past two years. Even among the major global streaming companies, while Netflix is in a 'super position', others are more cautious, as they focus more on profitability. Investment in more expensive, scripted TV has naturally been more badly hit. About 75 per cent of the content Banijay produces is reality. Bassetti thinks the shift on screen towards unscripted will continue. For streamers it will be a case of retaining audience by building out their catalogues; for public and commercial broadcasters it will be part of a push to attract viewers. But what does all this mean for the quality of TV? 'If quality is how much money you put on the screen, it's true. There is less money on the screen today than in the past.' However, it's slightly more nuanced, he tells me. 'It's not a matter of reality TV, it's a matter of which kind of language you use to tell a story, it's another way to tell a story. That's what it is. I don't see [there is] an overuse of reality. It's a language.' Perhaps it's not his place to say what's trash or not, as long as it grabs the audience. 'That's my point,' he shrugs. Are eyeballs more important than critical success? 'For us, the most important thing is that there will be a recommissioning of our shows. So, maybe, it's more eyeballs.' He points towards Big Brother, which became a global phenomenon. Tame by today's standards, but it raised eyebrows in some quarters and ushered in a new wave of TV. When Bassetti — then running the Italian business of Endemol, the show's producer — tried to bring Big Brother to his home country, it took a joint meeting with a Roman cardinal to morally reassure the TV station's devoutly Catholic commissioner to give the show the green light. 'Imagine how much it was criticised. It was huge. It's still there,' he reflects. As the plates are cleared, it transpires that Bassetti has a flight to catch back to Italy in a little over two hours. But the laid-back boss still reckons we have time for an espresso. TV-wise, he's personally into comedy or Scandi noir, and also gives a nod to the Belgian-French novelist Georges Simenon, inventor of Inspector Maigret, whose work he is currently listening to on Audible. He's also a big sports fan — naturally football, but also tennis, cycling and skiing. He used to compete in the slalom, skills honed through an upbringing near Lake Maggiore on the south side of the Alps, close to the Swiss border. Despite the numerous invitations, he's not a fan of awards ceremonies or glitzy red carpet events: 'The Emmys are super-boring, you stay there, sitting there for hours, clapping, speeches.' What about the show he wishes he had made? In reality, it's Traitors, for scripted it's Downton Abbey, he says. 'There is fantastic storytelling, a fantastic script, but also the concept is very good.' Age: 67Education: degree in political and social sciencesCareer: executive producer for Mondadori's Retequattro and Mediaset, 1980s; founded La Italiana Produzioni, 1986; founded Aran, 1989, and also chief executive of Pearson TV Italy, 1994-1997; founded Endemol Italy, 1997; became chief operation officer of Endemol Group, 2007, later president and then group chief executive; founded Ambra Multimedia, 2012; joined Banijay Entertainment as chief executive, 2013Family: Married with three children and two grandchildren Tuna niçoise £19Chargrilled peach salad £12French fries £6Rosemary focaccia £42 x burrata salad £242 x Diet Coke £82 x espresso £6 12.5% service charge: £10.67 Total: £89.67
Daily Mail
40 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
Halle Berry, 58, suffers a bikini malfunction as she LOSES her bottoms while dancing in hilarious clip
Halle Berry suffered a bikini malfunction on Thursday when she lost her bottoms during a dance routine. While on holiday in Switzerland, the actress, 58, showed off her moves to her boyfriend Van Hunt's new song. Wearing a white bikini with tie side bottoms she added a pair of square sunglasses and pranced about. But as Halle moved her bottoms came undone and fell to her knees with Van giggling from behind the camera. Seeing the fun in the mishap, she shared the fun video to Instagram and wrote: 'When your man's music is so good you just can't help yourself!' Halle added: 'Check out Van Hunt's new EP A Heart Full Of Questions streaming on all platforms. Elsewhere, Halle made some very candid comments about her love life during Jenna & Friends on the Today show on Wednesday. The Catwoman star said that the musician has already proposed to her as he wanted her to be Mrs Halle Van Hunt. But Halle, who has already been married three times, admitted that she said not so fast to his offer of matrimony. 'So I put out the proposal, and it's still on hold as you can see,' Van said as Berry laughed. 'It's just out there floating. You know, maybe you can encourage her.' Halle revealed she has not yet moved forward because of her past divorces, it turns out. 'Well, I've been married three times,' she said. 'Van has been married once, and so no, we don't feel like we have to get married to validate our love in any way. We don't.' 'But I think we will get married just because, out of the people I've been married to, this is the person I should have married.' Halle added: 'And I feel like I should, we should get married, but it's not because we feel like we have to. I think it's something that we would like to do just because we want that expression.' She also revealed her friends are all for them tying the knot. 'I think everybody's been really happy, at least for me personally, people have been like, "You finally found... !" I've always wanted what we have,' she said. Halle offered, 'I always saw myself in a committed, loving relationship with like my best friend, someone that I respect and I love.' The actress shares a daughter, Nahla, 17, with ex-boyfriend Gabriel Aubry, and a son Maceo, 11, with ex-husband Olivier Martinez, to whom she was married from 2013 to 2016. She was also previously married to former baseball pro David Justice from 1993 to 1997 and to musician Eric Benét from 2001 to 2005. Van has a son from a previous relationship.
