‘90s bombshell Tia Carrere, 58, looks half her age in plunging purple gown
Tia Carrere was an ageless beauty in a floor-length, plunging royal purple gown at an event on Tuesday — over three decades after starring in iconic '90s comedy Wayne's World.
Carrere, 58, wowed as she stepped onto the red carpet at the 2025 Scientific and Technical Awards at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in Los Angeles.
The AJ and the Queen beauty accessorised the eye-catching dress with a jewelled hairpiece, metallic handbag, and embellished stiletto heels.
While posing for photographers, she flashed the smile that made her famous as rocker Cassandra in the 1992 hit comedy.
Carrere played the bombshell guitarist and singer opposite Saturday Night Live stars Mike Myers and Dana Carvey as Wayne and Garth — characters they originated on the late-night sketch comedy show.
In a March interview, the Hawaii-born performer called Wayne's World a 'pop culture moment,' but admitted nobody thought it would become a hit.
'It was the tiniest movie that Paramount shot that year,' Carrere told For Women First.
'It was low-budget, and we only had a few takes of each scene. Nobody knew what they had, since it was still pretty untested ground for an SNL sketch to become a film,' she continued.
'We were running by the seat of our pants, and it was incredible to see the phenomenon that it became, but nobody expected it. It was really a pop culture moment.'
The Dancing With the Stars star also divulged that she'd grown attached to her fierce character who captured Wayne's heart.
'It was a powerful young female role, and I think a lot of women responded to it because she was unapologetically her own person,' she said of the character. 'I love Cassandra.'
Carrere is featured in the movie slaying a number of distinctly '90s fashions — including a red lace mini dress from LA's Trashy Lingerie.
Of the iconic red dress, styled with opera gloves and huge '90s hoop earrings, Carrere quipped 'It's crazy. It should be in a museum.'
The mum of one, who played the voice of Nani in 2002's animated Lilo & Stitch, is set to appear in Disney's live-action adaptation this year.
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Sydney Morning Herald
17 hours ago
- Sydney Morning Herald
These images have one thing in common. Can you guess what it is?
When people first encounter the art of Charles Brooks, they're invariably impressed – if a little perplexed. Some of his works recall the grand pillars of ancient Roman architecture, or volcanic caves forged by fiery explosions. Others resemble the types of precious metals one expects to find inside a pirate's treasure chest, or old-fashioned rooms with peculiar Alice in Wonderland -style dimensions. Many admirers assume these images were created on a computer, perhaps with the aid of artificial intelligence. Some might mistake them for photorealist illustrations. Few realise they are actually photographs – and they all have one thing in common. Brooks, 47, is a Melbourne-based photographer who specialises in capturing the interiors of musical instruments. It's a highly technical endeavour that involves a laparoscope – a thin, tube-like camera used in keyhole surgery – in addition to multiple light sources, sophisticated editing software, infrared thermometers and sacks of rice. Brooks is the only person in this world who uses this technique, which he developed himself. 'It started during the COVID lockdowns,' he explains when I visit him at his Hawthorn apartment to observe him at work. 'All these musicians started losing jobs, so they decided to put their instruments into the repair shop. I took the opportunity to go in with my probe lenses and play around, but I never thought it would become a whole thing.' When Brooks posted an early photo on Reddit, revealing the interior of a friend's 245-year-old cello, he expected to sell a handful of prints. But over the past few years, his extraordinary images have been reproduced an estimated 20 million times in newspapers and magazines across the world. What began as a niche pursuit is now his full-time occupation. In partnership with the Australian World Orchestra, which will perform Mahler's 4th and 5th symphonies in Melbourne and Sydney in September, Brooks is photographing two instruments on this crisp winter's morning: a cello, circa mid-1700s, and a viola made in the 1910s. AWO cellist Molly Kadarauch looks suitably nervous as she hands over her instrument, which was crafted by Pietro Antonio Testore, a member of Milan's highly regarded Testore family. 'I've had it since 1989,' she says. 'There are a couple of cracks, which devalued it, so it's been under extensive repair.' Kadarauch breathes a sigh of relief when she learns that Brooks is a former professional musician himself, having held principal cello positions in China, Chile and Brazil. He passes her cello to Bendigo-born violin maker Rainer Beilharz, who sets about cleaning its interior by pouring dry rice through the F-holes on either side of its bridge – so named because they resemble a cursive F – before gently shaking it and tipping the grains back out. 'Stradivarius himself would have done this,' Beilharz explains. 'It's a time-honoured technique, which is why no one messes with it.' Brooks places the cello on a felt-covered table, which is surrounded by three flash bulbs. He hands Kadarauch the thermometer gun, inserts his laparoscope – which he has modified to capture high-resolution images – and begins shooting. 'These are intensely powerful lights, so they put out a lot of heat,' he says as he instructs Kadarauch to alert him if the temperature nears 30 degrees. 'I have to wait eight to 10 seconds between each photograph so I don't boil the varnish.' It's a painstaking process, requiring up to 300 individual photographs. Afterwards, he will stitch them together on his computer, allowing every detail to remain in sharp focus. 'I use all kinds of software to blend together the bits that are in focus, which is why parts of the image are angled,' he says. 'It'll probably take me three hours just to do the photos, then another week to put them together.' As Australian World Orchestra violist Lisa Grosman awaits her turn, Brooks mentions that he recently photographed a 1717 Stradivarius, which is on loan to her AWO colleague, Daniel Dodds. 'It's a $20 million violin, so you have to take every possible precaution,' he says, explaining how Beilharz carefully dismantled the end pin, bridge, strings and tailpiece in preparation for the shoot. 'These instruments are held together by tension instead of glue, because glue would dampen the vibrations. When I remove that tension, there's a chance the sound post – the dowel in the centre that transfers vibrations, which is often called the 'soul' of a violin – could just tip over. That's why I need a luthier [a maker of string instruments] to get everything precisely back in place, because even if you move something by a millimetre, it really changes the sound. 'Thankfully, I've never actually had one fall over.' Brooks, who hails from New Zealand, began photographing the night sky about 10 years ago. 'Astrophotographers often want to capture the whole Milky Way, but it's hard to get in a single shot because it arches from one horizon to the other,' he says. 'You have to move the lens this way and that, over and over. Now, I use those techniques when I'm photographing instruments. In both cases, you're trying to uncover hidden spaces and show details that you wouldn't normally see.' Over the years, Brooks has documented the interiors of grand pianos, flutes, guitars, pipe organs, saxophones, clarinets, French horns and even a didgeridoo. 'I was expecting to see a wooden instrument that had been chiselled out by hand,' he says. 'But of course, it's an incredible organic structure because it's deliberately hollowed out by termites, which is why it looks like a cave.' Each time he peers inside an instrument, he unlocks its secrets. 'You'll find repairs and tool marks and even the writing of Stradivarius himself,' he says. 'You might discover thin wooden veneers that are a preventative measure against cracking, or you'll see scratches from cleaning or the signatures of people who've repaired a cello or a viola. 'When you look inside an instrument, you're looking at its history.' The Australian World Orchestra performs Mahler 4 & 5 on September 3 in Melbourne and September 4 in Sydney. Tickets: WHY THE AUSTRALIAN WORLD ORCHESTRA IS 'THE SUPER BOWL OF CLASSICAL MUSIC' In 2010, Alexander Briger founded the Australian World Orchestra with a simple aim: to allow homegrown musicians who currently play in the world's best orchestras – from the Berlin Philharmonic to the London Symphony – to perform together for one week each year. 'It's a bit like seeing the Rolling Stones live, or the best two tennis players in the Wimbledon final,' says Briger, who serves as the AWO's chief conductor and artistic director. 'Most orchestras are like well-oiled machines because the musicians play together every day, but we run on excitement and tension and electricity. We're not the Berlin Philharmonic; we have a completely different energy.' The AWO's musicians agree: previous members have described it as 'having a school camp vibe in the best possible way', 'like the Australian Youth Orchestra, but with wrinkles' and 'the Super Bowl of classical music'. On September 3, the AWO will perform Gustav Mahler's 4th and 5th symphonies at Hamer Hall. This will be the first time these works have been performed in a single evening in the Southern Hemisphere – and the AWO will do it all again the following night at the Sydney Opera House. All up, that's four hours of Mahler in just 48 hours. This is no mean feat, given these symphonies have been described as 'capturing almost the full range of human emotions between them'.
The Age
17 hours ago
- The Age
These images have one thing in common. Can you guess what it is?
When people first encounter the art of Charles Brooks, they're invariably impressed – if a little perplexed. Some of his works recall the grand pillars of ancient Roman architecture, or volcanic caves forged by fiery explosions. Others resemble the types of precious metals one expects to find inside a pirate's treasure chest, or old-fashioned rooms with peculiar Alice in Wonderland -style dimensions. Many admirers assume these images were created on a computer, perhaps with the aid of artificial intelligence. Some might mistake them for photorealist illustrations. Few realise they are actually photographs – and they all have one thing in common. Brooks, 47, is a Melbourne-based photographer who specialises in capturing the interiors of musical instruments. It's a highly technical endeavour that involves a laparoscope – a thin, tube-like camera used in keyhole surgery – in addition to multiple light sources, sophisticated editing software, infrared thermometers and sacks of rice. Brooks is the only person in this world who uses this technique, which he developed himself. 'It started during the COVID lockdowns,' he explains when I visit him at his Hawthorn apartment to observe him at work. 'All these musicians started losing jobs, so they decided to put their instruments into the repair shop. I took the opportunity to go in with my probe lenses and play around, but I never thought it would become a whole thing.' When Brooks posted an early photo on Reddit, revealing the interior of a friend's 245-year-old cello, he expected to sell a handful of prints. But over the past few years, his extraordinary images have been reproduced an estimated 20 million times in newspapers and magazines across the world. What began as a niche pursuit is now his full-time occupation. In partnership with the Australian World Orchestra, which will perform Mahler's 4th and 5th symphonies in Melbourne and Sydney in September, Brooks is photographing two instruments on this crisp winter's morning: a cello, circa mid-1700s, and a viola made in the 1910s. AWO cellist Molly Kadarauch looks suitably nervous as she hands over her instrument, which was crafted by Pietro Antonio Testore, a member of Milan's highly regarded Testore family. 'I've had it since 1989,' she says. 'There are a couple of cracks, which devalued it, so it's been under extensive repair.' Kadarauch breathes a sigh of relief when she learns that Brooks is a former professional musician himself, having held principal cello positions in China, Chile and Brazil. He passes her cello to Bendigo-born violin maker Rainer Beilharz, who sets about cleaning its interior by pouring dry rice through the F-holes on either side of its bridge – so named because they resemble a cursive F – before gently shaking it and tipping the grains back out. 'Stradivarius himself would have done this,' Beilharz explains. 'It's a time-honoured technique, which is why no one messes with it.' Brooks places the cello on a felt-covered table, which is surrounded by three flash bulbs. He hands Kadarauch the thermometer gun, inserts his laparoscope – which he has modified to capture high-resolution images – and begins shooting. 'These are intensely powerful lights, so they put out a lot of heat,' he says as he instructs Kadarauch to alert him if the temperature nears 30 degrees. 'I have to wait eight to 10 seconds between each photograph so I don't boil the varnish.' It's a painstaking process, requiring up to 300 individual photographs. Afterwards, he will stitch them together on his computer, allowing every detail to remain in sharp focus. 'I use all kinds of software to blend together the bits that are in focus, which is why parts of the image are angled,' he says. 'It'll probably take me three hours just to do the photos, then another week to put them together.' As Australian World Orchestra violist Lisa Grosman awaits her turn, Brooks mentions that he recently photographed a 1717 Stradivarius, which is on loan to her AWO colleague, Daniel Dodds. 'It's a $20 million violin, so you have to take every possible precaution,' he says, explaining how Beilharz carefully dismantled the end pin, bridge, strings and tailpiece in preparation for the shoot. 'These instruments are held together by tension instead of glue, because glue would dampen the vibrations. When I remove that tension, there's a chance the sound post – the dowel in the centre that transfers vibrations, which is often called the 'soul' of a violin – could just tip over. That's why I need a luthier [a maker of string instruments] to get everything precisely back in place, because even if you move something by a millimetre, it really changes the sound. 'Thankfully, I've never actually had one fall over.' Brooks, who hails from New Zealand, began photographing the night sky about 10 years ago. 'Astrophotographers often want to capture the whole Milky Way, but it's hard to get in a single shot because it arches from one horizon to the other,' he says. 'You have to move the lens this way and that, over and over. Now, I use those techniques when I'm photographing instruments. In both cases, you're trying to uncover hidden spaces and show details that you wouldn't normally see.' Over the years, Brooks has documented the interiors of grand pianos, flutes, guitars, pipe organs, saxophones, clarinets, French horns and even a didgeridoo. 'I was expecting to see a wooden instrument that had been chiselled out by hand,' he says. 'But of course, it's an incredible organic structure because it's deliberately hollowed out by termites, which is why it looks like a cave.' Each time he peers inside an instrument, he unlocks its secrets. 'You'll find repairs and tool marks and even the writing of Stradivarius himself,' he says. 'You might discover thin wooden veneers that are a preventative measure against cracking, or you'll see scratches from cleaning or the signatures of people who've repaired a cello or a viola. 'When you look inside an instrument, you're looking at its history.' The Australian World Orchestra performs Mahler 4 & 5 on September 3 in Melbourne and September 4 in Sydney. Tickets: WHY THE AUSTRALIAN WORLD ORCHESTRA IS 'THE SUPER BOWL OF CLASSICAL MUSIC' In 2010, Alexander Briger founded the Australian World Orchestra with a simple aim: to allow homegrown musicians who currently play in the world's best orchestras – from the Berlin Philharmonic to the London Symphony – to perform together for one week each year. 'It's a bit like seeing the Rolling Stones live, or the best two tennis players in the Wimbledon final,' says Briger, who serves as the AWO's chief conductor and artistic director. 'Most orchestras are like well-oiled machines because the musicians play together every day, but we run on excitement and tension and electricity. We're not the Berlin Philharmonic; we have a completely different energy.' The AWO's musicians agree: previous members have described it as 'having a school camp vibe in the best possible way', 'like the Australian Youth Orchestra, but with wrinkles' and 'the Super Bowl of classical music'. On September 3, the AWO will perform Gustav Mahler's 4th and 5th symphonies at Hamer Hall. This will be the first time these works have been performed in a single evening in the Southern Hemisphere – and the AWO will do it all again the following night at the Sydney Opera House. All up, that's four hours of Mahler in just 48 hours. This is no mean feat, given these symphonies have been described as 'capturing almost the full range of human emotions between them'.
Sky News AU
18 hours ago
- Sky News AU
Boston TV news anchor claims she lost gig because she's white - blames CBS ‘DEI agenda'
A TV anchor at a local CBS station in Boston claims she was demoted from her job because she is a white woman — and alleged she fell victim to a 'DEI agenda' that was raging out of control across the Tiffany Network, according to a bombshell lawsuit. Katherine Merrill Dunham, a longtime anchor for CBS affiliate WBZ-TV known on air as Kate Merrill, filed suit against the station's corporate parents CBS and Paramount Global this month alleging that she was run out of the newsroom to satisfy corporate diversity quotas. The 51-year-old Emmy Award-winning broadcaster, who is married to ex-Rangers goalie Mike Dunham, stunned viewers last year when she quit the station without explanation. In her Aug. 5 suit filed in Boston federal court, Merrill alleged she was targeted by managers who said the morning show was 'too white' and by co-workers who filed 'malicious' race-based complaints against her. The lawsuit cites exclusive reporting by The Post of then-CBS News president Ingrid Ciprian-Matthews, who was accused of using her clout to promote minorities while unfairly sidelining white journalists during her tenure. Her downfall began, she claims, after Paramount and CBS rolled out sweeping diversity mandates in response to past allegations of racism. Executives allegedly described WBZ as 'the whitest of all their stations' and vowed to allow only minority hires. Dominican-born Ciprian Mathew was named as president of CBS News in August 2023 despite being the subject of an internal probe by the company in 2021 over her alleged hiring practices, The Post reported. 'WBZ-TV exploited such policies and took career-ending action against Ms. Merrill to advance a DEI agenda,' according to the complaint. Ciprian-Matthews stepped down in July of last year. Paramount scrapped its controversial DEI programs earlier this year ahead of its deal with Skydance after President Trump-nominated FCC Chair Brendan Carr reportedly vowed to block any mergers involving companies that held firm to 'woke' policies. According to the complaint, the trouble started when Jason Mikell, a black co-worker and meteorologist at WBZ, allegedly 'made an inappropriate sexual innuendo about' Merrill 'on air' in February of last year when he 'implied that Ms. Merrill and her co-anchor had sexual relations at a gazebo.' The lawsuit alleges that despite complaints to supervisors by Merrill's executive producer, Mikell 'was not disciplined for his sexually charged remark about Ms. Merrill.' A few weeks later in April of last year, after she privately texted him to correct a mispronunciation of 'Concord,' Mikell allegedly 'loudly yelled at her on the studio floor,' according to the suit. Merrill claims she immediately complained to human resources — but a week later, Paramount's HR chief informed her that Mikell and Courtney Cole, a black anchor hired by WBZ in 2022, had accused her of racial bias. After 20 years at the station, the Emmy-winning broadcaster charges that she was branded a racist, demoted in public and forced into a 'constructive discharge resignation'. On May 17, 2024, Michael Roderick, vice president of employee relations at Paramount, issued a report finding Merrill had engaged in 'microaggressions or unconscious bias.' WBZ President and GM Justin Draper handed her a written warning requiring unconscious bias training and threatening termination if she slipped again, according to the complaint. The next day, Draper allegedly blindsided her with news she was being demoted from morning anchor to weekends — a move he announced in two staff meetings, the lawsuit alleged. 'Demoting Ms. Merrill in the context of the investigation sent the false message to her professional colleagues that she had engaged in serious wrongdoing,' the lawsuit said. Union leaders told Merrill that the demotion constituted 'career sabotage' and she would 'never recover.' Facing what she called a career-ending blow, Merrill resigned May 24, 2024. The suit alleged male and minority colleagues were spared similar punishment for misconduct. It cites Mikell's innuendo and an incident in which a black reporter allegedly 'physically threw' a co-worker against a wall. None were demoted, according to the filing. According to Merrill's lawsuit, Mikell lodged a complaint against her in which he falsely accused her of making racially charged comments, including one in which she allegedly told him that after his hiring he would 'find his people' in Boston. The lawsuit alleged that Mikell complained after she failed to ask him 'about his weekend, an omission he apparently attributed to his race…' The complaint also mentions another incident in which she suggested he could be a garbage collector while a co-anchor joked he could pick strawberries during an on-air bit. Merrill denied 'any of her actions, inactions, or comments were as described or motivated by overt racism or unconscious bias.' Merrill, a Carlisle, Mass. native and Concord resident, launched her career in 1996 and joined WBZ in 2004. She became co-anchor of 'WBZ This Morning' and 'WBZ News at Noon' in 2017. The filing touts her spotless record, 'extraordinary reputation' and a résumé that included coverage of the Boston Marathon bombing, Democratic National Convention, Red Sox World Series win and Patriots Super Bowls. 'For more than 20 years, Ms. Merrill worked closely, virtually daily, with colleagues regardless of race,' the filing states, attaching photos of her with black colleagues. 'She is anti-racist.' In 2022, WBZ hired Cole and Japanese American anchor Chris Tanaka, demoting white colleagues in the process. In 2023, black meteorologist Mikell joined the station, replacing Zack Green, a white forecaster, according to the complaint. Her WBZ contract — which runs until June 2025 — contains a non-compete clause, blocking her from working elsewhere in TV until it expires. She says she has suffered 'significant financial losses' and reputational damage, and that WBZ still has not paid her for 20 unused vacation days. The Post has sought comment from Merrill's attorneys, Patricia Washienko and Allison Williard; WBZ-TV; CBS; Paramount Global; Draper; Mikell; Cole and Roderick. Originally published as Boston TV news anchor claims she lost gig because she's white - blames CBS 'DEI agenda'
