Final bash set to end lavish Bezos wedding party
Newlyweds Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and journalist Lauren Sanchez left their luxury hotel on Venice's Grand Canal for a final night of partying, crowning a three-day star-studded wedding extravaganza.
Bezos, 61, and Sanchez, 55, exchanged rings on Friday evening local time (Saturday morning AEST) 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 $US50 million ($A76 million) - was due to take place in the Arsenale, a former medieval shipyard in an eastern district of the lagoon city.
About 1000 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 colourful dressing gowns, before boarding small boats to reach the party.
Bezos and Sanchez had a more sober style. He was dressed in a black skirt and suit, while she had 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.
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 a 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 the centre-right mayor, adding that he hoped Bezos, who donated three million euros ($US3.51 million ($A5.4 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.
Newlyweds Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and journalist Lauren Sanchez left their luxury hotel on Venice's Grand Canal for a final night of partying, crowning a three-day star-studded wedding extravaganza.
Bezos, 61, and Sanchez, 55, exchanged rings on Friday evening local time (Saturday morning AEST) 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 $US50 million ($A76 million) - was due to take place in the Arsenale, a former medieval shipyard in an eastern district of the lagoon city.
About 1000 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 colourful dressing gowns, before boarding small boats to reach the party.
Bezos and Sanchez had a more sober style. He was dressed in a black skirt and suit, while she had 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.
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 a 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 the centre-right mayor, adding that he hoped Bezos, who donated three million euros ($US3.51 million ($A5.4 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.
Newlyweds Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and journalist Lauren Sanchez left their luxury hotel on Venice's Grand Canal for a final night of partying, crowning a three-day star-studded wedding extravaganza.
Bezos, 61, and Sanchez, 55, exchanged rings on Friday evening local time (Saturday morning AEST) 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 $US50 million ($A76 million) - was due to take place in the Arsenale, a former medieval shipyard in an eastern district of the lagoon city.
About 1000 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 colourful dressing gowns, before boarding small boats to reach the party.
Bezos and Sanchez had a more sober style. He was dressed in a black skirt and suit, while she had 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.
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 a 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 the centre-right mayor, adding that he hoped Bezos, who donated three million euros ($US3.51 million ($A5.4 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.
Newlyweds Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and journalist Lauren Sanchez left their luxury hotel on Venice's Grand Canal for a final night of partying, crowning a three-day star-studded wedding extravaganza.
Bezos, 61, and Sanchez, 55, exchanged rings on Friday evening local time (Saturday morning AEST) 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 $US50 million ($A76 million) - was due to take place in the Arsenale, a former medieval shipyard in an eastern district of the lagoon city.
About 1000 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 colourful dressing gowns, before boarding small boats to reach the party.
Bezos and Sanchez had a more sober style. He was dressed in a black skirt and suit, while she had 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.
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 a 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 the centre-right mayor, adding that he hoped Bezos, who donated three million euros ($US3.51 million ($A5.4 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.
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He said he hid in the bathroom during a break, and waited for the tour to move on without him, "then I had the entire lot to myself that day". "Our hope and dream is that it's not just the place that is founded on his extraordinary legacy," said Donna Langley, chairman of NBCUniversal Entertainment & Studios. "But it is the place of future hopes and dreams of filmmakers and storytellers who are going to take this company into the next 100 years and the 100 years after that, people who come with a hope and a dream, people who have been inspired by Steven." Spielberg's 2001 modest box office hit AI Artificial Intelligence was a meditation on love, loss and what it means to be human through the eyes of a discarded humanoid robot. In the Pinocchio-like journey set in a futuristic dystopia, David, the android boy, yearns to be human, searching for love, in a world of machines and artificial intelligence. The film hit screens when AI was still in its nascent stages and predated the launch of OpenAI's ChatGPT by 21 years. "It wasn't about artificial intelligence as much as it was about sentient existence, and can you love a sentient entity? Can a mother love a robot child?" Spielberg said. "It was not really where AI is taking us today. Eventually, there will be a convergence between AI and robotics." Spielberg said AI can be a great tool "if used responsibly and morally" to help find a cure for cancer and other diseases. "I just draw a line - and it's not a line of cement, it's just a little bit of line in the sand - which gives me some wiggle room to say (that) I have the option to revise this thinking in the future," he said. "But right now, I don't want AI making any creative decisions." He said he has seen, first-hand, how technology can replace human talent while working on the 1993 film Jurassic Park. Spielberg initially planned to use renowned stop-motion clay animation artist Phil Tippett to create the dinosaurs roaming the island theme park. Visual effects artist Dennis Muren proposed an alternative method, using Industrial Light & Magic's computer-generated imagery to create realistic dinosaurs. The director is an executive producer in Jurassic World: Rebirth which reaches theatres on July 2. "That kind of made certain careers somewhat extinct," Spielberg said. "So, I'm very sensitive to things that AI may do to take work away from people." Spielberg said he has yet to use AI on any of his films so far although he is open to possible applications of it behind-the-scenes, in functions like budgeting or planning. "I don't want to use it in front of the camera right now," Spielberg said. "Not quite yet." When Steven Spielberg directed the film AI Artificial Intelligence, the technology was the stuff of science fiction - a device to tell a story about the ethics of creating sentient machines. Now, AI is a concrete reality in Hollywood - one where Spielberg said he has drawn a line in the sand. "I don't want AI making any creative decisions that I can't make myself," Spielberg said in an interview with Reuters. "And I don't want to use AI as a non-human collaborator, in trying to work out my creative thinking." Spielberg spoke on Thursday after a ceremony dedicating the Steven Spielberg Theater on the Universal Studios lot. The event acknowledged the director's decades-long relationship with the studio, which released such films as Jaws, Jurassic Park, Schindler's List and E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. The acclaimed director joked that his career at Universal began in 1967, when he took a tour of the lot as a high school student. He said he hid in the bathroom during a break, and waited for the tour to move on without him, "then I had the entire lot to myself that day". "Our hope and dream is that it's not just the place that is founded on his extraordinary legacy," said Donna Langley, chairman of NBCUniversal Entertainment & Studios. "But it is the place of future hopes and dreams of filmmakers and storytellers who are going to take this company into the next 100 years and the 100 years after that, people who come with a hope and a dream, people who have been inspired by Steven." Spielberg's 2001 modest box office hit AI Artificial Intelligence was a meditation on love, loss and what it means to be human through the eyes of a discarded humanoid robot. In the Pinocchio-like journey set in a futuristic dystopia, David, the android boy, yearns to be human, searching for love, in a world of machines and artificial intelligence. The film hit screens when AI was still in its nascent stages and predated the launch of OpenAI's ChatGPT by 21 years. "It wasn't about artificial intelligence as much as it was about sentient existence, and can you love a sentient entity? Can a mother love a robot child?" Spielberg said. "It was not really where AI is taking us today. Eventually, there will be a convergence between AI and robotics." Spielberg said AI can be a great tool "if used responsibly and morally" to help find a cure for cancer and other diseases. "I just draw a line - and it's not a line of cement, it's just a little bit of line in the sand - which gives me some wiggle room to say (that) I have the option to revise this thinking in the future," he said. "But right now, I don't want AI making any creative decisions." He said he has seen, first-hand, how technology can replace human talent while working on the 1993 film Jurassic Park. Spielberg initially planned to use renowned stop-motion clay animation artist Phil Tippett to create the dinosaurs roaming the island theme park. Visual effects artist Dennis Muren proposed an alternative method, using Industrial Light & Magic's computer-generated imagery to create realistic dinosaurs. The director is an executive producer in Jurassic World: Rebirth which reaches theatres on July 2. "That kind of made certain careers somewhat extinct," Spielberg said. "So, I'm very sensitive to things that AI may do to take work away from people." Spielberg said he has yet to use AI on any of his films so far although he is open to possible applications of it behind-the-scenes, in functions like budgeting or planning. "I don't want to use it in front of the camera right now," Spielberg said. "Not quite yet." When Steven Spielberg directed the film AI Artificial Intelligence, the technology was the stuff of science fiction - a device to tell a story about the ethics of creating sentient machines. Now, AI is a concrete reality in Hollywood - one where Spielberg said he has drawn a line in the sand. "I don't want AI making any creative decisions that I can't make myself," Spielberg said in an interview with Reuters. "And I don't want to use AI as a non-human collaborator, in trying to work out my creative thinking." Spielberg spoke on Thursday after a ceremony dedicating the Steven Spielberg Theater on the Universal Studios lot. The event acknowledged the director's decades-long relationship with the studio, which released such films as Jaws, Jurassic Park, Schindler's List and E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. The acclaimed director joked that his career at Universal began in 1967, when he took a tour of the lot as a high school student. He said he hid in the bathroom during a break, and waited for the tour to move on without him, "then I had the entire lot to myself that day". "Our hope and dream is that it's not just the place that is founded on his extraordinary legacy," said Donna Langley, chairman of NBCUniversal Entertainment & Studios. "But it is the place of future hopes and dreams of filmmakers and storytellers who are going to take this company into the next 100 years and the 100 years after that, people who come with a hope and a dream, people who have been inspired by Steven." Spielberg's 2001 modest box office hit AI Artificial Intelligence was a meditation on love, loss and what it means to be human through the eyes of a discarded humanoid robot. In the Pinocchio-like journey set in a futuristic dystopia, David, the android boy, yearns to be human, searching for love, in a world of machines and artificial intelligence. The film hit screens when AI was still in its nascent stages and predated the launch of OpenAI's ChatGPT by 21 years. "It wasn't about artificial intelligence as much as it was about sentient existence, and can you love a sentient entity? Can a mother love a robot child?" Spielberg said. "It was not really where AI is taking us today. Eventually, there will be a convergence between AI and robotics." Spielberg said AI can be a great tool "if used responsibly and morally" to help find a cure for cancer and other diseases. "I just draw a line - and it's not a line of cement, it's just a little bit of line in the sand - which gives me some wiggle room to say (that) I have the option to revise this thinking in the future," he said. "But right now, I don't want AI making any creative decisions." He said he has seen, first-hand, how technology can replace human talent while working on the 1993 film Jurassic Park. Spielberg initially planned to use renowned stop-motion clay animation artist Phil Tippett to create the dinosaurs roaming the island theme park. Visual effects artist Dennis Muren proposed an alternative method, using Industrial Light & Magic's computer-generated imagery to create realistic dinosaurs. The director is an executive producer in Jurassic World: Rebirth which reaches theatres on July 2. "That kind of made certain careers somewhat extinct," Spielberg said. "So, I'm very sensitive to things that AI may do to take work away from people." Spielberg said he has yet to use AI on any of his films so far although he is open to possible applications of it behind-the-scenes, in functions like budgeting or planning. "I don't want to use it in front of the camera right now," Spielberg said. "Not quite yet." When Steven Spielberg directed the film AI Artificial Intelligence, the technology was the stuff of science fiction - a device to tell a story about the ethics of creating sentient machines. Now, AI is a concrete reality in Hollywood - one where Spielberg said he has drawn a line in the sand. "I don't want AI making any creative decisions that I can't make myself," Spielberg said in an interview with Reuters. "And I don't want to use AI as a non-human collaborator, in trying to work out my creative thinking." Spielberg spoke on Thursday after a ceremony dedicating the Steven Spielberg Theater on the Universal Studios lot. The event acknowledged the director's decades-long relationship with the studio, which released such films as Jaws, Jurassic Park, Schindler's List and E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. The acclaimed director joked that his career at Universal began in 1967, when he took a tour of the lot as a high school student. He said he hid in the bathroom during a break, and waited for the tour to move on without him, "then I had the entire lot to myself that day". "Our hope and dream is that it's not just the place that is founded on his extraordinary legacy," said Donna Langley, chairman of NBCUniversal Entertainment & Studios. "But it is the place of future hopes and dreams of filmmakers and storytellers who are going to take this company into the next 100 years and the 100 years after that, people who come with a hope and a dream, people who have been inspired by Steven." Spielberg's 2001 modest box office hit AI Artificial Intelligence was a meditation on love, loss and what it means to be human through the eyes of a discarded humanoid robot. In the Pinocchio-like journey set in a futuristic dystopia, David, the android boy, yearns to be human, searching for love, in a world of machines and artificial intelligence. 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Spielberg initially planned to use renowned stop-motion clay animation artist Phil Tippett to create the dinosaurs roaming the island theme park. Visual effects artist Dennis Muren proposed an alternative method, using Industrial Light & Magic's computer-generated imagery to create realistic dinosaurs. The director is an executive producer in Jurassic World: Rebirth which reaches theatres on July 2. "That kind of made certain careers somewhat extinct," Spielberg said. "So, I'm very sensitive to things that AI may do to take work away from people." Spielberg said he has yet to use AI on any of his films so far although he is open to possible applications of it behind-the-scenes, in functions like budgeting or planning. "I don't want to use it in front of the camera right now," Spielberg said. "Not quite yet."
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Scrawled in chalk above our heads: 'The best thing since sliced bread'. Sliced is crossed out, replaced with 'barbecued'. Truer words were never spoken, nor scrawled on a restaurant wall. The barbecued bread with whipped butter at Mt Hawthorn bar and wood-fired eatery Sonny's is the best thing since someone in the Middle East decided they had some grains to grind 14,000 years ago. The charred carbs arrived straight from head chef Sofika Boulton's kitchen, smelling like campfire and served with butter so light it threatened to float away like a dandelion. Opened late 2022 in a former Commonwealth Bank branch by experienced Perth bar and restaurant manager Jessica Blyth, who named the joint after her rescue greyhound, this Mt Hawthorn favourite feels like a hipster's retro lounge room. Ferns, monsteras and other pot plants compete for space among bric-a-brac. Yves Klein art prints and provocative Grace Jones posters adorn walls. Sonny's menu switches up every few weeks, sometimes small tweaks, other times it's entirely fresh dishes. Boulton uses ingredients from her own or local gardens. Blyth gives the chef complete creative freedom in the cramped kitchen. After the bread to end all bread, we had the raw beef ($24). This turned out to be Italian-style steak tartare, or carne cruda. Sonny's in Mt Hawthorn. Credit: Supplied Boulton dry ages a whole sirloin in the diner's cool room for a week to reduce moisture and enhance flavour, before the meat is hand-diced, then dressed with a yuzu and Meyer lemon vinaigrette. The cruda is then served with a warm butter emulsion and covered in shaved pecorino and toasted pepper. Citrus prevents the chunky-cut steak and egg yolk from being too rich. This dish is the best tartare in town, and I can't believe it's not tartare! The grilled market fish was a coral trout, caught in Exmouth, and served with roast chicken butter and hand-harvested Goolwa pipis from South Australia ($40). The gorgeously firm fillet of fish was enhanced by the sweet, nutty saltwater clams, while diners should save some barbecued bread to mop up every, single, last drop of the savoury beurre blanc. All three sides sounded delectable but, on Blyth's recommendation, we nabbed the slow-smoked aubergine with macadamia butter — yes, Boulton uses a lot of butter. She knows what side her bread is … something something … on. Anyway, macadamia butter made from grilled eggplant purees plus blitzed raw macadamia nuts, seasoned with sherry vinegar, was piped onto the slow-smoked vegetable, which was surprisingly chewy. A must-have side dish for $18. The one misfire of Boulton's rustic yet spectacular cookery was the charcoaled kipfler potato with smoked butter (more butter!) and Geraldton wax ($18). Sliced lengthways, the spud was too hard, too dull, too bland. Too bad, because the rest of our meal had us in raptures. Did I mention the bread and butter? Sonny's in Mt Hawthorn. Credit: Supplied For dessert we had the Basque cheesecake, which had a burnt top sprinkled with salt — basically, salted caramel. Under the lid, the cake had perfect consistency, creamy but firm. The best $16 you'll spend all year. You'd struggle to find a better iteration from Bilbao to Pamplona. We paired the cheesecake with a delicious Pedro Ximenez from Chouette in the Swan Valley, a solera blend going back to when Pedro Almodovar released High Heels. Readers may recall I reviewed Sonny's about two years ago. Why have I returned so soon? Two reasons. Firstly, Boulton is rightly regarded as one of Perth's best and brightest culinary talents. Last time I ate here, she was working at Bar Rogue, which has also been reviewed. (Head to the Food Hub section of to sift through 600-plus restaurant reviews.) Clearly, her love of fresh produce, fermentation and wood-fired cooking is sympatico with what Blyth hopes to achieve in her impressive first foray as a restaurant owner and operator. Secondly, it's a great room, great service and now truly great food. While it might be named after a pooch, Sonny's has not gone to the dogs. Sonny's in Mt Hawthorn. Credit: Supplied 126 Hobart St, Mount Hawthorn Wednesday-Thursday, 4pm-late. Friday-Sunday, midday-late. Yes Super cool neighbourhood bar and restaurant. Two years after opening, Sonny's hums along with excellent wood-fired dishes and a vibrant drinks list. If you can't decide what you want from the concise and ever-changing menu, go for the $70 per person chef's selection.
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- Perth Now
Spielberg opposed to using AI in front of the camera
When Steven Spielberg directed the film AI Artificial Intelligence, the technology was the stuff of science fiction - a device to tell a story about the ethics of creating sentient machines. Now, AI is a concrete reality in Hollywood - one where Spielberg said he has drawn a line in the sand. "I don't want AI making any creative decisions that I can't make myself," Spielberg said in an interview with Reuters. "And I don't want to use AI as a non-human collaborator, in trying to work out my creative thinking." Spielberg spoke on Thursday after a ceremony dedicating the Steven Spielberg Theater on the Universal Studios lot. The event acknowledged the director's decades-long relationship with the studio, which released such films as Jaws, Jurassic Park, Schindler's List and E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. The acclaimed director joked that his career at Universal began in 1967, when he took a tour of the lot as a high school student. He said he hid in the bathroom during a break, and waited for the tour to move on without him, "then I had the entire lot to myself that day". "Our hope and dream is that it's not just the place that is founded on his extraordinary legacy," said Donna Langley, chairman of NBCUniversal Entertainment & Studios. "But it is the place of future hopes and dreams of filmmakers and storytellers who are going to take this company into the next 100 years and the 100 years after that, people who come with a hope and a dream, people who have been inspired by Steven." Spielberg's 2001 modest box office hit AI Artificial Intelligence was a meditation on love, loss and what it means to be human through the eyes of a discarded humanoid robot. In the Pinocchio-like journey set in a futuristic dystopia, David, the android boy, yearns to be human, searching for love, in a world of machines and artificial intelligence. The film hit screens when AI was still in its nascent stages and predated the launch of OpenAI's ChatGPT by 21 years. "It wasn't about artificial intelligence as much as it was about sentient existence, and can you love a sentient entity? Can a mother love a robot child?" Spielberg said. "It was not really where AI is taking us today. Eventually, there will be a convergence between AI and robotics." Spielberg said AI can be a great tool "if used responsibly and morally" to help find a cure for cancer and other diseases. "I just draw a line - and it's not a line of cement, it's just a little bit of line in the sand - which gives me some wiggle room to say (that) I have the option to revise this thinking in the future," he said. "But right now, I don't want AI making any creative decisions." He said he has seen, first-hand, how technology can replace human talent while working on the 1993 film Jurassic Park. Spielberg initially planned to use renowned stop-motion clay animation artist Phil Tippett to create the dinosaurs roaming the island theme park. Visual effects artist Dennis Muren proposed an alternative method, using Industrial Light & Magic's computer-generated imagery to create realistic dinosaurs. The director is an executive producer in Jurassic World: Rebirth which reaches theatres on July 2. "That kind of made certain careers somewhat extinct," Spielberg said. "So, I'm very sensitive to things that AI may do to take work away from people." Spielberg said he has yet to use AI on any of his films so far although he is open to possible applications of it behind-the-scenes, in functions like budgeting or planning. "I don't want to use it in front of the camera right now," Spielberg said. "Not quite yet."
