White House lashes out at 'South Park' Trump parody
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South China Morning Post
a day ago
- South China Morning Post
From Naomi Watts to Graydon Carter, 5 celebrity memoirs worth your time
Perhaps it's due to a collective nostalgia for glory years we did or didn't experience, a necessary source of escapism in rather grim times, or because we really do want to find out if celebrities are just like us, but recent years have witnessed a boom in celebrity memoirs. Not just celebrities either, but high-profile editors, tycoons and assorted influential people have been putting pen to paper (or their memoirists and ghostwriters have) to capture not only their life and work, but also the culture surrounding them. For what makes a memoir interesting? Well, for one, it needs to be juicy. We need some tidbits; there must be proximity to celebrity and/or glamour, perhaps a redemption arc and an insight into the world at large through the eyes of said person. The current, well, vogue for books about those high up in the pecking order at publishing behemoth Condé Nast is a case in point. Everybody is talking about When the Going Was Good by Graydon Carter, the former long-time editor of Vanity Fair, for precisely these reasons. The days of limitless budgets and town cars are well and truly over for most publishing houses – but oh boy, we really do want to read about when the days really were that good. Celebrity memoirs worth reading include that of Diane von Furstenberg's openly gay husband, media tycoon Barry Diller. Photo: AFP Advertisement Ultimately, we want to read the truth of someone – without all the edges sawn off – and in reading about someone else we might learn something about ourselves too. Here are five star-powered memoirs worth the read. When the Going Was Good – Graydon Carter When the Going Was Good: An Editor's Adventures During the Last Golden Age of Magazines, by former Vanity Fair editor-in-chief Graydon Carter. Photo: Handout For 25 years Graydon Carter was the editor-in-chief of Condé Nast jewel Vanity Fair, right when it was the nerve centre of culture, celebrity, business and scandal. As Carter dishes in this glossy and rather delightful memoir (ghostwritten by journalist James Fox), the going really was good. The best bits are the insights into a very different media landscape (unlimited budgets! Town cars!) and into the big personalities Carter came across, and occasionally sparred with. Donald Trump and Vogue's Anna Wintour are particularly notable ones. It's as much an ode to magazines at their most glorious as it is a how-to in living well. Who Knew – Barry Diller Who Knew, by Barry Diller, the former CEO of Paramount Pictures who also launched the Fox TV network – and married Diane von Furstenberg. Photo: Handout
RTHK
3 days ago
- RTHK
Comic-Con 2025 wraps up in San Diego
Comic-Con 2025 wraps up in San Diego Cosplay fans gather at San Diego Comic-Con 2025, which ran from July 24-27 at the San Diego Convention Center. Photo: RTHK RTHK's San Francisco correspondent Mark Niu reports from Comic-Con One of the world's largest conventions on pop culture wrapped up on Sunday in the US city of San Diego. The Comic-Con International 2025 brought out the stars and plenty of costumes. An estimated 150,000 people filled the convention halls to celebrate their favourite comic books, TV shows, games, and movies. Hollywood actor and wrestler John Cena put in an appearance to discuss the upcoming season of his superhero series The Peacemaker. Cena appeared in the title character's full comic costume and grand helmet, leading the legions in the kind of exaggerated drama he was perfect at provoking in his wrestling days. The crowd saw scenes from Season 2, which arrives in August and sees Cena entering another dimension where he gets to be a cool version of the hero instead of the often pained version that's typical of the character. Some characters from Superman will make appearances. Over the weekend, the cast of Bad Guys 2 teased new footage from the movie and described how they recorded their characters. Marc Maron, who plays Snake, joked that he asked to be tied up as he performed his lines on the floor. 'The depth of the character should read a little more this time,' he said. The film, based on the graphic novel series by Aaron Blabey, introduces a new crew of animal criminals, the Bad Girls played by Danielle Brooks, Natasha Lyonne and Maria Bakalova. Paramount showed off its first footage from a new series, Starfleet Academy, which stars Holly Hunter and Paul Giamatti. The show follows cadets as they go through training, with Hunter serving as chancellor of the academy. It will arrive in 2026, the 60th anniversary year of the original Star Trek series. Fans also got sneak previews of Five Nights at Freddy's 2, the upcoming FX series Alien: Earth and Predator: Badlands, which will be in theatres in November. Creating every bit as much excitement among fans was the Chinese company Pop Mart, selling the latest version of the hugely-popular Labubu dolls. Kathy Rheinhardt says she had to sign up for an online lottery several weeks ago to book an appointment, then show up at a time slot to stand in a queue that appeared to have at least 100 people. 'I want the pink one and the purple one. They're blind boxes, so you don't know what you get till you open it, but it makes it exciting", she said. Among the vendors on the floor were also mom-and-pop-style stalls, such as Artistic Flavorz owned by Filippina-American Joanne Zamudio. Customers there could get colorful T-shirts, stickers, and unique enamel pins, including one in the form of an Ube ice cream bin that opens to reveal chicken adobo stored inside. 75 percent of Artistic Flavorz' products are manufactured in China and therefore being hit by US tariffs. 'It is more difficult because we have to pay an extra on top of that without raising our prices, because we don't feel like we should, you know, affect what our consumer has to pay just because we have to pay more. So we're kind of just like biting the bullet right now,' said Joanne Zamudio, co-owner of Artistic Flavorz. Another important section to visit was the famed Artists Alley, where hundreds of artists - drawing everything from SpiderMan to Star Wars - sell their personal works. But these days artists like Salvador Velazquez from Mexico said they were concerned about the growing threat of generative AI. 'Anyone can paint just with this right amount of time dedicated to it. And with generative AI, you don't get that. You may get, a nice shot of any picture, but it's stolen and you lose yourself the whole experience of creating it yourself,' said Velazquez. (additional reporting from AP)
The Standard
6 days ago
- The Standard
White House lashes out at 'South Park' Trump parody
SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA - JULY 24: Character cut-outs are seen at Paramount+'s South Park In San Diego event during 2025 San Diego Comic-Con on July 24, 2025 in San Diego, Paramount+/AFP (Photo by Jon Kopaloff / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / Getty Images via AFP)
