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Los Angeles Times
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Los Angeles Times
The director behind Glambot explains why the red carpet mainstay still matters
Jackie Chan wielding panda bear plushies at the 89th Academy Awards. Brad Pitt serving duck face at the 92nd. Anya Taylor-Joy's otherworldly hair flip just last year. These are some of the most iconic Glambot videos shot by director Cole Walliser, who has been operating E!'s high-speed red carpet camera, a staple of awards season, since 2016. It was a much different entertainment landscape then, before #MeToo and #AskHerMore, the latter of which Walliser says he's inoculated from by virtue of the slo-mo clips the Glambot generates. 'For better or worse, it doesn't allow me to ask more!' he chuckles from his Venice Beach office six weeks out from this year's Emmys, which will be Walliser's 10th, though he admits he's ignorant of the nominees. 'I try to stay tuned out to who's nominated and who's coming because I don't want to get nervous,' he tells The Envelope. Walliser, whose résumé includes music videos for Pink, Katy Perry and Tinashe and commercials for CoverGirl cosmetics, saw early on with Glambot that celebrity culture was poised to break out beyond red carpet telecasts and tabloid magazines: 'If I look forward five years, what's the climate going to be?' he recalls thinking. 'It was very clear that it was going to be more on socials. So I thought, 'If I start now I can be [ahead] of the curve.'' Nor is he concerned about the growing presence of influencers in the awards space, whether in the form of now-regular campaign stops like 'Hot Ones' and 'Chicken Shop Date' to the red carpet itself. After all, Glambot is the ultimate short-form content, coming in at one second apiece, and helped pave the way for such successors. 'Part of what people gravitate to with the Glambot is the candid [nature of it],' Walliser says. 'There's a barrier that is broken down that people seem to enjoy.' It took him a few years to arrive at the synergy between slow-motion clips and behind-the-scenes content that gives the Glambot a second life on social media during the six months outside of the awards season churn. 'It happened organically,' Walliser says, when he asked his assistant to be prepared to take a photo of him and Chan, whom Walliser grew up watching in Vancouver, if the opportunity arose. Ultimately, 'it didn't feel right, so I didn't ask for a picture.' But unknown to Walliser, his assistant had been surreptitiously filming footage of Walliser directing Chan. He asked her to do it a few more times with other big celebrities. 'Seeing how it works in real time was kind of interesting, so I cut it together and put it [online]. 'It wasn't until the 2020 awards season that I really dialed into what the behind-the-scenes content would be,' he continues. 'Then the pandemic hit, so I was at home editing my footage and putting it on socials, and that's when it exploded.' Now the rise of TikTok and influencers has changed celebrities' relationship with social media and the entertainment ecosystem at large. The Glambot remains, but it jostles for red carpet real estate alongside streamers and indeed celebs themselves, revealing their looks on Instagram or filming 'Get Ready With Me' videos for fashion glossies like 'Vogue' and 'Elle.' Does Walliser think the Glambot will go the way of 'E! News'? 'Until celebrities are doing their at-home Glambots as good as I am on the red carpet, there's still job security!' he says with a laugh. Still, the collaboration function on Instagram has been a godsend. 'There was a switch when [celebrities] started going, 'How do I get this? I want to post it.'' Walliser's employer's flagship pop culture program was canceled last month after 32 years on the air, which he calls an 'entertainment tragedy.' But whether exemplified by media companies' pivot to video, then back to print, then back to video again, or broadcasting conglomerates' mergers and spin-offs, Walliser believes the show, or at least the service it performs, could make a comeback. 'I think at some point we're going to revalue these information curators that we trust and love because there's too much content to do it on our own,' he says. In the meantime, Walliser exudes serenity as he warms up for the Emmys before the hectic triple whammy of the Golden Globes, the Grammys and the Academy Awards in the new year: 'I don't have a life until after the Oscars.' Until then, he'll be hoping to capture the bold-faced names who've so far eluded the Glambot, including Rihanna, Leonardo DiCaprio, Bradley Cooper and Beyoncé. There's always a chance — Bey's Christmas Day NFL halftime performance is nominated for four Emmys. Although Walliser doesn't know that.
Spectator
12-08-2025
- Politics
- Spectator
Putin's summer offensive is gaining momentum
Vladimir Putin is set to arrive at his meeting with Donald Trump in Alaska on Friday with additional leverage: his summer offensive has finally reached momentum. In recent days, Russian forces have breached Ukraine's defensive line near Dobropillia, north of Pokrovsk, pushing up to ten miles deep into the western sector of the Donetsk region still under Ukrainian control. The advance, carried out mainly on foot and motorbikes, has yet to crystallise into a full-scale breakthrough, but it ranks among the fastest Russian gains of the past year – and comes at the worst possible moment for Kyiv. The Ukrainian military command denies the reports that Russian human wave assaults have bypassed the recently built fortifications around the village of Zolotyi Kolodiaz and other small settlements close to Dobropillia. Oleksandr Syrskyi, the army chief, repeated his now-routine reassurance, 'the situation is difficult but under control', considering that Russia had amassed over 100,000 troops to seize Pokrovsk. The Dnipro operational group, responsible for the eastern front, has called the sudden breach a mapping error: We must understand that this is not about them taking control of the territory. It's about a small group of Russians – around 5-10 men – sneaking in. It is absolutely not how it looks on the map. Yet, for some reason, three brigades – the 92nd, Rubizh and Azov – were pulled out from other sectors of the front to counter the supposed sabotage group holed up in the basement. Several soldiers went public to warn about the deteriorating situation in the Pokrovsk direction, given that Putin is throwing everything he has into the offensive ahead of the Alaska summit. Bohdan Krotevych, former chief of staff of Azov, appealed to Volodymyr Zelensky: Mr President, I sincerely don't know what exactly is being reported to you, but I'm informing you: on the Pokrovsk–Kostiantynivka line, without exaggeration, the situation is fucked. And this chaos has been growing for a long time. During my trip to Ukraine in May, I had a short stop in Dobropillia on my way to Pokrovsk, and even then, moving just twelve miles from one frontline city to another was a deadly lottery. Dobropillia, once home to 28,000 people, has become a military hub full of green-painted trucks and stray dogs, much like other remaining strongholds in the Donetsk region. I set off towards Pokrovsk in the dark to avoid drawing the attention of Russian drones, but halfway there, the soldier driving me hit the brakes: Russia had bombed the building directly ahead of us. It was a weapons warehouse. I reached the front line before first light in one piece, but the same can't be said for my driver. On his way back to Dobropillia, a Russian glide bomb struck his vehicle. He was badly injured, but miraculously survived. The warzone looked different from the one I had seen last autumn. Fibre-optic drones, immune to jamming, dominated the skies, and the Russians have used them in overwhelming numbers. When I visited the 25th Sicheslav Brigade stationed near Pokrovsk, their drone unit had just six fibre-optic drones, while the Russians had dozens flying towards us. Yet it was not drones, but endless infantry that allowed Russia to penetrate Ukrainian positions this week. Ukrainian soldiers often joke that their side of the battlefield is being held by 'the grandads' – men in their fifties and sixties getting old in the trenches. Infantry shortages are so severe that a National Guard drone unit I visited was forced to hold empty positions with drones because there were not enough men to fill them. The Russians had more assault troops than Ukraine had drones, allowing them to slip repeatedly behind Ukrainian lines. With all that said, the Russian breach north of Pokrovsk doesn't come unexpectedly. It is the product of months of accumulated issues in Ukraine's armed forces, starting from inefficient mobilisation, chronic weapons shortages, chaos in communication between units, misleading reports from the field to senior command and ill-conceived orders to attack for the sake of attacking rather than stabilising the defence. As many soldiers have pointed out, there is also the deeper problem: the absence of a clear strategic vision from Ukraine's military leadership about what can realistically be achieved on the battlefield. The result is that Russian troops are now tightening the noose around the last fortress cities in the Ukrainian-held quarter of Donbas.
Morocco World
16-02-2025
- Politics
- Morocco World
Morocco's Abdellatif Hammouchi Receives Prestigious Arab Security Award in Tunisia
Rabat – Tunis hosted today a ceremony where Abdellatif Hammouchi, Morocco's Director General of National Security and Territorial Surveillance (DGSN), received the Prince Nayef First-Class Medal for Arab Security. The distinction recognizes key security figures who contribute to regional stability. The announcement took place during the 42nd session of the Arab Interior Ministers Council. Organizers described the award as a tribute to Hammouchi's role in advancing joint security efforts and reinforcing Arab presence in international discussions on security matters. Prince Nayef Medal ranks among the top Arab awards. Authorities reserve it for figures who exercise strong influence in safeguarding stability and solving security problems that extend across borders. Secretariat of the award reported the influence of Hammouchi and quoted what they referred to as 'effective efforts' in consolidating security cooperation on the regional level. In November 2024, Hammouchi headed Morocco's delegation to the 92nd INTERPOL General Assembly in Glasgow, Scotland, where the focus was on comprehensive security and international police collaboration. At the end of the session, Hammouchi was also presented with the INTERPOL flag, symbolically signaling the handover to Morocco, host nation of the 93rd General session in Marrakech in 2025. This is a reflection of Morocco's plans to broaden its role as a significant security pillar. As threats evolve, officials such as Hammouchi remain at the forefront of spearheading regional initiatives, highlighting the networked character of security work across borders. Tags: Abdellatif HammouchiDGSNMorocco security
