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Yahoo
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Princess Diana's Reaction to Designer Gianni Versace's Murder Was Heartbreaking—and Chilling
The former Princess of Wales had no idea at his July 22, 1997 funeral that she, too, would be mourned that same Gist On July 22, 1997—28 years ago this week—Princess Diana flew to Milan, Italy to attend the funeral of designer Gianni Versace along with around 2,000 other mourners. In a poignant and heartbreaking image, Diana can be seen comforting friend Elton John at Versace's funeral, no one knowing that within six weeks, he'd be performing 'Candle in the Wind' at her own funeral after she was killed in a car accident on August 31 at just 36 years old. Diana wore a black Versace dress to the designer's funeral, held one week after he was tragically killed on the front steps of his Miami Beach is a sobering image—a mourning Princess Diana comforting a weeping Elton John at the funeral of their mutual friend Gianni Versace on July 22, 1997, no one, of course, knowing that just six weeks later, Diana too would be dead following an August 31 car crash in Paris. The former Princess of Wales naturally wore Versace to the designer's funeral in Milan, attended by not just Diana and John but Naomi Campbell, Karl Lagerfeld, and Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy, who herself would meet a tragic, untimely end in a plane crash just two years from the time of the funeral. Versace was murdered outside of his Miami Beach mansion on July 15, and in the immediate aftermath, 'Diana was in tears and looked very distressed,' her former bodyguard Lee Sansum wrote in his 2022 book Protecting Diana about her reaction when told of Versace's death. The Princess of Wales found out about her friend's assassination while aboard the Jonikal yacht while having breakfast, and after learning of his fate asked Sansum, 'Do you think they'll do that to me?' It was a question 'that always stayed with me,' Sansum wrote, adding that Diana 'was shaking' at the news. Diana had developed an affinity for Versace's designs towards the end of her life, and she and the designer would dine with John when they all found themselves in London. Diana was first introduced to Versace by Anna Harvey, an editor at British Vogue who was Diana's fashion mentor throughout her life as a royal. After seeing supermodel Campbell in a Versace creation, 'Over the next several years, Gianni gradually became one of her favorite designers, although she often made him remove the gaudy medusas and overwrought details he piled on his clothes,' Deborah Ball wrote in her book House of Versace. 'He gave her first pick of his couture collection and designed pieces exclusively for her that were classic but had a pinch of glamour.' Diana was on the cover of the July 1997 issue of Vanity Fair, and inside the magazine's pages, Versace said of the Princess of Wales, 'I had a fitting with her last week for new suits and clothing for spring, and she is so serene. It is a moment in her life, I think, when she's found herself—the way she wants to live.' Neither Diana nor Versace would see spring 1998. 'Gianna loved his London connections,' Sakai Lubnow, co-curator of the Gianni Versace Retrospective at The Arches in London Bridge, told Vogue. 'And, I mean, there was no higher compliment in fashion than Princess Diana wearing your clothes.' Lubnow said that Diana and Versace originally met in 1985 in Milan, 'But it wasn't until she was freed from royal protocol [after her separation from Prince Charles in 1992 and eventual divorce in 1996] that Gianni could begin shaping her image in earnest.' Harvey, writing in an October 1997 commemorative British Vogue issue dedicated to Diana, said that the looks Versace designed for her were some of 'her most successful looks to date.' To his funeral nearly 28 years ago to the day, Diana wore a black Versace fall 1997 shift dress, pearls, and the so-called Diana handbag Versace made, a lesser-known counterbalance to the Lady Dior, also named in her honor. 'It's interesting,' Lubnow said. 'That bag was never called the Diana bag by Gianni. The same with the so-called Bondage collection; Gianni called it Miss S&M. But these names come from collectors, fans, people who wear and love the pieces. That's where the connection sticks.' Following Diana's appearance at the Milan Cathedral on July 22, she traveled to Bosnia, where she continued to bring attention to her fight against landmines—a cause her son Prince Harry has supported as recently as this week in Angola—in a private visit on August 10. By the end of the summer, Diana and Dodi Al Fayed were on a cruise of the Mediterranean on his yacht; they traveled from the South of France to Sardinia before heading to Paris on August 30. Just after midnight, the two—along with chauffeur Henri Paul—were killed after a crash in the Pont de l'Alma tunnel; Diana was just 36. Suddenly, Diana went from being the mourner at Versace's funeral to the mourned at her own September 6 funeral at Westminster Abbey—two lives cut far too short, forever united through fashion and the unbelievably tragic circumstances of their deaths 28 summers ago. Read the original article on InStyle
Yahoo
22-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Two fire bills signed by Governor, two others see vetoes
Fire crews work on the Horse Gulch fire near Helena on July 15, 2024 (Photo courtesy of Northern Rockies Incident Command). Gov. Greg Gianforte made decisions on four firefighting laws this week, signing two bills and vetoing two others. The two bills Gianforte signed — House Bills 84 and 421 — dealt with wildland firefighting. The two he vetoed, House Bill 511 and House Bill 547, would have added $5 million in funding for local fire departments and another seeking to change a law preventing coordinated fire response in consolidated governments. HB 84, called the Prescribed Fire Manager Certification and Liability Act, creates a certification program and outlines who is liable if a prescribed fire gets out of control. In 2022, a prescribed fire in New Mexico did, becoming the state's largest in history. The program will including training for fire managers and that their certification standards must match other states and organizations. A certified prescribed fire manager will only be able to be held liable for a wildfire getting out of control if, their actions 'constituted negligence or a higher degree of fault.' Fire scientists and proponents of HB 84 — brought by Rep. Steve Gist, R-Cascade — have pointed to prescribed fires as an important forestry management tool. 'I know it seems counterintuitive to fight fire with more fire, but the science is clear,' said Mike Schaedel, representing The Nature Conservancy and member of the state's prescribed fire council. 'It's the best tool we have. We know what wildfires can do without prescribed fire. They damage our forests and all those values we hold dear. This bill protects our forests. It enables private landowners to manage their lands in a safe and effective way that keeps people working in the woods.' Land management practices in the United States have led to some forests being overgrown and at risk for more intense wildfires, said proponents of the bill. 'To address the current forest health and wildland fire crisis, we need to get on this,' Gist said during a Senate hearing on his bill. 'We need to do prescribed fire. We need to do fuel mitigation followed up with prescribed fire. Prescribed fire is one tool of doing fuels reduction. It's essential.' HB 421, also sponsored by Gist, increased fire protection fees for land classified as forest from $50 to $58.70 for each landowner in a wildland fire protection district. For landowners with more than 20 acres of land, there's an additional fee per acre which increased from $0.30 to $0.49. The two vetoed bills were brought by Anaconda Democrat Rep. Scott DeMarois, who is a career firefighter. HB 511 would have taken $5 million from the general fund and directed it to a special revenue account for dispersion to local governments via grants. The money would have gone to training facilities. 'Training with the right equipment gives us critical knowledge of fire behavior and response techniques, along with that 3 a.m. muscle memory that saves lives,' DeMarois said in a press release. 'With this veto, Governor Gianforte has shown us that he doesn't really stand with first responders, and doesn't really care about protecting firefighters or the communities that we put their lives on the line to defend.' Gianforte's veto letter pointed to the state needing a balanced budget and said instead of grants, should look at creating a low-interest loan program. 'The budget and other bills with hefty price tags that the Legislature passed, however, are not fiscally responsible,' the veto letter reads. 'Therefore, I will keenly review the budget and spending bills the Legislature passed, making some difficult decisions to protect taxpayers and their hard-earned resources.' The Butte-Silver Bow Fire Department also saw a setback in the form of a veto on HB 547. Due to a decision made in the 1970s to create a consolidated city-county government — only used by Butte and Anaconda — the Butte-Silver Bow Fire Department hasn't been able to coordinate as well with its outlying volunteer fire departments. The bill would have struck a clause and replaced it with language that said, 'The fire department of the municipality must have a director of fire service or a fire chief, who shall manage and control the department in the manner prescribed by the ordinances of the municipality.' Proponents said that would fix the problem. Butte-Silver Bow officials and firefighters lined up in support of the bill. 'We have great volunteers that work in Butte-Silver Bow, and this is not to take anything away from them,' J.P. Gallagher, Butte-Silver Bow chief executive said during a Senate hearing on the bill. 'The director of Fire Services works directly for me and within the powers that are directed to the director of fire services, he has the ability to coordinate those services, but the unintended consequences of 1979 kind of stripped him of that ability to coordinate services.' Members of rural fire associations across the state spoke against the bill during House and Senate hearings. Opponents included Jerry Brothers, who is the vice president of both the Montana State Volunteer Fire Association and of the National Volunteer Firefighters Association. 'We did not have a voice in the system at all,' Brothers said during the bill's Senate hearing. DeMarois said during his Senate testimony the change would only impact the state's two consolidated city-county governments, but Gianforte, a Republican, disagreed in his veto letter. 'House Bill 547 raises more questions than it answers, and it introduces instability into the operations of rural fire districts, the backbone of Montana's emergency network,' the veto letter reads. 'Ultimately, House Bill 547 erodes the reliability and strength of rural fire protection throughout our state, while appearing to provide a one-sided resolution to a dispute within one consolidated government.'
Yahoo
07-03-2025
- Yahoo
Teen will spend over a decade in prison after fatal shooting, attempted robbery in Winston-Salem
FORSYTH COUNTY, N.C. (WGHP) — A teen was sentenced to 14 to 17 years in prison after a fatal shooting in Winston-Salem, according to Forsyth County District Attorney James O'Neill. Saveonne Deshawn Gist, 18, pled guilty in Forsyth County Superior Court to second-degree murder. Woman dies after Winston-Salem crash, man pleads guilty to involuntary manslaughter The defendant was initially charged as a juvenile, but the case was transferred to adult court for prosecution. On Sept. 14, 2021, officers with the Winston-Salem Police Department responded to Ferrell Court in the Rolling Hills Apartments complex in response to a shooting and found 27-year-old Charles Edward Anderson Jr. inside the apartment unresponsive with one gunshot wound. The state's evidence showed that on the afternoon of Sept. 14, 2021, three people with handguns who were wearing masks rushed into Anderson's mother's home. Evidence showed that the three tried to rob Anderson. After Anderson tried to defend himself and his family by fighting Gist, another intruder fatally shot him. The three then left the home. Video surveillance footage from the apartment complex showed Gist and the two other men running away from the apartment after the shooting. After the shooting, investigators discovered that one of the three men had posted a Snapchat story about an hour before the shooting, showing Gist and his co-defendants with handguns and wearing the same clothes as seen on the surveillance video after the shooting. Gist was sentenced to 168 to 214 months in the North Carolina Department ofCorrections. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
30-01-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Divorce process could be changed in Indiana House Bill 1684
EVANSVILLE, Ind. (WEHT) — Indiana state representatives are meeting at the General Assembly discussing hundreds of bills, one of which could make it harder for Hoosiers to file for divorce if you have children. House Bill 1684, also known as the Irretrievable Breakdown of Marriage, meaning a person must provide proof using a witness as to why they should be granted a divorce. The Indiana General Assembly is discussing approving or killing the bill. Gina Gist, the Executive Director of Albion Fellows Bacon Center, says it could do more harm than good, noting domestic violence could be the main concern. 'A lot of domestic violence victims don't tell anybody what's happening when they seek services from us,' says Gist. 'They may be the most outgoing, the most friendly well respected person outside of the family and then in the family they're totally different person.' The bill states a person would have a witness to testify or show cause as to why a dissolution of marriage should be granted. 'Making them tell other people when they may be embarrassed, they may be afraid,' says Gist. Is this going to jeopardize my job you know is DCS going to come in and take my kids if I share with the courts that I'm being abused?' Gist says this could also effect children in a potentially toxic household, thinking this is normal. 'They're learning, that is that love, sometimes constitutes abuse that when somebody gets angry or somebody gets mad, we're just having a bad day,' says Gist. 'They take it out on the other person so my making these family stay together just for the children's sake is teaching those children that this is normal.' The last action from the Indiana General Assembly's website shows its first reading was on January 21. The bill was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
