Latest news with #VMA
Time of India
27-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Time of India
JLo's AMA Shocker: Madonna Moment Or Mid-life Marketing?
/ May 27, 2025, 01:55PM IST Jennifer Lopez lit up the 2025 AMAs in Las Vegas with a bold, headline-grabbing performance that had jaws dropping. The 55-year-old singer shocked fans by kissing both her male and female backup dancers mid-show, just months after finalizing her divorce from Ben Affleck. Kicking off the ceremony with a slowed-down rendition of Dance Again, she transitioned into a high-energy medley of this year's biggest hits. But it was her kiss during Lose Control by Teddy Swims that stole the night, instantly sparking comparisons to Madonna's iconic VMA stunts. Some fans accused of chasing headlines post-breakup, while others joked she just misses the Diddy-era drama. She ended the fiery set with Kendrick Lamar tributes Not Like Us and TV Off, sealing her status as pop's most daring diva.
Yahoo
13-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Cassie Shares Why She Cried The First Time Diddy Kissed Her On 21st Birthday
Cassie Ventura has taken the stand to speak her truth in the federal sex trafficking trial of Sean 'Diddy' Combs. On Tuesday (May 13), the 'Me & U' singer revealed that her 11-year relationship with Diddy didn't begin with the honeymoon stage and butterflies, but rather with confusion and tears. Cassie testified to the latter by sharing how their first kiss came on her 21st birthday in Las Vegas, after a VMA afterparty in 2007. Instead of feeling swept off her feet, she was left crying, per People. 'There was a 17-year age difference,' she told jurors. 'I was really confused at the time… new artist. I was pretty naive.' When asked directly if she wanted the kiss, her answer was clear: 'No, not on my birthday.' According to Cassie, their professional and personal relationship quickly became blurred. She described frequently visiting Combs' Trump Hotel suite in New York, and explained that she wanted to be around him because he was powerful, magnetic, and very much in control of her career. Per NBC, she continued, 'I was just so young and did not have the vocabulary for some of the things we talked about. I was just trying to understand it, just completely inexperienced at that point.' The federal trial of Sean 'Diddy' Combs began Monday (May 11) in Manhattan, and the courtroom was immediately met with disturbing footage from 2016, showing Combs violently assaulting Cassie in a hotel lobby — a moment prosecutors say is just one of many in a long-standing pattern of abuse. Combs' legal team, however, is painting a very different picture. They argue the relationship, though tumultuous, was entirely consensual — including Cassie's decision to remain with him for over a decade. 'She made a choice every single day for years — to stay, to fight for him,' said defense attorney Teny Geragos. 'When she made the choice to leave, she ran into the arms of another man.' That man is now Alex Fine, her husband and the father of her children. On the stand, Cassie opened up about the physical violence she says she endured throughout their 11-year relationship. 'He would smash me in my head, knock me over, drag me, kick me, stomp me in the head if I was down,' she testified, recalling how their arguments would often escalate into what she described as routine abuse. When asked how often the violence occurred, Cassie simply replied, 'Too frequently.' She detailed the aftermath — busted lips, swollen knots on her forehead, and bruises covering her body. Cassie also spoke candidly about the 'freak-offs,' the alleged orchestrated sex acts that became a recurring part of their relationship. While she admitted to going along with them, she said it came from a place of emotional manipulation and confusion. 'I also felt a sense of responsibility. It was him sharing something like that with me. I was confused, nervous, but also loved him very much and wanted to make him happy,' she said. 'I knew it wasn't something I wanted to be doing — especially as regularly as it became — but again, I was just in love and wanted to make him happy.' As for why she didn't put a stop to it sooner, her response was raw and revealing. 'It got to a point where I just didn't feel like I had much of a choice, didn't really know what 'no' could be or what 'no' could turn into. I didn't know if he would be upset enough to be violent or if he would write me off and just not want to be with me at all,' she said. If convicted on all charges — including sex trafficking, racketeering, and transporting individuals for prostitution — Combs could face life in prison. For now, he remains behind bars at the Metropolitan Detention Complex in Brooklyn. More from Cassie Testifies Against Sean 'Diddy' Combs: Takeaways From Her Bombshell Testimony 50 Cent Mocks Diddy After Claim He Made Escort Perform Urine-Related Sex Act On Cassie Male Sex Worker Claims Diddy "Directed" Sex Between Him And Cassie, Testifies To Seeing Abuse
Yahoo
13-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Cassie Reveals Why She Cried When Diddy Kissed Her for the First Time
Sean Diddy Combs is on trial on charges of sex trafficking to engage in prostitution and transportation to engage in prostitution Opening arguments in the high-profile trial began on Monday, May 12, at a federal court in Manhattan Federal prosecutors allege that Combs is the mastermind behind a criminal enterprise that forced women — including his ex-girlfriend — to perform sex acts he filmed Cassandra "Cassie" Ventura wasn't swooning when Sean 'Diddy' Combs kissed her for the first time. The R&B singer told jurors at his high-profile federal sex crimes trial on Tuesday, May 13, that when Combs kissed her in August 2007 on her 21st birthday in Las Vegas after a VMA event that she cried. 'There was a 17 year age difference," Ventura, the prosecution's star witness, said on the stand. "I was really confused at the time, you know, new artist," she said, exhaling. "I was pretty naive.' Asked if she wanted the kiss, Cassie replied, 'No, not on my birthday.' After her birthday in Vegas, they hung out in New York. She'd visit him at the Trump Hotel in Columbus Circle. 'I wanted to be around Sean for the same reasons as everyone else at the time — this exciting, entertaining, fun guy who also happened to have my career in his hands," she said. The "Me & You" singer, who is married to personal trainer Alex Fine and eight months pregnant with their child, is testifying about how her powerful ex-boyfriend of 11 years allegedly forced her to perform sex acts and abused her physically and emotionally. Related: Who Is Cassie — and Why Is She Expected to Be a Star Witness at Diddy's Trial Today? Arrested in September 2024, Combs pleaded not guilty to five counts of sex trafficking, racketeering and transportation to engage in prostitution. On the first day of the trial on Monday, Mon. 12, in Manhattan federal court, jurors saw surveillance video of the hip-hop mogul beating and kicking Ventura in the elevator bank of a hotel lobby in her opening statements, U.S. Attorney Emily Johnson told jurors how Combs allegedly used his influence in the music business to drug women and force them to take part in orchestrated sex acts with him and sometimes male prostitutes at so-called 'Freak Offs." In her opening statement, Combs' defense attorney Teny Geragos said that any sex between her client and Ventura was consensual, as was the fact that she stayed with him for more than a decade. 'She made a choice, every single day for years — a choice to stay with him, a choice to fight for him, because for 11 years, that was the better choice," she told jurors. When she made the choice to leave, Geragos said, "she communicated it to him, and ran into the arms of another man — a physical trainer Combs had hired to train her,' Geragos said. Combs could face up to life in prison if he is convicted on all counts. Since his 2024 arrest, he has been held at the Metropolitan Detention Complex in Brooklyn. If you or someone you know has been sexually assaulted, please contact the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673) or go to . Read the original article on People
Yahoo
08-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
How Madonna's Haider Ackermann for Tom Ford Met Gala Look Came Together in Just 3 Weeks
Yahoo is using AI to generate takeaways from this article. This means the info may not always match what's in the article. Reporting mistakes helps us improve the experience. Yahoo is using AI to generate takeaways from this article. This means the info may not always match what's in the article. Reporting mistakes helps us improve the experience. Yahoo is using AI to generate takeaways from this article. This means the info may not always match what's in the article. Reporting mistakes helps us improve the experience. Generate Key Takeaways On Monday, Madonna made her return to the Met Gala after a seven-year hiatus. For this year's theme of 'tailored for you,' Madonna wore a Tom Ford by Haider Ackermann: a cream double-breasted tuxedo in peached silk, complete with a crisp white piqué plastron shirt paired with a white piqué bow tie. The look was finished off with jewels by Diamonds Direct. It almost wasn't even a reality, says Madonna's stylist Rita Melssen. More from WWD 'She actually wasn't going to go, it wasn't even really on her radar. And then someone brought it up to her, and of course she was like, 'this is an incredible theme and I want to support and I want to show up,' Melssen says. 'We did some really deep, deep dives, deep research, got really into Black dandy over the decades. What did that look like from the 1800s into the 2000s and all the different iterations and versions of it. Her and I really just sat down. We shared feedback, we shared images. It was a really collaborative process between the both of us.' Melssen felt there were any number of directions they could go in when it came to a designer to work with, until someone sent her an image of Madonna's iconic 1995 VMA look wearing a Tom Ford for Gucci blue silk button-down shirt. 'I was like, 'wait, Haider just had this incredible, incredible season and the first collection [at Tom Ford], and I had actually met him when he came to her tour in Paris.' Madonna She gave him a call and the response was an immediate 'yes.' 'He has such a deep reverence for M and everything she stood for. Haider also is adopted, and she has four adopted children. And so there was a really deep connection there. Haider also grew up in Africa, and M obviously does so much work in Africa and Malawi and with her charities, so there was already sort of this overlap and connection there,' Melssen says. 'When I called him he was like, 'I want to make her just so powerful and elegant and show just the essence of who she is.'' The whole look came together in just about three weeks. The look drew inspiration from Gladys Bentley, a Black lesbian blues singer in New York City in the 1920s. 'Gladys Bentley was one of the original Black female dandies. She was a performer in Harlem around the Harlem Renaissance, and she used to wear these incredible white suits, like a white tail coat, white shirt, white hat, white pants,' Melssen says. 'And she was a Black lesbian during that time, which was unheard of. And so she really pushed a lot of boundaries and she made people see gender and identity in a very different way and was really a trailblazer in that way.' Haider Ackermann and Madonna Madonna was immediately interested in Bentley as a reference when Melssen suggested the idea. 'Of course it's very different, don't get me wrong. But there's just so many ways in which when M was coming up, she also challenged gender identity and what a woman can and can't do, also in reverence to all the women that came before her,' Melssen says. 'In her own way, M is a dandy, to have this audacity to push boundaries and to push people to think of her and women in general in a very different way.' The first time Madonna tried the look on for Melssen and Ackermann and the Tom Ford team, the whole room knew it was the one. 'Haider was standing next to me and the literal hairs on his arms raised and he had goosebumps,' Melssen says. 'So we all slept well that night.' View Gallery Launch Gallery: Met Gala 2025 Red Carpet Arrivals Photos, Live Updates Best of WWD Sign up for WWD's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
Yahoo
07-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
How Madonna's Haider Ackermann for Tom Ford Met Gala Look Came Together in Just 3 Weeks
On Monday, Madonna made her return to the Met Gala after a seven-year hiatus. For this year's theme of 'tailored for you,' Madonna wore a Tom Ford by Haider Ackermann: a cream double-breasted tuxedo in peached silk, complete with a crisp white piqué plastron shirt paired with a white piqué bow tie. The look was finished off with jewels by Diamonds Direct. It almost wasn't even a reality, says Madonna's stylist Rita Melssen. More from WWD ADVERTISEMENT 'She actually wasn't going to go, it wasn't even really on her radar. And then someone brought it up to her, and of course she was like, 'this is an incredible theme and I want to support and I want to show up,' Melssen says. 'We did some really deep, deep dives, deep research, got really into Black dandy over the decades. What did that look like from the 1800s into the 2000s and all the different iterations and versions of it. Her and I really just sat down. We shared feedback, we shared images. It was a really collaborative process between the both of us.' Melssen felt there were any number of directions they could go in when it came to a designer to work with, until someone sent her an image of Madonna's iconic 1995 VMA look wearing a Tom Ford for Gucci blue silk button-down shirt. 'I was like, 'wait, Haider just had this incredible, incredible season and the first collection [at Tom Ford], and I had actually met him when he came to her tour in Paris.' Madonna She gave him a call and the response was an immediate 'yes.' ADVERTISEMENT 'He has such a deep reverence for M and everything she stood for. Haider also is adopted, and she has four adopted children. And so there was a really deep connection there. Haider also grew up in Africa, and M obviously does so much work in Africa and Malawi and with her charities, so there was already sort of this overlap and connection there,' Melssen says. 'When I called him he was like, 'I want to make her just so powerful and elegant and show just the essence of who she is.'' The whole look came together in just about three weeks. The look drew inspiration from Gladys Bentley, a Black lesbian blues singer in New York City in the 1920s. 'Gladys Bentley was one of the original Black female dandies. She was a performer in Harlem around the Harlem Renaissance, and she used to wear these incredible white suits, like a white tail coat, white shirt, white hat, white pants,' Melssen says. 'And she was a Black lesbian during that time, which was unheard of. And so she really pushed a lot of boundaries and she made people see gender and identity in a very different way and was really a trailblazer in that way.' Haider Ackermann and Madonna Madonna was immediately interested in Bentley as a reference when Melssen suggested the idea. ADVERTISEMENT 'Of course it's very different, don't get me wrong. But there's just so many ways in which when M was coming up, she also challenged gender identity and what a woman can and can't do, also in reverence to all the women that came before her,' Melssen says. 'In her own way, M is a dandy, to have this audacity to push boundaries and to push people to think of her and women in general in a very different way.' The first time Madonna tried the look on for Melssen and Ackermann and the Tom Ford team, the whole room knew it was the one. 'Haider was standing next to me and the literal hairs on his arms raised and he had goosebumps,' Melssen says. 'So we all slept well that night.' View Gallery Launch Gallery: Met Gala 2025 Red Carpet Arrivals Photos, Live Updates ADVERTISEMENT Best of WWD Sign up for WWD's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
