Entertainment

US pop star Olivia Rodrigo has criticized the online backlash over a baby-doll dress she wore during a recent performance, arguing that the controversy reflects the normalization of pedophilia and a tendency to blame girls for being sexualized.The backlash came after Rodrigo wore the dress in the music video for her single ‘Drop Dead’ and during a performance in Barcelona.Critics online described the look as “infantilizing,” “inappropriate,” and “too Lolita,” while some accused her of wearing “pedo bait” or “dressing like a toddler.”Rodrigo rejected claims that the outfit was intended to be sexual, saying on The New York Times’ Popcast on Wednesday that it was inspired by punk and grunge icons Kathleen Hanna and Courtney Love.She also noted that she had previously worn far more revealing s...

Culture wars will never be the same again. Military narratives are often promoted through entertainment and popular culture. Typically, this is done by newspapers, film studios, or influencers who support one side of a conflict in exchange for payment and/or political favor. For example, ‘Top Gun’ is a pretty universally beloved film. However, its creators openly admit that they collaborated closely with the US Air Force, essentially producing propaganda content. It’s also common for well-known musicians and comedians to perform on military bases. The US-Iran conflict has taken cultural warfare to a whole new level, however. For the first time ever, official government agencies have started speaking not just in populist rhetoric but in memes. And suddenly, one of the most populist governme...

American artist Kanye West has said his debut concert in Türkiye attracted 118,000 fans, making it the largest stadium performance ever. The show was the first stop on his first European tour since 2014 and came as several planned appearances in EU countries were canceled over his past anti-Semitic remarks and other controversies.West, who is also known as Ye, also claimed the concert at Atatürk Olympic Stadium on Saturday generated some $100 million in tourism revenue for Istanbul.West has faced widespread criticism over anti-Semitic remarks and references to Nazi Germany in his lyrics and social media posts. An apology published in the Wall Street Journal in January, in which West attributed some of his past statements to untreated bipolar disorder, did little to ease the backlash.Howeve...

Christopher Nolan is probably the last director in Hollywood who can still sell a movie on his name alone without having to make a new entry into a wrung-out franchise, a superhero flick, or a nostalgia reboot set to a slow piano version of a song you used to like. Just “a Christopher Nolan film” still gets a lot of butts into seats.Which is why many are confused, and understandably outraged, that he’s apparently gone the woke DEI casting route with his upcoming adaptation of Homer’s The Odyssey. For years, Nolan has apparently had a blank check to film whatever he wants, with whoever he wants, without studio execs breathing down his neck. In the public’s eye, Nolan is not Disney scraping the bottom of the remake barrel, or Netflix with its addictive habit of turning historical figures int...

German film director Wim Wenders has withdrawn his 1975 film ‘Wrong Move’ from circulation and issued an “unreserved” apology to actress Nastassja Kinski over a scene showing her topless at age 13.The road movie marked the film debut of the daughter of actor Klaus Kinski. It also stars Rudiger Vogler as an aspiring writer wandering through Germany. His encounters include an apparently mute teen acrobat played by Kinski.In a brief scene, Vogler, then over 30, visits the 13-year-old in her bedroom, where she is lying on a bed in only her panties. He strips to his underwear and lies on top of her, slapping her before stroking her face. ...

Russian tennis player Mirra Andreeva won her first Grand Slam title with a straight-sets victory over Poland’s Maja Chwalinska in the Roland-Garros final in Paris on Saturday.Playing on Court Philippe-Chatrier, Andreeva defeated Chwalinska 6-3, 6-2 to claim the Suzanne-Lenglen Cup and €2.8 million ($3.23 million) in prize money.The 19-year-old became the youngest women’s champion at Roland-Garros since Monica Seles won her third consecutive title in 1992 aged 18. The victory also made the Siberian-born teen the first Russian woman to win the French Open since Maria Sharapova lifted the trophy in 2014.Video footage showed Andreeva falling to her knees and fighting back tears before hugging and thanking Chwalinska immediately after her victory.“It’s very special for me. I’ve been watching Ro...

Mirra Andreeva has spent most of her young career being talked about as the future of women’s tennis. In Paris, she made the future arrive early.At 19, the Russian won Roland Garros, claimed her first Grand Slam title and moved to the top of the season’s points race, all while sounding less like a player overwhelmed by the moment than one already trying to understand what comes next.In this interview, Andreeva talks about the dream she has just fulfilled, the demons she had to quiet, the role of Conchita Martínez and her psychologist Alexis Castorri, and why, after years of chasing everything, she has discovered the strange pleasure of doing absolutely nothing.Q: Mirra, congratulations on your victory! Has your biggest dream come true yet, or not?Mirra Andreeva: I suppose so. Winning a Gra...

There was never a chance that Washington’s man in FIFA, football’s world governing body, was going to do the right thing and postpone the World Cup. Nor that he would strip the US and Canada of hosting rights after their attack on Iran. The FIFA president, Lebanese-Swiss Gianni Infantino, is doing what’s right for his sport, his ‘shareholders’, and a compliant sports media will assist the most bigly sportswashing psy-op ever. Sports media, no fur coat and no underwearThe term “fanboys/girls with laptops” is attributed to our former Capital Sports guest, Irish journalist Paul Kimmage. The ex-pro cyclist ‘spat in the soup’ of the sport he loved by exposing rampant doping in ‘Rough Ride’, to date, the finest sports book ever written. His target: the press pass wearing, goodie bag hungry mob o...

Studying archaeology, alongside Greek and Roman Civilization, for my bachelor’s degree has given me a pessimistic outlook on the world. At least that’s what my dad told me in June 2001 on a drive from Istanbul to Dublin. Yet he’s to blame for my studying the science after bringing me to see Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom in the cinema. The romantic career turned quickly into something different, when learning about ‘panem et circenses’ [bread and circuses] and standing knee deep in medieval human waste in the middle of an Irish bog.As much as I enjoyed the classical world and knowing that the best finds usually emerged from cess pits, when I began covering sports the transition into the cess pit that is mixed martial arts (MMA), and especially the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC)...

A cat became an unlikely star in Türkiye after wandering onto the stage during a performance of ‘Romeo and Juliet’ and upstaging one of classical theater’s most tragic scenes.The surprise entrance occurred during a performance by the Imperial Russian Ballet in the western city of Izmir on Friday when the cat strolled out as Romeo lay dying in the climactic final act.According to prima ballerina Larisa Korsakova, who played Juliet, the cat settled beside Romeo’s head and started nibbling on his hair, triggering laughter in the audience and briefly turning Shakespeare’s tragedy into comedy.Despite the interruption, the dancers remained in character and finished the performance, Korsakova told RIA Novosti.“A professional actor knows how to control their emotions. I didn’t leave the character ...