Global Pulse

分类： entertainment

  • Where’s my Oscar? Eight times Academy Awards trophies have gone missing

    Where’s my Oscar? Eight times Academy Awards trophies have gone missing

    For the iconic gold-plated Academy Award, the story does not always end once it is handed to a winning filmmaker, actor, or craftsperson. Over decades of Oscar history, dozens of these coveted trophies have gone missing, suffered catastrophic damage, or fallen into unexpected hands – the result of everything from airport security rules to wildfires, brazen theft, and simple moving-day misplacement. The latest strange chapter of this long-running trend unfolded just this week, when a documentary filmmaker was unexpectedly separated from his newly won statuette at a New York airport.

    Pavel Talankin, director of *Mr Nobody Against Putin*, was forced to surrender his Oscar after Transportation Security Administration officials flagged the solid, bronze-filled trophy as a potential weapon. Banned from carry-on luggage, the statuette was misplaced during processing, leaving Talankin without his prize. Last week, airline carrier Lufthansa announced that it had located the missing trophy, and the company confirmed it is working directly with Talankin to coordinate a safe return.

    Talankin’s misadventure is far from unique in Hollywood. Dozens of A-list winners have opened up about losing track of their Oscars over the years, including Angelina Jolie, Matt Damon, Jeff Bridges, and Jared Leto – all of whom have spoken publicly about their own statuette disappearances. To contextualize this latest incident, we’ve rounded up some of the most notable recent cases of missing, damaged, and stolen Academy Awards.

    Last year, as destructive wildfires swept across Los Angeles’ Pacific Palisades neighborhood, four-time Oscar-winning costume designer Colleen Atwood was forced to evacuate her home unexpectedly, leaving three of her Academy Awards alongside three BAFTA trophies and two Emmy Awards behind. One of her Oscars, awarded for *Chicago*, was already on public display at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Museum and escaped harm, but the other three were not so lucky. The statuettes for *Memoirs of a Geisha* and *Alice in Wonderland* melted completely in the extreme heat, while the Oscar for *Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them* became unrecognizable after its gold outer layer was charred away by the blaze that destroyed Atwood’s home. Per the *Los Angeles Times*, the Academy has a longstanding policy to replace or repair damaged statuettes for living winners who lose their awards in catastrophic events, and it offered to replace Atwood’s destroyed trophies after the fire.

    One of the most high-profile recent thefts occurred back in 2018, moments after Frances McDormand took home the Best Actress Oscar for her performance in *Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri*. After the ceremony, McDormand brought the statuette to the official post-awards Governors Ball, where it was stolen from her. A man with a valid ticket to the exclusive event was arrested on suspicion of theft just hours after the statuette was reported missing, and the trophy was quickly returned to McDormand. Surprisingly, prosecutors ultimately chose to drop all charges against the suspect in August 2019, leaving the case unresolved.

    The disgraced, imprisoned former Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein, who was expelled from the Academy in 2017 following widespread allegations of sexual assault and harassment, left behind two missing Oscars when his company collapsed. A 2018 *Vanity Fair* investigation into Weinstein’s downfall noted that two back-to-back Best Picture Oscars, won by *The King’s Speech* and *The Artist* under The Weinstein Company banner, vanished from the company’s New York headquarters shortly before the firm declared bankruptcy. To date, the whereabouts of these two statuettes remain unknown.

    Joker and Dallas Buyers Club star Jared Leto spent nearly six years separated from his Best Supporting Actor Oscar, which he won in 2014. Leto first revealed the statuette had gone missing during a cross-country house move in 2021, and fans were stunned when he shared a triumphant social media post in 2024 announcing the trophy had been unexpectedly located. He posed for photos with the recovered award after years of searching.

    Good Will Hunting co-writer and star Matt Damon has also been open about the mysterious disappearance of his first Oscar, which he shared with Ben Affleck when the pair won Best Original Screenplay in 1998. Damon told the *London Daily Express* in 2007 that the statuette vanished after a sprinkler system malfunction caused a flood in his New York apartment while he and his wife were out of town. To this day, he cannot confirm what happened to it: it may have been lost in flood cleanup, accidentally packed into unlabeled storage, or potentially stolen by contractors working on the damaged property.

    Iconic comedian and actress Whoopi Goldberg lost her 1990 Best Supporting Actress Oscar (awarded for her role in *Ghost*) in 2002, when she shipped it to Chicago-based trophy manufacturer RS Owens & Company for routine professional cleaning. When the package arrived four days later, the company opened it to find the box empty: someone had intercepted the shipment, removed the statuette, and resealed the box before it reached its destination. Weeks later, an airport security guard in Ontario, California, found the missing trophy abandoned. After the ordeal, Goldberg promised she would never let her Oscar leave her home again.

    Moonstruck Best Supporting Actress winner Olympia Dukakis faced a different challenge when her Oscar was stolen directly from her home. The thief contacted Dukakis to demand a ransom for the return of the trophy, but she refused to negotiate. Instead, she paid just $78 to the Academy to purchase a replacement statuette. Years later, her original stolen trophy was among 52 missing Oscars discovered by chance in 2000. A repairman working at a Los Angeles laundromat stumbled across the trophies in 10 unmarked crates dumped in a rubbish bin behind the business. The stash came from a heist of 55 new, unengraved Oscars stolen from a trucking loading dock in Bell, California, carried out by two trucking company employees who were later arrested and charged with grand theft. Three of the 55 stolen statuettes from that heist have never been recovered, leaving an unsolved cold case in Oscar history.

  • AI actors and writers not eligible for Oscars: Academy

    AI actors and writers not eligible for Oscars: Academy

    In a landmark decision addressing one of the entertainment industry’s most contentious modern challenges, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced sweeping new policy updates on Friday that explicitly bar AI-generated performances and screenplays from Oscar eligibility, alongside major reforms to the Best International Feature Film nomination process. The regulatory changes mark the Academy’s most high-profile intervention into the growing use of artificial intelligence in Hollywood, a technology that has sparked widespread anxiety among creative workers over job security and artistic integrity. Under the new framework, only roles performed by consenting human performers that are officially credited in a film’s legal billing can be considered for nomination in any acting category. For writing categories, the rules have been formally codified to require that all submitted screenplays must be human-authored to qualify for awards consideration. The announcement arrives just days after an AI-generated recreation of late Hollywood star Val Kilmer was publicly revealed to a gathering of cinema industry leaders. One year after Kilmer’s passing, a digitally recreated youthful version of the actor appears in the trailer for the upcoming archaeological action film *As Deep as the Grave*. The project was developed with full support from Kilmer’s family, who provided access to the actor’s personal video archive to help reconstruct his likeness at multiple points throughout his life and career. Unregulated AI development has been one of the most divisive issues in global entertainment for years, and it served as the core sticking point during the 2023 Hollywood strikes that brought major film and television production to a standstill. During the work stoppage, striking actors and writers repeatedly warned that unregulated adoption of AI would threaten long-term career stability for millions of creative professionals by enabling studios to replace human workers with digital alternatives. Beyond its AI policy reforms, the Academy also introduced significant changes to the eligibility rules for the Best International Feature Film category, a revision designed to address longstanding criticism of the old selection system. Prior to this update, only films officially selected by a recognized national governing body in their country of origin could be entered into the category. This requirement created a major barrier for acclaimed filmmakers working in authoritarian states, where government-backed bodies often block politically critical works from submission. A high-profile example of this gap came earlier this year, when Iranian dissident director Jafar Panahi’s film *It Was Just an Accident* was ultimately submitted as an entry from France rather than his home country. Under the new rules, non-English language films can now qualify for submission to the category if they win a qualifying award at one of five major international film festivals: Cannes, Berlin, Busan, Venice, and Toronto. Additionally, the Academy has revised attribution protocols for the category: moving forward, the film itself will be recognized as the nominee rather than the submitting country, and the director’s name will be listed on the statuette plaque directly after the film title, with the country of origin included only when applicable.

  • Georg Baselitz, German artist known for provocation and upside-down paintings, dies at 88

    Georg Baselitz, German artist known for provocation and upside-down paintings, dies at 88

    Legendary German Neo-Expressionist master Georg Baselitz, whose provocative, boundary-pushing practice and iconic inverted paintings cemented his legacy as one of contemporary art’s most transformative figures, has passed away at the age of 88. His representative gallery, Thaddaeus Ropac Gallery, confirmed the artist’s peaceful death on Thursday in a statement released on behalf of his family, though no cause of death was disclosed.

    Born Hans-Georg Kern in January 1938 in the village of Deutschbaselitz, located in eastern Germany’s Saxony region, the artist adopted the professional name Georg Baselitz in tribute to his hometown. Raised amid the total collapse of German society and landscape following World War II, he fled rising political repression in East Germany for West Germany in 1957, a move that would shape the rebellious, questioning core of his artistic identity. In a pre-85th birthday interview with German news agency dpa, Baselitz reflected on his formative experience, saying, “I was born into a destroyed order, into a destroyed landscape, into a destroyed people, into a destroyed society.”

    Baselitz’s career was defined by provocation and innovation from its earliest days. His first solo exhibition in 1963 sparked public outrage when vice squad officers seized two of his works, labeling them pornographic. For this lifelong willingness to upend convention, he was often dubbed an “artist of rage,” and he adopted “contradiction” as his personal artistic motto. By the 1960s, he earned his first major critical acclaim for his “Golden Heroes” series, which drew inspiration from fictional characters in Russian Civil War novels. The series depicted war-ravaged, broken figures in ragged uniforms, distorted with oversized hands and undersized heads, and his 1966 work *Der Hirte (The Shepherd)* quickly became an internationally celebrated staple of the series.

    In 1969, Baselitz debuted his most recognizable artistic trademark: the inverted canvas. His first upside-down work, *Der Wald auf dem Kopf (The Forest on its Head)*, flipped the natural imagery of trees on its head, a technique he would revisit throughout his decades-long career to force audiences to abandon traditional modes of seeing and engage with paint and form first. German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier summed up the innovation of this signature approach in a tribute, noting, “Georg Baselitz did not just turn his paintings upside down; he also turned our thinking routines upside down. Having experienced the destruction and suffering of the Second World War as a child, the collapse of all order forced him to question everything around him.”

    Rejecting conventional naturalistic painting, Baselitz once mused on his practice in a recent video interview: “Typical painting has never appealed to me. I actually wanted to be more of a black-and-white painter, and above all, I didn’t want to work spatially, perspectively, with shadows and light and such things that arise with the imitation of nature. I must say that throughout my life, I was not aware that I was a painter of color, even though I am constantly told that I have such wonderful colors.” He explained that his core goal as an artist was to “construct my connection to the world, to myself and to my wife,” using the most “simple and ordinary” means possible. The interview was recorded at Venice’s Giorgio Cini Foundation, which is currently running an exhibition of his “Golden Heroes” series through September 27, 2024.

    Over his 60-plus year career, Baselitz built an extraordinary body of work spanning painting, sculpture, drawing, and printmaking. Thaddaeus Ropac Gallery honored him in its statement, calling him “a titan of contemporary painting, sculpture, drawing and printmaking” and “one of the most important artists of our time,” whose work reshaped practice for generations of later artists across the global art world. His works are held in the collections of the world’s most prestigious museums, and his pieces regularly sell for millions of dollars at auction. In 2017, German police made headlines when they recovered 15 stolen Baselitz works valued at approximately 2.5 million euros (US$2.9 million). In 2023, a major retrospective titled “Naked Masters” at Vienna’s Kunsthistorisches Museum examined five decades of his career, pairing his controversial nude works — many featuring the artist and his wife Elke — alongside canonical nude paintings by old masters to draw unexpected connections across art history.

    Baselitz is survived by his wife Elke and his two sons, Daniel Blau and Anton Kern.

  • ‘Dreams come true’ for singer joining Lady Gaga on Devil Wears Prada soundtrack

    ‘Dreams come true’ for singer joining Lady Gaga on Devil Wears Prada soundtrack

    Two decades after the release of the iconic 2006 comedy-drama *The Devil Wears Prada*, the long-awaited sequel has finally hit cinema screens worldwide, bringing back every fan-favorite member of the original cast for a new chapter of high-fashion drama. While the return of Meryl Streep’s sharp-witted, iconic editor Miranda Priestly has dominated early conversation, another element of the new release has quickly captured public attention: its all-female curated soundtrack, which pairs established A-list superstars with breakout emerging talent.

    Among the rising artists featured on the album is 20-something American singer Izzy Escobar, who marks her first major movie soundtrack placement with original track *Evergreen Avenue*, created specifically for the sequel. For Escobar, the opportunity to contribute to the follow-up to one of her all-time favorite films still feels surreal.

    “I’m still trying to wrap my head around it. This is my first time ever having a song in a major film, and it’s for *Devil Wears Prada*? Dreams really do come true,” Escobar shared in an exclusive interview with BBC Newsbeat. She described seeing her name credited alongside global superstars like Lady Gaga, Dua Lipa and Olivia Dean as a “pinch me” moment that feels like validation for her years of hard work, adding: “It’s such a clear sign I should just keep persevering.”

    The collaboration came about after *Devil Wears Prada 2* director David Frankel discovered Escobar’s 2025 breakout single *Sunny in London*, and reached out directly to invite her to join the soundtrack project. “He really loved the sonic palette of that song and wanted me to write something that was in a similar vein,” Escobar explained. Though this marked her first foray into film composition, she says the creative process aligned closely with her usual writing style.

    As a self-described visual storyteller, Escobar builds her tracks around vivid mental narratives: “I close my eyes when I sit down at my keyboard and make up a movie in my own mind, anyway.” To craft *Evergreen Avenue*, she did a deep dive into the established world of the *Devil Wears Prada* franchise, brainstorming concepts that would honor the original story while weaving in her distinct artistic voice.

    Escobar stayed tight-lipped to avoid plot spoilers, only sharing that her track appears during an emotional sequence late in the runtime of the sequel. “I don’t want to give too much away, but I’m on the radio in Anne Hathaway’s character’s house, which is pretty cool,” she teased. The singer got her first chance to see the track paired with the finished film at the sequel’s New York world premiere earlier this year, an experience she calls unforgettable.

    “To finally see it visualised on-screen with some of my favourite artists in the room, it was the best feeling in the world,” she said.

    For Escobar, the *Devil Wears Prada* franchise holds deep personal meaning, dating back to her childhood. Growing up, she explored self-expression through both music and fashion, and the original 2006 film resonated deeply with her. “When I saw it, I just remember thinking, ‘oh my gosh, this is another way of expressing yourself, just like music’”, she recalled.

    She also highlighted the ongoing interconnected relationship between the music and fashion industries, pointing to recent high-profile examples like Lady Gaga and Doechii’s collaborative track *Runway*. “I love the video that they did, incorporating all different types of fashion to let people express themselves, while singing a song that highlights feeling confident and empowered,” she said.

    As for what audiences can expect from the full *Devil Wears Prada 2* soundtrack, Escobar promises a dynamic, uplifting listening experience: “It’s going to make you dance and leave you feeling very, very empowered, inspired and excited.”

    *The Devil Wears Prada 2* arrives in United Kingdom cinemas this Friday.

  • What to know about the Eurovision Song Contest as it turns 70 with a Vienna extravaganza

    What to know about the Eurovision Song Contest as it turns 70 with a Vienna extravaganza

    As the Eurovision Song Contest marks its 70th anniversary this year, the iconic, glitter-fueled global musical gathering is balancing its long-running celebration of cross-cultural connection with growing political tensions ahead of its 2026 installment in Vienna, Austria. Running from May 12 to 16, this year’s event will bring 35 competing acts from across Europe and beyond to the stage, but the gathering is overshadowed by a high-profile boycott led by five nations protesting Israel’s eligibility to compete amid the ongoing Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.

    Founded in 1956 in the aftermath of World War II, Eurovision was originally conceived to test emerging live broadcast technology and rebuild continental unity across a war-scarred Europe. What began as a small contest with just seven competing nations has expanded into a global cultural phenomenon, now welcoming dozens of entries from across Europe and even non-European participants including Israel and Australia.

    Widely described as the “Olympics of pop music,” the contest has cultivated a massive global fanbase by blending campy theatricality, unapologetic pop joy, and unfiltered national pride. Last year’s installment drew a global audience of 162 million viewers, and organizers confirm fans from 75 countries have already purchased tickets for this year’s live shows at Vienna’s Wiener Stadthalle. Over its seven-decade history, Eurovision has launched the careers of some of the world’s biggest music stars, from 1974 winners ABBA to Celine Dion, who claimed victory for Switzerland in 1988, to more recent standouts including 2014 winner Conchita Wurst, 2021 champions Måneskin and 2022 winners Kalush Orchestra. Even its most famously silly entries, such as early winners “La, La, La” and “Boom Bang-a-Bang,” have become beloved parts of the contest’s quirky legacy.

    Though the contest’s official motto remains “United by Music,” politics have repeatedly intruded on its celebration in recent years. In 2022, Russia was expelled from the competition following its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, and the 2024 contest in Malmö and 2025 event in Basel both saw widespread pro-Palestinian demonstrations calling for Israel’s removal from the contest over its military campaign in Gaza and allegations of voting manipulation.

    Tensions boiled over in December 2025, when five countries – Iceland, Ireland, the Netherlands, Slovenia and Spain – announced their withdrawals from the 2026 contest after the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), which runs Eurovision, reaffirmed Israel’s eligibility to compete. Slovenia’s national broadcaster even went so far as to announce it would not broadcast this year’s contest in solidarity with the boycott. While Bulgaria, Moldova and Romania have rejoined the competition after skipping recent installments for financial or artistic reasons, the total number of 2026 participants sits at 35, down from 37 in 2025. Multiple pro-Palestinian protests are already scheduled to take place across Vienna during contest week.

    For fans focused on the music, this year’s lineup features a diverse range of acts spanning pop-opera, folk-infused dance, high-energy rock, and soulful ballads. Oddsmakers currently peg Finland’s “Liekinheitin” (“Flamethrower”), a high-octane collaboration between violinist Linda Lampenius and pop singer Pete Parkkonen, as the frontrunner to take home the trophy. Other top contenders include 17-year-old French singer Monroe’s pop-operatic ballad “Regarde!”, Denmark’s sultry jazz-tinged entry “Før Vi Går Hjem” (“Before We Go Home”), and Greece’s fan-favorite party-rap track “Ferto” (“Bring It”). Australia, a long-time enthusiastic non-European participant, has sent acclaimed star Delta Goodrem with the polished mid-tempo ballad “Eclipse,” while Cyprus’ folk-influenced dance-pop entry “Jalla” by Antigoni has already gone viral on YouTube and earned a positive nod from Eurovision experts. Israeli crooner Noam Bettan will compete with his ballad “Michelle,” while tiny San Marino’s entry “Superstar” features a surprise guest appearance from 1980s pop icon Boy George.

    Eurovision expert Paul Jordan, known professionally as Dr. Eurovision, notes that the contest has long outgrown its old reputation for formulaic cheesy pop. “There’s not a lot of cheesy pop numbers this year,” he explained. “There’s such diversity that I don’t think there is such a thing as a ‘Eurovision sound’ anymore.”

    Following longstanding tradition, 2026’s contest is hosted by 2025’s winner, Austrian singer JJ, marking the third time Vienna has hosted the event. The competition kicks off with two semi-finals on May 12 and 14, which will narrow the field to 25 finalists who will compete in the grand final on May 16, hosted by Austrian singer and business heir Victoria Swarovski and actor Michael Ostrowski. The contest will broadcast on national public broadcasters across participating countries, stream on Peacock in the United States, and air via the official Eurovision YouTube channel in many other regions.

    Voting, which combines public votes and scores from national expert juries, has been updated this year to address repeated allegations of vote rigging. The EBU has cut the maximum number of votes per purchase in half to 10 and implemented new safeguards to block suspicious or coordinated voting activity. Viewers in participating countries can vote via phone or text during the live final (though they are prohibited from voting for their home country’s act), while fans in non-participating nations including the U.S. can cast votes online via the official Eurovision voting website. After all votes are tallied, the act with the highest combined score claims the win, with the slow, dramatic reveal of scores keeping global audiences on the edge of their seats.

    The 2026 boycott has sparked new questions about Eurovision’s future, particularly at a time when many European public broadcasters face crippling funding cuts and younger audiences increasingly turn to social media for entertainment. The withdrawal of two longstanding core participants – seven-time winner Ireland and Spain, one of the five largest funding contributors to the contest – is a significant blow to the event’s stability. Still, Eurovision leadership is looking to expand globally, with the first-ever Eurovision Song Contest Asia scheduled to launch in Bangkok this November.

    Jordan remains optimistic that the 70-year-old institution can weather this latest period of tension. “At 70, Eurovision is part of our European culture,” he said. “It still gets people talking. It still brings us all together. It still gets huge viewing figures, it’s still creating hits. At a time when broadcasting is changing, people still make a date with their television set on that Saturday night.”

  • Oscar goes missing after Academy Award winner is blocked from taking it on flight

    Oscar goes missing after Academy Award winner is blocked from taking it on flight

    A bizarre and worrying incident has unfolded in international aviation and entertainment, after Oscar-winning Russian dissident filmmaker Pavel Talankin lost his coveted Academy Award shortly after New York security officials barred him from bringing the statuette onto his flight as carry-on luggage.

    Talankin, who took home the 2026 Oscar for Best Feature Documentary for his work *Mr Nobody Against Putin* — a hard-hitting exposé of growing war propaganda in Russian state schools following the 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine — often travels with his award to bring it to public screenings and outreach events. Just before his fateful flight, he brought the golden statuette to a New York university event, where he let students view the award up close during a post-screening question-and-answer session.

    The filmmaker, who currently lives in exile in Europe for his safety after Russia banned his documentary and labeled it extremist propaganda, was traveling through John F. Kennedy International Airport on Wednesday for a Lufthansa flight to Germany. He kept his Oscar stored in his carry-on bag, as he had done on multiple previous domestic and international trips with both his Oscar and his recently won BAFTA award without incident. This time, however, Transportation Security Administration (TSA) officers stopped him, arguing that the solid 8.5-pound, 13.5-inch statuette could be repurposed as a dangerous weapon.

    Because Talankin did not bring any checked luggage for his trip, Lufthansa staff stepped in to pack the award securely in a box, using bubble wrap and packing tape, to be loaded into the aircraft’s cargo hold as checked baggage. But when Talankin touched down in Germany, the box holding his Oscar was nowhere to be found.

    In an official statement released after the incident, Lufthansa confirmed that its team is prioritizing the search for the missing statuette. “We deeply regret this situation,” the airline said. “Our team is treating this matter with the utmost care and urgency, and we are conducting a comprehensive internal search to ensure the Oscar is found and returned as quickly as possible.”

    Robin Hessman, executive producer of the BBC-backed documentary, told reporters that she assisted Talankin during the airport standoff over a speakerphone, as the filmmaker does not speak fluent English. She also pushed back on the TSA’s decision to bar the statuette from the cabin, saying in a pointed critique: “This wouldn’t have happened to Leonardo DiCaprio.”

    As of Thursday, neither the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences nor the TSA has issued an official comment on the incident. While each Oscar statuette only costs between $400 and $1,000 to manufacture, the award carries irreplaceable personal and professional significance for Talankin, whose work has already been censored and banned in his home country for its criticism of the Russian government’s war efforts.

  • Eurovision: 70 years of geopolitics, patriotism, music and glitter

    Eurovision: 70 years of geopolitics, patriotism, music and glitter

    For seven decades, the Eurovision Song Contest has stood as one of Europe’s most unpredictable and culturally resonant institutions, launching the careers of global superstars from ABBA to Celine Dion, embodying the dream of pan-European unity, and becoming an unlikely lightning rod for global geopolitical friction. Organized through public broadcasters across the continent and beyond, the annual competition has spent 70 years alternately captivating and confounding audiences around the world.

    As the contest prepares to host its 70th anniversary final in 2026 in Vienna, it faces ongoing tensions that threaten to overshadow the event’s signature flashy performances and celebration of national pride: multiple countries have already announced withdrawals in protest of Israel’s inclusion in the competition amid its ongoing military campaign in Gaza, continuing a pattern of geopolitical disruption that has shaped the event for decades.

    Geopolitical division has been woven into Eurovision’s identity from its earliest years. During the Cold War, the absence of Eastern Bloc nations mirrored the iron curtain that split the continent. In the 1960s, widespread protests erupted over the participation of fascist-ruled Spain under Francisco Franco and authoritarian Portugal under Antonio de Oliveira Salazar. The 1974 Turkish invasion of Cyprus led Greece to withdraw from the contest entirely, while modern tensions between Georgia and Russia, and the decades-long Nagorno-Karabakh conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan, have repeatedly spilled over onto the Eurovision stage. Most recently, Russia was fully expelled from the competition in 2022 following its full-scale invasion of Ukraine — a year that ended with Ukrainian artist Kalush Orchestra taking home the grand prize.

    Beyond friction, the contest has also long served as a powerful force for European integration, particularly after it expanded to include former Eastern Bloc nations in the 2000s, according to Paul Jordan, a Eurovision expert at the University of Glasgow. Jordan notes that for former Soviet republics such as Estonia and Ukraine, participating in Eurovision has been a deliberate strategy to cement their national identities as part of modern Europe. ‘Certainly for Ukraine, it was all about showing themselves as an independent Western, European country’ while pushing back against Russian influence, Jordan explained in an interview with AFP.

    Galina Miazhevich, a researcher at Cardiff University, added that while countries often lean into distinct cultural, ethnic and linguistic markers to assert their national identity on the Eurovision stage, the competition has also fostered a unique blending of creative influences, seen in the rise of bilingual tracks and cross-cultural stylistic fusion.

    Eurovision has also emerged as a groundbreaking platform for progressive social change, decades before many mainstream cultural institutions embraced marginalized groups. In 1961, Jean-Claude Pascal took home the top prize with *Nous les amoureux*, a track widely interpreted as a coded ode to same-sex love at a time when homosexuality was criminalized across much of Europe. The contest continued to break barriers in 1998, when transgender Israeli artist Dana International won the whole competition, making history as one of the first trans artists to claim a major global cultural stage. In the years since, it has centered disabled artists, anti-colonial activism, and women’s rights advocacy through its performance lineup, even when those messages sparked controversy in participating countries.

    Beyond politics and social change, Eurovision has functioned as a one-of-a-kind launchpad for global music stardom. Ever since Swedish pop icons ABBA catapulted to international fame after their 1974 Eurovision win, the competition has kickstarted the careers of household names from Celine Dion to Italian rock band Måneskin. In the age of social media, artists do not even need to win to break through: Armenian singer Rosa Linn finished 20th in the 2022 contest, but her track *Snap* went viral on TikTok and Instagram, eventually climbing charts around the world.

    Today, Eurovision is firmly entrenched as a global cultural touchstone, with decades of performance archives racking up hundreds of millions of views on YouTube, and its reach extending even to the United States via the 2020 Netflix comedy *Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga*, led by Will Ferrell. This mainstream acceptance is a relatively new shift, however: Jordan noted that the contest was widely dismissed as uncool kitsch in Western Europe through the 1980s and 1990s, particularly after eastern European nations joined the competition. The turning point came in 2014, when Austrian bearded drag queen Conchita Wurst’s viral victory catapulted the contest back into global mainstream consciousness.

    While some performances still divide audiences — drawing criticism for being overly niche, vulgar, or baffling to casual viewers — the competition’s broad programming, which spans everything from pop and opera to rock, rap, folk and chanson, caters to a vast range of tastes. Even for viewers who do not enjoy the show, Eurovision remains an unavoidable shared cultural reference point, Jordan argues. ‘It’s a kind of cultural reference point that everyone has,’ he said. ‘We’re growing up with this television show. And I think there’s maybe this nostalgia in a way that there isn’t for other things.’

  • Venice Biennale jury resigns days before start of exhibition

    Venice Biennale jury resigns days before start of exhibition

    Nine days before the launch of one of the global art world’s most prestigious annual events, the Venice Biennale has been thrown into unprecedented chaos after its entire five-person jury stepped down in protest over the decision to allow Russia and Israel to participate in the 2026 exhibition. The sudden mass resignation caps weeks of escalating tension sparked by the Biennale’s choice to welcome Russia back to the event for the first time since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

    In a short public statement announcing their departure, the jury clarified that their resignation aligned with a prior position they had taken: they would refuse to award any official prizes to participating nations whose leaders face active charges of crimes against humanity before the International Criminal Court (ICC). That standard covers both Russia, whose President Vladimir Putin has an open ICC arrest warrant alleging responsibility for war crimes in Ukraine, and Israel, whose Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant are also the subject of ICC arrest warrants connected to alleged crimes against humanity in the ongoing Gaza conflict. Moscow and Jerusalem have both uniformly rejected the ICC’s charges as illegitimate and baseless.

    The controversy over Russia’s return has roiled European political and cultural circles for months. Italy’s right-wing Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni acknowledged publicly that her government does not support the decision to allow Russia to participate, but stopped short of forcing a reversal, noting the Venice Biennale operates as an autonomous cultural institution with an independent leadership. A day before the jury’s resignation, a delegation from Italy’s culture ministry traveled to Venice to conduct an on-site review of arrangements for the reactivated Russian pavilion. Culture Minister Alessandro Giuli had already announced he would boycott the entire Biennale opening in protest of Russia’s participation, and Italian authorities are currently investigating whether the country’s readmission violates existing EU sanctions against Moscow.

    The European Union had already pulled a €2 million grant earmarked for the Biennale in April over the Russian participation decision, calling the move morally unacceptable at a time when Russia continues to target and erase Ukrainian cultural heritage amid its ongoing invasion. Over the course of the full-scale war, Ukrainian authorities have documented the destruction of more than 1,000 cultural sites, including hundreds of museums and galleries, the looting of tens of thousands of artworks, and the deaths of nearly 100 Ukrainian artists amid combat operations. For the Kremlin, returning to the Venice Biennale is viewed as a key step toward rebuilding the international diplomatic and cultural normalization it has actively pursued since 2022, even as daily fighting continues to claim civilian and military lives in Ukraine.

    The Biennale’s leadership has defended its decision to keep Russia in the line-up on two core grounds. The institution has long framed itself as an open space for global art that rejects censorship and exclusion of any participant. It has also noted that Russia holds full legal ownership of its dedicated pavilion in the Biennale Gardens, the main exhibition site, giving the institution no legal mechanism to bar the country from using the space. This is not the first time the Russian pavilion has seen disruption since the invasion: in 2022, the appointed Russian curator and all participating artists withdrew in protest of Putin’s war, leaving the space empty. For the 2024 edition, Russia allowed Bolivia to host its exhibition in the pavilion instead.

    This year’s Russian exhibition is scheduled to be a sound-based performance work titled *The Tree is Rooted in the Sky*, though multiple unconfirmed reports have suggested Italian authorities may restrict public access to the pavilion once the Biennale opens. Israel’s foreign ministry has already condemned the jury’s initial position excluding it from prizes, calling the move an example of dangerous political contamination of the international art community.

    In the wake of the jury’s mass resignation, Biennale organizers have canceled the traditional prize awarding ceremony scheduled for the May 9 inauguration. Instead of a jury-selected set of awards, the public will now get the opportunity to vote for their favorite national pavilions to receive popular recognition for the 2026 edition.

  • Britney Spears charged in California with driving under influence

    Britney Spears charged in California with driving under influence

    Nearly two months after pop star Britney Spears was taken into custody on suspicion of impaired driving in Southern California, Ventura County prosecutors have formally filed a criminal misdemeanor charge against the 44-year-old entertainer.

    The charge accuses Spears of operating a motor vehicle while under the influence of alcohol or drugs, a offense classified as a low-level misdemeanor under California state law. The incident that led to the charge dates back to March 4, when law enforcement pulled Spears over on a Southern California highway. Authorities confirmed at the time that officers observed her BMW moving erratically at excessive speeds before initiating the traffic stop that ended in her arrest.

    In the wake of the arrest, multiple reports confirmed that Spears voluntarily admitted herself to a rehabilitation facility to seek treatment. Representatives for the singer quickly issued a statement acknowledging the seriousness of the incident, calling the star’s decision to drive while impaired “completely inexcusable.”

    Prosecutors officially lodged the single charge with the court on Thursday this week. Spears’ first court appearance, an arraignment, has been scheduled for next Monday morning. Because the offense is categorized as a minor misdemeanor, California court rules do not require Spears to attend the hearing in person. A spokesperson for the Ventura County District Attorney’s Office noted that any decision about whether Spears will appear in court will be a private matter between the singer and her legal counsel.

    The case marks the latest high-profile legal entanglement for the pop star, who has been open in the past about her struggles with personal well-being and public scrutiny in the years following her widely publicized conservatorship battle.

  • Banksy confirms behind new London statue of man blinded by flag

    Banksy confirms behind new London statue of man blinded by flag

    The notoriously anonymous British street artist Banksy has officially stepped forward to confirm he is the creator of a provocative new public sculpture that has sparked widespread public intrigue and media buzz in the heart of London this week.

    The life-sized bronze-style work first appeared unexpectedly under cover of darkness in the early hours of Wednesday morning on a vacant traffic island on Pall Mall, a historic central thoroughfare located in London’s prestigious Waterloo Place. The piece depicts a formally dressed man in a business suit mid-stride, stepping off the edge of a stone plinth into empty space. A flag wrapped completely around his head obscures his vision, leaving him unaware of the drop looming ahead. Banksy’s signature is hand-scrawled directly onto the base of the plinth, an early clue to the work’s origins that sent street art fans and passersby speculating within hours of its discovery.

    In a brief official comment to Agence France-Presse, a spokesperson for Banksy confirmed the uncommissioned monument was installed by the artist’s team, noting Banksy himself selected the specific site because “there was a bit of a gap” on the traffic island. To document the surprise installation, Banksy shared behind-the-scenes footage on his official Instagram account — the platform the artist regularly uses to authenticate his new works — showing the piece being lifted into place overnight by heavy construction machinery.

    The new sculpture comes just over a month after a Reuters investigation claimed to definitively unmask Banksy’s long-hidden identity, supporting a 20-year-old claim from Britain’s Mail on Sunday that the artist is 52-year-old British native Robin Gunningham, who has since changed his legal name to David Jones. The report drew on a 2000 New York arrest record and witness testimony from Banksy’s high-profile 2022 trip to war-torn Ukraine, where he painted a series of murals supporting the Ukrainian people. Banksy himself has never commented publicly on the identity claims, maintaining his long-standing commitment to anonymity as part of his artistic persona.

    As word of the new sculpture spread, dozens of art enthusiasts and curious Londoners flocked to Waterloo Place to see the work for themselves, joining long lines for photos and debating its possible meaning. The site is no accident: the traffic island sits steps from existing iconic memorials, including monuments to King Edward VII, pioneering nurse Florence Nightingale, and the British soldiers killed in the Crimean War, placing Banksy’s provocative contemporary work in direct conversation with London’s traditional public memorial culture.

    Visitors to the sculpture have offered a wide range of reactions. 23-year-old student Ollie Isaac, who traveled across London to see the piece, called it “brilliant” and offered his own interpretation of the work’s political subtext, suggesting it critiques the rising tide of nationalism across the globe and within the UK. “That suit screams politician,” Isaac noted, echoing the observations of many other onlookers. Other visitors, like 55-year-old teacher Lynette Cloraleigh, who made the trip after seeing the work shared on Instagram, praised the piece for its quiet audacity. “It’s intriguing how it got here,” she said. Not all feedback was positive, however: the behind-the-scenes video shared by Banksy included a clip of an elderly passerby rejecting the work outright, saying he preferred the traditional historic monuments standing nearby.

    This is not Banksy’s first unsanctioned public statue in London. Back in 2004, the artist installed *The Drinker*, a satirical reimagining of Auguste Rodin’s iconic *The Thinker* that showed the famous figure leaning on a public toilet instead of his knee, just a few blocks away on Shaftesbury Avenue. That work was stolen within days of its unveiling and became the subject of a years-long legal battle over ownership that continues to this day.

    Unlike many of Banksy’s temporary street works, the new sculpture looks set to remain in place for the foreseeable future. Officials from Westminster City Council, which manages public spaces in central London, released a statement welcoming the unexpected addition to the city’s public art scene. “We’re excited to see Banksy’s latest sculpture… making a striking addition to the city’s vibrant public art scene,” the council said, adding that officials have already taken preliminary steps to protect the work while keeping it open and accessible for the public to visit and enjoy. Many visitors noted that Banksy’s public works are almost always temporary, with many removed or destroyed within weeks of their unveiling, making the council’s decision to preserve the piece a rare and welcome outcome for fans.