01/09/2025

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Taylor-Travis love story I T is official: America’s most famous couple are tying the knot. Stadium-filling pop megastar Taylor Swift and o Five things to know

sensation, she won her first Grammy at just 20 years old, before pivoting to pop. Wild success and scrutiny followed. Taylor endured a high-profile feud with Kanye West, and re-recorded her early song catalogue to reclaim ownership from a private equity firm. High-profile romances with Hollywood actors and pop stars came and went, with references to Jake Gyllenhaal, Tom Hiddleston, Joe Jonas, Calvin Harris and Harry Styles all rumoured to be embedded in her song lyrics. Last year, she won a fourth Grammy for Album of the Year – the most by any artiste – and wrapped up the highest-earning concert tour of all time.

three-time NFL Super Bowl winner Travis Kelce announced their engagement on Instagram last week. Here are five things to know about their love story: Taylor’s version Taylor’s journey to becoming the world’s biggest pop star has contained twists and turns – and not just the romantic missteps that fuelled her hit songs until she met Travis. A teenage country music

(Front row, from left) Travis, Taylor and Jason watching the game between the Cincinnati Bearcats and the Nebraska Cornhuskers at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City, Missouri last month.

NFL great Travis’s own road to American football greatness has had a few bumps of its own. While playing college football, he was suspended for marijuana use. His older brother Jason lobbied coaching staff to give Travis another chance, and again vouched for his younger sibling when Travis was drafted by the Kansas City Chiefs in 2013. As the Chiefs went from broken franchise to NFL dynasty, Travis has played a vital role, and is now considered one of the greatest tight ends in the sport’s history. He has won three Super Bowls – and lost two, including an agonising loss to the Philadelphia Eagles this year that ended dreams of a historic Chiefs “three-peat”. How it began During Taylor’s US$2 billion (RM8.45 billion)-grossing Eras tour, handing out homemade “friendship bracelets” with beaded messages became a treasured ritual among

been contrived as “Democrat propaganda”. As it turned out, the distractions did not seem to faze Travis or the Chiefs, who went on to win that season’s Super Bowl. Although Taylor did endorse Democratic candidate Kamala Harris in 2024, her Republican opponent Donald Trump won the US election – and even wished the couple “a lot of luck” when asked about their engagement. Engagement A joint post on their Instagram pages Tuesday showed pictures of Travis proposing on one knee in a flower laden garden, and Taylor wearing an enormous diamond ring. No date or details about the wedding have been revealed. It comes at a busy time for both, with Travis – having shrugged off talk of retirement – gearing up for the start of the NFL season next month, while Taylor has a new album The Life of a Showgirl , out in October. – AFP

fans. Travis took it a step further, attempting to meet Taylor backstage at a concert in Kansas City in 2023 and pass her a bracelet bearing his phone number. He was thwarted upon learning that Taylor does not do meet-and greets – even for star NFL players – before or after her shows “because she has to save her voice”, he pined on his podcast shortly afterward. But Taylor was charmed when she learned about the romantic ploy, and “we started hanging out right after that,” she told Time magazine. Controversy Taylor quickly became a fixture at Travis’s Chiefs games. As television cameras cut to her reactions with increasing regularity, viewership and tickets sales for the already wildly popular sport went through the roof. With that came criticism from football die-hards that their sport was becoming a showbiz circus, and even right-wing conspiracy theories claiming the entire relationship had

(From left) Taylor and Travis attending the men’s singles final of the US Open tennis tournament in New York in September last year. – PICS FROM AFP

AI-enhanced Wizard of Oz debuts in Las Vegas SWIRLING winds, drone-operated monkeys and artificial intelligence (AI) brought new life to The Wizard of Oz recently at the premiere of an immersive version of the Hollywood classic in Las Vegas.

Smith, Adams added to Starfighter cast OSCAR-NOMINATED actor Amy Adams and Doctor Who star Matt Smith (pic) are joining the cast of the upcoming movie S tar Wars: Starfighter , Walt Disney announced recently. The film’s other

A yellow-brick carpet, mimicking the yellow brick road in the film, led to the entrance of Sphere, a high-tech, dome-shaped entertainment venue that is showing the update of the 1939 movie musical. Premiere attendees included Lorna Luft, whose mother Judy Garland played Dorothy in the movie. “We are finally off to see the wizard! What you’re about to see tonight is our most powerful example yet of experiential storytelling in this new media,” Sphere Entertainment CEO James Dolan told the crowd. Some cinema lovers have recoiled at the idea of tinkering with a classic film. Workers in Hollywood are wary that AI will be used to replace human work. Dolan said audiences would be wowed by the new Wizard of Oz experience. “For the first time, you’re going to feel like you’re part of the story,” he said. Reworking the film took more than two years and 2,000 people, including the Sphere’s creative team, Google’s DeepMind researchers and Warner Bros Discovery executives. The film has been updated and AI has been used to make it watchable on Sphere’s giant, wraparound screen.

actors will include Flynn Gray, Mia Goth, Aaron Pierre and Simon Bird, according to a statement from Disney unit Lucasfilm. Disney previously announced that Ryan Gosling will play the lead role in Starfighter , which is set to reach theatres in May 2027.

Smith played the 11th doctor in long-running British series Doctor Who from 2010 to 2013. He also portrayed Prince Philip on Netflix series The Crown . Adams played Lois Lane in three DC Studios superhero films and has been nominated for six Oscars for movies, including American Hustle . Star Wars , created by George Lucas, is one of the most successful film franchises of all time. The movies have collected more than US$5 billion (RM21.1 billion) in global ticket sales since the release of the first installment in 1977. Starfighter is a stand-alone story in a time period that has not been previously explored in Star Wars movies, Disney said. – Reuters

Luft at the premiere of The Wizard of Oz at Sphere in Las Vegas recently. – REUTERSPIC

such as fans that kicked up wind and blew leaf-shaped confetti when the tornado swept Dorothy’s farmhouse into the sky. Sixteen-foot helium-filled monkeys flew overhead as the Wicked Witch plotted Dorothy’s demise. – Reuters

AI restored tiny celluloid frames into today’s high definition and filled in details such as freckles on Dorothy’s face. Proponents see it as a potential watershed moment in Hollywood’s use of AI tools. The Sphere added off-screen elements