It was more than just another fashion show in the City of Light. Louis Vuitton's latest extravaganza on Paris' most famous avenue, the Champs-Elysées, transformed an iconic 19th-century art nouveau space into an evolving artwork. As guests entered, they encountered an ephemeral installation — a vast, expanding balloon structure that melded with the walls. But as avant-garde as it was, the installation's plastic, coupled with an autumnal heat wave, had some attendees likening it to a fashionable, yet sweltering, greenhouse.
The designs? A riot of colors, ludic patterns, and subtle riffs on harlequins. A visual feast that kept the eyes and iPhones flitting from one ensemble to the next.

Wearing an "I Love Pandas" T-shirt and clutching a panda-covered diary, Kelsey Lambert bubbled with excitement as she glimpsed the real thing. She and her mother, Alison, had made a special trip from San Antonio just to watch the National Zoo's furry rock stars casually munching bamboo and rolling around on the grass.
"It felt completely amazing," Kelsey, age 10, said Friday. "My mom has always promised she would take me one day. So we had to do it now that they're going away."

Lebanese singer and actress Najah Salam, who surged to fame in the mid-20th century in the Middle East for her songs promoting pan-Arabism, has died, her family said Thursday. She was 92.
Her family did not disclose the cause of her death.

Travis Kelce called an appearance by Taylor Swift at the Kansas City Chiefs' victory over the Chicago Bears last weekend pretty bold, but the All-Pro tight end insisted Wednesday that he wants to keep future details about their relationship private.
Kelce discussed the pop superstar's well-publicized appearance in a suite at Arrowhead Stadium on his podcast, "New Heights with Jason and Travis Kelce." The younger of the Kelce brothers said it was "awesome" how everyone treated Swift during her time in his suite, and he was in awe of the way the 12-time Grammy Award-winner connected with his mom, Donna.

A mysterious woman, down on her luck and working a miserable job at a tinned fish factory, makes contact with the extremely wealthy father she's never met — and his suspicious heirs — in the French thriller "The Origin of Evil."
Though the title may conjure up associations with jump scares, hauntings and demonic possessions, this film, now playing in 200 theaters in North America, draws its inspirations not from horrors but from the psychological, erotic thrillers of the 1980s and 1990s.

After a 148-day strike, Hollywood screenwriters secured significant guardrails against the use of artificial intelligence in one of the first major labor battles over generative AI in the workplace.
During the nearly five-month walkout, no issue resonated more than the use of AI in script writing. What was once a seemingly lesser demand of the Writers Guild of America became an existential rallying cry.

Ambassador of the European Union to Lebanon Sandra De Waele on Monday opened the 28th edition of the European Film Festival in Lebanon at the Sursock Museum.
Below is the speech delivered by De Waele at the ceremony as received by Naharnet:
Screenwriters' union leaders and Hollywood studios have reached a tentative agreement to end a historic strike after nearly five months, raising hopes that a crippling shutdown of film and television filming is near an end.
Actors remain on strike, but movement on the writers' demands could mean that the actors will find a resolution soon as well.

Giorgio Armani closed Milan Fashion Week on Sunday with good vibes and a front row that included frequent guests such as Cate Blanchett and Juliette Binoche.
Armani's Spring-Summer 2024 collection mirrored a sky's shifting colors and light at dusk, an idea conveyed with changing colors on the back wall of the showroom in his historic, central Milan headquarters.

After pageantry and politics in Paris, Britain's King Charles III heads south Friday to Bordeaux to focus on a more personal passion: the environment.
Charles will meet emergency workers and communities affected by wildfires in the Bordeaux region last year, and visit an experimental forest designed to monitor the impact of climate on urban woodlands.
