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Lady Gaga confirms engagement to Michael Polansky after Olympics opening ceremony

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Lady Gaga confirms engagement to Michael Polansky after Olympics opening ceremony

Lady Gaga is reportedly engaged to tech investor Michael Polansky — and, according to one report, has been for months.

While in Paris for the 2024 Summer Olympics, where she performed during the opening ceremony on Friday, the music superstar is said to have introduced Polansky as her fiancé to French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal.

Representatives for the “Born This Way” singer did not immediately respond Monday to The Times’ requests for comment.

2024 Paris Summer Olympic Games

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People reported Monday that the couple got engaged “several months” ago, but chose to share the news only within their inner circle at the time. Polansky — chief executive of the Parker Group, which oversees the business and charitable interests of Napster founder and Facebook investor Sean Parker — is said to have popped the question ahead of Gaga’s 38th birthday party in March.

However, the Oscar and Grammy winner reportedly chose not to wear her engagement ring in the immediate aftermath to avoid being photographed with it on. But that only last a short while, as she sparked engagement rumors when she was spotted wearing the sparkler in April.

“They’re great together. He’s excited and supportive of her career. He can’t stand being in the spotlight, but lets her shine. He has his own business priorities that she’s supportive of,” a source told People on Monday.

The engagement rumors reignited Sunday when the French PM posted a TikTok video featuring the singer and her groom-to-be at the Olympic Games. In it, Gaga can be heard introducing Polansky as “my fiancé” while they watched a swimming event at the Paris Aquatic Centre.

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“Thank you Lady Gaga for your stunning performance at the opening ceremony. It was breathtaking,” Attal captioned the clip, which has been liked more than 70,000 times.

Gaga, real name Stefani Germanotta, and Polansky were first linked in December 2019 after they were spotted kissing at a New Year’s Eve bash in Las Vegas. They took their PDA-filled romance public a few weeks later after Super Bowl LIV in Miami.

Gaga was previously engaged to “Chicago Fire” actor Taylor Kinney, but the two ended their five-year relationship in 2016.

Aside from her engagement, Gaga made headlines this weekend for her performance along the Seine River, paying tribute to French ballerina and singer Zizi Jeanmaire with her rendition of “Mon Truc en Plumes.”

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Ahead of the Olympics opening ceremony, the “A Star Is Born” actor was rumored to be performing, even though she was not listed on a program provided to the media in advance, the Associated Press reported. AP also first reported the news that she had prerecorded her number, which was then played during the live broadcast, due to the inclement weather in the French capital.

Her surprise showing during the ceremony was the only performance that “for safety reasons, we had to pre-record late in the afternoon,” Olympic and Paralympic opening ceremony choreographer Maud le Pladec told Variety. “[O]nce we knew for sure that it was going to rain — we had minute-by-minute updates, we had never watched the weather forecast so closely in our lives.

“We assessed that it was going to be too dangerous for performers, even with a few drops of rain. [Gaga] wanted to do it absolutely so we preferred to pre-record it rather than cancel it,” Le Pladec said. “The soil would have been slippery. She was wearing heels, very near the water, there were stairs… We had to be extremely cautious.”

Accompanied by a troupe of eight dancers carrying pink-feather fans and clad in custom Dior costumes, Gaga sang in French and danced, ascending and descending a riverside flight of stairs during the upbeat, cabaret-inspired performance. She briefly played piano too.

“I feel so completely grateful to have been asked to open the Paris @Olympics 2024 this year. I am also humbled to be asked by the Olympics organizing committee to sing such a special French song — a song to honor the French people and their tremendous history of art, music, and theatre,” she wrote on Instagram after the show.

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“Although I am not a French artist, I have always felt a very special connection with French people and singing French music — I wanted nothing more than to create a performance that would warm the heart of France, celebrate French art and music, and on such a momentous occasion remind everyone of one of the most magical cities on earth — Paris,” she added, listing all the ways in which she drew from French culture to “put a modern twist on a French classic.”

“I rehearsed tirelessly to study a joyful French dance, brushing up on some old skills — I bet you didn’t know I used to dance at a 60’s French party on the lower east side when I was first starting out! I hope you love this performance as much as I do,” the “Joker: Folie à Deux” star wrote.

“And to everyone in France, thank you so much for welcoming me to your country to sing in honor of you — it’s a gift I’ll never forget! Congratulations to all the athletes who are competing in this year’s Olympic Games! It is my supreme honor to sing for you and cheer you on!! Watching the Olympic Games always makes me cry! Your talent is unimaginable. Let the games begin!”

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Movie Reviews

Movie Review: The Mortuary Assistant – HorrorFuel.com: Reviews, Ratings and Where to Watch the Best Horror Movies & TV Shows

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Movie Review: The Mortuary Assistant – HorrorFuel.com: Reviews, Ratings and Where to Watch the Best Horror Movies & TV Shows

Forget the “video game movie” curse; The Mortuary Assistant is a bone-chilling triumph that stands entirely on its own two feet. Starring Willa Holland (Arrow) as Rebecca Owens, the film follows a newly certified mortician whose “overtime shift” quickly devolves into a grueling battle for her soul.

What Makes It Work

The film expertly balances the stomach-churning procedural work of embalming with a spiraling demonic nightmare. Alongside a mysterious mentor played by Paul Sparks (Boardwalk Empire), Rebecca is forced to confront both ancient evils and her own buried traumas. And boy, does she have a lot of them.

Thanks to a full-scale, practical River Fields Mortuary set, the film drips with realism, like you can almost smell the rot and bloat of the bodies through the screen.

The skin effects are hauntingly accurate. The way the flesh moves during surgical scenes is so visceral. I’ve seen a lot of flesh wounds in horror films and in real life, and the bodies, skin, and organs. The Mortuary Assistant (especially in the opening scene) looks so real that I skipped supper after watching it. And that’s saying something. Your girl likes to eat.

Co-written by the game’s creator, Brian Clarke, the movie dives deeper into the demonic mythology. Whether you’ve seen every ending or don’t know a scalpel from a trocar, the story is perfectly self-contained. If you’ve never played the game, or played it a hundred times, the film works equally well, which is hard to do when it comes to game adaptations.

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Nailed It

This film does a lot of things right, but the isolation of the night shift is suffocating. Between the darkness of the hallways and the “residents” that refuse to stay still, the film delivers a relentlessly immersive experience. And thankfully, although this movie is filled with dark rooms and shadows, it’s easy to see every little thing. Don’t you hate it when a movie is so dark that you can’t see what’s happening? It’s one of my pet peeves.

The oh-so-awesome Jeremiah Kipp directs the film and has made something absolutely nightmare-inducing. Kipp recently joined us for an interview, took us inside the film, discussed its details and the game’s lore, and so much more. I urge you to check out our interview. He’s awesome!

The Verdict

This isn’t just a cash-grab; it’s a high-effort adaptation that respects the source material while elevating the horror genre. With incredible special effects and a powerhouse cast, it’s the kind of movie that will make you rethink working late ever again. Dropping on Friday the 13th, this is a must-watch for horror fans. It’s grisly, intelligent, and genuinely terrifying.

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Former Live Nation executive says he was fired after raising ‘financial misconduct’ concerns

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Former Live Nation executive says he was fired after raising ‘financial misconduct’ concerns

A former executive at Live Nation, the world’s largest live entertainment company, is suing the company, alleging that he was wrongfully terminated after he raised concerns about alleged financial misconduct and improper accounting practices.

Nicholas Rumanes alleges he was “fraudulently induced” in 2022 to leave a lucrative position as head of strategic development at a real estate investment trust to create a new role as executive vice president of development and business practice at Beverly Hills-based Live Nation.

In his new position, Rumanes said, he raised “serious and legitimate alarm” over the the company’s business practices.

As a result, he says, he was “unlawfully terminated,” according to the lawsuit filed Thursday in Los Angeles County Superior Court.

“Rumanes was, simply put, promised one job and forced to accept another. And then he was cut loose for insisting on doing that lesser job with integrity and honesty,” according to the lawsuit.

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He is seeking $35 million in damages.

Representatives for Live Nation were not immediately available for comment.

The lawsuit comes a week after a federal jury in Manhattan found that Live Nation and its Ticketmaster subsidiary had operated a monopoly over major concert venues, controlling 86% of the concert market.

Rumanes’ lawsuit describes a “culture of deception” at Live Nation, saying its “basic business model was to misstate and exaggerate financial figures in efforts to solicit and secure business.”

Such practices “spanned a wide spectrum of projects in what appeared to be a company-wide pattern of financial misrepresentation and misleading disclosures,” the lawsuit states.

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Rumanes says he received materials and documents that showed that the company inflated projected revenues across multiple venue development projects.

Additionally, Rumanes contends that the company violated a federal law that requires independent financial auditing and transparency and instead ran Live Nation “through a centralized, opaque structure” that enables it to “bypass oversight and internal checks and balances.”

In 2010, as a condition of the Live Nation-Ticketmaster merger, the newly formed company agreed to a consent decree with the government that prohibited the firm from threatening venues to use Ticketmaster. In 2019 the Justice Department found that the company had repeatedly breached the agreement, and it extended the decree.

Rumanes contends that he brought his concerns to the attention of the company’s management, but his warnings were “repeatedly ignored.”

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Movie Reviews

‘Madhuvidhu’ movie review: A light-hearted film that squanders a promising conflict

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‘Madhuvidhu’ movie review: A light-hearted film that squanders a promising conflict

At the centre of Madhuvidhu directed by Vishnu Aravind is a house where only men reside, three generations of them living in harmony. Unlike the Anjooran household in Godfather, this is not a house where entry is banned to women, but just that women don’t choose to come here. For Amrithraj alias Ammu (Sharafudheen), the protagonist, 28 marriage proposals have already fallen through although he was not lacking in interest.

When a not-so-cordial first meeting with Sneha (Kalyani Panicker) inevitably turns into mutual attraction, things appear about to change. But some unexpected hiccups are waiting for them, their different religions being one of them. Writers Jai Vishnu and Bipin Mohan do not seem to have any major ambitions with Madhuvidhu, but they seem rather content to aim for the middle space of a feel-good entertainer. Only that they end up hitting further lower.

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