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She Tuned Into His ‘Commanding’ Voice at Columbia

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She Tuned Into His ‘Commanding’ Voice at Columbia

Chambers Boyd Moore instantly recognized Thomas Philip Moore’s distinctive voice as it rose up from a group standing behind her at a cocktail party kicking off their 30th Columbia Journalism School reunion weekend in April 2022.

“His voice is commanding,” said Ms. Moore, 60, first impressed by that command in a radio class in 1992. “He was a natural. ”

They got to know each other there as they prepared predigital audio “reel to reel” newscasts, which included ripping newswires from The Associated Press off a matrix printer.

“We cut each sound bite with razor blades and pieced them together with tiny bits of adhesive tape,” said Mr. Moore, 61, who goes by Tom, and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in biology from Fairfield University.

In March 1992, after each handed in a master’s thesis, they had more free time, and explored the city together a few days every week. In May, both received master’s degrees in journalism.

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“We partied, drank, danced and had dinners,” and basically dated from March to May, with the end in sight, said Mr. Moore, who grew up in Baltimore. Ms. Moore grew up in Louisville, Ky.

Their escapades included the Cloisters and Jones Beach by day and clubs like the Limelight, the Palladium and Save the Robots, sometimes until sunup.

“After graduation,” he said, “it was adios.”

She already had a job lined up at the New Hampshire Union Leader newspaper in Manchester, N.H., and was upfront from the start about getting back with her boyfriend after graduation.

[Click here to binge read this week’s featured couples.]

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“We were caught up in the fun, in the merrymaking,” said Ms. Moore, who graduated with a bachelor’s degree in legal studies from Simmons College, now Simmons University. The Moore surname is from a previous marriage, which ended in divorce, as did the groom’s.

Mr. Moore, who has three daughters in their 20s, is now an associate professor at the City University in New York — York College in Jamaica, Queens. Until 2023, he worked as a writer at CBS News Radio’s national network in Manhattan.

“I remember going to New Hampshire, leaving it all behind,” said Ms. Moore. “No formal parting.”

Ms. Moore has two sons, one in his 20s and the other a teenager. In 2005, she moved back to Louisville to work in corporate communications, and over the years she lived in Londonderry and West Lebanon, N.H.; Bryn Mawr, Pa.; and Wellesley, Mass. She now works remotely as a vice president and financial adviser for Baird, a financial services firm, based in its Louisville office.

After graduation, Mr. Moore couch-surfed and was a stringer for The New York Times, where Ms. Moore had been a stringer during graduate school. He then lived mainly in Park Slope, Brooklyn, where the couple now lives.

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At their reunion, they eventually greeted each other, then caught up over dinner with two other classmates at Le Monde, a brasserie near Columbia.

That evening he mentioned that he was going through a divorce, and after the reunion she soon realized her marriage was ending, too.

After Ms. Moore reached out to him a few months later, they began texting. In July, when she visited New York, where she rented a loft for the weekend in Red Hook, Brooklyn, they reunited for dinner at Fort Defiance restaurant nearby.

“It was very loud, but kind of cozy and romantic,” said Mr. Moore, thanks to sitting on the same side of the table so they could hear each other.

“He seemed like the same fun-loving person,” she said. He was “into journalism, and into his family as much as I was.”

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They kissed good night after he walked her home, and the next evening they had drinks at Sunny’s Bar, also in the area.

“I had the glorious memory of all the fun things we did,” he said. “I wanted to reignite it.”

That August, when she had a business trip to Lake Tahoe near Truckee, Calif., he joined her, and he visited her in Louisville over Christmas, and the next time he was there in May 2023 they went to the Kentucky Derby.

Since her job was more flexible, and he taught a full load of courses, and worked at CBS at the time, she usually visited New York each month for a week or two.

“I remember liking him in the ’90s,” she said. “I’m happy I liked the person in 2022.”

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They still both like going out, but in a toned down way.

“Tom doesn’t like to have the same day twice,” she said. “My kids’ nickname for me is ‘activity lady.’”

In February, he proposed at his apartment in Park Slope, over a candlelit dinner, with flowers, for which he had made what he called “a rather humble chicken.” They then toasted with Champagne.

On March 22, Jenn Zappola, who is ordained through American Marriage Ministries, officiated before his three daughters and her two sons, as well as a photographer, on the deck of a beach house the couple rented for the weekend in Huntington, N.Y., overlooking the Long Island Sound.

“It was important to let the kids know how important they are to us,” she said.

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Their children also showed how much they cared — they pitched in with a charcuterie board, blasted soap bubbles at them after the ceremony and performed the Cupid Shuffle dance.

The couple are still hooked on journalism.

“We consume a lot of news together,” she said.

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Lifestyle

Our 15 Favorite Looks at the 2026 Met Gala

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Our 15 Favorite Looks at the 2026 Met Gala

The Met Gala steps are a stage where celebrities strive not merely to look pretty, but to create indelible, avant-garde fashion moments. The most memorable looks tend to commit to the often abstract theme and take risks not typically seen on award show red carpets. Sometimes that works; other times it ends in disaster.

This year, guests stepped onto a mossy-looking, trompe l’oeil cobblestone carpet surrounded by a backdrop that recalled a Monet canvas. It was fitting for the evening’s brief: “Fashion is art.” It may be a bit on the nose for an event whose raison d’être is to raise money for the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s fashion-focused Costume Institute.

There were fake nipples and molded torsos; flowers and feathers; dripping jewels and one delightful burst of bubbles.

For close followers of our past most stylish lists, what follows is a shift in approach. Typically, we bring you a distillation of the looks that got people talking — the good, the bad and the most interesting. This year, since we now give you a chance to vote on your favorite looks, we’re saying, unequivocally, that these were ours (presented in no particular order).


In this Robert Wun gown, spurts of blood — in the form of delicate feathers — spring from incisions in the fabric.

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No other garment had quite the same movement as this frosty, fringed frock by Tom Ford that shimmied whenever Taylor struck a pose.


Inspired by the “Venus de Milo,” this primary-colored Thom Browne gown is a no-naked take on naked dressing.


In a sea of sequins and other opulent baubles, what at least presented as a pair of distressed denim trousers — by Prada — was like a palate cleanser.

If Vermeer’s “Girl With a Pearl Earring” made a meal of her signature accessory.


A look that was worth the decade-long wait for the star’s reappearance at the Met Gala.

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Gold adornments and jewel accents made Abrams look completely Klimtian in this peachy Chanel gown.

It’s goth meets grande dame. No engagement ring needed to get the people talking.


For the real heads: the Yves Klein Blue body-print dress from spring 2017, one of Phoebe Philo’s last collections at Celine.


Other men on the carpet looked as if they had tried needlessly hard when Martens, the creative director of Maison Margiela, appeared in this undeniable tuxedo. This is how every man should dress.

A profusion of bubbles continuously spouting from this teacup dress brought some joie de vivre to the carpet.

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It should be illegal to look so good for so long on so many red carpets.


Many tried corsets; several donned sheer skirts. But none managed to look quite so delicate, elegant and demure as Aboah did, in custom Simone Rocha.


More Yves Klein Blue, in whimsical curlicues by Valentino.

Stella Bugbee, Jacob Gallagher and Marie Solis contributed reporting.

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Lifestyle

Koreatown’s Wi Spa ups its game with a head spa, AI robot masseuse and more

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Koreatown’s Wi Spa ups its game with a head spa, AI robot masseuse and more

Wi Spa, with its hot and cold tubs, specialty saunas and napping nooks, has long been a beloved L.A. destination for rest and rejuvenation. Now Koreatown’s most popular spa is kicking up its wellness offerings, getting ahead of the self-care trend. Or a head of it.

Wi Spa is opening a head spa. It’s more than halfway through construction of Root Head Spa, slated to debut within the next two months. It will be located on the lobby level, in the space that formerly housed a gym, with seven individual treatment rooms.

The idea for this new edition began before the head spa trend became so popular in Los Angeles, says Min Jung, a Wi Spa manager. After researching the various types of head spas, Wi Spa decided to create theirs “in the Japanese Yume Head Spa-style,” she says. Treatments will clean, exfoliate and moisturize the scalp, and they will include a gentle head massage. (“Yume” means “dream” in Japanese, a nod to the sleepy state the treatment leaves guests in.)

“But this is not a massage, this is not a head wash, it is actually a scalp treatment,” Jung says.

Videos of Chinese and Japanese-inspired head spa treatments started popping up on social media in 2022 — the arc-shaped “waterfall bath” is especially visually intriguing. We chronicled the rise of the trend, which first began proliferating in Asian communities such as Arcadia, San Gabriel, Temple City and Rosemead, in 2024 and 2025 — now there are head spas across the city.

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Scrubbing the scalp aids circulation, strengthens hair follicles and helps to prevent dandruff, itchiness and inflammation, among other benefits, practitioners and dermatologists say. In our coverage, we said it “might be the most relaxing spa service in L.A.”

Wi Spa’s Himalayan Salt Sauna, a visitor favorite.

(Wi Spa)

An hourlong Wi Spa head spa treatment will cost about $150 to $200, Jung says, adding that prices are not yet set. That’s the upper end of average in L.A. for the treatment. Wi Spa’s $40 entry fee (which includes access to spa amenities) will not be waived with purchase of the head spa treatment, as it is with other Wi Spa services, such as a body scrub or massage, which typically exceeds $160.

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Also in the works: Wi Spa is planning to build a wellness center on its third floor, in what’s now a skincare area. The new offering will likely include an infrared sauna and a red light therapy bed, among other things. This past summer Wi Spa also opened a salon for blowouts, called Root Style Bar, adjacent to its women’s dressing room. So (cue the violins) guests no longer have to trek out to their car with wet hair or attend post-spa events with a DIY blowout.

Next up: a spa-wide renovation to freshen up existing areas.

In the meantime, visitors may not know: Wi Spa has an “Aescape” AI-powered massage robot on its premises.

Aescape massage robot at Pause Wellness Studio.

Reporter Deborah Vankin tries out the Aescape massage robot at Pause Wellness Studio in 2024.

(Christina House / Los Angeles Times)

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We wrote about Aescape when it debuted at Pause, a wellness center in Studio City — it performs a 3D scan of your body to deliver custom robot massages. (Cyborg butt massages are not to be underestimated.) There are now several Aescapes around L.A., including at Equinox gyms. Wi Spa leased theirs this past summer. Guests can book robot massages for 15 minutes, 30 minutes, 45 minutes or an hour for $1 a minute, making it more affordable than Wi Spa’s manual massage offerings.

We’re partial to the most affordable massage option at Wi Spa, however: the plush, blue-lighted massage chairs scattered throughout the spa. Bring cash. It’s just $10 for a 30-minute “luxury” full body massage — and it’s surprisingly effective.

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Lifestyle

Vote for Your Favorite Met Gala Looks

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Vote for Your Favorite Met Gala Looks

Vote for your favorite looks from the 53 below.

This page will order itself based on votes. Return to see how the race is shaking out before it closes.

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The poll closes May 5 at 6 p.m. ET.

  1. 1
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    Beyoncé in Olivier Rousteing.

    Beyoncé

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  2. 2
  3. 3

    Rihanna in Maison Margiela.

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    Rihanna

  4. 4
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    Nina Westervelt for The New York Times

    Sam Smith

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    Nina Westervelt for The New York Times

    Rebecca Hall

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  11. 10

    Nina Westervelt for The New York Times

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    Zoe Kravitz

  12. 11
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    Doja Cat in Saint Laurent.

    Doja Cat

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  13. 12
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    Jon Batiste in ERL Artisanal.

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    Jon Batiste

  15. 14
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    Eileen Gu Nina Westervelt for The New York Times

    Eileen Gu

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  17. 15
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    Suleika Jaouad in Christian Siriano.

    Suleika Jaouad

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  19. 17
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    Janelle Monae in Christian Siriano.

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    Janelle Monáe

  21. 19
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    Nina Westervelt for The New York Times

    Lisa

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  22. 20
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    Patrick Schwarzenegger in Public School.

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    Patrick Schwarzenegger

  25. 23
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    Colman Domingo in Valentino.

    Colman Domingo

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  27. 24

    Nina Westervelt for The New York Times

    Skepta

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  28. 25

    Nina Westervelt for The New York Times

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    Kylie Jenner

  29. 26
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    Nina Westervelt for The New York Times

    Sombr

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  31. 28

    Sabrina Carpenter in Dior.

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    Sabrina Carpenter

  32. 29
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    Connor Storrie in Saint Laurent.

    Connor Storrie

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    Nina Westervelt for The New York Times

    Chase Infiniti

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  37. 33
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    Hudson Williams in Balenciaga.

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    Hudson Williams

  39. 35
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    Nina Westervelt for The New York Times

    Kim Kardashian

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  42. 38

    Madonna in Saint Laurent.

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    Madonna

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    Nina Westervelt for The New York Times

    Cher

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    Nina Westervelt for The New York Times

    Alysa Liu

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  55. 50
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    Stevie Nicks in Zara by John Galliano

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    Stevie Nicks

  57. 52
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    Rachel Sennott in Marc Jacobs.

    Rachel Sennott

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  58. 53

    Simone Ashley in Stella McCartney.

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    Simone Ashley

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