Polo Lifestyles July 2023 WOMEN+POWER

LAUREN SANCHEZ

CHANGING THE WORLD ONE BILLION AT A TIME

WOMEN

LAUREN SANCHEZ · BEYONCÉ · KAMALA HARRIS

URSULA VAN DER LEYEN · MICHELLE OBAMA

AUBREY PLAZA · CARRIE COON · ELAINE ZHOU

GEETANJALI SHREE · HOPE ARELLANO · IMAN

ABUZEID · MEGHAN, DUCHESS OF SUSSEX · NINA

GARCIA · OPRAH WINFREY · REGINA KING

RENEE TIMS · MELINDA FRENCH GATES · TAYLOR

SWIFT · MACKENZIE SCOTT · MARTHA STEWART · KARINE JEAN-PIERRE · KRIS JENNER & THE

KARDASHIANS · THE MONDAVI SISTERS & MORE

Ambassador Claude-Alix Bertrand Publisher

Joshua Jakobitz Editor-in-Chief

William Smith

Copy Editor & Philanthropy Contributor

Claire Barrett Head of Photography

Dana Romita Luxury Real Estate Contributor

Amritlal Singh

Spirituality Contributor

Cezar Kusik Wine Contributor

Polo Photographers

Katerina Morgan

Justine Jacquemot

Irina Kazaridi

Helen Cruden

Dillon Driscoll

Nick Tininenko

Michael J. Snell Lifestyles & Luxury Automobile Contributor

Joey Velez Wellness Contributor

Justin "Goliath" Johnson Wellness Contributor

Raphael K. Dapaah Art Contributor Brand Representatives

Michael J. Snell - NYC

Stanley Pierre-Etienne - West Indies Justin Johnson - Atlanta

Contributing Photographers

Xavier Merchet-Thau

Aubrey Chandler

Eric Carré

Eva Espresso

Tony Ramirez

Rob Miskowitch

Paat Kelly

Polo Lifestyles is a publication of HT Polo Publishing Co. 995 Detroit Avenue, Suite A Concord, CA 94518

Cover photo of Lauren Sanchez courtesy The Telegraph

Content Copyright © Polo Lifestyles 2023 All Rights Reserved.

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SANTA BARBARA POLO & RACQUET CLUB

Farmers & Merchants Bank Silver Cup

LA HERRADURA POLO CLUB

Carlos Gracida International

HAWAII POLO CLUB

Hawaiian Islands Circuit Masters

FARMINGTON POLO CLUB

Northeastern Circuit Masters

LAS BRISAS POLO CLUB

Central Circuit General George S. Patton, Jr.

MARYLAND POLO CLUB

Eastern Circuit Women's Challenge

ROLAND GARROS

Paris

WIMBLEDON

London

BARRIERE DEAUVILLE POLO

Coupe d'Or

Ladies Polo Cup

Coupe de Bronze

Open de France

Open de France Feminine

THE POLO NATIONS CUP

POLO LIFESTYLES

Joey Velez Wellness Columnist Velez Mental Performance @velezmentalhealth

Eva Espresso Photographer Eva Espresso Photography @Eva.espresso

Amritlal Singh Spirituality Contributor Monarch Visionary @monarch_visionary

Cezar Kusik Wine Contributor Polo Lifestyles @cezartastesearth

Dana Romita Real Estate Contributor Douglas Elliman @danaromita

EDITORS & CONTRIBUTORS

William Smith Philanthropy Contributor May & Stanley Smith Charitable Trust @willismith_2000

Justin Johnson Wellness Contributor Goliath Coaches @goliathcoaches

Ambassador Claude-Alix Bertrand Publisher Polo Lifestyles @haiti_polo_captain

Josh Jakobitz Editor-in-Chief Polo Lifestyles @joshuajakobitz

Michael J. Snell Lifestyles & Automobiles Contributor @agnello_1

Eric Carré Photographer EC Photography @ti_carre

Claire Barrett Head of Photography Claire Barrett Photography @clairebarrettphoto

Raphael K. Dapaah Art Contributor Dapaah Gallery @dapaahgallery

Katerina Morgan Polo Photographer Horse Polo Art Gallery @horsepoloartgallery

WOMEN+POWER

LAUREN SANCHEZ CHANGING THE WORLD ONE BILLION AT A TIME

Inside the world of JeanMichel Basquiat, page 186

The Polo Nations Cup Gala lights up Paris, page 34

Dioriviera opens at The Beverly Hills Hotel, page 168

Pharrell Williams debuts his LV collection, page 152

TWO HUNDRED AND 26 PAGES. THAT'S HOW LONG THE 2023 ISSUE OF WOMEN+POWER WAS ON FIRST EXPORT. I CALLED THE PUBLISHER AND RELAYED THE NEWS. THERE WAS A LONG PAUSE ON THE PHONE AND THEN HE SAID, “I’LL TAKE A LOOK.” THE RESULT IS A BOOK PACKED WITH INSPIRING PROFILES OF WOMEN FROM ALL WALKS OF LIFE AND FROM ALL PARTS OF THE WORLD.

You’ll recognize many of these women-leaders, but some may be new to you (as they were to me). I personally interviewed several of them and was blown away by what they’re doing. Renee Tims, an entrepreneur from Los Angeles is literally shaking up every industry that she touches from homehealth care for special needs patients to end-of-life services. Polo player Hope Arellano and I connected one sunny morning to talk about her summer polo schedule. She spoke with the wisdom and maturity of someone far beyond her 20 years.

In the final hours of review and consideration for our 2023 list of WOMEN+POWER, we reviewed previous featured women, especially covers. Our first WOMEN+POWER cover, Queen Elizabeth II, is no longer with us; Ellen DeGeneres, Simon Biles and Naomi Osaka are all still powerful women in their own rights, but all happen to be between projects, initiatives, or championships. There’s no reason why they wouldn’t make our list every year, but we also wanted to make room for some newbies. We topped out at 55 powerful women finalists and 214 pages.

It’s a lot to take in, so take your time, make a coffee or tea and settle in to be inspired. Thanks for reading.

Best,

Josh Jakobitz josh@pololifestyles.com

INNOVATION EXISTS PURELY TO SERVE YOUR COMFORT, SAFETY AND CONVENIENCE VIA MULTIPLE SENSES. A VIRTUAL VOICE ASSISTANT LISTENS TO SERVE YOU.

LIGHTING AND FRAGRANCE SUBTLY SOOTHE YOU.

Beyond first class is a class of one.

bodvarrose

Beyonce in Balmain on her worldwide tour that's selling out in city after city

Summertime on the Cote d'Azur means Cotes-des-Provence is the goto refresher

coshannessy

Sketching in real-time at Roland Garros is a fun way to enjoy the tournament

harrywinston

How to be the chicest person at the pool? Don't leave your jewelry at home

globalpolo

The British High Goal season is underway with the Gold Cup kicking off

life_calligraphy

Pyramids and Arabian steeds make for a memorable trip to Egypt

robbreport shades_of_blackness

Just another day at the beach with a supermodel, a camera and one oversized floral

shellona_sttropez

Shellona St-Tropez welcomes Dior for its summer installation at the can'tmiss destination

A treasure of classic cars was uncovered in an abandoned warehouse last month

balmain

Cowdray Park Polo Club welcomes back the U.S. Polo Association popup shop

Chic looks from the beach to the boardroom to the club from Gucci's summer collection

Diamonds and sapphires delight in this one-of-a-kind piece from the renowned jeweller

poloforthecureitalia

Parading the ponies through the center of the city is tradition for Italian polo clubs

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The Prince and Princess of Wales' social media is more active than ever, capturing their near-daily appearances

robbreport

The newest luxury must-have in new homes and renovations is the Safe Room

stbarthtourisme

Quieter for the summer in St-Barths, but the tourism office welcomes a little less traffic than usual

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Just out for a quick snack before the next riding session at Polo Club Midden Nederland

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It's wedding season for chefs, party planners and caterers in St-Barths

uspoloassociation

Click and comment on our choices... Tag @pololifestyles . We will share noteworthy comments with you next month.

harrywinston

gucci

POLO NATIONS CUP

DOMAINE DE CHANTILLY

DOMAINE DE CHANTILLY POLO NATIONS CUP

DOMAINE DE CHANTILLY POLO NATIONS CUP

DOMAINE DE CHANTILLY POLO NATIONS CUP

DOMAINE DE CHANTILLY POLO NATIONS CUP

POLO NATIONS CUP

POLO NATIONS CUP GALA

POLO NATIONS CUP GALA

CARTIER QUEEN'S

QUEEN'S CUP

CARTIER QUEEN'S CUP

CARTIER QUEEN'S CUP

CARTIER QUEEN'S CUP

CARTIER QUEEN'S CUP

TSA ONE

CARRY-ON NATION UNDER

HOW SAVVY TRAVELERS AND EXPERTS PREP FOR EFFICIENT AIR TRAVEL EXPERIENCES

LOEL AND GLORIA GUINNESS ONCE CONFIDED TO A JOURNALIST THAT THE HARDSHIP OF JET-SETTING TO FIVE HOMES SCATTERED AROUND THE GLOBE, FROM PALM BEACH TO LAUSANNE, WAS ONE THING, BUT PACKING AND UNPACKING WAS AN ALTOGETHER MORE TEDIOUS CHORE.

So they took to keeping a complete wardrobe in each residence and traveling with nothing but the clothes on their backs.

If the Guinnesses did not care for the burden of luggage 60 years ago, it is safe to assume they would have a distaste for the current state of affairs. Recall the record flight cancellations, delays, and baggage mishaps of last summer? Even optimists say it’s looking as if this year will be more of the same.

“We’re going to see more flights this year than ever before, and whenever you increase capacity on an already stressedout system, there are issues,” says Brian Kelly, founder of the Points Guy. So if you don’t already have another set of your belongings at your destination, what’s a girl to do? For some, the humble carry-on is emerging as the answer. For others, there was never an alternative. The question for all is how to carry on with efficiency, and panache.

Aerin Lauder swears by Rule 1: Do a tight edit. “I love a simple black pant, a pretty blouse, a classic blazer, and two pairs of shoes—one for daytime and one for night,” she says. Needless to say, an Aerin suede pouch is part of the inventory. Designer Dianora Salviati, who splits her time between New York and Italy, streamlines to the extreme. “I travel with the bare minimum,” she says. “And, of course, with a couple of elegant pieces for the evening.” Salviati also preaches the gospel of Rule 2: Let accessories do the heavy lifting. She does design scarves for a living, after all.

The delicate matter of transporting personal effects while on vacation predates the enchanting nomadic life of the Guinnesses. Louis Vuitton introduced his first hard-sided trunk in 1858, and at the dawn of the 20th century his “steamer bag” came about, ushering in an era of monogrammed trunks carried on and off ocean liners and trains. The tradition continued even after the invention of wheeled luggage in the 1970s.

Trunks, of course, have evolved. At its new Salon on Melrose Place, Gucci invites clients to update with bespoke details and velvet accents the hard-sided versions Guccio Gucci introduced a century ago. And during this year’s Salone del Mobile, the world’s largest design fair, Vuitton debuted as part of its travel-inspired Objets Nomades collection a so-called Cabinet of Curiosities, a megatrunk conceived by Australian industrial designer Marc Newsom made up of 19 compact leather-covered metal cubes. It’s fitting that only 40 Cabinets will be produced. The label knows that even the most pampered traveler puts a premium on Rule 3: Peak mobility is nonnegotiable. Not for nothing did a new rolling trunk featuring such updated features as an improved trolley system and a TSA combination lock make an appearance during Vuitton’s spring men’s show.

But it’s not just hypebeasts who crave portability. For Becky Malinsky, the brains behind the hit fashion Substack “5 Things You Should Buy,” the name of the game is Rule 4: Curate. “You need a dress that is dress code—flexible, a black-and-white or black linen dress that could be dressy with a proper pair of shoes, or if it were paired with sandals would look casual enough to go to a beach or pool.” Rule 5: Footwear should segue from day to night. “A Tod’s driving moc or a French Sole ballerina—something that feels easy no matter where you’re dining or spending the day,” she adds. Rule 6: Pack a chic pair of pajamas. A clever option as a lounge-as-eveningwear look—or a cover-up, if need be. And Rule 7: Bring a good chambray shirt, because, Malinsky says, “it can

take you to the beach, but you could also see it at dinner.”

Another writer, Helen Lee Schifter, is an evangelist for Rule 8: Have a contingency plan. “Don’t put all your shoes in one bag. Don’t put all your undergarments in the same suitcase,” she says. That way, if one piece of luggage is lost, you’ve spread out the risk.

Meanwhile, jeweler Briony Raymond relies on Rule 9: Neutrals are your friend. “The only things I plan my outfits for ahead of time are formal events, and I’ll choose one option for that and stick with it.”

Short of that, consider Rule 10: Double bag. “I often pack my evening bag full of toiletries and my passport, and tuck it into my travel tote to double as an organizer for the plane. The Hermès Sac de Pansage—literally the only bag I travel with—is also my beach bag.”

Carry-on, it should be noted, is not an option for everyone. Malinsky, for instance, is a mom, and she knows from experience that traveling with children renders lightness obsolete. Bonus rule: Shipping is available thanks to companies like Send My Bag and Luggage Forward. These white glove services can run about $200 a bag (depending on weight and time frame), but they guarantee your valuables securely reach intended destinations. Though, as Malinsky points out, vacation spots can add a wrinkle to this method: “If you’re going somewhere remote, shipping isn’t really going to be less risky than checking.” As with everything in life, there’s a trade-o when it comes to checking, shipping, or going the carry-on-only route. Geoffrey Weill, who is a professional globetrotter as the founder of his namesake travel PR agency, offers some solace and well-earned wisdom to the risk-averse: “There are nightmare stories, but when cases get lost, invariably they do arrive.”

WHY EUTHANIZE HORSES WITH FRACTURED LEGS?

Humans and other mammals can recover from a broken leg. But a similar injury can be catastrophic for thoroughbreds, as the public has seen during this Triple Crown season.

THERE IS A LOT TO ENJOY FOR A NEW FAN INTRODUCED TO EQUESTRIAN SPORTS. THERE IS THE BEAUTY OF THE ANIMALS, THE THRILL OF WATCHING THEM MOVE AND THE JOYFUL FEELING OF OUTSMARTING THE OTHER HORSEPLAYERS AND EVEN CASHING A BET.

But there is a cold fact about the sport that can be hard for fans — and impossible for critics — to accept: Sometimes a horse gets hurt, and sometimes it is euthanized, often right on the track or fieldside.

Earlier this month, seven horses died at Churchill Downs in the lead-up to the Kentucky Derby, including four that broke down while racing or training.

And the victory of National Treasure, trained by Bob Baffert, in the Preakness was clouded by the collapse and euthanasia of another Baffert racehorse earlier in the day at Pimlico Race Course.

People who oppose horse racing on principle often point to such occurrences while making their case. Even for racing fans, the disquieting reality of breakdowns can raise the question: Does something as apparently simple as a broken leg have to lead to a horse dying? The unfortunate answer, veterinarians say, is often yes.

Horses are just different from many animals, even other equines. “They can run really fast,” said Dr. Scott E. Palmer, the equine medical director of the New York State Gaming Commission. “And because they weigh about 1,100 pounds, the forces that are acting on their legs are really profound.”

Palmer continued: “All their muscles are up high. When you get down into the lower part of the leg, there is literally skin and bones and tendons and blood vessels and nerves. If something breaks, the circulation of the area can be easily compromised by the injury.”

As a result, horses are vulnerable to breaking their legs; it happens running on the racetrack, or running in a pasture, or kicking a stall door. The problem is that it is very difficult to heal a broken leg on a horse.

Breaks in horses can also be much more severe than in a human or other mammals, because of their weight and the fragility of their legs. “Because of the high energy impact, the horse can shatter that bone, more than just a simple crack, making repair much less likely,” Palmer said.

BY VICTOR MATHER / SPECIAL TO POLO LIFESTYLES

To fix a broken bone on any animal, the break must be immobilized. But immobilizing a horse brings a host of challenges. Horses are restless and skittish. Thoroughbreds are bred to run. Keeping them in one place for an extended period is difficult.

Horses also spend almost all of their time on four feet, even when sleeping. So all four of their legs bear their weight. If suddenly three legs have to support that weight, the uninjured legs can quickly develop problems.

Most commonly and dangerously, horses can get laminitis, a painful condition that develops in the tissue between the hoof and the bone. “The hoof is attached to the bone by organic fasteners like a Velcro system,” Palmer said. “If those little hooks become swollen, they become

unhooked. That is impossible to take care of.”

The entire treatment experience can bring severe pain for a horse who, of course, cannot understand what is going on the way a human undergoing painful treatment would.

The pain for the horse is consideration “No. 1, No. 2 and No. 3,” Palmer said.

Laminitis brings “unbelievable pain,” he said. “They cannot stand on that leg. Now you have a horse with a break in one leg and can’t stand on a second.”

Horses cannot simply lie down for extended periods to avoid putting weight on their legs. Lying down for more than a few hours will cause muscle damage, restricted blood flow and blood pooling

in the lungs.

Any elaborate or unusual process to try to repair a badly broken bone can cost thousands of dollars. Few horse owners are willing to spend that kind of money on a painful treatment process that might not work and probably won’t get the horse back to the racetrack. Euthanasia is the unfortunate choice most of the time.

When the 2006 Kentucky Derby winner, Barbaro, broke his leg in the Preakness two weeks later, his owners Roy and Gretchen Jackson decided to try to save him.

His injury was serious: The leg bone was broken into 20 pieces. He had five hours of surgery to insert 27 pins and a stainless steel plate.

Palmer was on the scene the day of the injury. “I said: ‘The fracture is horrible, but none of the wounds came through the skin. Because of that, I believe that surgery is possible.’ I honestly thought that was the very best chance he had for survival.”

Two months after his surgery, Barbaro developed laminitis, requiring most of a hoof to be removed. He then had some good months. But the hoof did not grow back properly, leading to another procedure. He got a foot bruise, and more surgery followed. Complications led to laminitis in two more limbs, and Barbaro’s distress increased significantly.

“We just reached a point where it was going to be difficult for him to go on without pain,” Roy Jackson said. In the end, the extraordinary efforts lengthened his life by only eight months.

“From a purely surgical perspective,

it was extremely unsatisfying because he didn’t make it,” Dr. Dean W. Richardson, the surgeon, said at the time. “Professionally, I think we did the best we could.”

The dazzling filly Ruffian in 1975 had 12 hours of surgery after a bad break. Upon waking, she began thrashing around in her stall, causing another break and leading to her euthanasia.

If euthanasia is the only option, the horse is sedated, then a barbiturate solution is administered, generally behind a screen to block the view of spectators. Strides have been made in the last decades in treating horses, including development of better antibiotics and the aluminum splint and improvements in understanding laminitis.

There have also been improvements in prevention, which, given the horse’s unusual anatomy, may be the most promis-

ing way to make progress.

After a string of horse deaths at Aqueduct in 2011 and 2012, Palmer and others made recommendations, including improving the racing surface, changing claiming and purse rules and strengthening drug regulation. Those have helped the number of racing deaths come down and stay down.

Palmer has hope for Fitbit-type devices — biometric sensors that can spot horses with gaits that might lead to injury before those injuries happen. A trial at Saratoga Race Course last year was promising, he said.

But the challenge of caring for horses is likely to always remain. Palmer said of the difficulties of surgery: “We have to put a broken leg back together again with screws and plates, and they have to be able to stand on it immediately after surgery. That is an enormous challenge.”

SEX & HEALTH

TROUBLE ORGASMING WITH A PARTNER?

YOU'RE NOT ALONE

IN EVERY SEX SCENE IN EVERY MOVIE I’VE EVER SEEN, THE COUPLE IN QUESTION IS PICTURED CLIMAXING AFTER ABOUT THREE SECONDS AND A FEW HAPHAZARD THRUSTS. NO FOREPLAY, NO MISHAPS, NO SLIPPERY SURFACES. NADA.

And while some people may very well be able to finish without much time or effort, it’s totally OK to need a little more TLC in order to reach the big O. And if you have a hard time orgasming with your partner, you›re not alone.

“People of all genders struggle to orgasm with partners; it is common, ‘normal,’ and nothing to be ashamed of,” Brianne McGuire, host of the Sex Communication podcast, said. “Orgasm does not equal ‘success’ and pleasure can be experienced without climax.”

As McGuire shared, while an orgasm can be a special part of sex, it’s certainly not the “goal” or the only reason to get

it on. Sex can be a way to connect with your partner, to de-stress, and to simply have fun — with or without an orgasm. For Lindsay Wynn, vaginal health and wellness expert and founder of vaginal care line Momotaro Apotheca, changing the way you think about sex can be super empowering. “We place importance on aspects of sex that are often unrealistic and even unenjoyable to some,» Wynn said. «Sex is not an act; it’s an experience. Listen to your body and what feels good.»

Though you and your boo may be down for an early 2000s rom-com role-play situation, your sex life doesn›t have to mimic what you see in the media. If you don›t really care about orgasming, aren›t into penetration, or prefer to practice safe sex in whatever ways feel good for you, you don›t need to feel pressure to do anything differently. As long as what you›re doing is consensual and pleasurable to you, it doesn›t have to look, sound, or act a certain way. «Sex is whatever you dream sex to be,» Wyn said. “Be aware, be honest, and be open.»

Do you remember the time you learned how to shoot a basketball or ride a bike and the minute you asked your parents to watch you, you couldn›t do it anymore? That›s what sex can feel like sometimes. While intimacy can be a beautiful way to connect with someone, McGuire said that it can also come with an added pressure to perform in front of your partner.

“There is so much weight placed upon orgasm as an indication of success, that it can drive the climax away,» McGuire said. «Sexual pleasure is not just physical; it is mental — stimulating the body does not necessarily mean the rest will follow.»

As McGuire shared, feeling stressed about not orgasming may be hindering you from orgasming. Though it may feel hard in the moment, taking a moment to really connect with your body and your partner may help you feel less in your head. McGuire added that emotional factors like trust, arousal, and comfort can also be common factors in being able to orgasm with someone. If you

8 WAYS TO ACHIEVE ORGASM

need to slow down, or you want to talk to your partner about where their head is at. Getting on the same emotional page may help you cross the sexy finish line.

“Orgasm isn’t the benchmark of great sex. The goal is to have an enjoyable and pleasurable encounter with your partner,» Dr. Christopher Ryan Jones, sex and relationships therapist said. “A lot of times, couples are so focused on the orgasm that the rest of the experience isn’t thought about or considered.” As all the experts share, adopting a more open understanding of sex (i.e., not just focusing on orgasms), you and your partner can feel less stressed about finishing, and just enjoy the moment. “By adopting this perspective on sex, it takes the focus off

of orgasm, which greatly reduces performance anxiety and allows the partners to enjoy the sexual experience much more (and many times have less trouble achieving orgasm),” Jones said.

In addition to centering yourself and talking with your partner, Wynn shares that paying attention to your environment can be a great way to center yourself during sex. Whether you light your favorite candle or set up all your pillows in the perfect way, ensuring your comfort can help you be in the moment.

Wynn shares that if you feel comfortable and secure in your environment, and you’re still unable to finish, communication is key. “Sometimes you just can’t ‘get there,’ and that’s OK,” Wynn said. “There are a few questions you can ask yourself

and a partner: Are you still enjoying the experience? Are you asking for what you want or like? Do you know what you like?”

As Wynn said, if everyone is enjoying themselves, it can be helpful to forget about orgasming and just go with the sexy flow. “Enjoy the moment,” Wynn said. “Oftentimes, changing the narrative will allow you to relax and enjoy more, maybe even resulting in orgasm.” Additionally, if you know you like it when your partner pulls your hair, or you’re ready to go on top, asking for what you want or expressing your desires may send you over the edge as well. “If you like or dislike something, be vocal,” Wynn said. “It will give agency to your partner to do the same.”

PERSON IN THE ROOM WITHOUT BEING ANNOYING

ACTUALLY, IF YOU’RE LIKE ME, YOU’RE SITUATIONALLY CONFIDENT: SOMETIMES, VERY MUCH SO; OTHER TIMES, NOT AT ALL. SO, YOU SPEND A LOT OF TIME THINKING ABOUT HOW TO GAIN CONFIDENCE, AND IN THE SHORT TERM HOW TO AT LEAST APPEAR CONFIDENT, EVEN WHEN YOU’RE NOT.

While genuine confidence takes time to develop (because genuine confidence is based on incremental,

steady success), according to Dharmesh Shah, co-founder of HubSpot, there are definitely ways you can seem confident—which is the next best thing.

Here are some of Shah’s tips:

1. LISTEN WAY MORE THAN YOU SPEAK

Talking a lot is a mask for insecurity. When you’re nervous and insecure, it’s easy to rush to fill any silence with words. (And later you often can’t even remember what you said.)

Truly confident people are quiet and unassuming. They already know what they think; they want to know

what you think.

To seem more confident, ask open-ended questions that give other people the freedom to be thoughtful and introspective: Ask what they do, how they do it, what they like about it, what they’ve learned from it, and what you should do if you find yourself in a similar situation.

When you’re nervous and aren’t sure what to say, ask for advice. Implicit in the question is your respect for that person, and his or her opinion. (Otherwise, why would you have asked?)

Truly confident people realize they know a lot, but they wish they knew more, and

they know the only way to learn more is to listen more.

So don’t talk. Listen—and as you do, you’ll find your confidence grows as you settle into a real conversation.

2. SHINE THE SPOTLIGHT ON OTHER PEOPLE

Maybe you really did most of the work. Maybe you really did overcome major obstacles. Maybe you really did turn an eclectic mix of people into an incredibly high-performing team.

Maybe you really do deserve all the glory. But don’t seek it. Shine the spotlight on other people.

Confident people don’t care about accolades. (Inside they’re proud, as well they should be.) Confident people don’t need the glory; they know what they’ve achieved.

They don’t need the validation of others, because true validation comes from within.

So stand back and celebrate your accomplishments through others. Stand back and let others shine—that’s a confidence boost that helps those people become confident too.

When you do, other people won’t think you’re shy or lacking in confidence. They’ll think you’re a lot more confident than you are, simply because you don’t need the praise.

And they’ll respect you for it too—which will only build your confidence.

3. FREQUENTLY ASK FOR HELP

Many people feel asking for help is a sign of weakness; implicit in the request is a lack of knowledge, skill, or experience. That’s especially true when you don’t feel confident—the last thing you want is to seem even less confident than you already are.

Actually, the opposite is true. Confident people are secure enough to admit a weakness.

They often ask others for help, not only because they are secure enough to admit they need help, but also because they know that when they seek help they pay the person they ask a huge compliment. Saying “Can you

help me?” shows tremendous respect for that individual’s expertise and judgment. (Otherwise, you wouldn’t ask.)

So when you need help, ask. Not only will you get the assistance you need, you’ll also seem more confident and self-assured. Win-win.

4. NEVER PUT DOWN OTHER PEOPLE

People who like to gossip, who like to speak badly of others, almost always do so because they hope, by comparison, to make themselves look better. (In short, when someone else looks bad I get to feel better about myself.)

Confident people don’t put other people down. The only comparison a confident person makes is to the person she was yesterday—and to the person she hopes to someday become.

5. OWN YOUR MISTAKES

Insecurity breeds artificiality; confidence breeds sincerity and honesty.

That’s why confident people admit their mistakes. They enjoy sharing their screwups. They don’t mind serving as the cautionary tale. They don’t mind being a source of laughter—for others and for themselves.

When you’re confident, you don’t mind occasionally “looking bad.” You realize that when you’re genuine and unpretentious, people don’t laugh at you. They laugh with you.

So don’t try to be more impressive than you are. Don’t try to seem perfect. Go the opposite way: Be human. Real confidence doesn’t come from building a facade; real confidence is based on having nothing to hide.

6. BURN OFF SOME ANTI-CONFIDENCE CHEMICALS

When you feel anxious or stressed, your adrenal glands secrete cortisol, one of the chemical triggers of the instinctive fight-or-flight reflex. High levels of cortisol heighten your emotions, limit your creativity, and reduce your ability to process complex information.

When you’re “high” on cortisol, you get tunnel vision, just as you do when you’re startled or scared.

What’s the solution? Burn off excess cortisol with exercise. Take a walk at lunch. Work out before you leave for work. Hit the hotel gym before your meeting.

Don’t think it will help? Think back to a time when you were totally stressed and decided to work out. (If you can’t think of one, you’re missing out on a great stress-relieving tool.) I bet you felt a lot less anxious and a lot more grounded after you finished exercising.

The perspective you gained came at least in part from lowering your cortisol levels. When you need to feel more confident, schedule in a little exercise. It works.

7. AVOID QUALIFIERS

Investment materials are full of words like may, might, c

ould, should for compliance reasons. The content includes plenty of qualifiers in order to avoid even the hint of a promise.

When you’re nervous, you do the same thing. You say “maybe.” You say “possibly.” You say “...well, that’s what I think, at least.”

In short, you’re afraid to take a strong position in case it turns out you’re wrong. Don’t be. Say what you think. Say what you believe. Then listen, and if it turns out you were wrong, that’s great— because that gives you the chance to show you’re secure enough in yourself to admit when you don’t have all the answers.

8. BE THE ONE WHO VOLUNTEERS

Aren’t sure how to fit into a new group? It’s actually easy.

The best approach is to find ways to make the lives of people in that group a little easier. So step up and volunteer. Volunteer to do a little grunt work. Volunteer for the glory-free tasks. Volunteer to do something other people don’t want to do.

In short, volunteer to pay your dues. Say to yourself, “I am the one who volunteers.”

Volunteering does a couple of cool things. One, you get involved with other people in the group, and that will help you fit in and feel like part of the team. Two, and just as important, you’ll gain their respect—and that will make you feel a lot more confident.

I WAS CHEATED ON...

CAN I LEARN TO TRUST AGAIN?

DATING AGAIN AFTER YOU WERE CHEATED ON CAN COME WITH A NUMBER OF HURDLES. THIS TRAUMATIC EXPERIENCE—AND YES, IT IS TRAUMATIC—CAN LEAVE ANYONE WITH FEELINGS OF BROKEN TRUST, LOW SELF-ESTEEM, AND HOPELESSNESS WHEN IT COMES TO FINDING LOVE AGAIN. AND WHEN YOU DO FINALLY MEET SOMEONE NEW, IT CAN BE DIFFICULT TO OVERCOME THOSE FEELINGS. SO, WE ASKED RELATIONSHIP EXPERTS FOR THEIR TOP TIPS ON TRUSTING AGAIN AFTER YOU WERE CHEATED ON. HERE’S WHAT THEY HAD TO SAY:

8 THINGS TO KEEP IN MIND

KNOW YOUR EMOTIONS ARE VALID

There’s bound to be a lot that comes up when you first get together with someone new after you were cheated on. Know that it’s OK. “One of the most important things is to validate your emotions of sadness and fear,” licensed marriage and family therapist Shane Birkel, LMFT, said. “When you are cheated on, it is a serious betrayal and trauma. There is nothing wrong with you if you feel really sad and overwhelmed.”

With that in mind, it’s also important to recognize any feelings of shame surrounding the cheating, relationship therapist Ken Page, LCSW, said. Thoughts like, “I’m not attractive enough,” or “Why did my last partner want someone else?” may come up, as you attempt to blame yourself for your partner’s poor choices. This requires “a lot of tender care and support,” he adds.

PUT YOUR OWN HEALING FIRST, ALWAYS.

Page notes that the experience of being betrayed is one of the most traumatic experiences someone can have, and it can be difficult to even wrap our minds around how much that betrayal shakes us to the core. “The most important thing to do is to take care of yourself,” he says, adding when you experience trauma like this, you really have to put yourself first and know there’s healing that needs to happen for you. And as Birkel said, “Remind yourself that you will be happy and healthy whether this new relationship works out or not.”

BE OPEN ABOUT YOUR FEARS.

As issues surrounding trust and vulnerability come up, you’ll want to clue your new S.O. in on how you’re feeling. If you’re not honest with them, they won’t be able to understand what you’re going through, your triggers, or how they can help you feel more safe.

“These wounds can be healed, but they need to be healed with a great deal of trust, ongoing conversation, and usually deep support,” Page says. “Understand that it will be a vulnerable point, and make space for that in your conversation with your new partner.”

HAVE A SUPPORT SYSTEM.

As with anything, having a close support system or friends and family you trust will go a long way to help you get out of your head and hear some helpful feedback. Birkel says it can also help to talk to other friends about the new person you are dating, to get their thoughts and perspective.

As Page notes, a support group for people who’ve experienced cheating may also be incredibly validating and eye-opening to you. But ultimately, “You definitely want to speak to people you feel are understanding and make space for you and your needs,” he says, echoing Birkel that you can always use trusted friends as a sounding board when you’re having lapses in trust.

CONSIDER GOING TO THERAPY.

If you’re having a really hard time opening up and trusting, particularly if you’re experiencing trauma symptoms, finding a therapist to help you work through these issues will help. If you want to involve your new partner and they’re on board, couples’ therapy could also be a good option.

Page recommends therapies like EMDR, brainspotting, somatic experiencing, and accelerated experiential dynamic psychotherapy (AEDP). He also recommends EFT tapping, which can be self-administered and is “very powerful for dealing with trauma” and “helpful for finding our resilience, balance, and inner wisdom.”

BE CAUTIOUSLY OPTIMISTIC.

Yes, the unfortunate fact of the matter is there are people who cheat. But not

everyone does—in fact, the majority don’t, according to research. As you get back into the dating world, Birkel says to “remind yourself that their cheating had everything to do with them and nothing to do with you.” Allow yourself to take as much time as you need to start dating again. When you do, be confident, and in the words of Birkel, “Dare to be cautiously optimistic.”

AVOID PLACING BLAME ON YOUR NEW PARTNER.

Ideally, when you do find someone new to date, they’ll exemplify better qualities than the last person you were with. But still, they probably won’t be able to take away your fears completely. It’s important to find someone who’s understanding of this, Page says and also to “find the words to help you express your fears without blaming the other person or being unnecessarily suspicious.”

USE DISCERNMENT.

And lastly, as Page explains, being cheated on can offer us one upside, and that’s learning to listen to your intuition in a deeper way.

“Use your newly increased sense of discrimination to recognize deep integrity in your partner,” he says. “You want someone who will remain integrity-based, especially at those times when it’s difficult to do so. Seeing that happen will go a long way toward helping you trust your next partner.”

While it may take time, patience, and deep healing, having a healthy and trusting relationship after you were cheated on is entirely possible. It may not be easy, but when you can learn to be open and vulnerable in all the right ways, get to the root of your healing, and finally start trusting again, your relationship going forward will be that much stronger.

POLO LIFESTYLES

THE WOMEN WHO ARE CHANGING OUR WORLD FOR THE BETTER EVERY DAY

CURATED BY WILLIAM SMITH, MICHAEL SNELL, AMRITLAL SINGH JOSHUA JAKOBITZ AND CLAUDE-ALIX BERTRAND

WOMEN + POWER LAUREN

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LAUREN SANCHEZ

CHANGING THE WORLD ONE BILLION AT A TIME

For four years, Lauren Sánchez has been quietly working behind the scenes to help Amazon founder, Jeff Bezos, strategically give away his vast wealth to a variety of causes.

In an interview in Washington, D.C. home, Sánchez got candid about her philanthropic projects, space travel and what makes her relationship with Bezos work so seamlessly.

Last week the couple awarded country music legend Dolly Parton as their third-ever recipient of the Bezos Courage & Civility Award, a $100 million grant given to an individual they feel is trying to make the world a better place.

“The work that we’re doing with the Bezos Courage and Civility Award I think needs to have a voice,” Sánchez said. “And the people that we’ve chosen

so far, Van Jones, Jose Andres, Dolly Parton, they all have such stories to tell. I just feel honored to be able to be a part of what they’re doing for this world.”

Sánchez, 52, a former Emmy-award winning journalist who was born in Albuquerque, New Mexico, cites her humble beginnings as why she wants to give back. The mom-of-three said she donated $1 million to This Is About Humanity, which helped build educational learning spaces for the migrant children at the US-Mexico border, and said she visited with migrant families on a recent trip to the border.

Sánchez also serves as the vice chair of the Bezos Earth Fund and traveled to Colombia and the Western African nation Gabon as the couple makes good on their $10 billion commitment to help Africa’s restoration movement, combat climate change and preserve nature.

Sánchez’ passion for giving back –whether by her efforts to create tuition-free, Montessori-inspired preschools for disadvantaged children with the Bezos Academy, or writing a check to Parton – comes at a time when Americans are divided on many issues.

Sánchez and Bezos said they wanted to bring a “little bit of light” to the people who use unity instead of conflict to resolve issues. “We wanted to amplify their voices because the voices that are really negative seem to get amplified in this world,” she said.

When they aren’t working on their charitable initiatives, Sánchez says, they love to take to the skies closer to earth. A licensed pilot, Sánchez founded Black Ops Aviation in 2016, the first female-owned and operated aerial film and production company with a focus across television and film.

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KAMALA HARRIS

VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES

As she started her closing cadence in front of an enthusiastic crowd, it was clear Vice President Kamala Harris was in her element—and remains both a misunderstood and potent force in Democratic politics.

”Know this: President Biden and I agree, and we will never back down,” Harris said to applause in Tallahassee, Fla., on the 50th anniversary of the Roe v. Wade decision that once guaranteed the federal right to abortion. “We will not back down. We know this fight will not be won until we secure this right for every American.”

As Harris thundered through her remarks, with American flags behind her and supporters before her, she enjoyed that quality that has become all too rare in politics: credibility. Despite the political headwinds against her on the issue,

Harris convinced many in the crowd that her promises were not only plausible, but within reach. “Congress must pass a bill that protects freedom and liberty,” she said.

The scheduled speech on a sleepy Sunday far from Washington—but in the backyard of major Republican personalities—would do little to move the national debate on federal abortion rights. But Harris’ remarks and the reception—including 32 applause interruptions by the White House transcript’s count—served as a reminder that, even with plenty of bumps and detours during her years as a history-making Vice President, she still can bring the heat. And, in that, her fellow Democrats might slow their seemingly endless criticism of the first woman to hold the job, as well as the first person of Black or South Asian descent to earn it.

Harris, by all accounts, didn’t exactly launch her time as President Joe Biden’s understudy with ease. It seemed every quarter brought with it a new Harris Resets story in the political pages. In the administration’s early days, she largely filled her offices with veterans of the campaign—Biden’s, not hers. In fact, most of her high-profile aides from her Senate office and short-lived presidential bid scattered throughout the administration, landing perfectly admirable posts but not in her inner circle.

Then, there was the scheduling challenge. Few Vice Presidents have had to contend with an evenly split Senate. Because of her ability to break tie votes in that chamber, Harris had to often make sure she was a quick motorcade from the Capitol. She has so far cast 26 such tied votes—or roughly nine percent of all tie-breaking votes cast in the

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Senate since 1789. As such, she spent a ton of time in her office just off the Senate floor, often doubling as a deciding vote and informal congressional liaison to her former colleagues.

But, with Republicans now at 49 votes, Harris’ 101st vote won’t be needed as often. Less encumbered by the Senate vote schedule, Harris got back on the road to sell the Biden team’s record and leading the charge on goals like securing voting and abortion rights—neither of which are likely to advance much under a Republican House—and selling the merits of legislation passed, such as an infrastructure package and a climate change agenda.

Then there are questions of her future ambitions—always a fraught discussion that in D.C. can easily devolve into coded conversations about race and gender, two factors that simply cannot be ignored when it comes to Harris. Her defenders aren’t wrong to point out that the first woman of color in her role faces the double-whammy that separately dogged Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. Harris’ original bid for the presidency ended before Iowa’s lead-off caucuses. By all accounts, she serves as a

capable and loyal running-mate.

Personally, Biden has great admiration for Harris, who served as state attorney general in California concurrent to the late Beau Biden’s time in the role in Delaware. As a former VP himself, Biden has sought to give Harris a portfolio commensurate with her talents, including the intractable troubles at the U.S.-Mexican border, voting rights, and abortion rights. Harris’ apologists grimly note those are all massive issues, each of them likely impossible for one person to significantly address; yet her boosters say they match Harris’ abilities to untangle knots.

With Biden launching his re-election bid, Harris’ dreams for a promotion were put on ice. After all, no one challenges a sitting President with any meaningful success, especially not from inside the tent. But it does set up the test for Harris: if she is the party’s heir apparent, Harris needs to rack up some successes to point to for 2028.

All of which explains why Harris has made abortion rights a central piece of her political identity. Since Roe fell, she has met with leaders from 38 states, in-

cluding lawmakers from 18 states. She’s been subtly making herself the voice with a megaphone no one can ignore.

Such outrage over the fall of Roe empowered Democratic candidates to unexpectedly strong showings in the midterm elections. Democrats defied history, holding steady in the Senate and only barely losing the majority in the House. Many point to her campaign travel schedule as proof that Harris played no small role in that accomplishment. By the time votes were being tallied, a full 27 percent of Americans counted abortion as the most important issue for their vote, second only to inflation. It was a surefire winner for Democrats, with those counting abortion as their most important issue breaking by a walloping 53 points. And among the broader public, according to exit polls, 59 percent of voters last year said abortion should remain legal.

If you’re Harris and seeing these numbers while still considering your next move, such data points are reason to lean-in on abortion rights. It has the added bonus of coming from a place of sincerity.

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TAYLOR SWIFT

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THE HOTTEST TICKET OF THE SUMMER TAYLOR SWIFT

My first stirrings of discomfort at Taylor Swift’s show in Las Vegas hit after the infectious beat faded from fan-favorite “Cruel Summer,” the second song in her supersized set. Swift strutted across the stage in a sequin bodysuit and matching boots. Her cat eye was drawn sharp enough to kill a man, as she says.

She thanked the crowd of thousands of cheering fans for their deafening support and as the roars died down, she paused, and then bellowed out the line that undid me — and sent a powerful message about embracing success to the tens of thousands of women in attendance.

“You’re making me feel like I’m the first woman to ever headline Allegiant Stadium,” she said. She flicked her gaze down to her biceps and pumped her arms in victory. The crowd lost it. My jaw dropped. My gut clenched and braced itself for a blow.

I’d just heard Swift, a woman, bellow out her accomplishment, with no qualifiers, no, “I did a thing” and not a single ounce of humility to soften the punch. It was just an unapologetic and audacious declaration of her success.

When I walked into Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, I expected to be blown away by Swift and the 44 songs she performs live for the “Eras Tour.” But

I didn’t expect to feel uncomfortable at her declaration of her unbridled ambition.

The timing of her declaration was a little cheeky; it was part of her introduction to the song, “The Man,” which calls attention to the sexist double standards that women face, including ones Swift has battled in the music industry.

“What’s it like to brag about raking in dollars and getting bitches and models,” she sang. “If I was out flashing my dollars, I’d be a bitch, not a baller.” When she shouted out her accomplishment in Las Vegas, alongside a matching victory dance, I’m sure it was meant to conjure masculinity and highlight the double standard surrounding success, since nothing Taylor Alison Swift does is unintentional. She’s known for leaving an unending trail of Easter eggs for her fans to find and decipher, which reveal clues about things like album drops and the true meaning of a lyric.

She’s a mastermind in everything she does, sings and shouts to a football stadium full of fans. That’s why, even if the timing was part of her performance around “The Man,” it was also no accident that Swift decided to belt out her success that night. And whether we were cringing in our seats, like me, or cheering her on, also like me, her words

delivered a powerful message. My discomfort in Las Vegas transitioned to awe, followed Swiftly by a “Hell yeah, Taylor.”

By the time I was back home in Oregon, I couldn’t stop thinking about how powerful it was that Swift was so bold. It didn’t stop at that one statement — she delivered a three-hour masterclass in confidence and pride in what she’s accomplished. And I liked it. I think most of us at Allegiant Stadium did. Over the course of this tour, millions of women will watch her share her success.

At least one of those women in the audience needed to hear her to celebrate her own success (and probably more than I would’ve guessed based on my initial reaction). I watched clips of her performance at AT&T Stadium, home of the Dallas Cowboys, the next weekend. When the beat from “Cruel Summer” faded, she did it again.

“I’m the first artist to play three nights in this stadium,” she shouted. I watched her shimmy, her face full of unapologetic joy as she shook her hips in front of tens of thousands of people, and this time, I didn’t cringe. I thought about how I can be a little more like Swift the next time I succeed.

BY EMILY HALNON / SPECIAL TO POLO LIFESTYLES

WOMEN + POWER

MICHELLE OBAMA

THE VOICE OF GENDER EQUALITY IN EDUCATION

Michelle Obama says there’s no more “meaningful way” to mark Juneteenth than by registering to vote.

The former first lady made a voter registration pitch Monday in a tweet to her more than 22 million followers that coincided with the federal holiday.

“Juneteenth is a celebration of freedom

— a chance to pay tribute to countless advocates, activists, and change makers and the work they did to build a more perfect Union,” Obama wrote.

“I can’t think of a more meaningful way to honor the actions of so many who came before us than be registering to vote,” she added, including a link to the voter registration and engagement orga-

nization that she founded in 2018, When We All Vote.

Obama launched the “Get Her There” campaign with two prominent stakeholders to empower and educate adolescent girls in late 2022.

The campaign is a collaboration of Obama’s Girls Opportunity Alliance,

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the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Clooney Foundation for Justice. Obama joined Melinda French Gates and Amal Clooney in New York City to launch the campaign.

The goal of “Get Her There,” according to Obama.org, is to help adolescent girls around the world “achieve their full potential and transform their families, communities, and countries.”

The trio spoke during a panel about the goal of the project and noted that millions of girls worldwide are forced to marry before the age of 18, which typically prompts them to drop out of school.

Clooney unpacked how girls who are “pushed into child marriage” fail to reach their full potential. She also noted how many of them “could’ve gone on to

cure cancer or lead a country.”

“When we launched the Girls Opportunity Alliance four years ago today, we knew the key to advancing our work was an alliance of stakeholders coming together to support girls completing their education,” said Obama in a statement

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DR. IMAN ABUZEID

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DR. IMAN ABUZEID

INCREDIBLE HEALTH'S FOUNDER & CEO

The American healthcare system continues to face a critical shortage of nurses: More than one-third of the nation’s hospitals have a nurse vacancy rate that’s higher than 10 percent, and an additional 500,000 RNs are expected to retire by the end of this year.

That’s where Incredible Health comes in. Founded by Dr. Iman Abuzeid and Rome Portlock in 2017, it works as a super-duty LinkedIn for nurses. Some 60 percent of the nation’s top-ranked hospital systems—including Cedars-Sinai and Baylor Scott & White—have signed on to the platform, paying the company to list their open jobs while Incredible’s proprietary algorithm matches the best candidates to the open roles.

Recently, the startup announced that it has raised an $80 million Series B round of funding—a cash infusion good enough to lift its valuation to $1.65 billion and vault its CEO, Abuzeid, into rarified air: one of only a handful of black female founders to run a company valued at more than a billion dollars.

The announcement comes less than a year after Forbes named Incredible Health to its 2021 Next Billion-Dollar Startups list; at the time, the company stood out for its profitability and the way it uses machine-learning technology to connect nurses to better-paying, permanent positions at a faster rate than traditional recruiting takes (14 days versus the standard 82, Abuzeid says).

“If we definitively want to be the market leaders in healthcare labor, we do need to expand,” Abuzeid said. “That’s what

some of this funding is about. We do need to continue to scale from 25 states to the rest of the country, [and] we need to add more roles beyond nursing. Because doctors and physical therapists and pharmacists can benefit from this.”

Unlike temporary staffing marketplaces (like Nomad Health), Incredible Health focuses on filling permanent positions. Abuzeid says the efficiency her platform adds to the hiring process creates a win-win for all parties: health system executives save $2 million per hospital per year that would otherwise be spent on temporary workers and HR costs, while nurse salaries get boosted by an average of 17%. What’s more, she adds, her company’s software ensures that skilled nurses get matched to jobs where they might have been overlooked under traditional hiring practices.

“If you’re a healthcare worker or nurse, you shouldn’t have to rely on your connections and who you know, or nepotism or anything like that to get the job,” Abuzeid says. “And the amazing thing about technology is that we can level the playing field.”

Existing investors Andreessen Horowitz and Obvious Ventures also participated in the round, as did a bevy of new investors including health system Kaiser Permanente (an Incredible Health customer), NBA star Andre Iguodala, and Charli and Dixie D’Amelio (of TikTok influencer fame), who joined via their 444 Capital Fund. Abuzeid is hoping the sisters’ massive social media platforms can, in turn, help boost Incredible Health’s engagement with potential

customers.

“Gen Z nurses, and millennial nurses are very active on social media,” Abuzeid says. “Including the use of influencers is very, very important as part of our growth strategy and our ability to engage with talent.”

As Abuzeid works to level the hiring playing field for healthcare professionals, her company’s new status as a unicorn marks a tiny step forward in what can be a prohibitively inequitable entrepreneurial environment. Less than 2% of all venture funding went to female founders last year, and less than 1% went to female founders of color. That Abuzeid is her company’s CEO, and an immigrant, too (she was born to Sudanese parents who were at the time living in Saudi Arabia), puts her in rare company. But as Base 10’s Hill notes, “it’s 2022. This should not be as rare of an occurrence as it is.”

Abuzeid agrees, but accepts her position as a role model for others. “I hope that I’m a proof point to everyone who says that it can’t be done,” she says, while advising those who look like her to “compartmentalize” the bias in the system and focus on their visions and missions. “And to those who are unfortunately driving some of that bias in the system, at the end of the day, it’s probably not a good idea to overlook female CEOs or Black CEOs. Because they’re driving an enormous amount of value in business. And you overlook it at your own expense.”

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DR. JILL BIDEN

FIRST LADY OF THE UNITED STATES

Jill Biden arrived in Cairo earlier this month, on the second leg of her six-day trip across the Middle East, North Africa and Europe that sought to promote empowerment for women and education for young people.

The first lady arrived in the Egyptian capital from Amman, Jordan, where she attended the wedding of Crown Prince Hussein and Saudi architect Rajwa Alseif. She later traveled to Morocco before heading to Portugal, the final stop of her tour.

The nuptials in Jordan drew a star-studded list — headlined by Britain’s Prince William and his wife, the Princess of

Wales — but also held deep significance for the region, emphasizing continuity in an Arab state prized for its longstanding stability.

Egypt is one of the largest recipients in the Mideast of American economic and military aid and a longstanding U.S. ally. However, in recent years, U.S. lawmakers have sought to condition that aid on human rights improvements and reforms. Biden was greeted on the tarmac by Entissar Amer, Egypt’s first lady, and later met with President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi before visiting a technical school in the capital.

Biden’s spokesperson, Vanessa Valdivia, told The Associated Press that the first lady’s visit to Egypt focused on U.S. investments that support education programs.

Since coming to power in 2013, el-Sissi’s government has overseen a wide-ranging crackdown on dissent, jailing thousands. The government has targeted not only Islamist political opponents but also pro-democracy activists, journalists and online critics.

The tour marked Biden’s first visit to the Middle East as First Lady. She traveled to Namibia and Kenya in February.

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OPRAH WINFREY

FOUR DECADES OF INTERVIEWS & SPECIALS

Over almost four decades, Oprah Winfrey has interviewed many of the world’s most successful people including celebrities, business executives, and world leaders. All of them, she says, have one thing in common. After an interview, they all ask her the same three-word question: “Was that OK?”

That’s according to an interview Winfrey did in 2013 with Moira Forbes at the Forbes 400 Summit.

“What I learned in all of those thousands of interviews is that there is a common denominator in all of our human expe-

rience,” Winfrey says. “Everybody wants to know, did you hear me, and did what I say matter?”

Think about that for a moment. Many of those people are at the top of their profession. In most cases, they are wealthy, famous, and successful, and yet, when they sit down with one of the world’s best-known interviewers, the thing they want to know is whether they did a good job.

Sitting in a chair across from Oprah Winfrey has to be one of the most intimidating experiences you can have, and

that’s saying a lot considering that sometimes the person sitting in that chair is a president or a prince. When they’re done, the thing they’re looking for most is a little validation.

Everyone wants to know that they did OK. They want to know that they didn’t make a fool of themselves and that they lived up to expectations. That, it turns out, is a thing that almost everyone has in common--not just the world’s most powerful or successful people. It’s even true for the people on your team.

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SARAH SNOOK

NOTHING LIKE HER SUCCESSION CHARACTER

Succession star Sarah Snook will play 26 different characters in a one-woman show opening in London next year.

The actress will star in a new adaptation of Oscar Wilde’s only novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray. It will mark Snook’s first appearance on the London stage since her 2016 debut opposite Ralph Fiennes in The Master Builder.

Snook told BBC News the idea of playing so many roles was “an exhilarating

challenge I can’t wait to get into.” The Picture of Dorian Gray will open on 23 January 2024 at the Theatre Royal Haymarket and run for nearly 12 weeks.

The new stage adaptation of Wilde’s 1890 novel has already enjoyed a successful run in Snook’s native Australia, although a different actress played the leading role there. Discussing its London transfer, Snook said: “I’m so excited by the prospect of returning to the stage again, let

alone a stage in the West End.

“Bringing a show to an international audience, to a theatre Oscar Wilde would no doubt have frequented, is thrilling, and demands a high caliber of theatrical experience to be worthy of the venture.”

She added: “The Picture of Dorian Gray is just that, and I’m honored to be joining the team that created it. To be asked to play these multiple roles is an exhilarating challenge I can’t wait to get into.”

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EUROPEAN COMMISSION PRESIDENT URSULA VON DER LEYEN

The president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, says she has no interest in becoming the new leader of NATO as the trans-Atlantic military alliance seeks a successor to Jens Stoltenberg.

Stoltenberg, a former Norwegian prime minister, has been NATO secretary general since 2014. His term was due to expire last year but was extended to provide stability after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in early 2022.

The leaders of NATO members are due to choose a successor when they meet for a summit in Vilnius, Lithuania, on July 11-12. No candidate has been pro-

posed publicly and Stoltenberg appears unlikely to extend it again.

Von der Leyen, who in 2019 emerged as a surprise candidate to lead the European Union’s executive branch, has featured regularly in speculation about who might be NATO’s next leader. Officials and experts suggest that it is time for a woman to take the helm for the first time.

Von der Leyen, a 64-year-old center-right politician from Germany, served as her country’s defense minister from 2013 to 2019. But she roundly dismissed the idea of moving to NATO when asked about the possibility in an

interview with German broadcaster WDR broadcast Tuesday.

“I am most certainly not available for that,” she replied. “I think NATO is great, and if it didn’t exist it would have to be created. I very, very much enjoyed working in NATO as defense minister, but I’m most certainly not available for that job. My place is in Europe.”

Von der Leyen again declined to say whether she will seek a second term at the helm of the European Commission after next year’s European Parliament election. She said she plans to make a decision in the second half of the year.

SHINES BRIGHT LIKE A DIAMOND RIHANNA

After seven years largely away from the stage, the singer and mogul used the halftime show to perform a dozen hits, nod to her nonmusical business and announce that she’s pregnant.

When Rihanna revealed she was pregnant with baby number two during her Super Bowl halftime performance, there was much to be excited about. First of all, it was quite the pregnancy announcement—on one of the world’s biggest stages, wearing custom Loewe and Alaïa, about to bring the house down. Of course, it also meant that Rihanna’s adorable family with A$AP Rocky was once again growing. But, possibly most enticing of all, it meant we would get another dose of Rihanna maternity style.

During her last pregnancy, the singer proved that no baby bump would keep her from those best dressed lists. We shouldn’t have expected anything else this time around.

On Saturday night, Rihanna stepped out for dinner at Langosteria Bistrot in Milan with Rocky and, of course, she looked stylish as always.

For the occasion, the singer wore a melon-colored, satin halter neck dress from LaPointe spring 2023. Rihanna paired the feminine

number with custom strappy snakeskin Manolo Blahnik heels, but this is Ri we’re talking about, and she had to add some edge to the look. She did so with the help of a white fur-covered Tom Fordera Gucci bag featuring two jewel-encrusted dragon heads on the front, and a rusted orange bomber jacket on top from the recently launched Italian-based brand PDF.

The queen of nonchalance, Rihanna first appeared during the Super Bowl Half Time on a stage floating above the 50-yard line singing “Bitch Better Have My Money.” She was tethered to the platform, limiting her maneuvering, but even when she reached the ground she didn’t overemphasize dance, instead holding sturdy court at the center of 100-plus dancers, sharing in their movements but never outdoing them. During “Work,” she led them as if she were a tutor calling out moves but not participating in them.

Rihanna’s hits are plentiful — she has charted more than 60 times on the Billboard Hot 100 — and they are varied. But there was no true thematic through line to this casual revue of a dozen deeply beloved songs. Mostly, she leaned into the up-tempo side of her catalog — “Where Have You Been,” “Only Girl

(in the World)” — with nods to her Caribbean heritage on “Work” and “Rude Boy.” At the set’s end, she emphasized her big-picture, one-wordtitle smashes, “Umbrella” and “Diamonds,” which prioritize melodrama over feeling.

Rihanna is many things — a new mother, a billionaire mogul in fashion and cosmetics, an astonishingly reliable pop star with a deep catalog. But she is not a current hitmaker. And she had not performed a show of this scale since 2016.

Coming up next, the ‘Umbrella’ singer is set to perform in another prestigious event: the 95th Edition of the Academy Awards. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has announced that Rihanna will be performing the song “Lift Me Up” from the movie Black Panther: Wakanda Forever during the Oscars ceremony on March 12th.

This year’s Academy Awards has nominated ‘Lift Me Up,’ a song from the movie Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, for Best Original Song. The song was co-written by Rihanna, Tems (Temilade Openiyi), Ludwig Göransson, and the film’s director Ryan Coogler. This is Rihanna’s first nomination for an Academy Award.

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THE QUEEN OF POP ON A WORLDWIDE TOUR BEYONCE

Juneteenth is an annual holiday commemorating the end of slavery in the U.S., also known as “Emancipation Day” or “Freedom Day,” and is a time for reflection and celebration. As people across the country gather to commemorate the holiday today, Beyoncé found her own way to acknowledge the moment on the Amsterdam leg of her Renaissance world tour—she took to the stage wearing exclusively costumes created by Black fashion designers.

“In honor of Juneteenth, everything I wore for Renaissance World Tour tonight was created exclusively by Black designers,” the singer wrote on Instagram on Sunday night. There are 51 dates on the blockbuster tour, and Beyoncé has worked with the stylists KJ Moody, Shiona Turini, Karen Langley, and British Vogue’s Julia Sarr-Jamois to

create a vast “tour-drobe” with a disco-inspired aesthetic, with new custom looks being introduced for different legs of the tour. The Black designers she championed on stage include Feben, Maximilian Davis for Ferragamo, Olivier Rousteing for Balmain, Ibrahim Kamara for Off-White, LaQuan Smith, and her own designs for Ivy Park.

Stand-out looks from Beyoncé’s Amsterdam show included a custom glittering bodysuit in red, white, and gold by the emerging London-based designer Feben, who is of Ethiopian heritage and was born in North Korea. This isn’t the first time they have collaborated, as Beyoncé commissioned the designer straight after her 2020 Central Saint Martins MA womenswear graduate collection, to create costumes for the video for her track “Brown Skin Girl.”

“In a way, when you’re a Black woman, you’re not treated fairly in most industries,” Feben previously told Vogue Business from her Dalston studio. “It just takes a bit longer to have any room or space or be spoken to correctly. I think I’ll always have that no matter what room I walk into, whether it’s fashion or not.”

To perform “I’m That Girl”, Beyoncé wore a silver corseted bodysuit that resembled armor designed by Balmain’s Olivier Rousteing. The Parisian house describes her silver-plated bodysuit—which she paired with thigh-high boots—as “robo couture”. Balmain has been very involved in the Renaissance world, as Rousteing, Beyoncé, and her stylist Marni Senofonte previously collaborated on a 17-piece special collection.

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BEYONCE KNOWLES

“I can’t help but be thrilled by the history-making aspects of this collaboration,” Rousteing told Vogue at the time about working with the star. “This appears to be the first time that a Black woman has overseen the couture offering from an historic Parisian house. And those designs were created in partnership with the first Black man to ever oversee all the collections at an historic Parisian house. Let’s hope those two firsts help inspire plenty of others.”

Beyoncé also wore a bright pink sequined gown with a halter neckline and thigh-high slits and matching gloves, which was a bespoke design overseen by the star from her own label, Ivy Park. Her dancers matched in bodysuits and

crop tops in the same highly saturated shade of pink, with a mix of sequins, fringing, velvet, and mesh.

Perhaps the most memorable look on the night, however, was a fitted red beaded Ferragamo gown which had a sculpted waist, a square neckline, and a thighhigh slit on the left leg. It’s the very definition of a knock-out dress. Maximilian Davis took the helm at Ferragamo in January 2022, and has made this fiery shade of red his signature. The shade echoes the flag of Trinidad and Tobago (a nod to his background), but is also an important color in the heritage of Ferragamo.

Red was a key color throughout the per-

formance—Beyoncé also wore a sporty red bodysuit which was a custom design by Ibrahim Kamara for Off-White, inspired by his debut fall 2023 “Lunar Delivery” collection. The straps, zips, and proportions of Beyoncé’s look—and her dancers’ zip-up boilersuits—had the same intergalactic feeling as that collection.

The volume of custom looks Beyoncé has worn for the Renaissance tour, which started in May, has been staggering. As Vogue’s André-Naquian Wheeler put it: “At this point, Beyoncé’s Renaissance world tour is part concert, part extended exercise in seeing just how many custom looks one pop star can commission and pack.”

THE DUCHESS OF SUSSEX MEGHAN MARKLE

We were scanning through Netflix last night for something to watch when “Suits” appeared in the Top 10 Most Watched List. “Suits” has been off the air since 2017. “That really says something about the sustaining interest (in Meghan Markle),” my dinner companion remarked.

There’s something about Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, that pulls you in; whether you love to love her or love to hate her (research shows social media is pretty evenly divided). But that’s exactly what has made her a household name and given her an unbelievable platform. Sure, we’ve put on her a pedestal – a princess can’t fail at anything, right? – and her naysayers have laughed loudly when she has tripped up or been misguided, but take into consideration that we’re talking about one mixed-race 41-year-old mother of two. Her accomplishments, her patronages, her projects and her advocacy rival that of any of her contemporaries.

Here are 10 times that Meghan Markle trailblazed feminism through the years.

Fighting Sexism in Marketing

Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, was inspired to change a TV commercial at the age of 11, after seeing a Procter & Gamble commercial that advertised its Ivory dishwashing soap solely to women. The commercial for the soap struck her as unfair and insensitive when she heard, “women all over America are fighting greasy pots and pans.”

“I don’t think it’s right for kids to grow up thinking these things, that just Mom does everything,” the then 11-year-old said during an interview with Nick

News. Meghan decided to write to the company and asked them to change their slogan from “women all over America” to “people all over America” — and the company did.

Fighting Sexualization

During her seven seasons on “Suits,” she spoke out when she felt her character was continuously sexualized. During the One Young World conference in Dublin, she once said: “This season, every script seemed to begin with ‘Rachel enters wearing a towel.’ And I said, ‘No, not doing it anymore.’ I called the creator and I said, ‘It’s just gratuitous, we get it, we’ve already seen it once.’ So I think at a certain point you feel empowered enough to just say ‘No’.”

Standing Against the Stigma of Menstruation

In 2017, Meghan penned a powerful essay for Time on the stigma surrounding menstruation in the developing world. “I traveled to Delhi and Mumbai with World Vision to meet girls and women directly impacted by the stigmatization of menstrual health and to learn how it hinders girls’ education,” she wrote. “One 113 million adolescent girls between the ages of 12-14 in India alone are at risk of dropping out of school because of the stigma surrounding menstrual health.”

She added that girls feel embarrassed and ill equipped, causing them to stop going to school. “Wasted opportunity is unacceptable with stakes this high,” Meghan said. “To break the cycle of poverty, and to achieve economic growth and sustainability in developing countries, young women need access to

education.”

Appearing at the United Nations

Meghan appeared at the U.N. Women’s conference on International Women’s Day 2015 and gave a speech on gender equality that was truly inspiring.

“UN Women, as you guys know, has defined the year 2030 as the expiration date for gender inequality,” she said. “And here’s what’s staggering — the studies show that at the current rate, the elimination of gender inequality won’t be possible until 2095. That’s another 80 years from now. And when it comes to women’s political participation and leadership the percentage of female parliamentarians globally has only increased by 11 percent since 1995. Eleven percent in 20 years? Come on. This has to change. Women make up more than half of the world’s population and potential, so it is neither just nor practical for their voices, for our voices, to go unheard at the highest levels of decision-making.”

Making her Voice Heard

Just a few months ahead of her royal wedding, Meghan used her platform to encourage people to listen to women. “I hear a lot of people speaking about girls’ empowerment and women’s empowerment — you will hear people saying they are helping women find their voices,” she said in 2018 alongside Prince Harry, Prince William and Catherine, Princess of Wales, at the first annual Royal Foundation Forum. “I fundamentally disagree with that because women don’t need to find their voices, they need to be empowered to use it and people need to be urged to listen.”

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MEGHAN, DUCHESS OF SUSSEX

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MEGHAN, DUCHESS OF SUSSEX

Her Wedding Day Statement

After her father was unable to attend her May 2018 wedding to Prince Harry, Meghan struck a powerful image as she walked down the aisle unaccompanied. Although Prince Charles escorted her part of the way down the aisle, no one «gave her away» to her new husband.

Supporting Suffrage

In New Zealand, Meghan celebrated New Zealand’s 125th anniversary of women’s suffrage. “We are proud to be able to join you tonight in celebrating the 125th anniversary of women’s suffrage in your country,” Meghan said. “The achievements of the women of New Zealand who campaigned for their right to vote, and were the first in the world to achieve it, are universally admired. In looking forward to this very special occasion, I reflected on the importance of this achievement, but also the larger impact of what this symbolizes.”

Encouraging Women’s Education

During Meghan and Prince Harry’s 2018 tour of Australia, New Zealand, Fiji and Tonga, the Duchess of Sussex took the mic at the University of the South Pacific for her first royal tour speech, focusing on the topic of education. “Everyone should be afforded the opportunity to receive the education they want, but more importantly the education they have the right to receive,” she said. “And for women and girls in developing countries, this is vital.”

“When girls are given the right tools to succeed, they can create incredible futures, not only for themselves but for all of those around them. And while progress has been made in many areas across the Commonwealth, there is always scope to offer more opportunities to the next generation of young adults, and specifically to young women.”

Empowering other Women

During a 2019 royal visit to South

Africa, she gave an inspiring speech. “On one personal note, may I just say that while I am here with my husband as a member of the royal family, I want you to know that for me, I am here as a mother, as a wife, as a woman, as a woman of color and as your sister. I am here with you, and I am here for you.”

Mentoring a Younger Generation

In March 2021, Meghan and Prince Harry surprised a teenage girl with a virtual mentoring session. “It was really significant for her because they saw her potential in a few short minutes, which actually really undid some damage that had been previously caused by a former teacher’s doubt,” L.A. Works Executive Director Deborah Brutchey said. “It was just amazing how they were able to connect and how their compassion, in just a short conversation, really made an impact and is going to forever inspire her.”

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INTIMATE, SALTY AND CANDID CONVERSATIONS SARAH JESSICA PARKER

Even after 25 years of its premiere, the cast of “Sex and the City” continues to be loved by the audience, says lead star Sarah Jessica Parker, who believes the show owes its popularity to the “intimate and candid” conversations among four women.

Based on Candace Bushnell’s newspaper column and 1996 book anthology of the same name, the show originally ran as an HBO series for six seasons between 1998 and 2004, with the makers exploring the story further in two films.

Now, the spin-off of “Sex and the City”, “And Just Like That...” is in its second season on streaming service Max.

Parker, who plays columnist-turned-podcaster Carrie Bradshaw in “And Just Like That...”, took a trip down memory lane about the parent show.

“At the time because of our home at HBO, now Max, we were allowed to have conversations in ways that commercial television just didn’t allow. We’ve been really lucky that there’s been an audience, who’s been so hospitable to us for a lot of years. We were allowed to have conversations in ways that commercial television just didn’t allow...

“The kind of intimate, salty, candid conversations that were being had among four women, that were about their intimate lives, had just not yet

been seen. There are and were and continue to be women who shared these kinds of conversations with their friends and they just hadn’t seen it,” the American actor told PTI in a virtual roundtable interview.

Set 11 years after the events of the 2010 film “Sex and the City 2”, “And Just Like That...” follow three of the four friends Carrie, Miranda Hobbes (Cynthia Nixon) and Charlotte York Goldenblatt (Kristin Davis) as they make a transition into their 50s. It was recently announced that Kim Cattrall will officially return as Samantha Jones for a cameo in the second season finale.

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GEETANJALI SHREE

GEETANJALI SHREE

HINDI-LANGUAGE NOVELIST

When Geetanjali Shree’s novel “Tomb of Sand” was released in India five years ago, many didn’t know what to make of it. The story — about an 80-yearold woman who refuses to get out of bed — shifts perspective without warning, gives voice to birds and inanimate objects and includes invented words and gibberish.

Some declared it an experimental masterpiece. Others found it impenetrable. Sales in India were modest. So Shree was stunned when the book, in an English translation, captivated readers, critics and literary prize committees in the West — a rare, and perhaps unparalleled, feat for a book written in Hindi.

For Shree, who is 65 and lives in Delhi, writing in Hindi isn’t a political or literary statement, but an organic creative choice. “Hindi chose me,” she said. “That’s my mother tongue.”

Her decision, however, and her novel’s success, are having an impact in India and beyond, bringing attention to the wealth and diversity of the Indian literary landscape, often overlooked by the West,

with its focus on Englishlanguage writing.

“Her insistence on holding on to her Hindi and taking it to the next level, it shows a path to other Indian writers who feel like they have to write in English because of the hegemony of English,” Jenny Bhatt, a writer and translator of Gujarati literature, said of Shree.

For decades, contemporary Indian literature has been largely defined in the West by English-language fiction writers of such renown they are practically household names, even in countries far from their own: novelists like Salman Rushdie, Arundhati Roy, Aravind Adiga, Amitav Ghosh and Anita Desai.

Producing work in English has traditionally been seen as more prestigious and lucrative; English-language books are also more easily available to readers, both internationally and in India, a country with 22 official languages and more than 120 spoken languages, plus countless dialects, where English remains a lingua franca.

All this made Shree’s commitment to writing in Hindi particularly

striking. A fixture of

the Indian literary landscape for more than three decades, with five novels to her name, Shree had never reached a global audience. That changed last year, when the Englishlanguage edition of “Tomb of Sand,” translated by Daisy Rockwell, received the 2022 International Booker Prize, becoming the first translation from a South Asian language to win. Rights to the novel have now sold in a dozen languages, and a U.S. edition was published by HarperCollins last month.

“She is of the class and the educational background where she could have been another Indian Englishlanguage writer,” said Rockwell.

Instead, Shree has pushed the boundaries of experimentation within Hindi literature.

“She’s breaking narrative conventions and testing the limits of her form,” Rockwell said, and “re-injecting it into the Hindi bloodstream.”

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REGINA KING

During the 2019 Golden Globe Awards, Regina King used her Best Supporting Actress acceptance speech as a public pledge. The actress vowed that she will hire 50 percent women for all the projects she produces over the next two years. The promise, she said, was part of the broader Time’s Up movement, and she encouraged others to join her with specific goals to improve gender equality in Hollywood and elsewhere.

“I just want to say that I’m going to use my platform right now to say in the next two years everything that I produce I am making a vow – and it’s going to be tough – to make sure that everything that I produce is 50 percent women,” said King, who won for her acclaimed role in the Barry Jenkins drama If Beale Street Could Talk. “And I just challenge anyone out there – anyone out there who is in a position of power, not just in our industry, in all industries – I challenge you to challenge yourselves and stand with us in solidarity and do the same. God bless you. Thank you.”

When she was ready to release her next directing effort with Amazon Studios, “One Night in Miami,” King, who also served as a producer on the project, said her pledge was difficult to realize. “No, we weren’t able to accomplish it,” King said. “But we definitely tried.”

However, that doesn’t mean King didn’t make an impact. In fact, you could make the argument that she went a step further.

“What we were able to accomplish was that well over 50 percent of our crew were people that did not identify as cis white male[s],” she emphasized. King admitted that so much has evolved since that memorable speech in 2019, including how she views and understands gender and its impact on Hollywood.

“From the moment of me making that proclamation, if you will, to us actually shooting [‘One Night in Miami’] it’s not respectful to regard everything as male or female,” she said. “So moving forward, as I do still feel having more women in positions behind the camera is important, I have to go beyond that.”

“[It’s] a challenge I will continue to try to achieve, even as I make adjustments to what that challenge actually is,” she concluded.

MAKING GOOD ON A PROMISE TO DIVERSIFY HER TEAM

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POST-META PHILANTHROPY IN ACTION SHERYL SANDBERG

Sheryl Sandberg opened her next chapter as a full-time philanthropist Tuesday with a donation to the American Civil Liberties Union to fight state abortion bans across the country.

Sandberg, who officially left her position as Facebook’s parent company Meta’s chief operating officer last week after 14 years, donated $3 million to the ACLU Ruth Bader Ginsburg Liberty Center. The ACLU plans to use the funds to support candidates and ballot measures for abortion rights, as well as defending pregnant women’s rights in state courts and legislatures over the next three years.

Sandberg told The Associated Press in an interview that it’s “unthinkable” that her three daughters have fewer rights over “their own health care, their own

bodies, their own destinies” than she did. She wanted to immediately start working to change that.

“As I’m leaving Meta and looking at the next phase of my life and what I want to do and dedicate myself to, this is an issue that I think is absolutely fundamental to who we are as women who we are as a society,” Sandberg said. “The time is now. These state elections are now. And the next cycle is just two years away.”

Anthony D. Romero, ACLU executive director, said Sandberg’s donation is the largest ever given to the ACLU’s political arm for abortion rights. The funds will help support a shift in the organization’s abortion rights strategy back to state legislatures following the Supreme Court ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization that found there is

no constitutional right to an abortion.

“It will be decades before we can clean up this mess through litigation,” he said. “We’ll get back there. We will re-establish a fundamental right to an abortion at the federal level. There will be another case that overturns Dobbs. But that will take us decades.”

Sandberg partnered with the ACLU because she believes fighting for reproductive rights requires a political component following the Supreme Court’s overturning of the Roe v. Wade decision. The political donation was made by Sandberg personally and did not come from the Sheryl Sandberg & Dave Goldberg Family Foundation, which she says will remain the center of her philanthropic work. Political donations are not tax-deductible.

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KARINE JEAN-PIERRE

SUPPORTING THE WRITERS GUILD OF AMERICA

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre canceled a planned appearance on ABC’s The View on Wednesday because of the ongoing Writers Guild of America strike.

The show employs some writers who

are represented by the WGAE East. The View has continued airing new episodes since the strike began.

A White House official said in a statement, “Out of respect for striking writers, we pulled down our scheduled

appearance on The View. President Biden and his entire administration sincerely hope that the writers’ strike gets resolved – and writers are given the fair deal they deserve – as soon as possible.”

Jean-Pierre’s appearance had been promoted for Wednesday’s show.

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VIOLA DAVIS

TAKES CANNES BY STORM

Adorned in a resplendent white gown and an oversized white feather coat, Viola Davis graced the 76th annual Cannes Film Festival red carpet with elegance and grace. With a halo of naturally textured curls and a radiant smile, she effortlessly commanded attention at the premiere of “Monster,” bringing traffic to a standstill. But it was not just Davis’ outward appearance that captivated onlookers; she also shared candid reflections on beauty standards and the pressing need for their continual evolution.

“I think beauty standards have changed,” said Davis, per People’s exclusive red car-

pet interview. “I think that what’s shifted is that whole idea of mental health being associated with beauty [and] of understanding who we are beyond male desirability.”

The L’Oreal Paris international spokeswoman shared that this phenomenon initially drew her toward the partnership. The brand’s “I’m worth it” slogan resonated with the star, who once felt hurt by societal beauty standards.

“What destroyed me was people constantly telling me that I was not beautiful,” she said. “[You might think] why would you be upset with that? Because beauty is attached with worth and value.

And I refuse to believe that I’m not worth it just based on a sort of idea and perception of what people think classical beauty is,” Davis stated emphatically. Noting that in the past, women hid their pain “behind perfectly applied lipsticks and wax floors,” Davis said she is proud to advocate for women who are unapologetic about who they are “beyond the makeup and the hair.” Hence, Davis and her husband, “Air” co-star Julius Tennon, encourage their 12-year-old daughter, Genesis, to discuss her feelings openly in hopes that she not only feels supported by her parents but also understands how to advocate for herself.

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ÉLISABETH BORNE

PRIME MINISTER OF FRANCE

France’s prime minister, Élisabeth Borne, sat on a recent, rainy evening in a dim room at a Red Cross shelter, listening to young women recount their personal stories of poverty, fractured homes and schooling struggles.

She smiled reassuringly and asked piercing questions. But what she did not say was that she could relate.

Borne’s youth was full of trauma. Her father survived Auschwitz-Birkenau, the notorious Nazi camp where one million Jews were killed, and died by suicide when she was 11. He left behind a bankrupted business and a shell of a wife. His daughter was taken under the wing of the state and left home at 16.

Now, she is only the second woman ever to become France’s prime minister, serving as the right hand of President Emmanuel Macron and the public

face of his unpopular plan to overhaul France’s pension system, which has drawn millions of people onto the streets to protest.

Borne’s painful past and remarkable trajectory would most likely be well-trodden terrain for an American politician — the nut of stump speeches and breakfast toasts. But Borne, 61, rarely mentions her own story, even in the women’s shelter where it would clearly be appropriate.

Some of that can be attributed to the fact that she governs a country where the separation between politicians’ public personas and private lives remains strong, and that before being plucked by Macron from relative obscurity last year to become prime minister, she had built a career as a hard-working and capable technocrat.

Only after her appointment did she run in her first election — for a seat in Parliament — where voters might have investigated her personal life.

But many of the details of her own story are new even to her — emerging only now on occasion as journalists unearth them, Borne acknowledged in a recent interview in her gold-trimmed office before setting off for the official visit to the shelter. Even her friends say she rarely talks about her traumatic past, so thoroughly has she buried it.

When she does raise it, it is not through the individualistic lens of perseverance through adversity, but a communal one of how she represents the French social safety net and meritocratic ideal.

“France is an extraordinary country,” she said between puffs on her ever-present electronic cigarette. “It’s something I

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really take to heart because while there is a lot of social determinism in French society, my experience shows you can succeed.”

In 2017, Mr. Macron chose Ms. Borne to be part of his cabinet, and she took charge of three successive ministries during his first five-year term.

France’s first female prime minister, Édith Cresson, faced virulent sexism when she held the job in the early 1990s. A politician once compared her to King Louis XV’s mistress, and lawmakers sometimes hollered for female ministers to strip, she said in an interview.

Thirty years later, Ms. Borne has faced subtle layers of sexism. After her nomination, French newspapers noted she rarely smiled, ate like a bird and worked her staff to the point they were “Borne out.”

“If a man is authoritarian and harsh, we say, ‘He’s a great leader,’” said Pascale Sourisse, Ms. Borne’s classmate at Polytechnique, now the director of international development at Thales, a large French company.

As prime minister, Ms. Borne has vowed to combat antisemitism with the same urgency as her predecessors. But, when introducing the government’s anti-dis-

crimination plan, she made no mention of her family history. Mixing politics and her personal life, she said in the interview, felt inappropriate.

Still, after The Jerusalem Post named her the third most influential Jew in the world, Borne, who is not religious, said she was both amused and proud. While still reluctant to publicly discuss her past, she is at least getting used to being asked about it.

“It’s such an exemplary story,” said Florence Parly, a former defense minister who has known Borne since they worked together in the 1990s. “Her story can inspire others.”

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ADMIRAL RACHEL LEVINE

RACHEL LEVINE

U.S. ASSISTANT SECRETARY FOR HEALTH & HUMAN SERVICES

In any administration, the public health of Americans is a priority – a tenet that signifies prosperity and perseverance among us. But during a global pandemic, when relative calm turns to crisis seemingly overnight, community well-being instantly becomes a matter of life or death for millions of Americans.

Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, this kept Adm. Rachel Levine up at night.

Levine is the U.S. assistant secretary for health for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the head of the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps, where she leads a group of 6,000 uniformed public health officers.

In normal times, her job is important. During the pandemic, it was crucial.

“I really feel that everything I’ve ever done, whether it was in academic medicine, in education, in clinical research,

seeing my patients in my role in public health, in Pennsylvania and now my role nationally,” Levine said, “all led to this moment in terms of helping the nation through this greatest public health crisis that we have faced in over a hundred years.”

Levine, 64, a trained pediatrician, became the nation’s highest-ranking openly transgender official when the Senate confirmed her as assistant secretary of health. Levine has spent her professional life in medicine – as an academic, a clinical researcher, a primary care physician and as Pennsylvania’s physical general and secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Health – but she admits her current role has proven to be the most challenging.

Post-pandemic, Levine said she is concerned about the challenges women and girls face related to body image. She ran an eating disorder program at Penn State University and was struck by

the pressures of social media related to appearance.

“We need to be welcoming and celebratory for women of all aspects, of all sizes and shapes,” she said. “And we have to work towards that compassion for all women and not put such an emphasis on thinness and appearance. I think that we need to work as a culture in the United States, but also globally, to be more compassionate and more accepting of girls and women, no matter what their size and shape.”

Still, Levine believes that women are largely responsible for the positive changes we are seeing in society.

“Women are absolutely critical in terms of promoting healthy behaviors for themselves and their families and our communities,” Levine said. “I think women are often the creators of change. In terms of the changes that we see in our society and our culture, I think that women are those change makers.”

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ELAINE ZHOU

CHIEF TECHNOLOGY OFFICER AT CHANGE.ORG

Elaine Zhou is a Chief Technology Officer at Change.org, where she leads a global engineering team to drive Change.org to the forefront of Responsible AI, to elevate the platform capability to reach a larger community, and engage repeat users who can lead change for their causes.

Prior to Change.org, Elaine was the CTO at Vidado.ai, an AI startup, dedicated to using Artificial Intelligence to help organizations unlock critical insight trapped in handwritten documents to drive their operations. Previously, Elaine was the SVP of Development overseeing engineering and product development at Clean Power Finance, a

solar leasing and financing startup. Later in her career, she drove building a Facebook-like social network for the LGBTQ+ community. Intrigued by the power of AI, Elaine later tackled the monumental task of getting AI to interpret the diversity of human handwriting in all of its many forms.

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ELLE MAGAZINE EDITOR NINA GARCIA

The fashion industry has weathered many body blows over the years – the HIV/AIDS crisis, the terror attacks of Sept. 11, wavering economic trends, demands to create a more inclusive culture and increased online shopping. And then the COVID-19 pandemic hit, piling on nearly two years of disruption to the global fashion industry.

Nina Garcia, Elle magazine’s editor-in-chief and a judge on TV’s popular reality series “Project Runway,” saw an opportunity to share stories of resilient women through the lens of fashion. In an industry some may find frivolous, Garcia and her staff committed to storytelling that reflected the concerns of women, mothers and working professionals during the pandemic.

“It is incredibly important now more than ever to give women a platform, to have inspiration, to talk about conversations that are very important, starting

with some that might not be so comfortable to have,” Garcia said. “But I think there is a real responsibility to use our platforms for the better of our world, and especially of women’s lives, and talk about issues that might not be comfortable like domestic abuse, Black Lives Matter, abortion. This is what I feel most passionate about using the platform that we have at Elle to uncover these conversations. And at the same time, be of service to women that love fashion.”

But when it came time to share her story, a deeply personal health challenge, Garcia wanted to espouse privacy. She was concerned about appearing weak, particularly working in a competitive industry, one where she had already shattered ceilings: When Garcia, 56, entered the fashion world, she was surrounded by mostly white and British editors. She was named editor-in-chief of Elle in 2017, she became the first Latina to lead a major magazine.

Garcia underwent a preventive double mastectomy in 2019. Because of a family history, Garcia decided to get genetic testing to check for mutations to the BRCA genes (BRCA1 and BRCA2), which increase the risk of breast and ovarian cancer. She wasn›t going to tell her employees or readers, but she did, and now describes it as one of the most important decisions she›s ever made.

«I thought that by sharing that story, I would seem like a weaker leader, but something moved me to think, no, I cannot keep this for myself,» Garcia said. «And I decided to share that story, and to be honest with you, that has been one of the most important decisions of my life. Because if I helped at least one woman to have the BRCA test and take control of her health and be aware of how important it is to know about breast cancer and be vigilant about what is your own health, then that›s enough.»

WOMEN + POWER

WOMEN + POWER

PROFESSIONAL POLO PLAYER HOPE ARELLANO

At 20 years old, polo player Hope Arellano is the youngest woman featured in WOMEN+POWER this year. And at 20 years old, you might expect her to, I don’t know, act like an irresponsible 20-year old. Instead, she’s solidly grounded and family-oriented, focused on polo and ponies and the upcoming U.K. season.

When we spoke, she was in Santa Barbara with her mom, Meghan, and they’d just been on one of their morning walks prior to heading to the ranch to ride. She’s spending part of the early summer playing in Santa Barbara’s 12goal tournaments to get ready to play in the United Kingdom shortly and then Argentina this fall.

“I’ve always wanted to play (polo) in

Santa Barbara,” the up-and-coming star said of the picturesque club and renowned polo scene. “I’m loving every moment.” To get to Santa Barbara from their home base in Aiken, S.C., she and Meghan drove across the country for five years, 12 hours at a time, with 11 horses, often starting as early as 3 a.m. to avoid the heat of the day. “We spend hours on the road just looking for suitable horse hotels off the main roads. You can’t take polo ponies to just any K.O.A. (Kampground of America),” Hope joked. “Luckily, the traveling rodeo circuit that exists has paved the way for ranches that will host you and your ponies overnight.”

In Santa Barbara, she maintains the same schedule as in Aiken, Wellington

BY JOSH JAKOBITZ / EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

or Buenos Aires: stretch, train, exercise, eat, ride, stretch again and sleep. It’s a pattern that works for her – case in point, she’s projected to be rated as a 10-goal player by early fall, per the U.S. Polo Association. Hope declined to brag about that honor when pressed. “It’s not always perfect, but I have so many amazing opportunities in front of me right now, I don’t dare complain,” she said.

She looks to Serena Williams, Rafael Nadal and the late Kobe Bryant for inspirational athletes. Williams, of course, has been a featured Women+Power profile, too. But before anything else, she said, it’s family first. “We all play polo. We’re all in the same profession. It may be unusual but we wouldn’t have it any other way.”

WOMEN + POWER

FIRST LADY OF UKRAINE OLENA ZELESKA

As Russia continues to raise the stakes in its war against Ukraine, Ukraine’s First Lady Olena Zelenska said she is focused on providing humanitarian aid to the people in her country.

Zelenska has launched her own foundation, the Olena Zelenska Foundation, to bring education, medicine and humanitarian aid to Ukrainians.

“Our main goal is to help as many people as possible to return home,” Zelenska told ABC News’ Amy Robach in an exclusive interview that aired Monday on “ Good Morning America.» «For them to be able to return, we need to restore hospitals, schools ... we need to rebuild their homes.»

Robach spoke to Zelenska during the first lady›s trip to New York City for the United Nations General Assembly, during which Zelenska launched the foundation at an event attended by former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, as well as actors Matt Damon, Jimmy Fallon and Brooke Shields.

Zelenska's husband President Volodymyr Zelensky also delivered a video address at the event, remotely from Kyiv. «We are fighting for freedom and protecting our people,» he said. «We are doing everything possible to engage our friends -- friends of freedom -worldwide who are willing to contribute to our struggle.»

According to its website, the foundation will focus on rebuilding schools and medical centers in Ukraine, so that every Ukrainian “feels physically and mentally healthy, protected, and able to exercise their right to education, work, and build

a future in Ukraine.”

Zelenska launched the foundation at a time of escalating tension in Russia’s months-long war with Ukraine.

Earlier this month, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a mobilization of reservists, which is expected to call up as many as 300,000 additional troops.

Zelenska, who spoke with Robach through a translator, said the developments are unsettling, describing the current time as not an “easy period” for the people of Ukraine.

“When the whole world wants this war to be over, they continue to recruit soldiers for their army,” said Zelenska, referring to Russia. “Of course, we are concerned about this. We are worried and this is a bad sign for the whole world.”

Zelenska’s husband, President Volodymyr Zelensky, warned last week in a recorded address to the U.N. General Assembly that Moscow was trying to wait his fighters out.

Zelenska said she believes Ukrainians will continue to persevere in the face of conflict.

“The main difference between our army and the Russian army is that we really know what we are fighting for,” she said.

Zelenska also spoke to Robach about the U.N.’s recent finding that wars crimes have been committed in Ukraine by Russian troops.

A U.N.-appointed panel of indepen-

dent legal experts reported that Russian soldiers have “raped, tortured, and unlawfully confined” children in Ukraine, among other crimes.

The report followed an announcement by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken in March that Russian forces have committed war crimes in the country.

Zelenska said she was not surprised by the U.N. report but is glad the crimes are internationally recognized now.

«On the one hand, it›s horrible news, but it›s the news that we knew about already,» she said. «On the other hand, it›s great news that the whole world can finally see that this is a heinous crime, that this war is against humanity and humankind.»

Zelenska continued, «Now Ukrainian efforts at the international level are focused on creating an international tribunal for all responsible for crimes that still unfortunately continue to occur in Ukraine during this war.»

As Zelenska works to help Ukrainians recover from the devastating effects of the war, she said support from the United States is «crucial.»

Speaking in English, Zelenska directly addressed the American people.

«It›s not war between Ukraine and Russia. It›s war for values of all the world. A war for freedom, for human rights, for all that we love, all of the people of the world,» she said. «And that›s exactly what Ukrainians are fighting for now. So don›t stop your support. It›s very important for us.»

WOMEN + POWER

WOMEN + POWER

AUBREY PLAZA

HOLLYWOOD'S GO-TO DEADPAN ACTRESS

In the second season of HBO’s “The White Lotus,” Aubrey Plaza plays Harper Spiller, a lawyer with a penchant for sarcasm who is vacationing in Italy with her husband and his friends. She’d rather read Valeria Luiselli’s “Lost Children Archive” than talk about “Ted Lasso.” And she’d rather not associate with people who don’t follow the news.

Plaza is paired with Will Sharpe, who plays her husband, Ethan — newly wealthy after selling his tech company — as well as Theo James, as Ethan’s old college friend Cameron, and Meghann Fahy as his cheerful wife Daphne, who kicks off the season’s mystery when she discovers a limp body floating at sea.

Plaza brings an all-too-relatable cyn-

icism to the judgmental, pragmatic Harper, which will come as no surprise to those familiar with the cutting deadpan that defined Plaza’s breakout role as intern-turned-assistant April Ludgate in “Parks and Recreation.”

It was recently announced that Plaza would join the cast of “Agatha: Coven of Chaos,” Marvel’s upcom-

WOMEN + POWER

ing “WandaVision” spinoff series featuring Kathryn Hahn as the titular witch. Fresh from a day of shooting the new Francis Ford Coppola film “Megalopolis” in Atlanta, the 38-yearold actress discussed the thrilling discomfort in Mike White’s writing, expertly playing a Debbie Downer and gearing up for the Marvel universe.

How did “White Lotus” find its way to you?

My entryway, I think, was very different than some other people’s because Mike and I had a relationship before. We’ve been friends for a long time. We were going to do a movie together — something that we had been developing together for a couple years — and we were supposed to shoot it right when the pandemic hit. And then the movie fell apart because of the pandemic, and he kind of switched gears to “The White Lotus.” So, when Season 2 came around, he called me very, very early on and just said, “Don’t take a job in the winter because I’m going to write you in the show.”

Are there plans to resurrect that film script at some point?

I’m not sure if the movie gods have it in them. I don’t know, we’ll see. I’ve talked

about it before. It’s a movie that’s kind of based on an idea that I pitched to Mike years ago about me traveling to Sweden to reconnect with my Swedish exchange student high-school boyfriend, who I hadn’t seen in 10 years. Mike loved the idea of that, but then we started traveling in Scandinavia together working on this idea. And then the idea kind of evolved and it became almost kind of a movie about Mike and I traveling in Sweden together.

I think we need this movie. But let’s talk about “The White Lotus.” I feel like I am Harper, she is me. And I love how people on Twitter are like, “Is this how I sound to other people?” What was your first impression of Harper and her penchant for cynicism when you first read the script?

I found her very sympathetic. I really relate to her in a lot of ways. Because you know early on that she’s not really from this world of the ultra, ultra rich, even though she’s a little bit uptight and closed off, in the beginning anyway, you kind of feel for her. She’s our way into that world, in some ways, and all the other characters are slightly less aware. And she’s just very aware. And she’s a lawyer. So I think there’s an element of her kind of constantly criticizing and

analyzing every situation that’s almost more of a personality quirk. It’s just instinctively, that’s what she does. My fear in the beginning was, I don’t want her to come off as just a Debbie Downer. ... I never thought of her like that. I think of it as, you’re catching someone in a moment where they’re not that happy. And her marriage isn’t going that great. But they just happen to be in the most beautiful place in the world. And that happens. That’s life. I find her more sad than bitchy.

Could you relate to that? How do you view the dynamic between Harper and Ethan?

I think a lot of married couples can relate to the peaks and valleys of a marriage. You’re kind of catching them in a dip. They’re in a rut. I totally relate to that. I’ve been married for — I mean, I haven’t been married that long, actually, but we’ve been together in a relationship for a really long time. I’ve had a lot of long-term relationships. So I understand feeling like you’re trying to find your way, especially when you’re confronted with another couple who seems to have it all. It’s hard not to compare yourself to them. Every couple does that; you start to just judge yourself and your relationship, like, “Am I as happy as them?”

WOMEN + POWER

KRIS JENNER + KIM, KOURTNEY, KHLOÉ, KENDALL & KYLIE

KRIS JENNER

KIM, KHLOÉ, KOURTNEY, KENDALL & KYLIE

At age 51, she landed her family a reality TV show that would change everything. Fifteen years later, the “momager” still gets a cut of her kids’ 15 businesses and, more recently, is striking out on her own.

Kris Jenner is directing her own photo shoot.

“That’s cute!” Jenner, 66, beams at one of her shots on a nearby monitor, while pointing out the area she wants retouched (her neck). The momager of the Kardashian empire–a word to which Jenner holds the trademark–expertly poses, shifting angles for the photographer. Her face is meticulously done in the family’s signature makeup of inky eyelashes, nude lips and impeccable contour, a look called “Instagram face” for its ubiquity and popularity.

It’s an early September day, still summer, and this midtown Manhattan studio provides a cave-like respite from the heat. Good thing. Jenner came with her “glam squad”—her two on-call hair and makeup people—along with her PR person and two security guards, one whose job seems to be holding her designer bag. She’s in a black suit and bodysuit (from Good American and Skims, companies run by her daughters, natch), topped off with black leather gloves (which she never takes off), Chanel platform loafers and massive sparkling hoop earrings. She radiates the same power and glamor exuded by her celebrity daughters: Kim Kardashian, Khloé Kardashian, Kourtney Kardashian, Kylie Jenner and Kendall Jenner.

The directing, the styling, the constant photo-readiness: it’s all part of the careful choreography surrounding Jenner

and her daughters. It’s a rare up-close look inside Jenner’s highly calibrated world, a level of coordination that’s evidence of not only the matriarch’s authority, but also the machinery that has helped her turn the Kardashians’ fame into a multi-billion-dollar empire.

“I’m the one who can help them [her kids] identify what it is that they want to do, help them create a business, build an infrastructure and help them focus,” Jenner says.

“Kris Jenner is an unstoppable force,” says Ryan Seacrest, who green-lit the family’s reality TV show. He adds that she “led her family to succeed in creating an empire bigger than anything we could have ever imagined when we came up with the show’s concept 15 years ago.”

Back then Jenner, at age 51, forever changed the reality TV landscape with the October 14, 2007, premiere of Keeping Up With The Kardashians on the E! network. It delivered an insider’s view of the family’s trials and tribulations, along with some outrageous moments, including when Kourtney and Kim came to blows in the season 18 premiere, leaving Kim bleeding. The show ran for 20 seasons, airing 285 episodes in total and ended in 2021.

Then it rebooted on Hulu with a zippy new name, The Kardashians. Hulu claimed the show’s April debut was the most-watched series premiere in the U.S., but didn’t disclose viewer numbers. According to streaming analytics compiler Entertainment Strategy Guy, however, the Hulu premiere didn’t break into the top 10 of any major trackers for hours watched, including Nielsen. But Jenner has turned the family into

a household name and her kids into entrepreneurs all after she turned 50, proving that success has no age limit.

Although she usually provides behindthe-scenes support, putting her daughters out front (in their TV show’s first season, Jenner attained instant meme status by telling Kim, “You’re doing great, sweetie!” as her daughter posed nude in a Playboy shoot), she’s emerging as the face of her own brands. Her Safely cleaning products company, for example, was born of her insatiable drive to keep her home spotless. Setting it apart from the Methods and Windexes of the world, Jenner says, are the products’ plant-based formulation, which she says are a first in the category.

“Kris is such an incredible partner because she’s truly a fully immersed participant in every component,” Safely co-founder Emma Grede tells Forbes. The two women created Safely with model and cookbook author Chrissy Teigen in March 2021, though Teigen left several months later, following revelations on social media that she’d bullied TV personality Courtney Stodden, who was a teenager at the time. (Teigen publicly apologized.) Jenner owns an estimated 7% of the company, which raised an undisclosed amount of funding from investors led by venture capital firm Imaginary Ventures (also a backer of Kim Kardashian’s wildly successful Skims). In February, Safely rolled out its products in 1,700 Walmart stores; it’s also available through Bed Bath & Beyond and Amazon. Neither Grede nor Jenner would comment on its revenues.

Her six children (there’s son Rob, plus five daughters) harnessed their reality TV show fame and tremendous social media influence—they have a billion followers combined—to help start 15 businesses. “They’re human brands,” says Markus Wohlfeil, a marketing professor at De Montfort University in Leicester, England, who studies celebrity fandom and consumer behavior. “You [the fans] basically see them as an ideal friend, ideal mate, ideal partner. So all of your projection of your own desires [onto the Kardashians] is basically how they appear to you,” he tells Forbes, describing the connection they form with fans through their TV show and constant use of social media. “It just gives the illusion they’re very close,” he says, adding that the Kardashian brand then expands through their products. Jenner, Wohlfeil says, is like a modern-day Steve Jobs or Walt Disney. “She’s one of those people who sees individual parts and can actually put them together.”

According to multiple industry sources, Jenner, who sits on the board of each of her kids’ businesses, gets 10% of gross revenue from every product, TV show or modeling gig in which her family participates, in exchange for helping build out staffing and supply chains. “Each one of our businesses has an individual infrastructure and a team built around the company,” she says. It’s an arrangement she made with them at the start. “I said to my kids, ‘Look, I’m going to put my heart and soul into this—I’m going to work hard. And I’ll take 10%, because that’ll make it worth my while,’” Jenner says, adding that it was a better deal for them than what a typical manager would charge. One entertainment attorney whose roster includes A-list clients says the 10% cut is actually pretty standard. So how much does she pull in? Jenner would not disclose any financial information

about the businesses’ revenues or her personal earnings.

She has received equity in some cases. Forbes estimates her stakes in the businesses include 1% of Kim’s shape wear and loungewear firm Skims, which was valued by investors at $3.2 billion in January; 5% of Kylie Cosmetics, 51% of which was sold to Coty in January 2020 in a deal that valued the business at nearly $1.2 billion; and 10% of denim and fashion firm Good American (co-founded by daughter Khloé), in addition to the 7% in Safely. She had an estimated 10% stake in Kim Kardashian’s KKW Beauty and got an estimated $20 million when they sold a 20% stake in the business, also to Coty, in January 2021. That brand no longer exists and Kim and Coty have replaced it with SKKN by Kim, a skin-care line that debuted in late June; Coty owns 20% of the business. It’s not clear, though, how much either mother or daughter own in this venture. She does invest some of her personal fortune in some of the family’s ventures, too, but is cagey in sharing just how much. “I’ll give you one,” she says, revealing she put some of her own money into 818, daughter Kendall’s tequila.

Altogether, adding in multiple homes plus earnings from the TV show and dividends from her daughters’ companies, Forbes estimates Jenner’s net worth at $200 million. Not as much as Kim’s $1.4 billion or Kylie’s $600 million estimated fortunes, but pretty impressive given where she came from a decade and a half ago.

“I have to have everything in my life completely organized and perfect— otherwise, I am a complete mess,” she wrote in her 2011 autobiography, Kris Jenner . . . and All Things Kardashian. That control stemmed from her 1991 divorce from high-flying lawyer Robert Kardashian (d. 2003), known for serving on the

defense team for O.J. Simpson during his 1995 trial for the alleged murder of wife Nicole. (O.J. Simpson was found not guilty.) Complicating matters were her friendships with both Simpsons prior to Nicole’s murder. And there was the fact that she was not an equal partner in her marriage. “I had no money—not one dollar—to my name. He controlled everything,” Jenner wrote. “It never occurred to me before that moment in this dark time that I had no power. Later in life, I would decide it was a situation I would never be in again.”

Getting to the airwaves was a surprisingly fast process. In 2007 the whole Kardashian-Jenner clan moved into a new, sprawling home in Hidden Hills, California. A friend who worked as a casting director came to visit and surveyed the chaos. Jenner buzzed her daughters over the intercom when the phone rang for them while she made dinner as Kendall and Kylie, then preteens, who bounced off the walls with energy. Amused, the casting director told Jenner she should pitch her family as a reality TV show to Seacrest.

“Get me a meeting,” Jenner replied. She pitched to Seacrest the very next day; in 48 hours, the show was sold.

A 2014 Glu Mobile smartphone game helped solidify the relationship between the Kardashians and their fans. Kim Kardashian: Hollywood let users role-play as models and actors and build their reputations to land on the A-list. It was extremely successful. Kim pocketed $45 million through the game from 2015 to 2016, while developer Glu Mobile credited the game with boosting its 2020 financial results due to a “resurgence” of interest. “Kris understood a decade ago that the future of her children’s brands needed to be trans-media,” says Niccolo de Masi, the former Glu Mobile chief executive who pitched the game idea to the Kardashians.

“What I love about Kris and Kim is

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that they are both very disciplined, turn up on time and do what they say they’re going to do,” he adds. “It sounds simple, but there is a short list of Hollywood people who do that.”

Private equity is the next frontier for the family. In September, Kim launched SKYY Partners with former Carlyle Group bigwig Jay Sammons, the dealmaker behind acquisitions like red hot streetwear brand Supreme. As a partner in the firm, Jenner will be involved in fundraising efforts and selecting what

to invest in. Hundreds of businesses have pitched the company already, Jenner claims.

In September Jenner also released her second product drop with Kylie Cosmetics, called the Kris Collection. The limited-edition lineup consists of Jenner’s “must-haves,” including pressed powder, lip crayons and cooling under-eye patches. Reviews so far are sparse, with few verified TikTok and Instagram influencers posting about the products.

Having built a hugely popular entertainment business in her sixth decade, Jenner thinks there’s room at the table for more entrepreneurs like her. “I think people are finding their own power and their own way of doing things. And I think that that in and of itself is very powerful,” Jenner says about finding success after 50. “And you know what? It gives a lot of other people hope that there is no rush.”

FROM BET TO SALAMANDAR RESORTS SHEILA JOHNSON

Promoting diversity in the arts has become a mainstream mantra in the entertainment industry since the first #OscarsSoWhite controversy in 2015, but it’s something Sheila Johnson has been doing her entire adult life.

It’s been 41 years since the Salamander Hotels & Resorts owner and CEO co-founded the BET network with then-husband Robert Johnson, creating a national platform for AfricanAmerican music videos, television shows and movies at a time when they were often excluded from the airwaves.

Now the 72-year-old hotel industry mogul and part-owner of three professional sports franchises in Washington –the Wizards, the Mystics and the Capitals - is celebrating the Black-American experience on stage, as a financial backer and ambassador for “Grace,” a new musical created by acclaimed composer and playwright Nolan Williams Jr. and executive producer Dale A. Mott.

Johnson, who declined to say how much she invested, says “Grace” pays homage to Black culinary history as well as Black women entrepreneurship -— two central themes in her own life — while telling the tale of an African-American family in

Philadelphia debating what to do with its century-old restaurant following the death of the family matriarch.

“If you listen to the music, it makes you cry,” Johnson said of “Grace” during a recent CNN Business interview.

“This is like pulling it all together so people can see the importance of promoting our African-American chefs, just really listening to all of this talent. I’m just so proud to be a supporter.”

Johnson and celebrity chef Carla Hall are just two of a dozen early investors for “Grace.” In August, some of the cast will perform one of the play’s musical numbers during a “Family Reunion” event promoting diversity in the hospitality industry at Johnson’s Forbes five star-rated, 340-acre Salamander Resort & Spa in Middleburg, Virginia — one of her company’s five luxury resorts in the United States and Jamaica.

The full musical is set to debut at a Washington area theater in the spring of 2022, and Johnson said she hopes the play will eventually reach Broadway.

“We have got to send a message about diversifying Broadway,” she said. “We’ve got to support Black theater. There’s just a lack of representation there.”

Johnson and her ex-husband completed their sale of BET to Viacom in 2001 for an estimated $3 billion in total compensation, making her the nation’s first Black woman billionaire. The couple divorced in 2002. While Johnson understands the historical significance of her net worth, she doesn’t like to dwell on it.

“People cannot be defined by their bottom-line, their bank balance,” she said. “I think that is wrong and I really want to get away from that. There are a lot of billionaires, multi-billionaires, trillionaires, but it’s what they do with their lives and how they give back to the community [that matters].”

It’s that worldview that helped Johnson navigate her luxury hotel company and sports teams through the worst of the pandemic, when Covid-19 and related government shutdowns and mandates decimated both industries’ revenue streams.

Initially, Johnson’s management team furloughed some hotel staff members, but she tried to make the best of a bad situation after returning to her Salamander location in Middleburg to find the main entrance had been padlocked by management during its temporary closure early last spring.

WOMEN + POWER

WOMEN + POWER THE MONDAVI

SISTERS

THE MONDAVI SISTERS

NAPA VALLEY'S FOURTH-GENERATION VINTNERS

Earlier this year, our wine writer profiled the wine making prowess that is Angelina Mondavi.

In the course of writing that piece and understanding how a fourth generation of the Mondavi family is both honoring and disrupting the history of wine making in Northern California, a powerful foursome of Mondavi Sisters came into view.

Angelina, Alycia, Riana, and Giovanna are the daughters of Marc and Janice Mondavi, inheritors of the great legacy of their grandparents, Cesare and Rosa, who landed in the Napa Valley and purchased the Charles Krug Winery shortly after the end of Prohibition. Since that time, the empire has expanded exponentially under the C. Mondavi & Family umbrella, as well as more recently under the Mondavi Sister’s own venture, Mondavi Sisters Collection.

C. Mondavi & Family is in the midst of a purposeful generational change in the family business and all four of the Mondavi Sisters – part of what they affectionately call the G4 – are part of that critical transition. In fact, as we went to the press, Angelina was posting on social media about blending at Krug for their 2021 red wine releases.

Yet together, the Mondavi Sisters Collection represents how the four are also not wholly resting on the family’s laurels, but rather bringing their own unique contributions to the family’s great legacy of wine making.

All four serve as Co-Proprietresses for the eponymous brand. In addition, Angelina serves as the Winemaker. Alycia serves as CEO. And Riana and Giovanna serve as West Coast Brand Manager and East Coast Brand Manager, respectively. Like the generations before them, their blossoming business is a family business and the fruit for their wines comes from three vineyards on the famed Howell Mountain of Napa with two of those vineyards owned by the sisters and the other, by their parents.

The very name of their first label, Dark Matter Wines, hints at a more playful and contemporary take to the pursuit. “Dark Matter Wines is a nod to our family traditions with an edgy twist,” is how Angelina describes it. Launched in 2005, the wines consistently sell out and getting your hands on some may necessitate becoming a member and ensuring you get your allocation. They produce both a Zinfandel and Cabernet. In 2017, the sisters acquired Aloft Wines, adding

the label to their lineup. Aloft produces a Cabernet Sauvignon, a Chenin Blanc, and an eagerly anticipated Petite Verdot expected in Spring of 2024.

The Mondavi Sisters are also “all in” on giving back to their community, working intently to raise money through events like wine auctions in Napa Valley that support local nonprofits. As Alycia shared with Polo Lifestyles, “It is the philosophy and ethos of the four Mondavi Sisters to lend a helping hand to their neighbors, community, and those in need. The sisters believe, at their core, that there is much humanitarian work that not only requires time, but also attention and effort, both near and far.”

The pandemic battered the wine industry and on top of that, Napa Valley also suffered devastating fires in 2020. Still, Mondavi Sisters Collection, and the sisters themselves, remained rooted in the great privilege of stewarding the land and the legacy that now shifts onto their seasoned shoulders. In an industry long dominated by men, these four young women are boldly making their mark.

You can find more about the Mondavi Sisters and their wine at aloftwine.com and darkmatterwines.com

MARYANNE WILLIAMSON

INTERSECTION OF SPIRITUALITY & POLITICS

In her October 2015 lecture to Harvard Divinity School, Marianne Williamson, Democratic candidate for the 2024 Democratic Party presidential campaign, delivers a vision of a government that “is meant to serve as a brokering agent, between the protection of individual liberty, on one hand, and the concern for the common good, on the other.” As a voice of truth, sparking an avalanche of awakenings, Williamson’s life mission reminds the people of our power to re-imagine our state of existence and our ability to invoke our calling to serve the flow of peace as we transform the energetics of our legislation to serve our highest collective co-existence.

As an advocate for peace and non-violence through the divine, transformative power of spiritual alchemy, Williamson calls for “a holistic perspective on our politics, just as we developed a holistic perspective in the healing of the body, that allopathic measures, alone, will not work. We need to bring in the healing agents of the mind, the body and the spirit.”

With seventy percent of adults reporting a lack of trust in the government’s sentience for its people, sixty-four percent reporting that they feel their rights are under attack, and forty-five percent claiming that they do not feel protected by the laws in the United States, according to a 2022 Stress in America report by the American Psychological Association, Williamson serves as an advocate for the multi-faceted soul of a nation whose people are in need of hope and a government that supports the alignment of our economics with our collective spirit and pursuit of

self-realization.

There is no doubt that the structure of our society has become a cancer upon the people, and with a forty-year career of inspiring and empowering individuals to realize their potential in overcoming the yoke of oppression, Williamson has a demonstrable mastery of the spiritual faculties of the mind to facilitate personal and systems transformation. Shae states: “In the Jewish tradition, it is said that every generation must rediscover God for itself. That is true, as well, with American democracy. You cannot bequeath exceptionalism. You cannot bequeath the spirit of democracy; every generation must embody it for itself.”

A fearless advocate for truth, Williamson compels every age group to remember their power, stating: “what is interesting, now, is that we are getting to be older, and we are thinking about our deathbed, and what we’re going to think on the last day of our lives. I don’t think I am the only one for whom the thought that I might die, knowing that I let the fuckers get to me, is actually worse than that the thought that they might kill me if I stand up to them. And there’s a lot of social force in that – the idea knowing that you might die knowing you didn’t really do what you came here to do. That thought is more horrifying than the idea that you might be killed if you do.”

With a plan to heal the hopelessness of underrepresented demographics, Williamson is fully aware of the transformative power of love to not only heal, but to reverse our sails as veer toward the edge of our own civilization. “If you are looking at the world, today, and not grieving, then you’re not looking. But

the reason spirituality matters is because spirituality gives you a context for rejoicing in the infinite possibilities… when you are centered in rejoicing of possibility, because, in whatever way you say it, God is great, and whatever way you say it, there is no order of difficulty in miracles, then you, not only have the endurance and the patience, because a revolution, and that’s what we need now, is a spiritual and political revolution … is a very serious business.”

WOMEN + POWER

COMMANDS HIGH SOCIETY IN HBO'S THE GILDED AGE CARRIE COON

As Bertha Russell, a robber baron’s wife on The Gilded Age, Carrie Coon swans around her Fifth Avenue mansion wearing the finest couture from French designers and coldly commanding her sprawling staff. But there is no trace of Bertha’s imperiousness when the Emmy and Tony Award–nominated actor (Fargo, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?) signs onto Zoom on a recent weekday, harried from a day packing up her Chicago household for an impending move with two young children underfoot. “My husband”—playwright and fellow actor Tracy Letts—“said to me before he left, ‘I’m starting to understand the appeal of having a staff,’” said the Ohio native as she situated herself in frame, in front of an upturned mattress. “I was like, ‘I’ll settle for a cook.’”

Bertha is having a better time than any other character on The Gilded Age, the long-awaited HBO series from Oscar-winning Gosford Park scribe and Downton Abbey mastermind Julian Fellowes. Fellowes has been clear that Bertha is very much based on Alva Vanderbilt, the turn-of-the-century climber who, like Bertha, had to elbow her way into New York City polite soci-

ety with equal parts aggression and elegance. She famously marked her society entry—long-resisted by the old-money snobs—with an elaborate ball for roughly 1,000 guests at the sprawling chateau she and her husband built on an entire city block. On Monday’s first-season finale of The Gilded Age, Bertha and her husband, George (played by Morgan Spector), mark their own societal victory with a similarly extravagant event.

In a conversation that kept her from packing more boxes, Coon spoke about real-life Alva and her endlessly fascinating life. For instance: “Alva Vanderbilt ended up building a new estate in Newport, but she kept [her previous home] Marble House because she preferred the laundry room. So she would do her laundry at one mansion, and then live the rest of the summer in the other one.”

Coon also told us about her preparation to play Bertha, the crucial lesson she’s learned from her Leftovers character Nora Durst, and what she’d like to see in The Gilded Age’s season two.

Julie Miller: Bertha is such a force— what were you initially told about her?

Carrie Coon: It was clear to me from reading the scripts that Bertha was one of the more energetic forces in the narrative. She was an amalgam of Alva Vanderbilt and, in the documents that Julian sent me, he had outlined an entire arc for Bertha that goes through history. Now, we don’t know how long the show will run. I could be on the show till I’m 50, or it could end in a year. I don’t know, but he’s got a plan, and it was really exciting. I’ve done period work on stage, but no one’s ever seen me do that kind of period work on TV and film.

JM: So how much do you know about Bertha’s fate beyond this season?

CC: In theory, this era takes us all the way up through women’s suffrage. And Alva Vanderbilt eventually, after marrying her daughter off to a duke and divorcing her husband, went on to fight for women’s suffrage. Now, of course, that was not a unified movement…. So there are some complicated things about Alva. That’s not Bertha, of course, but I think we have a lot of opportunity— there’s so much happening in history, the sky is the limit in a way.

THE OFFICE LADIES

ANGELA KINSEY & JENNA FISCHER ARE BFF GOALS

You might not know it from their often-frosty relationship on-screen, but after spending the better part of a decade together playing frenemies on NBC’s hit sitcom The Office, actresses Jenna Fischer and Angela Kinsey are actually straight-up besties in real life.

The Office remains one of the biggest comedy hits in modern history, with the original nine-season run remaining some of the most-watched and beloved programming on Peacock.

Fischer and Kinsey played fan favorites Pam and Angela for all nine seasons of the series, and though their characters were rarely chummy, the real-life stars became lifelong friends early in the series’ run and remained just as close even after the series ended more than a decade ago.

Though they had been cordial as co-stars and colleagues since the pilot episode, it wasn’t until the fifth episode of The Office’s first season, “Basketball,” that the pair spent time together and realized just how much they had in common. The episode found the office staff playing against the warehouse crew in a basketball game, with Pam and Angela sitting on the sideline keeping score. The pair recounted how they spent hours upon hours sitting on a bench beside one another while the episode was being filmed, and basically talked and got to know one another the entire time.

“We were leaving the warehouse and we were so giddy. We had this really fun friendship. You don’t expect to make a friendship like this when you’re older,” Fischer said. “We had to walk through this big parking lot, and it was at night. Like school girls, we linked arms and

started doing Schlemiel and Schlimazel from Laverne & Shirley and Steve Carell was walking up behind us. We were so embarrassed. Steve was like, ‘No matter what happens, this is what you’ll take with you. This.’ And he pointed at the two of us. He was so right.”

With The Office remaining as popular as ever in streaming, Fischer and Kinsey decided to put their real-life friendship to work when they teamed up to create the “Office Ladies” rewatch podcast in 2019. The podcast, which finds the pair rewatching and reminiscing over all 201 episodes of the series, has become a massive hit among fans. The two share little-known anecdotes from the set and look back on the personal moments of how their time on the show influenced and affected their own lives.

“We are big journalers so we journaled about our days on set. And Angela is a digital hoarder,” Fischer told the Associated Press about how they were uniquely prepared for a rewatch podcast. “She kept every email I ever sent her. It was so great. When I was writing the chapter on the romance between (characters) Jim and Pam, she had an old email that I had written her. She forwarded that to me, and I was able to use that.”

Kinsey and Fischer stopped by The Kelly Clarkson Show to catch up, and they dished about everything from Halloween to hospital visits. The three women bonded over how tricky it can be to balance work and parenting, something so many fans can relate to.

“That’s one of the things we trade messages about all the time...strategizing,” Fischer told Clarkson. “Strategizing how

to be where you need to be for work and how to be home when you need to be home for the important stuff.”

It was so inspiring to hear how much Fischer and Kinsey show up to support each other.

“Many years ago I was working on a new show called Splitting Up Together, and they came to me and said I was going to have to work on Halloween,” explained Fischer. “My kids were little at the time, and Halloween was everything to them.”

Knowing how hard it was for Fischer to miss the occasion, Kinsey swooped in like a true BBF and saved the day by hosting a pre-Halloween Trick or Treat event, even enlisting the help of her neighbors.

The gal pals also shared some tips for making it through tedious events from the book they co-wrote, The Office BFFs: Tales of The Office From Two Best Friends Who Were There.

“We kind of had to learn how to be at these fancy shindigs together, and so we came up with a bunch of these rules,” said Fischer. “Definitely eat, they don’t feed you,” laughed Kinsey. “And there’s a lot of adult beverages.”

Kinsey and Fischer’s rock-solid friendship has been going strong for almost 20 years. After Fischer took a bad fall, fracturing her back in four places, Kinsey rode in the ambulance with her and held her hand at the hospital. “My favorite thing was the nurse was like, ‘Would you like your friend to step out while we give you a catheter?’” said Kinsey. “And [Jenna] said, ‘I’d like her to stay and hold my hand.’”

Now that’s what friends are for.

WOMEN + POWER

ANGELA KINSEY & JENNA FISCHER

WOMEN + POWER

KERRI RUSSELL

FROM "FELICITY" TO "THE DIPLOMAT"

Keri Russell broke out in the late ’90s as a young woman finding herself in New York City in her first awarding-winning role, Felicity. In the years since, her genre-spanning career led to her turn as a KGB spy on The Americans, which earned her three consecutive Emmy nominations. She’s now following that up with another political drama, The Diplomat, in which she plays the U.S. ambassador to the United Kingdom, a woman who is trying to set the world right while dealing with her messy marriage situation. Russell discusses the mundane realities of the State Department and finding humanity in powerful people.

KATIE CAMPIONE: What led you to follow up The Americans with this?

KERI RUSSELL: A lot of things, I guess. I mean, one, it has been enough time. There was a nice break in between. I think I just hadn’t read something quite like what Debora Cahn had created. It’s just such a messy mix of smart political jargon and then that whole world that is really interesting of the State Department and the Foreign Service, but mixed in with Debora’s really specific brand of humor involving the minutiae of everyday life. This character that she created, it’s just fun and good. It’s as simple as that. For me, signing on to TV shows, I already have three kids, so it’s like, I’m busy enough. It’s like having three more kids to sign on to a television show because it’s such an uphill climb. You have to be up for the sprint of it and know that you can take some time off after. So, you have to really love it. I just thought it was fun.

KC: She is a very specific character, and

although she is in this position of power, she has no interest in being an inspiration for other women. How much of her character was written on the page versus what you brought to her?

RUSSELL: A lot of her specificity was written on the page. That first episode that I read, the discomfort and the sweating, and the social awkwardness at times, that was definitely implied, if not explicitly written. I think one of the more complicated things about this show, and I guess one could say we’re still figuring it out, is really the tone because it could go so many different ways. But to me, where the tone was, starting about episode 3, I think it is really where it lives. It’s not for everybody, but I find it very enjoyable. I like that it’s someone who can be really smart and know their sh*t and then also be a total train wreck in their own relationship, and be mean and be a baby and be wrong and all those things people are. I don’t think one disqualifies the other.

KC: It also adds a bit of humanity to these people who are in huge positions of power.

RUSSELL: Completely. I don’t want to put words in Debora’s mouth, but I have heard her say it — this was her love letter to the State Department. Yes, these are incredibly powerful people managing governments throughout the world, but you can still have a sh*tty day or you can still be asked to make this monumental decision, but you haven’t eaten for 10 hours. So you’re cranky, and someone just needs to get you a granola bar, and things will look up. These people are so busy, like they just have so many people running their lives and

their schedules on a daily basis. I personally hate that. I don’t like anyone around me. I just had my kid’s seventh birthday party, and I needed to go lay down after being around that. It’s stressful for some people, especially just being in such a public-facing position, where it matters, every single thing that you do and what you wear, especially for a woman. That stuff is hard. So it’s fun to get to play with that.

KC: Your work with Rufus Sewell is so specific. It feels like a roller coaster at times. How did the two of you nail that emotional turmoil in the on-screen relationship?

RUSSELL: There’s a great line that Rufus’ character Hal has, I think it’s the first episode, where Stewart’s questioning him like, “Are you getting divorced? The ambassador tells me that you’re getting divorced.” And then his response is, “Have you ever been married?” I think that’s the point. These people are insanely connected to each other and respect each other immensely and get each other going in every way. But they want to kill each other too, because it’s a lot of energy between them. It’s not always for the best. But how do we nail it? I don’t know. It’s really in the writing.

It either works or it doesn’t. I don’t think it’s something that you can work at. From day one, we were like, ‘Oh, this will be fine.’ He’s just a total pro and he’s good, and he’s there to work. He doesn’t bring extra bullsh*t to it. He is delighted in everything that I am delighted about the scripts. So, it’s just like a grown-up, great working relationship.

WOMEN + POWER

MARTHA STEWART

MARTHA STEWART

TV VETERAN TURNED SWIMSUIT COVER MODEL

It’s not even noon in midtown Manhattan, and Martha Stewart has already put in a full day of work.

After traveling from her Bedford, N.Y., farmhouse into the city for a very early appearance on “Squawk Box,” the indefatigable icon is posing for a cover at PMC Studios. When the video portion of the shoot gets going, Stewart, styled in a striking green Kiton outfit and Skechers slip-on sneakers from her own collection, lets loose.

Playful and poised, the TV veteran is clearly in her element on this bright mid-May morning. Right on cue, during a segment centered around being the ultimate boss, Stewart takes a sip of green juice — part of her meticulous daily routine.

“A boss never orders decaf,” she says, in that melodious voice that helped make her a household name. “I always start my day with green juice. It gives me energy, good skin and great hair! Mmm.”

It’s just one of the many life lessons, big and small, that the pioneer imparts during a wide-ranging interview that explores topics from her mother’s enduring influence and sage advice for women founders to the “genius” meringue cake from Cipriani and her favorite Instagram follow, a Chinese cooking account.

Millions of fans have been hang-

ing on Stewart’s recommendations since 1982, when she shot to fame with her first how-to book, “Entertaining.”

Four decades later, Stewart went viral again last month when she posed seductively in a onepiece white swimsuit for Sports Illustrated — making her the oldest model ever to cover the swimsuit edition.

It was a much-buzzed-about moment that once again thrust Stewart, a master of reinvention, into the center of the cultural conversation.

“I’m telling women to live the best life they can possibly live. Don’t think about aging, think about living as long as you can. Take the word aging out of it. You’re getting older the minute you’re born,” she said.

The image maker understands that her ability to continually evolve is one of her most powerful attributes. “I was brought up to do what I want to do when I want to do it as well as I can do it,” said the founder of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia. “Something I always say is to be curious and keep learning something new every day.”

An expert teacher, Stewart has always taken great pride in showing women how to cook, garden, entertain, organize, renovate their homes and plan their weddings. Now she wants to give them the

courage to raise their voices at a critical time in the United States — when abortion rights and other freedoms are under assault.

“We have to step it up. Women are afraid. They lived through the pandemic. They’ve lived through the #MeToo movement, which made a lot of them uncomfortable. But it also empowered women to speak out,” she said, citing E. Jean Carroll’s recent victory in her sexual abuse and defamation lawsuit against a former president.

Perseverance and persistence have defined Stewart’s own journey from a teenage model to an octogenarian mogul who is still as fiercely ambitious as she was when she started a catering business out of her kitchen in 1973.

In the past year alone, the prolific entrepreneur debuted “The World of Martha,” an immersive retail experience on Amazon Stores; launched an engaging podcast; joined forces with Roku for three new TV shows; expanded her CBD business with wellness topicals; struck a major deal with Skechers; opened a restaurant in Las Vegas; and released “Martha’s Lighter Chard,” her second wine collaboration with 19 Crimes.

“I haven’t stopped at all. You should see my calendar. It’s horrific,” she quipped.

WOMEN + POWER

RENEE TIMS

Renee Tims won’t naturally brag about her accomplishments, her successes, her love of collecting luxury cars or the empire that she’s built in South Central Los Angeles. To her, everything that she’s done since 1984, when she took her first job in social services, has been about doing right by others.

And yet, her story has that made-for-television, feel-good, Lifetime trademark to it. With a huge heart for the developmentally challenged adult community, she’s taken on the enormous responsibility of caring for individuals who can’t quite manage by themselves. Her group homes, daytime activity

centers, specialized medical care and, moreover her modus operandi – “If it’s not good enough for me, it’s not good enough for you,” Tims said – have ushered in a new standard of care for a vulnerable population often living on the margins of society.

Tims casually mentions to her “homes”

RENEE TIMS

DOING RIGHT BY OTHERS

in conversation, referring to an extensive network of supervised and staff-supported residential communities for developmentally challenged adults. Where did these homes come from? Oh, she bought some them, Tims said, while the state of California has asked her to take over other homes from time to time. “When a home is failing due to poor management, they (the State) have asked me to intervene and bring the facility up to my standard,” Tims said matter-of-factly. “My standard is far beyond the minimum requirements for care.” Perhaps we should call it the ‘Tims Standard of Cared-for Living’

Case in point, in 2011 Tims purchased land and built, from the ground up, a daytime activity center complete with a bowling alley and half-regulation-size basketball court. “Our individuals –we used to say patients or clients, but now we say individuals – were already spending a lot of time at other bowling alleys, but a regular bowling alley isn’t always conducive to the type of environment our individuals need. So, now we have our own.” Every day, both her individuals – who call her Mom – as well as other individuals from the developmentally challenged adult community gather to bowl, play ball or spend time on other activities at her center.

But it’s not just about keeping people busy. Tims’ ever-growing staff provides medical care, namely for diabetic patients, help and training on basic survival skills like scheduling bills or making and keeping appointments. All these things seem trivial, but they make a big quality of life difference to people,” she said.

Around the time that she built the daytime activity center, Tims started down two other, unrelated paths that ended up becoming completely intertwined as part of her reputation and iconography in her community. At the time, she had been driving Bentley convertibles, but Jen Stroup at O’Gara Coach in Beverly Hills turned her on to her next love, Rolls-Royce. Tims was hooked and the Rolls-Royce became part of her brand image.

At the same time, Tims was considering expanding into mortuary services. She had buried both of her parents, as well as extended family members and a few friends, and she was disappointed with each of her experiences with funeral homes. “I knew I could do this so much better, and with more compassion” she remarked. She researched the industry and its niche requirements, but came up short when it came to making connections and friends within the actual mortuary services community. “I was told it was a ‘Good Ole Boys Club,’” she said. “And I absolutely found that to be the case.”

With persistence and determination, she opened her boutique mortuary services center nearly 10 years later. But instead of buying limousines to transport bereaving family members, she looked at her growing collection of RollsRoyce automobiles and decided that her clients would enjoy the best of the best, too, even if just for one day. Since the day her funeral home opened, every bereaving family member has been transported in a Rolls-Royce automobile. “Our clients consistently tell us that they found themselves able to enjoy the

day – the celebration of a life – rather than feeling sad or depressed, or worse, disappointed,” Tims said.

Suddenly the same funeral directors who had shut her out just a few years ago were calling her to borrow a RollsRoyce or to ask for her her input, her growing notable boutique mortuary services spread around town, and fast. “I’m not petty. Not at all,” Tims said as she chuckled. “But that’s my trademark, my brand, my niche. The answer – to those men who made this project as hard as possible – is always, ‘Sorry, we're not available.’”

Rather, she prefers to be known for her overly generous nature; loaning the luxury automobiles to high-achieving local students for Prom Weekend or using her time to consult on care projects or end of life services. “Looking at it matter-of-factly, I like to make an impression in all aspects of business I put my mind to. For instance, I’m the only female-owned –black female-owned – mortuary service in the world using Rolls-Royce automobiles as my regular fleet,” Tims said. Rolls-Royce of North America noted as much, granting her Phantom Phenom status in recognition of her contributions to her community. While work is one of her many passions, Tims also has two adult daughters, who are also featured in this edition of WOMEN+POWER for their work with and contribution to the Lupus Foundation. To her, family is important and she celebrates those mother-daughter moments, as well as her love of being a grandmother.

WOMEN + POWER

THE TIMS SISTERS

THE LADIES OF LUPUS

‘We’re sisters, I can’t even begin to think of a better team or duo,” Chlanee Johnson said about her younger sister Char-Lesha. Born and raised in Los Angeles, these women have been outworking male counterparts since they were young. Brought up in an entrepreneurial household, the sisters were heavily influenced by the work-life balance mentality of both their parents and wisdom instilled by family.

After losing their father, Donald, to cancer, the sisters stepped up and out into their family business to continue the legacy and ensure the success of their family. Working alongside mother, Renee Tims, a valued community icon known for her providership and high standards of long-term care and treatment of special-needs individuals, the sisters learned how to be a counterpart in managing and directing these facilities.

With over 10 locations, together their now conjoined power team tackled the family business from all angles. ‘Our dad instilled a lot of patience, drive and strength in us,’ Char-Lesha said. “His ability to manage a situation, really any situation (as he was in construction) always showed us that the approach dictates results.” The sisters, whom are also mothers of two young girls, Celebritee

and Maliyah, make sure to instill these same values to them.

With this instilled drive, the sisters chose not to settle and still be nimble and creative in their own rights. They came together to brand their own business, Hookah Queenz, which specializes the concierge based, luxury-forward experience of Hookah. Insistent on providing something that has yet to be done, they decided to craft an aggressive business model with the cultural experience found in the Middle East. As if this wasn't enough, the sisters joined together in another endeavor, along with their mother, to reshape the traditional end of life experience. They designed a boutique-mortuary experience, Family to Family Funeral Services to reflect a truly compassionate and celebratory view towards an individuals final moments.

While also being full-time mothers and entrepreneurs, the sisters furthered their educations gaining degrees like a Bachelors in Sociology and Business and a Masters of Business Administration with a concentration in Leadership and Organizational Change. But while they embarked on those endeavors, a new curveball would hit their family. Chlanee was diagnosed with lupus and the family was blindsided.

With no blueprint of the future, this strong female family unit came together to better understand and how to manage this disease. While Lupus affects each individual differently, they thought it would only be right to help educate others in the most advanced and proactive ways, possibly furthering the quality-of-life management for others.

The Ladies of Lupus 501c3 Charitable Foundation was formed with just this mission in mind. Along with their mother Renee, they decided that helping spread knowledge, in a world which they felt it was lacking, could also save the lives of others.

While inspiring many and continuing to bring positive and touching ways to impact individuals lives these sisters make it a mission to inspire others to do the same.

“We draw on the power and strength from within,’ Chlanee added, ‘Seeing how both our mother and father pushed through adversity, only to triumph really brings us life. Our grandmother instilled in our mom that: There is nothing like having your own- and for us, there would be nothing if we didn’t accept that but also provide the ability for others by giving back and elevating others’ qualities of life.”

WOMEN + POWER

WHERE TRADITION MEETS MODERN PRINCESS OF WALES

The Princess of Wales is set to open a family-friendly residential community that will pilot a new approach to supporting women in the justice system.

Developed by the charity One Small Thing, Hope Street is the first of its kind in the UK and is designed to transform women and children’s experiences of the justice system.

It will offer a “safe community alternative” for women, which allows children to remain with their mothers in a home environment with tailored and ongoing support, Kensington Palace said.

Hope Street, in Southampton, has been purpose-built and specifically designed by and for women to create a welcoming home environment, designed with light-filled communal as well as private spaces, a 24-hour hub and on-site creche and play areas for children.

During her visit on June 27, Kate will tour the new facility to learn about the unique support residents will receive, as well as meet the staff, supporters and partners who have driven the pilot program over the past six years.

The princess will also hear how Hope Street will work to prevent mothers being separated from their children in the justice system, before meeting women who have lived experience of the system.

Hope Street offers a community alternative for women who would otherwise be sent to prison unnecessarily due to a lack of safe accommodation or concerns around their wellbeing, Kensington Palace added.

The charity has deployed an evidence-based approach, which is being independently monitored by The University of Southampton,

The pilot aims to demonstrate how a compassionate and supportive approach towards women in the justice system can have a transformative impact and improve outcomes for society, providing a blueprint that can be scaled across the country.

The princess has dedicated her time to raising awareness of the importance of early childhood, and in January 2023, with The Royal Foundation Centre for Early Childhood, launched Shaping Us, a long-term campaign.

Recently the princess met with families who have spent time in the care system, as well as foster and adoptive carers and kinship carers to stress the increased importance of strong, loving and consistent relationships to children who experience trauma and adversity in early life.

The Prison Reform Trust and EP:IC.

WOMEN + POWER

MACKENZIE SCOTT

GAME-CHANGING GRANT MAKER

Who gives away $14 billion USD with equal amounts of both glee and purpose? MacKenzie Scott, that’s who. Through the end of 2022, the novelist and philanthropist has provided grants to some 1600+ nonprofits and earlier this year, announced another $250 million in grants through her organization, Yield Giving, to 250 nonprofits via an “open call” process that will provide $1 million USD to each lucky grantee and wholly unrestricted.

The year began with Scott finalizing a divorce to her second husband, Dan Jewett – which unlike the dissolution of her first marriage to Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos – appeared amicable. Still, as Scott paves her own way as one of the most powerful philanthropists in the United States, nearly every media headline about her grant making prowess in-

cludes “Ex-Wife of Jeff Bezos” mentions. Enough already.

Scott has almost single handedly upended the way that wealthy white philanthropists invest (or should invest) their grant making dollars – few stipulations, minimal reporting, trust in the grantee to get the work done, and first and foremost, self-interest and any semblance of vanity nearly nonexistent. Others should take note.

A signer to The Giving Pledge, a public declaration to give away most of her fortune during her lifetime, Scott has been dogged in her pursuit. She wrote in 2019, “We each come by the gifts we have to offer by an infinite series of influences and lucky breaks we can never fully understand. In addition to whatever assets life has nurtured in me, I have a disproportionate amount of money

to share. My approach to philanthropy will continue to be thoughtful. It will take time and effort and care. But I won’t wait. And I will keep at it until the safe is empty.”

Nine profound words are worth repeating: I have a disproportionate amount of money to share. “Disproportionate” means “too large in comparison to others” so she is recognizing, in a valuative way, that she has more than her share. And “to share” is another moral statement that indicates her wealth is not to be hoarded or spent on vanity projects, but rather to be “shared” with those doing the real work. A refreshing and humble perspective.

Scott’s incredible and laudable grant making efforts can be found at yieldgiving.com

WOMEN + POWER

SONIA SOTOMAYOR

STANDING FOR JUSTICE

The United States Supreme Court struck down affirmative action in college admission on Thursday, blocking higher educational institutions from considering race in admissions decisions.

In a dissenting opinion on the decision spanning nearly 70 pages, Justice Sonia Sotomayor — joined by Justices Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson — argued that the court’s conservative majority was “entrenching racial inequality in education.”

Citing the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment, Sotomayor argued that the amendment’s guarantee of racial equality “can be enforced through race-conscious means in a society that is not, and has never been, colorblind.”

In striking down affirmative action, Sotomayor argued, the court is cementing “a superficial rule of colorblindness” in an “endemically segregated society.”

“Today, this Court stands in the way and rolls back decades of precedent and momentous progress. It holds that race can no longer be used in a limited way in college admissions to achieve such critical benefits,” wrote Sotomayor. “In so holding, the Court cements a superficial rule of colorblindness as a constitutional principle in an endemically segregated society where race has always mattered and continues to matter.”

Much of Sotomayor’s dissent details the history of race-conscious policies in America the following the abolition of

slavery, ranging from laws enacted immediately after the end of the Civil War to the Court’s 1954 decision in Brown v. Board of Education.

She goes on to argue that the court’s decision is “grounded in the illusion that racial inequality was a problem of a different generation.”

“Entrenched racial inequality remains a reality today,” wrote Sotomayor. “Ignoring race will not equalize a society that is racially unequal. What was true in the 1860s, and again in 1954, is true today: Equality requires acknowledgment of inequality.”

ADVOCATE FOR EQUALITY AND EQUITY MELINDA FRENCH GATES

Melinda French Gates has been an outspoken, public advocate of gender equity for decades — and now, the billionaire philanthropist is dedicating her time, wealth and resources to changing four major sectors that she believes are at the heart of the fight for equality.

In 2019, French Gates announced that she would be committing $1 billion of her own money to Pivotal Ventures, an investment and incubation firm French Gates founded in 2015 to support initiatives that empower women and families. Her estimated net worth stands at $10.2 billion, according to Bloomberg.

French Gates has revealed more details for where, exactly, that $1 billion will be going in a new interview with Fortune published in late 2022.

Pivotal, French Gates told Fortune, is “about how we can get women and people of color further along in the United States, faster. For me, this really comes down to looking at key areas: tech, finance, media, politics. You get more equity in those four industries and you will change all of society.”

That’s because these four sectors, which have seen women’s representation steadily grow over the past five years, have

an outsized impact on our society, Gates argued, and yet traditional pipelines into these industries work best for men.

“All over the world we’ve set up these social norms, these barriers that hold women back, sometimes that are designed to hold women back,” French Gates said. “Women have to figure out ways to push through these structural barriers.”

This isn’t the first time Gates has made a public, sweeping commitment to advance gender equality, either: In 2021, she and ex-husband Bill Gates announced that the Gates Foundation, of which they are both co-chairs, would be committing $2.1 billion to advancing gender equality globally over the next five years. That same year, French Gates partnered with MacKenzie Scott to give away $40 million to four organizations that promote gender equality.

Already, Pivotal has invested hundreds of millions of dollars in more than 150 organizations, Fortune reports, both through donations and venture capital.

That list includes Magnify Ventures, a female-founded early-stage venture capital firm; Genius Guild, a venture fund that helps companies

led by Black entrepreneurs; and Gender Equality in Tech Cities, an initiative designed to increase women’s leadership and representation in cities’ tech economies throughout the U.S.

“To re-create Silicon Valley or to change it would be incredibly hard,” French Gates told Fortune. “But when you’re starting fresh and new, if you start with a model in this perspective, then I don’t think you’ll replicate the old one we had in Silicon Valley.”

She also acknowledged a new sense of urgency to get more women in politics in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision in June to overturn Roe v. Wade, removing nearly 50 years of federal protections for abortion.

“We have to get more funding for female politicians at all levels, and we have to look at the barriers that keep them from getting there,” she told Fortune. “Until we get women represented in all seats of power, you’re not going to have representation of society on the Supreme Court … because if you look at how Americans actually feel about Roe v. Wade, no matter which side of the aisle they’re on, what was done doesn’t represent what people believe.”

WOMEN + POWER

WOMEN + POWER

Before cameras rolled at THR’s Drama Actress Emmy Roundtable, Jennifer Garner turned to Jennifer Coolidge and asked whether she’d be returning for The White Lotus season three. It was an innocent question and an instant giveaway that the Last Thing He Told Me star had yet to see the season two finale, in which (spoiler!) Coolidge’s character takes a header off a boat and drowns. There was

a moment of awkward silence, and then Coolidge filled her in. “Nooo!” Garner shrieked in response. But before she could pepper Coolidge with follow-ups, the more formal discussion between the two and their fellow performers — Dominique Fishback (Swarm), Melanie Lynskey (Yellowjackets, The Last of Us), Emma D’Arcy (House of the Dragon) and Claire Danes (Fleishman Is in

Trouble) — began. Over the course of an hour, the sextet got candid about navigating the Hollywood system, paparazzi cameras and gender norms.

If a fan approaches you on the street, what do you typically hear?

JENNIFER COOLIDGE It was split down the middle. Girls would come up to me and say, “You’re that lady from Legally

WOMEN + POWER

NEW HOLLYWOOD

EMMA D’ARCY, MELANIE LYNSKEY, JENNIFER GARNER, JENNIFER COOLIDGE, DOMINIQUE FISHBACK AND CLAIRE DANES

Blonde,” and guys would always say American Pie. Now it’s just, “You’re the lady from White Lotus.”

CLAIRE DANES It’s shocking how many people approach me with their appreciation for My So-Called Life. I mean, that was a verrrry long time ago, but teenagers are still finding it.

EMMA D’ARCY I get asked if I’m me

because I look quite different in real life, which actually presents a possible out because there’s a temptation to say, “No, but I get that all the time.”

MELANIE LYNSKEY If someone comes up and says, “My dad loves you,” then I know they’re going to talk about Two and a Half Men. But if someone comes up and says, “Are you famous?” which sometimes happens, I say no.

JENNIFER GARNER I’ve taken the out for sure. (Laughs.) I get a lot of 13 Going on 30. It’s, “Oh, it’s my comfort movie,” or, God forbid, “My mom’s favorite movie.”

Emma, I was sure you were going to say something about a Negroni [after their drink of choice became a meme]. How often do you have people buying you one, and have you reached the point where you’d just prefer a beer?

D’ARCY I got sent a lot and you know, it makes a lovely gift. (Laughter.) But there was a period where I was desperate for a lager.

You’re all here because your work has resonated. Did any of you have reservations going in?

DOMINIQUE FISHBACK I definitely had reservations. Donald Glover and Janine Nabers originally wanted me to play the role that Chlöe Bailey plays, because of the roles I’ve played before. Donald said, “It feels like when you play characters, you want to protect them.” But I never wanted to put myself in a box with characters that are easier to digest. Then, after [I got the role of Dre, a serial-killing superfan, that I’d wanted], I was like, “What did I do?!” One of the things I was afraid of was that we never really see African American women getting to play roles like this. And a lot of times, you start to represent everybody when you do a role, and I didn’t want them to feel like, “Oh, we don’t want to see ourselves like this; we’re already seen in so many ways that are not necessarily great for us.” But I’ve watched Monster with Charlize Theron or Hilary Swank in Boys Don’t Cry, and I was like, “Man, I want to do something like that.”

Jennifer, when Mike White first approached you about The White Lotus, you didn’t say yes. Why not?

COOLIDGE Mike and I were going to do another show, which had been turned down by a lot of people, and he mentioned he was going to write [his next] show about rich people on vacation, but I never heard anything more about it. Then we were like six months into COVID, and I’d been locked up in my house in New Orleans just pigging out on these vegan pizzas. A good friend and I were doing two at breakfast, two at lunch and two at dinner. We were in COVID, no one knew I’d be getting a call going, “Hey Jennifer, my show got greenlit, let’s go do it. And it’s all going to be on a beach in bathing suits!” So, I was just like, “No, I’m not doing this,” but I didn’t tell Mike I wasn’t doing it. I just said, “Oh, that’s so nice, Mike. God, congratulations.” I thought we were all going to die during COVID, so I was just like —

GARNER Eat pizza!

COOLIDGE Yeah, just do whatever you want. Walk around naked, get arrested, whatever, it’s all going to be over. But then it started to become a real thing, and I was hearing from business people. And then [I hear] that little ping in my bedroom in New Orleans at like 2 a.m. and I look down at my phone and it said, “Are you afraid?” It was from Mike. He knew. But I still wasn’t going to do it, and I think this happens to actresses a lot. You sit around and bitch your whole life that you’ve never been given the role of your dreams, and then when it comes, you’re like, “Yeah, I can’t do it. I ate a bunch of pizza.” You can ruin it. And thank God I have a bestie that just caught on to my bullcrap. She knew exactly what I was doing, and she was like,

“You are an idiot. I’m not going to let you do this.”

DANES What do you think frightened you so much?

GARNER I’d be scared of putting on a bathing suit!

COOLIDGE Yeah, and look, they have Sydney Sweeney and Alexandra Daddario to wear those bathing suits, I don’t know what I was thinking. I don’t know, it was self-hate and not being prepared.

When Mike called in season two and says, “Your character dies,” do you then do the opposite and try to convince him to keep you?

COOLIDGE I kept thinking if I did a

good enough job, he wouldn’t kill me.

DANES You did too good of a job. He had to!

GARNER Wait, was it your assistant?

DANES She’s the one person on the planet, who happens to be sitting next to [Coolidge], who doesn’t know what happened! (Laughter.)

GARNER Sorry. Sorry. Proceed.

LYNSKEY What episode are you up to?

I’m so curious.

GARNER Greg just left. … (To Lynskey) The pity on your face!

LYNSKEY It’s such a shock.

COOLIDGE I’m sorry, but it’s just so late in the game. Where have you been? (Laughter.)

Emma, you were signing on to one of TV’s biggest franchises — did that give you any pause?

D’ARCY I wrote a pros and cons list during the auditions process. The big one on the cons list was loss of anonymity, but probably that was a way of writing self-hate or something. Then I auditioned [via self-tape] for three months during the pandemic after losing a year of work, so in some ways, I think my hands were tied. Halfway through the process, the then-showrunner, Miguel Sapochnik, called to ask me if I owned a wig. A proper person would’ve asked someone who does

hair for advice.

Oh no, what did you do?

D’ARCY I had a bag of hair in my color from another job, and me and my partner, we literally stuck it to my head, which took about two hours every time I self-taped.

FISHBACK Oh, gosh.

D’ARCY At the end of that, I did a fourhour in-person audition, and then I didn’t hear anything.

COOLIDGE How does a four-hour audition go? I’ve never had an audition more than five minutes.

D’ARCY I feel like, by the end of three months, I had taped every scene in the show. Because they took a punt on me, I guess, in that I couldn’t bring an audience. I just remember that it was good for a while and then it was awful. And then after a few hours, they said, “Great, you can go home and get drunk, we’ll be in touch.” Then Miguel came up behind me and put his hands on my shoulders and said, “Can we do one more?”

GARNER Nooo.

D’ARCY It was the virtuosic performance of my life. And they got me to tape [as the character] across the series, even though I’d only play the older character.

LYNSKEY What was that about?

D’ARCY Maybe I just come across really old and they wanted to know whether or not that you could believe this person was ever young? I don’t know …

DANES Oh, I’ve been a grandma forever.

How about you, Melanie?

Between Yellowjackets and The Last of Us, these are very dark worlds to inhabit.

LYNSKEY The only reservation I ever have is that I’m so tired. I have a 4-yearold. I’m 45. But I didn’t have reservations about the material. I was excited to read something in both cases where it was a woman who was going through it and it was being shown. It’s exhausting to try to be likable. And I think as a young,

working actress, just auditioning and auditioning, trying to be likable, trying to fit myself into whatever box people needed me to be in, was so tiring. So I was really grateful to be like, “Oh, this is a person who doesn’t care how people see her.” It was very freeing.

For all of you, what happens when a director yells cut?

GARNER If your character, for whatever reason, is trying to be restrained, that’s when you let yourself cry. That’s when you’re allowed to finally let it out.

Claire, your showrunner, Taffy BrodesserAkner, described you as otherworldly in your ability to be light and laugh between takes. Has that always been you?

DANES No, not at all. And I’m very grateful that I’ve collected some technique over the years because it’s really draining.

GARNER Really draining.

DANES And sometimes it’s a bit of an illusion, my in-between-takes persona, because it’s definitely still on a simmer.

FISHBACK In between, I’m often like, “Oh, what are we doing? What are we eating?” But for the seventh episode with her girlfriend, that particular kill, with her bare hands, I couldn’t shake. I asked them to have a therapist on set just because I didn’t know how I was going to be affected or other actors or even the crew. So, on that day, she was there and it was really helpful because, after, I couldn’t stop crying. I was like, “Am I doing something bad?”

DANES That’s so self-possessed and smart of you to ask for a therapist.

FISHBACK I didn’t want it to feel like, “Oh man, she’s dramatic.” I didn’t even know if I was going to need it, but I thought it’s better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it.

LYNSKEY Oh, I’m very impressed.

GARNER Coolest thing I’ve heard.

How good are the rest of you at knowing what you need to protect yourself and do your best work?

LYNSKEY Because I’m in such a big cast and so many are younger than me, I feel like I need to advocate for whatever their needs are — to ask for protections and for people to be transparent with me about how they’re feeling. But I love that idea of having a therapist for those scenes.

FISHBACK It’s something we learned on Judas and the Black Messiah because the 50th anniversary [of Fred Hampton’s death] fell on a day where we were shooting the assassination.

LYNSKEY Oh, wow.

FISHBACK I’m covering his body, and my character’s pregnant, and we’re in a replica of the apartment and the energy is just swirling. I remember the night before — I kept feeling something bad was going to happen because your body can’t differentiate what you told your mind to believe. And so, that day, Shaka King, the director and co-writer, came and he looked at all of us and we were all real quiet and he said, “I think we should have therapists on set.”

Emma, did you get any advice from Game of Thrones actors on how to navigate the world you’ve entered?

D’ARCY I spoke to Emilia Clarke before I started shooting, and she was beautiful and so generous.

What did she tell you?

D’ARCY Loads of stuff, which honestly, I’m going to keep for myself. I’m also very lucky. That wig is a blessing; people don’t recognize me, so my day-to-day is broadly unchanged, which I feel very grateful for, not least because, and maybe this is also a question, I feel that the ability to observe others and not be the observed is so fundamentally important to our job. I guess I’ve just really worried about that.

GARNER It’s an enormous loss when you are the person that the eyes are directed toward. The loss of just being able to smile at someone on the street and say hello as yourself is a really intense thing — some-

thing to mourn and not to be taken lightly. And, probably, a natural outcropping of your success and your beauty and your work. So, it’s not something to be totally feared. But it’s something to know for yourself and to talk about. And then figure out where can you still observe and be quiet in yourself and make room for those places.

DANES It’s also true that it fluctuates, which is heartening, right? Because there are times when it spikes, and it can be because you got a haircut, or there’s some disruption in your personal life, and it’s uncomfortable and the volume can go up. In those periods and those peaks, I take some comfort in, “This will dissipate, and I’ll be afforded a lot more freedom soon.” Look, what I’ve experienced is just a modicum of what [Garner has,] but I also think denial is a great tool and you can set the tone, too. Sometimes it’s beyond your control, but if you’re not that interested in it, then people take the cue from that.

GARNER That’s more true now than it used to be. And maybe just because I’m older now and I’m not at the center of things, it’s just calmed down enough for me in a way that I’m so grateful for.

DANES With photographers, I used to be terrified of them, but I found I can approach them directly and say, “Hey, do you have a shot? Can you back off?”

GARNER That used to not work at all. And with pregnancy, they just want to track and consume it.

DANES It can be gross, but there are spaces, sometimes surprisingly public ones, like the subway, where nobody [bothers you].

GARNER It can be at Disneyland, oddly.

Melanie, you engage online with a lot of people who have wonderful things to say, but also the trolls who don’t. Does doing so ever feel masochistic?

LYNSKEY Yes! (Laughter.) But I’ve been relatively anonymous for 30 years of my career, so it’s been very hard to get used to people paying attention to anything I say. I was in group therapy for five years. I’m a person who … I don’t know how to make small talk. I only know how to connect. And I have a lot of respect for writers and journalists, so when I’m sitting down with somebody, I want to connect. I’m finding it very hard to get the balance right of not being too forthcoming because you’re not in control of how things get spun off. And there are headlines where you’re like, “Well, that’s not actually the thing that I said. That’s so far removed from the point I was trying to make.” And I desperately wanted to re-control it, and you just can’t, I’m learning now. I also was bullied as a child. We moved a lot, and I was very, very shy and very weird, if I’m being honest. So, I have a hard time now with bullies. And there are a lot of bullies on the Internet, and I don’t want to talk about it specifically, but it’s hard for me sometimes to not just say, “I actually have a voice now.”

D’ARCY It’s interesting you’re saying that because as soon as the show came out, I felt like I was back in the playground. I had this bizarre hyper-visibility, paranoia and this type of sociability that I found very difficult to reckon.

FISHBACK Because you knew that it was going to happen, did you find ways to prepare

before? This is small, but last summer I was in Brooklyn, where I’m from, and I decided to ride the train all summer just because I didn’t know, like, what I might miss if this were to change.

D’ARCY For me, the new reality arrives before I have the tools for it every time. And every time, I’m just proved really naive and I go, “No, this was predictable.”

Jennifer, I see a lot of descriptors of you now that go something like, “After decades as a secret weapon the industry didn’t know how to use …” What do you make of that?

COOLIDGE It’s like the guy that you always wanted, when you’re finally over him, you get the call and he’s like, “Hey, I’ve really missed you.” And you’re just like, “Too late.” (Laughs.)

But with this, I’m not angry that this is happening. I’m thrilled. I thought I had had my moment, I had my little comedy bits, my movies, whatever, and the wave had passed. And then this unexpected moment, it’s thrilling because I didn’t have this for myself. Maybe when I was 15 and I was like, “I’m going to be the lead and everything.” I’m just so happy I got this moment before I croak.

Emma, you’ve said you felt pressure to “present as a woman in order to find success in this industry. It wasn’t sustainable. And I stopped pretending.” And at that point, you started to find real success. What was the feedback before and how has it changed?

D’ARCY I was very lucky because I’m aware that it could have gone the other way. I got

an agent, which is what I thought I was supposed to have done, and then I panicked that I duped him because I’d grown my hair to look more like a girl so I could be an actor. And then as soon as I had an agent, I thought, “I don’t know how to live like this. Am I going to do this forever? Can I even get a job if I don’t look like this?” After about a year, I just thought, “You know what, I’ll just cut my hair and I’ll feel better.” I was running a theater company, so I was busy, just not paid. But then I got this stage job where I was paid, like, $480 a week, and it was just amazing. And it was straight after and I’d never told my agent that I now looked radically different.

What was the agent’s response?

D’ARCY By that point, it was fine because I had a job. And I think he only found out

when photos of the cast came out.

GARNER Wow.

D’ARCY But I’m very lucky. He’s a beautiful person and he gets it. I guess I just realized that it was fundamental to be able to live in the gaps. I, too, was bullied to pieces — I just didn’t exist well, so I was a good target. And I spent a lot of time wondering how other people were managing it, and then I did a play at school and discovered that there was incredible freedom in being somebody else. But there’s loads of other time [when you’re not acting], and, yeah, I probably felt more comfortable [when I stopped presenting as someone I wasn’t] and so I probably was better at my job and better in auditions and better at the interstices of the role of an actor, which mostly aren’t being onstage and doing the thing.

Jen, I have to imagine you get all sorts of things sent to you, but with The Last Thing He Told Me, you wrote passionate letters to ensure you were considered. Why?

GARNER I really connected to the book. I just loved this woman. I read it first aloud to one of my teenagers. It’s not something that you would typically read to a kid, but things got spicy during the pandemic. It wasn’t a role that was available [Julia Roberts was initially attached], and when it became available, I’m not like Hannah, my character, but I felt like I needed to play her — like there were things in my life that I could play out through her. And I wanted to check out what it would be like to be more still, more calm, less extra than I am naturally. I didn’t see myself as someone who would be considered for the role, and so sometimes you just have to take matters into your own hands. There are lots of people raising their hands on our behalf. Our agents are saying, “Think of this person.” But I needed to say, “I’m inextricably connected to this character and I need to do this.”

FISHBACK I make all of my choices based off of this inner child who watched these movies and said, “I want to do that.” Because you don’t control the edit, especially with big, blockbuster movies. But I told [director] Steven Caple Jr., “I’m an actor that loves to talk about character,” and I was like, “I’m going to have notes.” He was like, “Give me your notes,” and two or three times I sat with the writers, and it doesn’t mean that those things are going to be in the movie at all. You watch it and it’s completely different, but at least I got to speak for myself and for the character and I can go to sleep at night knowing that I did.

Jen, Claire, you’ve done major blockbusters, be it Elektra or …

DANES I’m like, “Oh yeah, I did Terminator.” (Laughter.)

Any advice for Dominique?

DANES Oh, I wasn’t carrying it, I was just dipping in, going, “Whoa, cool.” I’m just impressed that you knew that about yourself and were comfortable sharing that.

GARNER Yeah, your wisdom is wacky. The two of you [Fishback and D’Arcy]

have such different sides of the coin of young wisdom that is so beautiful to see.

DANES It wouldn’t have occurred to me to dare share my process.

Who’s comfortable giving notes?

DANES Now I feel more comfortable. But with a behemoth project like that, being younger, I’d just insert myself discreetly.

FISHBACK I started in this theater company at 15 where, in order to act, you had to write your own stuff, so it gave me a sense of confidence and, even without knowing it, it was preparing me. And it wasn’t always like that. The Deuce was my first series regular role, and I was like, “Yeah, I’m not going to do that.” But Nina Noble, the producer, knew I was doing this journal and she said, “Oh, can I see that?” and she told David Simon. I never knew he knew.

DANES I bet he loved that. (Laughs.)

FISHBACK He did! And with Judas and the Black Messiah, I read the script and I sent Shaka an email of all the things that I love, and I said, “Hey, I have two thoughts, but I don’t want to overstep.” And he said, “You won’t overstep. You’ll be playing her, you can give me your notes.” He called them notes. I just said thoughts. Then I said, “Well, the Panthers were very poetic people, and the first thing she says is, ‘Do you like poetry?’ And we never hear any poems. I think we miss an opportunity.” He said, “You’re right. Do you want to take a shot at that poem?” So, I end up writing the poem in the movie.

LYNSKEY Really? That’s so amazing.

FISHBACK Yeah, so any time I go in these general meetings with these directors, I say, “Hey, listen, I never think that something is supposed to be how I want it to be, but I do like to talk about it. And if you like what I’ve done, please know that I’m a communicator.”

Before we go, is there a role you’d love to play if only you were asked?

LYNSKEY I’d love a comedy, please.

DANES I’d like to do something more comic, too. Nobody has ever let me do anything remotely light.

COOLIDGE I’d like to play skinny, but then I have to get skinny.

LYNSKEY You’re perfect.

COOLIDGE I’m joking, but I look at you two hotshots [to Fishback and D’Arcy] and I’m just like, “Why didn’t I come out like that? You’re such advanced people.”

FISHBACK But also the work that everybody here has done has allowed me to be able to speak the way I do. You guys were there first and you did everything first, which allows us to be able to say, “Hey, I have a voice about this.” We weren’t just born this way.

DANES That’s incredibly gracious and stupid impressive.

COOLIDGE I just want to be given a job where I have to improve myself. Like,

you’re a famous ice skater and you have to do triple whatevers, and you have to really do them, so you’d have to get in great, physical shape. And if you don’t, you’re fired.

A superhero, perhaps?

GARNER You’d be so good in pleather.

COOLIDGE Well, there we go. I’ve always wanted to wear pleather.

LYNSKEY Wear it exactly as you are.

FASHION & STYLE

PHARRELL WILLIAMS' FIRST SHOW AT LOUIS VUITTON

GUCCI PRESENTS ALLEGORI

DIORIVIERA'S INSTALLATION WOWS

LOUIS VUITTON

PHARRELL WILLIAMS' DEBUT SHOW

LOUIS VUITTON

PHARRELL WILLIAMS SHOWS IN PARIS

Louis Vuitton’s hugely anticipated announcement of Virgil Abloh’s successor as creative director of menswear had a bit of a mixed reception. It wasn’t obvious what multi-hyphenate musician Pharrell Williams had to do with the house, other than being a hip-hop and fashion-adjacent Black creative, which gave a bit of a sense that the brand was just seeking to check off the boxes that Virgil also filled.

But the appointment is emblematic of a wider trend – of which Louis Vuitton is at the forefront – among the biggest brands of the industry that positions legacy fashion houses not just as creators of fashion and accessories, but of expansive content multiverses. With his connections to music, film, and culture, Williams embodies this broad scope. Even if it’s hard to point directly to the work he creates, things just happen around him. The last few seasons have proved that Louis Vuitton’s in-house design team can still churn out huge collections; Pharrell’s role is thus less of a designer and more of an aesthetic figurehead for a brand identity.

Referencing and focusing Virgil’s

themes of optimism and hip-hop culture while making full use of the resources at LVMH’s disposal, the collection was an unsurprising but very solid debut for this (ostensibly) new creative leadership.

But perhaps that cohesion was the main thing that was needed, and now that we can put a name, a brand, a quote to it, it seems more meaningful. What feels like commercial and glittery updates to the same checkerboard and monogram pieces we’ve seen before becomes a redistribution of ownership and a celebration of Black joy and resilience when it’s set to a gospel choir singing a Pharrellcomposed piece of music.

That LV Damier saturated the collection, first appearing as a pixelated camouflage motif – a smart branded update on an American classic that has been reclaimed by just about every music subcultural scene. Then it made its way across denim and jacquard sets, entering a graphic two-tone sequence that felt quite reminiscent of Virgil’s ska-influenced SS21 collection (minus the electrifying colors, architectural proportion, and idiosyncratic subcultural layering).

The collection’s final third felt like a kind of blingified take on classic French menswear chic. Three-piece suits, smoking jackets, and tweed stand-collar jackets a bit reminiscent of Chanel were made extra luxurious through pearl buttons, glittering broaches, layered necklaces, bejeweled belt buckles – an unabashed ode to wealth of the kind made by rappers, but seen through the perspective of a French luxury brand.

Of course it wouldn’t be Louis Vuitton if the bags weren’t the main event, and every look had at least one. Brand classics updated in new colorways were the main focus here, with Damier and monogram again dominating the scene. But we also got some fun new riffs on the covetable and quirky street-style bag (which has been huge since Thom Browne’s dog bag took the world by storm), like a leather version of the shopping bags you get from an LV boutique or the windowed box bag with a shoe in it. The cult of Damier reached its apotheosis as a small truck piled up with checkerboard LV trunks drove down the runway.

STYLE

LOUIS VUITTON

STYLE

GUCCI ALLEGORI

THE HOUSE'S LATEST HIGH JEWELRY COLLECTION

THE HOUSE IS PLEASED TO UNVEIL GUCCI ALLEGORIA, THE NEW HIGH JEWELRY COLLECTION CAPTURING NATURE’S GLORIOUS TRANSFORMATIONS AND EPHEMERAL BEAUTY THROUGH THE UNRELENTING CHANGING OF THE SEASONS.

Unique designs cast a light on a plethora of precious stones in bold rich tones generating a crescendo of emotion and joie de vivre.

STYLE

The journey envisioned by Gucci Allegoria begins with spring and the awakening of nature always welcomed with newfound surprise and wonder. The light-hearted spirit of this time of year inspires unique designs defined by fresh hues reminiscent of the multifarious blooms found in Gucci’s emblematic Flora motif. A magnificent, cushion-cut 226 carat green tourmaline rests in meticulously crafted openwork metal, punctuated with star motifs and diamond baguettes, its absolute vividness offset by fancy-colored tourmalines and diamonds on the necklace’s chain. Elsewhere a necklace with a 161 carat cushion-cut pink tourmaline is encircled by multiple levels of diamonds and colored enamel, all set on a chain bursting with 72 fancy tourmalines of 88 carats, which create a spectacular chromatic degradé.

If spring testifies to the stirrings of life, summer embraces its outburst finding expression in saturated hues – via emeralds, spinels and Paraiba tourmalines, sprinkled with multifaceted diamonds. Unexpected combinations and daring cuts showcase Gucci’s unique creativity and savoir-faire.

Autumn brings change as nature prepares to rest. Warmer, muted tones carry a delicate softness embodied in silky, radiant stones such as yellow sapphire, pink tourmaline and mandarin garnet. A splendid 78 carat yellow sapphire necklace is surrounded by a colorful array of tourmalines and diamonds, while a sublime, vintage-style yellow gold bracelet is set with five mandarin garnets cut into three

different shapes.

Finally, winter wraps up the cycle, as the crystallized silence of snow and repose of nature set the pace, counterposed to the light and joy that abound during the festive season. Embracing the winter feelings, an enamel and diamond necklace, defined by a milky, iridescent 92 carat opal. Diamonds feature too, channeling the season’s festivity and joy, with Gucci notably presenting one-ofa-kind European cut antique diamonds, the stones twinkling with subtle, kaleidoscopic colors – and which hint at the vivacious spring to come when the cycle of the four seasons begins again.

As an allegory of the cycle of the four

seasons, Gucci Allegoria magnifies nature’s ephemeral beauty and its relentless transformability as the collection plays with antique stones and eclectic cuts. Fan, briolette, paisley and kite shapes all feature, as speckles of baguette diamonds add an additional touch of light, setting everything into motion. A pair of jacket earrings are designed around two jaunty, fan-shaped emeralds that are perfectly matched for color and saturation, totaling 18 carats, and which cascade with a mesh of diamonds and tourmalines. A necklace combines a hexagonal 10 carat emerald with two drop-shaped Paraiba tourmalines of 16 carats, offset by a halo of round, paisley and baguette diamonds.

Finally, one-of-a-kind, old mine, European-cut stones imbue Gucci Allegoria with a unique vintage allure, evoking a time when gemstones were cut by hand and their larger facets cleaved in candlelight. Created primarily from 1890-1930, European cuts characterized the art deco period, and are the predecessors to today’s round brilliant cut diamond. A splendid example of 10 carat is the crowning star of a floral motif necklace, the chain festooned with opal engraved beads. A matching pair of earrings features two old European cut diamonds of more than 12 carats each, encircled by flower cut opals that add iridescence and shine, as baguette and paisley diamonds enrich the design.

GUCCI ALLEGORI

THE HOUSE'S LATEST HIGH JEWELRY COLLECTION STYLE

DIORIVIERA

BEVERLY HILLS

STYLE

Luxury fashion brand Dior has announced the highly anticipated opening of its new Dioriviera pop-up at The Beverly Hills Hotel. Located on the renowned Sunset Boulevard, the prestigious Maison has transformed the iconic hotel into a vibrant celebration of this year’s exclusive Dioriviera capsule collection, marking another milestone in the brand’s series of global activations.

The exterior of the pop-up boutique boasts captivating pink and grey Dior surf-inspired cabins, providing a stunning backdrop for the pool area. Drawing inspiration from the Mediterranean coastline and the allure of pristine beaches, Dior has recreated

the interior space into a mesmerizing sandcastle. Guests stepping inside the boutique will be greeted by a carefully crafted ambiance, reflecting the brand’s vision of a coastal paradise. The immersive experience is further enhanced by the presence of toile de Jouy-wrapped skylight roofs, allowing visitors to catch a glimpse of the picturesque California blue sky.

Adjacent to the pop-up boutique lies the ultimate Dior hangout haven, designed to cater to hotel guests seeking the epitome of luxury relaxation. Under the shade of elegant toile de Jouy cabanas, lounge chairs, and umbrellas, visitors can lounge in style, embracing the

Fashion enthusiasts and luxury seekers alike can indulge in the Dioriviera experience, as the pop-up boutique is open to the public from now until September 4th, 2023. This limited-time opportunity offers an exclusive chance to immerse oneself in the world of Dior and explore the captivating allure of the Dioriviera capsule collection.

The fusion of Dior’s iconic style, the Mediterranean inspiration, and the legendary setting of The Beverly Hills Hotel promises an unforgettable experience for visitors seeking to revel in the epitome of luxury and fashion.

Dior lifestyle and enjoying the serene ambiance.

STYLE

EMSCULPT NEO: BODY CONTOURING & PERFORMANCE CONDITIONING

EMSCULPT NEO is a cutting-edge non-invasive cosmetic treatment that has taken the world by storm. With a calculated combination of radiofrequency and high-intensity electromagnetic energies, this revolutionary procedure targets both muscle and fat simultaneously, resulting in a transformative body contouring experience. This new gold-standard of enhancement has patients lining up to achieve their desired aesthetic goals, with true targeting effects.

Utilizing advanced electromagnetic technology EMSCULPT, induces powerful muscle contractions that go far beyond what can be achieved through traditional exercise alone. These contractions engage the targeted muscles, leading to enhanced muscle tone, definition, and strength. With the ever-growing focus on healthy lifestyles, this

additive of exercise helps to enhance an already active routine to further sculpted abs, tone glutes and chisel the arms. The enhancement comes when you add the NEO to the original toning technology. While this also includes the HIFEM technology, the next level uses a handheld applicator to give you the addition of something called radiofrequency fat reduction. (Imagine a class at Barry’s Bootcamp + Soul Cycle + Bikram Yoga all rolled into one)

Kenneth Mark, M.D. has spent years revitalizing the appearance of many. A veteran in the world of Cosmetic Dermatology, Dr. Mark jumped at the chance to include this service within his practice’s treatment menu. “EMSCULPT by itself is terrific!” Dr. Mark said. “What else can trigger 24,000 muscle contractions in a targeted area during a 30-minute session? This essentially tricks your

body into thinking you just did 24,000 crunches or squats and will tone and strengthen the area!” With practices in New York City, the Hamptons and Aspen, this has clients flocking from across the country to give it a go. While his offices aren’t the only provider of the treatment, he has been deemed ‘the pioneer’ within the EMSCULPT network.

EMSCULPT NEO has helped thousands attain their desired athletic and a well-defined physique. The technology furthers an individual’s own athletic routine by raising the muscle temperature quickly, which then prepares those muscle groups for exposure to calisthenic stress. This advanced version of a ‘warmup’ completes in half the time while the temperature of the subcutaneous fat (that stubborn stuff right below the skin and above the muscles) reaches a level that causes apoptosis, or better

understood as the damaging of fat cells. The beauty is that over a period of about two months, those damaged fat cells are naturally flushed out of the body causing a bodily slimming in that area.

The results of NEO are long-lasting, provided individuals maintain a healthy lifestyle and exercise regimen. The enhanced muscle tone and reduced fat are not temporary changes but rather a transformation of the body’s composition. The goal here is to encourage continued physical activity with a balanced diet, and together this helps

to maximize and maintain the results achieved through NEO.  While both EMSCULPT and EMSCULPT NEO are hyper-targeted and designed to attack smaller surface areas, this allows most individuals to a candidate for treatment. These devices should not be confused for the replacement of liposuction, yet designed and intended to help those who are close to their aesthetic goal and wish to enhance their performance in areas of physical activity.

“The exciting thought for me is the ability to give an option for individuals

who just can’t seem to lose those final few pounds or wish to get that one area of body definition they have been struggling to attain in the gym. The excitement on patients’ faces once they see the progress to results is rewarding. Perhaps the best part is the feedback on performance I have been hearing from patients. Specifically, the decreased back pain, improved golf game, a tightened core with better posture, and my favorite – the ability to ski better! This is a positive way to elevate muscle strengths, enhance lives and get people to their goals,” said Dr. Mark.

BEFORE THE DELUGE, WHO WAS JEAN-MICHEL BASQUIAT?

Jean-Michel Basquiat (1960–88) was by most accounts a sweet kid. He had a baby face and a distinctive walk, one foot pigeon-toed, so he was easy to spot from a block away. He was a pussycat – at least the girls said so – soft-spoken and polite. And he liked to draw.

My mother-in-law, an art teacher who still lives on New York’s Upper West Side, had a different opinion about Jean-Michel after he and her son Danny

[Danny Rosen], best friends from the alternative City-as-School high school, had an art-making session at her apartment that left a mess of glue on her Oriental rug. She’d asked the boys to clean up and they hadn’t, and the dismissive glance Jean-Michel gave her stuck in her memory.

That adolescent ‘don’t-bother-me’ negligence metamorphosed into an obsessive creative vision. As for the scraps the

boys left behind – they no doubt were crafting postcards to sell outside the Museum of Modern Art – she dumped them into a box and later threw the whole lot out. Danny’s big sister Lisa, my wife, lost her Basquiat, too – one the artist had given her as a gift. They were friends from the punk-noir Mudd Club in Tribeca. Lisa decamped in 1982 to Europe, ending up in Rome, where she in turn gave Jean-Michel’s painting to

As ‘Basquiat: The Modena Paintings’ opens at Fondation Beyeler, Walter Robinson remembers the painter as a (very) young man

the artist Sandro Chia as a present. She thought she could always get another one.

Danny co-stars with the then-unknown (and homeless) Jean-Michel in Downtown 81, producer and writer Glenn O’Brien’s impressionistic music film. Its narrative arc – two handsome young men wander the city, hang out, go to clubs, smoke, and stay up all night –defines the downtown cultural moment of the time. Shot in 1980–81, the footage vanished into the mist for two decades, its dialogue soundtrack disappearing entirely. The film was found, restored, and officially released in 2001 with Jean-Michel’s voice wild tracked by Saul Williams, adding a special dislocation to a history now inflated into myth.

I first met Jean on the street, when he returned keys to my sometime, henna-headed French girlfriend after sleeping over at her place. Couch surfing was his thing, importuning the pretty girls for places to stay during that sexual idyll of the late 1970s, bookended between

the availability of birth control and the advent of HIV/AIDS. He was a night owl, feral, and an artist from the word go, with drive and an already developed idiom. His simple but Expressionistic style – odd considering most boys his age were doing detailed copies of Marvel Comics superheroes – is rooted in graffiti and cartoons, but also arose from visits to the non-European collections at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The 12-foot-wide 1983 triptych El Gran Espectaculo (The Nile) (1983), recently sold by fashion designer Valentino at Christie’s for USD 67 million, features –amidst its many symbolic references to the Middle Passage and the crossed-out word ‘slave’ – a rendering of a papyrus skiff, clearly the result of Jean-Michel’s visit to the museum’s Egyptian wing.

The year 1980 marked a transition for the New York art world and everyone in it. The 1960s had seen Modernism gorge itself on pop culture, pare itself down to the minimum, and finally dematerialize into an exhausted finale. The 1970s began in a kind of hangover. Everything

WALTER ROBINSON

had been done – what was left to do? One solution was to spread sideways, rhizomatically, rather than progressing ever upward or forward. New York City had barely skirted bankruptcy in 1975, with entire neighborhoods – notably the South Bronx and the Lower East Side –abandoned by landlords and the government. Light manufacturing had departed SoHo and by the 1980s, the area became the art scene’s new wellspring. Its 19th-century cast iron buildings contributed to the new aesthetic thanks to sprawling loft spaces. Jean-Michel adopted a model of art-making that used the detritus of abandoned slum lives rather than industrial castoffs.

He started with street art. Generations of graffiti artists had already taken to painting subway trains – city officials hated it, artists loved it – but with the exception of isolated exhibitions such as the 1975 ‘United Graffiti Artists’ show at Artists Space, graffiti wouldn’t begin penetrating the art market in earnest until Fun Gallery opened several years later. The art world appropriated the term ‘Graffiti

art’ for the public interventions of JeanMichel and Keith Haring, which only remotely resembled the swashbuckling spray-painted tags that had been perfected by kids from the boroughs.

Basquiat’s briefly ubiquitous graffiti tag – ‘SAMO’, in all caps, a riff on ‘same old’ – was sprayed in black on the subway system’s concrete walls and above ground on billboards and plywood boarding in the late 1970s in collaboration with Al Diaz (who carries on the legend today, documenting his work on Instagram). The graffiti was stylized block letters – his ‘E’ was three horizontal lines – and marked with the copyright symbol, an emoji avant la letter. His short messages cynically mocked the official art scene: ‘SAMO AS A NEO ART FORM’, ‘SAMO AS AN END TO BOOSH-WAH’, and ‘SAMO FOR THE PEA BRAIN SECT’. My wife remembers a more humorous slogan: ‘SAMO PRAY FOR SOUP BUILD A FORT SET IT ON FIRE’.

Despite the satire, Jean-Michel had ambitions to become part of the aboveground art business. In June 1980, he took part in the seminal, artist-organized ‘The Times Square Show’, notably writing ‘FREE SEX’ above the doorway, which was later painted over to avoid trouble in the still-seedy Times Square district. More dramatically, in a punk

fashion show featuring artists dressed in thrift shop gear, Jean-Michel stood by with a house painter’s brush and bucket, slapping paint on the models as they went by.

But by February 1981 he’d quickly morphed from street artist to establishment painter, showing at P.S. 1’s ‘New York/ New Wave’ exhibition. Black culture in all its forms was Jean-Michel’s central subject, and he can be credited as a harbinger of the Black presence in art that is only now being fully acknowledged. The artist Stephen Torton, Jean-Michel’s studio assistant, describes an almost delirious, mostly nonverbal work method, characterized by abrupt shifts across the canvas and feverish free association, painting on found objects and homestretched canvases. ‘It was rata-tat-tat,’ says Torton. The art looked immediate and almost easy. In terms of prolific production, Basquiat was a budding Warhol, but with a human touch.

In advance of his first major gallery show, at Annina Nosei in SoHo in May 1981, the air was abuzz with anticipation for this kid and his big brash paintings. We could feel it. We thought we had ‘good antennae’, trained to pick up what was new and important.

The next year, in summer 1982, JeanMichel, just 21, went to Italy on the

invitation of gallery owner Emilio Mazzoli to produce new works for a solo exhibition. Working feverishly and intuitively as always, Basquiat painted eight canvases. The exhibition never happened, but these works, now called the Modena Paintings, are on view at Fondation Beyeler, together for the first time.

In 1988, Jean-Michel died of an accidental heroin overdose at age 27. He’d created more than 600 paintings and 1,500 drawings; an inspirational tale with a cautionary conclusion. Isn’t that the stuff of classic tragedy? Such talent, such ambition, such luck.

I realize now we were sensing only a rapidly approaching tsunami of fame and fortune, a flood that hasn’t let up for a minute, not even after, especially not after, the artist himself was swept away.

Jean-Michel Basquiat

‘The Modena Paintings’ Fondation Beyeler, Basel

From June 11 to August 27, 2023

Walter Robinson is an artist and writer based in New York. He co-founded Printed Matter, and with the late critic Edit DeAk edited Art-Rite magazine from 1973 to 1978. He was the editor of artnet.com magazine from 1996 to 2012. As a painter, he is represented by Air de Paris in Paris.

MANSION OF THE MONTH

MAGNA GRECIA

THE EPITOME OF LUXURY LIVING

PRICE UPON REQUEST

CORFU, GREECE

MANSION OF THE MONTH

KASSIOPI MAGNA GRECIA CORFU, IONIAN ISLANDS, 49081 GREECE

Magna Grecia is the epitome of elegance in a gloriously panoramic setting. Beautiful grounds, captivating views and verdant green surroundings open onto the sparkling waters of the Mediterranean.

A tale of two homes, Magna Grecia has a total of 11 exceedingly spacious en-suite bedroom suites. Four bedrooms are in the main house and five in the other. The two properties are joined by an underground pathway. In addition to the main houses, there is also a two-bedroom “gatehouse”.

Each of the homes has fully fitted kitchens equipped with top of the range Miele professional appliances and in addition to all of this, there is a professional chef’s kitchen, equipped with Electrolux professional catering appliances, for when the occasion calls for entertaining on a grander scale.

In fact, Magna Grecia was designed for socializing on a grand scale, as well as comfortable family living. Its living spaces are relaxing with serene decor, easy on the eye and well thought out

and twenty can comfortably be seated for dinner.

Unparalleled KNX smart home technology is installed throughout, customized and designed specifically to meet the needs of this very unique property.

This includes a high-security alarm system, intelligent surveillance system and drone defense system. The property is surrounded by stone walls and oak panels with 2.5m moving sensors.

Here you and your family can enjoy a host of facilities

more often found in the very best of hotels. If you want to relax you can choose to do so in the massage room, steam room, take a sauna or jump in the jacuzzi. For more energetic moments a gym, fully equipped with Precor equipment, will please the most avid fitness enthusiast as will the indoor pool which looks through to the main outdoor pool. The gym has its own changing room, shower room and lounge.

The world has some fine cognac bars but it must be said that the Magna Grecia

PRICE PRICE UPON REQUEST | BEDROOMS 11 |

BATHROOMS 15 FULL | INTERIOR

23,842 SQUARE FEET | EXTERIOR 4.56 ACRES

cognac bar can match the finest of them, whether that be in London, Paris, Singapore or New York. Here on the Greek island of Corfu, this amazing home can compete on a grand international scale in terms of luxury and professional line equipment.

The cellar with a lounge bar is an experience to be enjoyed and appreciated like the fine wines it houses. The bar is equipped with everything needed to add to the experience. You can feel as if you have gone out for the evening instead of actually staying home, safe and happy in the company of friends and family.

A sumptuous media room, large enough to seat 15, is another lovely space to head to and watch the latest movies on the state-of-the-art projectors with a 4x2 meter screen and full Dolby Atmos

system.

Other highlights of these wonderful interiors include a library and study making “working from home” less of a chore as well as a “safe” room.

The clever design continues outside where there is also space for 30 people to dine in comfort and style as well as a 28-meter pool situated perfectly for both homes to enjoy. Sunny terrace areas include a large BBQ area and fully equipped kitchen and even a yoga area where you can enjoy the fragrance of the wide range of plants, many of them specially imported.

As day turns to night Magna Grecia is magical, bathed in the golden glow of the expert fiber optic lighting and the sparkling lights of the surrounding

coastline.

A private, 19-meter, four-berth jetty with security cameras is secure mooring with on-site water and electricity.

Magna Grecia has a host of benefits including but not limited to osmosis water production with a 18m3 daily capacity, a rainwater collection and filtration system used for the garden and 3 underground water tanks with a 600m3 capacity. All windows shatter resistant with in-built sun filters and housed in high-tech, aluminum frames with a custom-designed locking system.

Contact Despina Laou

Office: +30 210 968 1070

despina.laou1@sothebysrealty.com

MANSION OF THE MONTH

THE EPITOME OF LUXURY LIVING IN CORFU

MANSION OF THE MONTH

THE EPITOME OF LUXURY LIVING IN CORFU

NANTES

PAYS DE LA LOIRE

44000 FRANCE

PRICE $29,967,206 USD

BEDROOMS 8 / BATHROOMS 2 FULL INTERIOR 10,7639 SQ FT. / EXTERIOR 317.29 ACRES

NANTES, PAYS DE LA LOIRE, 44000 FRANCE

HUS STUD FARM

This exceptional estate comprises not only a historic chateau but also one of France’s biggest equestrian facilities with

the capacity to house approximately 400 horses. The castle has been restored and offers 1000 sq. meters of perfectly renovated living space including an indoor pool, a steam room and a gym. The spacious grounds comprise 128 hectares including private access to the River

Erdre, a 30-meter mooring, extensive equestrian training facilities including show jumping and dressage with 200 hectares extra rental. Restored outbuildings, helicopter pad and only 35 kilometers from the international airport. The sale includes 300 horses.

CASTILLO CARIBE CARIBBEAN LUXURY IN THE CAYMAN ISLANDS

PRICE UPON REQUEST

NOW YOU CAN HAVE IT ALL: LIFESTYLE, LUXURY, LOCATION AND LIMITED TAX LIABILITY. WITHOUT DOUBT CASTILLO CARIBE IS ONE OF THE FINEST BEACH-FRONT ESTATE HOMES IN THE WORLD OFFERING EVERY LUXURY FOR MODERN DAY LIFE WITH ALL THE LIFESTYLE OPTIONS ONE WOULD EXPECT FROM THE CAYMAN ISLANDS AND THE CARIBBEAN.

Although the Cayman Islands enjoy year-round sunshine and a temperate climate, this benefit is eclipsed in most people’s eyes by the Islands’ offshore status. The Cayman Islands are well known as a financial center on the world’s stage and provide the highest quality of lifestyle available in a tax

neutral environment, making it very appealing to people of high net worth to seek residency here - a position that is actively encouraged by the local government and, as a British Overseas Territory, is a very stable option.

There are a number of destinations in the world that are able to offer offshore status to a greater or lesser degree, but the Cayman Islands have no local taxes whatsoever: no property tax, no income tax, no capital gains tax and no inheritance tax. Castillo Caribe offers a rare opportunity to combine this with privacy, security, luxury and lifestyle all on a pristine white sandy beach overlooking the crystal-clear waters of the Caribbean Sea.

The space afforded here is too limited to provide adequate description of all the properties features and amenities, please request a detailed package by emailing: heather.carrigan@sothebysrealty.com.

In Search of Solace Chilean Sensations

EXPLORING THE GLORY OF CHILEAN REDS

WILLIAM SMITH @willismith_2000 COPY EDITOR & CONTRIBUTOR

N 1545, PEDRO DE VALDIVIA, THE CONQUISTADOR WHO FOUNDED CHILE’S CAPITAL CITY OF SANTIAGO, WROTE TO THE HOLY ROMAN EMPEROR CHARLES V PRAISING THE AREA’S POSSIBILITY FOR PRODUCING WINE, REQUESTING THAT MORE VINES BE SENT.

Today, Chile’s wine industry is flourishing and marks that auspicious communication annually on September 4th with National Wine Day, which, since 2015, has been a national holiday.

IIf you’re like me, that is a national holiday you can really get behind: learning more about the country’s rich history of wine making and the world-class wines they are producing today.

Like so much of the New World, the proliferation of vini-culture is closely tied to the missionary exploits of the Catholic Church and Chile is no exception to this rule. In fact, Valdivia’s request in his letter was clear in its intent, more “grapevines and wines [were

needed] to evangelize Chile.”

The grape varietal of those early years and for several centuries thereafter, was País, the Chilean name for the traditional missionary grape spread from Spain and throughout the New World at the direction of no other than the brutal conqueror Hernán Cortés. In other regions it is also known as Listán Prieto.

The missionary grape gets a bad rap in the contemporary context. After all, its purpose was not so much quality as it was quantity and I have personally had some pretty unremarkable to downright dreadful wines derived from the grape. Still, in Chile, a new generation of winemakers have inherited centuries

of experience in wine production from País and are working with ancient vines to turn humble “village wines” into something with broader appeal.

Last year, Maximiliano Avendaño, sommelier and owner of Tintoleos wine shop, shared his thoughts on País with Food & Wine. “This grape’s history, combined with the juicy, refreshing wines produced from it, makes it an attractive alternative for consumers who enjoy drinking Gamay and Cinsault,” he says. The grape is the eighth-most planted in the country.

The 2020 Santa Cruz de Coya from winemaker Roberto Henriquez is a current standout. The 100 percent País hails from vines likely exceeding 200 years old in Chile’s Bío Bío Valley and named after a nearby village famous for an uprising among the indigenous peoples against the conquistadors. This wine approaches a refinement that will likely surprise those with preconceived notions about País, including yours truly.

Floral and herbaceous notes of violets and sage dominate as well as some leather, and in the mouth, a bright acidity and fine tannins accompany this light-bodied red full of juicy raspberries, blueberries and red currants. Pinot Noir fans will likely find some kinship with this delicious iteration of the ancient

grape and food parings would align with that comparison.

It’s the bolder reds, though, that have put Chile squarely in the top echelons of the world’s red wine producers. According to the trade group, Wines of Chile, the country’s wines are the second-most imported wine to China and Chile ranks sixth in importers to the U.S. market. In 2022, Chilean wine exports totaled 833.5 million liters with the country’s Cabernet Sauvignon leading the pack.

Iconic Chilean wine producer, Concha y Toro, was at the forefront of popularizing and marketing the affordably priced reds associated with the country’s wine production. Founded in 1883 by prominent businessman Melchor Concha y Toro, the small family business has now expanded into Chile’s largest wine producer, including its well-recognized Casillero del Diablo label.

While Concha y Toro made its mark in value-priced wines, they, like many producers in

the country, are working to elevate their wines to a new level and consequently, for them to demand a higher price. To support the effort across the country’s winemakers, Wines of Chile has also launched a multi-year marketing campaign that focuses on wines at the $20 price point and above.

For Concha y Toro, the increasing focus on higher quality wines is paying

EXPLORING THE GLORY OF CHILEAN REDS

off. The 2018 Don Melchor Cabernet Sauvignon received a perfect 100 score from wine critic James Suckling. We tasted the 2020 Don Melchor, which although not as strong a growing year in Chile’s premiere Maipo Valley growing region as was 2018, is an incredible expression of the region’s terroir and the 130 years of prowess behind the producer.

The 2020 vintage is 92 percent Cabernet Sauvignon, six percent Cabernet Franc, and one percent each of Petit Verdot and Merlot. Deeply dark garnet in hue, it’s a gorgeous sight in the glass. Ripe and bursting plums and blackberries accompanied by cedar and petrichor notes on the nose, this is a bold, full wine on the palate. Concentrated fruits, oak, dark cacao, and tar create a luscious mouthfeel with tight tannins, and a long, lingering finish. This needs another few years of proper cellaring to begin to achieve its full potential. When it is ready, think

grilled marbled steak and a roasted mélange of root vegetables with fresh garden herbs.

Another stellar bottling and one that represents the Bordeaux-like blends that are being perfected in Chile is the 2018 Clos Apalta. Further south in the Central Valley Region from the Maipo Valley, the Colchagua Valley is home to Clos Apalta, where winter rains and long hot summers create a semi-Mediterranean climate. Clos Apalta produces only two Carmenère-dominant blends – the Clos Apalta and the Le Petit Clos.

The 2018 Clos Apalta is composed of 64 percent Carmenère, 18 percent Cabernet Sauvignon, and 18 percent Merlot. A deep and inky purple invites hints of ripe red and black brambles on the nose and the extensive aging in new and French oak also imparts a pleasant and discernible toasted woodiness. Elegant and velvety tannins accompany concentrated dark fruits into a creamy and long finish. It is tremendous and

rivals any Bordeaux-blends of the Old World, which is why it continues to earn near perfect scoring from critics year after year. This will cellar exceptionally well and would be marvelous with slow-roasted game like elk or venison.

Finally on Clos Apalta, if you are so inclined, the family’s private, opulent residence is available for your own sejour through luxury hotel brand Relais & Châteaux. Made up of four hillside casitas, each appropriately named after a varietal grown on the estate, rates through 2023 start at $1,500 USD a night, with both full and half-board packages available.

Chile is creating some of the most spectacular red wines available anywhere and while many bottlings are also ridiculous bargains, the deliberate move to a higher end of the market isn’t just working...it is warranted. Explore the range of what the country’s winemakers offer. You won’t be disappointed.

As always, Salud!

LIBERATING

YOUR INNER

ALIGN WITH YOUR GODDESS FOR SELF-EMPOWERMENT

- Archimedes

AMRITLAL SINGH SPIRITUALITY CONTRIBUTOR @monarch_visionary

CAN YOU SENSE THE WEIGHT OF THE COLLECTIVE THOUGHTFIELD OPPRESSING YOUR FULLEST EXPERIENCE OF JOY AND SHAPING YOU INTO LESS THAN YOU DESERVE?

Imagine if you could break free from the psychological shackles of the external world’s imposition upon what is and how life should be to receive yourself in full honor of your radiant divinity.

Embodied faith is a universal broadcast of aetheric rainbow light, perceived through the soul’s eternal flight that

evolves life from the inside-out, hence, the truth shall set you free. By sensing beyond the mind’s fatal grasp for mortal identification to feel through the mental mechanisms that cause spiritual bondage within your body, you ascend in e-motional awareness of the infinite field of love, bridging access to higher perceptions of self as the collective psychic debris of humanity’s universal truth is dissolved for us to soulfully decipher an ancient prophecy for the attainment of spiritual enlightenment. Is it possible to re-imagine immortality into the common belief system?

As you pierce through the self-imposed yolks to spiritual poverty, resurrecting your inner light to consciously decode the toxic programming that has derailed the trajectory of your reality, re-imagine life as an architect of your soul’s destiny as you allow yourself to become all

that you are divinely intended to be. Liberation begins as you sense the depth of truth energetically bridged through your body, which serves as universal artifact of life – a Rosetta stone of cosmic, mystic revelations – realized in form to purify your self-destructive view.

Imagine the power of peace and discernment of truth bestowed upon you, as you invoke the Goddess within to birth you, a new. Behold the emergence of a fully-sensual spiritual being, experiencing the infinite depths of life’s greatest discoveries as all aspects of the true, almighty you, basking in receipt of your radiant reflection.

In beseeching the blessing of the Divine Mother Goddess for the resurrection of the spiritual flesh, the aetheric barriers of separation from the true self are dissolved for an organic blueprint of your celestial embodiment to be awakened.

YOUR PURPOSE

IN SYNC WITH YOUR VIBE

As the initiate embarks upon the eternal quest of remembrance through honor of the experience, a higher path is crystallized through the sentience of the alchemized breath – the crystallization of one’s knowing into physical upregulation of genetic cellular expression.

As the ever-evolving, self-organizing awareness of the light reveals itself through inward focus, the path for the eternal self is revealed for the light of the soul to flourish. We are each born golden, the greatest gift to cultivate that which we each hold within; training as empaths who dissolve their pain bodies into the subtle brilliance of knowing.

Through the expansion of one’s heart sentience and disciplined mastery of self-awareness, one initiates the ability to perceive through the infinite depths of the all-seeing spiritual eye. Through training of the senses and exploration of the e-motions, one becomes potentialized with an all-encompassing radiant love that self-organizes into an e-motional lens of unity that blossoms in form, pouring forth the boundless nectar of love -from the depths of the heart’s inner knowing.

When freeing the mind becomes common sport, the Earth shall jolt, like an electric force whose heart has been reconnected to the cosmic source. To sense is to transform one dimension of power into a sentient-charged force of e-motion; to love is to create from an abundance of source energy. To master oneself is to transform the constructs

of matter – for all is a matter of the perceptions we forge as we attune to our highest god-self.

As biological radio-interpreters of the universal frequencies of life, our collective attunement to harmonious waves of the cosmic Om, the bio-luminescent spirit of the birthing universe, excites the spark within that drives all life in rejoicing of the divine plan. Through the expansion of our senses, designed to raise us into the Heavens, the universal mystery of our collective evolution unfolds through the potential sparked through the growing sentience within our very vessels, as we learn to perceive the unseen and integrate the sacred truth into the art of living.

THE IMMORTAL NECTAR OF AMRITA

There is a harmonic resonance of electrical bio-organic potential, sung with every heart’s beat; an e-motionally evolved sentience of awareness whose electromagnetic resonance animates through our extracellular matrix to orchestrate the spirit’s perceived reality. Limited only by the depth of our insight and magnified by the heart’s toroidal force, this divine spark that is cultivated through our vital body serves the power of our imagination to excite our highest god-realized state into existence as the fruit of our intentional, devotional life ritual: our life force energy.

As opti-mystics, it is the electrochemical response from our ability to sensually

appreciate the highest truth of reality, as the aspirant soul’s realized essence is cultivated into self-awareness, that manipulates the behavior of molecules at the nanoscale – the heart’s realization of the Goddess inside transforms the underlying constructs of life. The true potential of the human e-motional, hormonal star-vessel is revealed through the evolution of self and the activation of divine mechanisms that spread instantaneously through the energetic, vibratory constructs of our collective field of perception.

Throughout the ages, ancient and modern mystics alike, have mastered the power of the story to direct the flow of consciousness to illuminate the cellular memory of those initiated into the path of self-mastery. In the Sanskrit story of Samudra Manthan, known as the churning of the oceans, once the Earth and Heavens had been depleted of all peace, the two opposing forces, representing the cosmic forces of light and dark, found truce through an epic effort to arouse the blessing of creation, the deliverance of the immortal nectar of amrita from the depths of the cosmic ocean, in an attempt to restore balance to the universe and purpose to their lives.

Through the churning of Mount Mandara, a spur of the golden mountain that stands in the center of the universe, upon the Ocean of Milk, roped by the king of snakes, Vasuki, who devotedly lies coiled around the neck of Supreme Lord Shiva, the joined rival forces

MOLD YOUR MIND

POWER OF UNLOCKING YOUR MIND

THE FEELING OF REGRET... IS IT REALLY THAT BAD?

COACH JOEY VELEZ MENTAL WELLNESS CONTRIBUTOR @velezmentalperformance

HERE USED TO BE A CANDY BAR COMMERCIAL THAT EMPHASIZED HOW YOU ARE NOT YOURSELF WHEN YOU ARE HUNGRY. ONE SCENE IN THIS COMMERCIAL FEATURED AN ACTOR GETTING A TATTOO. UNFORTUNATELY, THE TATTOO ARTIST WAS HUNGRY, AND PROCEEDED TO SPELL “REGRETS” INCORRECTLY ON HIS CLIENT’S BODY.

While the commercial was funny, the phrase “no regrets” is common in society. Living a life of no regrets means you are able to challenge yourself in situations that are unknown or unfamiliar, so that you do not limit yourself. However, what if we are looking at regrets the wrong way?

While it is still important to challenge yourself in unknown, unfamiliar situations, is there also a way to learn from regret and turn it into a positive? I am here to tell you that the answer to this

question is Yes. Reflecting on “regret” can be a pathway to deep and meaningful learning about what is important to us.

TDIFFERENT TYPES OF REGRETS

There are four types of regret: foundation, boldness, moral and connection. Foundation regret happens when you make choices that did not allow you to establish stability. For example, regret for not saving enough money, not taking care of your body, or not working hard enough.

Boldness regret is when you get to a juncture in your life where you must choose between taking a chance or playing it safe, and you choose to play it safe. For example, you have two job offers and you choose the one that is the safe choice.

Moral regret is when you get to a juncture where you can do the right thing or the wrong thing, and you do the wrong thing. For example, this could be bullying, infidelity or some other unethical action.

Finally, connection regret is when you had a relationship that fell apart and you drifted away from each other. For example, maybe there is someone in your life that you wish you reached out to more or somebody you wish you treated better. While each regret is different,

understanding each type and which ones you experience most can not only help you understand what you value, but can also give you direction to a more satisfactory life.

For me, the two types of regret I have experienced most are foundation and boldness. Foundation regret has primarily shown up in the form of finances. Growing up, I never understood the value of saving money. Whatever money I worked for, I went out and spent it, I got into sports betting, and it seemed like an easy life because I was living at home with my mother and my overall expenses were minimal.

At the time, it was fun, but combined with not saving money and having a job that did not pay very well, having not taken my finances more seriously hurt me in the long run. This is a regret I deal with every day because I see it constantly with a bank balance lower than what I see as ideal. While I am in a better situation now, had I made these changes 15 years ago, I would not be experiencing the financial stressors that I do currently.

Boldness regret is also very prevalent in my life. Not as much currently, but more so in my late teenage years and throughout my 20s. I consider myself a very outgoing person, but only if I know you. When it comes to meeting new people, I am very hesitant to take that initiative.

THE

Ultimately, this type of regret led to a lot of loneliness in terms of romantic relationships. There were people to whom I was attracted, but was far too nervous and afraid to approach them. I always found ways to justify why I should not say anything instead of why I should, which led to the phrase, “I should have said something...” after it was too late. These regrets taught me the values of accountability and challenging oneself, even when the outcome is uncertain. With my financial struggles, I was constantly justifying my actions or blaming other people for my struggles. In reality, I was not holding myself accountable in terms of prioritizing my finances, but also with self-restraint because I was spending money that I did not really have. Also, being able to challenge yourself allows you an opportunity to learn. While failure can be an uncomfortable experience, it is a valuable experience because with reflection and intentional follow up, it provides you with information to grow. While I wish I would have understood these values earlier in life, I am grateful that I understand them now.

OVERCOMING AND LEARNING FROM REGRET

My own learnings in regret will likely differ from your own. However, and like me, understanding the different types of regret will allow you to increase self-awareness of what matters to you.

THOUGHTS MATTER

The first thing you can do is identify the types of regret you experience the most. Then, ask yourself questions that allow you to critically think about why you experienced those regrets.

Trying to forget about these situations, or worse, beating yourself up over them, leads to more counterproductive emotions and experiences. Instead, a more objective exercise of reflecting on these situations can help relieve some of the burden you may be experiencing and can also help you develop self-compassion.

Let’s say that you have regret over not approaching that special somebody. Questions like, “What is the biggest concern in these situations?”, “What would it mean if you get rejected?” and “What is the worst thing that can happen?” can help you learn more about why you experienced what you experienced, but also may inform you that the ending result really is not that bad. This is more of a reflection tool, but what happens if you are experiencing these situations in the moment? One thing you can do is develop a phrase, or mantra, to overcome these situations. For example, in my profession, I get asked to teach information that I might not be too comfortable with, and I do not have enough time to prepare.

I used to shy away from these situations over fear of looking incompetent, but I

started to tell myself, “It is getting taught one way or another,” which gave me the confidence to overcome that fear of failure. Whether the teaching was good or bad, the experience of overcoming that challenge helped me learn more about myself in the long run. Nike has their slogan of “Just do it”, the Army has their slogan of “Embrace the suck”, and people use the phrase of “f*** it”; find one that works best for you, write it down, and utilize it to help you get through these challenging situations.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Alfred Lord Tennyson said, It is better to have love and lost than never to have loved at all. While painful to experience, there is deeply valuable information you can gain in that experience. But self-awareness, courage and reflection must be called in to assist if you desire to gain valuable information from the experience of love lost.

Putting oneself into challenging situations is part of learning about yourself, and emerging from those situations with something beyond the negative side of regret is important to self-growth. Take the time to understand your experiences, take the time to understand your values, and then take action that empowers you to utilize this information to make productive changes for moving forward.