NB! · Archive · Monarchies · Pop Culture
A very charming piece of double dressing by Elizabeth II and her youngest son Edward, Earl of Wessex, in 2004. In the arms of Sophie, Countess of Wessex, is their elder daughter, Louise Windsor.
Cinema · Books · Observations · Pop Culture · Saint Petersburg
Since everyone is so delighted with the Soviet "Lord of the Rings" that Channel Five has put online, I suggest watching the Soviet "Hobbit" as well, with a more starry cast and a truly epic Gollum. Zinovy Gerdt is the narrator, Ivan Krasko is Gandalf, Mikhail
NB! · In the Press · Books · Pop Culture · Humour
News from the world of books. Nastya Ivleeva and the Parnassian Mockingbird 🥰
Cinema · Books · Pop Culture
The Colombian writer Gabriel García Márquez was a close friend of the singer Shakira and admired her work, saying that the personal stamp in her music made her unlike anything else, and that Shakira performs, dances and sings with a particular sensuality that seems to have been invented by her.
Art · Observations · Pop Culture · Humour
I can hardly believe anyone paid $12 million for this Churchill painting. Then again, one remembers Andy Warhol, and belief comes at once. Especially given its provenance: painted in January 1943 after a meeting with the US President Franklin Roosevelt in Casablanca, presented to Roosevelt that same year, acquired in
Observations · Pop Culture · Humour
Leonardo da Vinci has appeared on the stage of the annual Italian Sanremo Music Festival. The extravagant Max Gazzè turned up in a rather convincing Leonardo get-up, accompanied by a cardboard orchestra of eminent figures from world pop culture, from Elizabeth II at the drums to Paul McCartney on
NB! · Monarchies · Observations · Pop Culture
Art · Moscow · Observations · Pop Culture · Society Pages
I went to Pavel Pepperstein's exhibition "Visions of Stars" at the Ekaterina Foundation. I must say it has been a long time since an exhibition project pleased me so thoroughly from beginning to end. One would think that Pepperstein is always highly recognisable and even somewhat
In the Press · London · Monarchies · Pop Culture · Humour
The Mirror reports that the Queen and Kate Middleton are planning a special TV show on the very day Meghan Markle is to be interviewed by Oprah. Well, well, what scheming minxes. But here is how it really is. The Queen and Kate will appear in a programme in place
NB! · Aristocracy · Archive · Mores · Pop Culture
Lee Radziwill (1933-2019), Janet Lee Bouvier (1907-1989), Jackie Kennedy (1929-1994). Three women of the Bouvier family who in their day shone in the social firmament of the United States
Monarchies · Observations · Society · People · Pop Culture
Meghan Markle has announced that she is expecting a second child. Only last year she turned to the courts for protection of her private life from journalists. Yesterday's news, in all likelihood, illustrates not merely a wish to publish personal stories and news on her own terms, but,
Archive · The East · People · Pop Culture
In 1976 Elizabeth Taylor visited Tehran in the company of her friend, the celebrated Hollywood photographer and cousin of the Iranian ambassador to the United States, Firooz Zahedi. The series of photographs Zahedi took on that trip was shown in Los Angeles in 2011. According to Firooz Zahedi's