Hermès Apple Watch on Paltrow’s holiday wishlist

Updated 03 December 2015
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Hermès Apple Watch on Paltrow’s holiday wishlist

NEW YORK: Gwyneth Paltrow’s lifestyle site Goop is alive and well in the analog world.
Paltrow, with a hand from the fashion house of Valentino, hosted the media Wednesday at her pop-up shop Goop Mrkt, open through Dec. 24 at The Shops at Columbus Circle in midtown Manhattan’s Time Warner Center.
“It’s so nice for all of us as a company to experience the digital come to life in brick and mortar, and to be able to bring the whole lifestyle piece to an actual physical store,” Paltrow told The Associated Press.
As for Christmas, Paltrow hadn’t given much thought to what she’d like as a gift.
“I wouldn’t mind something from the Valentino collaboration, and I really like that new Apple Watch, the Hermès Apple Watch. I got my eye on that,” she smiled.
Among the beauty products, housewares and other goods selected by Paltrow for the shop is a playful collection of sparkly, star-adorned dresses, jackets, sneakers and accessories from Valentino creative directors Maria Grazia Chiuri and Pierpaolo Piccioli for the capsule collection dubbed Valentino x goop. They’re displayed in the shop under a bright Wonder Woman mural.
“I think of the Wonder Woman aesthetic being like Goop in a dream,” Paltrow said. “It’s kind of like the highest possible end of what we do, you know. And it’s fantasy in a way. It’s really high fashion and it really embodies the luxury aspect of the business.”


Arts festival’s decision to exclude Palestinian author spurs boycott

Randa Abdel Fattah. (Photo/Wikipedia)
Updated 12 January 2026
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Arts festival’s decision to exclude Palestinian author spurs boycott

  • A Macquarie University academic who researches Islamophobia and Palestine, Abdel-Fattah responded saying it was “a blatant and shameless act of anti-Palestinian racism and censorship,” with her lawyers issuing a letter to the festival

SYDENY: A top Australian arts festival has seen ​the withdrawal of dozens of writers in a backlash against its decision to bar an Australian Palestinian author after the Bondi Beach mass shooting, as moves to curb antisemitism spur free speech concerns.
The shooting which killed 15 people at a Jewish Hanukkah celebration at Sydney’s Bondi Beach on Dec. 14 sparked nationwide calls to tackle antisemitism. Police say the alleged gunmen were inspired by Daesh.
The Adelaide Festival board said last Thursday it would disinvite Randa ‌Abdel-Fattah from February’s ‌Writers Week in the state of South Australia because “it ‌would not ​be ‌culturally sensitive to continue to program her at this unprecedented time so soon after Bondi.”

FASTFACTS

• Abdel-Fattah responded, saying it was ‘a blatant and shameless act of anti-Palestinian racism and censorship.’

• Around 50 authors have since withdrawn from the festival in protest, leaving it in doubt, local media reported.

A Macquarie University academic who researches Islamophobia and Palestine, Abdel-Fattah responded saying it was “a blatant and shameless act of anti-Palestinian racism and censorship,” with her lawyers issuing a letter to the festival.
Around 50 authors have since withdrawn from the festival in protest, leaving it in doubt, local media reported.
Among the boycotting authors, Kathy Lette wrote on social media the decision to bar Abdel-Fattah “sends a divisive and plainly discriminatory message that platforming Australian Palestinians is ‘culturally insensitive.'”
The Adelaide Festival ‌said in a statement on Monday that three board ‍members and the chairperson had resigned. The ‍festival’s executive director, Julian Hobba, said the arts body was “navigating a complex moment.”

 a complex and ‍unprecedented moment” after the “significant community response” to the board decision.
In the days after the Bondi Beach attack, Jewish community groups and the Israeli government criticized Prime Minister Anthony Albanese for failing to act on a rise in antisemitic attacks and criticized protest marches against Israel’s war in ​Gaza held since 2023.
Albanese said last week a Royal Commission will consider the events of the shooting as well as antisemitism and ⁠social cohesion in Australia. Albanese said on Monday he would recall parliament next week to pass tougher hate speech laws.
On Monday, New South Wales state premier Chris Minns announced new rules that would allow local councils to cut off power and water to illegally operating prayer halls.
Minns said the new rules were prompted by the difficulty in closing a prayer hall in Sydney linked to a cleric found by a court to have made statements intimidating Jewish Australians.
The mayor of the western Sydney suburb of Fairfield said the rules were ill-considered and councils should not be responsible for determining hate speech.
“Freedom ‌of speech is something that should always be allowed, as long as it is done in a peaceful way,” Mayor Frank Carbone told Reuters.