Entertainment

Hollywood mourns the loss of veteran actor Val Kilmer, who passed away at the age of 65. Kilmer, known for his memorable performances in films such as Top Gun, Batman Forever, and The Doors, left an enduring mark on the entertainment industry. A Life in Film Born on December 31, 1959, in Los Angeles, Kilmer discovered his passion for acting at a young age. He became one of the youngest students ever admitted to the Juilliard School’s drama program, setting the stage for a prolific career. He initially gained recognition for roles in the 1980s comedies Top Secret! and Real Genius before achieving stardom as the confident and skilled fighter pilot “Iceman” in Top Gun (1986). His portrayal of rock legend Jim Morrison in The Doors (1991) showcased his dedication to method acting, while his turn as Bruce Wayne in Batman Forever (1995) introduced him to an even wider audience. His filmography also includes acclaimed performances in Tombstone (1993), Heat (1995), and The Saint (1997). Health Struggles and Later Years In 2014, Kilmer was diagnosed with throat cancer, a battle that led to multiple surgeries and treatments affecting his voice and overall health. Despite these challenges, he continued working and reprised his role as Iceman in Top Gun: Maverick (2022), a heartfelt appearance that was widely praised. In recent years, Kilmer focused on artistic pursuits, including writing and painting. He also released an intimate documentary, Val (2021), offering fans a glimpse into his personal journey and career. A Lasting Legacy Kilmer’s impact on Hollywood and his fans remains significant. His ability to embody a wide range of characters, combined with his commitment to his craft, cemented his place as one of the most versatile actors of his generation. Tributes from friends, colleagues, and fans continue to pour in, celebrating his work and remembering him as a passionate performer and storyteller. He is survived by his two children, Mercedes and Jack Kilmer. His contributions to film and his artistic endeavors will continue to inspire generations to come.

Comedian Matt Rife is officially off the market, as reports confirm he is dating fitness model Mariah Morse. The couple was recently seen holding hands while entering a club in Rhode Island, and Morse shared a photo featuring Rife’s dog, Hammer, on her social media. While the exact duration of their relationship remains unclear, their public appearances and social media activity suggest a close bond. Mariah Morse is a fitness model known for her dedication to health and wellness, often sharing workout routines and fitness tips with her followers. Her commitment to maintaining a healthy lifestyle is evident through her active presence in the fitness community.​ This new relationship follows Rife’s previous involvement with actress and dancer Jessica Lord, which ended last summer. Fans of both Rife and Morse have expressed enthusiasm and support for the couple as they embark on this new chapter together

ike White is not just the writer of The White Lotus. He is also its creator, director, and executive producer, and I’m surprised that he doesn’t do the catering and animal-handling, too. This unusual level of control makes The White Lotus the polar opposite of, say, the Marvel films, which feel like they’re written by one committee, edited by another, and marketed by a third. And what has White done with his unusual level of creative control? He has made the first great work of art in the post-“woke” era. He treats his characters as individuals, rather than stand-ins for their identity groups—and he insists on plot points that would unnerve a sensitivity reader. The White Lotus repudiates the “peak woke” era of the late 2010s, which yielded safe, self-congratulatory, and didactic art, obsessed with identity and language, that taught pat moral lessons in an eat-your-greens tone. Instead, White has made a point of discovering our last remaining taboos—kink, scatology, marrying for money, male nudity deployed so frequently in moments of high tension that culture scholars call it the “melodramatic penis”—and then putting them all on-screen, with a luxury hotel or a superyacht as the backdrop. If you’ve watched Episode 6 of the latest season, set in Thailand, cross Arnold Schwarzenegger’s son’s character has a drug-fueled threesome involving his brother off your bingo card.

Adobe announced a partnership with The Estée Lauder Companies where the company is adopting Adobe Firefly and redefining its process of launching digital marketing campaigns through generative AI. As the parent company to iconic brands such as Clinique, Estée Lauder, Jo Malone London, La Mer, and M•A•C Cosmetics, ELC connects with consumers across roughly 150 countries and territories. With a strong focus on innovation and speed to market, ELC is investing in digital advertising to engage its diverse and unique consumer base. By integrating Firefly across existing Adobe Creative Cloud workflows, ELC will drive efficiency, accelerate campaign execution and empower creative teams to recapture time—and focus on ideating and creating new artistic concepts. Across digital channels, different formats (text, image, shopping, app promotion) and sizes for marketing campaigns contribute to hundreds of thousands of assets needed every year. Teams are burdened with repetitive tasks that take time away from driving new design concepts and connecting with different audiences. This partnership underscores ELC’s newly unveiled Beauty Reimagined, a bold strategic vision aimed at establishing ELC as the best consumer-centric prestige beauty company in the world. A key focus of this plan includes driving transformative innovation to accelerate speed-to-market, as well as boosting consumer-facing investments to accelerate new customer acquisition. By harnessing Adobe’s Firefly capabilities to streamline content production, ELC reinforces its commitment to this vision—ensuring impactful, consumer-driven engagement at scale. Through leveraging Adobe Firefly Services—a collection of creative and generative APIs—ELC can reimagine content production as additional campaigns are required to engage consumers who are more digital than ever. In fact, survey stats show nearly two-third of marketers* believe the demand for content will quintuple between 2024 and 2026. With features such as Generative Expand seamlessly integrated into existing workflows, images can be intelligently resized and optimized for various formats. Teams can quickly deliver assets with text and imagery intuitively placed, ready for distribution across digital marketing channels. “Maintaining mindshare on digital channels such as social media is important in the competitive beauty industry, but oftentimes the content requirements for each platform stresses our ability to deliver new campaigns,” said Justin Edwards, Vice President, Global Digital Creative and Brand Image, M•A•C Cosmetics. “The M•A•C Cosmetics team was the first to explore the potential of generative AI for the company through Adobe Firefly Services, and we believe it will remove hurdles that currently prevent our designers from focusing on their craft.” “Adobe Firefly Services APIs surface decades of Adobe innovation across our foundational AI models and applications such as Photoshop and InDesign, to assist with daily tasks that are crucial but can often be repetitive and time-intensive,” said Varun Parmar, general manager, Adobe GenStudio and Firefly for Enterprise. “The Estée Lauder Companies have shown an incredibly compelling and practical application of generative AI, which allows design teams to focus more time on their craft and ideating eye catching creative for its portfolio of nearly 25 brands.” As part of its new content production workflow, ELC also needed to modernize its digital asset management (DAM) system. The DAM houses the company’s entire library of images, logos, patterns and more—assets that anchor the creation of digital content. ELC is now leveraging Adobe Experience Manager Assets as a Cloud Service to enhance their DAM and drive greater operational efficiency. This creates an architecture where assets can be uploaded with greater speed, along with enhanced search capabilities for teams to quickly locate assets and gain actionable insights on usage and performance. It further shortens the time it takes to build and deliver assets for digital campaigns. “At The Estée Lauder Companies, we need to keep pace with a changing environment where an increasingly large share of transactions is happening through digital channels such as mobile devices,” said Yuri Ezhkov, Vice President, Creative Center of Excellence, The Estée Lauder Companies. “We have a trusted partner in Adobe to provide generative AI technologies that are safe for commercial use, with tools that enable our design teams to operate more nimbly and be free to focus on ideating.”

with NICE, Certified Languages International will streamline operations, elevate global interpretation services, and deliver tailored, automated customer service across industries NICE announced that Certified Languages International, a full-service language company specializing in on-demand interpreting and document translation services supporting 230 languages worldwide, has selected NICE CXone Mpower as its platform of choice to upgrade its customer service operations. By migrating from its legacy infrastructure, the company aims to enhance workflow automation, unify its knowledge base and ensure seamless support for its agents and interpreters —delivering exceptional experiences at every interaction. Marketing Technology Insights: Genesys and TeKnowledge Partner for AI-Driven Customer Experiences Certified Languages International handles thousands of inbound client inquiries daily, seeking interpretation services across every industry including healthcare, financial services, retail, and BPO. Previously relying on multiple vendors for separate CX needs, the company will unify its global operations and knowledge base with the CXone Mpower platform, creating a single source of truth for agents and interpreters. With the powerful CXone Mpower Essentials Suite, agents can quickly identify the required language, check interpreter availability based on skillset, and seamlessly connect clients to the most appropriate interpreter. “Our interpretation services help people communicate clearly and effectively in their language of choice, and we needed a solution that would support the rapid growth of our 24/7 on-demand interpretation services,” said Jacob Dillon, COO, Certified Languages International. “NICE CXone Mpower fits all our needs with its comprehensive offering and ability to align with future business growth. Working with NICE will enable us not only to meet but exceed our clients’ needs while ensuring a convenient and personalized service.” Dan Belanger, President, Americas, NICE said, “In interpretation services, speed and accuracy are non-negotiable. That’s why we’re excited to help Certified Languages International use CXone Mpower to unify knowledge, streamline workflows, and connect agents and interpreters in real time for a quicker and more precise service.” Marketing Technology Insights: IQor CXBPO Redefines Customer Experience Source – Businesswire