Weekend Argus Saturday 2022-10-01

Poor Cassper. The dude was already a ball of contradictions – mulling over his underdog status one moment, gloating about his wealth the next. Don Billiato, as he calls himself these days, is someone as driven by ego as he is plagued by fame. This year, even his diehard fans have come to understand that he’s human, too. All flesh and bone and prone to error and inconsistency like the rest of us. The 31-year-old rapper and entrepreneur has entered unfamiliar territory. For the first time in a very long time, he’s now an underdog grappling with the reality of having to prove himself to a public that’s increasingly suspicious of his abilities as a rapper and his polarising persona. Despite this, when I spoke with him at…

Caleb McLaughlin has felt the “toll” of racism since rising to fame on Stranger Things. The 20-year-old actor – who has played Lucas Sinclair on the show since its first series launched on Netflix in 2016 and has appeared in all four seasons to date – has recalled the treatment he’s been forced to deal with over the years. Appearing at the Heroes Comic Con in Brussels, Belgium recently at the weekend, he said: “It definitely took a toll on me as a younger kid. My very first Comic-Con, some people wouldn’t stand in my line because I was black. “Some people told me, ‘Oh, I didn’t want to be in your line because you were mean to Eleven’ [played by Millie Bobby Brown].” McLaughlin also noticed a difference in…

TOM Cruise allegedly built a soccer pitch to “woo” David Beckham for the Church of Scientology. The Mission: Impossible actor was reportedly keen to introduce famous faces to the faith, with the sportsman and his fashion designer wife Victoria Beckham at the top of his list. So it was agreed to have a “professional-grade” pitch constructed at the Gold Base headquarters in California in order for the Hollywood star to have a reason to bring the former England player to visit the site with him. Mike Rinder – a former high-ranking officer in the church – wrote in his new book A Billion Years: My Escape From a Life in the Highest Ranks of Scientology: (Tom) was doing his best to court celebrities other than those with whom he was…

The true-crime cottage industry that exploded in the years following Serial, the podcast that became a cultural phenomenon in 2014, is inherently exploitative – even when the work in question has an ostensibly noble mission. In the case of Serial, the mission was to find out whether an innocent man had been convicted of a murder he long maintained he did not commit. But even as the This American Life spin-off inspired fervent interest in Adnan Syed’s 2000 conviction for the murder of his ex-girlfriend, Hae Min Lee, it has also received criticism for what – and whom – it left out. “This is not a podcast for me,” Lee’s brother Young Lee said, following a judge’s decision last week to vacate Syed’s 2000 murder conviction. “This is real life…

There is more to sustainable fashion than thrift shopping. Because there isn’t enough awareness generated around the matter, people assume that that is all sustainable fashion is about and the only way to make a change. Twyg, a non-profit company dedicated to inspiring change and supporting a more eco-conscious and forward-thinking future, has been at the forefront of sustainability in the South African fashion industry. Using storytelling, bespoke experiences, workshops, and campaigns, as well as its annual Sustainable Fashion Awards, the company promotes a way of being that is sustainable, circular, regenerative, and ethical. “At Twyg we focus on what it means to transition to sustainability in a South African context,” says founder and editor Jackie May on why Twyg is an important platform for local designers and companies. The…

Actress Gwyneth Paltrow was “embarrassed” about going for Botox when she reached 40. The Oscar winner, who turned 50 on September 27, said it was part of how she “freaked out” when she hit her 40th year. She said she also had a crisis when she turned 30, reported aceshowbiz.com. “I feel great. I feel very happy and fulfilled and not scared and weirdly not freaked out about it,” she told Vogue this week in a chat to mark her 50th birthday. “I remember turning 30 and feeling like there was so much pressure to be married and have a baby. “I was not in a serious relationship when I turned 30, and I remember just thinking, ‘I'm disappointing my parents. I haven't married my stockbroker or a lawyer, and…