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Received — 5 October 2026 ⏭

Vincent Cassel: ‘There are things that are good for your career and others that you like: always do the latter’

✇El País - English
By: Daniel Verdú
5 October 2026 at 12:24

There is a generation of filmviewers that cannot separate Vincent Cassel, 59, from the 1995 movie La Haine (Hate), where he dominated the screen. Although more than three decades have passed, Mathieu Kassovitz’s film was already exposing the seams of modern France. A Jewish kid from the Parisian suburbs, inflamed by frustration, resentment, the poison of social exclusion, a constant sense of injustice and a desire for revenge after a friend gets killed by the police. Vince, but also Saïd and Hubert, his closest friends, formed a trio that would be unlikely today in the banlieues of the Paris periphery. An Arab, a Black man and a Jew united by that prescient smell of fracture, exclusion and identity conflicts that began to feed the hatred and stoke the fire of the far right.

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Production: Nono Vázquez. Photography assistants: Emilio Azevedo and Adrián Wong. Production assistants: Laura Gimenez and Isabel Orozco. Makeup and hair: Anne Bochon. Movement direction: Pauline Gudet. Video: Daniele Vaia. Studio: Paul Le Cacheux Photographer.

© Nick Thompson

Vincent Cassel, photographed in Paris.
Received — 30 September 2026 ⏭

‘Diva time’: Rihanna arrives in Paris, while the industry watches the clock

✇El País - English
By: Raquel Peláez
30 September 2026 at 18:37

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© WWD (WWD via Getty Images)

When singer Rihanna arrived Wednesday night at the Matières Fécales fashion show—the most provocative, extravagant, and “cool” brand of Paris Fashion Week—photographers from media outlets around the world swarmed around her to capture her from every angle and in every possible format. Her “look,” created by the brand for the occasion, instantly became global news. In other words, the very reason she—and no one else—had been invited as the star guest was more than fulfilled. And yet, on that very same day, Georgian journalist Beka Gvishiani, better known as Style not com, dared to publicly state what no one had pointed out before: that the diva had kept more than five hundred people waiting for her for an hour.

© WWD (WWD via Getty Images)

All the journalists at this publication confirm that this habit is deeply ingrained in the artist. In fact, fashion editor Leticia García points out that it’s common knowledge in any city hosting fashion events featuring the singer that delays for everyone in the industry are guaranteed. In other words, Rihanna’s presence is excellent news for brands, which gain visibility, but very bad news for those working in the industry who see their work systematically slowed down. García experienced firsthand a delay of an hour and a half a year ago at an Off-White fashion show, right after having waited an hour for her at the Dior show. In the Style not com post, quite a few reporters allude to other epic delays: author Eva Chen recalls, for example, that Azzedine Alaïa show in New York in 2024, when she kept everyone on tenterhooks for 40 minutes. Patricia Rodríguez was present on that occasion and recalls the brand’s public relations staff saying, “We know she’s always late; what we don’t know is by how much.” Beatriz García, who has been covering the early-morning hours of the MET Gala for years, knows full well that the artist is always the last to appear. She is, quite literally, the most eagerly awaited.

© WWD (WWD via Getty Images)

It’s obvious that in this case, the delay is a “marketing” strategy like any other: making people wait is yet another way to create a sense of luxury and exclusivity. The expression “fashionably late” exists for a reason: in the fashion world, it’s very common for high-profile figures to make people wait in order to project a sense of status. To illustrate this, consider a remark made in 1995 by model Kate Moss — who is also notoriously tardy — when she was asked if she was generally as late as her colleague Naomi Campbell. With a horrified expression, she exclaimed, “No one is as late as Naomi!” There is, moreover, a completely different notion of time for divas in the entertainment world — a phenomenon that has been studied both by psychologists and psychiatrists, who argue that creative people easily become absorbed in their train of thought, so that minutes pass differently for them than for other people; as well as by film experts, who discuss how stars expand to occupy space and time in an unconventional way. This is what German film director Rainer Werner Fassbinder coined as “diva time.”

© WWD (WWD via Getty Images)

However, Rihanna shatters all boundaries. Last year, at an event in India for her own makeup brand, the hugely popular Fenty, she kept everyone waiting for seven hours. The event began for guests and influencers at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, but she didn’t appear on the red carpet until 3:00 a.m. on Saturday. The delay led to some surreal moments, such as when influencers Parul Gulati and Smriti Khanna posted AI-generated images of themselves with the singer after being unable to take a photo with her in person. Columnist George Whirl comments on Style not com that Rihanna’s attitude is “gauche” — that is, tacky and rude, in French. But an anonymous user points out that this behavior isn’t limited to her brand commitments or her professional life: at her concerts, it’s also common for her to show up at least two hours late to present herself to her audience. Publicist Deshiv Puri, however, proposes a simple solution to the problem: “When we invited Cardi B to a Rahul Misra fashion show and she was late, the show started without her.” The problem is that we may be dealing with one of those rare cases where the show is, in fact, the guest herself.
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