A commercial starring Lady Gaga for FamilyMart — in which the pop diva is shown mopping the floor before inviting viewers to follow her example and apply to work for the convenience-store chain (among other products) — has revived an advertising practice that flourished before the internet made it commonplace to see Hollywood stars outside of Japan in non-celluloid situations. Dressed in a garment with pronounced shoulder pads and a short platinum-blond bob, the music star performs a choreography in which she also restocks shelves, offers fried chicken, scrubs the floor and, during her break, contemplates the view through a surreal skylight. The video, shot in a monochrome aesthetic with flashes of neon green and blue, ends when Gaga looks at the camera and asks in Japanese, using the chain’s colloquial name: “FamiMa de hataraku?” (Will you come work at FamiMa?).

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President Donald Trump said it without weighing the possible electoral consequences for Republican candidates in California, less than a month before the midterm elections. Far from generating laughter or support for his war with Iran, his comments have raised concern and could affect the vote in a state governed by Democrats since 2011. During a rally in Nebraska on Monday, the president said Iran could “take out” Los Angeles or San Diego, two of the largest cities in the United States, calling it a “small price” to pay to eliminate what he says is the threat posed by the Iranian regime.

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It is Sylvester Stallone’s fourth interview of the day. Is he tired of talking yet? “No, because this is the first one about my memoirs,” he replies from a hotel room in New York, his hometown, overlooking Central Park, where he is meeting with EL PAÍS.

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No matter how skeptical we may be about the American dream, Arnold Schwarzenegger’s personal story strains the limits of credibility as much as any of his most over-the-top films. That the destiny of Hollywood—not to mention California, the world’s fourth-largest economy all by itself—should be shaped for decades by an Austrian villager raised among the ruins of World War II would seem highly unlikely, were it not for the fact that the actor and former governor is so firmly ensconced in our collective imagination, his name pronounced by everyone with the same startling ease. Schwarzenegger, 79, is one of those individuals for whom the phrase “larger than life” seems to have been invented: for the scale of his achievements, his film career and his physical presence — 6ft 2in (1.88 meters) of chiselled muscle like a Greek statue.

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