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DYLAN

Dylan says Nobel left him ‘speechless’

Bob Dylan has finally accepted his Nobel prize for literature, the Swedish Academy that awards it said Friday, breaking his silence on the win that he said left him "speechless".

Published: 29 October 2016 09:44 CEST
Dylan says Nobel left him 'speechless'
Bob Dylan on stage in Carhaix, France, in 2012. Photo: David Vincent/AP

Asked “if I accept the prize? Of course”, the US singer-songwriter said in a call to the academy this week, around a fortnight after he was named laureate on October 13.

“The news about the Nobel Prize left me speechless,” he told the academy's permanent secretary, Sara Danius. “I appreciate the honour so much.”

Dylan had not responded to repeated phone calls made by the academy following the prize announcement, nor had he made any public statement, prompting one academy member to call him “impolite and arrogant”.

According to Swedish tabloid Expressen, Danius had at first missed Dylan’s call from New York, but then spoke to the singer for 15 minutes after phoning him back.

“Dylan was very nice, humble and humourous,” she wrote on her Facebook wall.

Danius later told Swedish Radio that Dylan is in no way obliged to attend the ceremony, but that he would be required to hold some sort of lecture or even sing a song.

“I hope he will do what he desires to do,” she said, adding that this could be made possible via, for example, a video link if he isn't able to make it to the Swedish capital in person.

She said  the academy would “do everything it can” to adapt the festivities to Dylan's wishes.

Sweden's King Carl XVI Gustaf usually hands out prizes and cheques to all the Nobel winners at a banquet on December 10.

In an interview with Britain's Daily Telegraph newspaper published late on Friday Dylan said that if his busy schedule would allow him, he would be more than happy to pick up the prize in Stockholm.

“Absolutely. If it's at all possible.”

Dylan told the paper that the award was “amazing, incredible”, saying:”It's hard to believe.”

He added: “Whoever dreams about something like that?”

Asked why he did not respond to the academy's calls, Dylan said: “Well, I'm right here.”

Dylan, whose lyrics have influenced generations of fans, is the first songwriter to win the literature prize.

FASHION

Son and daughters of stars are Paris catwalk’s new royalty

They are fashion's new celebrity aristocracy, the sons and daughters of stars who are themselves becoming the kings and queens of the catwalk shows.

Published: 21 January 2017 13:31 CET
Son and daughters of stars are Paris catwalk's new royalty
Paris Jackson
From Lily-Rose Depp and Will Smith's daughter Willow — the faces of Chanel — to the Beckham boys and Sylvester Stallone's two daughters modelling for Dolce & Gabbana, celebrity offspring are luxury labels' new not-so-secret weapon.
   
With their huge followings on social media and instant name-recognition, these millennials born in the limelight have become the perfect avatars for advertising campaigns.
   
British actor Jude Law's daughter Iris is the new face of Burberry having followed her brother Rafferty in modelling, while the daughters of singer Lionel Richie, Cindy Crawford and even Bob Dylan's grandson have all embarked
on catwalk careers.
 
Michael Jackson's daughter Paris turned up in the French capital this week for a photo shoot, adding her name to a bulging celebrity model roll call that includes the daughter of Oasis singer Noel Gallagher, the son of Isabelle Adjani and Daniel Day-Lewis, the daughter of Nastassja Kinski and Quincy Jones, and the sons of Sean Penn and Pierce Brosnan. 
 
The list is endless and seemingly inexhaustible, with marketing experts maintaining that young consumers cannot get enough of celebrity dynasties. You just have to look at the Kardashians, said Gachoucha Kretz, professor of fashion marketing at the HEC business school in Paris, to see how the model works.
 
They have converted their reality television fame into fashion hard currency, with Kim Kardashian and her half sister Kendall Jenner now established stars of the firmament, their every wardrobe choice scrutinised on social media.
   
Brands hope to piggyback on “the popular fascination with these tribes and families”, Kretz said.
   
With no problem about name recognition “there is much less marketing to do”, she added. “The associations are already created.”
   
With their Instagram or Twitter endorsements of their favoured brands, they become the ultimate “influencers” to help push demand. Aged only 17, Brooklyn Beckham has nine million followers on Instagram.
 
After two years as a model he has branched out into fashion photography, shooting an advertising campaign for Burberry this summer that made headlines around the world.
   
Even fashion's biggest players are happy to play along with the family fame game. Chanel's Karl Lagerfeld, for instance, has been a enthusiastic nepotist, hiring Depp, Smith and Jenner, and taking former supermodel Ines de la Fressange's daughter Violette d'Urso as his muse.
 
“The tabloids and celebrity magazines love these famous families and that assures media coverage,” said Aurore Gorius, co-author of a French book “Sons and Daughters of…”
   
The 2015 book casts a critical eye on the public's fascination with this “phenomenon of elites reproducing themselves and blocking social mobility.
   
“These children have grown up under the eyes of the media and we are curious what will become of them,” she said.
   
Trends expert Cecile Poignant, who teaches at the New School Parsons Paris, said there has been a gradual push towards the “starification of childhood” over the last 15 years.
   
She said it began with photographer Annie Leibovitz's famous front cover of a naked Demi Moore pregnant for Vanity Fair magazine.
   
“For a lot of models and celebrities, the child has become something of a fashion accessory, a must have,” Poignant told AFP.
   
But could the omnipresence of celebrity offspring now finally lead to a backlash.
   
Fashion student Marie Richaud said she found it irksome that their fame “is not based on merit but family links. It excludes”.
   
Even so the 25-year-old follows several second generation celebs on Instagram even if “she doesn't identify with them”.
   
“These children who seems to have had it all give people something to dream about. But at the same time they can just as easily annoy,” said Poignant. “Do any of them have any talent or is their name enough (to succeed)? We will have to wait and see,” she added.