House of Gucci, Ridley Scott’s latest film, chronicles the tensions that rise among members of the family behind the storied luxury brand as they fight each other for control of its ultimate legacy in a tale that includes plenty of scandal, betrayal and even murder.
Out Nov. 24, the film is based on the true story of the Gucci family, adapted from a book of the same name by Sara Gay Forden. Read More...
Riding in an elevator used to be dangerous business — until Elisha Otis, of Otis Elevator Company fame, invented a device that could prevent a passenger elevator from falling if its rope broke. It debuted precisely 160 years ago at the E.V. Haughwout and Company store in Manhattan on March 23, 1857.
Otis had demonstrated how it worked a few years earlier in a dramatic demonstration at America’s first world’s fair at the Crystal Palace (now Bryant Park) in New York City. Read More...
“Let me tell you something. You sell blood diamonds, too.”
Leonardo DiCaprio’s Danny Archer spoke those words to Jennifer Connelly’s Maddy Bowen in the 2006 film Blood Diamond, which sparked a global conversation about how, where, and why diamonds are procured for products ranging from engagement rings to lasers. The quote was an acerbic rejoinder to Bowen’s brash confidence that she bore no culpability for Africa’s rough-and-tumble diamond trade.
Indeed, as DiCaprio’s character underscored, she did, because she and billions of others bought products every day mined out of the earth. Read More...
