Blake Lively is no stranger to the UAE, having visited the country a handful of times. Her most publicised visit, however, was in 2014, when the It Ends With Us star travelled to Dubai as the face of a Gucci fragrance.
Lively appeared at Galeries Lafayette in Dubai Mall on January 3, taking part in a special event promoting Gucci Premiere. The perfume featured top notes of bergamot and blackberry, heart notes of orange blossom and musk and base notes of patchouli with sandalwood. Fans who bought a large bottle of the perfume got the chance to take their picture taken with the actress, who had become a global figure following her role in the hit series Gossip Girl.
Lively spoke to The National during her visit, saying it was her third time in Dubai, but that she barely had time to properly explore the city. “I’m never here more than 24 hours, so I really want to have a time when I can actually see Dubai,” she said.
Lively also discussed her relationship with fame and the tendency of the public to align her with her Gossip Girl character, Serena van der Woodsen.
“My friends know who I am,” she said. “People on the street, they see so much more of this character – once a week for six years they see Serena. And then the press tries to align you with the character or to create the same sort of scandal and drama. And how I dress on the show is pretty similar to how I dress now, so I guess if I was watching the show, I would associate me with my character.”
Lively has taken up plenty of other roles since her 2014 visit to Dubai, and since then it has perhaps become easier for characters to extricate her from Serena.
The actress has recently been making headlines when rumours of a rift between her and her It Ends With Us co-star and director Justin Baldoni grabbed headlines following the film's release in August. The film, based on the best-selling book of the same name, went on to become a major box office hit, despite most coverage about it being focused on the drama between its main leads.
Early in December, Lively filed a complaint with the California Civil Rights Department claiming Baldoni co-ordinated a PR campaign with a crisis firm to destroy her reputation. She followed that with a lawsuit in New York later in the month, accusing Baldoni, his publicist, the film's studio and other defendants for "retaliating against her for reporting sexual harassment and workplace safety concerns".
“This is not a ‘feud’ arising from ‘creative differences’ or a ‘he said/she said’ situation,” Lively’s lawyers recently told Variety. “Sexual harassment and retaliation are illegal in every workplace and in every industry. A classic tactic to distract from allegations of this type of misconduct is to ‘blame the victim’ by suggesting that they invited the conduct, brought it on themselves, misunderstood the intentions, or even lied. Another classic tactic is to reverse the victim and offender, and suggest that the offender is actually the victim. These concepts normalise and trivialise allegations of serious misconduct.”
Baldoni responded with his own lawsuit, but targeted at The New York Times for their reporting on Lively's allegations and accused the outlet of having "cowered to the wants and whims of two powerful 'untouchable' Hollywood elites," referring to Lively's husband, actor Ryan Reynolds.
In the suit, Baldoni claims, among other things, that Lively constantly attempted to change things about the film and was "aggressively berated" by Reynolds over a fat shaming incident involving Lively. The actress also tried to ban him from the film's premiere, Baldoni claims, and was ultimately permitted to attend "under humiliating conditions".
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
PROFILE OF HALAN
Started: November 2017
Founders: Mounir Nakhla, Ahmed Mohsen and Mohamed Aboulnaga
Based: Cairo, Egypt
Sector: transport and logistics
Size: 150 employees
Investment: approximately $8 million
Investors include: Singapore’s Battery Road Digital Holdings, Egypt’s Algebra Ventures, Uber co-founder and former CTO Oscar Salazar
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The five pillars of Islam
Lexus LX700h specs
Engine: 3.4-litre twin-turbo V6 plus supplementary electric motor
Power: 464hp at 5,200rpm
Torque: 790Nm from 2,000-3,600rpm
Transmission: 10-speed auto
Fuel consumption: 11.7L/100km
On sale: Now
Price: From Dh590,000
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
If you go:
The flights: Etihad, Emirates, British Airways and Virgin all fly from the UAE to London from Dh2,700 return, including taxes
The tours: The Tour for Muggles usually runs several times a day, lasts about two-and-a-half hours and costs £14 (Dh67)
Harry Potter and the Cursed Child is on now at the Palace Theatre. Tickets need booking significantly in advance
Entrance to the Harry Potter exhibition at the House of MinaLima is free
The hotel: The grand, 1909-built Strand Palace Hotel is in a handy location near the Theatre District and several of the key Harry Potter filming and inspiration sites. The family rooms are spacious, with sofa beds that can accommodate children, and wooden shutters that keep out the light at night. Rooms cost from £170 (Dh808).
Mohammed bin Zayed Majlis
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%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EEngine%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E2.0-litre%20four-cyl%20turbo%20%2B%20mild%20hybrid%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EPower%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E204hp%20at%205%2C800rpm%20%2B23hp%20hybrid%20boost%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ETorque%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E320Nm%20at%201%2C800rpm%20%2B205Nm%20hybrid%20boost%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ETransmission%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E9-speed%20auto%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EFuel%20consumption%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E7.3L%2F100km%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EOn%20sale%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3ENovember%2FDecember%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EPrice%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EFrom%20Dh205%2C000%20(estimate)%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
KILLING OF QASSEM SULEIMANI
Mohammed bin Zayed Majlis
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KILLING OF QASSEM SULEIMANI
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Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Zayed Sustainability Prize
THE BIO
Born: Mukalla, Yemen, 1979
Education: UAE University, Al Ain
Family: Married with two daughters: Asayel, 7, and Sara, 6
Favourite piece of music: Horse Dance by Naseer Shamma
Favourite book: Science and geology
Favourite place to travel to: Washington DC
Best advice you’ve ever been given: If you have a dream, you have to believe it, then you will see it.
The years Ramadan fell in May
Squid Game season two
Director: Hwang Dong-hyuk
Stars: Lee Jung-jae, Wi Ha-joon and Lee Byung-hun
Rating: 4.5/5
Vikram%20Vedha
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Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Brief scores:
Everton 2
Walcott 21', Sigurdsson 51'
Tottenham 6
Son 27', 61', Alli 35', Kane 42', 74', Eriksen 48'
Man of the Match: Son Heung-min (Tottenham Hotspur)
The burning issue
The internal combustion engine is facing a watershed moment – major manufacturer Volvo is to stop producing petroleum-powered vehicles by 2021 and countries in Europe, including the UK, have vowed to ban their sale before 2040. The National takes a look at the story of one of the most successful technologies of the last 100 years and how it has impacted life in the UAE.
Read part four: an affection for classic cars lives on
Read part three: the age of the electric vehicle begins
Read part one: how cars came to the UAE
Museum of the Future in numbers
- 78 metres is the height of the museum
- 30,000 square metres is its total area
- 17,000 square metres is the length of the stainless steel facade
- 14 kilometres is the length of LED lights used on the facade
- 1,024 individual pieces make up the exterior
- 7 floors in all, with one for administrative offices
- 2,400 diagonally intersecting steel members frame the torus shape
- 100 species of trees and plants dot the gardens
- Dh145 is the price of a ticket
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
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Mohammed bin Zayed Majlis
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Specs
Engine: Dual-motor all-wheel-drive electric
Range: Up to 610km
Power: 905hp
Torque: 985Nm
Price: From Dh439,000
Available: Now
Uefa Nations League: How it works
The Uefa Nations League, introduced last year, has reached its final stage, to be played over five days in northern Portugal. The format of its closing tournament is compact, spread over two semi-finals, with the first, Portugal versus Switzerland in Porto on Wednesday evening, and the second, England against the Netherlands, in Guimaraes, on Thursday.
The winners of each semi will then meet at Porto’s Dragao stadium on Sunday, with the losing semi-finalists contesting a third-place play-off in Guimaraes earlier that day.
Qualifying for the final stage was via League A of the inaugural Nations League, in which the top 12 European countries according to Uefa's co-efficient seeding system were divided into four groups, the teams playing each other twice between September and November. Portugal, who finished above Italy and Poland, successfully bid to host the finals.
