Martha Stewart is the world-famous queen of home decorating and entertaining. She’s known for her prim and highly-controlled public persona and her obsession with details. She is probably responsible for the stressed-out looks on housewives and hostesses all over the world, who attempt to live up to her exacting standards with minimal success.
Snoop Dogg – the Los Angeles-native rapper and recording artist – is famous for being as close to the opposite of Martha Stewart as possible. He’s a casual, sloppy, shambling figure – he speaks in his own special patois, and has never once expressed an interest in arranging flowers for an attractive centerpiece or the correct spoon to use with sorbet.
And yet, showbusiness creates unlikely friendships. Martha Stewart and Snoop Dogg are, according to all reports, friends. They are close enough, in fact, to be starring in a reality television show together, in which the unlikely pair host a dinner party with celebrity guests, give cooking instructions, and where (one can only hope) Snoop Dogg makes a fun floral centerpiece.
This friendship seems strange, and probably entirely made-up, only to people outside of the entertainment industry. Inside the bubble that encloses much of the New York and Los Angeles media-opolis, it makes perfect sense. Famous people may have little else in common other than fame, but that’s often enough.
The paparazzi and publicly machines that surround well-known people act, in a way, like celebrity sheepdogs, herding the famous and the infamous together into a tightly-formed knot of bold-faced names. It’s only natural that, say, Elton John and rapper Eminem – two people who might otherwise have very little to say to each other -– would be (as has been reported) SMS buddies.
And there's a certain logic to the story that Harry Styles from One Direction would be chums with Zach Braff, the star of the television show Scrubs. They're all famous together, which makes them different from you and me.
Of course, friends, like romantic partners, break up occasionally. The sold-out nightclub appearances of Jerry Lewis and Dean Martin, back in the 1950s, did nothing to keep those friends from a bitter split. The Top-10 pop hits of Simon & Garfunkel back in the early 1970s didn’t keep those old friends together, either. And fans are keenly curious about the status of Matt Damon’s and Ben Affleck’s long-time close relationship. Still pals? What’s the deal?
Hollywood – and probably every other business, if you really think about it – is what people call a “relationship business”. People in this industry like to work with their friends, and in the media business, “friends” can have a very elastic meaning. There is an almost chilling photograph floating around the internet showing a beaming Bill and Hillary Clinton, both dressed in their formal best, embracing an ebullient Donald and Melania Trump on their wedding day. At the time the image was snapped, of course, all four were a merry and mutually-supportive quartet. Now, well, not so merry.
The question arises: were they ever really friends?
Alex Pentland, a social scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, recently completed a study which revealed some disturbing statistics. Barely half of all friendships are mutual. When he asked a group of people to rank each other in terms of the closeness of their friendship, they only matched up 53 per cent of the time. In other words, the people you think of as your close friends may not (and statistically, do not) think of you the same way.
It gets worse: in the survey, a subject who reported a “close friendship” with a person who did not reciprocate was 94 per cent more likely to expect the opposite. The study managed to deliver two uneasy messages to the socially paranoid: one, a lot of your friends probably don’t like you that much; and two, you have no idea which ones do and which ones don’t.
Clearly, Donald and Melania and Hillary and Bill are evidence that this study is sound science. It’s hard to look at that famous photograph and not think that these guys are really close. Now, as the world knows, at least two of those people are at each others’ throats. Which one got it wrong?
Or, perhaps, it’s really the opposite. It’s not certain that those four ever were true buddies, just as it’s not totally settled that Martha Stewart and Snoop Dogg were friends first and reality show co-stars second. A study of friendship in Hollywood and in politics may yield vastly different results than the one conducted at MIT, among the unfamous and unknown.
Perhaps the celebrity-based study would reveal that something closer to 100 per cent of the celebrity subjects surveyed disliked their celebrity friends 100 per cent of the time and were 100 per cent certain that their famous friends felt the same way.
Rob Long is a writer and producer in Hollywood
On Twitter: @rcbl
Specs
Engine: Dual-motor all-wheel-drive electric
Range: Up to 610km
Power: 905hp
Torque: 985Nm
Price: From Dh439,000
Available: Now
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Some of Darwish's last words
"They see their tomorrows slipping out of their reach. And though it seems to them that everything outside this reality is heaven, yet they do not want to go to that heaven. They stay, because they are afflicted with hope." - Mahmoud Darwish, to attendees of the Palestine Festival of Literature, 2008
His life in brief: Born in a village near Galilee, he lived in exile for most of his life and started writing poetry after high school. He was arrested several times by Israel for what were deemed to be inciteful poems. Most of his work focused on the love and yearning for his homeland, and he was regarded the Palestinian poet of resistance. Over the course of his life, he published more than 30 poetry collections and books of prose, with his work translated into more than 20 languages. Many of his poems were set to music by Arab composers, most significantly Marcel Khalife. Darwish died on August 9, 2008 after undergoing heart surgery in the United States. He was later buried in Ramallah where a shrine was erected in his honour.
Anghami
Started: December 2011
Co-founders: Elie Habib, Eddy Maroun
Based: Beirut and Dubai
Sector: Entertainment
Size: 85 employees
Stage: Series C
Investors: MEVP, du, Mobily, MBC, Samena Capital
The National Archives, Abu Dhabi
Founded over 50 years ago, the National Archives collects valuable historical material relating to the UAE, and is the oldest and richest archive relating to the Arabian Gulf.
Much of the material can be viewed on line at the Arabian Gulf Digital Archive - https://www.agda.ae/en
The rules on fostering in the UAE
A foster couple or family must:
- be Muslim, Emirati and be residing in the UAE
- not be younger than 25 years old
- not have been convicted of offences or crimes involving moral turpitude
- be free of infectious diseases or psychological and mental disorders
- have the ability to support its members and the foster child financially
- undertake to treat and raise the child in a proper manner and take care of his or her health and well-being
- A single, divorced or widowed Muslim Emirati female, residing in the UAE may apply to foster a child if she is at least 30 years old and able to support the child financially
In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
Living in...
This article is part of a guide on where to live in the UAE. Our reporters will profile some of the country’s most desirable districts, provide an estimate of rental prices and introduce you to some of the residents who call each area home.
The National's picks
4.35pm: Tilal Al Khalediah
5.10pm: Continous
5.45pm: Raging Torrent
6.20pm: West Acre
7pm: Flood Zone
7.40pm: Straight No Chaser
8.15pm: Romantic Warrior
8.50pm: Calandogan
9.30pm: Forever Young
Electoral College Victory
Trump has so far secured 295 Electoral College votes, according to the Associated Press, exceeding the 270 needed to win. Only Nevada and Arizona remain to be called, and both swing states are leaning Republican. Trump swept all five remaining swing states, North Carolina, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, sealing his path to victory and giving him a strong mandate.
Popular Vote Tally
The count is ongoing, but Trump currently leads with nearly 51 per cent of the popular vote to Harris’s 47.6 per cent. Trump has over 72.2 million votes, while Harris trails with approximately 67.4 million.
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Ms Yang's top tips for parents new to the UAE
- Join parent networks
- Look beyond school fees
- Keep an open mind
Our family matters legal consultant
Name: Dr Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
COMPANY PROFILE
Founders: Alhaan Ahmed, Alyina Ahmed and Maximo Tettamanzi
Total funding: Self funded
MATCH INFO
Rugby World Cup (all times UAE)
Final: England v South Africa, Saturday, 1pm
2025 Fifa Club World Cup groups
Group A: Palmeiras, Porto, Al Ahly, Inter Miami.
Group B: Paris Saint-Germain, Atletico Madrid, Botafogo, Seattle.
Group C: Bayern Munich, Auckland City, Boca Juniors, Benfica.
Group D: Flamengo, ES Tunis, Chelsea, (Leon banned).
Group E: River Plate, Urawa, Monterrey, Inter Milan.
Group F: Fluminense, Borussia Dortmund, Ulsan, Mamelodi Sundowns.
Group G: Manchester City, Wydad, Al Ain, Juventus.
Group H: Real Madrid, Al Hilal, Pachuca, Salzburg.
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Election pledges on migration
CDU: "Now is the time to control the German borders and enforce strict border rejections"
SPD: "Border closures and blanket rejections at internal borders contradict the spirit of a common area of freedom"
NO OTHER LAND
Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal
Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham
Rating: 3.5/5
Voices: How A Great Singer Can Change Your Life
Nick Coleman
Jonathan Cape
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Rock in a Hard Place: Music and Mayhem in the Middle East
Orlando Crowcroft
Zed Books
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Directed: Smeep Kang
Produced: Soham Rockstar Entertainment; SKE Production
Cast: Rishi Kapoor, Jimmy Sheirgill, Sunny Singh, Omkar Kapoor, Rajesh Sharma
Rating: Two out of five stars
BUNDESLIGA FIXTURES
Friday (all kick-offs UAE time)
Hertha Berlin v Union Berlin (10.30pm)
Saturday
Freiburg v Werder Bremen (5.30pm)
Paderborn v Hoffenheim (5.30pm)
Wolfsburg v Borussia Dortmund (5.30pm)
Borussia Monchengladbach v Bayer Leverkusen (5.30pm)
Bayern Munich v Eintracht Frankfurt (5.30pm)
Sunday
Schalke v Augsburg (3.30pm)
Mainz v RB Leipzig (5.30pm)
Cologne v Fortuna Dusseldorf (8pm)
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The specs
AT4 Ultimate, as tested
Engine: 6.2-litre V8
Power: 420hp
Torque: 623Nm
Transmission: 10-speed automatic
Price: From Dh330,800 (Elevation: Dh236,400; AT4: Dh286,800; Denali: Dh345,800)
On sale: Now
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EMERGENCY PHONE NUMBERS
Estijaba – 8001717 – number to call to request coronavirus testing
Ministry of Health and Prevention – 80011111
Dubai Health Authority – 800342 – The number to book a free video or voice consultation with a doctor or connect to a local health centre
Emirates airline – 600555555
Etihad Airways – 600555666
Ambulance – 998
Knowledge and Human Development Authority – 8005432 ext. 4 for Covid-19 queries
