Tag: News

• Osgood Perkins' new horror film, Longlegs, has received considerable buzz, largely due to its masterful marketing campaign.
• It stars Nicolas Cage as the titular devil-loving killer and Maika Monroe as the FBI agent on his tail.
• The movie is eerie and disconcerting, leading to a bloody ending where secrets are revealed.

"Longlegs" may or may not be the scariest movie of the decade, depending on who you ask, but it's certainly in the running to be the most talked-about one.

The satanic horror movie set in 1995 stars modern scream queen Maika Monroe (of "It Follows" fame) as Lee Harker, a preternaturally perceptive, introverted FBI agent thrust into a case that's stumped the bureau for decades.

Over 30 years, 10 different, seemingly unconnected families have been killed the same way: Fathers brutally murder their wives and children before killing themselves. The only commonalities are that each family has a daughter with a birthday on the 14th of any given month, and indecipherable coded letters signed by someone calling themselves Longlegs are left at each crime scene.

A team at the FBI, led by Agent Carter (Blair Underwood), has deduced that Longlegs, though not physically present for the murders, is the person somehow responsible for making the fathers kill. After Lee intuitively figures out what house another culprit is hiding in earlier in the film, she's brought on to help crack the Longlegs case.

The film has been building hype for months thanks to the studio Neon's terrific marketing. The campaign smartly gave away nary a plot detail and held back any glimpses of Nicolas Cage's spectacularly unhinged serial killer Longlegs. Now, it's finally in theaters, allowing eager horror fans into the world that writer-director Osgood Perkins crafted.

The tense, disconcerting film evokes a sense of dread for much of its runtime, creeping toward a twisty, blood-soaked ending that fills in most of the blanks but leaves a few other key questions unanswered.

Here's a complete breakdown of how the movie ends, including what Perkins and the cast have said about it in interviews with Business Insider.

Warning: Major spoilers ahead for "Longlegs," including a detailed description of the ending.

What happens in 'Longlegs?'

"Longlegs" is split into three parts. For the purposes of this explainer, I'm considering the entirety of Part Three (titled "Birthday Girls") the ending.

In Part One ("His Letters"), viewers are introduced to Lee (Monroe) and learn about the Longlegs killings as she's brought onto the case and begins investigating. We also meet Agent Carter's family, including his wife and young daughter, Ruby, who invites an awkward and obviously socially stunted Lee to her birthday party.

It quickly becomes clear that Lee and Longlegs have a twisted history between them, as Longlegs leaves her a birthday card, allowing her to cipher the other crime scene notes he left at the homes of the murdered families. However, the nature of their connection is kept a secret until the end.

Generally, you'd expect a movie about a serial killer to build a finale that involves a confrontation between the killer and the hero, but Perkins pulls a fast one. Instead, Longlegs (whose real name is revealed to be Dale Ferdinand Cobble) is captured a little over halfway through the film's runtime, which is the first time the audience sees his face.

It is, in a word, hideous. He's a strung-out-looking, aging glam rocker-type who's essentially deformed himself with bad plastic surgery, botox, and fillers, looking a bit like a melting candle.

Cobble is arrested in the middle of Part Two ("All Of Your Things") after Lee visits her creepy mom Ruth (Alicia Witt) at her childhood home and finds a Polaroid she took of Longlegs when he first visited Lee when she was a little girl, on January 13, 1974, the day before her ninth birthday.

Part Two also confirms what most watchers had probably already guessed: Lee was the little girl we saw in the movie's opening scene, being confronted by Longlegs when he drives up to her house in a station wagon.

In this part, Lee and Carter also go to the Camera family farm, where one of the murders happened in 1975. There, they find buried beneath floorboards a deteriorated, life-sized doll that looks like Carrie Ann Camera, the daughter who was the sole survivor of that attack.

Carrie Ann (played as an adult by Kiernan Shipka) has been housed at a psychiatric facility and catatonic in the 20 years since the murders, only emerging from her unresponsiveness when Longlegs visits her — right before Lee and Carter stop by. Speaking to Lee, Carrie Ann tells her that she'll do whatever "the man downstairs" tells her to do, including jump out the window. She also suggests she's seen Lee before, or someone who looks like her, at her house and that Lee has also forgotten something about her own past.

How does 'Longlegs' end?

Part Three is when all hell finally breaks loose. Longlegs (aka Cobble) is apprehended by the FBI. Agent Carter is satisfied and believes the arrest will allow the murdered families to have justice. But an increasingly uneasy Lee remains convinced that, as she theorized early on, Longlegs wasn't killing these families alone — he had an accomplice. When she goes in to interrogate Cobble herself, he speaks mostly in riddles and refuses to tell her directly who he is working with.

Finally, he cryptically tells Lee to "ask her mommy," gives a last "Hail Satan" for good measure, and then smashes his face open on the table in front of Lee, killing himself.

A furious Carter confronts a traumatized Lee, admonishing her for remaining convinced of her accomplice theory and informing her that Carrie Ann Camera killed herself earlier that day. Carrie Ann's death seems to suggest that Longlegs' algorithm of killings was completed, as only one day (that day, the 13th) was missing from the pattern — but that's a red herring.

Lee and another FBI agent, Agent Browning (Michelle Choi-Lee), go to her mother Ruth's house to bring Ruth in for questioning, given Cobble's comments before his death. When Lee goes into the house to find her mom, Ruth, dressed as a nun, kills Browning with a shotgun. When a stunned and horrified Lee goes to confront her mother, Ruth is standing with the gun aimed at a life-sized doll that looks exactly like Lee as a child.

Realizing her mother was working with Cobble, Lee tells her that she can stop and that Cobble is gone. Ruth replies, "You got him. Now he's free. And you're free too, baby girl." She shoots the Lee doll in the head, and black smoke emanates from the place where the doll's head once was — and simultaneously, from a disoriented Lee's head right before Lee passes out.

As Lee is unconscious, viewers get an explanation of what the hell has been going on, courtesy of Ruth monologuing over a montage sequence of past events.

According to Lee's mom, Longlegs, a devil-worshipping dollmaker, visited them when Lee was a girl in 1974. Her mother interrupted them, at which point Longlegs told her, in a sing-song voice, that if she let him in now, it would be "nice," but if she didn't, he'd come back as many times as he'd like.

Instead of allowing Lee to be taken by the devil, who is present in the dolls that Longlegs creates, Lee's mother makes a bargain with the killer: She'd help him do Satan's work, murdering other families by delivering dolls to them crafted to look like their daughters, dressed as a nun and under the guise of the doll being a gift from the church.

Satan would do his soul-corrupting work through the dolls to get the fathers to kill, and Lee's mom would simply have to be there to watch the deaths happen. Ruth says this deal allowed Lee to grow up, unlike those little girls in the other families.

When Lee awakens, she's alone in her mom's house. An eerie voice — possibly the devil himself — tells her she's "late for Ms. Ruby's birthday party." Realizing something terrible is about to happen, Lee rushes to Carter's house to find him, his wife, and Ruby there, with Ruth and the Ruby-like doll she's just delivered to them. It's clear that the family is under the devil's spell.

Carter tries to fight against the compulsion and fails, stabbing his wife to death in the kitchen. He emerges and goes to attack Ruby before Lee shoots and kills him to stop him. Lee's mom produces her own knife to finish the devil's work by killing Ruby, reiterating that she's doing this all for Lee — "just like I've always done" — and that she'll do it "again and again," despite Cobble's death.

Apparently realizing her mom is a full-on Satan worshipper now and a lost cause, a distraught Lee shoots Ruth in the head to save Ruby. She also attempts to shoot the Ruby doll, but the gun won't fire.

"You're real scum," Lee says to the doll. And then, the movie ends.

'Longlegs' leaves many unanswered questions

As much as is answered by Ruth's monologue in the final act (like who Longlegs' accomplice is, how and why the other families died, and what the deal is with those creepy dolls), there are still lingering questions.

For one, it's not clear why Longlegs or the devil initially targeted Lee. Her family situation is different from all the other targeted families. Most obviously, her dad doesn't appear to be present at all, and the dad is a key component of all the rest of the killings.

One theory might be that it has something to do with Lee's semi-psychic abilities — perhaps that made her attractive to the devil. But the film doesn't clarify that, and then again, there's no indication her preternatural intuition even existed at that point. Maybe it was her encounter with Longlegs and the devil that sparked it.

Also, during the interrogation scene right before he smashes his own face to a pulp, Longlegs remarks that Ruth was "the seventh she to be given the same choice — crimson or clover." This suggests that Ruth may not have been the first Satanic recruit brought on to the devil's mission in this manner. But again, there's no follow-up there.

One more pressing question relates more directly to the ending: What was up with that black smoke emanating from the Lee doll's head and adult Lee's head once the doll was destroyed?

BI asked Perkins — and he's not telling.

"I don't think I should say," the filmmaker said when asked what the black smoke was. "I think that that's for you guys to worry about. I mean, I know, but I'm not going to say."

Monroe, who plays Lee, confirmed that she believes the black smoke is "up to interpretation."

In a separate interview, Witt, who plays Ruth, gave her own idea of what she thinks the black smoke was.

"It's darkness. It's darkness that's in there, and then it gets released," Witt said.

This interpretation is also backed up by a line Longlegs says earlier in the movie, in a flashback, when he's making the Carrie Ann Camera doll.

"I know you're not afraid of a little bit of dark. You are the dark," he says as he puts a sheet over the doll's head.

This ending wasn't always Perkins' plan

Underwood, who plays Agent Carter, gives a quietly devastating performance in his final scene in the film. In it, Carter, under the control of the devil in the doll, visibly fights against the compulsion to kill his family. He told BI that he had no idea when he initially signed on to the movie that his character was a goner since Perkins hadn't finished the final scene when they spoke.

"Oz…said the script wasn't quite finished, but he had two or three ideas of where he was going to go with it," Underwood said.

Once he finally saw how his story would wrap up, Underwood was thrilled to have such a meaty moment.

"When he finished it, he sent me the scene and said, 'What do you think?' I was like, 'Dude, I love it. I love this, man. I get to play,'" he added.

Perkins explained that his intent when he starts out on a script is always to start with the end.

"There's always the intention to figure out the ending and then map yourself backward," he told BI. "It never really quite goes that way, and I always find myself careening toward, 'Oh, fuck. Here comes the climax, and here comes the crisis, and here comes the thing, and I hope it's enough.'"

"But in this case, it felt like the inevitable thing that was hiding in plain sight, right?" he added. "Anybody watching the movie, certainly a second time, is going to be like, 'Well, of course that's how that goes.'"

The big climax, Ruth's monologue, also got an overhaul. According to Perkins, they filmed a few scenes where Ruth said everything directly to Lee on camera, but they scrapped that plan when "it proved to be too long and too not-dynamic."

The ultimate scene that made it in — a montage of events with Ruth speaking over it — came in the editing room, where Perkins and the film's editor patched it together from existing footage.

In the end, the "stylized sort of bedtime story" way Ruth reveals the truth to Lee (and the audience) fits perfectly with what the movie is about, in Perkins' eyes: a mother telling a lie to their child.

Will there be a 'Longlegs' sequel?

Any horror fan knows that where there's a box-office hit, there's almost inevitably a sequel. For now, Perkins is satisfied leaving things exactly where he left them.

"The good news about making a movie is that you get to say it's over," he said when asked if he's thought about what happens to Lee and Ruby after the abrupt ending. "To me, a movie is a completed movement, and you get what you get. If you want to extrapolate forward, amazing."

That said, when asked directly whether there wouldn't be a sequel, given his feelings about endings, he hinted it was a possibility.

"Any sequel or any subsidiary project wouldn't be like starting at the end and going forward," Perkins said. "It would be something else: prequel or another movie in the universe of 'Longlegs,' or something very unexpected."

"Longlegs" is in theaters now.

• Former Rep. Jane Harman is warning Democrats who want to dump Biden: Look at what happened in Egypt.
• She argued it was "easy to knock people off," pointing to the overthrown of Hosni Mubarak in 2011.
• "I don't think people would say Egypt has better leadership now than it did under Mubarak," she said.

As a growing number of Democrats call for President Joe Biden to withdraw from the 2024 presidential race, one former lawmaker has a warning: Look at what happened in Egypt during the Arab Spring.

During an appearance on ABC News on Thursday night, former Democratic Rep. Jane Harman of California pointed to the 2011 overthrow of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak as a worthy example to weigh when contemplating whether Biden should step aside.

"It's easy to knock people off," Harman said. "We saw it in the so-called Arab Spring. We knocked off Mubarak, the leader of Egypt."

While the US has denied direct involvement in Mubarak's overthrow, then-President Barack Obama supported the public revolt against the Egyptian leader, which came in the midst of the Arab Spring. Mubarak had led the country for nearly 30 years in an autocratic fashion until his resignation. In the subsequent 2012 election, Mohammed Morsi — a candidate affiliated with the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood — was elected president. Morsi was overthrown the following year, and former military officer Abdel Fattah el-Sisi has led the country since 2014.

"Where is Egypt now? We ended up electing — they ended up electing — the Muslim Brotherhood, which was a very toxic, unpalatable group and then that led to a military leader, El-Sisi, and a lot of journalists are in jail, and I don't think people would say Egypt has better leadership now than it did under Mubarak," said Harman. "I'm not totally defending him either. But knocking someone down is easier than building someone up."

Harman suggested that there's no clear plan for who will succeed Biden if he steps aside. Vice President Kamala Harris would likely be the frontrunner, but other Democratic candidates could seek the nomination at a contested convention in August.

"Where is the team that will succeed Biden, and how do we know they can beat [former President Donald] Trump?" asked Harman.

• I tried on similar pairs of linen shorts at Gap, Old Navy, and Banana Republic.
• The pair from Old Navy was the cheapest but felt a bit tough against my skin.
• The Banana Republic shorts were my favorite, but the pair from Gap provided the best value.

I'm someone who loves color and bold fashion statements. There are more pink dresses and puff sleeves in my closet than there are black or white basics.

While I adore the creative expression and femininity in my wardrobe, it's become a challenge to dress for everyday life — my purple fur-lined cardigan isn't necessarily coffee shop-appropriate.

That's why I've made it my mission to invest in neutral, versatile clothing pieces this summer — starting with a pair of linen shorts.

I turned to Gap, Banana Republic, and Old Navy — all owned and operated by parent company Gap Inc. — to find the most comfortable, high-quality option for the best value.

After all, Gap Inc.'s brands are as popular as ever, with both in-store and online sales up from last year. With this in mind, I figured the retailers would have plenty of on-trend items for me to browse. Here's how it went.

I started my search at Old Navy.

Old Navy is one of the largest apparel brands in the world, with over 1,200 locations worldwide. The company also brought in $8.2 billion in sales in 2023, so I figured it must be doing something right.

I also appreciate that Old Navy offers inclusive-sizing options online and in some stores — women's styles are available in sizes 0-30 with no price difference between the smallest and largest items.

I found the shopping experience at Old Navy to be a bit overwhelming.

Old Navy's brick-and-mortar stores aren't quite as big as department stores, but in my opinion, they feel like walking into a warehouse.

It was hard to know where to start looking, but I liked that similar styles were grouped accordingly (such as seasonal pieces, athletic apparel, and pajamas). This made it easy to locate the shorts I was looking for.

They didn't have the white shade I was hoping for in my size, but they did have a selection of other neutral and vibrant colors. So, I tried on the high-waisted linen-blend shorts in black.

I'd reserve the Old Navy shorts for a casual occasion.

I liked the loose-fitting silhouette and the fact that these shorts had two pockets in the front and two in the back. However, the material (55% linen, 45% rayon) could have been softer and felt a bit tough against my skin.

I'd wear these to the beach, for relaxed lunch outings, or while running errands. But because of the elastic waistband and shorter hemline, I'd reserve these for casual occasions.

Overall, I thought the $30 price tag for these shorts was reasonable — but I did find them online at 50% off.

Next, I went to Gap to try on more basics.

I've made a few trips to Gap recently after having rarely shopped there before, and I've been pleasantly surprised by the selection of styles every time.

The store, which has over 700 locations in the US and Asia, has plenty of on-trend seasonal clothing. However, I've been most impressed by their large selection of basics, which is exactly what I've been looking for.

Despite being a massive corporation, I also liked that sifting through the racks at Gap felt more like shopping at a boutique. The garments were neatly organized, and it was easy to find what I needed quickly.

The shorts I tried on at Gap had a relaxed but well-tailored fit.

When I tried on the 365 high-rise linen-blend shorts from Gap, I was satisfied with almost every aspect of them.

I loved the high waistband with belt loops, which would make it easy to dress them up or down to pull off trending-linen looks. The relaxed yet well-tailored fit was stylish and elevated.

I could picture myself wearing these while wandering the streets of Europe or attending a laid-back summer party. However, the button and clasp closure didn't offer much flexibility, so it'd be important to size these correctly.

However, the shorts were pretty see-through.

My main issue with the white shorts was that the material was quite sheer, showing the full pocket squares in the back (you'd need to put on seamless, flesh-colored underwear with these). They're not shown this way in the photos online, so I'm glad I tried them on in person first.

I also noticed that the shorts have the same material makeup as the ones from Old Navy (55% linen, 45% rayon). They were almost double the price but felt more lightweight and comfortable than the Old Navy pair. I didn't notice any stiffness or scratching.

I wouldn't pay the full $50 for these, but I'd buy them on sale — I later saw them for 50% off on Gap's website.

I finished my shopping at Banana Republic.

For my last stop, I visited Banana Republic, which has over 400 stores around the world. I was delighted with the actual shopping experience, which felt luxurious and chic, and an associate immediately helped me find what I was looking for.

They didn't have my size in-store, but I tried on the 4-inch linen shorts two sizes up to see if they might still be worth ordering online.

The Banana Republic shorts came out on top for their high-quality material and fashionable design.

I loved the ultra-high-waisted cut of these shorts, which came with an adjustable, removable belt. The scrunched waistline also added an eye-catching effect, although these would have to be worn with a cropped or tucked-in top.

While the $90 price tag was much higher than the Old Navy and Gap options, this was the only fully lined pair of shorts made from 100% linen. I could feel the difference in the quality and material, too.

$90 is out of my usual price range for a pair of shorts, but when I compared them to similar linen styles from popular retailers like Reformation or Revolve, the price actually seemed reasonable.

However, I'd be most likely to buy the pair from Gap.

If the Banana Republic shorts were available in my size, I would have considered purchasing them. I've been eyeing them online since trying them on, but because I previously found Banana Republic's sizing to be a bit off, I'm hesitant to place the order.

However, I'd be most likely to purchase the pair from Gap (in a non-white neutral color) because of the decent fit and lower price.

• Weeks after George Clooney co-hosted a $28 million fundraiser for Biden, he wants him to drop out.
• Biden's Hollywood support has begun to wane as Clooney and other moguls publicly express doubts.
• Despite Biden's backing from the party, some top donors and media giants want a new candidate.

Less than a month ago, some of Hollywood's A-list attended a fundraiser for President Joe Biden's reelection campaign, co-hosted by George Clooney, Julia Roberts, and Barbra Streisand. They raised $28 million.

But in an essay published by The New York Times on Wednesday, Clooney is now calling for the president to drop out of the race.

Biden has claimed that calls for him to step aside following his disastrous debate in June are coming from the party's elite instead of everyday Americans, but he has long relied on Hollywood for support — the star-studded event last month was the most lucrative Democratic Party fundraiser to date.

Though few Democratic lawmakers are publicly calling on the president to end his reelection bid, big donors and Hollywood moguls are openly expressing their doubts.

Here are the media giants who have asked Biden to end his campaign — so far.

George Clooney

Clooney called on Biden to drop out of the race in an essay for The New York Times on July 10.

Clooney wrote that the Biden he saw at the Hollywood fundraiser in June was "not the Joe 'big F-ing deal' Biden of 2010," nor was he "even the Joe Biden of 2020." Instead, he was "the same man we all witnessed at the debate."

He wrote that Democrats would lose the election if Biden remained in the race, and also claimed that "every senator and Congress member and governor" he's spoken with privately agrees with him, regardless of their public comments.

Rob Reiner

Rob Reiner is a longtime Democratic donor who hosted a campaign fundraiser that Kamala Harris attended just a couple weeks ago, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

But on June 7, he took to X, formerly known as Twitter, with a forceful message: "It's time to stop f—-ing around."

The actor and filmmaker lauded Biden's service but explicitly called for the president to step down. In a separate post on July 10, Reiner supported Clooney's op-ed, saying that democracy is at risk in this election and "we need someone younger to fight back."

John Cusack

Throughout his decades-long career, Cusack has been vocal about his political opinions. In 2020, he was one of the most prominent supporters of Bernie Sanders and vowed on social media that "anyone who cannot see or choose not to see what [Trump] is" was out of his life "permanently."

In 2023, Cusack posted on X that he understood why Sanders endorsed Biden for president.

But the "Say Anything" actor changed his tune in July 2024, quoting a post from Rob Reiner to call on Biden to step down.

"There has been no bigger supporter of Biden's domestic policy than Rob — he's right," Cusack wrote.

Abigail Disney

The heiress to the Disney fortune has promised to withhold all further donations to the Democratic Party unless Biden bows out of the race.

Disney has long supported left-leaning political groups — she donated $50,000 to the Jane Fonda Climate political action committee in the spring and $150,000 to Planned Parenthood Votes, another PAC, in 2014, CNBC reported, citing OpenSecrets and an FEC filing.

"This is realism, not disrespect," Disney told CNBC earlier this month. "Biden is a good man and has served his country admirably, but the stakes are far too high."

Michael Douglas

The award-winning actor and producer hosted a fundraiser for Biden earlier this year but sounded skeptical during a July 10 appearance on "The View."

Though he didn't go so far as to ask the president to end his campaign, he did say that he is "deeply, deeply concerned."

When asked his opinions on George Clooney's op-ed begging Biden to step aside, Douglas ceded that the actor had "a valid point."

Michael Moore

A titan of political filmmaking and supporter of progressive causes, Michael Moore published an article on his website asking Biden not to run, saying "your body is begging you."

Moore went further on an episode of his podcast and likened allowing Biden on the debate stage to "the cruelest form of elder abuse I've ever been forced to watch."

Reed Hastings

Hastings, a co-founder of Netflix, shared his thoughts with The New York Times in an email earlier this month.

"Biden needs to step aside to allow a vigorous Democratic leader to beat Trump and keep us safe and prosperous," he wrote.

This is a shift for Hastings and his wife, Patty Quillin, who, according to The Times, donated $1.5 million alone to Biden's campaign in 2020 and more than $20 million to the Democratic Party.

Stephen King

The horror icon has long been vocally anti-Trump, but he added his voice to the movement calling for Biden to exit the race on July 8.

King wrote on X, "Joe Biden has been a fine president, but it's time for him — in the interests of the America he so clearly loves — to announce he will not run for reelection."

Damon Lindelof

Lindelof, best known for work writing on "Lost," "The Leftovers," and "Watchmen," wrote an essay for Deadline on July 3 telling Biden to exit the race.

"I am a lifelong Democrat," he wrote, "I voted for Joe. I wept when the election was called for him."

Lindelof continued, "I believe in Joe Biden. I believe in him so much that we wrote him a sizable check as recently as two weeks ago."

But after the debate, Lindelof's opinion changed. He's now asking his fellow Democrats to stop donating to the party. "A rising tide lifts all boats. A falling Biden sinks them," he added.

Ashley Judd

The actress and political activist published a lengthy opinion piece in USA Today on July 12 calling on Biden to step aside because "beating Trump is too important." She writes that the debate demonstrated that Biden is unable to effectively counter Trump's rhetoric and so must end his candidacy.

She implored the Democratic party to act quickly — they should, she argues, simultaneously express their deep gratitude to Biden and ask him to step aside before the clock runs out.

"Here where I sit in rural Tennessee, it's clear that Americans have already made up their minds against President Biden," Judd concludes.

• Anant Ambani, a son of the richest man in India, is marrying Radhika Merchant this weekend. 
• The over-the-top festivities will partially held at the family's luxurious Mumbai home, Antilia. 
• Antilia's interiors have rarely been photographed, but it has a 50-seat cinema and three helipads.

Rihanna, Justin Bieber, and Katy Perry have already serenaded Anant Ambani and Radhika Merchant in glittering parties that have captured the world's attention.

And the happy couple hasn't even walked down the aisle yet.

That will change this weekend as Mukesh Ambani — India's richest man and father of Anant, the groom — hosts thousands of guests from July 12 to 14 at his youngest son's wedding, the most anticipated nuptials of the year.

Festivities are said to be happening at the Ambani family's custom-built, 27-story tower on Mumbai's most exclusive street, according to CNN. Other rumored venues for wedding events include the Jio World Convention Center, which can accommodate 16,000 people and is owned by the family's company, Reliance Industries.

Dubbed Antilia, the Ambanis' tower is named for a mythical island off the coast of Europe. Reported to cost $1 billion to build, it has been crowned the "most expensive private residence in the world" by the Guinness Book of World Records. It is rumored to contain three helipads and a 50-seat movie theater — and require a staff of 600 employees.

The interior of the building has rarely been photographed, so Business Insider compiled everything we know about the Ambani family home where parts of the wedding of the year may take place.

The Ambani family’s opulent pre-wedding festivities have lasted for months.

The pre-wedding festivities for Anant, 29, and Radhika, 29, included a private Rihanna concert and meals prepared by 100 chefs. The young couple both sit on the board of their family's companies, conglomerate Reliance Industries and pharmaceutical giant Encore Healthcare, respectively.

Anant Ambani’s pre-wedding parties hosted tons of high-profile guests.

High-profile guests, including Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg, flocked to Jamnagar, India, in March to toast the marriage of Anant, whose father, Mukesh, is reported to be worth $113 billion.

Mukesh Ambani and his wife Nita have three children.

Isha and Akash are twins, and they're the oldest Ambani children. Anant is their younger brother. It's unclear who lives at Antilia full-time, though the Huffington Post reported that the home required a staff of 600.

Mukesh Ambani is considered India's richest man.

Mukesh Ambani is the chairman of the energy, retail, and media conglomerate Reliance Industries and is considered India's richest man. The tower he custom-built sits on Altamount Road, the Billionaires' Row of Mumbai.

The Ambani family’s Mumbai residence is the most expensive home in the world.

The Ambani family's home is the most expensive private residence in the world, according to the Guinness Book of World Records. (Other rankings put it second, after Buckingham Palace.)

The tower is called Antilia, named after a mythical island in the Atlantic Ocean.

The 400,000-square-foot structure is officially 27 stories high, although its many double-height ceilings mean it's closer in height to a traditional 40-story building.

Antilia reportedly cost $1 billion to build.

The Ambanis' house was constructed between 2006 and 2010, according to Architectural Digest India. At the time, it cost an estimated $1 billion to build, but there's no way of knowing what the tower is worth today.

Inside Antilia, there are nine elevators, a 50-seat cinema, and a full-service spa.

Plus, the tower has a 168-car garage and is equipped with three helipads.

Antilia opened in February 2010.

In 2011, The New York Times reported Mumbai's elite were speculating that the Ambanis hadn't yet moved into the tower. Antilia didn't align with Hindu architectural philosophy, one expert said.

There's luxury art inside Antilia.

In 2020, Vogue India cataloged some high-end art inside the Ambani house, including work by the modern Indian artist Francis Newton Souza and "Love" sculptor Robert Indiana.

Antilia was a site of celebration in early 2024.

The Ambani family hosted a light show at Antilia in January 2024 in honor of the historic inauguration of Ram Mandir, a gigantic new temple in the ancient city of Ayodhya.

Holograms of religious sayings adorned the building. Visitors flocked to see the bedazzled tower and get close to one of India's most iconic homes.

Antilia's opulence has drawn criticism.

In 2011, Ratan Tata, another one of India's richest men, told the Times of India: "It's sad because this country needs people to allocate some of their enormous wealth to finding ways of mitigating the hardship that people have."

Antilia is decorated with marigolds and bright yellow lights ahead of the wedding.

Preparations have begun at the tower, according to Reuters, but organizers remain tight-lipped about the details of the exclusive event.

A-listers including Kim Kardashian, Khloe Kardashian, Nick Jonas, and Priyanka Chopra had already landed in Mumbai by July 11, ahead of the main event, according to Fortune and People.

The particulars of the actual events are still under wraps, but Vanity Fair said the wedding date was chosen based on the couple's astrological charts.

Locals are already complaining about the traffic the wedding is expected to cause in Mumbai.

Traffic has already slowed down around Antilia and the Jio World Convention Center, Reuters reported.

Mumbai is notorious for traffic congestion and the city is expecting additional slowdowns during the massive event.

Correction: March 7, 2024 — An earlier version of this story incorrectly described the age of Anant Ambani. He's the youngest son of Mukesh and Nita Ambani, not the eldest. It also misidentified one of the people in a photo from the family's pre-wedding celebrations. It's Paula Hurd, not Melinda French Gates.

• Apple jobs are highly coveted in the tech industry.
• Apple CEO Tim Cook has said he favors candidates who are creative and not afraid to ask questions.
• Tech recruiters, career coaches, and an employee shared their advice on how to ace an Apple interview.

Apple's decades of game-changing product launches have helped it become a top employer for tech talent globally.

But candidates hungry for a role at the iPhone maker might find it harder to get a job there than ever before.

After years of surging growth, Apple's head count has been contracting. At the end of last year, Apple employed about 161,000 people, down nearly 2% from 2022. But Apple remains a force: Wedbush analyst Dan Ives has predicted that the tech giant will become "the gatekeepers of the consumer AI Revolution" with the launch of Apple Intelligence and the upcoming iPhone 16 and clear a path to hitting a $4 trillion market cap.

So, what can set you apart from a sea of Apple candidates? We asked an Apple employee and four tech career experts and recruiters.

They said the ideal Apple candidate should demonstrate curiosity, energy, and a collaborative mindset during an interview.

"What Apple is looking for in candidates is workhorses, not show horses," said Marc Cenedella, career expert and founder of work advice site Ladders, Inc. "Working at Apple is all about burnishing and improving the Apple brand, not tooting your own horn."

One Apple employee said tried to show brand identity by matching the font on her résumé to the company's own typeface. She said this likely helped her résumé stand out during the hiring process.

Job candidates can expect several rounds of interviews and tests

Depending on the leadership level, the application process for a corporate position at any large tech company typically includes a rigorous vetting process, conversations with hiring managers, technical interviews with coding tests for software engineers, and a series of conversations within the team known as an "interview loop," ex-Meta and Amazon recruiter Daniel Harten told BI.

Harten said the first stages of interviewing for a job at a Big Tech company are "transactional, focusing on technical abilities," and the second half is situational, "with behavior-based questions."

The interview process at Apple is "generally straightforward," Theresa Park, a former creative recruiter at the company, said. An elevator pitch and an anecdote summarizing your experience are sufficient for the introductory call with a hiring manager.

According to Glassdoor, Apple's software developers can earn well over $300,000 a year, and human resources specialists and recruiters can earn from $40,000 to over $100,000 annually.

One Reddit user said that during a monthlong interview process as a software engineering candidate, he was asked to design a vending machine. Another Redditor who said they applied for Apple's hardware team in Munich described an hourlong interview with no behavioral questions and technical questions that "felt very cherry-picked to my resume/experience."

Apple has shared some interview tips for hopeful candidates on its own careers site. They include:

1. Be yourself.
2. Avoid oversharing about past employers.
3. Don't be afraid to ask your recruiter for accommodations.
4. Come with specific examples of your expertise.
5. Be patient.

Harten emphasized Apple's tip on recruiters, telling BI they're meant to be "your partner in the interview process."

Harten said candidates should leverage their recruiter's expertise ahead of their interview. According to posts on the anonymous employee forum Blind, some Apple recruiters might even disclose the exact questions that will be asked in an interview.

Apple CEO Tim Cook has also shared advice on what the company looks for in candidates. In a podcast last year, he said everyone he works with at Apple believes that "one plus one equals three."

"It's an incredible feeling to work with people that bring out the best in you, and fundamentally, we all believe that one plus one equals three," Cook said. "Your idea plus my idea is better than the individual ideas on their own."

He said he favors candidates who are curious, creative, and not afraid to ask questions.

Cook is known for grilling employees with questions, according to the book "Tim Cook: The Genius Who Took Apple to the Next Level" Leander Kahney.

"He's a very quiet leader," Greg Joswiak, Apple's senior vice president of worldwide marketing, told Kahney, according to the book. "Not a screamer, not a yeller," he said, adding: "He's just very calm, steady, but will slice you up with questions. You better know your stuff."

Social media research can help

Former American Express talent manager and career coach Arianny Mercedes said she advises her clients to network proactively via social media to build relationships within the company and gain insight into its culture. Her advice helped one of her clients secure a role at Apple, she said.

Park said professionals should also update their LinkedIn profile if they've been inactive for a while — even if they aren't actively looking for a new job.

"As an experienced recruiter, I can tell you that we often actively source candidates, so it's crucial to have your LinkedIn profile updated with relevant keywords to make yourself searchable," Park said.

But getting too candid on social media about Apple, or any company you're interviewing for, is "a surefire way to get dinged," Cenedella said.

"No posting on Instagram. No lip-sync TikToks. Do nothing that draws attention to yourself or to the workings of Apple's processes," he told BI.

Representatives for Apple didn't immediately respond to BI's questions about working at the company.

• Russia plotted to assassinate an executive of a German armaments firm, CNN reported.
• The reported target was Rheinmetall CEO Armin Papperger.
• Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov rejected the CNN report.

US intelligence helped thwart a Russian plot to kill the CEO of a German arms firm that has made munitions and military equipment for Ukraine, according to reports.

Russia planned to kill Armin Papperger, the CEO of Rheinmetall, which has made artillery shells, tanks, and other military equipment for Ukraine during the country's battle against Russian forces, CNN reported, citing five US and Western officials familiar with the situation.

German security services were able to foil the plot by providing Papperger with extra security after receiving a tip-off from US intelligence, the report said.

Papperger was one of a number of defense industry executives that Russia had planned to kill, the unnamed sources said, the report added.

According to the German publication Der Spiegel, the main reason for the Russian plot was Rheinmetall's plan to create a tank factory in Ukraine while building up the local arms industry.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov rejected the CNN report.

"It is very hard for us to comment on reports by various news media that don't contain any serious arguments and are based on some anonymous sources," Peskov said, per Russia's Tass news agency. "All this is presented in the style of fake stories. One can't treat such reports seriously."

German politicians have reacted with shock and anger to the CNN report, with foreign minister Annalena Baerbock telling reporters at a NATO summit that Russia is "waging a hybrid war of aggression."

Analysts say that Russia is stepping up campaigns to destabilize the West using covert methods, including arson plots, interfering with airline GPS signals, and pushing disinformation.

"We're seeing sabotage, we're seeing assassination plots, we're seeing arson. We're seeing things that have a cost in human lives," a senior NATO official told reporters earlier this week, per CNN. "I believe very much that we're seeing a campaign of covert sabotage activities from Russia that have strategic consequences."

According to experts who spoke to Business Insider earlier this year, Russia is seeking to internally weaken NATO members as part of a plan to undermine support for Ukraine.

• Former US Navy Seal Rick Jones and his wife retired to Paris in 2018.
• The 72-year-old said they were an adventurous couple not tied down by kids or other family in the US.
• He shared the pros and cons of leading an ex-pat lifestyle in France.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Rick Jones. It has been edited for length and clarity.

My wife, Ellen Bryson, and I have always been adventurous people who've lived in Buenos Aires and different cities in the US, such as Norfolk, Virginia, and San Diego.

Ellen worked as a professional dancer in London when she was younger. I served as a Navy SEAL officer for 20 years and was stationed in the Persian Gulf at one point.

We met when we were 40. Our lives have been characterized by not having children, allowing us to move as often as we have without worrying about interrupting the school year.

Ellen was a member of Alliance Française, an organization centered on learning French and understanding the culture in France. In 2016, she came home from a meeting and said, "Why don't we move to Paris?"

I'd been enamored with the city since first visiting in 1979 as a college student. We went on a three-day retreat and talked it over. If we sold our house, we'd no longer have a mortgage. We did the numbers and decided that it made sense for our retirement.

It took a couple of years to get everything in order. Then, after Ellen found us an apartment on the Left Bank, we took the plunge in 2018.

It helped that we belong to the Association of American Residents Overseas, which has about 1,000 members in Paris. It's helped us integrate. The organization has social events, but it also represents our interests, such as voting rights and tax treaties.

We enjoy our lifestyle here, where the pros outweigh the cons. Here are three things I particularly love about Paris — and two that bug me a little.

The food markets are phenomenal

On any given day except Monday, Paris hosts huge, open-air food markets where farmers arrive to sell their fresh produce.

There are more food choices than you would ever see anywhere in the US. The market in our neighborhood has about six different butchers on Sundays. One guy specializes in organ meat, where you buy anything from lamb brains to beef hearts.

The restaurants are great, but many people cook at home and share recipes. I'm the cook in the family and take the time and thought for food preparation three of four days a week.

We experiment with new dishes. With so many different foods available, you can't help but try them.

It's a walkable city

Paris is the most walkable city I've ever been in. The only other city that compares in terms of walkability is San Francisco, where I was stationed there for two years.

My goal is to walk 7,500 steps a day — about four and a half miles. It's easy to achieve in Paris. The most I've probably walked in a day is 16 miles. At one point, I decided to walk the length of every metro line.

A friend who's lived here for 40 years told me that Paris is inexhaustible — it never ends. Every time walk, I find new streets I've never been on, some quirky little shop or an interesting-looking restaurant.

The architecture is beautiful. You never get tired of looking up at the facades. It's almost as if, for centuries, everything that was built was built simply to delight the eye.

The railways are quick, inexpensive and efficient

It's rare for a French train to be delayed. You can tell the exact time when it pulls away from the platform.

Ellen and I tend to travel on high-speed trains called Trains à Grande Vitesse (TGVs). It's due to their excellent performance. They get you places fast and inexpensively.

One of our favorite destinations is Marseille, in southern France. The trip is about three and a half hours each way and costs the equivalent of around $220 round trip.

We'll stay in a hotel in the old port for three days, which is fascinating.

Or we'll use the train for day trips outside Paris. Within an hour to an hour and a half of the city, there are many interesting places to visit.

The amount of red tape is mind-boggling

There is a conventional wisdom that the French are thin, especially compared to Americans. I joke to people that, to some extent, it's true. "It's because the French subsist on paperwork — they eat paperwork," I'll say. The bureaucracy is unbelievably frustrating.

When applying for an apartment, you must assemble a dossier of documents that cover your whole life. The file can be about an inch thick.

As for banks, I've been working with one for over a month to try to get the paperwork done to make international transfers. It's hard to be patient.

Things can be overly rigid

Most people think of the French as being very liberal, with things like going topless on the beach or producing explicit movies. In terms of their excellent social policies, they certainly live by their motto of "Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity."

However, I've found them to be a conservative society in some regards. They stick to the Napoleonic Code — establishing uniform laws in France in the early 1800s — and rarely question it.

Paris has a housing shortage, yet there are so many empty apartments. Parents have to divide their property equally between their children after they die. You might have an apartment or a house, and two or three or four kids are involved, and they can't agree on what to do with it. And so it just sits there empty for years.

There have been big demonstrations against change. People don't want to change the retirement system, even though everybody knows it can't continue to function economically. In 2023, President Macron wanted to raise the retirement age from 62 to 64, and the whole country was up in arms.

I've heard three or four French people who have spent time in either the US or Canada and then moved back to France. They say they admire Americans' constant willingness to try new ways of doing things.

Do you have an interesting story about retiring outside your native country that you'd like to share with Business Insider? Please send details to jridley@businessinsider.com.

• Everyone has complaints about the way Elon Musk runs Twitter.
• Add European regulators to that list: They don't like the way he's changed the service's "blue check" program for "verified users."
• I don't like it either. But it seems stupid to fine him over it.

Elon Musk bought Twitter for $44 billion in 2022 and promptly went about making the company worth much, much less by scaring away users and advertisers.

That seems dumb! But not illegal.

European regulators feel differently. They think that Musk's self-imposed penalty — owning a service so hapless it can't even launch a half-baked slate of video podcasts — isn't nearly enough. So they want to fine him for screwing up his own service.

What specifically did Musk do to incur the European Commission's wrath? The first sentence of its press release accuses Musk of violating regulations regarding "dark patterns, advertising transparency and data access for researchers." And, to be fair, "dark patterns" sounds pretty ominous!

But it turns out that European regulators — who are still using Twitter, which Musk now calls X — are just like any run-of-the-mill Twitter addict: They have complaints about the product. Specifically, the blue checks.

Here's Commissioner Thierry Breton:

The story of Elon and the blue checks has been told — many, many times. The latest update is that after taking away blue checks from many "verified users" like myself and my colleague Katie Notopoulos, he handed them back this spring. For free. Anyone else who wants one can pay $8 a month.

Which, again: Dumb.

But in America, if you want to run through your own store, tear down the signage, and throw your merchandise on the floor, that's your right. Hard to see why it should be any different in Europe.

The sober, big-picture analysis I'm supposed to provide here is about what this says about Europe's overall efforts to reign in Big Tech, and how it's become the world's primary tech regulator since the US can't or won't do real regulation, and how some of Europe's moves seem well-intentioned but muddled, and other moves may be flat-out overreach.

But you can read that somewhere else.

This one is way simpler: The world is full of problems. Elon Musk's approach to blue checks is not one that requires government intervention.

• I went to In-N-Out for the first time and tried every kind of burger.
• I also tried every kind of fries, from the classic fries to the "not-so-secret menu" animal-style fries.
• I was disappointed by the cheese fries but loved the flavor and texture of the animal-style version.

In-N-Out is famous for its burgers, but how do the chain's fries measure up?

On a trip to Austin, I tried every single kind of fries on In-N-Out's menu, from its standard salted fries to "well-done" and animal-style. I walked away impressed by only one style of fry — and slightly let down by the others.

In-N-Out is slowly expanding, but it's still largely considered a West Coast chain, with around 400 locations in eight states and territories. It has no immediate plans to come to the East Coast — where I live — anytime soon. So even though I didn't love most of the fries on its menu, I would travel across the country to have my favorite kind again.

Here's every type of fries at In-N-Out, ranked from my least favorite to my favorite.

Of all the fries I tried, the cheese fries came in last place.

The cheese fries cost me $5, excluding tax. 

On the order I received, the cheese clung to the top layer of fries in an unappetizing way, at least to me.

Since the cheese was under-melted, they were easier to eat with my fingers. However, I really wished the cheese had been slightly gooier. 

The cheese itself was tasty — it was a tangy, classic American cheese. However, most of the fries didn't even get a drop of cheese on them.

While I did enjoy the cheese, I would have much preferred the cheese to actually cover the fries. However, this can probably be chalked up to an error on the day I visited In-N-Out.

The regular fries were a tad underwhelming, in my opinion.

The regular fry cost me only $2.79, which I thought was a good deal.

They were crispy but could have used a touch more salt.

The inside was also not fluffy at all, which I thought gave them an odd texture. Overall, I was just slightly underwhelmed by the regular fries — an opinion that I share with other In-N-Out diners.

I much preferred the crispier, well-done fries over the regular fries.

The fries also cost me $2.90, meaning there was no extra charge for asking them to stay in the fryer a little longer.

They were well-salted and the extra time in the fryer definitely gave them a better texture.

Overall, I was impressed by the crispier fries and would order them this way again.

However, the next time I find myself at an In-N-Out, I know I'll be ordering my fries animal-style.

The chain serves its animal-style fries with special sauce, a slice of melted American cheese, and chopped grilled onions. They cost me $6. They were slightly more expensive than the cheese fries, the regular, and the crispy fries.

The fries were covered in cheese, which was perfectly melted, and the other toppings.

The fries were covered in so much sauce and cheese that I needed to use a fork to eat them. The bottom layer of fries didn't have a ton of cheese or sauce, but the toppings were more evenly distributed than in the case of the cheese fries.

This will be my go-to fries order in the future — the special sauce and chopped onions added a ton of flavor.

In my opinion, the animal-style fries won by a landslide. I thought they had the best flavor, texture, and were well worth a couple of extra dollars compared to the regular fries.