This week in culture: royals, retirements and reckonings collide. Princess Diana's revenge dress is heading to auction decades after it delivered the ultimate wardrobe comeback and could fetch millions. Judge Judy is stepping down after 30 years on the bench, passing the gavel to her son.
Lady Gaga welcomed her first child, proving Mother Monster is now literal. The culture wars also hit the stage: Jasmine Crockett drew backlash for honoring Chris Brown, and Macklemore was booted from Ed Sheeran's tour for saying Free Palestine. Here's everything you need to know.
History has no shortage of iconic dresses, but none rewrote the rules of a royal wardrobe quite like Princess Diana's "revenge dress." On June 29, 1994, then-Prince Charles sat for a televised interview and admitted to his affair with Camilla Parker Bowles. That same night, Diana had already planned her own statement, and it didn't need a single word. She stepped out to an event at London's Serpentine Gallery in a black, off-the-shoulder Christina Stambolian gown, breaking royal protocol that traditionally reserved black for mourning.
The message landed instantly: She wasn't going anywhere, and she looked better than fine doing it. Now, that dress is headed to Sotheby's, set to cross the auction block in New York City this December. While the estimate sits between $150,000 and $300,000, history suggests that number is more of a starting point than a ceiling.
In 2023, a Jacques Azagury gown Diana wore just twice sold for $1.15 million. Given that this is the dress that basically invented "revenge dressing" as a concept, and the cultural moment it captured has only gotten bigger with time, it would be a surprise if this one didn't blow past the high end too. For the past 30 years, Judith B.
Sheindlin, better known as Judge Judy, has been a fixture on our televisions, doling out judgment on everything from sibling squabbles to society's biggest debates. TV's favorite judge is stepping down from the bench when this season of her show ends in October. "I'm retiring from in front of the camera," Sheindlin announced on Good Morning America, sitting beside her son, Adam Levy.
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