“Historical manifestations of dandyism range from absolute precision in dress and tailoring to flamboyance and fabulousness in dress and style,” Miller wrote in the exhibit catalog. “Whether a dandy is subtle or spectacular, we recognize and respect the deliberateness of the dress, the self-conscious display, the reach for tailored perfection, and the sometimes subversive self-expression.”

The exhibit, “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style,” draws on other sources beyond Miller’s book. It’s organized into 12 sections. Each symbolizes a characteristic of dandy style as defined by Zora Neale Hurston in her 1934 essay, “Characteristics of Negro Expression.”

See photos from the blue carpet.

The power couple is expecting their third child, the rapper A$AP Rocky revealed.

“It feels amazing, you know,” gala co-chair A$AP Rocky told reporters who congratulated him Monday after outlets reported the couple was expecting their third child. “It’s time that we show the people what we was cooking up. And I’m glad everybody’s happy for us ’cause we definitely happy, you know.”

TMZ reported earlier Monday that Rihanna and the rapper were expecting their third child.

A representative for Rihanna didn’t immediately return The Associated Press’ request for comment.

Photos taken of the singer Monday walking in New York showed her with what appeared to be a baby bump.

Rihanna hasn’t yet walked the Met Gala carpet.

“Honestly, it’s a blessing nonetheless,” Rocky told the AP. “Because you know how like some people in other situations at times can be envious of other people. But we’ve been seeing love for the most part. And we real receptive to that and appreciate that, you know what I mean? That’s love. Love is love.”

The couple announced their last pregnancy in a similarly starry way: At the 2023 Super Bowl, Rihanna emerged on stage for her halftime performance with baby bump on full display. Their son Riot Rose was born later that year.

The couple’s first child, RZA, was born in May 2022.

Rocky is one of the 2025 Met Gala co-chairs of the menswear-theme event tied to the museum’s “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style. ” But his attendance at this year’s Met Gala wasn’t always a sure bet. That announcement came a couple months before the opening of his trial on firearms charges in Los Angeles. Rocky was ultimately found not guilty in mid-February.

At his trial, he showed his eye for fashion. He sported tailored suits and luxury labels throughout the proceedings. Yves Saint Laurent even put out press releases directing attention to his high-fashion court attire. He was clad in a pinstripe Saint Laurent suit for the verdict.

He’s collaborated with several designers and brands on shoes, sunglasses and clothing collections. In December, he was honored with the Cultural Innovator Award at the British Fashion Council’s Fashion Awards.

AP journalists Gary Gerard Hamilton, Maria Sherman and Mallika Sen contributed to this report.

General Daily Insight for May 06, 2025

Getting in touch with what we value is even more vital than usual. Resource planet Venus engages with profound Pluto, reminding us to look beyond our immediate whims. What we find when we peer within won’t necessarily be comfortable as intellectual Mercury conjoins wounded Chiron at 9:48 pm EDT. Perceived pressure to produce answers quickly might be more painful than any ambiguity itself! Taking the time to let all the facts rise to the surface should eventually be worth any complications or other trouble.

The El Segundo, California-based company said the increases are necessary even though it is speeding up its plans to diversify its manufacturing base away from China. Trump imposed a 145% tariff on most Chinese-made products.

Company executives told analysts on a conference call that China currently accounts for 40% of Mattel’s global production. The company plans to move roughly 500 products this year from manufacturers in China to sources in other countries, compared to 280 products last year.

For some highly sought after toys, Mattel said it would enlist factories in more than one country. To prevent possible shortages, the company said it was focusing on getting products to stores without interruptions.

The company said that even with price increases it expects 40% to 50% of its toys will cost customers $20 or less.

“The diversified and flexible supply chain in global commercial organizations are clear advantages to Mattel in this period of uncertainty,” CEO and Chairman Ynon Kreiz told analysts.

Citing the ongoing uncertainty surrounding the president’s trade policies, however, Mattel withdrew its annual earnings forecast on Monday. The company said it would be “difficult to predict” consumer spending and the company’s U.S. sales for the remainder of the year without more information.

Mattel reported larger-than expected first-quarter sales but also a wider loss. Mattel said sales rose 2% to $827 million for the quarter that ended March 31.

The company’s loss expanded to $40.3 million, or 12 cents per share, in the quarter. That compares with a loss of $28.3 million, or 8 cents per share, in the year-ago period.

Analysts expected a loss of 10 cents on sales of $786.1 million for the first quarter, according to FactSet.

Mattel’s shares were down less than 1% in after markets trading.

Over the weekend, Trump accused other countries of “stealing the movie-making capabilities” of the U.S. and said that he had authorized the Commerce Department and the U.S. Trade Representative to immediately begin the process of implementing this new import tax on all foreign-made films. But further specifics or dates weren’t provided. And the White House confirmed that no final decisions had been made as of Monday.

Trump later said that he would meet with industry executives about the proposal but a lot remains unclear about how an import tax on complex, international productions could even be implemented.

If imposed, experts warn that such a tariff would dramatically hike the costs of making movies today. That uncertainty could put filmmakers in limbo, much like other industries that have recently been caught in the crosshairs of today’s ongoing trade wars.

Unlike other sectors that have recently been targeted by tariffs, however, movies go beyond physical goods, bringing larger intellectual property ramifications into question. Here’s what we know.

Why is Trump threatening this steep movie tariff?

Trump is citing national security concerns, a justification he’s similarly used to impose import taxes on certain countries and a range of sector-specific goods.

In a Sunday night post on his social media platform Truth Social, Trump claimed that the American movie industry is “DYING to a very fast death” as other countries offer “all sorts of incentives” to draw filmmaking away from the U.S.

Trump has previously voiced concern about movie production moving overseas. And in recent years, U.S. film and television production has been hampered between setbacks from the COVID-19 pandemic, the Hollywood guild strikes of 2023 and the recent wildfires in the Los Angeles area. Incentive programs have also long-influenced where movies are shot both abroad and within the U.S., with more production leaving California to states like Georgia and New Mexico — as well as countries like Canada.

But unlike other sectors targeted by Trump’s recently-imposed tariffs, the American film industry currently holds a trade deficit that’s in the U.S.’s favor.

In movie theaters, American-produced movies overwhelmingly dominate the domestic marketplace. Data from the Motion Picture Association also shows that American films made $22.6 billion in exports and $15.3 billion in trade surplus in 2023 — with a recent report noting that these films “generated a positive balance of trade in every major market in the world” for the U.S.

Last year, international markets accounted for over 70% of Hollywood’s total box office revenue, notes Heeyon Kim, an assistant professor of strategy at Cornell University. She warns that tariffs and potential retaliation from other countries impacting this industry could result in billions of dollars in lost earnings and thousands of jobs.

“To me, (this) makes just no sense,” she said, adding that such tariffs could “undermine otherwise a thriving part of the U.S. economy.”

The International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, which represents behind-the-scenes entertainment workers across the U.S. and Canada, said in a statement Monday that Trump had “correctly recognized” the “urgent threat from international competition” that the American film and television industry faces today. But the union said it instead recommended the administration implement a federal production tax incentive and other provisions to “level the playing field” while not harming the industry overall.

How could a tax on foreign-made movies work?

That’s anyone’s guess.

“Traditional tariffs apply to physical imports crossing borders, but film production primarily involves digital services — shooting, editing and post-production work that happens electronically,” notes Ann Koppuzha, a lawyer and business law lecturer at Santa Clara University’s Leavey School of Business.

Koppuzha said that film production is more like an applied service that can be taxed, not tariffed. But taxes require Congressional approval, which could be a challenge even with a Republican majority.

Making a movie is also an incredibly complex — and international — process. It’s common for both large and small films to include production in the U.S. and in other countries. Big-budget movies like the upcoming “Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning,” for instance, are shot around the world.

U.S. studios frequently shoot abroad because tax incentives can aid production costs. But a blanket tariff across the board could discourage that or limit options, Kim said — hurting both Hollywood films and the global industry that helps create them.

“When you make these sort of blanket rules, you’re missing some of the nuance of how production works,” added Steven Schiffman, a longtime industry veteran and adjunct professor at Georgetown University. “Sometimes you just need to go to the location, because frankly it’s way too expensive just to try to create in a soundstage”

Schiffman points to popular titles filmed outside the U.S. — such as Warner Bros’ “Harry Potter” series, which was almost entirely shot in the U.K. “The cost to have done that would have like literally double to produce those movies under this proposed tariff,” he said.

Could movie tariffs have repercussions on other intellectual property?

Overall, experts warn that the prospect of tariffing foreign-made movies ventures into uncharted waters.

“There’s simply no precedent or sense for applying tariffs to these types of creative services,” Koppuzha said. And while the Trump administration could extend similar threats to other forms of intellectual property, like music, “they’d encounter the same practical hurdles.”

But if successful, some also warn of potential retaliation. Kim points to “quotas” that some countries have had to help boost their domestic films by ensuring they get a portion of theater screens, for example. Many have reduced or suspended such quotas over the years in the name of open trade — but if the U.S. places a sweeping tariff on all foreign-made films, these kinds of quotas could come back, “which would hurt Hollywood film or any of the U.S.-made intellectual property,” Kim said.

And while U.S. dominance in film means “there are fewer substitutes” for retaliation, Schiffman notes that other forms of entertainment — like game development — could see related impacts down the road.

Others stress the potential consequences of hampering international collaboration overall.

“Creative content distribution requires thoughtful economic approaches that recognize how modern storytelling flows across borders,” notes Frank Albarella, U.S. media and telecommunications sector leader at KPMG. “The question hanging over every screen: Might we better nurture American storytelling through smart, targeted incentives, or could we inadvertently force audiences to pay more for what could become a narrower creative landscape?”

AP Writers Jake Coyle and Jill Colvin in New York, Aamer Madhani in Palm Beach, Florida and Darlene Superville in Washington contributed to this report.

Two cases were identified in Missouri, and one each in Florida, Illinois, South Dakota, Utah and Wisconsin, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.

People got sick in February and March of this year, the CDC said. They all had the same strain of salmonella — a version that has been traced to hatcheries in the past. The investigation is continuing, health officials said.

Salmonella bacteria cause about 1.35 million infections in the United States every year, and recent outbreaks have been tied to sources such as cucumbers, eggs, unpasteurized milk, fresh basil, geckos and pet bearded dragons.

But one concern is that chickens and other backyard poultry can carry salmonella bacteria even if they look healthy and clean. A backyard poultry-associated outbreak that ended last year was tied to 470 cases spread across 48 states, including one death.

The fictional work debuted in Chicago in 2024 and moved earlier this year from Steppenwolf to Broadway, where it currently plays with most of its original Chicago cast. Directed in New York and Chicago by Phylicia Rashad, it’s loosely based on the family of civil rights leader Jesse Jackson.

This marks the first time a play first seen at Steppenwolf has won the prestigious prize since Tracy Letts’ “August: Osage County” in 2008.

In a joint statement to the Tribune, Steppenwolf artistic directors Glenn Davis and Audrey Francis said that the “Purpose” win “underscores our company’s time-honored commitment to developing ensemble-driven, new works.” The play was also nominated for a Tony Award last week, along with several members of its cast.

The 2025 winners of the Pulitzer Prizes, presented annually by Columbia University, include nine winners across eight arts categories for books, drama and music. Awards for journalism were also announced Monday.

“James,” by the novelist Percival Everett, won for fiction.

The book, which previously won the Kirkus Prize and a National Book Award and was shortlisted for the Booker Prize, used Mark Twain’s “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” as its starting point, reworking the story from the perspective of Jim, now James, Twain’s escaped slave. It was a risky kind of bestseller from a longtime author and professor of English at the University of Southern California, whose previous breakthrough 2001 novel “Erasure” was later adapted as the Oscar-nominated movie “American Fiction.” Critics felt Everett more than lived up to his source, both honoring Twain and deepening the 1885 original.

Everett told the Tribune last year, “I think people assume because I am revisiting Twain, I am correcting. I love Twain’s novel. It doesn’t arise from dissatisfaction. if anything, I am flattering myself thinking I am in conversation with Twain.”

Chris Jones is a Tribune critic.

Tribune writer Christopher Borrelli contributed to this report.

2025 Pulitzer Prize winners in the arts

FICTION: “James” by Percival Everett (Doubleday)

DRAMA: “Purpose” by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins

HISTORY:

• “Combee: Harriet Tubman, the Combahee River Raid, and Black Freedom During the Civil War” by Edda L. Fields-Black (Oxford University Press)
• “Native Nations: A Millennium in North America” by Kathleen DuVal (Random House)

BIOGRAPHY: “John Lewis: A Life” by David Greenberg (Simon & Schuster)

MEMOIR: “Feeding Ghosts: A Graphic Memoir, by Tessa Hulls (MCD)

POETRY: “New and Selected Poems” by Marie Howe (W.W. Norton & Company)

GENERAL NONFICTION: “To the Success of Our Hopeless Cause: The Many Lives of the Soviet Dissident Movement” by Benjamin Nathans (Princeton University Press)

MUSIC: “Sky Islands” by Susie Ibarra

Sponsored by the Clarendon Hills Chamber of Commerce, spent its first four years after starting up in 2017 in the Sloan Triangle at Prospect and Park Avenues. It moved in 2021 to Village Hall Plaza.

“Every year our neighbors look forward to the return of the Farmers Market, which signals the end of the school year, while continuing the village tradition of gathering and shopping together on Thursday mornings,” said Shannon McDonald, the chamber’s director. “We are really pleased to welcome back many of our returning vendors as community favorites.”

One vendor that isn’t returning is LaVanway Farms, out of Berrien Center, Michigan, which had been an anchor at the Clarendon Hills Farmers Market since its first year.

“Cindy with Lavanaway Farm has said she is stepping away from her involvement with markets and has been working since last year to pass the baton on to a nearby farm, Dad’s Farm, to take over her established farmers markets,” McDonald said.

Joining Dad’s Farm as a vendor new to Clarendon Hills are Flock and Field, offering personal care products, and Pet Wants, which will be selling pet treats and food.

Eleven vendors are scheduled to be onsite in Clarendon Hills throughout the season, including popular returnee Hahn’s Bakery out of Geneva, which has become well known in the village for its doughnuts, but has several other bakery items for sale.

Also returning are Azteca Catering Co. with Mexican cuisine, Spartan Gourmet Foods featuring olives and olive oil, Hufendick Farm Market with fresh pork, beef, poultry and lamb, Maly’s Foods featuring vegetable egg rolls, The Cheese Lady, Lincoln Land Kettle Corn and Boa Acai Bowls.

Little Love Tees, featuring children’s clothing, is scheduled to be in Clarendon Hills June 5 and June 26, and a new village business, Sparrow Coffee, will be joining the market periodically, McDonald said.

She said new vendors are added each year in one of two ways.

“Vendors come to us through word of mouth, and I will seek out vendors to help us fill a void in the market, offering consumable products,” McDonald said.

Along with the vendors, the Clarendon Hills Public Library will be hosting Children’s Story Time at 11:30 a.m. at the market on the second Thursday of each month— June 12, July 10, Aug. 7, Sept. 11, and Oct. 9.

Village President Eric Tech said he believes the farmers market provides a real sense of community and a gathering place for Clarendon Hills residents.

“For my wife, it is a ritual which she looks forward to, meeting neighbors and reconnecting with the vendors,” he said. “With the creation of the functional plaza in front of our village hall, it has the added benefit of drawing from our neighboring communities and showcasing our beautiful public spaces.”

Chuck Fieldman is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press. 

The exact status of the artwork remains unclear.

“More information will be released to campus regarding some of the sale details in the coming days,” Michael Fenton said in a Monday email to the Post-Tribune. “As stated in our original plan, the sale of these paintings was to fund the renovations, which are scheduled to begin this summer and last until Fall, 2026.”

The three works in question are “Rust Red Hills” by Georgia O’Keeffe, Frederic E. Church’s “Mountain Landscape,” and “The Silver Vale and the Golden Gate” by Childe Hassam.

According to appraisals received by the university, the fair market value of the O’Keeffe is estimated at $10.5 million to $15 million; the Hassam, between $1 million and $3.5 million; and the Church at $1 million to $3 million.

Fenton has said that the projected cost of renovating Brandt Hall and Wehrenberg Hall for first-year students is approximately $8 million. The renovated dorms are slated to have a gallery displaying lesser-known works of art from the Sloan Trust, which provided directly or indirectly for the three paintings being sold off.

“I can confirm that we have made enough progress to move forward with the planned resident hall renovations,” Fenton said.

The update of sorts comes on the heels of a Thursday article in Bloomberg that Moody’s Investor Services, Inc. has downgraded Valparaiso University two notches to a junk rating, which could, per the article, raise the university’s borrowing costs.

In an April 30 report, Moody’s noted that “the highly competitive student market poses ongoing difficulties for enrollment management. Inability to boost net tuition revenue will further limit financial reserves and the university’s capacity to address operating deficits in the short term.”

The negative outlook, Moody’s said, “reflects the potential for continued enrollment challenges resulting in pressure to balance operations.”

Moody’s also said the university’s “substantial wealth, totaling nearly $350 million in cash and investments,” as well as strong donor support and its regional reputation, weighed in the university’s favor.

“Moreover, management’s efforts to restructure operations to cut costs and increase revenue are favorable for long-term prospects,” the report stated.

Fenton said via email that the university will continue to work with Moody’s to show everything the university is doing to further strengthen its financial foundation, implement its strategic plan, and address the challenges facing higher education.

“The University is undertaking innovative enrollment strategies, a comprehensive fundraising campaign, and reinvestment in campus operations,” Fenton said.

“As Moody’s points out in its statement, we are confident in our ability to continue to meet our mission as a Lutheran institution that prepares students not only for successful lives and careers, but also as servant leaders in church and society.”

Both the university’s Moody’s rating and its enrollment have struggled in recent years.

Moody’s downgraded the university’s bond rating two years ago as well. At its peak, in 2016, the university’s bond rating was A2 but it’s been slipping since then and is now Baa2. The fact that the drop coincided with the university’s decreasing enrollment was not a coincidence, a Moody’s official said then, and news about the sale of the artwork also was a factor that Moody’s took into consideration when doling out Valparaiso University’s rating in 2023.

Valparaiso University’s fall and new student headcount both dropped in the past two years after numbers began to climb slightly in 2022, as the direct impact of the brunt of the COVID-19 pandemic began to wane. Still, according to enrollment figures on the university’s website for August, both numbers are below where they were in the fall of 2019 before the pandemic began.

The university had 852 new students in August, compared to 1,004 five years ago. Likewise, this year’s total fall headcount was 2,598 students, compared to 3,521 in fall 2019. Only 16 students from the latter count were in the university’s law school, its last cohort before it closed.

The university filed a petition almost a year ago to move forward with the auction of the art from the Brauer Museum to fund freshman dorm renovations, noting a $9 million deficit and declining student enrollment.

A Porter Superior Court judge ultimately granted the petition, which required modifying the trust that provided the artwork to allow for the sale.

Valparaiso University President José Padilla first announced the plans in February 2023, garnering stiff criticism from the campus community, including faculty and students, as well as the art world.

The faculty senate issued a vote of no confidence for Padilla in the fall. He has announced he’s retiring at the end of the year.

alavalley@chicagotribune.com

The Pulitzers’ prestigious public service medal went to ProPublica for the second straight year. Kavitha Surana, Lizzie Presser, Cassandra Jaramillo and Stacy Kranitz were honored for reporting on pregnant women who died after doctors delayed urgent care in states with strict abortion laws.

The Washington Post won for “urgent and illuminating” breaking news coverage of the Trump assassination attempt. The Pulitzers honored Ann Telnaes, who quit the Post in January after the news outlet refused to run her editorial cartoon lampooning tech chiefs — including Post owner Jeff Bezos — cozying up to Trump. The Pulitzers praised her “fearlessness.”

The Pulitzers honored the best in journalism from 2024 in 15 categories, along with eight arts categories including books, music and theater. The public service winner receives a gold medal. All other winners receive $15,000.

The New York Times showed its breadth with awards honoring reporting from Afghanistan, Sudan, Baltimore and Butler, Pennsylvania. Doug Mills won in breaking news photography for his pictures of the Trump assassination attempt, including one that captured a bullet in the air near the GOP candidate.

The Times’ Azam Ahmed and Christina Goldbaum and contributing writer Matthieu Aikins won an explanatory reporting prize for examining U.S. policy failures in Afghanistan. Declan Walsh and the Times’ staff won for an investigation into the Sudan conflict.

A big milestone for a new local news outlet

The Times was also part of a collaboration with The Baltimore Banner, whose reporters Alissa Zhu, Nick Thieme and Jessica Gallagher won in local reporting for stories on that city’s fentanyl crisis and its disproportionate effect on Black men. The Banner was created three years ago, with several staffers who had left the Baltimore Sun.

“This is a huge milestone for us,” editor in chief Kimi Yoshino said in an interview. “I told the newsroom today that never in my wildest dreams did I think we would be here at this moment. It is a testament to the power of local news, the need for local news and what journalists can do when they focus on important stories in our community.”

The Banner created a statistical model that it shared with journalists in cities like Boston, Chicago and San Francisco for stories there, she said.

Reuters won for its own investigative series on fentanyl, showing how lax regulation both inside and outside the United States makes the drug inexpensive and widely available. inewsource.org in San Diego was a finalist in the illustrated reporting and commentary category for its stories on fentanyl.

The New Yorker’s Mosab Abu Toha won for his commentaries on Gaza. The magazine also won for its “In the Dark” podcast about the killing of Iraqi civilians by the U.S. military and in feature photography for Moises Saman’s pictures of the Sednaya prison in Syria.

The Wall Street Journal won a Pulitzer for its reporting on Elon Musk, “including his turn to conservative politics, his use of legal and illegal drugs and his private conversations with Russian President Vladimir Putin,” the Pulitzer board said. The Journal was also a finalist for its “cool-headed” reporting on the plight of Evan Gershkovich, who was imprisoned in Russia.

A special citation for a career covering civil rights

The Pulitzers also gave a special citation to the late Chuck Stone for his work covering the civil rights movement. The pioneering journalist was the first Black columnist at the Philadelphia Daily News and founded the National Association of Black Journalists.

Mark Warren of Esquire won the feature writing prize for his portrait of a Baptist pastor and small-town mayor who died by suicide after his secret online life was exposed by a right-wing news site.

Alexandra Lange, a contributing writer for Bloomberg CityLab won an award in criticism for “graceful and genre-expanding” writing about public spaces for families.

The Houston Chronicle Raj Mankad, Sharon Steinmann, Lisa Falkenberg and Leah Binkovitz won the Pulitzer in editorial writing for its series on dangerous train crossings.

The Associated Press was a finalist in breaking news reporting for its own coverage of the Trump assassination attempt, and in investigative reporting for its partnership with PBS FRONTLINE and the Howard Center for Investigative Journalism at the University of Maryland and at Arizona State University for stories documenting more than 1,000 deaths at the hands of police using methods of subduing people that were supposed to be non-lethal.