MEXICO CITY — Cartier, the luxury jewelry brand, is not known for giving out gifts, but in the case of one Mexican guy, they pretty much did.

Rogelio Villarreal was browsing Cartier’s website when he stumbled upon an offer that appeared too good to be true. “I broke out in a cold sweat,” he posted on his X account, previously known as Twitter.

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Luxury Jewelry Maker Cartier Doesn’t Give Stuff Away, But They Pretty Much Did For One Man In Mexico

Cartier made a mistake and advertised gold-and-diamond earrings for 237 pesos ($14) rather than the exact price of 237,000 pesos ($14,000). Villarreal ordered two sets.

What ensued was months of back-and-forth, during which he claimed Cartier offered him a consolation gift instead of the jewelry, and Mexican officials supported his argument that the corporation should uphold the listed price.

Villarreal eventually received the earrings last week at his price, and he posted a video online of himself unwrapping them. But he quickly grew tired of the public attention, realizing that not all that glitters is gold, and posted on Monday, “Alright already, talk about something else, I’m tired of the earrings being the only thing anyone knows about my personality.”

Villarreal’s case had become a lightning rod online during a particularly polarizing period in Mexico, ahead of the June 2 presidential elections.

Some onlookers chastised Villarreal for taking advantage of what they perceived as a genuine error by the high-end jewelry manufacturer. Some claimed he should return the earrings or pay taxes on them. Some called him a thief.

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Luxury Jewelry Maker Cartier Doesn’t Give Stuff Away, But They Pretty Much Did For One Man In Mexico

Villarreal, a doctor doing his medical residency, claimed he had to fight for months to get the company to deliver and that it offered to give him a bottle of champagne instead.

The corporation did not reply to inquiries for comment.

“I have the worst luck in the world, and I’ve never made any money, and what I do have is because I bought it,” Villarreal posted on social media. However, he could now purchase two $14,000 sets of earrings for only around $28.

He says he gave one of them to his mom.

“It feels great and it’s cool not to be the underdog for once in my life,” Villarreal said.

Profeco’s representative, Jesús Montaño, validated Villarreal’s account of his struggle.

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Luxury Jewelry Maker Cartier Doesn’t Give Stuff Away, But They Pretty Much Did For One Man In Mexico

“He filed a complaint in December,” Montaño explained. “There is a conciliation hearing scheduled for May 3, but the consumer already received his purchase.”

When asked about ethics, Montaño stated that corporations “have to respect the published price.” If an error occurs, “it’s not the consumer’s fault.”

SOURCE – (AP)

The Halloween queen has returned.

Heidi Klum, 50, arrived at her annual Halloween event on Tuesday with a full team for her costume. She dressed up like a peacock for this year’s festival, relying on the support of others for the peacock’s tail feathers.

While arriving at Marquee New York, she (and her colorful entourage) stacked on each other, much like a Cirque du Soleil show, to change into a giant, gorgeous bird.

Heidi Klum, dressed in a cobalt blue bodysuit, was in the center. The America’s Got Talent judge donned an ornate headdress with a finely detailed beak.

On the red carpet, Klum chatted exclusively to PEOPLE about her inspiration for this year’s costume.

“I wanted to do a costume with a large number of people.” I wanted a large group of people who would merge into one entity. “And in my mind, that one thing was the peacock,” she explains.

The entrepreneur went on to say that she flew to Montreal to figure out how to stack everyone.

“My feet are a different pattern, so my feet melt into his legs,” she explains to PEOPLE, revealing how the placement of her feet was vital for the colors of her costume.

Heidi Klum’s husband, Tom Kaulitz, walked the red carpet as an egg.

Rachel Zegler, Ice-T and Coco, Taylor Lautner Tay Dome, and others were among the celebrities in attendance.

According to the model and Project Runway host, this outfit has been in the works for a year. Every year, she throws a star-studded Halloween event and is already planning her next costume the next morning.

Heidi Klum is notorious for going to extraordinary measures for the holiday, such as learning to walk on stilts and putting on hours of prosthetics. Klum used to do her hair and cosmetics, but now she has a staff to assist her.

Heidi Klum has dressed up as a corpse, an old lady, and Princess Fiona from Shrek in the past, among many other famous outfits.

“I always try to find things that people wouldn’t naturally do,” Klum told PEOPLE earlier this year.

Heidi Klum Transforms Into a Multi-Person Peacock for Halloween

Klum’s Halloween costume history includes her Jessica Rabbit look from 2015, which included considerable prosthetics. Klum shared an Instagram video of the procedure, demonstrating how they reproduced the character’s looks.

Klum’s triumphant comeback last year (she had paused the parties due to the COVID outbreak) produced one of her most renowned costumes yet – a worm costume. Klum was rendered unrecognizable by the intense stare, which revealed only her eyes and mouth.

Klum has also made Halloween an interactive event. In 2019, she showcased her getting-ready procedure by transforming herself into a window in New York City. Klum demonstrated her love for Halloween by producing a horror flick to commemorate the eerie season in 2020.

SOURCE – (People)

Early Saturday morning at her residence in Los Angeles, Piper Laurie, the determined Oscar-nominated actor who once renounced acting entirely in pursuit of a “more meaningful” existence, passed away. Laurie had appeared in several critically acclaimed roles. At the time, she was 91.

Marion Rosenberg, Laurie’s manager, emailed The Associated Press that she passed away of old age. Rosenberg described Laurie as “a marvelous human being and a phenomenal artist.”

Laurie, who was initially identified as Rosetta Jacobs upon her 1949 arrival in Hollywood, was immediately offered a contract with Universal-International, a studio she hated, which earned her a series of starring roles alongside, among others, Ronald Reagan, Rock Hudson and Tony Curtis.

Subsequently, in 1986, she was nominated for an Academy Award for the romantic drama “Children of a Lesser God,” the film adaptation of Stephen King’s horror classic “Carrie,” and the 1961 poolroom drama “The Hustler.” She also appeared in several critically acclaimed roles on television and the stage, including the antagonistic Catherine Martell in David Lynch’s “Twin Peaks” in the 1990s.

At seventeen, Laurie debuted in the film “Louisa” as Reagan’s daughter before appearing in “Francis Goes to the Races” opposite Francis the talking mule. She previously dated Curtis, with whom she collaborated on several films, including “Johnny Dark,” “The Prince Who Was a Thief,” “No Room for the Groom,” and “Son of Ali Baba.”

In 1955, she quit her $ 2,000-per-week job and vowed not to work again unless offered a respectable role.

She relocated to New York, where she secured the theatrical and live television drama roles she desired.

Emmy nominations for her performances in “Days of Wine and Roses,” “The Deaf Heart,” and “The Road That Led After” facilitated her return to the film industry, where she starred in “The Hustler,” an acclaimed production, as Paul Newman’s troubled fiancée.

After that, Laurie turned her back on acting for many years. She wed film critic Joseph Morgenstern, had a daughter named Ann Grace, and relocated to a Woodstock, New York estate. She later explained that the Civil Rights Movement and the Vietnam War influenced her adjustment.

“I was disillusioned and searching for a more meaningful existence,” she recalled, adding that she has never regretted the decision.

She declared, “My life was full,” in 1990. “I have always enjoyed working with my hands, and I have always been an artist.”

Laurie gained recognition for her baking abilities when The New York Times published her recipes.

She participated in a tour of college campuses with a dozen musicians and actors in 1972 to support Sen. George McGovern’s presidential campaign. This was her only performance during that period.

Laurie was finally prepared to resume her acting career when director Brian De Palma contacted her regarding the role of Sissy Spacek’s deranged mother in “Carrie.”

Initially perceiving the script as unsatisfactory, she ultimately resolved to perform the role for amusement purposes. De Palma’s reprimand for imbuing a scene with humor made her realize he intended the film to be a suspense thriller.

“Carrie” was an Academy Award winner that sparked a trend toward films about adolescents in peril, and both Spacek and Laurie received Academy Award nominations.

Reinvigorated by her ambition to perform, Laurie resumed an extensive career spanning decades. She appeared in television series including “Murder, She Wrote,” “Matlock,” and “Frasier,” and on “ER” as the mother of George Clooney.

SOURCE – (AP)