Names and faces
■ Decades after Melania Trump left the rolling hills of Slovenia, a wooden statue of the first lady of the United States has been erected on the banks of a river near her hometown.
Much of the figure, from its shoulders to its fingertips, is painted powder blue, in a reflection of the dress and gloves she wore to her husband’s inauguration in 2017. One arm is raised as if in a wave to Sevnica, her hometown, about 5 miles upstream. Rising out of a tree trunk laced with ivy, the monument stretches to 9 feet tall. The statue was commissioned by American artist Brad Downey, who says it’s the first monument to Melania Trump. But those who saw it when it was unveiled gave the work decidedly mixed reviews. They say it bears little resemblance to the first lady. Some observers have described it as a scarecrow. The statue was fashioned out of a tree with a chain saw by local folk artist Ales Zupevc. Downey had asked him to create the statue as part of an exhibition in the Slovenian capital, Ljubljana. The venture was an artistic investigation of Trump through her home region, Downey said, and he wanted a local person who followed the folk tradition in his or her work and was not an academic artist. “Since the current political situation popped up, I felt compelled to inject a bit of my voice into this narrative,” Downey said. “The idea to commission the first monument to Melania has some cheekiness to it, but I wanted to do a serious investigation there,” Downey said.
■ British police have traveled to the U.S. to interview Kevin Spacey about sexual assault allegations. The Metropolitan Police are investigating six claims of sexual assault and assault against the former House of Cards star, who ran London’s Old Vic Theatre between 2004 and 2015. Variety reported Saturday that British detectives interviewed Spacey in May. British police don’t identify suspects until they have been charged. Without naming Spacey, the London force said that in May “a man was voluntarily interviewed under caution in America by officers from the Met’s Complex Case Team. He was not arrested. Inquiries are ongoing.” “Under caution” means the interview was recorded and can be used in future prosecutions. Spacey’s attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment. In the United States, a young man who says Spacey groped him in a Nantucket bar in 2016 dropped his lawsuit against the two-time Academy Award winner last week. Spacey still faces a criminal charge over the alleged incident and pleaded innocent to indecent assault and battery in January.