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Paris Hilton

"I Need You" is a song recorded by American socialite Paris Hilton (pictured). Michael Green produced the song and co-wrote it with Hilton and Simon Wilcox. Heiress Records released it as a digital download on February 14, 2018. A version of the song leaked in 2010, but Hilton said she re-recorded portions of the vocals and instrumental as a dedication to her then-fiancé Chris Zylka. It is a doo-wop and pop ballad with holiday-related puns about love. Green based the ballad's style on 1950s music. Critics praised "I Need You", partially as a departure from Hilton's dance and EDM songs. The single peaked at number 32 on the Dance Club Songs chart, Hilton's fifth appearance on it. A music video, directed by Zylka, features Hilton wearing lingerie, posing in a bed covered with red rose petals, and popping out of a cake. It was inspired by Marilyn Monroe's performance of "I Wanna Be Loved by You" and Jessica Rabbit. Critics described the bed scene as an homage to the 1999 film American Beauty. (Full article...)

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Did you know ...

Mary Arthur McElroy

... that Mary Arthur McElroy (pictured) was never given formal recognition as First Lady of the United States out of respect for Nell Arthur, the deceased wife of then-president Chester A. Arthur?
... that actor Tatsunari Kimura ate pancakes and drank coffee while talking for eight hours during the filming of the television drama Old-Fashioned Cupcake?
... that popular Korean folk singer Wang Su-bok was given birthday gifts by both Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il?
... that the painting God Giving Birth was inspired by Monica Sjöö's inner visions while giving birth?
... that King Edgar of England wanted to marry Wulfhild, but she rejected him to become a nun instead?
... that in 2007, the 1966 track "Most Likely You Go Your Way and I'll Go Mine" was the first of Bob Dylan's songs to be officially remixed?
... that trans man Iszac Henig alternated wins against trans woman Lia Thomas on the way to the 2022 NCAA Division I Women's Swimming Championship?
... that the Commission on Training Camp Activities allegedly used sexual denial to make American World War I soldiers fight harder?

In the news

Patrick Mahomes

In American football, the Kansas City Chiefs defeat the Philadelphia Eagles in the Super Bowl (MVP Patrick Mahomes pictured).
An earthquake strikes Turkey and Syria, killing over 41,000 people and injuring more than 120,000 others.
In the Monaco general election, the incumbent UNM party led by Brigitte Boccone-Pagès wins all 24 national council seats.
Former Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf dies at the age of 79.
A Chinese balloon suspected of surveillance and espionage is shot down after overflying Canada and the United States.

On this day

February 14: Valentine's Day

The southern facade of Sri Temasek

1804 – Serb chieftains elected Đorđe Petrović as their leader, and began an uprising against the Ottoman Empire.
1852 – The Hospital for Sick Children, the first hospital in England to provide in-patient beds specifically for children, was founded in London.
1924 – The Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company was renamed to International Business Machines, which grew into one of the world's largest companies by market capitalization.
1992 – Sri Temasek (pictured), the official residence of the Prime Minister of Singapore, was declared a national monument.

Katherine Stinson (b. 1891)
Keiji Nishioka (b. 1933)
Annalisa Buffa (b. 1973)

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Today's featured picture

The Banquet of Cleopatra is an oil-on-canvas painting by Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, completed in 1744 and now in the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne, Australia. This is the first of three large paintings of the subject by Tiepolo. In addition to these, the much smaller oil studies or modelli for each of the larger paintings survive. The subject of the painting is a supposed historical episode described by both Pliny's Natural History and Plutarch's Lives, in which Cleopatra takes an expensive pearl and dissolves it in her wine prior to imbibing the drink.

Painting credit: Giovanni Battista Tiepolo

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