The world of fashion said goodbye to veteran designer Giorgio Armani, Taylor Swift set more music records and got engaged while Katy Perry went to space - those were some of the major celebrity headlines this year.

Veteran fashion designer,  Giorgio Armani, who was synonymous with modern Italian style and elegance, died on September 4. He was 91.

He had been unwell for some time, and was forced to drop out of his group's shows at Milan's Men's Fashion Week in June, the first time in his career that he had missed one of his catwalk events.

Known as "Re Giorgio" - King Giorgio - the designer helped put Italy at the forefront of global fashion and dressed Hollywood stars. His minimalist style, particularly for jackets, was an instant success in the United States in the late 1970s and 1980s, particularly among women, who found in his aesthetic a perfect balance of elegance and strength in what was back then still a masculine-led working world.

Armani was known for overseeing every detail of his collection and every aspect of his business, from advertising to fixing models' hair as they head out on to the runway. He combined the flair of the designer with the acumen of a businessman, running a company that turned over some 2.3 billion euros ($2.7 billion) a year.

Taylor Swift stormed charts again and set new records with her twelfth studio album "The Life of a Showgirl."

The record, written during the European leg of her massive "Eras" tour, arrived in October with a promotional blitz including midnight sales at Target stores, a release party at movie theaters around the globe and pop-up experiences.

It became Spotify's most-streamed album of the year, hitting that milestone in less than 11 hours.

"The Life of a Showgirl," which Swift said reflected "exactly where I am at in my life," topped charts around the world. In the United States, all of its 12 songs took the top 12 spots on the Billboard Hot 100, led by "The Fate of Ophelia."

Swift also purchased the master recordings of her first six albums, giving her control of all of her music after a dispute with her former record label.

Swift's masters had been sold in 2019 and the singer said she was not given the opportunity to buy them at the time. She re-recorded four of the albums with the subtitle "Taylor's Version."

Swift purchased the original recordings from current owner Shamrock Capital in what she called her "greatest dream come true." No financial terms were disclosed.

On a personal level, Swift and National Football League player Travis Kelce got engaged.

In a joint Instagram post, the pair wrote: "Your English teacher and your gym teacher are getting married," along with photos showing the Kansas City Chiefs player proposing to Swift.

No wedding date was announced.

Pop star Katy Perry and five other women launched into space on a Blue Origin rocket and successfully returned to Earth, marking the first all-female spaceflight in more than 60 years.

The crew lifted off from West Texas and travelled to the edge of space, where they experienced a brief period of weightlessness before returning to Earth in a flight lasting around 11 minutes, according to a live broadcast by Blue Origin, the space company founded by billionaire Jeff Bezos. 

The spaceflight was a high-profile success for Bezos' New Shepard launch vehicle, which has been developed for space tourism.

The six-person crew also included Bezos' now wife Lauren Sanchez, CBS host Gayle King, former NASA rocket scientist Aisha Bowe, scientist Amanda Nguyen and film producer Kerianne Flynn.

King said that when the crew returned to their seats after weightlessness, Perry sang the Louis Armstrong song "What a Wonderful World."

"I feel super connected to love," Perry said after landing back on Earth.

She was holding a daisy, a flower she took into space, to remind her of her daughter, Daisy. 

It was the first all-female spaceflight since Soviet cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova - the first woman in space - orbited Earth during a nearly three-day solo flight in 1963.

"Anora," the story of a New York sex worker who gets a chance at a new life when she marries a wealthy Russian client on a whim, dominated the Academy Awards, winning five Oscars, including the coveted best picture.

In addition to best picture, Sean Baker won for best director, original screenplay and editing to tie the record for most Oscars won by an individual in one year with Walt Disney who won for four different films in 1954. The movie's young star, Mikey Madison, was named best actress.

She scored an upset over Demi Moore, who had been favoured to win best actress for her role in "The Substance." Moore had won a Golden Globe as well as Screen Actors Guild award and had been the frontrunner to the the best actress Oscar.

Adrien Brody claimed his second best actor Oscar for his role as a Jewish immigrant and architect who chases the American dream in "The Brutalist."

Zoe Saldana was named best supporting actress for her role as the fixer for a Mexican drug lord in "Emilia Perez," a Spanish-language musical.

The movie had been a favourite for best picture but its chances dwindled when offensive social media posts denigrating Muslims and other groups surfaced from star Karla Sofia Gascon.

The actress, the first openly transgender person nominated for an acting Oscar, apologised and disappeared from the awards circuit but attended the Academy Awards.

Kieran Culkin received the best supporting actor award for playing one of two cousins who travel to Poland to study their family's roots in "A Real Pain."

In television, emergency room saga "The Pitt" was toasted as the year's best drama while showbusiness satire "The Studio" was crowned best comedy at the Emmy Awards.

"The Pitt" was the upset winner over "Severance," a surreal commentary on corporate power that went into the red-carpet ceremony with the most nominations.

"Adolescence," a dark story about a teen accused of murder, received the best limited series honour. Its 15-year-old star, Owen Cooper, was named best supporting actor in a limited series, becoming the youngest winner in that category.

"The Late Show with Stephen Colbert," the most-watched late-night program on U.S. broadcast television and a frequent platform of satire aimed at President Donald Trump, will end its 10-year run on CBS in May 2026, the network said in July.

The show will be retired and Colbert will not be replaced. New episodes will air until the end of the broadcast TV season in May 2026.

"This is purely a financial decision against a challenging backdrop in late night. It is not related in any way to the show's performance, content or other matters happening at Paramount," CBS executives said in the statement.

At the time, Paramount Global, the parent company of CBS, was seeking approval from the U.S. Federal Communications Commission for an $8.4 billion merger with Skydance Media. 

In July, Paramount agreed to settle a lawsuit filed by Trump over an interview with his former Democratic challenger, Kamala Harris, that CBS's "60 Minutes" broadcast in October.

Colbert told his audience he was informed of his show's cancellation the night before the news came out. The audience booed, and Colbert responded: "Yeah, I share your feelings."

"I'm not being replaced. This is all just going away," the 61-year-old comedian said.

"It is a fantastic job... I wish somebody else was getting it, and it's a job that I'm looking forward to doing with this usual gang of idiots for another 10 months."

He thanked executives at CBS, his show's audience and the 200 people who work on the show.

Colbert often skewered Trump in his nightly monologue and criticized Paramount's settlement with the president. The comedian called the company's payment to Trump a "big fat bribe" on his show.

Trump cheered the cancellation of the show. 

"The Late Show" debuted in 1993 with David Letterman as host after he was passed over for NBC's "The Tonight Show." Colbert, a regular on "The Daily Show" before he hosted "The Colbert Report" on Comedy Central, took over "The Late Show" in 2015.

Late-night shows have seen their audiences shrink as viewers have shifted from traditional television to streaming.

"The Late Show" drew an average of 2.5 million viewers during the 2024 to 2025 season that ended in June, ahead of ABC's "Jimmy Kimmel Live" and "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon."

-Lisa Giles-Keddie and Marie-Louise Gumuchian