Life & Style | Alexander Neef to become Paris Opera director in 2021-22

Alexander Neef has been hired to succeed Stephane Lissner as director of the Paris Opera starting with the 2021-22 season.

The 45-year-old Neef, whose hiring was announced Wednesday, has been general director of the Canadian Opera Company since June 2008. He became artistic director of the Santa Fe Opera in February 2018.

Neef was head of casting of the Paris Opera from August 2004 to September 2008. He was scheduled to join Gerard Mortier’s staff at the New York City Opera before Mortier quit in November 2008, before he was to officially start for the 2009-10 season.

Born in Germany, Neef also has worked at the Ruhrtriennale and spent two seasons at the Salzburg Festival as a production manager under Mortier.

Bindi Irwin is engaged to marry longtime boyfriend

Bindi Irwin, the daughter of the late conservationist, Steve Irwin, is getting married.

She posted Wednesday on her social media that longtime boyfriend Chandler Powell’s proposed on her 21st birthday, Tuesday.

Powell is a 22-year-old wakeboarder from Florida whom she met in 2013 when he was visiting the Irwin family’s Australia Zoo.

Steve Irwin, known as “The Crocodile Hunter,” was a popular TV personality. He was killed by a stingray in 2006 while filming an underwater documentary.

His wife, Terri, and children Bindi and Robert have carried on his conservation work.

Bindi Irwin starred in her own wildlife series as a child. She won season 21 of “Dancing with the Stars.”

Mill launches new record label with Jay-Z’s Roc Nation

Meek Mill is in a Jay- Z state of mind: The Philadelphia rapper-turned-entrepreneur is launching a new record label in a joint venture with Jay-Z’s Roc Nation.

The two hip-hop players celebrated the launch of Dream Chasers Records this week at the Roc Nation headquarters in New York City, signing contracts at a small press conference and popping champagne to celebrate the partnership.

“Of course I had offers to do a lot of business with other people, but the relationship we’ve built from (Roc Nation) believing in me through my whole career, through my ups and downs and the morals they showed to me and my team when it wasn’t in their best interest to have showed it — I feel comfortable going through this right here at home,” Mill said. “We’re ready to work. We’re just starting the beginning of a new chapter, a new page.”

Mill, 32, will lead Dream Chasers as president, overseeing the label and its staff.