{"id":308783,"date":"2026-05-10T08:56:23","date_gmt":"2026-05-10T08:56:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/308783\/"},"modified":"2026-05-10T08:56:23","modified_gmt":"2026-05-10T08:56:23","slug":"justin-bieber-plays-an-a-list-montecito-party-with-defense-execs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/308783\/","title":{"rendered":"Justin Bieber plays an A-list Montecito party with defense execs"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Just weeks after Justin Bieber\u2019s well-received Coachella headline gig<\/a>, the singer played a small private event for tech, entertainment and defense industry moguls. Executives at controversial firms, such as surveillance tech giant Palantir,<\/a> were also on the bill. <\/p>\n

Bieber was a headliner at WNDR, entertainment executive Jeffrey Katzenberg\u2019s invitation-only confab at the Rosewood Miramar in Montecito last week. The programming for the event was first reported by Puck<\/a>. <\/p>\n

The ultra A-list talks and guests included director James Cameron and former Disney CEO Bob Iger, YouTube CEO Neal Mohan, FIFA President Gianni Infantino, Oprah Winfrey and Julia Roberts, comedians Chris Rock and Trevor Noah and artist Jeff Koons on a panel discussion with LACMA chief Michael Govan. <\/p>\n

Bieber, meanwhile, performed a Wednesday poolside set for attendees at the Rosewood. The \u201cSwag\u201d singer reportedly became the highest-paid headliner in Coachella history last month, and its most lucrative merch seller. <\/p>\n

Representatives for Bieber did not immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n

While there was lighter programming (like a karaoke party with pop producers StarGate and a talk about snacks with chef Nancy Silverton), the bill included talks and cameos from major weapons and surveillance technology firms noted for their support for \u2014 or deep engagement with \u2014 the Trump administration. <\/p>\n

One panel featured Anduril Industries\u2019 Palmer Luckey<\/a>, who recently welcomed Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to its Southern California headquarters. \u201cWe are rebuilding the Arsenal of Freedom,\u201d Hegseth said after the Anduril visit<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Palantir Chief Executive Alex Karp led another talk. Palantir\u2019s AI-driven defense and surveillance software has faced scrutiny around how tech like its Maven Smart System<\/a> may have been used to target civilians<\/a> in the Iran war. <\/p>\n

Karp also published a recent book, \u201cThe Technological Republic,\u201d where he wrote that<\/a> \u201cWe must resist the shallow temptation of a vacant and hollow pluralism. We, in America and more broadly the West, have for the past half century resisted defining national cultures in the name of inclusivity. But inclusion into what?\u201d<\/p>\n

Katzenberg\u2019s WNDR conference is one of several recent multi-discipline, ultra-elite gatherings hosted by CEOs, including Jeff Bezos<\/a> and Eric Schmidt. Katzenberg founded his investment firm WndrCo<\/a> in 2017.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Just weeks after Justin Bieber\u2019s well-received Coachella headline gig, the singer played a small private event for tech,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":308784,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[3653,129730,129731,129732,124135,6497,85542,48,52,51,47,50,49,71392,96943,6053,129728,7091,7051,995,129729],"class_list":["post-308783","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-bill","tag-defense-exec","tag-defense-industry-mogul","tag-entertainment-executive-jeffrey-katzenberg","tag-headliner","tag-justin-bieber","tag-katzenberg","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-palantir","tag-panel-discussion","tag-programming","tag-rosewood-miramar","tag-singer","tag-talk","tag-tech","tag-wndr"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308783","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=308783"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308783\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/308784"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=308783"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=308783"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=308783"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}