Tech4Gamers writes: “A PlayStation Support assistant has confirmed that the 30-day timer implemented by the new DRM policy is part of an update and isn’t a bug. While responding to a fan’s query, PS support revealed that all games purchased digitally after March 2026 will be affected by this time limit.
If your PS4 or PS5 does not connect to the internet within 30 days, the game’s license will expire, and it won’t launch on the console unless the connection is restored. Hence, every digital game you purchase from now on will require an online check-in, or else you will lose ownership.”
EXCLUSIVE:NAMIC Next celebrated its 32nd Annual Vision Awards with a celebration in Los Angeles tonight hosted by comedian Al Madrigal. The Vision Awards celebrate outstanding original TV programming that reflects the rich and complex lived experiences of today’s multicultural audiences.
Broadcast journalist John Quiñones was honored with the inaugural Legacy & Impact Award “for his ongoing contributions to creating culturally impactful stories, stemming from his reporting on ABC News and 20/20 to his role as creator and host of What Would You Do?” touts the org. Among the shows that received awards this evening are ABC’s Abbott Elementary, Peacock’sBel-Air, and Reading Rainbow.
The honors are spread across 16 categories in scripted, unscripted, animation, sports, news, and digital programming. The newest category, Character Voiceover, joined other individual achievement honors such as Performance – Drama, and program categories including Comedy Series or Special and News/Informational Programming.
The full list can be found below.
Animation • #1 Happy Family USA – Prime Video • Kindergarten: The Musical! – Disney Jr./Disney + • Marvel’s Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur – Disney Channel/Disney+ • The Proud Family: Louder and Prouder – Disney Channel/Disney+
Best Performance – Comedy • Grace Byers in Harlem – Prime Video • Niecy Nash in All’s Fair – Hulu • Shoniqua Shandai in Harlem – Prime Video • Sean Patrick Thomas in Gen V – Prime Video
Best Performance – Drama • Angela Bassett in 9-1-1 – ABC • Emayatzy Corinealdi in Reasonable Doubt – Hulu • Viola Davis in G20 – Prime Video • Zahn McClarnon in Dark Winds – AMC
Character Voiceover • Sterling K. Brown in Invincible – Prime Video • London Hughes in BAT-FAM – Prime Video • Keke Palmer in The Second Best Hospital in the Galaxy – Prime Video • Alia Shawkat in #1 Happy Family USA – Prime Video
Children’s Programming • Dora and the Search for Sol Dorado – Nickelodeon/Paramount+ • Goosebumps: The Vanishing – Disney+ • Percy Jackson and the Olympians – Disney+ • Reading Rainbow – Embassy Row/Sony Pictures Television
Comedy Series or Special • Abbott Elementary – ABC • All’s Fair – Hulu • Harlem – Prime Video • Running Point – Netflix
Digital Media • Cooking Sessions with Tamar and Ms. E – CLEO TV • Disney Jr.’s Ariel: Songs from the Crystal Cavern – Disney+ • Marvel’s Iron Man and His Awesome Friends – YouTube • Savor the City – TV One
Documentary • E60: Above the Tide: 20 Years After Katrina – ESPN • Murder Has Two Faces – Hulu/ABC News Studio • Sitting Bull – The HISTORY Channel • SLY LIVES! (aka The Burden of Black Genius) – Hulu/Onyx Collective
Drama Series or Special • Bel-Air – Peacock • Paradise – Hulu • Reasonable Doubt – Hulu/Onyx Collective • Washington Black – Hulu
Foreign Language Programming • Karina Tovar – ESPN • Red Alert – Paramount+ • SC Featured: In Due Time – ESPN
Lifestyle Programming • Family Recipe Showdown – Food Network • Harlem Globetrotters: Secrets of the City – aspireTV • Savor the City – TV One • Solo Traveling with Tracee Ellis Ross – Roku Channel
News/Informational • ABC News 20/20 | ABC News Live – Operation Babylift: The 50-Year Journey – ABC • ABC News Studios – Hurricane Katrina: 20 Years After the Storm with Robin Roberts – ABC • ABC News Live Prime with Linsey Davis – Revising the Voting Rights Act – ABC • ABC News Live Prime with Linsey Davis – The Long Train Ride Home: Remembering Emmett Till 70 Years Later – ABC
Original Movie or Special • Christmas Everyday – Lifetime • Eric Jerome Dickey’s Friends and Lovers – Lifetime • Give Me Back My Daughter – Lifetime • The Lion King at the Hollywood Bowl – Disney+
Reality Programming • Dancing With the Stars – ABC • The Braxtons – We TV • Top Chef – Bravo • What Would You Do? – ABC
Sports Programming • Big Dreams: Little League World Series 2024 – ESPN • College GameDay: A World Away – ESPN • Game One: Journey to the NCAA Championship -Jordan Chiles – ESPN • Monday Night Countdown: Welcome to the Team – ESPN
Variety/Talk Show • Las Culturistas Culture Awards – Bravo • Reality with The King – OWN • The Oscars – ABC • The View – ABC Television
On the surface, it’s hard to think of a better match between an event and a public personality than the Met Gala and “Just needs the O” EGT winner Billy Porter. After all, Porter has spent years delivering the most eye-catching and bold looks imaginable—both on the set of his former FX series Pose, and beyond. Which makes it a bit shocking to learn that not only has Porter only attended the planet’s ground zero for fashion excess once, but that he hasn’t been extended even a single invitation for a return visit since.
This is per Vulture, reporting on an appearance that Porter recently made on Bevy Smith’s Bevelations SiriusXM show, where he talked about his feelings about the Vogue-curated fashion event. “The reality is, when people ask me, you need to know I was not invited and I’m good,” Porter said, referencing the wide response to his 2019 appearance at the show, which was apparently facilitated by Pose‘s Ryan Murphy. And while he stated that he was “good” with the lack of invitation, Porter also made it clear that his feelings have been hurt about the lack of an invite—namechecking 2025’s “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style” as an obvious fit.
“I don’t go to places where I’m not welcome,” Porter said of not getting the call from Vogue or its famed (now former) editor-in-chief Anna Wintour. “I’ve earned the invitation and it’s ok that I don’t have it because there’s a level that I’ve reached that doesn’t require validation from the outside. I’m going to sit and live in that because it helps keep me sane, too.”
Porter made a huge splash at the 2019 version of the show, being carried out on the red carpet on a palanquin and bedecked in gold. Not that he’s been resting idle since then: He’s appeared in a number of TV shows, directed a film, recorded music, starred in a London revival of Cabaret, and more. Still, it really does feel like a missed opportunity not to have such a clear style icon be part of “fashion’s biggest night.” The next installment of the event is on May 4, with the theme “Fashion Is Art”; it’s not hard to imagine Porter absolutely killing that concept.
Moviefone presents the 30 greatest Best Picture Oscar winners of all time.
The 98th Academy Awards will take place on Sunday, March 15th and by its conclusion a new film will be added to the exclusive list of Best Picture winners.
And let’s not forget the all-time classic movies that were completely snubbed such as ‘Pulp Fiction‘ or ‘The Shawshank Redemption,’ and did not receive the Academy recognition they deserved.
In honor or the upcoming Oscar ceremony, we’ve decided to countdown the 30 greatest Best Picture winners of all-time.
(L to R) Robert Redford and Paul Newman in ‘The Sting’. Photo: Universal Pictures.
A novice con man (Robert Redford) teams up with an acknowledged master (Paul Newman) to avenge the murder of a mutual friend by pulling off the ultimate big con and swindling a fortune from a big-time mobster (Robert Shaw).
“…all it takes is a little confidence.”
Release Date: Dec 25, 1973
Run Time: 2 hr 9 min
Budget: $5,500,000
In the years before World War II, a tomboyish postulant (Julie Andrews) at an Austrian abbey is hired as a governess in the home of a widowed naval captain (Christopher Plummer) with seven children and brings a new love of life and music into the home.
“The happiest sound in all the world!”
Release Date: Apr 1, 1965
Run Time: 2 hr 54 min
Budget: $8,200,000
When car dealer Charlie Babbitt (Tom Cruise) learns that his estranged father has died, he returns home to Cincinnati, where he discovers that he has a savant older brother named Raymond (Dustin Hoffman) and that his father’s $3 million fortune is being left to the mental institution in which Raymond lives. Motivated by his father’s money, Charlie checks Raymond out of the facility in order to return with him to Los Angeles. The brothers’ cross-country trip ends up changing both their lives.
“A journey through understanding and fellowship.”
Release Date: Dec 16, 1988
Run Time: 2 hr 14 min
Budget: $25,000,000
All unemployed, Ki-taek’s (Song Kang-ho) family takes peculiar interest in the wealthy and glamorous Parks for their livelihood until they get entangled in an unexpected incident.
“Act like you own the place.”
Release Date: Nov 1, 2019
Run Time: 2 hr 13 min
Budget: $11,363,000
Joe Buck (Jon Voight) is a wide-eyed hustler from Texas hoping to score big with wealthy New York City women; he finds a companion in Enrico “Ratso” Rizzo (Dustin Hoffman), an ailing swindler with a bum leg and a quixotic fantasy of escaping to Florida.
“For those who have never seen it and those who have never forgotten it.”
Release Date: Jul 30, 1969
Run Time: 1 hr 53 min
Budget: $3,600,000
(L to R) Leonardo DiCaprio and Jack Nicholson in ‘The Departed’. Photo: Warner Bros.
To take down South Boston’s Irish Mafia, the police send in one of their own to infiltrate the underworld, not realizing the syndicate has done likewise. While an undercover cop (Leonardo DiCaprio) curries favor with the mob kingpin (Jack Nicholson), a career criminal (Matt Damon) rises through the police ranks. But both sides soon discover there’s a mole among them.
“Cops or criminals. When you’re facing a loaded gun, what’s the difference?”
Release Date: Oct 5, 2006
Run Time: 2 hr 31 min
Budget: $90,000,000
A prizefighter-turned-longshoreman (Marlon Brando) with a conscience goes up against labor leaders to expose corruption, extortion, and murder among the union ranks.
“The man lived by the jungle law of the docks!”
Release Date: Jul 28, 1954
Run Time: 1 hr 48 min
Budget: $910,000
During the Iraq War, a Sergeant recently assigned to an army bomb squad is put at odds with his squad mates due to his maverick way of handling his work.
“You don’t have to be a hero to do this job. But it helps.”
Release Date: Jul 31, 2009
Run Time: 2 hr 11 min
Budget: $15,000,000
Directed by Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, collectively known as Daniels, the film is a hilarious and big-hearted sci-fi action adventure about an exhausted Chinese American woman (Michelle Yeoh) who can’t seem to finish her taxes.
“The universe is so much bigger than you realize.”
As a young and naive recruit in Vietnam, Chris Taylor (Charlie Sheen) faces a moral crisis when confronted with the horrors of war and the duality of man.
“The first casualty of war is innocence.”
Release Date: Feb 6, 1987
Run Time: 2 hr
Budget: $6,000,000
20. ‘Anora’ (2024)
(L to R) Mikey Madison as Ani and Mark Eydelshteyn as Ivan in ‘Anora’. Photo: Courtesy of NEON.
Mikey Madison captivates as Ani, a young sex worker from Brooklyn whose life takes an unexpected turn when she meets and impulsively marries Vanya (Mark Eydelshteyn), the impetuous son of a Russian billionaire. However, when Vanya’s parents catch wind of the union, they send their henchmen to annul the marriage, setting off a wild chase through the streets of New York.
Release Date: Nov 1, 2024
Run Time: 2 hr 19 min
Budget: $6,000,000
William Munny (Clint Eastwood) is a retired, once-ruthless killer turned gentle widower and hog farmer. To help support his two motherless children, he accepts one last bounty-hunter mission to find the men who brutalized a prostitute. Joined by his former partner (Morgan Freeman) and a cocky greenhorn, he takes on a corrupt sheriff (Gene Hackman).
“Some legends will never be forgotten. Some wrongs can never be forgiven.”
Release Date: Aug 7, 1992
Run Time: 2 hr 10 min
Budget: $14,400,000
A fading actor (Michael Keaton) best known for his portrayal of a popular superhero attempts to mount a comeback by appearing in a Broadway play. As opening night approaches, his attempts to become more altruistic, rebuild his career, and reconnect with friends and family prove more difficult than expected. Also starring Edward Norton, Naomi Watts, and Emma Stone.
“How did we end up here?”
Release Date: Nov 14, 2014
Run Time: 2 hr
Budget: $18,000,000
African-American Philadelphia police detective Virgil Tibbs (Sidney Poitier) is arrested on suspicion of murder by Bill Gillespie (Rod Steiger), the racist police chief of tiny Sparta, Mississippi. After Tibbs proves not only his own innocence but that of another man, he joins forces with Gillespie to track down the real killer. Their investigation takes them through every social level of the town, with Tibbs making enemies as well as unlikely friends as he hunts for the truth.
“They got a murder on their hands. They don’t know what to do with it.”
Release Date: Aug 2, 1967
Run Time: 1 hr 49 min
Budget: $2,000,000
In Casablanca, Morocco in December 1941, a cynical American expatriate (Humphrey Bogart) meets a former lover (Ingrid Bergman), with unforeseen complications.
“They had a date with fate in Casablanca!”
Release Date: Jan 23, 1943
Run Time: 1 hr 42 min
Budget: $878,000
Russell Crowe in ‘Gladiator’. Photo: Paramount Pictures.
After the death of Emperor Marcus Aurelius (Richard Harris), his devious son takes power and demotes Maximus (Russell Crowe), one of Rome’s most capable generals who Marcus preferred. Eventually, Maximus is forced to become a gladiator and battle to the death against other men for the amusement of paying audiences.
101-year-old Rose DeWitt Bukater (Gloria Stuart) tells the story of her life aboard the Titanic, 84 years later. A young Rose (Kate Winslet) boards the ship with her mother and fiancé. Meanwhile, Jack Dawson (Leonardo DiCaprio) and Fabrizio De Rossi (Danny Nucci) win third-class tickets aboard the ship. Rose tells the whole story from Titanic’s departure through to its death—on its first and last voyage—on April 15, 1912.
“Nothing on earth could come between them.”
Release Date: Dec 19, 1997
Run Time: 3 hr 14 min
Budget: $200,000,000
A petty criminal (Jack Nicholson) fakes insanity to serve his sentence in a mental ward rather than prison. He soon finds himself as a leader to the other patients—and an enemy to the cruel, domineering nurse (Louise Fletcher) who runs the ward.
“In this clean, orderly, disciplined world, who needs guys like McMurphy? Everybody.”
As the Iranian revolution reaches a boiling point, a CIA ‘exfiltration’ specialist (Ben Affleck) concocts a risky plan to free six Americans who have found shelter at the home of the Canadian ambassador. Also starring Bryan Cranston, Alan Arkin, and John Goodman.
“The movie was fake. The mission was real.”
Release Date: Oct 12, 2012
Run Time: 2 hr
Budget: $44,500,000
The tender, heartbreaking story of a young man’s struggle to find himself, told across three defining chapters in his life as he experiences the ecstasy, pain, and beauty of falling in love, while grappling with his own sexuality.
“This is the story of a lifetime”
Release Date: Nov 18, 2016
Run Time: 1 hr 51 min
Budget: $4,000,000
Viggo Mortensen as Aragorn Elessar in director Peter Jackson’s ‘The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King.’ Photo: Warner Bros.
Aragorn (Viggo Mortensen) is revealed as the heir to the ancient kings as he, Gandalf and the other members of the broken fellowship struggle to save Gondor from Sauron’s forces. Meanwhile, Frodo (Elijah Wood) and Sam (Sean Astin) take the ring closer to the heart of Mordor, the dark lord’s realm.
When world heavyweight boxing champion, Apollo Creed (Carl Weathers) wants to give an unknown fighter a shot at the title as a publicity stunt, his handlers choose palooka Rocky Balboa (Sylvester Stallone) , an uneducated collector for a Philadelphia loan shark. Rocky teams up with trainer Mickey Goldmill (Burgess Meredith) to make the most of this once in a lifetime break.
“His whole life was a million-to-one shot.”
Release Date: Dec 3, 1976
Run Time: 2 hr
Budget: $1,000,000
Clarice Starling (Jodie Foster) is a top student at the FBI’s training academy. Jack Crawford (Scott Glenn) wants Clarice to interview Dr. Hannibal Lecter (Anthony Hopkins), a brilliant psychiatrist who is also a violent psychopath, serving life behind bars for various acts of murder and cannibalism. Crawford believes that Lecter may have insight into a case and that Starling, as an attractive young woman, may be just the bait to draw him out.
“To enter the mind of a killer she must challenge the mind of a madman.”
Release Date: Feb 14, 1991
Run Time: 1 hr 59 min
Budget: $19,000,000
The story of J. Robert Oppenheimer’s (Cillian Murphy) role in the development of the atomic bomb during World War II.
“The world forever changes.”
Release Date: Jul 21, 2023
Run Time: 3 hr 1 min
Budget: $100,000,000
The true story of how businessman Oskar Schindler (Liam Neeson) saved over a thousand Jewish lives from the Nazis while they worked as slaves in his factory during World War II.
“Whoever saves one life, saves the world entire.”
Release Date: Feb 4, 1994
Run Time: 3 hr 15 min
Budget: $22,000,000
(L to R) Michael Keaton and Mark Ruffalo in ‘Spotlight.’ Photo: Open Road Films.
The true story of how the Boston Globe uncovered the massive scandal of child molestation and cover-up within the local Catholic Archdiocese, shaking the entire Catholic Church to its core. The movie stars Michael Keaton, Mark Ruffalo, and Rachel McAdams.
“Break the story. Break the silence.”
Release Date: Nov 25, 2015
Run Time: 2 hr 9 min
Budget: $20,000,000
Tough narcotics detective ‘Popeye’ Doyle (Gene Hackman) is in hot pursuit of a suave French drug dealer (Fernando Rey) who may be the key to a huge heroin-smuggling operation.
“Doyle is bad news—but a good cop.”
Release Date: Oct 9, 1971
Run Time: 1 hr 44 min
Budget: $1,800,000
In the continuing saga of the Corleone crime family, a young Vito Corleone (Robert De Niro) grows up in Sicily and in 1910s New York. In the 1950s, Michael Corleone (Al Pacino) attempts to expand the family business into Las Vegas, Hollywood and Cuba.
“The rise and fall of the Corleone empire.”
Release Date: Dec 20, 1974
Run Time: 3 hr 22 min
Budget: $13,000,000
During World War I, English officer Thomas Edward ‘T.E.’ Lawrence (Peter O’Toole) sets out to unite and lead the diverse, often warring, Arab tribes to fight the Turks.
Release Date: Dec 16, 1962
Run Time: 3 hr 48 min
Budget: $15,000,000
(L to R) James Caan, Marlon Brando, Al Pacino and John Cazale in ‘The Godfather’. Photo: Paramount Pictures.
Spanning the years 1945 to 1955, a chronicle of the fictional Italian-American Corleone crime family. When organized crime family patriarch, Vito Corleone (Marlon Brando) barely survives an attempt on his life, his youngest son, Michael (Al Pacino) steps in to take care of the would-be killers, launching a campaign of bloody revenge.
Howard Stern is challenging a lawsuit against him from his former executive assistant, who’s suing for $2.5 million and a court order voiding her nondisclosure agreement.
In a bid to dismiss the case filed on Wednesday, Stern alleges the assistant, Leslie Kuhn, attempted to extract a hush-money payment from him and his production company before they sued. He denies claims that he fostered a hostile work environment, calling the lawsuit a shakedown.
“We are not going to play this out in public,” said Ilene Farkas, a lawyer for the SiriusXM host, in a statement. “The Sterns are entitled to enforce non-disclosure agreements signed by employees who enter their home and their private life, and they have filed a motion to address the lawsuit and the conduct of Ms. Kuhn and her lawyer.”
The legal battle started last month when Kuhn sued Stern, his wife and his production company, One Twelve. She was hired by SiriusXM in 2022 as an office manager for The Howard Stern Show and later became the host’s executive assistant. Earlier this year, she was terminated for cause over an undisclosed reason which she alleged was actually because of pressure caused by an animal foster group operated by Stern’s wife, according to the complaint.
At the center of the dispute: two separate confidentiality and nondisclosure agreements Kuhn alleged she never signed. The documents cover the personal affairs of anyone involved with One Twelve, including Stern’s family and friends, plus the host’s daily activities, personal habits and political affiliations, among other things. Kuhn seeks a court order declaring the agreements unenforceable so she can respond to “accusations made against her” and “protect her reputation and future employment prospects,” the lawsuit claimed
In Wednesday’s filing, Stern says he never intended to discuss Kuhn’s termination and planned to provide a neutral reference if asked. He cites evidence indicating that she knowingly signed the documents, pointing to an exchange in 2022 in which she sent The Howard Stern Show’s production manager a confidentiality agreement with her signature. And when asked to review a nondisclosure agreement in 2025, she wrote in an email, “Signed NDA attached,” according to the complaint.
The filing alleges that Stern notified Kuhn and her lawyer, John Leonard, of evidence showing that she signed the documents before she sued. He seeks a court order sanctioning them for allegedly weaponizing the legal process and lying to the court.
“The reason Kuhn filed this lawsuit was to pressure the Stern Parties into making an outlandish payment to make her go away,” the filing reads. “And the sole reason Kuhn’s termination has become a matter of public record is because Kuhn and her counsel chose to publicize it by filing this lawsuit and seeking to leverage the press.”
If Stern’s bid to dismiss the lawsuit is granted, the confidentiality and nondisclosure agreements will remain valid and enforceable. Under those documents, Kuhn will be barred from disclosing personal information, among other things, about the SiriusXM host.
Though it offers high-level sun protection, this formula has a skin care-first ingredient list mature skin benefits from, says Beth N. McLellan, MD, dermatologist at the Montefiore Einstein and Melanoma Research Alliance Dermatology Advisor. Instead of a typical sunscreen feel, it acts more like a daily moisturizer, adding hydration while helping protect against further signs of aging. The texture is slightly richer than most SPFs but still absorbs well, leaving skin feeling smooth and conditioned rather than greasy. It also includes peptides and antioxidants to support firmness and overall skin health with consistent use. It layers easily under makeup without emphasizing fine lines, too.
Frequently asked questions
What sunscreen is best for sensitive skin?
If you have sensitive skin, opt for mineral sunscreens that contain zinc oxide or titanium dioxide, since they’re generally less irritating to the skin and don’t cause adverse reactions, says Dr. Engelman. “Unlike chemical sunscreens, which need to absorb into the skin to work effectively, mineral sunscreens provide a physical barrier that remains on the skin’s surface,” says Dr. Singh. “This difference minimizes the risk of allergic and irritant reactions by preventing the activation of immune responses in the epidermis.” Mineral formulas also tend to be fragrance-free, noncomedogenic, and noninflammatory, says Dr. Engelman. Read “no harsh ingredients like oxybenzone.”
When shopping for sunscreen for sensitive skin, you can also look for key features like hypoallergenic and fragrance-free formulas. If you have dry, sensitive skin, look for hydrating ingredients such as ceramides or hyaluronic acid (for skin-barrier moisturization) and niacinamide (for soothing, anti-inflammatory benefits). If your skin is acne-prone, you may want to target oil-free formulas, since they’re less likely to clog pores and lead to breakouts.
What’s the difference between a chemical and a mineral sunscreen, and which is better for sensitive skin?
Although chemical and mineral sunscreens both protect against UV rays, they work in fundamentally different ways. “Chemical sunscreen is absorbed into the first layer of your skin and absorbs UV rays to protect your skin from the sun,” explains Dr. McLellan. Common ingredients in chemical formulas include avobenzone, octinoxate, and oxybenzone, and they tend to offer more water resistance and a more seamless finish on the skin.
Mineral sunscreens, on the other hand, create a physical barrier that sits on top of the skin and reflects UV rays. “These formulas typically include zinc oxide or titanium dioxide, which may cause a white cast or purple tint on the skin,” Dr. McLellan says. While that cast may be a drawback for some, mineral sunscreens are generally considered better for sensitive skin.
How do I know if I should use a sunscreen for sensitive skin?
Not all sunscreens agree with every skin type. If you notice persistent irritation after applying SPF, it could be a sign that your skin is sensitive to certain ingredients. “Those who have sensitive skin may experience symptoms such as redness, itching, dryness, etc. from some traditional sunscreens,” says Dr. McLellan. In that case, she suggests switching to a mineral sunscreen, as it may help reduce the risk of irritation, thanks to gentler active ingredients like zinc oxide or titanium dioxide.
Regardless of your skin type, remember: SPF protection is nonnegotiable. “Your SPF should be at least SPF 30+, and the right sunscreen for you is the one that you’ll use and reapply,” Dr. McLellan emphasizes. If you’re not sure whether you have sensitive skin, pay attention to how your skin reacts post-application, and consider consulting a dermatologist to find the formula that works best for you.
Is SPF 50 too much for sensitive skin?
The level of SPF you need is not determined by skin type. The American Academy of Dermatology (ADA) recommends using broad-spectrum sunscreen (which protects against both UVA and UVB rays) with a minimum sun protection factor (SPF) of 30, regardless of skin type, says Dr. Singh. Many dermatologists, however, tell us this is just a baseline, noting that SPF 50 is preferable across the board.
How to apply sunscreen on sensitive skin
Start with a calm, well-moisturized base and give skincare a minute or two to fully absorb so you’re not rubbing products together. It’s best to avoid over-layering actives right before SPF (like strong acids or retinoids), since sensitized skin is more likely to react.
Instead of rubbing aggressively, gently press or smooth sunscreen onto the skin in thin, even layers, especially around areas that tend to flush or sting, like the cheeks and nose. If a formula feels irritating, applying in smaller amounts and building coverage gradually can also help minimize discomfort.
Should you apply sunscreen directly on eczema, psoriasis, or other skin conditions?
People with eczema, psoriasis, or other inflammatory skin conditions are often more sensitive to sun exposure, which can worsen irritation or trigger flares, so daily sun protection is still important, says Rosemary DeShazo, MD, a board-certified dermatologist for Honeydew. That said, not all sunscreens are created equal for compromised skin. Choose a fragrance-free titanium- or zinc-based formula, since they’re less likely to sting or irritate active patches, she says.
If the skin is currently flaring, inflamed, or cracked, sunscreen can sometimes feel uncomfortable when applied directly. In those cases, it may help to first apply a gentle barrier-supporting moisturizer and then gently layer sunscreen on top, rather than rubbing it directly into broken skin.
As always, checking in with a dermatologist for individualized guidance and patch testing a new formula on a small area first is especially important when managing chronic skin conditions.
To find the best sunscreens for sensitive skin, we focused on three key factors: ingredients, texture, and efficacy. Over the past two years, our team has tested more than 100 sunscreens, which helped us refine what actually works (and what sounds good on paper but doesn’t hold up in real life). We also spoke with dermatologists to better understand what matters most for reactive, easily irritated skin.
We prioritized formulas with gentle, skin-supporting ingredients like niacinamide, ceramides, and hyaluronic acid, and avoided known irritants that can trigger redness or sensitivity. Texture and wearability were just as important. Even the best formula won’t get used if it feels heavy, greasy, or pills under makeup, so lightweight, fast-absorbing finishes scored highest.
Finally, we evaluated real-world efficacy—how well each sunscreen layered with skincare and makeup, how comfortable it felt throughout the day, and whether it caused any irritation over extended wear.
Dendy Engelman, MD, board-certified dermatologist at Shafer Clinic in New York City
For 34 years, Raindance Film Festival has existed slightly outside the official map of the film industry. That was never an accident. Independent cinema has always belonged to outsiders. The people without permission. The filmmakers building work in bedrooms, borrowed flats, abandoned warehouses, cheap edit suites, and impossible emotional conditions. The people making films because they had to, not because a studio committee approved a spreadsheet.
For decades, the mainstream industry treated independent film like a farm system. Festivals discovered talent. Hollywood absorbed it. Directors graduated upward into larger budgets, larger stars, and larger machines. That system is breaking apart. And maybe that is the most exciting thing that has happened to cinema in years.
At Raindance Film Festival, we have spent more than three decades discovering filmmakers before the mainstream catches up to them. We championed digital filmmaking before the industry took it seriously. We supported ultra-low-budget directors before “microbudget” became fashionable language in development meetings. We watched creators build careers from the edges while the center remained obsessed with control.
Now another shift is happening. But this time it feels bigger than format. It feels cultural.
The old model of filmmaking was built around gatekeepers. Studios controlled production. Distributors controlled access. Television networks controlled visibility. Film festivals controlled discovery. Audiences arrived at the end of the pipeline. That structure shaped the kind of stories that could exist.
Today, that pipeline is collapsing in real time. A filmmaker with a phone, editing software, AI tools, and a direct audience relationship can now build attention faster than institutions that once controlled the entire ecosystem. That changes everything.
We are watching the rise of AI-native creators. Not filmmakers who occasionally use AI tools, but creators whose entire creative logic has been shaped by algorithmic thinking, rapid iteration, prompt-based ideation, audience feedback loops, and accelerated production cycles. They do not think like traditional filmmakers. They do not wait five years to make one feature. They think in systems. In repeatable story engines. In audience retention. In emotional hooks. In ecosystems instead of isolated projects.
Traditional film culture often dismisses this shift because it does not resemble the romantic mythology of cinema many of us grew up with. But ignoring cultural change has always been fatal.
At the same time, vertical storytelling is rewriting visual language itself. For decades, cinema composition was built around horizontal framing: wide images, controlled perspective, carefully designed visual geography. Now millions of viewers experience narrative vertically. Thumb-driven. Fast-moving. Emotionally compressed. The grammar changes. Pacing changes. Performance changes. Even the psychology of attention changes.
Many traditional filmmakers laugh at this. That is usually what industries do before disruption becomes irreversible.
What interests me is not whether vertical storytelling replaces cinema. It will not. The more interesting question is this: what happens when entirely new generations grow up emotionally trained by different narrative rhythms? Because storytelling shapes perception. And perception shapes culture.
At the same time, we are seeing the emergence of anti-Hollywood production models. Smaller crews. Decentralised production. Creator-owned intellectual property. Audience-funded development. Distribution-first thinking. Films designed around sustainable economics instead of fantasy economics.
For years the industry sold filmmakers a dangerous illusion: make the film first, figure out the audience later. That model is collapsing under oversupply. Today there are simply too many films competing for finite attention. Which means creators who understand audience architecture now possess enormous advantages.
The future filmmaker may look less like a traditional director and more like a hybrid strategist. Part storyteller. Part community builder. Part media architect. Part entrepreneur.
That shift makes many people uncomfortable. Good. Creative revolutions are supposed to feel uncomfortable.
At Raindance Film Festival, we are increasingly interested in the filmmakers and creators emerging from this fracture point. The people building new forms instead of protecting dying systems. The creators experimenting with AI-assisted workflows without losing human perspective. The storytellers designing narrative for fragmented attention spans. The filmmakers creating sustainable careers outside institutional approval structures. The artists building direct relationships with audiences instead of waiting for permission from collapsing gatekeepers.
This is why conversations around the future of storytelling culture matter now more than ever. Because we are no longer simply discussing cinema. We are discussing identity. Attention. Technology. Power. Culture. And who gets to shape meaning in the next era of storytelling.
That is why I believe there could be an important conversation between benefactors, sponsors and Raindance Film Festival. Not simply about film, but about what creative culture becomes after the collapse of old creative systems.
The future rarely arrives politely. Usually it appears at the edges first. And for 34 years, that is where Raindance Film Festival has always looked.
Photo Credit: Bertie Watson I founded Raindance Film Festival in 1993 because the British film industry was closed, polite, and congratulating itself while shutting new filmmakers out. I co-founded the British Independent Film Awards in 1998 because British indie film deserved more than a shrug, a pat on the head, and a Tuesday night screening.
Raindance didn’t start as a brand.It started as a rebellion — film training without gatekeepers, a festival without permission, and a community built by filmmakers who weren’t waiting to be invited in.
Later, we took it global — Toronto, Vancouver, New York, LA, Berlin, Brussels — because independent film doesn’t belong to one city, one class, or one accent.
I’ve produced 700+ short films and seven features, including Deadly Virtues (2014) and ALICE, which won the SXSW Grand Jury Prize (2019) not because someone “discovered” us, but because the work earned its place.
I’ve written three books used by filmmakers worldwide because too many courses taught compliance instead of survival. In 2009, I was awarded a PhD for services to film education, ironic, given that most of my career has been about tearing down the rules that education insisted you follow.
I don’t believe in waiting for permission.I believe in making work, building systems, and forcing the industry to catch up.
Specialties: Independent Film (the real kind) · Producing · Writing · Film Education · Festivals · Breaking Broken Systems Check out my new Substack for in depth Free Articles:
Golf is no longer just a game—it’s a vibe. Once boxed into country clubs and tradition, the sport has exploded into pop culture thanks to a wave of celebrity superfans and buzzy tournaments that feel more like music festivals. And with that shift, golf fashion has taken on a new role: it’s not just performance wear—it’s personal branding.
From L.A. rooftops to major championships, pro athletes, musicians, and streetwear heads are all putting their own spin on the classic polo-and-pants uniform. Some brands skew high-tech and travel-ready, others lean into retro nods or full-on streetwear—but they all reflect how golf has become more social, more inclusive, and a lot more stylish.
Whether you’re playing a quick nine or just dressing like you might, these are the golf brands driving the look of modern leisure.
1. TravisMathew
Moveknit Sleeveless Polo Dress
What started as a laid-back SoCal golf brand is now one of the most-worn names at country clubs and celebrity tournaments. TravisMathew shows up everywhere from weekend rounds to events like the American Century Championship, worn by celebrities like Jimmy Garoppolo, Nate Bargatze, and PGA Tour star Akshay Bhatia. They hit that sweet spot of technical comfort and easy, everyday polish.
2. Johnnie-O
Performance Jersey Polo – Rez Stripe
Freeborne Performance Pullover
Johnnie-O brings a more elevated lens to preppy, everyday style, with a relaxed coastal influence and refined, premium feel. Beyond its classic staples, the brand is known for thoughtful details and understated storytelling through print–especially in its performance polos.
3. Malbon
Malbon is golf’s most culture-forward label. It’s less about country club dress codes and more about collabs with Adidas, Jimmy Choo, and, most recently, Glo Gang. The brand’s been worn by everyone from J. Cole to Schoolboy Q, making it the unofficial uniform of artists, hoopers, and trendsetters who love golf—or at least the aesthetic. It’s playful, bold, and built for Instagram as much as it is the back nine.
4. Nike
Dri-FIT ADV SwooshFlex Structured Golf Cap
Tartan Men’s Dri-FIT Golf Top
Nike’s golf presence is powered by performance—and backed by major champions. With Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy as leading ambassadors, the brand still dominates both leaderboards and locker rooms. Dri-FIT polos, streamlined layers, and sneaker-style golf shoes bring a modern edge to the course. It’s the gear pros trust, with the style streetwear fans want.
5. Peter Millar
Atlanta Braves Perth Sugar Stripe Performance Quarter-Zip
With Tiger Woods behind it, Sun Day Red was always going to get attention—but it’s the follow-through that’s made it stick. The brand has quickly expanded into a full offering, including a newly released women’s line, alongside standout pieces like the Osprey spikeless golf shoe that’s already become a go-to.
7. Vuori
Sunday Insulated Hybrid Vest
Aim Trouser Athletic Slim Fit Pant
Vuori has always lived in that in-between space—part activewear, part everyday uniform. The kind of pieces you end up wearing far beyond the workout. That ethos carries into its latest partnership with Tom Holland, anchored by a short film, Play It As It Lies, which leans into Holland’s well-known love of golf.
8. Wilson
Men’s Staff Model Glove
What started as a legacy name in golf equipment has quietly evolved into a full lifestyle player worth knowing. Wilson Sporting Goods is having a quiet comeback moment in fashion. While they may not have a golf-specific line, their classic polos and tennis skirts are showing up at tournaments and in everyday fits in that low-key, if-you-know-you-know way.
9. Sunday Swagger
North Shore Men’s & Women’s Polo
Sunday Swagger doesn’t do subtle. Known for bold prints, bright colors, and a “wear what makes you smile” mindset, this brand is made for golfers who bring the fun. Their focus is clearly on self-expression. It’s the go-to choice for golf trips, bachelor parties, and league nights. You can also match with your little ones thanks to their lineup of kids’ polos—because style (and swagger) should run in the family.
10. Rhone
Course to Court Sleeveless Polo
Rhone brings its clean, technical aesthetic to golf with clothing that’s polished, performance-driven, and ready to take you from course to court. The brand focuses on refined essentials—polished polos, lightweight layers, and insanely soft tailored fits. Each piece hides an empowering message stitched inside the hem—a subtle reminder of strength and confidence every time you wear it.
11. Bad Birdie Golf
Bad Rope Hat – Minty Fresh
UV Quarterzip – Spring Has Sprung
Bad Birdie Golf blends vibrant colors with quirky patterns, pushing the boundaries of traditional golf attire. From polos that pop to hats that scream “fore,” Bad Birdie Golf apparel brings a playful touch to your game. But don’t be fooled by the fun; their gear is crafted with high-quality materials to keep you comfortable and focused throughout your round.
It was 2018, and Elon Musk was having a very busy year.
His electric car company, Tesla, was struggling with manufacturing problems. He had a plan to take it private, but he kept angering regulators. SpaceX, his rocket company, was just starting to show momentum. And OpenAI, the nonprofit artificial intelligence lab he was supposed to be involved in, wasn’t getting much of his attention.
“I did not even have the time to attend board meetings,” Mr. Musk said on Wednesday, the second day of his testimony in a trial that pits him against OpenAI, two of its co-founders and the company’s giant partner, Microsoft.
That year, the seeds of today’s court fight were sown. Executives at OpenAI, which was founded as a nonprofit, were considering attaching a for-profit company to its structure. Mr. Musk did not have a problem with that, he said, but he wanted to make sure the nonprofit was still in charge. Now he regrets that he did not play a more active role before he left the lab in early 2018 and that he gave it money to get off the ground in the first place.
“I was a fool who provided them free funding to create a start-up,” Mr. Musk said in response to a question from his lawyer, Steven Molo. “I gave them $38 million of essentially free funding to create what would become an $800 billion company.”
In what is expected to be a monthlong trial in federal court in Oakland, Calif., Mr. Musk is arguing that OpenAI breached its founding contract when it took on Microsoft as an investor and started creating commercial products. He is asking for $150 billion in damages and for OpenAI to unwind the for-profit company it created last year.
Today, OpenAI is one of the tech industry’s most influential companies. Mr. Musk, of course, emerged from that rough year to become the wealthiest man in the world. But the relationships he had at the time with Sam Altman, OpenAI’s chief executive, and Greg Brockman, the company’s president, have long since been severed.
The hard feelings between the tech tycoons have been difficult to miss in the trial. Mr. Musk and Mr. Altman have known each other for years and hobnobbed in the same elite Silicon Valley circles. But mutual admiration — which led to their creation of OpenAI in 2015 — has soured to unapologetic animosity.
As Mr. Altman and Mr. Brockman watched from the courtroom gallery, just behind their lawyers, Mr. Musk, the first witness in the trial, continually described his former co-founders as a deceitful pair who duped him and steered OpenAI away from its altruistic roots.
Mr. Musk described how OpenAI evolved after he left the lab in early 2018, though he continued to donate money to the lab and received updates on its progress. About a year later, Microsoft invested $1 billion in OpenAI — a hint that it was starting to take its commercial potential seriously.
Mr. Musk said he was aware of Mr. Altman’s efforts to create a for-profit company and to raise money from Microsoft. But the company had put a cap on the profits that would flow to investors, so, he said, he did not think it was a big problem.
OpenAI and Microsoft also had a plan to dissolve their partnership if OpenAI created artificial general intelligence, essentially a machine that can do anything the human brain can. That provided additional reassurance, Mr. Musk added.
But he said he became very concerned when Microsoft said in early 2023 that it had invested $10 billion in OpenAI. That was after the release of ChatGPT, which quickly became an industry sensation. Mr. Musk said he had sent Mr. Altman a text message asking, “What the hell is going on?” and calling the investment a “bait and switch.”
“They had essentially turned the nonprofit into a company with a $20 billion valuation,” he said.
Microsoft “is not going to put $10 billion into something unless they think they are going to get a very big return,” he added. “There is no other way they are going to think about it.” Mr. Altman and OpenAI offered him equity in the company after Microsoft’s investment, Mr. Musk said. But he did not take it.
“Frankly, it felt like a bribe,” Mr. Musk said.
But William Savitt, OpenAI’s lead counsel, implied that Mr. Musk’s testimony contradicted what he had said in depositions before the trial. Did he donate $38 million to OpenAI — as he said in his testimony — or $100 million? In a deposition, he said it was $100 million.
Their exchange grew combative. “Your questions are not simple,” Mr. Musk said. “They are designed to trick me, essentially.” In another retort, he said: “The classic answer to a yes-or-no question is not so simple. For example, if you ask the question, ‘Will you stop beating your wife?’”
Judge Yvonne Gonzales Rogers, who is presiding over the trial, cut him off. “No, we’re not going to go there,” she said.
Mr. Savitt also has a complicated relationship with Mr. Musk. He once represented Mr. Musk and Tesla in a securities fraud lawsuit over the carmaker’s acquisition of the solar company SolarCity. Then he switched sides and represented Twitter against Mr. Musk, after the billionaire tried to back out of his 2022 acquisition offer for the social media company.
After Mr. Musk completed his purchase of Twitter, now X, the company sued Mr. Savitt’s law firm, Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, claiming that the firm’s earnings of $90 million for its representation of Twitter under previous management was “unjust enrichment.” The social media company dismissed its lawsuit last year.
Mr. Savitt returned to a number of emails Mr. Musk had discussed in his earlier testimony, and showed how they could be interpreted very differently. One email, Mr. Savitt said, demonstrated that as OpenAI explored a shift to a for-profit model in late 2017, Mr. Musk wanted a large stake in the organization and full control. That included the ability to choose a majority of the board members.
Mr. Savitt displayed other old emails in which Mr. Musk promised the other OpenAI founders that he would create a for-profit company with him in control.
As his testimony stretched into the afternoon, Mr. Musk became visibly frustrated with Mr. Savitt, calling his questions “definitionally complex.”
Mr. Musk also lashed out at Mr. Altman. Mr. Savitt displayed a 2018 email in which Shivon Zilis — a longtime employee of Mr. Musk’s, the mother of four of his children and a former OpenAI board member — asked Mr. Musk if she should stay close to OpenAI to keep feeding him information on the company.
Mr. Musk responded that Mr. Altman “did not keep the board informed, which was why he was fired from the company.” OpenAI’s board briefly forced out Mr. Altman in late 2023, but Ms. Zilis was not on the board at the time. He returned after five days of negotiations.
Mr. Musk now has his own A.I. company, xAI, which has become part of SpaceX. Mr. Savitt implied that Mr. Musk’s suit was just an attempt to delay OpenAI’s progress as his engineers improved xAI’s chatbot, Grok. He asked Mr. Musk if he agreed that Grok “lags much farther behind” ChatGPT.
“Not anymore,” Mr. Musk said.
(The New York Times has sued OpenAI and Microsoft, claiming copyright infringement of news content related to A.I. systems. The two companies have denied the suit’s claims.)
The trial and Mr. Musk’s testimony are expected to continue on Thursday.
With Ryan Lattanzio wandering around the Lido in Venice, IndieWire chief critic David Ehrlich stepped in to co-host a special Telluride edition of “Screen Talk.” This year’s festival is replete with musicals, biopics, and documentaries.
Early word, said Ehrlich, is that Edward Berger’s behind-the-scenes pope drama “Conclave” (Focus) might be a lighter take than “The Two Popes.”
I’m more excited than David is about “Saturday Night” (Sony), Jason Reitman’s look at the last hours before the launch of “SNL.” That may be because I was around to watch that show from the start.
We agree that the movie with the most rapturous early buzz — if not hype— is documentary filmmaker RaMell Ross’ Colson Whitehead adaptation “Nickel Boys” (Amazon/MGM), his first narrative feature, which was also picked for opening night at NYFF.
Ehrlich has seen musical “The End,” another transition to fiction filmmaking from documentarian Joshua Oppenheimer (“The Act of Killing”): “It’s a natural continuation of the themes he’s been focusing on, the way people live with guilt.”
Another musical is Silver Medallion tributee Jacques Audiard’s “Emilia Perez” (Netflix), which I adored at Cannes, where it won two prizes. Ehrlich is not a fan. He’s excited to see “The Great Showman” director Michael Gracey’s “Better Man,” a satirical musical biopic starring Robbie Williams as himself.
Netflix pickup “Maria” showcases Angelina Jolie in a comeback role as opera singer Maria Callas, the conclusion of the Pablo Larrain real-women trilogy (“Jackie,” “Spencer”). Ehrlich reviews the Venice debut here.
Also on the list of potential Best Actress nominees is “The Outrun” (Sony Pictures Classics) starring tributee Saorise Ronan as a recovering alcoholic in the Orkney Islands, her first contemporary role in a decade. Mikey Madison in Sean Baker’s Cannes Palme d’Or-winner “Anora” (Neon) is another candidate.
August Wilson’s “The Piano Lesson” (Netflix) is a family affair produced by Denzel Washington, directed by Malcolm Washington, and starring John David Washington.
Morgan Neville’s Pharrell WIlliams Lego animated “Piece by Piece” (Focus) is among the documentaries dominating the program in this year impacted by strikes.
Watch the full episode above or listen to it below.
Screen Talk is produced by Azwan Badruzaman and available on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, and Spotify, and hosted by Megaphone. Browse previous episodes here, subscribe here, and be sure to let us know if you’d like to hear the hosts address specific issues in upcoming editions of Screen Talk.
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Streaming can get expensive. Most buzzy shows are now spread out across multiple on-demand services, from HBO Max to Disney+, and some series are still only available on traditional TV channels. Paying for all those services individually can get pricey, but there is a better way: a high-value subscription.
One of the best bundle subscriptions on the market is DIRECTV’s MyEntertainment Genre Pack. The streaming package delivers HBO Max Basic With Ads, Disney+, Hulu Bundle, and more than 60 live TV channels. You also get unlimited cloud DVR storage to watch network shows on your own schedule.
And the kicker? All of this costs just $34.99 a month.* That’s a very good deal when you compare the MyEntertainment package to other cable streaming services and the standalone price for HBO Max or the Disney+/Hulu bundle (both start at $9.99 each). Plus, the MyEntertainment Genre Pack starts with a five-day free trial to check it out before paying.*
The 60+ channels available in the MyEntertainment Genre Pack include popular networks like Bravo, MTV, HGTV, ID, FX, and History Channel. You also get news networks including CNN, Fox News, and MS Now.
DIRECTV launched MyEntertainment last year, along with four other Genre Packs. The other Genre Packs are MySports ($69.99 a month)*, MyNews ($39.99 a month)*, MyKids ($19.99 a month)*, and MiEspañol ($34.99 a month)*. All of these packs are a great way to get the live TV channels you want — and not the ones you never watch — for a much lower price. Plus, some of them include bonus streaming subscriptions, like HBO Max Basic With Ads with MyEntertainment or ESPN Unlimited with MySports.†
DIRECTV also offers add-ons to qualifying Genre Packs: MySports Extra ($12.99 a month),* MyCinema ($9.99 a month)*, and MyHome Team ($19.99 a month)*. (Restrictions apply.)
*New residential customers only. Valid card req’d; may be charged a temp. hold during trial. Service renews monthly after trial unless canceled. Access to HBO Max content begins after trial. Cancel anytime. Prices may vary through third parties. Restr’s apply.
†Must be 18+ This will not replace any existing Disney+, Hulu, ESPN, or Disney bundle subscription you may already have. All other accounts must be managed separately. You must remain on an eligible plan to retain your offer.
From Ranveer Singh’s Pralay update to Yash’s Toxic postponement; here’s what all ruled headlines on Wednesday, April 29.
Ranveer Singh and Yash were among the top newsmakers on Wednesday.
Amid reports that Ranveer Singh has quit Pralay, a post-apocalyptic zombie thriller directed by Jai Mehta, it has now been reported that all such allegations are ‘completely baseless’. If a report by Variety India is to be believed, Ranveer and Jai have started working on the project and have finalised the script of the film. Interestingly, this comes at a time when Ranveer Singh has also been making headlines for quitting Don 3. The actor, who is currently enjoying the success of his Dhurandhar franchise, left the movie last year.
Yash’s much-anticipated film Toxic: A Fairy Tale for Grown-Ups has been delayed once again. On Wednesday, the makers of the film directed by Geetu Mohandas, announced that the film will not hit theatres on June 4, 2026. Instead, they have now decided to push the release to a later, globally aligned date as the team is focusing on international distribution and positioning. The new date has not been announced as of now.
Residents of three villages near Usilampatti in Madurai district – Papapatti, Pagathevanpatti and Peyampatti – held a protest against Vijay’s upcoming film Jana Nayagan. Reportedly, families across the villages put up black flags outside their homes as a mark of protest. Not just this, they also gathered in public spaces, raising slogans against the film. According to the protesters, certain scenes in Jana Nayagan wrongly depict their villages and distort real-life events. They are now demanding an apology from the makers of the film and from Vijay.
Vicky Kaushal is impressed with Riteish Deshmukh’s upcoming movie, Raja Shivaji. Recently, JioStudios shared a video on social media in which the Chhaava star was seen interacting with Riteish about the making of his film. In the clip, Riteish also showed a glimpse of his movie to Vicky, leaving him impressed. “I don’t think Marathi cinema has seen an action sequence like this,” Vicky said as he also extended his wishes to the Raja Shivaji team.
Actor-turned-politician Mithun Chakraborty arrived at the Subhokhon Community Hall in Belgachia to cast his vote in the ongoing West Bengal assembly elections. In a video that surfaced on social media, the 75-year-old actor was seen standing in a queue with other voters, waiting for his turn. Later, Mithun also spoke to the media and revealed that he wanted to vote like any other citizen and had also refused any special treatment.
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Marvel Television finally confirmed where Mike Colter’s Luke Cage is during the events of Daredevil: Born Again Season 2, and it confirms a popular theory. Daredevil: Born Again is continuing to ease fans into a full-on revival of Netflix’s Defenders Saga in Season 2, having just brought back Krysten Ritter’s Jessica Jones (now with a daughter, Danielle) after already featuring Jon Bernthal’s Punisher last season. Jones’ return has come alongside a particular interest in Matthew Lillard’s Mr. Charles, the new CIA villain who links to Vincent D’Onofrio’s Kingpin and another MCU Phase 5 villain, along with a beloved Netflix hero.
In Daredevil: Born Again Season 2, Episode 6, Krysten Ritter’s Jessica Jones revealed that her home had been attacked by a “wetwork” team sent by Matthew Lillard’s Mr. Charles. She explained that the CIA operative had been “running guns with Fisk,” but, more interestingly, he had been looking to recruit super-powered people, an offer she refused, while “not everyone [she knows] did:”
“After you called, I did some digging. Found out who’s been running guns with Fisk and giving him all this cover… A while ago, this guy called. Obviously agency. Obviously sketchy as hell. He was interested in people like us. I told him to f***. Not everyone I know did.”
Jones’ tease that another super-powered familiar was working for Charles had many convinced that Mike Colter’s Luke Cage was now in his employ. It is believed that Cage and Jones have gotten even closer since they were last seen together, with the bulletproof man all but confirmed to be the mother of her child, Danielle.
Marvel Television
Season 2, Episode 7 has finally confirmed, yes, Luke Cage is working for Mr. Charles and is “overseas… doin’ the lord’s work so you don’t have to.” The interaction arises when Jessica Jones confronts Charles over the men attacking her at home, to which he says, “they were just supposed to tell [her] to back off” from investigating his arms deal with Wilson Fisk.
Wherever Cage happens to be, he seems to be rather isolated from the world, as Charles claims that he is the “only one who can connect [her] with Luke.” As such, it seems unlikely Cage will be back as soon as this season, especially after showrunner Dario Scardapane explained Luke Cage and Iron Fist’s absences.
Marvel Television
Interestingly, these weapons that Charles has been running with Kingpin are, in fact, developed by OXE Group from Thunderbolts*, which is led by Julia Louis-Dreyfus’ Valentina Allegra de Fontaine. As the Disney+ series has already confirmed that Charles and Valentina are in cahoots, that only makes sense.
Born Again Season 3 is already in production, to be released next year, and Luke Cage is all but confirmed to return alongside the other Defenders. As such, it may not be long until fans get more answers on what he has been doing overseas, as he makes his way back to New York to reunite with Jessica and Danielle.
Luke Cage’s New Job Is Setting Up the MCU’s Next Thunderbolts
Marvel Television
The Falcon and the Winter Soldier and Thunderbolts* made it clear that Valentina was recruiting super-powered assets to work on her sketchy black ops missions, including the group that became the New Avengers. Despite the 2025 flick’s title, that group didn’t exactly represent the Thunderbolts most are familiar with from Marvel Comics, but that’s not to say that it can’t still happen in the MCU.
Daredevil: Born Again Season 2 officially takes place after Thunderbolts*, meaning that Valentina is no longer fully in control of her super-powered assets. That may explain why she has Charles out on the recruiting drive, seeking superhumans to do her bidding and perhaps form a new version of the Thunderbolts.
One has to wonder what would compel a family man, Luke Cage, to travel overseas to work for shady CIA officials like Charles and Valentina, but the answer to that question may also lie with his bloodline and a familiar MCU villain.
Luke Cage Season 2 pitted the Hero of Harlem against his brother, Willis Stryker, aka Diamondback, in a Hammer Industries battle suit. After his eventual defeat, Stryker was locked away in the Raft with other MCU villains, where he could easily have been recruited by Valentina or Charles, thereby leveraging Cage into signing up too to keep an eye on his villainous brother abroad.
Ethan Hawke is the star of an underrated Batman series, and the show ends up having one of the best casts for any DC series. The Dark Knight is DC’s most popular superhero. Sure, Superman is the epitome of what it means to be a superhero, but no DC character has managed to leave a bigger mark in comics, movies, TV shows, and games than Batman.
Several live-action Batman movies have been released over the years, with DC soon set to have two versions of Bruce Wayne running at the same time on the big screen. Despite rumors, Hawke never played one of them, nor is he under consideration to do so at the moment. Instead, the two live-action Batmen are Robert Pattinson’s version from The Batman franchise and the actor who will don the cowl in James Gunn’s DC Universe.
That said, Hawke’s involvement with Batman’s mythos comes in the form of another popular medium for the character. After all, Batman’s animated shows are some of DC’s best and most iconic releases of all time. For instance, Batman: The Animated Series introduced characters like Harley Quinn, while the more recent Batman: Caped Crusader brings the Dark Knight back to 1940s Gotham City.
While it is set in the modern day, Batwheels, Hawke’s three-season animated Batman series, continues the franchise’s idea of always doing something fresh. As its name suggests, the show focuses on the Bat-Family’s vehicles, who are living beings in a Cars meets Batman twist. The show quietly has a phenomenal cast.
Batwheels’ Cast Mixes Live-Action And Animation Stars
Batman hanging on to a building in Batwheels
Due to how Batwheels is aimed at young kids and its story is more vibrant than the dark tone that Batman fans prefer for the DC hero’s adventures, the animated series has not become one of Bruce Wayne’s most-talked-about releases. As such, Batwheels has been quietly playing out over the years, adding several exciting stars to its cast over three seasons, with Batwheels season 3C set to arrive on HBO Max on May 22.
The animated Batman series features a diverse ensemble, with multiple actors fans will recognize from popular live-action releases and some true masters of the animated medium. Led by Hawke as Batman, Batwheels‘ popular live-action actors include DCEU Blue Beetle actor Xolo Maridueña as Mr. Freeze’s Snowy, Jane the Virgin‘s Gina Rodriguez as Catwoman, Batman legend Adam West (through archival audio) as A.D.A.M, and Diary of a Wimpy Kid star Zachary Gordon as Nightwing.
They are aided by a stellar roster of experienced voice actors that includes names like SpongeBob SquarePants‘ Tom Kenny, Star Wars: Clone Wars‘ James Arnold Taylor and Dee Bradley Baker, Bat-Fam‘s Fred Tatasciore, frequent Batman voice actor Diedrich Bader, and many more. This mix keeps things interesting in the show with immediately recognizable voices and true chameleons of the profession, adding a nice flair to Batwheels‘ cast of beloved characters.
Ethan Hawke Shows He Has What It Takes To Play Batman In Live-Action
Ethan Hawke at the 2026 BAFTA Film AwardsJulie Edwards/Future Image/Cover Images
After voicing Batman for years in the animated series, Hawke has shown that he has what it takes to play the hero in live-action. He has one of the hardest tasks given to a Batman actor, which is to make the character still feel in line with the darker, stoic tone that fans expect from him in most appearances, while never feeling out of place in the wildly fun and vibrant world created by a Batman spinoff series where the Bat-Family’s vehicles can talk.
Any actor cast in that specific role would have to walk a fine line, and Hawke has been doing so with an ease that shows he would absolutely succeed as Batman in live-action. He could do grounded or fantastical Batman in a heartbeat. Additionally, Hawke has an extensive live-action resume to prop him up to such a position. While he is unlikely to play Batman in the DCU’s The Brave and the Bold movie, perhaps after his Batwheels‘ performance, Hawke could jump to live-action down the line for a multiverse event, which Peacemaker season 2 opened the door to.
Release Date
October 15, 2022
Network
Cartoon Network
Directors
Antoine Charreyron, Lila Martinez, Michael Berardini, Vaughn Ross, T.J. Sullivan
A Japanese retailer is taking steps to prevent Pokémon card scalpers by making them prove their knowledge first.
At least one branch of electronics retailer Bic Camera, which has 45 stores across Japan, is reportedly demanding that would-be customers looking to buy the latest Pokémon Trading Card Game set have to take a test first.
As spotted by X user Ryo Saeba, the Bic Camera branch in Ikabukuro, Tokyo has posted a sign for anyone who wishes to buy a box of Mega Evolution: Ninja Spinner cards, which contains 30 packs.
The sign says boxes are limited to one per customer, and even then they won’t be sold unless three conditions are met.
Firstly, the customer has to take a quiz (which Saeba says consists of 15 questions) based on the Pokémon universe. “Only those who answer the quiz questions correctly will be able to purchase the item,” the sign says, warning that if anyone takes a photo of the quiz questions, they will be refused service.
The customer also needs to have either a Bic Camera rewards card or the Bic Camera app. Finally, they have to agree to let the cashier remove the shrink wrap and cut along the box’s perforations. By doing this, the customer can no longer resell the item as new and unsealed.
Pour lutter contre les scalpers, le Bic Camera Ikebukuro a mis en place un quiz Pokémon obligatoire. 15 questions basiques sur l’univers Pokémon à réussir pour pouvoir acheter des cartes. D’après les témoignages, les revendeurs n’ont pas réussi à passer le test #Japon#Pokemonpic.twitter.com/XoF2By6Q8h
— ⛩ Ryo Saeba | Japon XYZ ⛩ (@Ryo_Saeba_3) April 27, 2026
While scalpers – those who purchase products at retail price and resell them for a huge mark-up – have been a problem for The Pokémon Company for a long time, the practice has become more widespread in recent years as more stories are told of cards being resold at high amounts.
A number of stores in Japan – including the official Pokémon Center stores – have been removing the plastic film from the outside of sealed booster boxes when purchased in those stores, in an effort to dissuade scalpers (because customers on the secondary market can’t trust that the packs haven’t been tampered with).
For a normal consumer buying cards at the Pokémon Center or the Bic Camera branch in this story, the removal of the outside packaging makes no difference, as the packs themselves remain sealed, and there’s no chance of the cards being tampered with as they are being purchased from a reliable retailer.
When it comes to the barrage of nonsense coming from this White House, sometimes no response is the best response.
Disney has clearly learned its lesson from last year’s Jimmy Kimmel media firestorm, when it temporarily benched the late night host in the wake of threats from FCC chairman Brendan Carr. As Carr continues to weaponize the agency to take on critics of Donald Trump, his actions have even earned him rebukes from his own party (including Sen. Ted Cruz). What’s more, Trump’s demands that Kimmel be fired over a monologue joke rings especially weak given some of the president’s often divisive and violent rhetoric.
After all, this is a president who wrote that he was “glad” former Special Counsel Robert Muller had died. He has accused some Democrats of “seditious behavior, punishable by death” and regularly calls his political opponents “evil” and “the enemy.” He regularly calls reporters awful names, he said nasty things about Rob Reiner when the director died and is picking fights with the Pope. And of course, he has threatened to destroy “a whole civilization” while sending profanity-laced warnings against Iran.
But Carr has not shied away from doing his boss’ bidding, the First Amendment be damned. His attempts to punish Disney by opening up the company’s broadcast licenses for “early renewal” talks have been slammed by most in the TV stations community — a pretty conservative group of executives, by the way — for being inappropriate.
“The FCC’s broadcast license renewal process must be grounded in predictability, fairness and transparency, principles reflected in the license terms Congress established and later extended. The Media Bureau’s nearly unprecedented request for one company to quickly reapply for all of its licenses – rather than utilize its traditional enforcement process – runs contrary to these principles and creates significant uncertainty for all broadcasters,” National Association of Broadcasters CEO Curtis LeGeyt said in a statement.
Of course, most of this is for show, just as Carr’s podcasts appearances last year threatening Kimmel were a bunch of hot air. Remember when threatened ABC and its affiliates if they did not “take action” on Kimmel? “We can do this the easy way or the hard way,” he said, in a ridiculous statement that — again, I am as shocked as you are — earned a rebuke from Cruz. (He can be on the right side of history every once in a while, it turns out!)
And all of this political theater is why it’s for the best that Disney has been mostly silent about this latest skirmish. First of all, the Trump Administration’s Kimmel pile-on is even more brazen than last time (when the host’s comments were taken out of context after the death of Charlie Kirk). Mere minutes after the terrible (and criminal, let’s make it clear) assassination attempt outside the White House Correspondents Dinner, the Trump administration was already, crassly capitalizing on that awful event to campaign for their $400 million White House ballroom (and this time, with Trump supporters pushing for it to be paid for by public funds).
And then, seeing how this assassination attempt could be easily twisted to serve their agenda, the Trump administration saw an opening to go after Kimmel, and pile on an “expectant widow” joke made before the event that centered on the president’s age and the likelihood that the younger First Lady will outlive him. (And a joke, Kimmel noted this Monday, Trump continues to make himself.)
Carr’s suggestion that the investigation into Disney’s DEI practices over the eight ABC station licenses is even more disingenuous and right in line with the Trump administration’s anti-diversity and anti-inclusion playbook. Don’t like something? Blame the idea that there should be equity and fairness in hiring all people from all backgrounds.
The good news is, any attempt by the government to strip Disney of its broadcast licenses would take years to go through the courts, and you would hope this gambit would fizzle as the baseless reasons behind such a move would be made clear. “We are confident that record demonstrates our continued qualifications as licensees under the Communications Act and the First Amendment and are prepared to show that through the appropriate legal channels,” Disney said in its one statement on the matter. “Our focus remains, as always, on serving viewers in the local communities where our stations operate.”
What’s perhaps most telling with this kerfuffle is everyone seems to see through Trump’s and Carr’s attempts at getting”Jimmy Kimmel Live!” off the air. Even station groups like Nexstar and Sinclair, which pre-empted Kimmel over the Kirk reference, are staying quiet now. They know that if they tried that stunt this time, they’d run right into a spirited debate about free speech, and they’d stir controversy right when they probably don’t need it: Particularly Nexstar, which has seen its attempts to buy the Tegna group put on hold as states fear what would happen once a combined Nexstar/Tegna megacorp held news monopolies in several large cities.
As a journalist who requires access to execs, I don’t love when people don’t return my calls or emails — but on Monday, I sort of got it. Disney was banking on the news cycle quickly moving on (as all headlines Trump usually do these days) and they didn’t want to fuel another day of conversation as the Trump administration attempted to fan the flames. Coincidentally that night, Disney held their “Toast to TV” Emmy FYC cocktail party, and as execs in attendance exhaled over the day they had just gone through, they felt like they had made the right call.
Meanwhile, as Disney smartly keeps its mouth shut, Kimmel continues to handle this latest controversy with aplomb. “I should point out Donald Trump is allowed to say whatever he wants to say, as are you and as am I, as are all of us,” he said during his Monday night monologue, “because under the First Amendment, we have as Americans a right to free speech.” Perhaps that’s worthy of a refresher course at the FCC and the White House.
What Vertical Drama Plot Reflects Your Love Life? Quiz
I’ve spent way too much time thinking about my ideal relationship, and I’m guessing you have too. So I turned it into a quiz! Build your ideal relationship, and I’ll tell you what kind of vertical drama (aka micro drama) your love life would be—because honestly, those plots are wildddd, and the more popular they get, the more that makes sense. Ready to find out? Let’s go.
Disney announced that it will no longer report on subscriber numbers for its streaming services in its quarterly financial reports, following in the footsteps of Netflix. The decision comes after a quarter in which it reported 2.6 million new Disney Plus and Hulu subscribers, bringing it to 183 million in total.
The decision was announced in quarterly earnings commentary from Disney CEO Bob Iger and CFO Hugh Johnston. The pair said that paid subscriber figures have become “less meaningful to evaluating the performance of our businesses,” and that not reporting them “will better align with changes in the media landscape.”
It echoes a similar change announced by Netflix last April. At the time, the company called subscriber counts “just one component” of its growth, pointing to “new” revenue streams, including its ad-supported plan and paid sharing.
Disney isn’t done announcing subscribers just yet. It will stop reporting membership figures and average revenue per user for ESPN Plus starting with the next quarter’s results, Q4 2025 of its fiscal year, and will cease reporting for Disney Plus and Hulu three months later. From then on, it will focus on reporting overall profitability for streaming instead.
For the quarter ending June 2025, Disney reported a 6 percent increase in streaming revenue year-on-year, and a $346 million profit. Disney Plus and Hulu combined now have 183 million subscribers, with 128 million of those for Disney Plus. ESPN Plus has 24.1 million subscribers, with no growth over the past three months. It’s soon to be joined by a new “unlimited” ESPN streaming service that will include access to the network’s linear channels as well.
Gen V might have been canceled after two seasons on Prime Video, but a scrapped Season 3 storyline could possibly show up in the Vought Universe sometime in the future.
The Boys showrunner Eric Kripke is teasing that Amazon has expressed interest in developing ideas from this world.
“It’s very early days, because we’re focusing on getting Vought Rising out into the world, but Amazon has expressed an interest and they want to hear more potential stories in the world,” Kripke told Entertainment Weekly.
He continued, “So we’re internally brainstorming a couple different ideas. We’ll see which ones get traction, but they all have the opportunity to absorb at least some of the Gen V gang, and that’s very much by design.”
Kripke had previously opened up about a specific storyline that he was excited to explore on the scrapped Gen V Season 3.
“We’re still hopeful we can find a way to do it. So, unfortunately, I can’t share it,” he said, adding, “This idea that Marie is powerful, but that’s not the end of her story. She has to learn how to control it.”
After news that Gen V would not be getting a third season, Kripke made it clear that it was not his decision not to move forward.
“I did not cancel the show. One, I don’t have the power to do that,” he told the publication. “Two, I was fighting to keep the show, almost more than anybody else on Earth. So I’m as bummed as everybody else out there.”
Massive Attack’s “Boots on the Ground” doesn’t do much, but it casts a long shadow. Listen even once and you may find its unvarying loops cycling unbidden through your mind, hours afterward—as, say, you stand numbly under the shower or sit blank-eyed at a stoplight: that stumbling trash-can beat, those brooding piano chords, and Tom Waits, sounding more haggard and unhinged than ever, croaking out the song’s titular refrain. Interspersed with that mantra-like phrase, he offers fragmentary visions from the front lines of America’s forever wars as glimpsed through the night-vision goggles of the nation’s jackbooted shock troops: “I kill a brown man I never-ass knew/Choked on spit and then he turned blue.” Waits is one of popular music’s great interpreters of hard-luck characters, but we’ve never heard him play a role like this.
“Boots on the Ground” is a cyclical song about cycles of violence, and part of its genius is the way it collapses multiple theaters of war into one ignominious battle scene, a spiritual blast crater big enough to swallow the whole nation. The Marines manning helicopter gunships in the opening verse, like something out of Black Hawk Down or Apocalypse Now, might also be the cops killing George Floyd. The song’s video, a montage of protest footage by documentary photographer thefinaleye, drives home the connections between overseas wars, the violent repression of civil rights on the domestic front, and the homelessness and substance abuse that plague American soldiers after their tours of duty are done. The song also reminds us of the working-class identity of the military’s ranks—“We trim your hedges, we fight in your wars”—and the lack of respect with which they’re treated by Washington’s kleptocrats: “A soldier’s just clay/How much does every soldier weigh?/Cut you off at the ankles and throw you away.”
In its torpid pace and toe-scuffing repetition, “Boots on the Ground” is structured like a chain-gang chant, which feels appropriate: It’s a reminder of the ways that the modern carceral state, and thus the militarization of domestic law enforcement, are themselves outgrowths of slavery. With a title seemingly ripped from the mouths of the Republican Party’s most avid warmongers, “Boots on the Ground” is a grimly timely song—it could apply equally to Iran, Venezuela, Cuba, or even, why not, Greenland—but it’s also a reminder that the violence begins, and persists, right here at home.
Most Warzone players lose matches before they even land. Not because of bad aim or slow reflexes—but because they treat every game like a random deathmatch.
The difference between consistently placing top 10 and getting eliminated in the first circle comes down to understanding a few core principles. These aren’t flashy tricks or cheese tactics. Just solid fundamentals that separate casual players from competitors who regularly see the victory screen.
Fortune’s Keep and Rebirth Island have transformed how Warzone plays in 2026. Fast-paced respawns mean positioning matters more than ever, and one bad rotation can cost your entire squad the match.
Loadout Knowledge Beats Meta Chasing
The “best” weapon changes every update. What doesn’t change is knowing your guns inside and out before taking fights.
Too many players grab the newest meta weapon, land into their first engagement, and realize they have no idea how it handles at 30 meters. The recoil pattern feels different. The damage falloff catches them off guard. They lose a winnable fight.
Pick three weapons and master them completely. Know exactly where each one excels. Close-quarters SMG work under 15 meters. Mid-range AR control from 20-50 meters. Long-range precision past 75 meters.
Map-specific loadouts matter more on Resurgence modes. Fortune’s Keep has tons of tight corridors and multi-level buildings. Loading in with a sniper setup puts you at a disadvantage when most fights happen within spitting distance.
Rebirth Island’s open rooftops and long sightlines reward versatility. One weapon for building pushes, another for holding angles on those infamous water tower rotations.
The pros don’t switch loadouts every match chasing kills. They find what works and practice until the muscle memory takes over. That consistency translates directly into more wins.
Positioning Wins Before Shots Are Fired
Good positioning gives you three advantages simultaneously: cover options, escape routes, and information control.
Every spot you hold should offer at least two exits. Corner yourself in a dead-end room and it doesn’t matter how accurate your aim is. The enemy team just needs to throw grenades until you’re eliminated or forced into a terrible push.
Environmental awareness extends beyond just finding cover. Watch for death markers that seem out of place. If three skulls pop up in an unusual location, something weird happened there. Either the enemy team got creative with positioning, or someone’s using undetected Warzone hacks at Battlelog to gain unfair advantages.
Your minimap tells stories if you know how to read it. Orange dots appearing and disappearing in patterns? That’s a team rotating, not random solos. Cluster of enemies holding one building? They’re either protecting a buy station or setting up for the next circle.
The push versus defend decision should never be a coin flip. Minimap intel makes it obvious. Three teams fighting nearby while you’re in a strong position? Let them weaken each other. Circle closing and you’re on the edge? Time to move before you’re forced into a bad rotation.
Movement Separates Good From Great
Tactical sprinting everywhere gets players killed. But standing still gets them eliminated faster.
Smart movement means understanding when speed matters and when you need to slow down. Rotating between circles demands speed. Approaching a building with enemy markers requires deliberate clearing.
The tac knife rotation trick still works in 2026. Switching to it gives a movement speed boost that adds up over multiple rotations. Those extra seconds often mean the difference between getting caught in the gas or making it to the next safe zone with time to set up.
Slide canceling mechanics have changed, but the principle remains: unpredictable movement patterns make you harder to track. Moving in straight lines at consistent speeds turns you into target practice.
Vertical movement gets overlooked on maps like Fortune’s Keep. Most players think horizontally—left, right, forward, back. The farmers’ fountains and multi-level structures reward players who think vertically. Drop down unexpectedly. Pop up from below. Attack from angles enemies don’t naturally watch.
Mindset Makes The Difference
Blaming losses on everything except personal mistakes guarantees you’ll keep making those same mistakes.
Every death carries a lesson. Pushed too aggressively without checking corners? Lesson learned. Rotated late and got caught by the gas? That’s on you, not bad luck. Missed shots because you panicked? Work on composure.
The complaining habit destroys improvement. Teams that spend matches blaming teammates, lag, or “sweats” never develop the self-awareness needed to get better. Pros take responsibility even when external factors played a role.
Analyzing mistakes doesn’t mean dwelling on them. Quick mental replay: what went wrong, what should have happened instead, move on. Apply the lesson next match.
Staying curious about the game keeps skills sharp. Fortune’s Keep has secrets most players never discover. Hidden routes, unexpected angles, timing patterns on high-traffic areas. Players who explore in private matches find advantages that opponents miss.
Advanced Tactics Without The Complexity
Pro strategies aren’t complicated—they’re just precise.
Team coordination makes average players dangerous. Call outs don’t need to be military-level detailed. “Two pushing from northeast” works better than silence. “Cracked one second floor” helps your teammate confirm the kill.
Information sharing multiplies effectiveness. Spot an enemy team rotating early? Communicate it. Notice a pattern in how enemies are approaching? Share it. See a better position for the next circle? Suggest it.
Practice doesn’t mean grinding public matches for hours. Deliberate practice in private lobbies—testing specific scenarios, perfecting certain movements, understanding map timing—builds skills faster than mindless repetition.
The best players practice rotation timing. How long does it take to move from Point A to Point B? What routes stay hidden longest? Where do teams typically set up during each circle phase?
This knowledge seems basic but it’s rarely applied systematically. Most players learn it accidentally over hundreds of matches. Intentional practice cuts that learning curve dramatically.
Resources That Actually Help
Official Call of Duty guides cover the basics well enough for new players. Movement mechanics, weapon categories, mode explanations—solid foundation material.
Community forums provide real-world context those official guides miss. Turn order discussions, pick strategies, combat scenarios that actually happen in matches rather than controlled tutorial environments.
Video guides focusing on specific skills work better than general “get better” content. Twenty-two movement tips for increasing kills? Useful. Pro strategy breakdowns with timestamp markers? Very useful. Three-hour unedited gameplay footage? Skip it.
The key is finding resources that match your current skill level. Beginner guides waste time if you already understand the basics. Advanced tactics feel overwhelming if fundamentals aren’t solid yet.
Putting It Together
These strategies work because they focus on controllable factors. Can’t control who you match against. Can’t control the circle. Can’t control whether your random squadmates communicate.
But loadout knowledge, positioning awareness, deliberate movement, constructive mindset, and continuous learning? Completely within your control.
Players who master these fundamentals don’t need gimmicks or shortcuts. The wins come naturally through consistent application of sound principles.
Start with one area. Pick positioning or movement. Focus on improving just that aspect for a week. Then add another. Stacking small improvements compounds into significant skill gains over time.
Warzone rewards smart play more than it rewards mechanical skill alone. Plenty of players with average aim placement reach high ranks through superior decision-making and game sense.
That’s actually encouraging. Aim can only improve so much. But decision-making, positioning, and strategic thinking? Those skills have nearly unlimited room for growth.
On a road that already sees many drivers with their pedal to the metal, the Alberta government is testing to see if raising the speed limit is a good idea.
A small stretch of Alberta’s busiest highway near Edmonton is getting a speed limit increase as part of a test to see if more stretches of divided highway should allow it.
Drivers going along a 22-kilometre portion of Highway 2, starting south of Leduc, will see speed limit signs of 120 kilometres an hour — up from the existing 110 km/h on the rest of the QEII.
It would be the fastest posted speed limit in Alberta and tied for with the Coquihalla Highway in British Columbia for fastest in the country.
Transportation Minister Devin Dreeshen said Wednesday the area being tested is one of the busiest highway sections in the province, and safety upgrades such as longer ramps for overpasses were recently completed in Leduc County and the County of Wetaskiwin, making it an ideal trial area.
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Alberta Transportation Minister Devin Dreeshen unveiling new 120 km/h speed limit signs along a stretch of Highway 2/QEII, south of Leduc, on Wednesday, April 29, 2026.
Global News
Alberta Transportation said almost 70 per cent of respondents to a recent survey agreed the speed limit should be increased on rural divided highways to 120 km/h.
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Dreeshen said he expects the test to gather a significant amount of data for the province to analyze before it considers increasing the limit on other divided highways.
The 120 km/h section will run for 22 km south of the Leduc Commercial Vehicle Inspection Station in both directions. The province said the areas being monitored and evaluated include that stretch, plus the five km to the north and south of it.
The minister said the province will monitor collision numbers, but he says many drivers travel at the higher speed already, so he’s not expecting an uptick in crashes.
At the same time, earlier this spring the province increased the penalties for dangerous driving.
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Fines for offences like careless driving, excessive speeding, stunting and racing were increased by 50 per cent, with most other traffic penalties rising by 30 per cent.
The province reminded drivers the 120 km/h limit is intended for ideal road conditions and drivers should still be going slower when roads are wet, icy, or when there is reduced visibility.
The National Association of Broadcasters is criticizing Donald Trump-appointed FCC Chairman Brendan Carr for its scrutiny of Disney and ABC over a joke by Jimmy Kimmel.
In a statement Wednesday, the head of the top industry trade group said Carr’s move to initiate an early review of the ABC stations’ licenses “creates significant uncertainty” for broadcasters. Carr for more than a year has maintained that major media companies are breaching their “public interest obligations” in various ways.
A mock-roast delivered by Kimmel last Friday, 24 hours before the shooting at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, included a joke that First Lady Melania Trump had the “glow of an expectant widow.” Given the attempt on Trump’s life at the WHCD, Trump, the First Lady and other Republicans have called for Kimmel’s firing, accusing him of fomenting political violence.
“The FCC’s broadcast license renewal process must be grounded in predictability, fairness and transparency, principles reflected in the license terms Congress established and later extended,” NAB CEO Curtis LeGeyt said in the statement. “The Media Bureau’s nearly unprecedented request for one company to quickly reapply for all of its licenses – rather than utilize its traditional enforcement process – runs contrary to these principles and creates significant uncertainty for all broadcasters.”
He added, “Broadcast stations already face intense challenges as they work to deliver trusted journalism, lifesaving emergency services, community programming and election coverage. The FCC must be careful to avoid actions that create further instability for the local stations viewers and listeners depend on.”
Kimmel has pushed back firmly against the accusations, saying Monday that his “light roast” of the Trumps was never intended as “a call to assassination.” The following night, Kimmel took note of the president’s own joke about his own mortality, saying he is the one who should be fired.
Not everyone on the right is onboard with the Kimmel castigation. Texas Sen. Ted Cruz told Punchbowl News that “it is not government’s job to censor speech, and I do not believe the FCC should serve as the speech police.”
LeGeyt and the NAB have faced a dilemma during Trump’s second term, with Carr routinely blasting his critiques of NAB member companies across social media. Given the importance of preserving relations with the FCC, which has a say over a range of local station matters and must approve any mergers involving the transfer of broadcast licenses, LeGeyt has deliberately avoided a direct clash with his Washington counterpart. As Deadline’s Ted Johnson reported in 2025, the NAB has also taken out ads saluting Carr and the FCC.
The annual NAB Show in Las Vegas earlier this month represented a departure from customs that have endured over many decades. Carr did not attend and the trade show’s program did not feature a traditional panel involving the heads of the NAB, FCC and other regulators.
A phishing campaign is spoofing DHL emails to steal login credentials
Victims are tricked with a fake waybill confirmation and staged validation steps
Captured data, including passwords and device details, is sent directly to attacker mailboxes
Forcepoint has published a report about an ongoing phishing campaign designed to steal people’s DHL login credentials.
It starts by sending an email to the victim, asking for confirmation of a waybill. While the email itself looks authentic, and is designed in the same fashion legitimate DHL emails are, this one is easy to spot as fake – the domain being used to send the message is cupelva[.]com – completely unrelated to DHL.
But many people don’t double-check the sender’s address, so it’s safe to assume some might fall for the trick and click on the “Confirm Waybill Information” button included with the message.
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Manipulating the perception
When that happens, the victims are redirected to a malicious landing page where they are first asked to type in the parcel code provided on the screen. Obviously, the entire thing is fake, and built only to get the victim to lower their guard and trust the process.
“This page is designed to look like a shipment validation step. It is not a real OTP mechanism,” Forcepoint said. “This step serves no authentication function. It exists to manipulate the victim’s perception of the workflow.”
After typing in the numbers shown on the screen, the page waits for a few seconds, to get the victim to think that something is really being analyzed in the backend. After that, the victim is redirected to a second page, where they’re asked to provide their login credentials.
This is where the theft happens, and if the victims do end up providing the password, it will be relayed, via email:
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“The kit initializes EmailJS and sends the captured data using the configured service and template. The attacker mailbox is slatty077@tutamail[.]com,” Proofpoint added. Besides the email and the password, the campaign also captures the victims’ IP addresses, device details, and location data.
“Phishing does not need technical sophistication to succeed,” Proofpoint stressed. “This campaign works because it feels ordinary. The DHL branding is familiar, the verification step looks legitimate, and the login form appears to confirm something the victim already started. None of it is real.”
Google is making it easier to jump into watching YouTube Shorts on its TV devices without having to open the dedicated YouTube app. The Google TV homepage will soon introduce a new “Short videos for you” row that features a feed of personalized videos.
The update is expected to roll out to Google TV devices in the US sometime this summer, though Google didn’t specify an exact date. The company did say, however, that the videos showcased via this feature will start with YouTube Shorts, which suggests that similar vertical video hosting services like TikTok and Instagram’s Reels may also eventually be supported.
The short video homepage row was announced alongside other Google TV updates, including support for Google’s Nano Banana generative AI image model and Veo video generator via the Gemini tab. Google Photos is also getting new Search and Remix capabilities on Google TV devices, allowing users to search for specific photos with their voice and transform them into a different style, such as a watercolor or oil painting.
These features are limited to Gemini-enabled devices in the US for now. A Dynamic Slideshow feature will be available globally though, which enables users to display any Google Photos album as the screensaver when the TV is idle.
The Christian rock band the Newsboys and their co-founder Wes Campbell have filed a wide-ranging lawsuit in the wake of scandals that brought their career to a halt. The suit alleges a combination of defamation and antitrust violations, going after dozens of defendants, ranging from competing Christian music group MercyMe to the World Vision charity, along with the top concert promoters in the CCM business, and the journalists who have been at the forefront of breaking news about the Newsboys and their disgraced former singer, Michael Tait.
“In this case, Wes Campbell, and the four musicians comprising the Christian musical artists known as the ‘Newsboys,’ their families, and the ministries they have dedicated their lives to build, have been destroyed by the actions of the Defendants, including their publication of defamatory articles fueled by competitors with anticompetitive motives,” the suit contends.
The lawsuit does not cover the original story published in June 2025 by the Roys Report about Tait’s alleged history of aggressive sexual behavior toward men, which was followed by the singer offering a short confession about drug use and touching men “in an unwanted, sensual way.” (He had resigned from the group a few months prior to the Roys Report’s exclusive, without explanation.) Instead, the suit focuses primarily on a subsequent article in the same publication, titled “Woman Accuses Michael Tait of Drugging Her and Watching While She Was Raped; Says Newsboys Tour Manager Covered It Up.” The legal action says that not only was the rape allegation untrue, but that it was concocted in league with a competitor to scotch a $50 million deal and ultimately destroy a touring-related business headed by Campbell.
According to the sprawling, heavily detailed, 265-page-plus suit, the sexual encounter between “Nicole” and Michael Brewer, a lighting technician working for the Newsboys, did happen in a Fargo hotel room in 2014 — and was indeed witnessed by Tait as a spectator — but was consensual. As for Tait’s participation, the suit says, ““his only involvement was to watch two adults having sex, something many people watch daily on the internet. It certainly was no crime.”
The suit repeatedly refers to the rape allegation as “the Fargo Fabrication.” The sexual encounter between Brewer and “Nicole” only became a story of rape, Campbell’s suit contends, when the woman was fired by the Newsboys and went to work for a company that was looking to steal business away from Thriving Children Advocates, Campbell’s principal business. TCA acted as a liaison between touring Christian artists and the charities that are pitched during their shows, providing a substantial part of their income on the road.
Alleges the lawsuit: “The ‘non-story’ of Nicole’s consensual liaison in 2014 that had 11 years later morphed into a story of rape cannot be understood apart from the anticompetitive battle that was going between on the one hand, Wes Campbell and his companies, and on the other Waterland, a Dutch venture capital hedge fund. Solving the mystery starts and ends there.”
MercyMe, the band behind the “I Can Only Imagine” song and movies, is cited in the action as the top act in the Christian touring business. The group had a lucrative relationship with Campbell’s TCA for many years before breaking a newly renegotiated contract in 2025, the suit alleges. The contention is that the band sought to cut out TCA, the middleman, to have its relationships with sponsoring charities — like World Vision — go directly through Waterland. The suit says that Waterland and its subsidiaries Transparent Productions, Premier Productions Holdings and Rush Concerts “together promoted almost 80% of the Christian music concerts in America,” and were looking to fold in the formerly outsourced relationships with charities into its own business as well.
As part of the “coordinated scheme to eliminate TCA as a competitor,” the suit says, “the Newsboys are unlawfully boycotted,” “in violation of the Sherman Act.”
The suit says most other artists followed MercyMe in ditching TCA in the wake of the news reports about the Newsboys and Campbell. In the lawsuit’s version of things, the Roys Report was a pawn used by Waterland to spread a false rape story and fatally undermine all of Campbell’s businesses. (The suit only glancingly mentions the initial story about Tait’s sexual aggressions with men and does not appear to take issue with those allegations, however much they may have also affected the business of the Newsboys and their founder.)
Reached for comment, Julie Roys, the founder and publisher of the Roys Report, said, “We have not been served with the complaint, but we are aware of it. As a matter of policy, we don’t comment on pending litigation. The Roys Report stands by its reporting and will address the allegations through the appropriate legal process.”
The Roys Report is a Christian website that has specialized in acting as a watchdog in bringing light to misdeeds among prominent Christian pastors and leaders. Earlier this week, Julie Roys won a first-place award for religion story of the year from the Religion News Association, honoring her coverage of the Tait/Newsboys scandal.
Variety also has seen communications between Roys Reports lawyers and Campbell’s attorneys, prior to the suit being filed, in which Roys’ attorneys said that if any legal action was taken, the Roys Report would seek to have the case dismissed under Texas’ anti-SLAPP statute.
The Newsboys and Campbell published the lawsuit on their social accounts and said they do not intend to comment to the press beyond that. The full lawsuit can be read here.
For music business observers, the most interesting aspect of the suit may lie in its detailed assertions about how much the Christian music (CCM) touring industry relies on alliances with charities to achieve a profit. Major Christian tours frequently include interludes in which a pitch is made for a charity, and not all attendees may be aware that the performers receive a share from the pledges that come in during a show.
“Artists in the CCM Touring Market are dependent on nonprofit charities who, with the artists’ consent, solicit donors during CCM concerts,” says the suit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee. It goes on to say that “nonprofit charities who have used artists’ ‘public platforms’ to generate donors or ‘sponsors’ have historically paid the artists based on the number of sponsors generated at each concert,” putting the past standard rate as approximately $200 for each fan signed up as a sponsor.
In this telling, Waterland had approached Campbell to acquire TCA as its nonprofit sponsorship arm and offered TCA $50 million — an offer that was accepted. However, Campbell’s attorneys say Waterland asked for a few days to raise capital to close the deal. During that time, the suit says, Waterland realized that, with the supposed monopoly already in place, they “could create their own platform to market to nonprofits for sponsorship payments” — negating the need to pay an outside company $50 million. TCA contended that it had already turned over all the confidential information about how it conducts business before Waterland pulled out of the deal.
Moreover, TCA contends in the suit, Waterland had “struck a secret deal with World Vision, the world’s largest charity… to pay Waterland $500 for each sponsorship in return for exclusive or near-exclusive rights,” a sum above the average $200 per fan signed up. (The suit notes that TCA and World Vision had had a “not friendly termination” of their own deal in 2019.) When MercyMe, which was renegotiating with TCA, brought up the $500-per-sponsor offer, Campbell’s attorneys say he agreed to meet that number for a new contract. Yet ultimately MercyMe split with TCA anyway. (The individual members of MercyMe are all named as defendants, along with the group collectively.)
The suit says, “MercyMe became a knowing participant in the antitrust violations being perpetrated by the Waterland defendants and World Vision…” It further contends that Christian music artists Tauren Wells and Danny Gokey (frequently spelled as “Goyke” in the legal filing) “both breached contracts and are touring with LiveCo/TPR and World Vision.” Gokey and Wells are not named among the 33 defendants in the suit, however.
Variety has reached out to reps for Waterland, LiveCo/TPR and MercyMe for comment on being named as defendants in the suit.
The lawsuit asks for recovery of the $50 million Campbell contends was lost in the scotched deal with Watermark, as well as unspecified compensatory and punitive damages, and retraction of “defamatory statements.” It was filed in the Tennessee court by Ben C. Broocks of Broocks Law Firm in Austin, Texas, and G. Kline Preston IV of Kline Preston Law Group in Nashville.
None of the three remaining members of the Newsboys are named specifically as plaintiffs in the lawsuit, only the group collectively and Campbell as the co-founder, so it is not clear whether the musicians are individually participating or endorsing the action. Nonetheless, it is being presented as a suit on their behalf, with the post to the group’s social media being headlined: “Newboys Break Their Silence — in Federal Court.” Replies on the group’s social accounts have been halted.
Few movies can both generate a meme and put a color on the map — but “The Devil Wears Prada” managed it, and in the same scene. (Cerulean knitwear was never the same.) A blockbuster in 2006, the movie has only grown more beloved, and more quotable, since.
Two decades after Meryl Streep, as the unsparing fashion editor Miranda Priestly, made a meal of the phrase “That’s all,” comes the sequel, with the same director, David Frankel, and stars: Anne Hathaway as Andy, the idealistic former assistant with serious journalism chops who’s back at Miranda’s magazine, Runway; Emily Blunt as the barbed former underling Emily, now a design executive; and Stanley Tucci as Miranda’s loyal right-hand man, Nigel.
The characters endured, but they are all roiled by today’s economics, with tech overlords, corporate consolidations and a crumbling media landscape. Hathaway said, “Things that used to feel so safe now feel so unstable” — onscreen and off. “That was the heart string that just kept coming up for me.”
For the cast, reuniting was a rare pleasure. “Their whole professional lives blossomed in the interim,” Streep said admiringly of Hathaway and Blunt. “And Stanley and I are close friends now. All that time, can’t get rid of him.” (And Blunt and Tucci are family: In 2012, he married her older sister.)
Stuffed with cameos and comic scene-stealers, “The Devil Wears Prada 2,” in theaters on May 1, is hotly anticipated. In a recent round-table interview and separate conversations at the Four Seasons New York Downtown, the director and cast reflected on filming 20 years apart, being ambitious, and whether Streep is mean in real life. There was a lot of laughter.
These are edited excerpts from the conversations.
How do you think of the original movie now?
STREEP Quaint. You know, it was made a year before the iPhone came out. It’s another world, entirely.
BLUNT It’s just been so moving that it had this meteoric life that none of us saw when we were making it.We thought we were hilarious. But we didn’t think anyone else would.
TUCCI A lot of movies date pretty quickly. That movie works all the time. You have generations of people watching it.
FRANKEL Before the studio saw it, I called Meryl and said, please come to the cutting room. She was really my partner in making it. She hopped on the 1 train from TriBeCa to Times Square, and came in and said, it’s great. She knew right off the bat. That gave me so much confidence.
BLUNT This is the only film my children have liked that I’ve done. I’ve made children’s movies for them, which they’ve seen once.
My girls watched it again last night. They thought I was the meanest person on earth. And they see themselves in Annie. They’re like, I’m her.
But the new movie has a very different feeling than the original.
STREEP The first one was a Cinderella story, and this one is more like “Pilgrim’s Progress” with better clothes. This young woman going through the Stations of the Cross, every crisis of conscience and betrayal. [To Hathaway] You have a lot of big decisions. So this is more complicated.
HATHAWAY Andy has lived a life that has given her a lot of satisfaction. She did what she wanted to do, she’s had a lot of adventures. The thing that she doesn’t have, and she’s having a hard time finding, is something that a lot people in the world are having a difficult time finding, which is job security. And so the thing that just kept coming up for me on this movie was how much she wanted a home.
She does at least have better fashion sense. The clothes are even more central, in a way.
TUCCI The fittings were as enjoyable as making the movie. It was such a collaborative effort [with the costume designer Molly Rogers].
STREEP Stanley’s [currently] wearing a suit he designed.
TUCCI I love fashion.
HATHAWAY To be the costume designer of a “Devil Wears Prada” movie is a heroic act, because it’s not just one character arc, it’s so, so many. Fashion is a language in the film; it’s another character.
STREEP It’s like the dinosaurs in “Jurassic Park.”It’s that important!
Meryl, what did you like about Miranda Priestly originally?
STREEP I liked the ability to — in drama school, they would say to us, do you know how to convey that you’re the king or queen? And everybody would say, well, you project power. And it helps to have lifts in your shoes, things like that. And the teacher said, no, no, the way you convey power is how everyone else in the room behaves when you enter it. You just act naturally, but the molecules around you change. So that was the direction, that everybody was afraid of me. I didn’t have to raise my voice or do anything.
BLUNT Your decision to play her that way was such an amazing way to go — to not come in swinging it around. I mean your enormous penis. [Laughter]
STREEP Most of the bosses that I’d had in my life were men. So I copied them, the people that were good at leading in a strong way without making a big effort, seemingly.
For a lot of you, the movie changed your life.
FRANKEL It was my first big studio movie, and my only wish was, please God let me work again.
STREEP I always feel that.
HATHAWAY Andy and I are the same age, and in the first film we definitely shared a feeling of being in over our heads. This was the biggest thing that I’d ever been a part of, and I was — [to Streep] you’ve heard me say this and I don’t want to embarrass you, but I was acting opposite —
STREEP Don’t say that.
HATHAWAY OK, I won’t go there. I was acting opposite somebody from New Jersey, and I was really excited about it. [Clasping hands with Streep] We’re Jersey girls.
Emily, it was your breakout role.
BLUNT [The character] Emily is based on a few rather acerbic, anguished people that I know. She’s a weird combination, and then cartoonized, of various British people. She’s desperate and starving. But it’s very fun to play someone who is perpetually outraged by everything.
I felt like everyone went to read for that part. I was actually reading for a dragon movie that I deeply wanted. Thank God they said, hey, while you’re here, we’re making “The Devil Wears Prada,” do you want to read for it? And I remember being very late for my flight, so I read it in a blind panic, then David called me and said, can you come and do that again? But the studio want to see you wearing something more stylish than the strange warrior queen costume I had tried to cobble on.
FRANKEL We had to pray that she didn’t get the dragon movie. And on the day she didn’t, I called her, and her mother said, oh, she’s gone down to the pub to drown her sorrows over not getting the dragon movie. I told her, “You have the part,” but she didn’t believe me.
BLUNT [Laughing] I was clearly drunk.
How did it feel to step into the characters two decades later?
TUCCI I was a bit nervous. I thought, how am I going to do this again? And then it just happened. You know, [Nigel’s] aged.
BLUNT There’s a little world-weariness that’s very touching about him. He doesn’t sweat the small stuff.
TUCCI He knows that the whole thing can only last for so long — but you only know that when you’re my age.
STREEP I was so nervous. I was not on any social media, so I didn’t know that there was this appetite for the film. And when we got out on the street [for filming], it was insane [with fan attention]. It threw me in the beginning, it really did screw me up. But then once we got nice and safe in the studio, I was fine.
What lessons do these movies have about ambition?
HATHAWAY I don’t know that the film says anything; it just shows. You’re seeing ambitious women in action, and I like that.
BLUNT Ambition has often been deemed a negative word for women. For men, it is seen as something to be celebrated. And I think ambition really only means dreams with great purpose. The first [movie] offered this very inspiring space for girls to look up to that, to want more for yourself.
STREEP You know, if Miranda Priestly were Michael Priestly, there would be no movie, the first movie. Everything she does is sort of slightly horrible, but would be kind of adorable if a man said, “By all means, move at a glacial pace. You know how that thrills me.” And everybody would go, “He’s great, isn’t he?” But there’s a special tinge of mercury around that kind of remark from a woman. [Fake crying] It just hurts more.
Watching these movies made me think of a great Tina Fey line: “Bitches get stuff done.” Do you think you can be a mean person and a good boss?
STREEP I am a mean person. I don’t have to think, could I do that?
BLUNT [laughing] Do you mean in life, or in the movie?
STREEP In life.
BLUNT Mean as a snake!
TUCCI She’s not mean.
Have you ever wanted to pull a Miranda in your real life?
HATHAWAY The way Miranda doesn’t apologize and goes at the pace that she wants to, and it’s for everyone else to keep up, and anticipate what she’s going to want next — sometimes I would like to drop into that gear. But in real life, you kind of have to go with the pace of the group.
STREEP I would like to lower my voice and have people pay attention, but it doesn’t work.
BLUNT It doesn’t!
There are very different stakes in making this movie. You have a legacy. You have a bigger budget.
FRANKEL The first movie was disastrous every day. I kept a journal. And on this movie, on Day 4, I said, let me just see what Day 4 was like 20 years ago. And it says: Thursday, it’s hard to imagine a day could go worse than this.
HATHAWAY That wasn’t the vibe on set.
BLUNT You did not break a sweat! My favorite is hearing David laugh behind the monitor. You’re a very discreet laugher, but when you really guffaw, it’s a dream.
FRANKEL [The sequel’s budget] mostly went to them [the cast]. So the making of the movie was kind of similar. We were always scrapping, and it was never enough. But that’s normal, every movie.
STREEP That’s not true. The movies that are about women, there’s a much bigger [budget] fight than there is for Chris Nolan or something. I love him and I’d love to work with him, but —
FRANKEL Meryl’s right. There’s an expectation that movies about women have a limited box office, and so based on that the studios say, OK, here’s how much you get. And there are other movies where it’s presumed unlimited box office, and so the budget is unlimited. And we did go through that again, even on the scale of this movie. We’ll find out who is right.
Meryl, you have a speech in the movie about the costs of a career like Miranda’s — but you also say, emphatically, how much you love working. In my screening, that line made people cry. Thanks for that.
STREEP [Grabbing my face for emphasis and smiling, it must be said, a little devilishly] That was an ad lib. You’re welcome.
Industry AI Models are at the core of Feedly’s AI experience—powering everything from targeted results in AI Feeds to focused insights in Emerging Trend Dashboards and contextual examples in Use Case Tables. To help you surface the most relevant and precise intelligence, we’re continually expanding our library of industry-specific AI Models.
We are releasing five new industries our customers have been asking for: packaging, professional services, accounting, consulting, and optics.
Here’s a look at the latest additions to the Feedly AI Model library powerful tools designed to help you analyze, collect, and act on the insights that matters most. In this article, we’ll explore what’s new and show you how to make the most of these AI Models.
📦 Packaging Industry
Our new Packaging Industry AI Model identifies articles related to the design, evaluation, and production of packaging across sectors. Whether you’re tracking innovations in materials, packaging companies, or logistics solutions like primary, secondary, bulk, and transit packaging, this model ensures your feed is packed with the most relevant insights.
💼 Professional Services Industry
The new Professional Services AI Model acts as an umbrella for key knowledge work sectors. It includes all the concepts from our Accounting, Consulting, and Legal industry AI Models, perfect for capturing broad trends or drilling into specialized expertise.
The example below demonstrates how to create a dashboard focused on the professional services industry. For a comprehensive overview of the Emerging Trends Dashboard and its capabilities, explore our full guide: New Emerging Trends Dashboard: Find the next big thing.
🧾 Accounting Industry
Track financial reporting, auditing, tax preparation, and accounting systems with our Accounting Industry AI Model. From forensic accounting to the latest updates from CPA firms, this model helps you stay informed on the money behind the business.
Our Consulting Industry AI Model captures expert advice and strategic guidance across industries. It flags insights in areas like operations, risk, HR, finance, IT, and more. Ideal for anyone monitoring thought leadership and solution providers.
This example features Ask AI, our go-to tool for summarizing, analyze, or extracting data from articles. Upon building an AI Feed focused on generative AI in the consulting industry, we ran Ask AI on the article results using the following prompt:
Create a table listing the key use cases of generative AI in the consulting industry. For each entry, include the company name, product name, a brief description of the use case, and the product’s launch date.
🔬 Optics Industry
The Optics Industry AI Model focuses on technologies and companies working with the science of light. From optical components and systems to real-world applications in industries like healthcare and manufacturing, this model brings clarity to complex innovation.
In short…
This blog highlights practical ways to use Feedly’s AI Models to personalize your research and surface only the most relevant insights from across the open web. Each example can be fully tailored to your specific needs and remember, these are just 5 out of over 10,000 AI Models available in our library.
The DCU is in full swing, with Supergirl and Clayface heading to theaters this year, but the original slate has been slow-moving at DC Studios. Several highly anticipated titles have not seen significant updates since they were first announced back in early 2023. Now, James Gunn has confirmed the fate of several DCU projects still in the pipeline, shutting down rumors of their demise.
On Threads, Gunn replied to a fan asking about the current status of Booster Gold and Paradise Lost. While the filmmaker previously confirmed that the latter was still on the way, rampant speculation about the fate of Booster Gold made its way online recently, when David Jenkins, the writer hired on the project, reportedly removed any mention of it from his social media. However, Gunn has confirmed that both are still in development at the studio, saying that “BG is in development,” while “PL” (Paradise Lost) is now in “extreme development.”
First announced in January 2023 as a part of the original DC Studios “Gods & Monsters” slate, Booster Gold has gone through several development changes. It was reported that Danny McBride, who recently wrapped up his acclaimed comedy series The Righteous Gemstones, was attached to the superhero series as a writer. However, he left the project at some point, paving the way for Our Flag Means Death‘sDavid Jenkins to write the pilot and potentially serve as showrunner. It is interesting to note that Paradise Lost seems to be further ahead than Booster Gold, despite the former not having a writer officially announced yet.
Booster Gold DC ComicsDC Comics
Ever since Booster Gold was announced, there has been a lot of speculation in regard to who could play the time-traveling superhero. The most prominent name to surface has been Kumail Nanjiani, whose previous entry in the genre was in Marvel Studios’ Eternals in 2021. Nanjiani showed up in rumors back in 2024, which was only supported by sightings of the actor with key members of the rebooted DC Universe. However, nothing official has been announced on this front, which makes sense as development on the project has seemingly stalled at some points.
Created by Dan Jurgens in 1986, Michael Jon Carter, aka Booster Gold, has been a prominent fixture in DC Comics for the past few decades. He is a superhero based in Metropolis who travels from the future and uses his advanced technology to become a vigilante in the present. Booster Gold has appeared in a number of animated titles, including Justice League Unlimited, but he made his live-action debut back in 2011 during an episode of Smallville, played by Eric Martsolf. The character appeared in Legends of Tomorrow, portrayed by Scrubs star Donald Faison, and was meant to become a member of the team before the show was canceled.
Electronic Arts is among the numerous game developers who are embracing AI in their development processes, and now CEO Andrew Wilson has commented further on the controversial topic.
Speaking at the iicon event in Las Vegas this week, as reported by Game File, Wilson said he recently saw some internal EA data that said about 85% of the company’s quality-assurance work is being done today alongside “some kind of machine learning or AI-driven algorithm.”
This has not led to lower employment at EA for QA work, he said. “We hire more QA people than we ever have,” he said. The executive went on to say that EA’s QA teams are using AI for “the simple stuff.” Related to this, he said EA has needed to hire more QA workers to check the work, which sounds odd, though we do not know the specifics of the situation. This follows on from a Harvard Business Review report that said early findings suggest that AI doesn’t reduce work, it intensifies it.
Few moments in film history will be remembered with as much delight as great filmmakers giving subtle nods to each other through classic films. In Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace (1999), George Lucas hid what is now an iconic Easter egg as a tribute to his colleague Steven Spielberg.
In the movie’s sprawling galactic system, a short, quiet moment that is filled with alien species and hidden details, a very familiar alien race made an appearance. These weren’t just random creatures; they were a deliberate nod to Spielberg’s 1982 film, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial.
These creatures, the Asogians, closely resemble E.T. from the 1982 classic. This cameo isn’t just meant for fans to pause and smile; it reflects the long-standing creative friendship between two great filmmakers.
So, how did George Lucas give a subtle nod to Spielberg? What can this teach us about combining movie universes?
Let’s jump right in and explore.
E.T.’s Iconic Cameo
In Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace, the moment unfolds during a heated Senate session early in the film. Queen Amidala, played by Natalie Portman, addresses the Senate. In what may seem like a routine scene, as Amidala makes her dramatic plea, the camera sweeps across the chamber’s floating pods.
While it is likely that the audience might not be alert enough to notice specific details, Lucas brings our attention to multiple pods which feature various alien races, one of which closely resembles E.T. These brown-skinned beings with elongated necks and large, expressive eyes are unmistakably of the same species as the one in Spielberg’s all-time classic.
Members of this species, sometimes called Asogians, appear as peaceful Republic representatives. However, what’s most important here is that George Lucas does not linger on them for too long. In fact, it is quite literally a “blink, and you’ll miss it” situation.
Not only does this species add layers of political intrigue just like the others, but it also rewards sharp-eyed viewers by reminding them of the Spielberg movie and Lucas’s long-standing association with him. This moment does what all great Easter eggs do – without a serious plot impact, it showcases how even the largest movie epics have room for innocent crossovers.
When Movie Universes Quietly Collide
When movie worlds combine in this manner, it feels like a giant creative handshake between vividly enjoyable cinematic spaces and their creators. Perhaps, the effects of this are amplified by the fact that both these films belong to distinct, massively successful franchises.
These crossovers blur the lines between starkly different realities in the most charming way. The playfulness in the very thought of something like this begins with mutual respect. None of this is possible without two filmmakers openly admiring each other’s craft. Both films exist in entirely different narratives, but quiet moments such as this make their boundaries disappear.
Movie-world collisions like these do not “officially” indicate plot overlaps, and movie fans understand that without the need for explanation. It is quite understandable that such subtle nods are more about creating a fun, meta-layer for audiences to see through and be surprised by. Most importantly, movie crossovers celebrate cinema by inviting every viewer into their worlds in audaciously enjoyable and creative ways. These exchanges always feel organic, subtle, and refreshing to those who watch them.
How Two Masters Subtly Exchanged Easter Eggs
If you thought this was exciting, let me tell you that Steven Spielberg gave George Lucas a subtle nod years before in Raiders of the Lost Ark(1981). In the film, when Harrison Ford finds himself in the Well of Souls, we can actually see an engraving of R2-D2 and C-3PO in the background. While it is true that this one is a lot easier to miss, it is also a very clever nod to a Lucas classic in a film and a scene where the filmmaker deliberately draws our attention to wall engravings.
So, clearly, this creative exchange goes both ways. In Raiders of the Lost Ark, the hidden engravings aren’t really acknowledged. They quietly appear in the background in the most rewarding manner for those who spot them organically. Similarly, in this sequence, the Asogians make a subtle appearance.
Personally, I believe that it is this subtlety that makes both these Easter eggs special. They are a quiet indication of overwhelming mutual respect and recognition, and an attempt to create meta-layers for the audience. Neither of them breaks the rhythm of the scene. This is what makes these appearances feel rewarding and organic: the fact that they do not coerce us into paying attention to what’s being shown.
Steven Spielberg and George Lucas reflect the powerful spirit of collaboration and playful rivalry. These hidden details in their films remind us, first and foremost, of how the two filmmakers valued each other’s friendship, creative collaboration, and, most importantly, their movies.
Summing It Up
The hidden E.T. cameo in Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace stands out because of how it quietly blends the universe of another classic film into its own. Without emphasis or overexplanation, E.T.’s species adds political layers, intrigue, and playfulness to a classic saga. Steven Spielberg and George Lucas’s friendship, collaboration, and mutual respect are evident in the movies they made together and in tiny, special moments such as this.
Which is your favorite hidden detail in Star Wars? Tell us in the comments below.
It depends. “If you’re looking to trim your hair a certain length, bikini trimmers will give you a more accurate result,” says Elizabeth Maul, group insights and innovation officer at Bic. Manual and electric razors, on the other hand, will give you a smoother, closer, and cleaner shave (as will waxing, if you’re aiming for that full-on hairless look). Regardless of which route you choose, Maul suggests keeping two things in mind: Make sure that your razor or trimmer is sharp (not blunt) and clean. A blunt razor can lead to cutting, and dirty tools can lead to infections. You’ll also want to be sure you exfoliate before and after hair removal.
How to prevent ingrown hairs
“Ingrown hairs are often inevitable but can be prevented in two ways: prepping the skin properly and using the right tools,” says Maul. “The best trimmers (or shavers) to avoid ingrown hairs are those designed to glide easily across the skin and those that prevent hair buildup.” When blades get clogged, they tug at hairs, making it hard to get a smooth shave and leading to ingrown hairs. You’ll want to be sure you clean your trimmer (more on that below) and invest in a good bikini-line exfoliator.
How to prep your skin for bikini trimming
Skin prep is crucial to a smooth shave. Experts recommend using a bikini line exfoliator on your skin before any sort of hair removal (be it trimming, shaving, or waxing) for at least a day, and again one to two days following removal. Doing so removes dead skin, softens the area, and makes it easier for the blades to glide—ultimately helping prevent cuts, razor bumps, ingrown hairs, and other irritations. If you’re using the trimmer on wet skin or hair, soak the area in warm water for a few minutes first.
How to use a bikini trimmer
Some bikini trimmers are meant to be used only on dry skin and hair, and some can be used wet. The trimmer is designed to give your pubic area a haircut (and not to totally remove hair). Removing hair for the first time in a long while? Consider trimming your pubes with grooming scissors before using the electric tool.
Maryam Safee, MD, a board-certified dermatologist based in LA and founder of ManeRx, recommends to always using a preshave oil or shaving cream to start. We love the Billie Shave Glaze Shaving Oil for this because it has a super-nourishing blend of soybean, grapeseed, and sunflower seed oils to lubricate the skin and help you get the smoothest shave possible.
Once the shave oil or cream is applied, adjust the trimmer’s guides according to just how close of a cut you want. The trimmer’s comb protects it from fully contacting your skin and causing pain. Once it’s turned on, you can gently move the trimmer’s comb in slow, short strokes across the bikini area. Dr. Safee recommends shaving with the grain of the hair to help prevent ingrowns and irritation. When you’re done shaving, pat your legs dry and apply body lotion or body oil to keep your skin hydrated.
As for how often to trim, the dermatologists we spoke with recommend trimming every 1-4 weeks, depending on your preference and how quickly your hair grows. Basically, it’s up to you.
Should you trim your pubic hair wet or dry?
According to Dr. King, you should trim pubic hair when it’s either very dry or slightly damp. “Do not trim hair when it’s fully wet,” she says, as this will make it harder for the device to properly cut.
What are common mistakes when trimming pubic hair?
“Using a dull trimmer is a common mistake when trimming hair on the bikini line. Dull blades can tug and snag, increasing the risk of cuts or irritation,” says Dr. King. She recommends using a guard on the trimmer to avoid nicks, razor burn, and uneven trimming. It’s also key to prep (with a gentle exfoliator) and wash the skin before trimming to prevent ingrown hairs, and to thoroughly clean your tools to eliminate the risk of infection.
What are the disadvantages of trimming pubic hair?
There are no explicit disadvantages when trimming pubic hair, according to the dermatologists we spoke with. They just recommend keeping the trimmer clean to avoid the risk of infection. To do so, brush away stray hairs after use (either with the trimmer’s included brush or a dry toothbrush). This prevents clogging (which can lead to razor bumps and skin irritation). If the trimmer is water-resistant, rinse it off, then wipe it down with a clean paper towel.
We researched expert-recommended and best-selling bikini trimmers before narrowing the list to 16 models tested by 3 contributors (including me). Each device was used on our bikini lines and bodies, following manufacturer’s instructions and trying any included attachments. Testers provided feedback based on the trimmer’s overall design, comfort on sensitive skin, ability to navigate curves and tricky spots, effectiveness, battery life, waterproofness, ease of cleaning, and value for the price. We’re happy to report that some of the devices, particularly the Meridian trimmer, have been a staple in a few of our routines for the past two years.
Can you believe it? We’re halfway through March. This is the lion part! The Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN bundle has all the content fit for the king of the jungle as of March 16.
March 16
• Disney+ and Hulu: In Your Radiant Season (Hulu Original) – New Episodes
March 17
• Hulu: Agatha Christie Library (ITV) • Disney+ and Hulu: American Idol (Season 9) (ABC) – New Episode • ESPN: TGL Semifinals: Doubleheader (ESPN) – 6:30pm ET
March 18
• Hulu: The Nanny (Complete Series) (Sony) • Disney+: Short Circuit Experimental Films: Life Drawings – Premiere • Disney+: Short Circuit Experimental Films: Maddie & The Test – Premiere • ESPN: Women’s College Basketball: NCAA Tournament First Four (ESPN Networks) – TBD
March 19
• ESPN: NCAA College Wrestling Championships: First Round (ESPNU) – 12pm ET • ESPN: NCAA College Wrestling Championships: Second Round (ESPN) – 7pm ET
March 20
• ESPN: NCAA College Wrestling Championships: Quarterfinals (ESPNU) – 12pm ET • ESPN: NCAA College Wrestling Championships: Semifinals (ESPN2) – 8pm ET • ESPN: Women’s College Basketball: NCAA Tournament First Round (ESPN Networks) – TBD
March 21
• Hulu: Garfield (2024) • Disney+: Locker Diaries: ZOMBIES: Shorts – New Episode • ESPN: NCAA College Wrestling Championships: Medal Round (ESPNU) – 11am ET • ESPN: NCAA College Wrestling Championships: Finals (ESPN) – 6:30pm ET • ESPN: Women’s College Basketball: NCAA Tournament First Round (ESPN Networks) – TBD
March 22
• Hulu: Summertide (Seasons 1-2) • ESPN: Women’s College Basketball: NCAA Tournament Second Round (ESPN Networks) – TBD
Triple Oscar-winning cinematographer Vittorio Storaro is set to be honored with a special prize by Italy’s David di Donatello Awards in tandem with Rome’s Cinecittà Studios during the upcoming edition of the country’s top film prizes.
Storaro — who has won Academy Awards for his work on “Apocalypse Now,” the Warren Beatty-directed “Reds” and Bernardo Bertolucci’s “The Last Emperor” — will be celebrated during the 71st edition of the Davids that will take place at Cinecittà Studios on May 6.
Storaro has more than 70 cinematography credits, including with Woody Allen, Carlos Saura, Richard Donner, Alfonso Arau and Paul Schrader. His work with fellow Italian Bertolucci is considered one of the most seminal filmmaking partnerships in history.
“The Cinecittà David 71 Special Award to Vittorio Storaro is a tribute to a maestro who knows how to write with light, transforming technique into visual poetry and bringing our country’s excellence to the world’s most prestigious stages,” said Italy’s undersecretary for culture Lucia Borgonzoni, who oversees the country’s cinema department, in a statement.
“Cinecittà is known worldwide for the brilliance of its artists and artisans,” noted Cinecittà CEO Manuela Cacciamani. “This well-deserved fame is also due to the work of this poet of the image. So this award goes to him along with our gratitude.”
Donatello Academy president Piera Detassis called the prize to Storaro “the most beautiful way to celebrate an immense talent and, along with him, a special anniversary: the 50th anniversary of Bernardo Bertolucci’s masterpiece ‘Novecento,’” the historical epic shot in 1976 with a stellar cast comprising Robert De Niro, Gérard Depardieu, Dominique Sanda and Donald Sutherland.”
Cornelius, the project of Japanese composer Keigo Oyamada, is launching a new phase. Off the back of a burst of TikTok virality, Oyamada has signed to Eat Your Own Ears and released a cover of a Japanese Balearic classic: Yosui Inoue’s 1990 song “Yumenemi” (or “Yume Ne Mi”). Check it out below.
The new music heralds a period of renewed Cornelius activity, a press release notes. Oyamada’s last releases came in 2024: the Arto Lindsay-assisted EP Bad Advice/Mind Train and the ambient album Ethereal Essence. Before that, he released the 2023 LP Dream in Dream, which followed a bizarre scandal that prompted his exit from the Tokyo Olympics opening ceremony, after an old interview was unearthed in which he apologized for bullying people with disabilities as a child.
Alongside receiving an honorary Palme d’Or at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, Peter Jackson is now set to sit down for a special conversation.
The acclaimed “Lord of the Rings” has been named as part of the festival’s “Rendezvous at the Festival de Cannes” program of public discussions alongside Cate Blanchett and Tilda Swinton.
Jackson’s visit comes almost 25 years to the day that the first images of “The Lord of the Rings” were revealed at Cannes, one of the first steps in what would become a $3 billion dollar franchise winning 17 Oscars, revolutionising VFX and cementing the legendary status of its director. He’ll take part in the talk on May 13, the day after he’s awarded the Palme.
Blanchett, meanwhile, has been attending Cannes since 1999, serving as jury president 20 years later. One of the most acclaimed and celebrated actresses working today, with two Oscars and four BAFTAs, Blancett has also founded the Proof of Concept program supporting women, trans and non-binary voices, as well as the Displacement Film Fund for refugee filmmakers and those telling stories of displacement. As she did in 2025, Blanchett will host a panel at the Festival de Cannes 2026 announcing the next cohort of artists it supports. Her talk is scheduled for May 17.
Another Cannes regular, Swinton has seemlessly switched between experimental art-house and major Hollywood productions since her 1992 breakout in “Orlando,” winning both an Oscar and BAFTA. She was recently at the festival with “Asteroid City” and “Three Thousand Years of Longing,” and also served as a jury member in 2004. Swinton’s Rendezvous discussion will take place May 21.
Hello everyone! The Good Bad Mother celebrates its third anniversary today, marking three years since the acclaimed Korean drama first brought its powerful mother-son story into our living rooms worldwide.
The series premiered on April 28, 2023, starring Ra Mi-ran as the titular ‘bad mother’ and Lee Do-hyun as her son. The show captured audiences with its complex portrayal of family dynamics, trauma, and the challenging journey toward healing and understanding.
PopBase highlighted the anniversary milestone in a tweet that garnered over 3,700 likes. The social media attention demonstrates the lasting impression the drama left on viewers around the globe.
The Good Bad Mother told the story of Young-soon, a strict mother who raised her son Kang-ho with an iron fist, believing tough love would prepare him for life’s challenges. When a tragic accident leaves Kang-ho with the mental capacity of a child, both mother and son must navigate their complicated relationship from an entirely new perspective.
Ra Mi-ran’s powerhouse performance earned widespread praise for bringing nuance to a character who could have easily become a one-dimensional villain. Instead, she crafted a mother whose harsh exterior masked deep love and fear for her child’s future. Lee Do-hyun matched her intensity, portraying both the ambitious prosecutor Kang-ho becomes and the vulnerable man-child he transforms into after his accident.
The drama premiered during a particularly strong period for Korean content on the global stage. K-dramas had already begun their worldwide conquest, but 2023 saw even greater international appetite for Korean storytelling. The Good Bad Mother benefited from this cultural moment while also contributing to it with its authentic exploration of family relationships that transcend cultural boundaries.
The series tackled themes that resonated across different cultures. The pressure parents place on children to succeed, the weight of expectations, and the difficulty of expressing love within demanding family dynamics struck a chord with international audiences. Many viewers found themselves questioning their own family relationships and parenting approaches.
Beyond the central mother-son relationship, the show painted a vivid picture of rural Korean life and community bonds. The supporting characters, from Young-soon’s friends to the various villagers, created a rich tapestry that grounded the more dramatic elements in everyday reality.
The drama’s success also highlighted the growing sophistication of Korean television production. The writing balanced emotional depth with compelling plot developments, while the cinematography captured both the beauty of the countryside setting and the intensity of the family drama.
Three years later, The Good Bad Mother continues to find new audiences through streaming platforms. International viewers discovering Korean content often cite the series as a standout example of K-drama’s emotional storytelling prowess.
The anniversary arrives as Korean content maintains its strong global presence. The Good Bad Mother helped establish the template for family dramas that don’t shy away from difficult topics while still delivering the emotional satisfaction audiences seek.
Ra Mi-ran has continued building her impressive career with subsequent projects, while Lee Do-hyun has taken on diverse roles that showcase his range beyond the memorable performance that introduced him to many international fans.
The show’s exploration of second chances and family healing remains relevant today. In a world where family relationships face increasing complexity, The Good Bad Mother’s message about understanding, forgiveness, and the different ways people express love continues resonating with viewers discovering these characters and stories in their living rooms for the first time.
As Korean entertainment celebrates another milestone, The Good Bad Mother stands as a testament to the power of authentic storytelling that brings universal human experiences into focus, proving that the best dramas create lasting connections that extend far beyond their original broadcast dates.
The family of late rapper Tupac Shakur filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Keefe D and others on Tuesday, seeking unspecified damages tied to the artist’s 1996 murder.
In legal documents filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court and viewed by TheWrap, Mopreme Shakur, acting as the administrator of the estate for his late father (and Tupac’s stepfather), Mutulu Shakur, listed Duane “Keefe D” Davis and other unnamed co-conspirators, identified only as “John Does 1 -100,” as defendants in the suit.
A representative for Davis did not immediately respond to TheWrap’s request for comment.
“Nearly 30 years after Tupac’s death, in 2023, the first—and only—arrest was made. Related grand jury transcripts and a subsequent Netflix documentary have since revealed the existence of a broader, more complex conspiracy to murder Tupac that involved much more than mere retaliation for a prior altercation,” the document stated. “Despite this additional information, however, the truth remains elusive. Many individuals who were involved have long since passed way, while others have been hard to identify.”
“Yet, one thing is certain: there remain individuals who were involved in Tupac’s murder who, for 30 years, have not been held accountable for their crimes,” it continued. “This action seeks to change that and to recover damages for the wrongful death of Tupac on behalf of the Estate of Mutulu Shakur, Tupac’s late stepfather and parent.”
Additionally, the suit explained why it name checked Keefe D, stating that the alleged member of the South Side Compton Crips was the “only individual who has been criminally charged in connection with Tupac’s murder.” Keefe D was allegedly in the white Cadillac alongside the gunman who shot Tupac on September 7, 1996.
Nearly 30 years later, on September 29, 2023, a Clark County grand jury indicted him for first-degree murder. Keefe D previously pleaded not guilty to the charge. His trial has been been delayed until August.
As for the other possible defendants, the suit noted that “plaintiff has been unable to confirm, through independent investigation, the precise roles of specific individuals or to distinguish among potential defendants with the certainty required to name them in this Complaint.”
Yet, vowed to “amend this Complaint to state the true names and capacities of the Doe Defendants when the same have been ascertained through discovery.”
The rapper Megan Thee Stallion will play her final performance in “Moulin Rouge! The Musical” on Friday, the production announced in a news release on Monday night, ending her run more than two weeks earlier than originally planned.
The production did not give a reason for her early departure in its news release but included a statement from the performer.
“It’s been such an honor to be part of ‘Moulin Rouge!’ and I’ve met so many amazing people in this theater!” the rapper’s statement read in part. “Y’all work so hard, and I have so much respect for the dedication, the stamina, the work ethic, the time and the effort y’all put into the work!”
She continued: “I’m so grateful for the cast and crew that made this experience so meaningful. Y’all are really some of the kindest human beings I’ve ever met! To all the Hotties that showed up or planned to attend, thank you for supporting me during this incredible journey!”
The show had enlisted Megan Thee Stallion, 31, to play Zidler, a nightclub impresario in turn-of-the-century Paris, partly in an effort to increase its sales. It is not unusual for Broadway shows, particularly those deep into their runs, to hire musical artists and other celebrities in an effort to goose their grosses. (The production, which has had a seven-year run interrupted by the coronavirus pandemic, has set a closing date for Aug. 30.)
Megan Thee Stallion was scheduled to appear from March 24 to May 17, but her splashy Broadway debut hit a rough patch early on. After a week of performances, she fell ill midway through a show and was rushed to a hospital.
At the time, a spokesman for Megan Thee Stallion said in a statement that the performer had been evaluated at a hospital and diagnosed with “extreme exhaustion, dehydration, vasoconstriction and low metabolic levels.” She returned to the production two nights later.
The news of her departure comes a day after she was seen visibly upset, wiping away tears, at a curtain call on Sunday. Hours earlier, she had announced the breakup of her relationship with Klay Thompson, who plays for the Dallas Mavericks of the N.B.A.
It is unclear if that development influenced her decision to leave the production, or who will step into the role of Zidler once she departs. The production said in its news release that a new performer would be announced soon.
“Shakti,” the debut narrative feature from filmmaker Nani Sahra Walker, will make its digital bow on Prime Video across the U.S. and U.K. on May 22, with a trailer unveiled ahead of the launch. Buffalo 8 handles distribution.
The film unfolds in Kathmandu, where a mother races to shield her nine-year-old daughter from a sudden and troubling change – a journey that forces both characters to reckon with trauma and with a legal system ill-equipped to deliver justice. At its center, the story takes aim at Nepal’s time limits on prosecuting sexual violence, reflecting wider pressure for legislative accountability.
Walker’s prior credits include the documentary “Other Nature,” which she directed, and the Academy Award-winning short “The Last Repair Shop,” on which she served as executive producer.
“Shakti” gathered prizes across a run of prominent international festivals, including the Heartland International Film Festival, the Santa Barbara International Film Festival, the International Film Festival of India and the Hawaii International Film Festival. Before it reaches streaming audiences, the film will appear at the 44th CAAMFest – presented by the Center for Asian American Media – in the San Francisco Bay Area on May 10.
“The conversations we’ve seen at festivals – especially with younger audiences – point to an urgent demand for stories that confront the abuse of power in society,” Walker said.
“Every gatekeeper who called this story ‘too taboo’ only reinforced the film’s point. Naming these realities is the first step toward dismantling that culture,” Walker added.
Keiko Nakahara served as director of photography. The cast includes Laxmi Bardewa, Menuka Pradhan, Shristi Shrestha, Maoste Gurung and Akash Nepali, with Polina Oli making her screen debut. Snehal Fulzele and Vrushali Satarkar financed the project, with additional backing from the Gerbode Foundation and the ARRI International Support Program.
“As Dalit entrepreneurs, supporting ‘Shakti’ was deeply personal for us. The film confronts uncomfortable truths with rare authenticity, and we believe stories like this have the power to shift perspectives and spark meaningful change,” Fulzele and Satarkar said.
William Ryan Fritch composed the score, which Buffalo 8 Music has distributed globally. The album incorporates an original track, “Naam,” from Nepali rapper Dmriti, alongside sarangi contributions from musician Shyam Nepali.
Ever visited a competitor’s website hoping to uncover their latest strategic moves, only to find outdated information? This has led market intelligence analysts to turn to social media for early signals, market shifts, and predictive insights. One platform, in particular—LinkedIn—has become a go-to source for timely, business-savvy intelligence. But researching on LinkedIn can be fragmented when each team member searches individually. That’s why we’ve integrated LinkedIn feeds directly into your Feedly account, eliminating the fragmentation and ensuring you never miss real-time insights.
Following LinkedIn Feeds in Feedly allows you to:
Follow companies and thought leaders, using custom filters to surface the posts most relevant to you.
Analyze posts or entire feeds to uncover trends and extract data using Ask AI.
Conduct historical searches with AI Models optimized for market intelligence.
Share key insights with your team using Automated Newsletters, Slack and Microsoft Teams.
Please note his feature is available exclusively on Business and Enterprise plans. Start your free trial today to explore it.
I use Feedly to monitor competitive and market news, which is an essential part of our compete program at HubSpot. Their new LinkedIn integration has been great at helping us expand our coverage and stay on top of emerging trends! More and more news is happening on social media, and this helps us keep track of all that. I got it set up in less than 30 minutes, and it’s greatly expanded our competitive news coverage.
Ben Conte, Senior Product Marketing Manager, Competitive Intelligence, HubSpot
Follow companies and thought leader’s feeds
As with any source in Feedly, following companies or thought leaders on LinkedIn is as simple as adding their feed URL. But what if you want to go deeper, like tracking only a CEO’s posts that mention sustainability, or surfacing partnerships and product launches shared on a competitor’s company page? That’s where Feedly AI shines. It filters out the noise and pulls in only the insights that matter to you using market intelligence optimized AI Models. This level of precision turns LinkedIn from a cluttered social feed into a focused stream of high-value intelligence tailored to your strategic priorities.
Analyze posts or entire feeds to uncover trends and extract data
With Ask AI, Feedly does more than collect content—it helps you analyze it with one click. Once you’ve added LinkedIn posts to your feed, Ask AI can analyze them at scale. Whether you’re tracking a specific thought leader, a group of executives, or your competitors’ marketing posts, you can extract the most intriguing data points, identify key themes, or create data visualizations to help you create deliverables with ease.
Feedly’s LinkedIn integration has streamlined my benchmark reporting. I can track all competitor updates in one place, quickly spot key launches or M&As, and easily pull insights into reports. It’s saved me hours and made sharing intel across the team effortless.
Isabo Osstyn, Product Manager, Schoeller Allibert
Conduct historical searches
Spotting the first mention of a new product line, or analyzing a competitor’s messaging over time is critical for understanding your industry. That’s why Feedly allows you to search through months of LinkedIn activity from the feeds you follow. Filter posts by date, topic, or the highest impact stories to uncover key announcements, identify strategic shifts, and build detailed reports, timelines, and executive briefings to drive action in your organization.
Share key insights with your team
Found a post worth sharing? Now, you can seamlessly distribute LinkedIn intelligence across your organization using Automated Newsletters or our Slack and Microsoft Teams integrations. Whether you’re feeding a weekly trend report to marketing or sharing competitive signals with your sales team, automation keeps everyone aligned. Quick tip: create a Board to centralize the most valuable LinkedIn posts, then link that Board to a newsletter and share it with your team. It’s never been easier to turn LinkedIn insights into team-wide action.
Ready to try it?
Adding LinkedIn as a source in Feedly is now available to all users on Business and Enterprise plans. Just search for a LinkedIn profile, hit follow, and start unlocking insights in seconds.
Stay ahead of your market. Stay connected to thought leaders. And let Feedly do the heavy lifting.
All Feedly Market Intelligence and Feedly Threat Intelligence customers can follow LinkedIn Feeds on their account.
Is there a limit in the number of LinkedIn Feeds that can be followed?
No, you can follow as many LinkedIn Feeds as you want.
Do I need to have a LinkedIn account to be able to follow LinkedIn Feeds in Feedly?
No, you would just need to be able to find the URL of the LinkedIn page you want to follow in Feedly.
What types of LinkedIn pages can be followed in Feedly?
You can follow any LinkedIn page from a company or individual, including reposts. This does not include groups for now.
How far back does my new LinkedIn Feed in Feedly go?
When you create your LinkedIn Feed in your account, we fetch the fifty most recent articles that were published on that LinkedIn page. As new posts are published on the page, they will appear in real-time in your Feedly account.
How do you recommend I organize my LinkedIn Feeds in my Feedly account?
We recommend following all your LinkedIn Feeds in a single Folder you could call “LinkedIn”. That way, you can easily filter LinkedIn Feeds with specific topics of interest.
Is it possible to create a Feed with all the LinkedIn posts that mention or tag a company or person?
It’s not possible today.
Is it possible to create a Feed with all the LinkedIn comments made by a company or individual?
It’s not possible today.
Can I create a search query on top of a LinkedIn Feed in Feedly?
Yes, you can create an AI Feed or a Power Search query on any of the LinkedIn Feeds you follow in Feedly in order to avoid information overload.
Can I mute out specific topics from my LinkedIn Feeds in Feedly?
Yes, you can apply mute filters on your LinkedIn Feeds.
A handful of classic DC characters used in Christian Bale’s The Dark Knight will be revisited under new actors in Matt Reeves’ The Batman – Part 2. The Batman 2 is slowly inching closer to its production start date, and it will follow up on Reeves’ original Gotham-set movie five years later. While its cast is still slowly coming into focus, the movie will, unsurprisingly, draw on DC history to continue the story in this alternate-reality comic universe.
Five characters from 2027’s The Batman 2 were previously brought to life in 2008’s The Dark Knight. Still regarded as one of the greatest superhero movies ever made, the Christian Bale-starring The Dark Knight marked a new step in comic-book-movie storytelling in 2008, featuring some of the most highly regarded performances in history. Although the plots of this movie and the latest Batman film, which hits theaters on October 1, 2027, will be vastly different, they naturally share a few similarities in their rosters.
Every The Dark Knight Character in The Batman 2
Batman/Bruce Wayne
Warner Bros.
The Batman 2 will take the same route as The Dark Knight by centering on Bruce Wayne/Batman, with The Dark Knight featuring Christian Bale in the titular role. This film showed Bale’s Batman further into his run as a hero and a businessman, devoting his life to protecting Gotham while struggling to handle an insane villain who rose from the shadows at the end of 2005’s Batman Begins.
Meanwhile, Robert Pattinson takes on the Bat-mantle for The Batman 2, marking his second appearance as the Caped Crusader. While story details have not been revealed, Pattinson’s hero will deal with a flooded Gotham City while fighting a rising wave of new villains across the city.
Alfred
Warner Bros.
Every Batman has his Alfred, who was portrayed in Nolan’s The Dark Knight by British legend Michael Caine. Making his second appearance, Alfred continued to assist Batman in both his business and superhero lives, working hard to hide Bruce Wayne’s identity while offering support to those he cared deeply about, like Maggie Gyllenhaal’s Rachel Dawes.
Playing a younger version of Alfred in The Batman was industry legend Andy Serkis, who will return to the role in The Batman 2. After suffering major injuries in an explosion at Wayne Tower in the first movie, Serkis’ Alfred is expected to make a full recovery and return to assist Bruce Wayne in his superhero endeavors in the second movie (although Serkis has his own ideas for what he wants to happen).
The Joker
Warner Bros.
In 2008, the late Heath Ledger etched his name into comic book movie history with his portrayal of the Joker, which won him a posthumous Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. The Dark Knight showed a wild and insane version of the Clown Prince of Crime, who did everything in his power to burn Gotham to the ground and send the city into chaos.
2022’s The Batman gave the Joker one quick moment to shine, portrayed by Eternals star Barry Keoghan in one of the movie’s last scenes. After showing up in the Arkham Asylum cell next to Paul Dano’s Riddler, the Joker is now set for The Batman 2, but the specifics for his story are still unknown.
Harvey Dent
Warner Bros., Marvel Studios
One of the surprise villains in The Dark Knight was Aaron Eckhart’s Harvey Dent, who later took a dark turn and became the villainous Two-Face. Originally a friend and ally of Christian Bale’s Batman and Jim Gordon, half of his face is burned off in an attack by the Joker, leading him to go on a rampage across Gotham.
MCU star Sebastian Stan was reported to be playing Harvey Dent for Matt Reeves, marking Dent’s first live-action appearance since The Dark Knight. Following at least 11 live-action performances as Bucky Barnes, this film will mark Stan’s DC debut, although it is unclear where he will go as Dent.
Commissioner Gordon
Warner Bros.
Gary Oldman took on his lone comic-book-movie role by playing Jim Gordon in 2008’s The Dark Knight. Eventually being promoted from Gotham PD Lieutenant to Commissioner, Gordon worked closely with Batman to take on the Joker, even faking his death to get to the bottom of the Joker’s crime spree.
Jeffrey Wright took over the role of Lieutenant Gordon in The Batman, operating as the only GCPD officer to work closely with Pattinson’s Batman. This movie gave the two their closest working relationship yet, as they united on multiple occasions to investigate the Riddler and Penguin’s activities throughout Gotham.
Annemarie Jacir’s award-winning film Palestine 36 leads the nominations for the 10th edition of the Critics Awards For Arab Films, which were announced today.
The annual prizes, organized by the Arab Cinema Centre (ACC), have been voted on by a record 307 Arab and international critics from 75 countries this year, with the awards ceremony due to take place during the Cannes Film Festival on May 16.
Palestine 36 has been nominated in six categories including best film, director and screenplay. It is followed by Maryam Touzani’s Calle Málaga with five nominations; Cherien Dabis’ All That’s Left Of You with four; and then Yunan, My Father’s Scent, and Once Upon A Time in Gaza with three each.
Kaouther Ben Hania’s Oscar-nominated and Venice Grand Jury Prize winner Gaza War-set drama The Voice of Hind Rajab has garnered just one nomination in the best director category.
Following a packed festival run, Watermelon Pictures launched the picture theatrically in North America at the end of March. It has also enjoyed successful runs in the UK and a raft of European territories and continues to travel.
Moroccan director Touzani’s Spanish-language drama Calle Málaga, starring Carmen Maura as a woman fighting to keep her childhood home in Tangier, debuted in Venice, winning the Audience Award.
U.S.-Palestinian director Dabis’ All That’s Left Of You, following three generations of a Palestinian family in the wake of 1948, premiered at Sundance, and also made it onto the Best International Feature Film shortlist.
Recent winners of the best film award are Thank You For Banking With Us! (2025) and Goodbye Julia (2024).
The Full List Of 2026 Nominees:
Best Feature Film
ONCE UPON A TIME IN GAZA | Tarzan and Arab Nasser | Palestine PALESTINE 36 | Annemarie Jacir | Palestine ALL THAT’S LEFT OF YOU | Cherien Dabis | Palestine CALLE MÁLAGA | Maryam Touzani | Morocco COTTON QUEEN | Suzannah Mirghani | Sudan
Best Screenplay
Amer Nasser and Marie Legrand| ONCE UPON A TIME IN GAZA Cherien Dabis | ALL THAT’S LEFT OF YOU Annemarie Jacir | PALESTINE 36 Maryam Touzani and Nabil Ayouch | CALLE MÁLAGA Ahmed Amer and Mohamed Siam | MY FATHER’S SCENT
Best Director
Maryam Touzani | CALLE MÁLAGA Cherien Dabis | ALL THAT’S LEFT OF YOU Tarzan and Arab Nasser | ONCE UPON A TIME IN GAZA Annemarie Jacir | PALESTINE 36 Kaouther Ben Hania | THE VOICE OF HIND RAJAB
Best Actress
Deborah Christelle Naney | PROMISED SKY Mounia Akl | A SAD AND BEAUTIFUL WORLD Yasmine Al Massri | PALESTINE 36 Carmen Maura | CALLE MÁLAGA Baneen Ahmad Nayyef | THE PRESIDENT’S CAKE
Best Actor
Adham Shukr | THE SETTLEMENT Nawwaf Aldaferi | HIJRA Dhafer L’Abidine | PALESTINE 36 Georges Khabbaz | YUNAN Ahmed Malek | MY FATHER’S SCENT
Ameer Fakher Eldin | YUNAN Ahmed Hafez | MY FATHER’S SCENT Qutaiba Barhamji, Maxime Mathis, and Kaouther Ben Hania | THE VOICE OF HIND RAJAB Heba Othman | THE SETTLEMENT Zeina Aboul Hosn | DEAD DOG
Best Cinematography
Hélène Louvart | PALESTINE 36 Mostafa El Kashef | AISHA CAN’T FLY AWAY Joe Saade | A SAD AND BEAUTIFUL WORLD Christopher Aoun | ALL THAT’S LEFT OF YOU Frida Marzouk | PROMISED SKY
Best Documentary
THE LIONS BY THE RIVER TIGRIS | Zaradasht Ahmed | Iraq KHARTOUM | Anas Saeed, Rawia Alhag, Ibrahim Snoopy, Timeea Mohamed Ahmed, and Phil Cox | Sudan 50 METERS | Yomna Khattab | Egypt LIFE AFTER SIHAM | Namir Abdel Messeeh | Egypt DO YOU LOVE ME | Lana Daher | Lebanon
Best Short Film
L’MINA | Randa Maroufi | Morocco IT’S SO BEAUTIFUL HERE | Basma Alsharif and Kamal Aljafari | Palestine CONTROL ANATOMY | Mahmoud Al Haj | Palestine I’M GLAD YOU’RE DEAD NOW | Tawfeek Barhom | Palestine SOUS LES RUINES | Nadhir Bouslama | Tunisia
There cannot possibly be a more perfect setup for making a horror movie about a “tradwife” than whatever’s happening to women in the U.S. right now. Gender relations have reached a shocking new low, as Americans of all kinds struggle to navigate a new political reality defined, in part, by slang terms like “looksmaxxing” and “manosphere.” Shallow, misogynistic speech has seeped into the daily vocabularies of many, suggesting the toxic, anti-woman values that have long inspired such rhetoric are once again calcifying into a widespread and serious problem.
Simultaneously, actress Anne Hathaway is back in the spotlight during an especially busy time in her career (chaotically shared by both A24’s “Mother Mary” and Disney’s “The Devil Wears Prada 2”). She’s poised to eventually dominate Hollywood’s discussion around gender discourse with her upcoming adaptation of the controversial sci-fi, horror novel “Yesteryear.” Hathaway is attached to star in and produce the film through her Somewhere Pictures banner.
Reaching shelves just a few weeks ago, author Caro Claire Burke’s “Yesteryear” is a sometimes surreal piece of semi-historical fiction that imagines the ultimate tradwife fantasy curdling into a trap of wish fulfillment. Importantly, that trap is not some broad societal punishment so much as a deeply personal one for this character, a nightmare shaped by the very ideals she chose to promote.
When a misguided modern woman, Natalie, is transported back to the 19th-century American frontier, she’s forced to live within the historic period’s rigid domestic constraints, which she once pushed to her millions of followers as a more ideal way to live. That setting quickly transforms into a punishment the seemingly clueless time traveler may never escape. What initially reads like a generally cautionary tale reveals itself to be something far narrower as this specific woman is caught inside the logical result of her decisions.
Amazon MGM Studios acquired the provocative story’s rights in a competitive bidding war in July 2024, according to Deadline. Emmy-winning writer Hannah Friedman (“Obi-Wan,” “Willow”) was also confirmed to pen the script last year. No director for “Yesteryear” has been publicly announced, and the project is thought to still be in pre-production at this time.
(Left to right): Anne Hathaway in 2007’s ‘Becoming Jane’ and the cover art for ‘Yesteryear’
The sense of mystery around both the “Yesteryear” novel and movie hasn’t stopped social media from speculating about its tantalizing premise. Even after the book’s wide rollout this spring, “Yesteryear” has continued to inspire increasingly loud, often ill-informed chatter online.
Across TikTok, Instagram, Threads, YouTube, Goodreads, and Reddit, reactions have focused less on the craft of fiction writing than on the spiritual subjugation of women that any media about this topic must, by nature, interrogate and include. That oversimplification is telling, and much of the current discourse treats Burke’s story like a sweeping indictment of conservative family values and motherhood, rather than engaging with how acutely “Yesteryear” centers on a single character’s self-made reality coming undone.
While some readers have described “Yesteryear” as a cathartic takedown of the patriarchy, others have bristled at its brutal twist ending and, from that, inferred a sort of nasty streak in Burke’s narrative approach. Plenty of others haven’t engaged with the book at all, instead using its premise — and ironically, Hathaway’s role as a female producer on the film — as fodder for the ever-raging American culture wars. In many cases, the loudest reactions seem to be responding to the idea of the book, not the arc it actually follows.
On one end of the spectrum, critics frame “Yesteryear” as an inevitable leftist attack on conservative women. On the other, you’ll find a swirl of posts that are more positive but still half-informed, widely reducing Burke’s novel into a flat meme that celebrates suffering. The result is a sideways PR cycle that feels less like an unusually strong reaction to the pre-production process, and more like an opportunistic projection of today’s politics that risks pushing the public to ignore the book Burke actually wrote.
Sure, plenty of movie studios would kill to have people fighting this frantically over any script they’re still planning to make. And yes, in 2026, rage coming from either side of the aisle is an incredibly powerful tool for marketing. But with such intense controversy already creeping into the “Yesteryear” discussion, and the film nowhere near theaters, are the folks making and debating it ready for the long road ahead?
Who (or What) Is a Tradwife?
The term “tradwife” is more slippery than it looks. In its most benign framing, the internet-born phrase refers to women who embrace a “traditional” (read: heterosexual, white, Christian) division of labor at home. That means these women are responsible for cooking, cleaning, child-rearing, and most other domestic duties, while their husbands are tasked with making money and major family decisions.
When that lifestyle is represented on social media, it is often deliberately done in a retro aesthetic that suggests this mindset can serve as a portal to the “good ol’ days,” which, for many women who actually lived before this century, never existed.
In contemporary reality, the “tradwife” is more of a cultural Rorschach test, embodying both the wholesome, lucrative promise of a lifestyle brand — and the viral political messaging that can optimize content for growth.
In a recent essay for The Guardian, “Yesteryear” author Burke discussed the harrowing real-world inspirations behind her book, and traced the term “tradwife” from its surprising origins in online incel spaces to the mainstream influencer culture that’s widening the ideology’s appeal today. She notes that the label operates as both an aspiration and a provocation, making it ideal fuel for internet friction.
“Tradwife content is fundamentally performative,” Burke wrote. “It’s about constructing an image of domesticity that can be consumed, shared, and aspired to, rather than reflecting the lived reality of most women.” As a novel, “Yesteryear” ultimately tapers its focus away from American society at large to instead spotlight what happens when one person can no longer separate her true identity from an assumed facade. And that duality is what makes the concept so tempting to explore more deeply — particularly through the interiority of a complex woman who will be literally trapped on the big screen.
What Happens in the Book “Yesteryear”?
“Yesteryear” follows Natalie, a wildly successful tradwife influencer whose meticulously curated image includes a handsome husband, a beautiful farmhouse, and six adorable children. But Natalie’s picturesque reality also involves an elaborate network of behind-the-scenes labor and wealth that’s invisible to her viewers and essential to her hollow, precarious performance of so-called “real” life.
One day, Natalie wakes up in a place where the mid-19th-century aesthetic she once chose for herself remains, but the illusion of women’s joy and freedom within that universe is gone. With no electricity, no staff, and no agency, Natalie is suddenly forced to become the kind of tradwife she always pretended to be in the worst conditions imaginable. That disorienting time shift, into the far harsher historical world of 1855, Idaho, is what gives Burke’s book not just its spine but its compelling narrative shape.
Natalie’s new life goes way beyond rural inconveniences — instead, punishing her with the kind of period-specific atrocities even the most “accurate” tradwives of today conveniently leave out. But jumping between that antiquated hellscape and the modern choices that brought Natalie there in the first place, “Yesteryear” doesn’t torture readers so much as force us into a hopeless descent. Crucially, that decline is framed less as a random act of supernatural misfortune than as the culmination of Natalie’s own carefully constructed latticework of mistakes.
That said, the plot is also propelled by a series of escalating shocks that would no doubt kill in theaters (even if Burke’s use of the word “mushy-penised” probably won’t).
Critically, the response to “Yesteryear” has been split but ferociously engaged. “Black Mirror” and “Don’t Worry Darling” are solid references if you’re looking for tonal touchstones in any medium. But Burke’s book is an especially good pick for readers of Margaret Atwood’s “The Handmaid’s Tale” and Christina Dalcher’s “Vox” (which imagines a world where women are only allowed to speak a few words per day). But unlike those wider speculative dystopias, “Yesteryear” resists building an entire alternate system or government of oppression, instead zeroing in on one nightmarish existence.
Commercially, too, “Yesteryear” seems to be doing well, with repeat appearances on national book club curations and various bestseller charts. Note: We won’t spoil the novel’s entire plot here, but you can find several “Yesteryear” summaries online that detail what happens to Natalie and how she gets seemingly forced back in time.
When Will the Movie with Anne Hathaway Hit Theaters?
There is no official release date for “Yesteryear” yet, and given that Amazon MGM reportedly paid top dollar for the film rights, that uncertainty doesn’t tell us much about what’s actually happening with the film’s development or production right now.
‘Mother Mary’ (2026)Courtesy Everett Collection
That said, with no director and no official production timeline to date, the public perception of “Yesteryear” rests at Hathaway’s feet. That puts the movie in an interesting position relative to the actress’ broader professional trajectory. In recent years, Hathaway has moved fluidly between prestige projects and tentpole studio fare that spark complex conversations.
If “Yesteryear” moves forward soon, it will land in theaters within the next few years. But whether the goal is to create a high-concept adaptation anchored in a layered, award-worthy performance from Hathaway, or a ham-fisted genre movie with a built-in discourse machine, won’t be known for a while.
High Risk, High Reward (or, Free PR via the Far Right)
This far into horror history, “Yesteryear” fits into an eerily familiar category. In film, the genre market has spent years cycling through literary dystopias about extreme oppression, from “The Hunger Games” to “The Long Walk.” And thanks to Hulu’s hugely successful, Emmy-winning TV adaptation of “The Handmaid’s Tale,” gendered violence has never been more creatively permissible to depict on screen.
And yet, grouping Burke’s novel too neatly into that lineage risks missing its significance as a contained horror story reaching American audiences at a time when many people feel like they’re living a lie — or enduring some kind of simulation. Burke excels at articulating just how painfully Natalie’s mask hardens into a private hell that she’s subconsciously feared and created all her life.
But if anger draws attention to “Yesteryear,” it may also cut its emotion and nuance. The risk of the film being misunderstood looms for Hathaway, Amazon MGM, and anyone reading this who remembers the messy, outrage-driven release of “The Hunt” (2020). Will our taste for media that pisses us off make it until “Yesteryear” comes out?
Saturation in the dystopian film space risks fatigue among potential ticket holders, yes. But, this specific adaptation could be equally advantaged by presenting an imagined hell within our lesser, present one. The book’s main source of fear comes from collapsing the gap between fantasy and reality, and centuries of cautionary tales in both politics and art prove that kind of nightmare rarely goes out of style.
A project this gutsy could pay off or backfire, but “Yesteryear” shouldn’t become shorthand for a cultural argument before it even gets made. Of course, dealing with the obstacles this film faces from the very start might just boost Burke’s concept above the caricature it may always be to some.
The Trade Desk CEO Jeff Green expressed empathy for the strife of ad agencies, many of which are facing increasing margin pressure as they navigate tighter budgets, the AI boom, and shifting media supply chain dynamics.
“You can’t keep taking money out of the middle, providing a higher level of service in a more complicated ecosystem, and do that for less and less,” he said in an onstage conversation with Michael Kassan, the renowned media dealmaker and head of 3C Ventures, at Possible 2026 in Miami Beach.
“There has been this pressure being added to the companies in between the advertiser and publisher,” he said.
