Author: rb809rb

  • Anne Hathaway Says ‘Princess Diaries 3’ Had a ‘Story Breakthrough’ After Having to ‘Start Over’ With the Script: ‘We are Moving in the Right Direction’

    Anne Hathaway Says ‘Princess Diaries 3’ Had a ‘Story Breakthrough’ After Having to ‘Start Over’ With the Script: ‘We are Moving in the Right Direction’

    Princess Diaries 3” recently had a breakthrough after a scrapped script, Anne Hathaway revealed during an appearance on SiriusXM’s “Radio Andy.”

    “I’m busy making baby number three, and that has sort of taken the place of knowing when exactly I can make ‘Princess Diaries 3,’” Hathaway said.

    “I can say I think we had a story breakthrough,” she added. “I think we are moving in the right direction. The script that we were working on — we kind of had to start over with this new direction, which is not the update I think anybody wants, but we all feel really good that this is gonna be the one.”

    The continuation of “The Princess Diaries” series has been in production since 2022. Adele Lim (“Crazy Rich Asians,” “Raya and the Last Dragon”) signed on to direct in 2024.

    “We just want to make the story right because it is a franchise that is so beloved by so many people,” Lim told Variety at the Gold Gala carpet in May.

    Hathaway will reprise her role as Mia Thermopolis, now Queen of Genovia, in the threequel. Lim teased that fans of the original movies can expect “a lot of fun returns” from other cast members.

    Lim said in May that the shooting and production schedule were still being worked out, and a release date has yet to be announced.

    “The Princess Diaries” was released in 2001 and was followed by the 2004 sequel, “The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement.” The two films have earned a combined $300 million worldwide.

  • Anne Hathaway Reveals ‘Princess Diaries 3’ Update: “We Had a Story Breakthrough”

    Anne Hathaway Reveals ‘Princess Diaries 3’ Update: “We Had a Story Breakthrough”

    Anne Hathaway is sharing a status update on the long-awaited third installment in The Princess Diaries franchise.

    The Oscar winner, who played Mia Thermopolis in the 2001 and 2004 films, made a recent appearance on SiriusXM’s Radio Andy, where she was asked by host Andy Cohen, “Where are we at on Princess Diaries 3?”

    “I’m busy making baby No. 3 and that has sort of taken the place of knowing exactly when I can make Princess Diaries 3,” Hathaway said with a laugh. She announced last month that she’s pregnant with her third child with husband Adam Shulman.

    “But I can say I think we had a story breakthrough. I think we are moving in the right direction. The script that we were working on — we kind of had to start over with this new direction, which is not the update I think anybody wants, but we all feel really good that this is gonna be the one,” The Odyssey star added.

    The Hollywood Reporter first reported in 2022 that a script was in the works for a third installment. It was later revealed in 2024 that Adele Lim had been tapped to direct the feature.

    While details are being kept under wraps, the film is set to be a continuation of the film series, which centers on Mia Thermopolis (Hathaway), who finds out that she is the heir apparent to the throne of Genovia. At the end of the second installment, Mia is crowned the queen of Genovia single after Parliament abolishes the law requiring that a queen be married first. However, she also finally gets together with Nicholas Devereaux (Chris Pine) after calling off her wedding to Andrew Jacoby (Callum Blue).

    During a chat with THR last month, The Princess Diaries author Meg Cabot shared, “I’m so excited there is a third movie. I read a script, and it was amazing. I told them not to send anymore, because I love it so much. I have a problem keeping my mouth shut.”

    She also teased, “I’m very happy with what I’ve read so far, but there’s definitely some book things that were involved in the last script I read.”

  • Tom Cruise and Half of Hollywood Light Up the 2026 World Cup Final

    Tom Cruise and Half of Hollywood Light Up the 2026 World Cup Final

    The 2026 FIFA World Cup has smashed ratings records in the U.S. and around the world, owing to its unique mix of star power — Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo and Neymar performing in perhaps their final World Cup matches, joined by younger stars Kylian Mbappe, Erling Haaland and Lamine Yamal — a North American setting and a bevy of certified studs. And speaking of star power, Tom Cruise, one of Hollywood’s last movie stars, has an Oscar-courting movie coming out in the fall, “Digger,” that he’s been promoting the heck out of. So naturally, the two would merge their audiences, first with “Digger” airing a number of special TV spots during World Cup matches, and then Cruise making a special appearance during Sunday’s World Cup final between Spain and defending champions Argentina at New Jersey’s MetLife Stadium (temporarily renamed the New York New Jersey Stadium just for the World Cup).

    After hanging with “Sesame Street’s” Elmo and Cookie Monster prior to the match, the “Mission: Impossible” and “Top Gun” star delivered an inspirational speech opening the World Cup final, where he proclaimed, “So, as we gather for one final chapter, let us celebrate a tournament that brought the world together. Let us celebrate each other. This is football. This is unity. This is greatness.” A number of other celebrities were in attendance at the final, including President Donald Trump, “The Odyssey” star Matt Damon and his wife, Timothée Chalamet and his girlfriend Kylie Jenner, Mick Jagger, Justin Bieber, Will Ferrell, Victor Wembanyama, Post Malone, Pharell Williams, Trevor Noah, Anya Taylor-Joy (in an Argentina jersey, since she’s part-Argentinian), two-time Oscar winner Adrien Brody and more.

    And then came the halftime show.

    Curated by Coldplay’s Chris Martin, the World Cup’s first-ever official halftime show was co-headlined by BTS, Justin Bieber, Madonna and Shakira, highlighting the competition’s mostly American backdrop and its international scope. With the match scoreless at the half, the crowds in attendance and watching on TV needed an adrenaline boost, and the medley of musical acts was more than eager to provide one.

    Oh, and there was Jason Sudeikis, who popped out as his Ted Lasso character to introduce Justin Bieber, urging him to “make us proud” while posing in front of a “BELIEBE” sign.

    To say that the event was star-studded would be a vast understatement. The 2026 FIFA World Cup final was the hottest ticket since Game 4 of the NBA Finals, attracting celebrities from all over the world to… New Jersey.

  • Freddy Cannon, Rock and Roller Behind Hits “Palisades Park” and “Tallahassee Lassie,” Dies at 89

    Freddy Cannon, Rock and Roller Behind Hits “Palisades Park” and “Tallahassee Lassie,” Dies at 89

    Freddy Cannon, the rock and roller whose hits include “Palisades Park” and “Tallahassee Lassie,” has died. He was 89.

    Cannon died Friday at a hospice facility in California, his friend, iHeart Radio’s Tom Cuddy, announced. Cuddy said that Cannon was scheduled to interview with DJ Cousin Brucie Morrow on July 11, however he was taken to the hospital a day before the appearance.

    The rocker, who was nicknamed Freddy “Boom Boom” Cannon, was born on Dec. 4, 1936, in Lynn, Massachusetts, where he started his music career. An early recording of the soon-to-be hit track “Tallahassee Lassie” intrigued Dick Clark. He and his wife, Jeanette, then moved moved to Philadelphia in his late teens, partly thanks to Clark who urged him to do so.

    The track later came out in 1959, peaking at No. 6 on Billboard’s Hot 100; it became Cannon’s first song to grace the Billboard charts. One year later, he appeared on Clark’s American Bandstand for this first time. Cannon went on to appear on the weekly dance show a multitude of times over the years, with a record-setting 110 apperances.

    “Palisades Park” was released in 1962, becoming his highest charing track (it landed at No. 3). Cannon’s additional hits included 1960’s “Jump Over” and “Chattanooga Shoe Shine Boy,” 1964’s “Abigail Beecher,” 1965’s “Action” and 1966’s “The Dedication Song,” among many others.

    Cannon released his memoir, Where the Action Is!, in 2011, which is a television series he also appeared in. His screen credits also included No Time for Sergeants, Village of the Giants, Never Too Young and Svengoolie.

    He is survived by his children Conny Weber and Billy Cannon; his sister Mary Lou; son-in-law Jim; daughter-in-law Beth; five grandchildren and seven great grandchildren. Cannon was pre-deceased by his son John, who died in April, and his wife Jeanette, who died in 2024.

  • Sales Continue in the Hacked Altcoin: The Hacker Still Holds a Large Number of Tokens

    Sales Continue in the Hacked Altcoin: The Hacker Still Holds a Large Number of Tokens

    The trader who legally withdrew 4.426 trillion $BONK tokens from the $BONK treasury through the governance process is reportedly continuing to sell.

    According to on-chain data shared via X, the trader in question sold another 800 billion $BONK tokens today. The sale is said to be worth approximately $2.48 million.

    In the incident on July 6th, the trader gained control of a total of 4.426 trillion $BONK tokens from the $BONK treasury, worth approximately $21.2 million. Since then, the price of $BONK has fallen by about 40%.

    Related News An Altcoin Is Heading to a Vote That Will Have Numerous Implications, Including a Token Burn

    According to the shared data, the trader still holds 2.4 trillion $BONK tokens in their wallet. This amount is said to be worth approximately $6.94 million at current prices.

    $BONK, once one of the largest memecoins in the Solana ecosystem, is experiencing difficult times due to the decline in the memecoin movement and the recent cyberattack. The token continued its losses today, experiencing a 14% drop. Having reached a peak market capitalization exceeding $4 billion, the token currently holds a market capitalization of $243 million at the time of writing.

    *This is not investment advice.

  • MIFFest Opens Ninth Edition in Kuala Lumpur, Earns ASEAN Records Recognition

    MIFFest Opens Ninth Edition in Kuala Lumpur, Earns ASEAN Records Recognition

    The ninth Malaysia International Film Festival (MIFFest) opened on July 18 at MyTown Shopping Centre, kicking off an eight-day showcase of international cinema and marking the festival’s official recognition from ASEAN Records.

    The opening ceremony drew filmmakers, industry leaders and stars to a red carpet ahead of the evening’s program.

    Joanne Goh, founder and president of MIFFest, delivered the welcome address alongside this year’s festival ambassadors, Bront Palarae, Daiyan Trisha and Jack Tan. Goh outlined the inspiration behind the festival’s 2026 theme.

    “This year, our theme is Resonance. Resonance is the lasting echo of a story. It is the emotion that remains long after the credits roll, the conversations that continue beyond the cinema, and the connections that film creates across cultures, generations, and borders,” Goh said.

    Datuk Manoharan Periasamy, chair of Tourism Malaysia, addressed the audience, reaffirming support for MIFFest’s role in strengthening the country’s creative industry and cultural diplomacy. Datuk Bahria Mohd Tamil, deputy secretary general (strategic communications and creative industry) at the Ministry of Communications, and Datuk Azmir Saifuddin Mutalib, CEO of the National Film Development Corporation Malaysia (FINAS), also attended. Goh presented tokens of appreciation to the festival ambassadors during the ceremony.

    The evening’s centerpiece was the presentation of the ASEAN Records title to MIFFest, recognizing the festival’s ASEAN On Screen platform and its Malaysia Golden Global Awards (MGGA) program as a lasting hub for Southeast Asian cinema. Goh accepted the recognition on behalf of the festival.

    “When we introduced ASEAN On Screen, our vision was to create a lasting platform where the stories of Southeast Asia could be celebrated, discovered, and shared with the world. Through cinema, we hope to continue connecting our diverse voices with international audiences and inspiring future generations of storytellers,” Goh said.

    ASEAN On Screen launched in 2025 during Malaysia’s ASEAN chairship and has since become a permanent annual program at MIFFest. The ceremony also recognized the festival’s preliminary selection committee and the jury panels for the semi-final and final stages.

    Following the ceremony, guests moved to GSC MyTown for the world premiere of the festival’s opening film, “Baga: Tomorrow Belongs To No One,” directed by Ariff Zulkarnain. The film unfolds in a devout fishing community on Malaysia’s East Coast, following two young lovers, Jani and Melur, whose plans for the future are upended by an unplanned pregnancy, poverty and addiction, pushing Jani toward the drug trade. Zulkarnain drew on his own upbringing for the story.

    Leading the delegation for this year’s opening film were executive producer Shafiq Yusof, director Zulkarnain and Malaysian actor Syafiq Kyle, alongside Cambodian actress Sarita Reth. Also in attendance were Jojo Goh, actor-director Nam Ron and actress June Lojong, among other guests from Malaysia and abroad.

    This year’s program also includes Russian Film Week, presented with the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation, Roskino and Mosfilm, offering free screenings of four Russian films. Additional strands include ASEAN On Screen, Hong Kong Cinema in Flux, New Rhythms of Indian Cinema, Open Air Cinema, masterclasses and industry forums.

    The festival runs through July 25.

  • The Debate Over BIP 110 in Bitcoin Is Intensifying: Michael Saylor Has Published a 110-Point Objection

    The Debate Over BIP 110 in Bitcoin Is Intensifying: Michael Saylor Has Published a 110-Point Objection

    Strategy founder Michael Saylor has published a comprehensive assessment of the BIP 110 proposal, which aims to limit data usage on the Bitcoin network. Saylor notes that while supporters of the proposal share the goals of reducing node running costs, keeping payments accessible, and preserving Bitcoin’s sound money focus, he opposes changing consensus rules as a solution.

    Saylor added that those supporting BIP 110 were acting in good faith, stating that the debate stemmed not from individuals but from the technical and governance risks posed by the proposal. While not defending every inscription, token, file, or application, Saylor said the fundamental question was whether transactions that are valid and payable under existing rules should be blocked at the consensus level on the grounds of controversial use.

    BIP 110 is projected to introduce seven new restrictions to Bitcoin’s consensus rules during its approximately one-year active period. The proposal aims to limit new scriptPubKey sizes, certain payloads, Taproot control blocks, and some Tapscript functionality, while also temporarily disabling the use of the Taproot annex, OP_SUCCESSx, and future witness and Tapleaf versions.

    The proposal also includes an activation model that differs from the standard BIP 9 mechanism. It plans to lower the miner signal threshold from the usual 95% to 55%, implement a mandatory signal period, and eliminate the classic timeout mechanism. According to Saylor, opting for a lower activation threshold in a controversial consensus change increases the risk of chain breakage and economic uncertainty.

    At the heart of Saylor’s objections was Bitcoin’s neutrality. He argued that the BTC network cannot discern whether the data in a transaction is visual, a contract, an authentication record, proof of reserve, or another application to be developed in the future, and therefore, restrictions based on technical forms could also affect legitimate use cases.

    Saylor argued that the concept of “spam” cannot be objectively defined by consensus rules, and that a transaction being deemed meaningless, speculative, or controversial does not invalidate it. According to Saylor, if a transaction complies with existing rules and pays the required fee, societal dissatisfaction with its intended use does not constitute sufficient justification for a change in consensus.

    Saylor noted that BIP 110 does not offer measurable targets regarding node costs, decentralization, transaction fees, and benefits for payment users, adding that bandwidth, storage, UTXO growth, validation overhead, and fee impacts need to be analyzed separately.

    Saylor pointed out that the proposal would close areas reserved for future Bitcoin software updates, such as the Taproot annex, future witness releases, Tapleaf releases, and OP_SUCCESSx. He stated that the fact that these features aren’t actively used today doesn’t mean they’re redundant, adding that these areas were deliberately reserved for future needs.

    Saylor noted that the proposal could affect advanced off-chain contracts similar to BitVM, some builds generated by Miniscript, and custom Taproot scenarios, adding that even a temporary restriction could significantly alter developers’ plans, wallet software, and institutional risk policies for a long time.

    According to Saylor, the temporary nature of BIP 110 does not eliminate the risk. He argues that the activation and expiration dates will create two separate critical consensus thresholds, and that the exemptions granted to historical UTXOs will make the validation rules more complex.

    Saylor stated that although BIP 110 aims to reduce payment fees by limiting data processing, the economic consequences are uncertain, noting that demand could shift to more complex methods or that total transaction fee revenue could decrease.

    Saylor, noting that transaction fees are becoming increasingly important for miner revenue due to the decrease in the Bitcoin block reward with each halving, argued that a decrease in total fee demand could weaken investments in hash power, all other things being equal.

    Saylor also noted that Bitcoin already distributes scarce block space neutrally through its block weight cap and fee market. He said users aren’t required to disclose the purpose of their transactions, and miners can decide which transactions to add to their blocks according to their own policies.

    Related News Chief Market Strategist Reveals Two Predictions in Favor of a Major Bitcoin Bull Run

    Saylor proposed using node, relay, and mining policies instead of consensus changes to address controversial data transactions. He noted that data transport policies in Bitcoin Core are configurable, arguing that miners have the freedom to exclude certain transaction types from their blocks, but that this differs from the entire network invalidating the same transactions.

    He said that if resource usage is proven to be truly disproportionate, narrower regulations based on measurable technical costs rather than transaction intent could be considered. He also suggested working on pruning, on-demand data storage, Layer 2 solutions, and more advanced fee market tools.

    According to Saylor, the most dangerous consequence of BIP 110 will not be the temporary rules, but the permanent precedent it will create. He argued that changing the consensus today to block certain data uses could pave the way for similar demands in the future for privacy tools, new storage methods, stablecoin consensus, token systems, or enterprise applications.

    Saylor stated that no single group in Bitcoin has exclusive authority over consensus, emphasizing the need for broad collaboration among developers, node operators, miners, investors, exchanges, wallet providers, custodians, and institutions.

    Saylor, who also argued that institutional participation is legitimate for Bitcoin, said that companies provide capital, scale, accountability, and continuity, but this does not give institutions special authority to reach a consensus.

    Saylor concluded his 110-point assessment with the view that the solution proposed by BIP 110 is more dangerous than the problem it addresses. He characterized the proposal as the “Bitcoin Iatrogenic Proposal,” meaning that the treatment applied to Bitcoin causes greater harm.

    *This is not investment advice.

  • Bitcoin’s quantum problem gets a recovery tool, but not for Satoshi’s 1.1 million coins

    Bitcoin’s quantum problem gets a recovery tool, but not for Satoshi’s 1.1 million coins

    Bitcoin signatures rely on elliptic curve cryptography, a system in which a private key generates a public key through math that runs only one way. Anyone can check the public key, but nobody can work backward to the private one. However, Shor’s algorithm, a quantum method published in 1994 for problems that ordinary computers cannot crack, can be fed a public key and return the private key that generated it.

    Hashing is a different kind of problem. A hash scrambles an input into a fixed-length fingerprint and cannot be run backward, and the best quantum attack on it, called Grover’s algorithm, only halves the exponent rather than collapsing it, taking a 256-bit hash from 2^256 guesses down to 2^128.

    That is still more guesses than a machine making a billion a second could get through in the lifetime of the universe.

    Modern wallets are built on hashing. A wallet generates addresses in a tree, deriving each key from its parent, and a “hardened” derivation step feeds the parent’s private key through HMAC-SHA512 to produce the child key.

    That is a one-way function. An attacker who breaks an address after Q-Day ends up holding exactly the key held, and cannot climb the tree to the key it came from.

  • Spain fans bring the party to New York before World Cup final

    Spain fans bring the party to New York before World Cup final

    NewsFeed

    ‘King [Messi] abdicates, but the prince [Lamine Yamal] takes the throne!’
    Spain fans filled the streets of New York with chants and songs ahead of the World Cup final against defending champions Argentina. Spain’s supporters are confident a new generation can bring the trophy home.