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  • Karol G Brings Vibrant Vibes to Los Angeles With Her Viajando Por El Mundo Tropitour

    Karol G Brings Vibrant Vibes to Los Angeles With Her Viajando Por El Mundo Tropitour

    Coming off of her history-making Coachella headlining set, Karol G had an opportunity to bring the Latin love to the global stage with her Viajando Por El Mundo Tropitour, and she did just that.

    She delivered an extended version of her festival set during the first of three shows at Inglewood’s SoFi Stadium on Friday night, as the 35-year-old Colombian singer-songwriter had the sold-out crowd on their feet, dancing from the second she appeared on the tropical-inspired stage to the final moment when she said her goodbyes.

    After emerging from a three-story stone cave structure at the top of the stage, which is a nod to the landscape and prehistoric caves of her native Colombia, she kicked off the show with electrifying vibes, first performing her fan-favorite song “Latina Foreva.” Wearing a gold sequin look, surrounded by backup dancers, she set the tone for what’s to come.

    “We are going to sing very hard; we are going to do it with enthusiasm; we are going to have an incredible time; we are going to do it for Colombia,” she told the audience, speaking in Spanish, at the beginning of the concert.

    Throughout the show, it was clear Karol G wanted to highlight her home country’s beauty and culture, notably with the colorful stage designs and tropical landscapes. It’s also fitting as the tour‘s supporting album, 2025’s Tropicoqueta, translates to tropical, flirty girl.

    The night’s vibes were also set when veteran actor Edward James Olmos — who starred in the 1997 film Selena, based on the life of the late Tejano icon, whom Karol G has called her lifelong idol — told the audience in a video message, “Nights like this don’t happen by chance. They’re born from passion, from talent, from hard work and from that unmistakable spirit we call Latino excellence.”

    Karol G further spotlighted that excellence in the show’s second act, when she performed several songs from her Tropicoqueta album that paid homage to traditional regional Mexican music, including “Tropicoqueta” and “Ese Hombre Es Malo.” She also brought out a mariachi band at one point as well as climbed on top of a massive, brightly colored macaw, a parrot native to the tropical regions of Central and South America.

    Karol G then slowed things down a bit with tracks from her newly released sixth studio album, No Me Arrepiento de Sentir Tanto, which is an emotional and moody shift from the high-energy Tropicoqueta vibes. During night one, she brought out Cigarettes After Sex frontman Greg Gonzalez to perform their new song, “Después de Ti.” Act three continued to be a standout moment during night two on Saturday, when Bruno Mars also made a surprise cameo to perform his and Karol G’s new song “Still,” as well as record the music video.

    The energy was later brought back up, getting fans back on their feet, when Karol G and her dancers started making their way to the illuminated stone pool on the B-stage. While passing by fans, she performed a slew of her hit songs from “Amargura” to “Tu Perfume” to “Dile Luna.” However, “Bandida entrenada” was one of the night’s most lively and sensual moments, when a drenched Karol G transformed into a water goddess and began dancing, rolling and splashing around on the stage, alongside her talented dancers.

    The love and appreciation that Karol G has for her fans was on full display ahead of the show’s final act, as she took several moments to interact with them. From taking photos to sharing embraces to singing together, the singer made sure to express her gratitude for those who have been supporting her. In one heartfelt moment that evoked cheers from the packed crowd, Karol G made a hand heart with a teary-eyed young fan while snapping a selfie.

    The singer closed out the unforgettable show with some of her fan-favorite bangers, including “Coleccionando Heridas,” “Si Antes Te Hubiera Conocido,” and lastly, the Tiësto remix of “Provenza,” turning the tropical cave into a rave-like party, while also waving the national flag of Colombia.

    Karol G next heads to San Francisco for her Viajando Por El Mundo Tropitour, before making several more stops across North America. After that, she’ll head out on her Latin America and European legs before wrapping up the tour in July 2027 in Milan, Italy.

  • ‘Love Story’ Producers Didn’t Expect Carolyn Bessette’s TikTok Fan Army to Come for Them

    ‘Love Story’ Producers Didn’t Expect Carolyn Bessette’s TikTok Fan Army to Come for Them

    Catalog the ways in which Love Story: John F. Kennedy Jr. & Carolyn Bessette could have gone wrong, and the tally might rival a Thanksgiving grocery list. Pressure on capturing the tragic couple and their time period was high enough before early test photos sent devotees of Bessette’s style into a tizzy and a legion of paparazzi to the FX limited series’ Manhattan shoot. But Love Story ultimately prevailed, commandeering online discourse for its nine-episode run and fetching seven Emmy nominations — including top limited series, one for lead actress Sarah Pidgeon and, shutting down any sartorial naysayers, outstanding period costumes. Power producing duo Nina Jacobson and Brad Simpson know they could make things easier on themselves, but, like with their previous historic collaborations with Ryan Murphy, the fun is in trying to capture a feeling on camera that’s no longer found in real life.

    Each true story brings a different minefield to navigate in terms of what’s verifiable information, what’s unknown and the varying public sentiments. Which needle was the most difficult to thread on Love Story?

    NINA JACOBSON It’s about understanding both what was known about them and what was not known for so many people. Because, when we were growing up, they were like American royalty. They were icons. But with the subsequent generations, what we found is that people knew her so much better than they knew him. She had become a posthumous influencer. Yet, as much as people knew of her, it was only visual. It didn’t really have anything to do with who she was as a person.

    BRAD SIMPSON There were lots of recordings of him. He’d get tons of interviews. He was very public. We had to find her voice based on descriptions. And we just knew from all the research that, even though she presented as this WASP ideal and a sort of distant figure, she was incredibly warm and funny. Bringing that to life was one of our biggest challenges.

    Were you aware of how substantial the Carolyn fan accounts on Instagram and TikTok were?

    SIMPSON No, but we did know that she’d become this avatar for quiet luxury. Often, when we would get costume designers presenting us styles for actresses in our movies and TV shows, she would appear again and again on wardrobe boards. And we did know that there was a lot on TikTok about her, but we didn’t know how fevered it was when those early photos leaked and the world rained down saying it was going to be a disaster. It showed us the depth of the reach to people who weren’t even alive when she was around.

    I think you’ve been vindicated by a lot of the aesthetics. How did you capture ’90s New York without going wildly over budget?

    SIMPSON New York has changed so much more than we’d realized since the 1990s. It’s much easier to shoot period in L.A. New York has huge glass skyscrapers everywhere. There are bike lanes in the streets. It was a city that always stayed the same, and now it looks very different. Luckily, the places that were our main locations, Tribeca and the Upper East Side, had really stayed the same.

    I recognized quite a few restaurants, too.

    SIMPSON We were lucky that some of the iconic restaurants that they visited — Indochine, The Odeon, Bubby’s — are still there. We managed to shoot the last surviving restaurant of Sixth Street’s India row [Panna II], which has now been swarmed with people. We were lucky in that some of those places just have that same great aesthetic, but [our production designer] Alex DiGerlando worked really hard with our locations department to find places that looked right and gave us a sense of New York during that time. On a show like The Shards, we’re doing an interpretation of 1981. People wanted Love Story to evoke a well-photographed time.

    From what I’ve seen of The Shards, it looks very 1980s. Do you two ever do anything that’s just contemporary and easy?

    SIMPSON Back on [The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story], we didn’t understand. When we got into TV, we were naive. Our first script of O.J. had 110 scenes in it, and I remember the first visual production executive was like, “This is unshootable. There are no standing sets.” You’d think we would’ve learned that lesson by now, which is to write to standing sets and not have so many scenes, but we tend to gravitate toward stories that are a little bit historical and feel cinematic.

    JACOBSON We came to television as feature producers. So, on the one hand, we’ve learned along the way that a TV show is not just a long movie. There are some tricks to the trade. But at the same time, partly because we tend to alternate between books and historic stories, there’s an ambition to try to capture a feeling. You can never make a book adaptation feel just like the book, but evoking the feeling you had when you read the book or the feeling you had about real people or time, that is our north star. We like having something to try to honor, preserve, capture, embody and get right as an organizing principle in a way that feels honest, even when you take the liberties you have to take in order to tell any story.

    Looking at each of the eight episodes of Love Story, which was the hardest one to pull off — either logistically or tonally? SIMPSON Everything’s difficult. Even a show that doesn’t work is difficult to pull off. (Laughs.) But one challenging one was episode eight, “Exit Strategy,” which is just the two of them in a loft as their marriage is falling apart. Ryan had always had an idea to do a bottle episode to show the tensions in the marriage. But that episode proved to be a real challenge — in a great way because we were stripped of all the clothes and other characters. It had to move us through their relationship. The writers, Connor Hines and Juli Weiner, treated it as if it was a play. We rehearsed the actors on weekends and constantly rewrote. Logistically, the hardest episode to pull off was “The Wedding.” We had to live up to the romance and re-create Georgia. And then, of course, the finale. There was the question of how much to show the plane crash, of how to be respectful while giving people the information they need and honoring what the characters went through.

    It’s been a few months now since the series aired. Has any feedback trickled to you from anyone surrounding the Kennedy camp?

    JACOBSON No, the Kennedys have not called recently. (Laughs.)

    SIMPSON So much has been written about them. They’ve been documented in so many ways. We fell in love with all these characters and wanted to be respectful and make something that was a tribute. As a family, it must be hard to live in a public life. It’s part of what our show is about. But no, nothing has trickled back to us.

    Looking at a lot of your collaborations with Ryan — Crime Story, Sports Story and Love Story — how do you approach them at this point? How actively are you trying to identify stories that would fit in those franchises?

    JACOBSON We’re always looking. We’re like truffle pigs, constantly sniffing to find the next thing. What we tend to do is identify a few, put them into the works and wait for something to be good enough to be worth making. That doesn’t always happen at the rate at which we would like.

    SIMPSON I look at the way we produce as if we’re curating our own magazine. I grew up with Tina Brown’s Vanity Fair. I can imagine Crazy Rich Asians as an article about the rise of Chinese money and the culture of Singapore. You can imagine Pose as a feature about the trans ballroom scene. Every American Crime Story would obviously would fit in. I almost think of ourselves as editors, hoping stories come in well as journalists try to crack them.

    This story first appeared in an August stand-alone issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. To receive the magazine, click here to subscribe.

  • Paul Mescal, Joseph Quinn, Barry Keoghan and Harris Dickinson Seen Recreating ‘Abbey Road’ Album Cover

    Paul Mescal, Joseph Quinn, Barry Keoghan and Harris Dickinson Seen Recreating ‘Abbey Road’ Album Cover

    Fans got a sneak peek at Paul Mescal, Joseph Quinn, Barry Keoghan and Harris Dickinson filming a legendary moment from The Beatles‘ career for Sam Mendes’s upcoming films.

    The four actors, who are each portraying one of the band members, were recently spotted recreating the group’s iconic Abbey Road album cover. The original photo, taken on Aug. 8, 1969, features John Lennon, Ringo Starr, Paul McCartney and George Harrison walking in single file across a crosswalk outside EMI Studios in London.

    Via videos shared on social media, Mescal as McCartney, Dickinson as Lennon, Quinn as Harrison and Keoghan as Starr were seen recreating the cover photo for Mendes’ four-part Beatles biopic, titled The Beatles – A Four-Film Cinematic Event. Each movie will be told from one of the band members’ points of view, with all four films having interconnected narratives.

    While specific plot details are being kept under wraps, the movie did get access to The Beatles’ full music catalog when the band’s label, Apple Corps, granted music rights for the scripted films. Fans will just have to wait and see how many songs from 1969’s Abbey Road will be featured in the project.

    The films, via Sony Pictures, will also star David Morrissey as Paul McCartney’s father Jim McCartney; Leanne Best as John Lennon’s Aunt Mimi; James Norton as manager Brian Epstein; Harry Lloyd as producer George Martin; Bobby Schofield as road manager Neil Aspinall; Daniel Hoffman-Gill as roadie Mal Evans; Arthur Darvill as press officer Derek Taylor; Adam Pally as controversial music manager Allen Klein.

    All four Beatles films are set to hit theaters in April 2028, but the exact date has yet to be revealed.

  • ‘The Challenge’ Contestants Pay Tribute to Tyler Duckworth: ‘You Were the Brother I Never Had’

    ‘The Challenge’ Contestants Pay Tribute to Tyler Duckworth: ‘You Were the Brother I Never Had’

    The Challenge” two-time winner Tyler Duckworth died Tuesday in North Dakota, and his fellow contestants are remembering him as a “joy to be around” with “vibrant energy.”

    Johnny “Bananas” Devenanzio posted a video tribute to Duckworth on Instagram on Sunday. The pair started their reality show careers together in their early 20s on “The Real World: Key West” in 2006. Devenanzio and Duckworth also competed together and won “The Challenge: Rivals” in 2011.

    “You were more than a friend. More than a roommate,” Devenanzio wrote in the caption of the post. “You were the brother I never had. Rest easy, Tyler. You’ll always be family.”

    Brad Fiorenza wrote, “So grateful we got to see him on this day. Thoughts and prayers to his family. May his amazing soul live on forever in the lives he touched 🕊️RIP Tyler.”

    Derrick Kosinski, who competed on the show and co-hosted the “Challenge Mania” podcast, told People Magazine, “We shared a room on ‘All Stars 2’ and he was an amazing human being. His passing is so sad. He was always such a bright light and incredible joy to be around. He also kicked my ass in elimination on the original ‘Cutthroat.’ And that was after he eliminated Johnny Bananas in the famous Bananas backpack elimination, ‘Back Up Off Me.’ He went toe to toe with CT for 40 minutes! He doesn’t get his flowers often enough for that. And he won that season. And then won again with Johnny on ‘Rivals.’”

    Tina Barta, a contestant from “Road Rules: South Pacific” and multiple seasons of “The Challenge,” wrote, “We shared an experience that very few people will ever fully understand, and somewhere along the way, it became more than a show or an adventure. It became friendship. It became history. It became family.”

  • Stray Kids Score Their Biggest Sales Week as ‘This & That’ Debuts Atop Albums Chart

    Stray Kids Score Their Biggest Sales Week as ‘This & That’ Debuts Atop Albums Chart

    Stray Kids have scored their biggest sales week yet as their latest, “This & That,” becomes their ninth No. 1 on the Billboard 200.

    The group bows atop the chart with 369,000 equivalent album units, with traditional album sales accounting for 357,000 of that sum. The latest feat extends their record for most No. 1s among groups this century, tying them with the Rolling Stones for second-most No. 1s in the chart’s history among groups, only behind the Beatles with 19 No. 1s. Additionally, “This & That” has the sixth-largest week for an album in 2026 and second-largest by traditional album sales behind the debut of BTS’ “Arirang” in March with 532,000.

    Stray Kids previously earned their first No. 1 on the Billboard 200 with “Oddinary” in 2022. Two years later, they became the first act to debut their first six entries at the top spot following the release of “Hop.”

    Elsewhere, Ariana Grande‘s “Petal” drops from No. 1 to 2 in its second week, earning 82,000 equivalent album units. Olivia Rodrigo’s “You Seem Pretty Sad for a Girl So in Love” holds steady at No. 3, followed by Ella Langley’s “Dandelion” at No. 4 and Morgan Wallen’s “I’m the Problem,” which dips from No. 2 to 5.

    Rounding out the rest of the top 10 are Noah Kahan’s “The Great Divide,” followed by the debut of Pooh Shiesty’s “All Eyes on Shiest” at No. 7. Karol G’s latest album, “No Me Arrepiento de Sentir Tanto,” bows at No. 8, while Drake’s “Iceman” slides from No. 6 to 9. Role Model’s latest album, “Chuck Timely & the Hourglass,” bows at No. 10 with 38,500 equivalent album units.

  • Alex Cooper Poised to Drop UTA After Tough Period of Media Scrutiny

    Alex Cooper Poised to Drop UTA After Tough Period of Media Scrutiny

    Alex Cooper seems intent on unraveling some of the current relationships that have helped underpin her production company, Unwell.

    The star podcaster and media entrepreneur is poised to drop her current talent agency, UTA, according to two people familiar with the matter, as she focuses on a larger suite of business operations beyond the podcast for which she is best known, and frustrated in part by its continuing relationships with Alix Earle and Dave Portnoy, two prominent influencers and podcasters who have feuded with her. Cooper last week shut down a beverage venture, Unwell Beverage Co., which was launched last year with Nestle SA as a partner, according to a report from Bloomberg.

    UTA has helped Cooper build and scale her company, Unwell, and over the years has helped broker deals that had her host interviews for Peacock during NBCUniversal’s coverage of the 2024 Paris Olympics, and launch her Unwell Network, a platform for other creators and influencers.

    UTA declined to make executives available for comment.

    A shift in representation would come after Unwell, which Cooper founded with her husband, Matt Kaplan, landed its first outside investor: Patrick Whitesell, co-founder of WME and former executive chairman of successor company Endeavor. Whitesell’s WTSL, an investment firm focused on media, entertainment and sports he launched after exiting Endeavor and WME last year, has invested an undisclosed sum in Unwell that values the business at $500 million, according to information released August 12 by Unwell. Cooper and Kaplan, who self-funded the company targeting Gen Z women audiences, retain a majority ownership stake. Formed in 2023, Unwell says it has been profitable from day one and sees the WTSL investment as growth capital. The entrepreneur believes the work Unwell does with brands could be worth as much as the podcasting business by next year.

    Unwell said that in addition to the funding, WTSL would bring “deep strategic expertise, industry relationships and a proven track record of supporting some of the most innovative companies and storytellers in media,” including Peyton Manning’s Omaha Productions.

    Whitesell’s funding followed a pair of recent exposés alleging behind-the-scenes chaos at Unwell. According to a Vanity Fair story in June, one Unwell freelancer alleged that Kaplan “creates the most toxic work environment that I’ve ever seen”; anonymous sources also said Kaplan had questioned employees about their sex lives and commented on their physical appearance. In April, Bloomberg reported that Kaplan “has earned a reputation for frequently yelling at staff members” and said Unwell’s employees were “looking for the exit.”

    Cooper, in an interview at Cannes Lions this June with the Wall Street Journal, was asked about the allegations. “I will just kind of leave it at ‘Don’t believe everything that you read on the internet’ — but I think everyone knows that at this point,” she said. Cooper also said, “I think that we have done a really incredible job at Unwell, and I think if you walk the halls, there are so many people that are so happy to work at this company. … I think, unfortunately, being a woman in this industry is extremely difficult because you’re held to a completely different standard. Whether it’s a smear campaign being created for someone’s narrative, whatever it be.”

    Earle, a podcaster and influencer, gained some her greatest fame while hosting the podcast “Hot Mess,” which was produced by Unwell. Still, Cooper stayed with UTA for a year after the pair ended their relationship. Dave Portnoy, the founder of Barstool Sports, alleged in a memoir that Cooper and her former co-host, Sofia Franklyn, planned to say they were harassed in order to get out of a previous contract with Barstool, which helped launch “Call Her Daddy.”

    Todd Spangler contributed to this story.

  • The SEC meeting that wasn’t: State of Crypto

    The SEC meeting that wasn’t: State of Crypto

    Earlier this month, as it became clear that the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act would not receive a vote prior to the Senate’s August recess, industry participants suggested that if Congress didn’t act, regulators could. It wouldn’t be exactly the same; regulators’ actions could be challenged in court and will be easier to undo by a subsequent administration than legislation would be, but the argument is that entrenched regulations would be difficult to undo.

    Breaking it down

    That argument above presupposes that the SEC and CFTC are actually able to finalize proposed rules in time for them to kick around for a bit prior to a future SEC changing its mind.

    But that isn’t guaranteed. The SEC announced late Thursday it was canceling its planned meeting and would reschedule at a later date.

    CoinDesk and others also reported on Thursday that the SEC was holding off on rolling out its innovation exemption indefinitely.

    Individuals familiar with the situation told CoinDesk that concerns about the Clarity Act led to the SEC’s postponement. The White House and lawmakers are specifically concerned that any SEC action could further complicate ongoing negotiations over the Clarity Act ahead of the Senate’s first vote on the legislation next month.

  • The Most Searched Altcoins in Recent Hours Have Been Revealed

    The Most Searched Altcoins in Recent Hours Have Been Revealed

    CoinGecko, a cryptocurrency data and tracking platform, has announced the most searched cryptocurrencies by users in the last three hours. According to current data, USD.AI ($CHIP), Bitcoin ($BTC), and Plume ($PLUME) ranked in the top three of the platform’s trending list.

    CoinGecko data highlights the strong price movements recorded by USD.AI and Cysic ($CYS) in the last 24 hours. USD.AI rose 21% in the last 24 hours, while Cysic increased by 49.1%. Humanity (H) also gained 16.6% in the same period.

    Bitcoin, on the other hand, saw more limited movement. The price of $BTC changed by 0.1% in the last 24 hours, while its market capitalization remains at approximately $1.27 trillion.

    Here is a list compiled by CoinGecko based on search trends over the past three hours, along with the total market capitalization of the cryptocurrencies:

    1. USD.AI ($CHIP): $60.2 million
    2. Bitcoin ($BTC): $1.26 trillion
    3. Plume ($PLUME): $82 million
    4. Humanity (H): $245.7 million
    5. Cash Cat (CASHCAT): $113.4 million
    6. Chainlink (LINK): $7 billion
    7. Cysic ($CYS): $125.4 million
    8. KiiChain (KII): $23 million
    9. Pi Network (PI): $953.5 million
    10. Lighter (LIT): $582.9 million
    11. World Liberty Financial (WLFI): $1.94 billion
    12. Avalanche (AVAX): $2.77 billion
    13. MarsCoin (MARSCOIN): $52.7 million
    14. Pudgy Penguins (PENGU): $381 million
    15. Artificial Superintelligence Alliance (FET): $276.4 million

    *This is not investment advice.

  • 15 Altcoins Are Seeing a Surge in Trading Volume on South Korea’s Largest Cryptocurrency Exchanges

    15 Altcoins Are Seeing a Surge in Trading Volume on South Korea’s Largest Cryptocurrency Exchanges

    Altcoin trading volumes have reached remarkable levels on Upbit and Bithumb, two of South Korea’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges. According to data from the last 24 hours, Cysic ($CYS), Cap ($CAP), Ontology Gas (ONG), and CoW Protocol ($COW) stood out as the altcoins most heavily traded by South Korean investors.

    When the trading volumes of the two exchanges in Korean won trading pairs are combined, Cysic ($CYS) topped the list with a trading volume of $36.4 million. Almost all of the $CYS volume occurred through Bithumb, with the token alone accounting for approximately 17.9% of the exchange’s total spot trading volume.

    On the Upbit side, one of the most notable altcoins was Cap ($CAP). $CAP’s 24-hour trading volume on Upbit reached $22.1 million, and when the approximately $2.1 million volume on Bithumb is added, the total volume across the two exchanges rose to $24.2 million.

    Based on data from Upbit and Bithumb, the top altcoins and their total trading volumes over the past 24 hours are listed below:

    1. Cysic ($CYS) – $36.4 million
    2. Cap ($CAP) – $24.2 million
    3. Ontology Gas (ONG) – $19.7 million
    4. CoW Protocol ($COW) – $19.4 million
    5. Perle (PRL) – $14.3 million
    6. Derive (DRV) – $13.2 million
    7. $XRP ($XRP) – $13.2 million
    8. Hemi (HEMI) – $13 million
    9. USD.AI (CHIP) – $12.6 million
    10. Fusionist (ACE) – $9.7 million
    11. Geodnet (GEOD) – $7.6 million
    12. Enso (ENSO) – $7.4 million
    13. Worldcoin (WLD) – $7.1 million
    14. DAPPOS (DOS) – $7.1 million
    15. $HOME ($HOME) – $6.7 million

    *This is not investment advice.

  • Why are sandwiches more regulated than AI?

    Futurist Max Tegmark wonders why sandwiches are more regulated than artificial intelligence in the US.

    The biggest danger facing mankind is a machine that can “outsmart the whole species”, argues Max Tegmark, professor of physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and founder of the Future of Life Institute.

    Tegmark tells host Steve Clemons that governments and tech companies are in a “race to replace” human labour, instead of solving human problems. “It’s aimed at getting more money and power to a very small number of individuals,” he says.

    But a slew of suicides and murders committed by people chatting with AI chatbots has led to pushback against the Silicon Valley “don’t regulate us” lobby.