Category: 5. Entertainment

Princess Charlotte has sent royal fans into a frenzy following her adorable appearance in a new video marking Prince George’s 12th birthday.

The charming clip, released this week, features the Wales children George, Charlotte, and Louis enjoying outdoor moments together, believed to be filmed in their Norfolk garden. 

In one scene, the siblings stroll through the greenery. Another tender moment shows George and Charlotte lifting little Louis into the air as bursts of giggles echo in the background, leaving fans gushing over the trio’s bond and Charlotte’s sweet sibling dynamic. 

While the touching video celebrating Prince George’s 12th birthday prompted a wave of well wishes for the young royal, it was Princess Charlotte who ended up stealing much of the spotlight.

Royal fans were quick to point out Charlotte’s striking resemblance to a key senior royal, with many taking to social media to marvel at just how much the 10 year-old mirrors her great grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II. 

From her poised demeanor to her facial expressions, viewers couldn’t help but draw comparisons, with one fan commenting, “She’s the Queen’s double!”

Another said: “I see Princess Charlotte in the late Queen.”

CUMBERBATCH CROWNED

Benedict Cumberbatch will be honored with the Golden Eye Award at the Zurich Film Festival (Sept. 25-Oct. 5) for his multifaceted career and role in “The Thing With Feathers,” which he also produced through SunnyMarch and Lobo Films.

The actor will receive the award in person on Sept. 29, followed by a ZFF Masters talk. Festival director Christian Jungen praised Cumberbatch as “one of the most versatile character actors of his generation,” noting his theater background and emotional depth across roles from Alan Turing in “The Imitation Game” to Doctor Strange in the Marvel universe.

In “The Thing With Feathers,” directed by Dylan Southern, Cumberbatch portrays a grieving father rebuilding his life after his wife’s death while being haunted by an eerie crow symbolizing loss.

Seven of Cumberbatch’s films have previously screened at ZFF.

BOARD BOOST

Following the Production Guild of Great Britain‘s (PGGB) AGM Wednesday, new CEO Kaye Elliott announced board appointments. Bianca Gavin, head of production, scripted for Pulse Films, was re-elected for another four-year term, continuing as PGGB chair. Producer Brian Donovan returns to the board after his previous tenure, while Bertie Spiegelberg, manager, physical production (U.K. and European Studio Film) Netflix, joins as a new member.

In her first public engagement as CEO, Elliott told members: “We absolutely know that continuing to provide a platform for our members and partners to meet, learn, share experiences and knowledge, question, guide and support each other is at the very heart of what you want.”

Elliott, who assumed the role July 16 from ScreenSkills where she was director of high-end television, acknowledged industry challenges but noted “renewed optimism ahead.”

HERITAGE HITS

Collective Media Network has unveiled Historyverse, a new digital destination for mythological and historical content, launching with “Mahabharata,” India’s first AI-powered epic microdrama featuring 3-4 minute episodes.

The series, created in partnership with devotional wellness brand Pujashree, targets younger audiences seeking bite-sized immersive storytelling on fast-moving platforms.

“India has always been a land of rich, layered stories. We’re using technology to bring these narratives to life in ways that resonate with today’s audience,” said Vijay Subramaniam, founder and Group CEO, Collective Artists Network.

Sudeep Lahiri, head of channels and distribution, noted the platform “brings mythology and history into everyday feeds — not by simplifying them, but by adapting how they’re told.”

Pujashree’s Rajiv Tiwari praised supporting “storytelling formats that bring timeless wisdom to younger audiences.”

In July, Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter tour played its final notes, closing out a cultural moment and economic phenomenon that has helped to reshape country music. In Houston alone, the star’s two-night stop generated over $50 million in local spending. 

But the full story goes beyond the economic impact—it’s about how independent fashion brands anticipated this moment, leveraged technology to meet unprecedented demand, and built businesses designed to thrive after the encore.

A pop culture moment redefines an entire retail category 

Western wear has long been a niche market with predictable demographics. But when Beyoncé announced Cowboy Carter, everything changed overnight. Shopify’s own data showed an increased interest in “cowboy core” fashion with sales for items like cowboy hats increasing by 141% year over year. Even established western brands like Tecovas, known for their premium cowboy boots, saw the opportunity to expand beyond their traditional markets—opening a flagship in New York’s SoHo as they ride the wave toward $1 billion in sales by 2030.

For Mercedes Matz, founder of Chicago-based western wear brand Maya James, the impact was immediate. Orders jumped 3,100% following the tour announcement.

“We’ve seen a rise in younger shoppers, particularly Gen Z and millennial women of color, leaning into the resurgence of western fashion, but also seeking pieces that feel luxurious, exclusive, and culturally relevant.”

Mercedes creates 100% leather cowhide hats, each one-of-one, avoiding large drops in favor of exclusive pieces. This scarcity model, enabled by real-time inventory tracking and customer communication tools, created urgency and community.

“We had hats sell out within hours of restocking,” Mercedes says. “Many customers are setting alerts and checking in frequently—some even DM us asking for early access to new drops.”

And Rock’em is a Houston-based brand founded by Juany Yasmin Covarrubias that sells western gear handcrafted in Guanajato, Mexico. For them, the Cowboy Carter tour produced double-digit sales spikes. Orlando Coyoy, head of analytics for the brand, says they started seeing an expansion in their demographics—a lot more young women.

“Western is a lifestyle that has already been a part of different cultures, so it’s very flexible considering that western can appeal to a more rugged, working-class aesthetic but also a flashier, stylish aesthetic.”

But at the end of the day, a spike is just a spike—unless you have a plan. 

The difference between being lucky and being ready? Infrastructure.

This is where most stories end—with the sales spike. The graveyard of retail is littered with brands that confused a moment for a movement, that mistook virality for viability.

Rock’em and Maya James didn’t get lucky, they were prepared. Faced with explosive growth, these brands turned to technology—not just to process orders, but to reimagine their operations. 

Maya James leveraged Shopify’s full ecosystem to manage the influx. “We’ve leaned heavily on Shopify’s analytics and inventory tools to stay ahead of demand,” Mercedes explains. “Shopify’s AI tools in particular have helped us quickly build out product descriptions, streamline customer communications, and maintain a seamless storefront even as traffic surged.”

These AI tools proved crucial for scaling without losing authenticity. Instead of generic product descriptions, Maya James could quickly generate copy that spoke to their new audience while maintaining their brand voice. When hats sold out within hours, automated inventory systems triggered reorders and suggested complementary products.

Rock’em took a surgical approach. Recognizing that their customer base was expanding, they created a “concert ready” collection on their website—bolder pieces that photographed well for social media while maintaining their genuine craftsmanship. Think leather shorts with metallic fringe and blinged out cowboy boots. This data-driven decision was a response to changing search patterns and customer requests. The collection drove a 14% increase in sales for those specific products.

“At first we didn’t have the collection on the main part of our homepage,” Orlando recalls. But when the team saw the sales, they pivoted quickly. “Around June 19th, we made it a bigger section.”

Their heavy promotion of concert gear paid off with increased visibility. Rock’em’s products appeared in Vogue‘s Cowboy Carter tour coverage—their custom branding and hats featured prominently. 

Rock’em also discovered their website had become a catalog for local shoppers who would browse online then visit retail stores for free customization—boot stretching, open crown hat-shaping, and other services. This online-to-offline behavior required new analytics approaches to understand true conversion rates.

Turning flash into forever

As the tour ends, these merchants aren’t retreating—they’re building for what comes next.

Maya James is converting one-time buyers into a community, using storytelling on their social media channels to grow connections. Rock’em is formalizing processes that worked during the surge, investing in channels they hadn’t prioritized like email and SMS marketing.

Growth from cultural moments requires both immediate response and long-term vision. What makes these merchants different isn’t their Beyoncé bounce—plenty of western wear brands saw similar spikes. It’s their focus on the everyday infrastructure that outshines any tour. Because of that, they discovered new customer bases that traditional western brands weren’t reaching. If you’re ready for anything, everything becomes an opportunity. 

The stadium lights are off. But these brands? They’re just getting started.

When Siang Lu found out he’d won the Miles Franklin literary award, he had a physical reaction. “I was in such shock that I lost all feeling in my hands and legs,” the Brisbane-based author says. “I teared up. I lost my voice a little bit. It was the first time in my life that I’ve ever had to ask someone with a straight face, ‘Can you just please confirm to me that I’m not dreaming?’”

The feeling Lu describes is akin to the surreal nature of his experimental, prize-winning novel, Ghost Cities. Set between modern and ancient times, and inspired by the vacant megacities of China, the sprawling, ambitious novel is shot through with absurdist humour, cultural commentary and satire in what the Miles Franklin judges describe as “at once a grand farce and a haunting meditation on diaspora”, and “a genuine landmark in Australian literature”.

Accepting the awards in Sydney a few days after speaking to the Guardian, Lu said the book – finished ten years ago – had been rejected more than 200 times in Australia and abroad.

Many of Ghost Cities’ characters, from emperors to civilians, are devoted to telling, and preserving, stories. It’s something Lu hadn’t realised until a keen-eyed reader pointed it out – now, he says it’s key to the novel itself and the $60,000 prize he’s just won.

“I think people are responding to a combination of the humour, which I care very deeply about, but also the idea that we should venerate art, storytellers and storytelling,” he says.

“Amongst the cast of characters in Ghost Cities … It was the storytellers that had any hope of claiming agency. I did not consciously do that or plan that, but I recognise it now as something that is true, that my mind was working towards. I hope that at some subconscious level, this is what readers and the judging panel might have responded to: the love for storytelling and literature.”

Like many of Australia’s most acclaimed writers, Lu works a full-time job (in tech) and has two children, aged nine and 11. Some of Ghost Cities was written many years ago on his hour-long commute to and from the office.

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“From the outside in normal, real life, it might appear that in some ways, I’ve de-prioritised literature in my life: I work a normal job, try to be as present as I can for my children, do what I can for the community,” he says. “But in fact, secretly, I’ve put literature above everything … I’m grateful for the things that ground me, because they inform the things that I want to write.”

Ghost Cities is Lu’s second novel and follows 2022’s The Whitewash, a madcap, satirical oral history blending real and fictional stories of Hollywood’s race problem. An online project, The Beige Index (described as “the Bechdel test for race”), is a companion piece of sorts.

The perennially shy author says it was a “gift” for this to be his debut in the Australian literary world, because it meant “I could be an advocate for something that I care about very deeply, which was more and better representation – that very quickly became like armour for me. I thought, ‘Let me be a good advocate for this cause, and then I don’t need to talk about myself,’ which is a win-win.”

This year Lu was shortlisted for the Miles Franklin alongside Brian Castro (Chinese Postman), Michelle de Kretser (Theory and Practice), Winnie Dunn (Dirt Poor Islanders), Julie Janson (Compassion) and Fiona McFarlane (Highway 13). He observes that prize shortlists have become more diverse. “I don’t think that is possible without people behind the scenes, the judges themselves, the readers who are reading critically and thinking about these questions: where are we, where are we going, and how do we get there?” he says.

But the author also believes it is, first and foremost, about the work itself: “I’ve been in judging panels and session groups … [In] the conversations about whose voices we want to champion, always, always, the first cornerstone to that is quality.”

The writing community matters a lot to Lu. He expresses it in his own idiosyncratic way through what he calls “Silly Bookstagram”, where he Photoshops fellow authors’ book covers to be about himself. Lu stresses that the braggadocious nature of the posts is an exaggerated persona but he enjoys connecting with, and promoting, other writers through this tongue-in-cheek project, which has had a real-life impact.

“It started to hit me when those fellow authors actually showed up for my book launch in Sydney,” he says. “I didn’t know them other than through Instagram but it felt like a way to connect in the most ‘me’ way possible.”

So what’s next for Australia’s latest Miles Franklin winner? Lu is tight-lipped but promises one thing: “It’s gonna be weirder than Ghost Cities.”

What does the 2025 activation look like?

“I’m really excited about this year’s activation. At the heart of it is our vibrant experience zone with a branded terrace, signature bar and relaxed chill zone. Guests can sip on a curated selection of premium cocktails and refreshing mocktails, while listening to their favourite bands on the day. We are also showcasing our full brand line-up, including the bold and colourful collection of our Fanta flavours.

For us, it’s all about bringing together people’s passion for music, with our great tasting drinks. So, besides refreshment, there is an Interview Room where famous DJs will be interviewed, as well as a DJ academy room, which is a personal favourite of mine.

Together with Tomorrowland and The Coca-Cola Company – we run a DJ academy throughout the year. It gives aspiring DJs the opportunity to perform for professionals, and ultimately the chance to end up on the Rise stage at the festival itself. The DJ academy room in the activation offers a taste of this, where visitors can step into the DJ booth and get a feel for what it’s like behind the decks. It’s a really cool initiative. 

We’ve also released limited edition Tomorrowland Coca-Cola Original Taste cans, including some signed by a famous DJ, which will be available for people to win.”

On July 22, 2025, a user with the handle @sakotrak on the social media platform X shared a video of Pedro Pascal and Vanessa Kirby, where the actors were seen holding hands together and playfully hugging, as part of their promotion for their upcoming film, The Fantastic Four: First Steps.

“It’s hilarious how inc*ls are furious every time Pedro touches Vanessa when this is her towards Pedro,” @sakotrak captioned his clip.

It was also a response to Marvel Studios’ 16-second video post featuring Pascal and Kirby during the world premiere of their movie, which was captioned, “Fantastic couple #TheFantasticFour.”

@sakotrak’s video amassed over 178,000 views and was later reposted by content creator Feared Buck, whose July 23 post earned over 38.8 million views. In the wake of the now-viral video of Pedro and Vanessa’s seemingly flirty interaction, netizens are having diverse reactions.

Some deemed it seemingly inappropriate, as English actress Vanessa Kirby is engaged to former American lacrosse star Paul Rabil, and is currently pregnant with his child.

They started dating in 2022 and got engaged in December 2024. In May this year, during a photocall for The Fantastic Four: First Steps in Mexico, she confirmed she was expecting. The couple also announced the pregnancy through a joint Instagram post showing her baby bump around the same time. Meanwhile, Chilean-American actor Pedro Pascal has remained single for a long time.

Others suggested that Vanessa was just being friendly and kind, helping Pedro with his social anxiety, which he has previously said gets triggered in public.

Regardless, the viral video has now sparked a debate online. For instance, X user @TinoBambino3 commented on Feared Buck’s post.

“They’re gonna end up at a Coldplay concert,” the user wrote, comparing Pascal and Kirby’s interaction with former Astronomer CEO Andrew “Andy” Byron’s kiss cam cheating scandal with his head HR, Kristin Cabot, at Coldplay’s concert in Massachusetts last week.

Many people joined the conversation and shared similar reactions to Pedro Pascal and Vanessa Kirby’s viral clip.

“Why are they so touchy?” a netizen asked.

“Why this type of behavior?” another netizen asked.

“Nah, this is insane,” a person wrote.

Meanwhile, others defended Pedro and Vanessa.

“Pedro Pascal suffers from anxiety and when nervous, needs to touch someone to calm down,” a fan explained.

“Guys, calm down. Pedro suffers from some type of anxiety disorder. He needs to touch or be touched by people to make him calm down and feel comfortable,” another fan wrote.

“Pedro has severe anxiety, and it helps when people close to him give him reassurance through touch. He’s sensitive. Geez. It’s ok,” a third wrote.

“So, she can’t be friends with her co-star???” an individual wrote about Kirby.

Neither Pedro Pascal nor Vanessa Kirby has responded to the viral video.

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Exploring the friendship between Pedro Pascal and Vanessa Kirby

Pedro Pascal has been open about his anxiety issues since his Game of Thrones days. In a past interview with The Guardian, he shared:

“Anxiety is something that I’ve lived with since I was a child, so it’s a part of my chemistry. I don’t know what kind of person I’d be without it. It’s something that I manage, but it’s also part of what makes me, me.”

Later, he told Deadline at the premiere of season 1 of The Last of Us in 2023 that he often puts his left hand on his torso during red carpet events “because his anxiety is right here.” Pedro Pascal also mentioned that a familiar touch often helped him deal with the anxiety.

Later, at the July 2024 San Diego Comic-Con, the actor was seen approaching Vanessa Kirby for comfort on stage. In a video that went viral, Pascal, who was standing beside Kirby, gently touched her shoulder. She, in turn, noticed his movement and held his hand, thus helping him overcome his anxiety.

Later, in the event, the duo posed for the camera, exchanged words, and embraced. They also talked about their characters and look tests. While Pedro told MTV how they all “look great,” Vanessa added, “He looked really sexy,” as he responded with a laugh.

However, the moment stirred a controversy. But The Crown actress shut down the rumors. Last year at TIFF, she called Pedro Pascal “heavenly,” adding they loved each other a lot, like friends and colleagues do. Likewise, the Materialists star told Collider in an interview that Kirby is a “powerful woman” who inspired him.

“So, to have the opportunity to stand by one, to learn from one — just a partner, it’s partnership; it’s male and female, but it’s also just a kind of transcendent sort of partnership in the work and the characters. And, so I don’t really know what the f**k I’m gonna do without you [Vanessa] honestly,” he added.

The Oscar-nominated actress, too, reciprocated by saying it was rare to find a “male actor as a counterpart who’s been so utterly equal and supportive of the relationship”.

During a July 2025 press tour for their forthcoming film, Vanessa Kirby gave a shoutout to Pedro Pascal and her other male co-stars for standing by her through her pregnancy, during the filming of The Fantastic Four: First Steps.

“I get emotional sometimes thinking about the fact that I lived through that, and I had these three incredible men by my side who, just in the movie metaphorically but also in life, were just totally there with me,” she stated.

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The Fantastic Four: First Steps will hit the theaters worldwide on July 25, 2025. Vanessa Kirby plays the role of Sue Storm, while Pedro Pascal plays Reed Richards. Joseph Quinn (as Johnny Storm) and Ebon Moss-Bachrach (as Ben Grimm) also star in the movie.