Poor Clare review — a Bridgerton star turns a saint into a Valley girl
The best jokes land well in Blanche McIntyre's production at the Orange Tree, that in-the-round venue where, if you sit in the front row, you're only inches from the actors. Arsema Thomas, one of the stars of Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story makes an assured stage debut in the title role. When she swaps her sumptuous gown (full marks to the designer, Eleanor Bull) for the kind of simple garment worn by her mentor Francis, there's no mistaking her idealism.
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The Independent
20 minutes ago
- The Independent
Millions are flocking to grow virtual gardens in viral Roblox game created by teenager
Whether it serves as a chill escape from the onslaught of the real world or simply a way to beat vacation doldrums, a viral Roblox game about gardening has become the surprise hit of the summer. Grow a Garden, created by a 16-year-old in a few days, has shattered records for the most concurrent players of any game in history, beating out video games that take years and millions of dollars to develop. And there's no one to shoot, fight or race. If your last attempt at cultivating vegetables was FarmVille in 2010, don't worry — your tomatoes will grow even if you never water them. Grow a Garden is as simple as its name suggests — players can fill a plot of land with plants and animals, harvest and sell, trade or steal each others' bounty. The game is low stress, with an aesthetic reminiscent of Minecraft and a soundtrack of soothing classical tunes such as Mozart 's Rondo Alla Turca playing in the background. Its popularity has further cemented Roblox' place not just in the gaming world but in popular culture — for better or for worse, it's where the kids hang out. 'The word I keep hearing used over and over to describe this particular game is that it's chill, which is just such a nice alternative. I get a lot of sort of that Animal Crossing vibe from it. You know, like you can check in, you can check your gardens, you can get some new seeds, you can plant them,' said Becky Bozdech, editorial director at the nonprofit Common Sense Media. 'I have an 11-year-old son who (plays it) and he says to him the big difference is that a lot of games have a big giant objective that you have to do, but in Grow a Garden, you can just kind of hang out and do what you want.' Coincidence or not, Grow a Garden soared to popularity around the same time that Take-Two Interactive announced it would delay the launch of its wildly anticipated Grand Theft Auto 6 until next year. In late June, the gardening game logged 21.6 million concurrent players, surpassing Fortnite's previous record of 15.2 million according to Roblox. Analysts who follow Roblox's stock say Grow a Garden is helping boost the company's revenue and will push the company's quarterly earnings numbers above Wall Street 's expectations. While it's not clear if the GTA audience flocked to this simple gardening game to pass the time until then, the timing reignited the age-old debate about who gamers are and what titles are taken seriously by the video game establishment. It happened with Candy Crush, with puzzle games, with Animal Crossing. Are people who play cozy games true gamers? Or is the title reserved for the folks who shoot enemies in Call of Duty or drive around creating mayhem in GTA? 'There's a huge percentage of gamers that play Roblox and the actual industry just views it as like this esoterically immature platform of weird gameplay habits,' said Janzen Madsen, the New Zealand-based CEO and founder of Splitting Point studios, which acquired the game from its teenage creator. 'Well, I actually think in five years this is what player expectation is gonna be. And because you guys haven't embraced it, like you're not gonna know how to make games.' To start growing your garden, you'll need a Roblox account. The game will start you out with an empty plot and some money — sheckles — and a starter seed. From there, you can plant seeds, harvest and sell your crops and buy more seeds, animals or tools for your garden. While it is possible to play the game without spending real-world money, it will take longer. Once you sell enough crops, you earn money to buy more expensive seeds beyond basic carrots and blueberries. 'For me, I just, I really want to get all the rarest stuff. I'm a completionist, so I want everything and that's what's fun for me,' said Leah Ashe, a YouTuber who plays Grow a Garden and other popular games to an audience of 5.3 million. 'It's really cool because you can come together because the seed shop is global, so everybody's shop is the exact same. So you can work with other people and be like, 'Oh my gosh, the sugar apple is in stock. Get online!' The seed shop updates every five minutes, so there's always something pulling you back into the game.' For Roblox, which has faced a backlash for not doing enough to protect kids on its gaming service, Grow a Garden has served as something of a reprieve — along with new safety measures such as chat restrictions and privacy tools. New players get help from more established peers who send them gifts and let them know when rare seeds become available in the seed shop. Bozdech said that 'if you have the right supervision and guidance,' Roblox can be a positive experience for kids, allowing them to create their own designs or practice coding, for instance. 'Something like Grow a Garden, particularly, is a nice opportunity maybe for parents and kids to play together,' she said. And perhaps the slow cultivating of a magical garden can benefit parents too. 'It's hitting a nerve, you know?' Bozdech said. " People need an escape from the world, I think we all do.'
Daily Mail
21 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
Yellowstone star says he 'lost everything' after Hollywood rejection
Yellowstone actor Neal McDonough said his refusal to kiss women other than his wife was a death knell for his Hollywood career. The veteran performer , 59, chat on Wednesday's edition of the podcast Nothing Left Unsaid , opening up on a yearslong slide he said was due to his strict adherence to his marital vows. 'I'd always had in my contracts that I wouldn't kiss another woman on screen,' the Boston-born actor and strict Catholic told the podcast hosts Tim Green and Troy Green. McDonough played the role of Malcolm Beck on six episodes of Yellowstone which aired in 2019. They included: The Reek of Desperation, Only Devils Left, Blood the Boy, Resurrection Day, Behind Us Only Grey and Sins of the Father. McDonough clarified that the contractual demand was at his behest, and not that of his spouse Ruve McDonough, who he's been wed to since 2003 and shares five children with. 'My wife didn't have any problem with it - it was me, really, who had a problem with it,' said McDonough, who's been seen on TV shows such as Desperate Housewives, Tulsa King and Meghan Markle's one-time show Suits . McDonough said it was impossible for Hollywood producers to get that he was dead serious about his demand - and they quickly stopped using him as a result. 'When I wouldn't do it... they couldn't understand,' McDonough said of his refusal to kiss other women on camera. 'Hollywood just completely turned on me, and they wouldn't let me be part of the show anymore. 'For two years, I couldn't get a job and I lost everything you could possibly imagine.' McDonough, who's been in motion pictures such as Star Trek: First Contact, Red 2 and Guns & Moses, said that the loss of work resulted in a domino effect in which everything dear to him began slipping away. 'Not just houses [and] material things, but your swagger, your cool, who you are, your identity - everything,' McDonough said. 'My identity was an actor, and a really good one.' McDonough said that the problems lingered for an extended period. 'Once you don't have that identity, you're kind of lost in a tailspin,' McDonough said. 'And I was in a big, ugly tailspin for a couple of years.' McDonough's most recent role came in the May feature film The Last Rodeo, which he was a writer on and played the lead role of Joe Wainwright. His spouse Ruvé portrayed the role of his wife Rose Wainwright in the movie, and the two did kiss onscreen.
BBC News
21 minutes ago
- BBC News
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Ian Youngs & Annabel Rackham Culture reporter Getty Images Huda Kattan's Huda Beauty brand is stocked in a number of major UK chains TikTok has removed a video by businesswoman and beauty influencer Huda Kattan in which she promoted conspiracy theories about Israel. The Iraqi-American entrepreneur, who is founder and CEO of the popular Huda Beauty brand, said in a video posted on Sunday that Israel was responsible for "every world war" including World War One and World War Two, as well as the September 11 and 7 October attacks. The American Jewish Committee said she was "using her massive platform to spread vile antisemitic conspiracy theories". TikTok confirmed it removed the video on Tuesday for violating its community guidelines, but did not give further comment. Kattan and Huda Beauty have not responded to requests for comment. The state of Israel was founded in 1948. World War One ended in 1918, and World War Two, during which millions of Jews were murdered in the Nazi Holocaust, ended in 1945. In the video to her 1.7 million followers, Kattan claimed there was evidence that "Israel has been behind World War One, World War Two", as well as al-Qaeda's 11 September 2001 attacks on the US and the 7 October 2023 attack by Hamas on Israel, during which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage. "I had a feeling, I was like, were they behind every world war? Yes. Behind September 11th? Absolutely," she said. Kattan repeated a range of other claims including unfounded accusations that Israel protects paedophiles.
