The actor, who starred in The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Clue, and Home Alone 2, died Tuesday at age 80
Tributes for Tim Curry began to pour in on Wednesday following news of the actor’s death on Tuesday night at the age of 80.
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Curry — who was best known for roles like Frank-N-Furter in the cult-classic The Rocky Horror Picture Show, the butler Wadsworth in Clue, and the smarmy Rooster in Annie — was fondly remembered by his former co-stars.
Comedian Rob Schneider, who starred alongside Curry’s uptight Plaza Hotel manager character in Home Alone 2: Lost in New York, said he was “gutted” by the news of Curry’s death.
“The sensational character actor, Tim Curry has left the stage,” Schneider wrote on X. “A truly gifted performer of stage and screen, his one eyebrow could say more than most actors entire bodies. I am grateful to have the rare gift of watching him work, he made you better just standing near him.”
Carol Burnett shared a clip from their time on Annie, writing that “nobody could play lovable villains better than he could. He was a dear friend. I was blessed to know him.”
Clue co-star Michael McKean said his most recent conversation with Curry was “about life and love and laughter.” Referring to a stroke Curry suffered in 2012, McKean added that the “grim physical state he found himself in has now ended, a blessing. Our blessing was that we had Tim Curry in our lives. RIP, my friend.”
Luke Evans, who recently ended his seven-month run of playing Curry’s iconic role of Frank-N-Furter in the Broadway revival of The Rocky Horror Picture Show, shared with his followers a letter he wrote to Curry just three weeks ago. Calling him “a force, a bright fierce flame, an exquisite charm,” Evans thanked Curry in the note for his fearlessness, as well as for “creating something so enduring, and for inspiring generations of actors to be a little braver than they thought they could be.”
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Comedian Jillian Bell said she never had the honor of working with Curry but said that he was the reason she pursued an acting career. “This one hits way too hard,” she said in an Instagram comment. “What an amazing career he had — one that gave us iconic characters to look up to, to fear, to laugh with, to sing with… He will live on through every role.” She added in a separate post that she was able to meet Curry once, noting he was “just as sweet and cheeky as I had hoped.”
Lobster-themed open-source startup OpenClaw created a viral trend for people to use AI agents to manage their lives. Now, Instinct is wowing VCs with a slicker AI helper service that has helped the San Francisco startup raise at a $2.5 billion valuation.
August normally marks the doldrums of fundraising for both startup founders and investors. But VCs have been so eager to back Instinct, a new AI agent startup that reads and answers text messages and emails and can do tasks like booking flights and restaurant reservations, that it raised at least two rounds over the last few months.
Instinct’s term and conditions state that its operated by a company Spear Street Technology that was registered in April by former Sierra researcher Noah Shinn, according to California corporate filings. The San Francisco-based startup’s valuation has ballooned from $100 million to over $2.5 billion in just a matter of weeks. And the product isn’t even public yet. You have to score an invite from VC insiders to download it.
“Instinct is a personal assistant that understands what you’re working on and what's important to you,” reads the startup’s bare-bones website. “It's trained to use a phone and a computer. You can text or call it. It uses its devices in the same way that humans do.”
“It is OpenClaw for normal people,” wrote investor Sheel Mohnot on X, referencing the open-source agent that went viral in January. Once given full control over your computer and accounts, OpenClaw promised to be able to run your life. Even though OpenAI hired its creator, interest in OpenClaw waned because it was tricky to set up and hard to run cheaply and securely for people without coding experience.
Instinct operates a lot more like a consumer app. With one click, you can connect its AI to WhatsApp, Apple’s iMessage or email accounts. But it doesn’t just read and monitor messages and emails. It can also be tasked with executing tasks like making restaurant reservations or booking a flight.
VCs have raved about Instinct’s utility. “Having an AI product you trust to execute transactions on your behalf and navigate websites is amazing,” wrote Midas List investor Sarah Guo earlier this month on X. “It gets it right, from Michelin restaurants to marathon entries, to camping ressies to general purchases (all executed well).”
Pranav Reddy, a partner at Guo’s firm Conviction, led an early round into the company that valued it at $50 million, sources familiar with the deal told Forbes. Neil Mehta of Greenoaks was also an early backer of the company.
Instinct and Greenoaks did not respond to a request for comment at the time of publication. Conviction declined to comment.
In early August, another Midas List investor, Mamoon Hamid of Kleiner Perkins, led a $75 million Series A round, valuing Instinct at over $500 million. Now Benchmark and Index Ventures are in talks to lead another new round of at least $200 million that would value the startup at over $2.5 billion, according to several sources familiar with the deal.
Kleiner Perkins, Benchmark and Index Ventures did not respond to a request for comment at the time of publication.
Instinct is currently free to use, but it could become a subscription service that could act as a ‘chief of staff’ for users, or it could serve up ads based on its access to emails, texts and financial records.
That level of access to sensitive personal data has spurred concerns. Instinct’s terms of use grant it “perpetual and irrevocable” to store user data, which could be used to train its AI models, TechCrunch reported (Instinct didn’t provide comment). AI founder Claire Vo posted that Instinct continued to access her Gmail and emails containing financial data after she had disconnected the AI agent from her Google account. “So I ask instinct. And it turns out, the email connector was off BUT the agent has been keeping copies of emails in my inbox in its own records!” Vo wrote. Instinct didn’t respond to a comment request.
Not everyone’s experience of using the app seems to be as delightful as Guo’s. Jason Yeh of Patron Fund wrote on X that when he asked Instinct to find open reservations for dinner, it went off script and booked a table with a punishing cancellation fee. “Honestly kind of insane how anyone would give them keys to their accounts at large, and they better cover the $200 cancellation fee here,” Yeh wrote.
After publication, Shinn said in a statement, “The fundraising is a reflection of early user excitement around the potential of proactive, always-on, extremely capable assistant that really feels like it has access to all your context and is always trying to help.”
This story has been updated with additional comment and details from Instinct.
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There are few personalities as universally beloved as Dolly Parton.
Tributes have poured in from fellow musicians, celebrities, and current and former presidents celebrating the life and legacy of the iconic singer-songwriter, philanthropist and entrepreneur who died on Tuesday.
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Parton will be remembered for countless accomplishments including hits like "Jolene" and "I Will Always Love You" as well as charitable actions like founding Imagination Library — an organization that sends free books to children — and a $1 million donation in 2020 that's credited with helping develop Moderna's Covid-19 vaccine.
She brought her talents to the screen as well.In 1980, Parton starred in the comedy film, "9 to 5" and released the hit song of the same name. Beneath the song's upbeat melody and the movie's cantankerous humor, both deliver a powerful message that women deserve equal pay and treatment in the workplace.
"They let you dream just to watch 'em shatter / You're just a step on the bossman's ladder / But you've got dreams he'll never take away," sings Parton in the song's second verse.
The song "perfectly encapsulates the grievances of women workers — and our dreams," says Ellen Cassedy, author and co-founder of 9 to 5, a working women's advocacy organization.
"[The song] starts with an awakening and with pride. It directs some angry energy at the boss," says Cassedy. "Then it summons a sense of common purpose – 'in the same boat with a lot of your friends' — and finally, it ends in triumph: 'The tide's gonna turn and it's all gonna roll your way' … We all owe Dolly a debt."
The 9 to 5 organization started a movement in Boston in 1973 in response to gender inequality women experienced in the workplace. The movement helped inspire Jane Fonda to produce the 1980 movie.
"For the first time, working office workers like us were the main characters on the big screen," says Cassedy. "After that, the American office was never the same."
Through her songs, her advocacy and her magnetic personality, Parton inspired women around the world to show up as themselves and build incredible things. Here's a sampling of what she meant to working women.
A 'role model'
Though Parton chose to remain apolitical throughout her life, she promoted values like inclusivity and equality that helped fans with a variety of backgrounds and identities feel supported.
"As a queer person, I have always admired how she transcended politics and economic backgrounds to make everyone feel seen," says Erin Longbottom, director of digital engagement at the National Women's Law Center, a gender justice advocacy organization.
"That fearlessness in confronting injustice and uplifting other women is central to the work we try to do at [NWLC]," they say. "In my work, I try to channel Dolly's willingness to speak truth to power while also connecting with people on a deeply human level."
Karen Robinovitz, co-founder and co-CEO of Sloomoo Institute, an interactive slime experience with nine locations throughout the U.S., says Parton inspired her "to no end."
"Her ability to give back to the world while creating a global brand that sparks pure joy for millions is iconic," says Robinovitz. "She evoked authenticity, personal style, empowerment, uncompromising vision, philanthropy and sharp business acumen all at once. What more could you ask for in a role model?"
Jacq Tatelman, co-Founder and CEO of State Bags appreciates the way Parton "had her own way of 'having it all,'" she says. Tatelman has followed Parton's lead in building a business that also gives back. State Bags purchases support American children and families in need through funding and supply donations.
An 'impossible contradiction'
Parton's unmistakable brand alongside her talent is part of what helped her stand out as a performer. But her physical appearance may not have cemented her as such an icon without her dynamic personality and charm.
"[She] managed this impossible contradiction of being so many things in society people love to mock — a woman, over-the-top hair and makeup, unapologetic in her self-expression," says psychologist and author, Courtney Crisp. "I've always been so inspired by how she could wear the rhinestones, have the big hair … and still have such an air of strength and self-respect."
"Even in the early days, a lot of people told me I should change my look or nobody's going to ever take me serious," Parton said on a podcast in 2022. "I thought, 'Yeah, they will, when they see [the talent] I've got.'"
Parton's trailblazing confidence taught Crisp that women can be taken seriously and succeed without conforming to society's standards, she says.
Texas-based media and public relations consultant Nicole Houston has been "obsessed" with Parton since she was 5 years old, she says. She will remember Parton for "who she was and what she stood for: perseverance, ambition, hard work, loyalty, humor and following your dreams," Houston says.
"These are all attributes that I try to practice and stick to across all aspects of my career and life."
Many around the world will mourn Parton, but her legacy will live on through her art and other endeavors.
"Our dreams (and hair) are big because Dolly told us to strive for nothing less," Houston says. "That is how we should all pay tribute to her: keep dreaming bigger."
I only got to try the 1v1 Skirmish mode on two different maps.
Visually, War for Westeros adopts the look and feel from the show, with heroes like Jon Snow and Tywin Lannister both looking like their respective actors.
The camera was problematic in my preview build.
Having grown up in the ‘90s, an era when base-building RTS games were far more prevalent than they are today, I have a special fondness for this variety of strategy game. So when a new one gets announced nowadays, the wave of nostalgia washes over me, and I take notice. That’s exactly what happened when PlaySide announced the upcoming Game of Thrones: War for Westeros RTS back at Summer Game Fest 2025. Recently, I had a chance to ride into battle waving the banner of House Stark and Lannister in an early build of the game, coming away knowing a bit more now than Jon Snow.
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Set in the era of the mainline series of A Song of Ice and Fire as opposed to the prequels of House of the Dragon or A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, War for Westeros has players hoist the banners and take command of some of their favorite Great Houses. These include the likes of the Starks from the North, the lions of the Lannisters, Daenerys Targaryen and her dragons, or even the frozen hordes of the Whitewalkers themselves. The build that I had a chance to check out was a bit less grand, consisting of 1v1 online and offline skirmish modes with the choices of fielding the armies of either Stark or Lannister, with two smallish maps to pick from.
Visually, War for Westeros adopts the look and feel from the show, with heroes like Jon Snow and Tywin Lannister both looking like their respective actors — Kit Harington and Charles Dance — and drops them onto an already impressive-looking battlefield. Even in this Alpha state, I was impressed with just how good War for Westeros is looking. Watching flaming arrows rain down on Lannister structures and set them on fire as they crumble, or the brilliant emerald flames of Wildfire engulfing poor Robb Stark as the pyromancers hurl their precarious projectiles, were always delights to watch.
Even though only two of the factions were playable, I got the sense that PlaySide is putting great care into making sure the aesthetics of the various houses look distinct.“
The rest of the game, outside of the death and destruction, is already looking pretty damn good too, and even though only two of the factions were playable, I got the sense that PlaySide is putting great care into making sure the aesthetics of the various houses look distinct. You could zoom in and see the Stark units, adorned with fur capes and the armor that living in the north would require, their structures built from sturdy lumber and grey stone, while the Lannisters fielded soldiers in gold-and-crimson armor, their buildings draped with the lion’s banner.
The distinction between Stark and Lannister is far deeper than simply “one side has wolves and the other lions” (just to be clear, the Lannisters don’t have lion units as far as I know). Both armies can unleash all sorts of unique units with varying abilities and strengths, which I eagerly took advantage of, with both armies requiring their own strategy and build order to take advantage of.
Starting off first with House Stark, these northerners are powerhouses, with some fantastic cavalry options to run straight through the lines of much of what the Lannisters can put out there. In a bit of a surprising twist, the Stark faction is able to recruit and train not only powerful Night’s Watch Brothers, with both melee and ranged options to pick from, but also Wildlings and some of the beasts that call the realm beyond the walls home.
Helping to lead the north’s forces, the likes of Robb Stark, Jon Snow, and their respective dire wolves served as the faction’s hero units. These special hero units will level up as they take out enemy forces, learning more and more powerful abilities as they go, at the expense of longer recruit times and higher cost to do so, should they unfortunately fall in battle. Jon Snow, for instance, will inspire those around him, making his nearby troops deal more damage and imparting some damage resistance while having another ability that lets him deliver a savaging sword strike and causing a bleed effect.
“Lannisters always repay their debts,” and that is thanks largely to them being stinkin' rich, a fact that PlaySide has used to help define the faction. The Lannisters’ gold production structures produce more of the given resource per structure, granting them a faster rate of getting gold and can make their builders work faster by lining their pockets with a bit of extra coin. Coupled with the ability at any time to turn their gold into influence, and vice versa - influence being the other resources used for building and training your more advanced structures and units- this house had a vastly easier and faster early game compared to the folks from the North. While the Starks gain all their allies through more traditional training methods, the Lannisters can purchase contracts for a variety of mercenary companies to hire their fighters, each with different strengths.
Jaime and Tywin serve as the Lannisters’ heroes, with the younger of the lions serving best on the front lines, while Tywin leads from atop his horse. Tywin can negate debuffs on his troops while strengthening his own cavalry. Jaime, being a master swordsman, can deliver some devastating strikes on single targets while also taunting enemies to target him instead. Alternatively, using his menacing history as a Kingslayer can slow and damage enemies near him over time.
Right out of the gate, sides will only have access to a small plot of land, where they can start expanding and building out their bases. You have your seat of power, your home base you have to protect from being destroyed (thus losing you the game), but then you will also need to expand your reach by constructing barracks, archery rangers, and resource-generating buildings. Some of these are locked until others have been constructed first. Anyone who grew up with the likes of StarCraft, Command and Conquer, or more recently the Age of Empires series with their remakes will have the general gist of how Westeros plays out.
To expand your workable land, War for Westeros breaks the overall map into captureable regions, with a tower that can be held to allow your workers to start building in that region. In the small 1v1-tailored battlefields that I had access to, these regions would also feature resource-rich points that can allow you to build advanced versions of your production buildings like the Lannisters' Mine Shafts or Stark's Windmills, which allow you to really bump up your production line. A few of these regions’ spaces, though, had something I found to be even cooler, and in some respects, that I found to be more impactful and important to getting that W – camps.
These camps spawn neutral hostile mobs that you can kill and will net you some gold as a reward. Rushing to get a squad of soldiers built and sent out to kill these mobs quickly became my go-to strategy during the early game. Its injection of resources saved my butt more than once by allowing me to quickly start training another unit to protect my new expansion into the region or allow me to start constructing the next building in my tree. And the fact that they would respawn every couple of minutes meant I could park some knights and archers nearby and use them as another source of income. It’s a trick that I used in another similar sort of game years ago, and one I hadn't thought of much until now.
War for Westeros kept reminding me of another amazing RTS game based on an epic fantasy book series: The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth 2.“
With each match I played, War for Westeros kept reminding me of another amazing RTS game based on an epic fantasy book series: The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth 2. (Side note: It is, depressingly, a game that is unavailable digitally anywhere, at least officially.) From how heroes behave to the more spread-out building placement and of course the random mobs you would want to kill, playing War for Westeros takes me back to leading the forces of Gondor against my friend and his annoying army of Dwarves.
Even in this small snippet, War for Westeros is already presenting itself as an RTS that can be fun regardless of whether you consider yourself a seasoned battlefield general or just someone wanting to get vengeance for Ned Stark by slaughtering a whole host of Lions. Against easier CPU adversaries in earlier games, I would just click and train whatever units looked cool just to see what the armies were all about and did just fine, but the more time I spent and the harder the foes got, using the hotkeys to assign orders to specific groups, playing to a unit’s strength to counter specific enemies, and knowing when best to use my heroes’ abilities became critical to avoid getting crushed. And this was only with two of the factions; I can't wait to see how the wild clashes and strategies will evolve once the rest of the armies are introduced.
But, as a game still in development, there are certainly some areas that I hope get tweaked or adjusted prior to the final release. Tooltips are a bit sparse, such as giving you specifics on what the bonuses are when you garrison a worker inside a building, and the marker showing what direction your units will face is pretty tiny and easily obscured by details on the map, like trees and grass. Perhaps my bigger request, however, is with the camera. Buildings are big, armies can get equally imposing, and I frequently would find myself scrolling my mouse wheel down in a futile attempt to pull back my view even farther. Give me a high-up, bird's-eye- or in this case, a Three-eyed Raven’s eye view, of the battlefield, and let me see the whole of these epic clashes.
Game of Thrones: War of Westeros is shaping up to be an impressive RTS, especially for folks that are looking to scratch that base-building fantasy itch. Still, from the other three launch factions, to the campaign mode, to even how larger matches will play out, all remain as much of a mystery as the release date for Winds of Winter. But for fans that have been hungry for some base-building, PlaySide looks poised to deliver quite the feast.
While you're here, check out these previews of other big upcoming games we've played recently!
Gears of War: E-Day (single-player campaign)
Marvel's Wolverine
The Duskbloods
Scott White is a freelance contributor to IGN, assisting with tabletop games and guide coverage. Follow him on X/Twitter or Bluesky.%!s()
Find the links between the words to win today's game of Connections.
getty
If you’re looking for the August 26 Connections hints and answers, we’ve got you covered right here:
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ForbesNYT Connections Hint Today: Wednesday, August 26 Clues And AnswersBy Kris Holt
Hey there, Connectors. I hope you’ve enjoyed your week so far.
Dolly Parton’s passing is a sore one. A legendary artist and, by all accounts, an even better human. Rest in peace, Dolly.
Before we start, we’ve got a lovely community on Discord, where we chat about Connections, the rest of the NYT games and all kinds of things. You’re more than welcome to join us!
Also, my weekend editions of this column are available over on my newsletter, Pastimes. I sometimes write about other things that are on my mind there as well.
Today’s NYTConnections hints and answers for Thursday, August 27 are coming right up. Let’s get rolling!
Play Puzzles & Games on Forbes
How To Play Connections
Connections is a free New York Times daily word game that you can play on the NYT’s website or Games app. If you have an NYT All Access or Games subscription, you can access the Connections archive, which includes every previous game.
Connections presents you with a grid of 16 words (sometimes phrases, symbols or numbers). The aim is to arrange them into four groups of four. You don’t know how they hit together or what the category for each group is: that’s what you have to figure out.
There’s only one correct solution and there are often red herrings. You can guess incorrectly three times. A fourth wrong guess, and it’s game over.
Each group is color coded. The yellow group is usually the easiest to deduce, followed by blue, green and purple. Often, the yellow and green groups have synonyms, the blues have cultural references and the purples have some kind of wordplay involved. But this is not a hard and fast rule. Be ready for curveballs – part of the fun of Connections is in how the NYT shakes things up to keep you on your toes.
As with Wordle and similar games, it’s easy to share results with your friends using an emoji-based grid. The game tracks your progress too.
Many players take pride in having long win streaks or getting a reverse rainbow – correctly guessing the purple, blue, green and yellow groups in that order with no mistakes. That adds an extra little challenge.
Today’s NYT Connections Word List
Scroll slowly!
After today’s Connections word list, I’ll give you a hint for each category. After that, I’ll reveal one word that goes into each group. Then I’ll reveal the categories, followed by the full answers.
Got it? Cool.
Today’s 16 words are...
Today’s NYT Connections Hints
The hints for today’s Connections categories are:
🟨 Yellow group — these might spark a bright idea
🟩 Green group — is someone cutting onions around here?
🟦 Blue group — there are 50 variants, according to a particularly saucy novel and film
🟪 Purple group — an extra opening hook can often draw fans of these in
One Answer For Each NYT Connections Group
Be warned: we’re starting to get into spoiler territory.
Let’s take a look at one answer for each group.
Here we go…
🟨 Yellow group — ELECTRIC EEL
🟩 Green group — OVERCOME
🟦 Blue group — PEWTER
🟪 Purple group — BROCK
Today’s NYT Connections Categories
Today’s Connections groups are...
🟨 Yellow group — electric things
🟩 Green group — moved to tears
🟦 Blue group — shades of gray
🟪 Purple group — music genre plus starting letter
Today’s NYT Connections Answer
Spoiler alert! Don’t scroll any further down the page until you’re ready to find out today’s Connections answers.
This is your last chance to look away.
This is your final warning!
Today’s Connections answers are...
🟨 Yellow group — electric things (ELECTRIC EEL, LIGHTNING, LIVE WIRE, PIKACHU)
🟩 Green group — moved to tears (CHOKED UP, EMOTIONAL, MISTY, OVERCOME)
🟦 Blue group — shades of gray (ASH, DOVE, PEWTER, SLATE)
🟪 Purple group — music genre plus starting letter (BROCK, NEMO, SPUNK, WRAP)
Although Pokémon is the biggest entertainment franchise on the planet, I figured that the main characters of the original anime would have to be a red herring. So PIKACHU had to go with the other electric things to get the yellows sorted. (PIKACHU is yellow too!)
After wondering for a moment what BROCK might refer to, my eyes darted over to SPUNK and I figured out the purples.
I then deduced the last two groups at the same time, more or less. It was a toss up as to which would be blue and green, but I went with the shades of gray to get the blues. The greens sealed the deal.
Streak = 543
How did you get on this time? Here's my grid:
🟨🟨🟨🟨 🟪🟪🟪🟪 🟦🟦🟦🟦 🟩🟩🟩🟩
Want to know more about how everything fits together? Let’s explore today’s game in more depth in my NYT Connections Answers Explained column right here:
ForbesToday’s NYT Connections Answers Explained: Thursday, August 27By Kris Holt
Be sure to check my blog for hints and the answer for tomorrow’s game of Connections if you need them.
P.S. Even though I recommended one of her songs recently, I have to go with another Dolly track today. A true icon:
Have a great day! Stay hydrated! Be kind to yourself and each other! Call someone you love!
Please follow my blog for more NYT Connections hints and help with other word games, and even some video game news, insights and analysis. I’d really appreciate that as it helps me out. If you share this column with others who play Connections, that would be lovely too. You can also read my weekend editions of this column and more of my writing at my newsletter, Pastimes.%!s()
