Brie Larson's been there, so has Justin Bieber and Lindsay Lohan joined the fold, too. And now, Palestinian-American model Bella Hadid has announced the imminent release of her own NFTs.
Called CY-B3LLA, it will be a collection of 11,111 non-fungible tokens that "serve as your passport to this new world", the celebrity wrote on Instagram.
"As we've been reminded too many times, the universe we live in is imperfect. But I believe this provides a true opportunity to build a meta community, sustained by peace, love, compassion and meaningful connections."
Hadid, who co-founded the collection with reBase, which sets up celebrity NFT collaborations, describes them as "invitations to a new global nation".
Each NFT features different 3D scans of Hadid, "designed to encourage travel, community, growth, fantasy and human interactions".
The plan, she says, is to grow "this new meta-nation" with real locations and events around the world in the coming months, where she plans to meet those in her online community.
She's set up a website, too, which features a video of Hadid's avatar set to an eerie soundtrack, teasing a "private society" and 10 locations. It simply says "more information coming soon" and asks people to register for the "whitelist".
Celebrities have been backing NFTs and cryptocurrencies for a while now, and have received some criticism for it.
Captain Marvel star Larson sparked a storm of criticism in February after a tweet about an NFT artwork. The tweet received comments that accused her of promoting a "Ponzi scheme", but also concerns about the environmental impact of NFTs and artists' intellectual property rights.
Larson’s post followed an episode of The Tonight Show in which the host Jimmy Fallon and guest Paris Hilton showed off their recent Bored Ape NFT purchases, created by the secretive collective known as Bored Ape Yacht Club.
The 77-second-long segment, a glaring non sequitur that followed a conversation about Hilton’s recent wedding, was described as “cringe”, “embarrassing” and “unbearable”, as Fallon declared: “We’re part of the same community. We’re both Apes.”
The Florida Project
Director: Sean Baker
Starring: Bria Vinaite, Brooklynn Prince, Willem Dafoe
Four stars
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UK’s AI plan
- AI ambassadors such as MIT economist Simon Johnson, Monzo cofounder Tom Blomfield and Google DeepMind’s Raia Hadsell
- £10bn AI growth zone in South Wales to create 5,000 jobs
- £100m of government support for startups building AI hardware products
- £250m to train new AI models
If you go
The flights
Emirates flies from Dubai to Seattle from Dh5,555 return, including taxes.
The car
Hertz offers compact car rental from about $300 (Dh1,100) per week, including taxes. Emirates Skywards members can earn points on their car hire through Hertz.
The national park
Entry to Mount Rainier National Park costs $30 for one vehicle and passengers for up to seven days. Accommodation can be booked through mtrainierguestservices.com. Prices vary according to season. Rooms at the Holiday Inn Yakima cost from $125 per night, excluding breakfast.
In-demand jobs and monthly salaries
- Technology expert in robotics and automation: Dh20,000 to Dh40,000
- Energy engineer: Dh25,000 to Dh30,000
- Production engineer: Dh30,000 to Dh40,000
- Data-driven supply chain management professional: Dh30,000 to Dh50,000
- HR leader: Dh40,000 to Dh60,000
- Engineering leader: Dh30,000 to Dh55,000
- Project manager: Dh55,000 to Dh65,000
- Senior reservoir engineer: Dh40,000 to Dh55,000
- Senior drilling engineer: Dh38,000 to Dh46,000
- Senior process engineer: Dh28,000 to Dh38,000
- Senior maintenance engineer: Dh22,000 to Dh34,000
- Field engineer: Dh6,500 to Dh7,500
- Field supervisor: Dh9,000 to Dh12,000
- Field operator: Dh5,000 to Dh7,000
Essentials
The flights
Etihad and Emirates fly direct from the UAE to Delhi from about Dh950 return including taxes.
The hotels
Double rooms at Tijara Fort-Palace cost from 6,670 rupees (Dh377), including breakfast.
Doubles at Fort Bishangarh cost from 29,030 rupees (Dh1,641), including breakfast. Doubles at Narendra Bhawan cost from 15,360 rupees (Dh869). Doubles at Chanoud Garh cost from 19,840 rupees (Dh1,122), full board. Doubles at Fort Begu cost from 10,000 rupees (Dh565), including breakfast.
The tours
Amar Grover travelled with Wild Frontiers. A tailor-made, nine-day itinerary via New Delhi, with one night in Tijara and two nights in each of the remaining properties, including car/driver, costs from £1,445 (Dh6,968) per person.
