Tag: celebrities

Concertgoer files police report after Cardi B’s Las Vegas show | CNN

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CNN
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A concertgoer has filed a report with the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department (LVMPD) after being “struck by an item that was thrown from the stage,” police said in a statement to CNN Monday.

Police did not mention Cardi B in their statement, but the address on the incident report matches the location where she was performing on Saturday.

“According to the victim, she was attending an event on July 29, 2023, at a property located in the 3500 block of Las Vegas Boulevard. During a concert, she was struck by an item that was thrown from the stage,” authorities said.

No arrest or citation as been issued, according to police.

CNN previously reported that Cardi B was performing at Drai’s Beach Club in Las Vegas over the weekend, when an audience member threw a drink toward the stage, as see in video footage posted to social media.

In the clip, the rapper is seen getting splashed with liquid from the cup while performing her 2018 hit “Bodak Yellow.” Cardi B quickly reacted by throwing her microphone into the audience as security guards rushed to the stage and into the crowd.

CNN has reached out to the Clark County District Attorney’s office for comment, and have reached out to the LVMPD public records department for a copy of the police report.

The incident in Las Vegas on Saturday is just the latest in a slew of similar scenes at concerts where artists have become the target of objects thrown at them while on stage, with some artists suffering injuries as a result.

Only recently have performers gotten involved with their audience members when seeing behavior they do not approve of.

CNN has reached out to a representative for Cardi B for comment.

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July 31, 2023
Elon Musk reactivates Kanye West’s Twitter account following X rebrand | CNN Business

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X, formerly known as Twitter, has reinstated Kanye West’s account on the social media platform. West will not be able to monetize his account, and no ads will appear next to his posts, the company told the Wall Street Journal on Saturday.

The musician’s account was suspended in December for violating the platform’s rules on inciting violence. The suspension followed multiple antisemitic comments made by West – who has legally changed his name to Ye – including a threat to “Go death con 3 on JEWISH PEOPLE.” Those statements led to a swift disintegration of multiple business deals, including partnerships with Adidas and luxury fashion house Balenciaga.

Although CNN at the time was unable to determine which tweet had been the final straw, the day before his suspension West tweeted an altered image of the Star of David with a swastika inside.

Twitter has long been embroiled in questions surrounding moderation, with the platform’s CEO Elon Musk describing himself as a “free speech absolutist.” After agreeing to buy the company last October, he said Twitter would “be very reluctant to delete things” and “be very cautious with permanent bans.”

But after West was suspended, Musk tweeted “I tried my best. Despite that, he again violated our rule against incitement to violence.”

In April, Twitter’s safety team launched a new content enforcement strategy called “Freedom of Speech, Not Reach,” which focused on “restricting the reach of Tweets that violate our policies by making the content less discoverable.”

This approach, in part, requires the team to “proactively prevent ads from appearing adjacent to content” labeled as violative.

In an update earlier this month, the safety team reported that these labeled tweets “receive 81% less reach or impressions” than non-restricted ones, and that “more than 99.99% of Tweet impressions are from … content that does not violate our rules.”

Twitter’s Violent Speech Policy prohibits inciting and glorifying violence, wishing harm on other people, and threatening others. But it makes some exceptions, including for “figures of speech, satire, or artistic expression when the context is expressing a viewpoint rather than instigating actionable violence or harm.”

“We make sure to evaluate and understand the context behind the conversation before taking action,” the policy states, adding that if a user believes their account was wrongfully suspended, they can submit an appeal.

It’s not clear whether West submitted an appeal, or if something else prompted his account’s reactivation. The musician has yet to post on the platform. CNN has reached out to Twitter and a representative for West but has not received a response.

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July 30, 2023
‘Madonna’ at 40: An oral history of the Queen of Pop’s debut album | CNN

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Madonna’s self-titled first album was released 40 years ago this week.

In a social media video she shared on Thursday, the pop culture icon marked the anniversary by dancing to “Lucky Star,” the fourth single from her 1983 debut album, which was also her first top-five Billboard hit in the US.

“To be able to move my body and dance just a little bit makes me feel like the Luckiest Star in the world!” Madonna wrote, referencing her recovery from a medical issue earlier this summer. “Thank you to all of my fans and friends!”

Those friends include Michael Rosenblatt, the former A&R man at Sire Records – Madonna’s first label – who helped launch her career.

“I gave Madonna – after we signed – I gave her a gift of one of these old school Casiotone keyboards with a cassette player built in,” Rosenblatt told CNN in a recent interview. “And a week or two – definitely not longer than two weeks after I signed her – she came into my office and she played me ‘Lucky Star.’ She said, ‘I just wrote this on this little thing’ I got her.”

“I told her she wrote her first hit,” he recalled.

But luck had very little to do with the future Queen of Pop’s initial rise to fame, the kind of storied journey that has generated as many versions as those who tell it. One through-line, however, is that Madonna herself always seemed to know exactly where she was headed.

“I was so impressed with her from the first time I met her,” Bobby Shaw – who worked in the world of music promotion in early-1980s New York City and was the first promoter of Madonna’s music – told CNN. He also called her a “go-getter” who was “really aggressive” in wanting to know all about the business.

“Madonna” the album served as an explosive entry for the trained dancer-turned-singer on the road to being so much more. Although the album only contained eight songs total, those songs – including additional singles “Borderline,” “Burning Up” and “Holiday” – embodied the young and exuberant New York club culture of the time.

Danceteria, a dance club in Manhattan’s Garment District from 1979 to 1986, served as one of the nexus points for the burgeoning music scene in the city. A then 24-year-old Michigan native who had already tried to put together a record in Paris, Madonna was known to frequent the spot – she even said she “stalked” a DJ there in a recent Instagram post.

“My best friend at the time was Mark Kamins, who was the Friday, Saturday night DJ at Danceteria” Rosenblatt recalled. “And he told me about this girl who kept coming by trying to get him to play her demo – which he wouldn’t. But he told me this girl was just incredibly hot.”

One Saturday night in the winter of ’81-‘82, he would finally meet Madonna, coincidentally while he was accompanying another duo of artists who recently had been signed by a friend of his in England – namely, Wham!.

“So I’m out that night with George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley, taking them to various clubs. And we’re at Danceteria, we’re at the second floor bar area, which is where Mark Kamins was the DJ. And I saw this girl go across the dance floor and up to the DJ booth and I said to myself, ‘That’s gotta be this girl that Mark’s talking about,’” Rosenblatt said, going on to mention that the two started talking, and made an appointment that Monday for Madonna to play him her demo. (The demo, he later said, contained the track “Everybody” – which would eventually become “Madonna’s” lead single, along with a B-side titled “Ain’t No Big Deal.”)

“So Monday, end of the day, Madonna and Mark showed up at my office and played me her demo, which was good. I mean, it wasn’t f–king amazing, but it was good,” he continued. “But what happened was, there was a star radiating in my office. It was her.”

Rosenblatt knew from the get-go that he was dealing with someone special, but he had one more test up his sleeve to spring on the neophyte.

“I always ask this question – and I still do with any artist I’m interested in – (which) is, ‘What do you want? What are you looking for?’” he explained. “The wrong answer is, ‘I want to get my art out there.’ The best answer was the one Madonna gave me, which said, ‘I want to rule the world.’ And I thought, that’s a hell of an answer.” (As it happens, it’s also the answer Madonna famously gave Dick Clark on “American Bandstand” in 1984.)

Rosenblatt’s instincts kicked in, and he wanted to move fast in securing a deal with Madonna. Which meant talking to his boss, Sire Records president Seymour Stein, and setting up an appointment for the two to meet the very next day – even though Stein was in the hospital at the time for a heart-related issue. (Stein lived for much longer, though, and passed away earlier this year).

“I went up to see Seymour, played him the demo, told him all about her, that she’s just a f–king star and we gotta sign her,” Rosenblatt recalled.

But there was still one thing that stuck out for him.

“I told Madonna, ‘You have to bring some ID, because I don’t believe your name is Madonna.’ And she said, ‘What are you talking about?’” he said, adding that he replied to her at the time that it was “just too good to be true. It’s like, it’s perfect.”

“And she came up the next day with her passport!”

As with many parts of Madonna’s origin story, that meeting with Stein at the hospital has become the stuff of legend. There was a boombox in the room, and Rosenblatt played her demo again for Stein while Madonna was there. Beyond her music, the clincher was the artist standing there who was ready to take on the world.

“We listened to the music again and Madonna charmed the hell out of him,” Rosenblatt said of that fateful day with Stein. “She knew that she was this close to getting a deal, and this was the guy who was gonna make it happen.”

And while “everybody hit it off,” Rosenblatt still wasn’t fully confident that Stein would agree to sign her, because, he said, nobody else wanted to sign Madonna at the time. (The singer herself has spoken of the professional rejection she experienced in her early years in New York.)

Rosenblatt said it had to do with just how novel Madonna really was – not only in terms of her personality and (later, oft-imitated) presentation – but also because her music differed from what was popular at the time.

“You think about that genre, it hadn’t happened yet,” he said of Madonna’s early sound.

“There was disco, and there was new wave. And there was nothing in the middle, you know what I mean? So nobody was interested,” he added, going on to say that it was “also maybe because she didn’t have a manager or lawyer out there shopping. She was just this club kid.”

“Madonna was really coming out of the new wave clubs in a way that never really happened before,” he later said. “I mean, Debbie Harry was huge, but nobody was doing the disco/new wave thing, (the) R&B thing the way Madonna did. I mean, we created a format. But before that it didn’t (exist).”

Still, Rosenblatt knew a star when he saw one, and Stein agreed. He said yes to signing her for a singles deal – “a $10,000 singles deal” – that day in hospital. Rosenblatt and Stein had a strategy, knowing that the singles deal would eventually lead to a full-on record contract down the road.

“We went into the studio with Mark Kamins to cut ‘Ain’t No Big Deal,’ as the A-side, and ‘Everybody’s’ the B-side.” Rosenblatt said. “‘Ain’t No Big Deal’ did not come out well. So we just went with ‘Everybody.’ And I remember going into Bobby Shaw’s office because we’re all psyched about ‘Ain’t No Big Deal.’ And I said, ‘Well, that didn’t come out well. Is ‘Everybody’ strong enough for you?’ He goes, ‘Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.’”

Shaw explained that his decision to promote “Everybody” was a little unorthodox, since there was still no album secured yet behind it.

“Back then, unless there’s an album to back it up, the record companies aren’t going to spend a lot of money to try to get it on radio,” he explained.

Still, they went for it.

”(‘Everybody’) was a good record. It’s pretty simple,” Shaw said. “The song was great. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure that out.”

Additionally, much like Rosenblatt, Shaw had more than a hunch that the person singing the song was going to be a big deal.

“I knew before this first song that (Madonna) was somebody special,” Shaw said. “The music had to be good, but nonetheless, the first song was great. I loved it. And I mean, it made noise. It made noise enough to give her an album deal.”

Madonna collaborated with a string of producers that included Kamins, Reggie Lucas – with whom they cut the song “Physical Attraction,” “which we loved,” Rosenblatt said – and John ‘Jellybean’ Benitez on her first few singles.

“So we made the album and it had ‘Borderline,’ which I knew was a smash. It had ‘Lucky Star,’ which I thought was gonna be a big hit, but it didn’t have what I wanted to be the lead off, just stone cold hit,” Rosenblatt said. “And I went to Seymour and I said, ‘Dude, I need another $10,000 to do another song.’”

Stein told him that in order to secure that additional funding, they would have to go to Los Angeles to meet the the top brass at Warner Bros. Records (now Warner Records) – Sire being a subsidiary of that company.

“I just knew that if I were to take Madonna out to LA to meet Warner Bros., getting the money would be no problem,” Rosenblatt said.

The pair traveled out to the West Coast, and stayed at Rosenblatt’s parents’ house, where Madonna invariably caught the attention of his mother.

“We’re getting ready to go out to meet the Warner crew,” Rosenblatt recalled. “My mom pulls me aside before we leave and goes… ‘Do you think you should tell Madonna to take the rags out of her hair before you meet Warner Bros.?’” – a clear reaction to the future star’s style that would soon take youth fashion by storm.

“And I said, ‘Thanks for caring mom, but we’re good!’” Rosenblatt added with a laugh.

Of course, the meetings with the top brass went well – their trip even coincided with the Passover holiday, Rosenblatt shared, and Madonna ended up as a guest at the Seder with Rosenblatt, his family, and some of the WB music execs, including Mo Ostin, at the legendary Chasen’s Restaurant, where she sang verses of the Haggadah (Passover prayer book) while wearing her trademark crosses.

“We met everybody and everybody loved her, everybody just loved her. Everybody got it,” Rosenblatt said. “She just charmed everybody. And at the end of the day before we left, I ran up to Lenny Waronker, who was the president of Warner Bros. at the time, (and) I said, ‘I need $10,000 to do one more song. I just need that lead out single.’ He said, ‘You got it.’ So the trip was a success.”

Back in New York, Rosenblatt came to Lucas, Benitez and Kamins with a proposal.

“I said, ‘Look, whoever comes to me with the song gets to produce it, I have $10K to cut a song.’”

Four days later, he said Benitez came in with a demo version of a song called “Holiday.”

“Sung by a guy. Much slower. But I love the song,” Rosenblatt recalled, adding how they proceeded to “speed it up and make it a dance record.”

“Holiday” – to this day one of Madonna’s most well-known anthems – was the surefire element Rosenblatt thought they needed to finish the album.

Then came the time to promote it, which wasn’t exactly in the bag yet. Shaw remembers how he and Madonna went down to Florida on a publicity tour, and drove around in “a beautiful convertible” while her brother, then-dancer Christopher Ciccone, and two other backup dancers traveled separately.

“We were listening to music while we were driving. And I was smoking pot and she wasn’t smoking,” Shaw recalled of their drive to Key West from Fort Lauderdale. “And then that night it poured. We did the Copa in Key West.”

Before the show, Shaw remembers sitting in one of their hotel rooms, watching the group rehearse. This was before Madonna was the Madonna the world eventually came to know, so sometimes the shows they played were for only a couple dozen people.

“I look back at this now, it just seems so surreal. But I was sitting on the edge of a bed watching them practice dancing in a hotel room. And it poured that night and maybe 25 people came to the venue. She was nobody. Nobody knew her then. We were trying to break her. So it was grassroots, ground up.”

Things changed, of course, thanks to the singles from the “Madonna” album picking up airplay on the radio and her music videos finding heavy rotation on the still new MTV. Madonna had a prescient attitude to music as a visual medium, quickly embracing the music video format when more established musicians initially balked at the concept.

“When ‘Holiday’ just started to break, and then ‘Borderline,’ and then it was, like, over,” Rosenblatt recalls of the moment when the scales tipped and Madonna started to catch on. “And I think the record just started to explode.”

This was still 1983, before Madonna’s smash sophomore album “Like A Virgin” and her now-legendary performance at the first-ever MTV Video Music Awards in September 1984, a showstopping display that made everyone who wasn’t already start paying attention.

Looking back, Rosenblatt remembers telling Stein that Madonna was going to “be the biggest artist” he would ever work with.

“And he’s like, laughing, he goes, ‘Yeah? How big is she gonna be?’ And I said, ‘Seymour, she’s gonna be bigger than Olivia Newton John,’ who at the time was the biggest selling female artist.”

“I said she’d be bigger than Olivia Newton John and I thought she’d be like Barbara Streisand, because I really saw her acting,” Rosenblatt later added. “But who knew she was going to be this cultural idea, who knew she was going to be Marilyn Monroe. She became this cultural icon and that I don’t think anybody saw coming. But I knew, and as did Madonna.”

“I went to New York. I had a dream. I wanted to be a big star, I didn’t know anybody, I wanted to dance, I wanted to sing, I wanted to do all those things,” Madonna said of her meteoric rise in a 1985 concert documentary. “I wanted to make people happy, I wanted to be famous, I wanted everybody to love me. I wanted to be a star. I worked really hard, and my dream came true.”

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July 29, 2023
Tiffany Haddish says Common broke up with her over the phone | CNN

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Tiffany Haddish says her former relationship with rapper and actor Common was “the healthiest, the funnest relationship I’ve ever had.”

Until it wasn’t.

In a recently published interview with the Washington Post the actress recounted meeting Common on the set of the 2019 movie “The Kitchen,” in which she co-starred with Melissa McCarthy and Elisabeth Moss.

“It’s where I felt safest out of all the relationships I’ve ever had,” Haddish said of her romantic relationship with Common.

But things went left, she said, as he began to withdraw and increasingly attend events she was not invited to. The couple reportedly split in 2021 and Haddish told the Washington Post he dumped her over the phone.

“It wasn’t mutual,” she said. “It was more him saying, ‘I think this relationship has run its course.’ And I was like, ‘OK. Like you gonna be a 50-year-old single man. OK?’”

That doesn’t match up with what Common said during an interview with “Hollywood Unlocked With Jason Lee Uncensored” in late 2021, in which he told Lee the parting was “mutual” and they “came to the understanding that this is what’s gonna be best for us.”

“To still continue to love each other and be there for each other is to not be in a romantic relationship because we won’t be able to give to that,” Common said at the time. “I don’t want to be one foot in, one foot out.”

CNN has reached out to his reps for comment.

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July 25, 2023
Matt Damon said no to a huge film franchise that he thinks could have made him $250 million | CNN

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Matt Damon turned down a major role years ago – except this role was one that could have made the Oscar-winner upwards of $250 million.

Appearing on Friday’s episode of CNN’s “Who’s Talking to Chris Wallace,” Damon spoke with the host about how in 2009, he was offered not just the lead role in James Cameron’s “Avatar,” but a percentage of the film’s earnings.

“It’s something awful like that,” Damon joked when asked about his $250 million calculation, going on to say he’s “sure it’s the most money an actor ever turned down.”

Damon said he was obligated to finish production on the “Bourne” series that he starred in between 2002 and 2016, and he didn’t want to “leave them in the lurch” to go do “Avatar.”

Cameron ended up casting Sam Worthington in the lead role, alongside Zoe Saldana, Sigourney Weaver, Joel David Moore and Michelle Rodriguez in the franchise’s first installment.

“Avatar,” of course, went on to become the highest grossing movie of all time, with a lifetime gross of nearly $3 billion since its 2009 release.

The long-awaited sequel, “Avatar: The Way of the Water” came out last year, and is the third highest-grossing film ever, with a lifetime gross of $2.3 billion. “Water” sits behind “Avatar” and “Avengers: Endgame,” which has grossed nearly $2.8 billion since its release in 2019.

It’s a decision that may haunt him, but all signs seem to indicate that Damon did just fine without venturing around Cameron’s planet of Pandora.

For now, Damon stars in director Christopher Nolan’s latest war-era epic “Oppenheimer,” which premieres in theaters on Friday.

As for Damon’s claim that his decision resulted in the most money an actor has declined ever, that’s debatable.

Sean Connery was famously offered the role of the wizard Gandalf in Peter Jackson’s sweeping “Lord of the Rings” trilogy of films, but reportedly turned the role down because he “didn’t get it.”

What’s more, he was allegedly offered $30 million dollars for each movie, plus 15 percent of the box office take, which in retrospect would have netted the “Bond” actor a sum in the vicinity of $450 million dollars.

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July 22, 2023
Lionel Messi set to make his Inter Miami debut in Leagues Cup opener against Cruz Azul

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FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — Lionel Messi’s debut gameday with Inter Miami has arrived.

Messi is expected to play Friday night when Inter Miami takes on Cruz Azul in a Leagues Cup match at his new home stadium. Team officials say all tickets — about 21,000, in a newly expanded stadium — have been sold, though thousands were available for resale on secondary markets Friday morning.

It’s unclear how much Messi, a World Cup champion for Argentina and someone who Inter Miami co-owner David Beckham calls the best player ever, will be on the field in his debut. He signed a 2-1/2 year contract with Inter Miami this past weekend, and the deal will pay him between $50 million and $60 million annually. That will almost certainly work out to more than $1 million per match.

He was introduced to his new home fans on Sunday and officially trained for the first time as a member of the club Tuesday.

Messi made the decision in June to join Inter Miami and come to Major League Soccer. He considered a return to Barcelona, the club with whom he spent almost the entirety of his career, after spending the last two seasons with Paris Saint-Germain.

But Inter Miami and MLS found a way to land the seven-time Ballon d’Or winner in Messi, setting the stage for an unprecedented era for the club that has largely sputtered during its first four seasons.

Leagues Cup is a tournament between clubs from MLS and Liga MX, the top Mexican league. Cruz Azul won the inaugural version of this event in 2019.

Neither club has enjoyed much success this season. Inter Miami has the fewest points in the MLS standings; Cruz Azul is the only team in the Mexican league yet to record a standings point through the season’s first three matches.

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July 21, 2023
Why celebrities are on strike: Not every actor makes Tom Cruise money | CNN Business

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On Friday, the SAG-AFTRA, a union representing about 160,000 Hollywood actors, officially went on strike after failing to reach a deal with Hollywood’s biggest studios.

That means Hollywood actors and writers are on strike simultaneously for the first time in more than 60 years, bringing most film and television productions to a halt.

Among other demands, actors on strike are calling for increased pay and a rethinking of residuals, which union members say has significantly diminished amid the rise of streaming services. Residuals are financial compensation paid out to actors whenever TV shows or movies they’ve appeared in are replayed.

Here are some significant numbers:

The union’s 160,000 members join the 11,000 Writers Guild of America members who have been striking since May.

While many of the world’s highest-paid celebrities, including Meryl Streep and Matt Damon, have voiced their support for the strike, the concerns about higher pay and residuals affect thousands of actors who perform in hundreds of films and TV shows.

SAG-AFTRA’s president, Fran Drescher, pushed back on the notion that all actors are wealthy, saying that a vast majority “are just working people just trying to make a living just trying to pay their rent, just trying to put food on the table and get their kids off to school.”

“Everything that you watch, that you enjoy, that you’re entertained by are scenes filled with people that are not making the big money,” she added.

That’s how much the US Bureau of Labor Statistics reported as the average pay for California actors in 2022. However, the BLS noted in the data that actors aren’t paid full-time year-round due to the nature of the job.

Before the contract between actors and movie studios officially expired this week, SAG-AFTRA members had negotiated specific minimum rates for performers. For example, an actor who worked on a television show for one week was paid a minimum of $3,756.

However, Kellee Stewart, an actress who has performed for more than 20 years and has appeared on the television series “All American” and “Black-ish,” noted that performers traditionally don’t get to take home the number that appears as their rate.

“You don’t get to keep it all when you get a paycheck,” she said.

“You have to pay taxes, plus commissions. For me, that would include an agent, a manager, and a lawyer that negotiates your deals. Right away, when you’re giving a quote for what you’re going to get paid, you already know that’s really going to be 35% less, give or take,” she added.

Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson was the highest paid actor of 2022, raking in $270 million, according to Forbes’ list of highest paid entertainers. Johnson received hefty paydays from his roles in “Jungle Cruise” and “Red Notice,” but, according to Forbes, the majority of his earned income in 2022 came from his tequila brand, Teremana.

Tom Cruise made headlines last year for reportedly making $100 million from his deal to star in “Top Gun: Maverick,” for which he received a cut of ticket sales, according to Variety.

On CBS’ Face the Nation Sunday, IAC Chairman Barry Diller called on both top-paid actors and movie executives to take 25% pay cuts.

“You have the actors union saying, ‘How dare these 10 people who run these companies earn all this money and won’t pay us?’ While, if you look at it on the other side, the top 10 actors get paid more than the top 10 executives,” Diller said. “I’m not saying either is right. Actually, everybody’s probably overpaid at the top end.”

The minimum amount of money a performer must take home in one year to qualify for health insurance is $26,470.

However, while well-known actors are paid millions of dollars to star in movies and TV shows, many members of SAG-AFTRA don’t bring in enough income each year to meet the union’s minimum requirement.

According to Shaan Sharma, an actor and SAG-AFTRA board member, just 12.7% of SAG-AFTRA members qualify for the union’s health plan.

Actor Rod McLachlan, who has appeared in television shows such as “Blue Bloods,” said it’s “a constant struggle” to meet the health insurance threshold.

“If you think about it, $26,000 isn’t a middle-class wage,” he said.

“The thing about the life of an actor is that you have good years and bad years,” he added.

Due to the unpredictable nature of TV acting and the competitive nature of landing roles, actors traditionally rely on residual payments, paid out when films or movies are replayed, as a form of steady income when work is hard to come by.

“If you were in a popular episode of a popular show, the income streams could last for quite some time. You have almost 18 months on one level or another where you are receiving income that was significant enough to help you until the next time you did a network show,” McLachlan said.

Actors say that the calculation around residuals has changed. As more shows and movies have moved to streaming services, where it isn’t always clear how often content is replayed, actors say they’re making significantly less money.

“The residuals that I get when it’s on network television versus what I would get on Netflix are night and day,” Stewart said.

On Twitter, Stewart shared a screengrab of 5 residual payments totaling 13 cents from replays on streaming services.

“There’s not just a difference between traditional residual television and streaming; they’re not even in the same conversation,” she told CNN.

On Thursday, Disney CEO Bob Iger said striking actors’ and writers’ demands are “just not realistic.”

“They are adding to a set of challenges that this business is already facing, that is quite frankly, very disruptive,” he told CNBC.

When Iger rejoined Disney as CEO in November 2022, he agreed to an annual base salary of $1 million with a potential annual bonus of $2 million dollars. The agreement also includes stock awards from Disney totaling $25 million.

On Wednesday, Iger agreed to remain in his post as CEO of Disney through 2026 while the company’s board searches for a successor. In his new agreement, Iger is now eligible for a bonus of up to $5 million, according to a company filing, meaning his total pay may reach $31 million per year.

Walt Disney Studios is part of The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP), the trade group that negotiates with currently striking writers and actors. Other major movie studios, such as Paramount Pictures and Sony Pictures, along with streaming services like Netflix and Apple TV+ are members, as well. Warner Bros. Discovery, CNN’s parent company, is also a member.

Netflix’s co-CEOs Ted Sarandos and Greg Peters made $50 million and $28 million respectively in 2022, according to a company filing.

In a statement to CNN, the AMPTP said they were “deeply disappointed” with the union’s decision to strike.

“Rather than continuing to negotiate, SAG-AFTRA has put us on a course that will deepen the financial hardship for thousands who depend on the industry for their livelihoods,” the AMPTP said.

SAG-AFTRA did not respond to CNN’s request for comment.

The potential economic impact of the combined writers’ and actors’ strike could cause $4 billion or more in damage, Kevin Klowden, the chief global strategist for the economic think tank, the Milken Institute, told CNN.

Klowden said the double strike, which has brought Hollywood projects to a grinding halt, may affect more than just the US economy.

“London and the UK, Australia, New Zealand, and other places, which either have studios or even do post-production, will face a real impact,” he said.

– CNN’s Natasha Chen contributed reporting to this story

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July 17, 2023
Gwyneth Paltrow poses with look-alike daughter Apple Martin at Goop event | CNN

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CNN
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Gwyneth Paltrow is enjoying her summer by spending time with her daughter, Apple Martin, and mom, Blythe Danner.

The Goop founder hosted a dinner at her home in the Hamptons on Saturday, posting a photo from the gathering on Instagram with Martin and Danner on Sunday.

Paltrow looked sun-kissed and glowy in a midriff-bearing skirt set, with her wavy hair worn down. Martin, whose resemblance to her mother is uncanny, looked chic in a black mini dress while Danner wore a cozy white maxi dress.

The Oscar-winner rarely shares photos of her children, but in May posted a photo of her daughter on her Instagram page along with a sweet message to celebrate her birthday.

“I love you so deeply and wholly, it defies articulation,” Paltrow wrote, adding, “To behold you as a 19 year old woman fills my heart with almost unbearable love, pride and meaning! I can’t take it!”

Paltrow shares two children with Coldplay frontman Chris Martin. The pair separated in 2014 after 11 years of marriage. She married producer Brad Falchuk in 2018.

Falchuk, Jerry and Jessica Seinfeld, Jodie Comer, Jimmy Fallon and Rachel Zoe, among others, also attended Paltrow’s Saturday soiree, where guests sipped pear-infused cocktails and dined on Italian food curated by chef Mattia Agazzi.

According to a news release sent to CNN, the event, co-hosted by celebrity stylist Elizabeth Saltzman, “toasted the summer season and true elements of wellness: spirited conversation, connection, and delectable cuisine.”

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July 16, 2023
‘Cruel Summer’ for Taylor Swift fans in Asia as Singapore shows sell out | CNN Business

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CNN
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It’s been a Cruel Summer for Taylor Swift fans in Asia.

The heat was on last week as millions across the continent competed for just 300,000 tickets to see her in Singapore, which will host the only stop in Southeast Asia for the singer’s Eras Tour, which kicked off in March and will run until August 2024.

Swift will perform at the city state’s National Stadium next March. With other regional hubs like Bangkok, Manila and Jakarta having seemingly missed out on the chance to host the singer, demand for tickets to one of her six nights in Singapore has been skyrocketing.

Her fans elsewhere in the region blamed politics and a lack of infrastructure for failing to attract any highly coveted tour stops.

Organizers in Singapore said more than 22 million people registered for pre-sale tickets while online queues passed the one million mark.

When tickets went on sale Friday, they sold out within hours, leaving legions of “Swifties,” as the singer’s fans are known, disappointed and empty-handed.

So fierce has the competition been that fans have taken to calling it the “Great War” for tickets.

Among them was Jordan Lee, a die hard Swiftie from Jakarta who told CNN that he had come “close to snagging” a ticket, priced $80 and up.

“Friends and me joined the ‘Great War’ online and we had queue numbers from 900,000 to 300,000. We managed to get into ticket selection (on the Ticketmaster website) but were not able to check out. It was too sad.”

Lee is just one of countless Swift fans worldwide who has struggled to get a ticket for a tour that is reportedly on track to make a record $1 billion in sales.

The Eras Tour features more than 100 concerts in the United States, South America, Europe, Australia and New Zealand.

Apart from Singapore, Swift will play just one other country in Asia, Japan, and the resulting fan frenzy has captivated the region’s media outlets with stories about how far people will go to get a ticket.

While Swift mania looks set to give Singapore’s economy a massive boost, it has sparked a debate in other places in the region about why they missed out on such a lucrative event.

As Nur Hazlina, a disgruntled Swiftie from Kuala Lumpur told CNN: “If Taylor Swift doesn’t come to your country, it says something about the local tourism industry and economy.”

CNN has reached out to the concert organizer Ticketmaster and its subsidiary Live Nation for comment.

In Thailand, Pita Limjaroenrat, who is vying to become the country’s next prime minister, declared himself a Swiftie and urged her to visit.

“Thailand is back on track to be fully democratic after you had to cancel last time due to the coup,” the head of the progressive Move Forward Party said in a tweet that went viral. “The Thai people have spoken … and we all look forward to welcoming you to this beautiful nation of ours!”

In 2014, Swift was forced to cancel a sold out show in Bangkok following a military coup.

Move Forward has a huge following among young Thais for its reformist platform and won the most seats and largest share of the popular vote in the May election, though questions remain over whether the military elite will let them rule.

In the Philippines, home to one of the largest and most vocal Swift fanbases, introspection by the local media centered on whether the country had been overlooked due to its notorious traffic jams and poor public transportation.

Swift fans in the United States are known for championing public transport, sometimes overwhelming bus systems and subways when one of her shows is on.

An editorial in the Inquirer newspaper lamented that the famed Philippine Arena, the world’s largest indoor arena, might otherwise have been an ideal site.

“Getting to the Philippine Arena is a test of determination,” the paper said. “It is not enough to build sophisticated structures, it is also paramount to ensure that equally necessary features including road networks, parking lots, public bathrooms and most importantly, an efficient transport system, are available and accessible.”

In Malaysia and Indonesia, both Muslim majority nations, some wondered whether conservative laws and the influence of hardline Islamic groups might have put off tour organizers.

Swift is known for flashy and sometimes revealing costumes on stage. Western acts in the two countries have occasionally caused controversy in the past.

British band Coldplay recently came under pressure from a Malaysian Islamic party to cancel an upcoming show in Kuala Lumpur due to the band’s acceptance of gay rights.

Among those trying to snag online tickets to see Swift in Singapore was Malaysian politician Syed Saddiq, who once served as the country’s minister of youth and sports.

“Imagine the amount of money and visitors those six nights would bring [to Singapore] in such a short period of time,” he told CNN, while recalling how religious protesters had gathered outside a Selena Gomez concert he attended in Kuala Lumpur back in 2015.

“They weren’t violent but they made their views very clear, the same would happen with Taylor Swift if she came to Malaysia,” he said.

“Malaysia might have hosted some of the best events and concerts but that is no longer the case today. This is not how countries should market themselves.”

In Indonesia, hardline Islamic groups have in the past threatened violence in response to foreign music acts they deem inappropriate.

In 2012, Lady Gaga called off a sold out show in Jakarta, meant to be her biggest stop in Asia, after religious protesters threatened violence. The public uproar also resulted in Indonesian police refusing to issue permits for the star to perform.

Outside Southeast Asia, Hong Kong, often seen as a rival to Singapore, has also been debating why it might have lost out.

One event planner in the city told CNN that most venues were often “too small” and “difficult to secure.”

“Many big stars tend to skip Hong Kong. Venues can only hold about 20,000 people, which is too few for Taylor Swift and her Eras Tour, which will be a big production. Black Pink [in comparison] was a lot easier, and cheaper, to stage,” the person said, referring to the K-pop group.

Singapore, with a population of just six million has been “strategic and aggressive” when it comes to business and promoting itself, experts told CNN, in a quest spearheaded by the government that has been years in the making.

“Singapore isn’t the cheapest place to do business but it has many other things going for it: well connected with efficient infrastructure already in place, public safety… all great incentives for event organizers who don’t want risks,” said economist Song Seng Wun.

“Swift is an extremely talented and savvy businesswoman. Every decision she makes about her tour would be strategic,” added Song, who lives in the city state.

In a statement to CNN, Kallang Alive Sport Management, a corporate entity established by Singapore’s Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth and Sport, celebrated its big win.

A spokesperson said the group “led discussions” around the concerts and took their planning to the finish line.

“Live performances draw larger crowds, and we responded by working with promoters to bring in more large-scale multiple-day concerts for our audiences. Today we are seeing significantly higher numbers of high quality concerts… with leading artistes choosing to perform in Singapore,” the spokesperson said.

“Many of these concerts sell out within hours of tickets going on sale and this … signals to the world that Singapore is the leading destination in Asia for live events.”

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July 14, 2023
Lisa Marie Presley died of complications from prior weight-loss surgery, autopsy report shows | CNN

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CNN
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A report by the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner states Lisa Marie Presley’s death in January was caused by a “sequelae of a small bowel obstruction.”

A small bowel obstruction is a blockage in the small intestine, often because of things like scar tissue, a hernia or cancer. Without surgery, it can cause bowel tissue to die or perforate, leading to death.

Presley’s autopsy report, obtained by CNN on Thursday, included the official opinion of deputy medical examiner Dr. Juan M. Carrillo, who attributed her small bowel obstruction to “adhesions (or, scar tissue) that developed after bariatric surgery years ago. This is a known long term complication of this type of surgery.”

Carrillo also stated that he reviewed the autopsy toxicology results, which showed “therapeutic” levels of oxycodone in Presley’s blood – i.e., levels that are in the range of medically helpful, and not dangerous. He added that quetapine metabolite (used to treat depression, schizophrenia or manic episodes) and buprenorphine (a painkiller that can also be used to treat opioid addiction) were present but “not contributory to death.”

“There is no evidence of injury or foul play. The manner of death is deemed natural,” Carrillo concluded.

Dr. Michael Camilleri, a consultant and professor in the Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology at the Mayo Clinic, told CNN on Thursday that the medications found in Presley’s may “have slowed down the motility of the intestine and would have made it perhaps more likely” for it to get “obstructed by the adhesions.”

“Unfortunately, adhesions can happen to anybody,” he added. “And just because there were these other medications on board doesn’t necessarily mean that the person was more prone to develop the complications.”

Lisa Marie Presley, the only daughter of the late Elvis Presley and Priscilla Presley, died hours after being hospitalized following an apparent cardiac arrest on January 12. The medical examiner’s report also detailed that she was complaining of abdominal pain on the morning of her death.

Dr. Folasade P. May, associate professor of medicine at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and director of the Melvin and Bren Simon Gastroenterology Quality Improvement Program, told CNN Thursday that she suspects Presley “developed a cardiac arrest because she had a severe complication from the small bowel obstruction.” Neither doctor interviewed by CNN for this report was directly involved in Presley’s case.

She was 54.

Video shows Lisa Marie Presley on the Golden Globes red carpet

“Priscilla Presley and the Presley family are shocked and devastated by the tragic death of their beloved Lisa Marie,” the family said in a statement at the time. “They are profoundly grateful for the support, love and prayers of everyone, and ask for privacy during this very difficult time.”

Lisa Marie Presley’s last public appearance just days before her death was at the Golden Globe Awards, which she attended with her mother to support the Baz Luhrmann film “Elvis,” about her late father.

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July 13, 2023
Fran Drescher responds to criticism about her Italy trip and pic with Kim Kardashian days before SAG strike | CNN

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CNN
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Fran Drescher, the president of the SAG-AFTRA union, responded to criticism on Thursday for traveling to Italy to attend Dolce & Gabbana’s Alta Moda festivities this past weekend as her 160,000-member actors’ union faced a deadline to go on strike.

At a press conference that day – during which Drescher officially announced that the union will go on strike after talks with the Hollywood’s major studios and streamers failed – she was asked about the “optics” of being seen taking a “selfie” with Kim Kardashian at the event in Italy.

“That wasn’t a selfie,” Drescher said, later adding “I’m a brand ambassador for a fashion company and so is Kim. I had only met Kim seconds before that publicity picture was taken.”

She added that “it had nothing to do with being at a party having fun – it was absolute work.”

The “Nanny” star said she left the event at 10:30 at night to go to her hotel room and meet with union negotiators on Zoom, adding that she “worked around the clock in three different time zones.”

“And if I couldn’t get through to them because I was on a plane, I was texting with them constantly throughout the plane ride,” Drescher said, adding that she had also traveled to Florida to care for her parents – and worked while there, too.

The photo of Drescher with Kardashian prompted criticism from a number of SAG-AFTRA members, as well as members of the Writer Guild of America, which is already on strike against the studios and streaming services.

Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, co-chair of SAG-AFTRA, chimed in to defend Drescher on Thursday, saying “Fran was working, which is what our members do,” and that “she was zooming in to our negotiations after work hours, working 18 hours or more a day.”

SAG-AFTRA’s talks with the Alliance of Motion Pictures and Television Producers (AMPTP), the entity representing the studios and streamers, focused on pay scales and benefits, progress on residuals paid for when films or shows are shown again, particularly on streaming services, as well as protections on the use of artificial intelligence to create characters using actors’ voices or likenesses.

At Thursday’s news conference, Drescher said the union would not accept changes to their contract that do not match up with the changes happening in the industry.

“We’re not going to keep doing incremental changes on a contract that no longer honors what is happening right now with this business model that was foisted upon us,” she said, going on to ask, “What are we doing? Moving around furniture on the Titanic? It’s crazy.”

The SAG-AFTRA strike is set to go into effect at midnight PT Thursday night.

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July 13, 2023
Liam Payne says he’s 6 months sober following rehab stay: ‘I was in bad shape’ | CNN

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CNN
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Liam Payne is opening up about his sobriety journey as he reaches a new milestone.

The One Direction alum posted a video to his YouTube page on Saturday and shared that he is now 6 months sober after spending 100 days in a rehabilitation facility.

“I just needed to take a little bit of time out for myself actually because I kind of became somebody who I didn’t really recognize anymore,” Payne said in his video, adding “And I’m sure you guys didn’t either.”

He continued, “I was in bad shape up until that point and I was really happy more than anything after I arrived to kind of put a stopper to life and work.” Payne acknowledged that one of the scariest aspects of his experience was reconnecting with the “outside world” and turning his phone back on when he left.

“Ever since then, I’ve just been trying to learn to get to know this new guy,” he said.

In the video, Payne also apologized for comments he made in a 2022 episode of Logan Paul’s “Impaulsive” podcast.

“A lot of what I said just came from the wrong place,” he said.

During his appearance on the podcast, Payne commented on his complicated relationship with Zayn Malik, who had left One Direction in 2015 to pursue a solo career, saying, “There’s many reasons why I dislike Zayn and there’s many reasons why I’ll always, always be on his side.”

Payne added that his former One Direction bandmates – Harry Styles, Niall Horan, Malik and Louis Tomlinson – have all stood by him.

He thanked his former partner Cheryl Cole, with whom he shares a 6-year-old son named Bear, for giving him the “freedom” and support to get well.

Part of his motivation in getting help was to be a better dad to Bear, Payne said.

“There’s no point in being a dad when you’ve got nothing to teach,” he posited.

And while Payne proclaimed that as far as drinking goes, “the party’s over,” he has another reason to celebrate. The singer confirmed he’s heading back on the road, and begins a South American tour in September.

“I just kind of feel like I’ve got more of a grip on life now,” Payne said.

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July 10, 2023
Biden meets King Charles III for the first time since coronation | CNN Politics

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London
CNN
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President Joe Biden and King Charles III on Monday met for the first time since the British monarch ascended to the throne, with the US president visiting Windsor Castle for all the pomp and circumstance that comes with a royal meeting.

Biden arrived to inspect an honor guard formed of the Prince of Wales Company of the Welsh Guards – with hundreds of uniformed troops, and its military band – positioned on the grassy quadrangle before a tent. The band played “God Save the King” upon the monarch’s arrival and “The Star-Spangled Banner” upon Biden’s entrance.

The moment marked Biden’s second trip to Windsor Castle since taking office – the president met the King’s mother, Queen Elizabeth II, at her home just outside London in June 2021. The Queen met 12 US presidents spanning her reign, all but President Lyndon Johnson. The president said at the time the Queen wanted to know about Russian President Vladimir Putin, whom Biden was meeting in Switzerland days after their visit, and Chinese President Xi Jinping. Biden said he wished he could have spoken to the Queen for longer. “She was very generous,” he told reporters.

This latest meeting with Charles was a closely watched moment for how the King balances his traditionally apolitical role with a cause he is passionate about that has become a signature priority. Biden has called climate change “the existential threat to human existence as we know it.”

Biden, Sullivan told reporters, “has huge respect for the king’s commitment on the climate issue in particular. He has been a clarion voice on this issue and more than that, has been an actor – someone who’s mobilized action and effort. And so the president comes at this with enormous goodwill at this relationship,” Sullivan said, calling Monday’s engagement an opportunity to “deepen the personal bond” and “harness their shared interest in trying to drive climate progress and climate action.”

Biden, King Charles and special envoy for climate John Kerry met with private sector company leaders at a climate event. The group discussed barriers to private investment, and Biden was expected to encourage those in attendance to “step up to their responsibilities,” while also highlighting public investment, Sullivan said.

In keeping with US tradition, Biden did not travel to London for the coronation, but first lady Dr. Jill Biden and granddaughter Finnegan Biden attended the ceremony. Both the president and first lady did make the trip across the Atlantic for the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II last year.

Earlier on Monday, Biden kicked off the first full day of his trip abroad with a London visit aimed at bolstering the US-UK “special relationship” on the eve of a high-stakes summit with NATO leaders.

Biden arrived at 10 Downing Street and was greeted by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak ahead of discussions on a range of issues, including Ukraine, a topic on which the two leaders have closely coordinated. Biden recounted all of the places he’s met with Sunak – from San Diego, California, to Belfast, Northern Ireland, to Hiroshima, Japan, to Washington, DC – six times in the six months since the prime minister took office.

“Couldn’t be meeting with a closer friend or greater ally. Got a lot to talk about,” Biden said, adding, “Our relationship is rock solid. … And I look forward to our discussions.”

Sunak welcomed Biden back to 10 Downing Street, which he was visiting for the first time as president, saying he is “very privileged and fortunate to have you here.”

He said they would be strengthening cooperation on joint economic security, as well as discussing the NATO alliance.

“We head from here to NATO in Vilnius, where we stand as two of the firmest allies in that alliance and I know we want to do everything we can to strengthen Euro-Atlantic security. Great pleasure to have you here,” Sunak said.

Their meeting came after the US announced Friday that it will be sending cluster munitions to Ukraine for the first time, a rare topic on which the US and United Kingdom publicly disagree. The UK, Sunak told reporters Saturday, is “signatory to a convention which prohibits the production or use of cluster munitions and discourages their use.”

Sunak continued, “We will continue to do our part to support Ukraine against Russia’s illegal and unprovoked invasion, but we’ve done that by providing heavy battle tanks and most recently long-range weapons, and hopefully all countries can continue to support Ukraine.”

National security adviser Jake Sullivan downplayed any concern that Biden’s decision to send cluster munitions would present any “fracture” with allied countries that oppose the use of such equipment, suggesting that Sunak was stating a “legal position” as he highlighted broader US-UK unity.

“The prime minister stated the UK’s legal position, that they are a signatory to the Oslo Convention. The United States is not. That being a signatory means discouraging the use of these weapons. He fulfilled his legal obligation, but I think you will find Prime Minister Sunak and President Biden on the same page strategically on Ukraine, in lockstep on the bigger picture of what we’re trying to accomplish and as united as ever, both in this conflict and writ large,” Sullivan told reporters aboard Air Force One Sunday.

Sullivan noted that the US has not received any negative feedback from NATO allies regarding the decision.

“That will be repeated, in my view, with all the leaders of the alliance. I do not think you will see fracture, division, or disunity… as a result of this decision. Even though many allies – the signatories to Oslo – are in a position where they themselves cannot say, ‘We are for cluster munitions.’ But we have heard nothing from people saying this cast doubt on our commitment, this cast doubt on coalition unity, or this cast doubt on our belief that the United States is playing a vital and positive role as leader of this coalition in Ukraine,” he said.

A Defense Department release on the US’ latest equipment drawdown also said that the decision was made following “extensive consultations with Congress and our Allies and partners.”

In a readout following the meeting, the White House said Biden and Sunak “reviewed preparations for the upcoming NATO Summit in Vilnius.”

“They reaffirmed their steadfast support for Ukraine in the face of Russia’s ongoing aggression,” the White House said, adding the two leaders also discussed last month’s newly announced economic partnership and developments in Northern Ireland, including “efforts to ensure continued progress there.”

Later Monday, the president departs London for Vilnius, Lithuania, where NATO leaders will gather for critical meetings amid the war in Ukraine and last month’s failed coup attempt in Russia, posing the biggest threat to global stability for the alliance in recent history.

Following the NATO Summit, Biden travels to Helsinki, Finland, where he will offer a notable show of support to Nordic countries during a summit with the leaders of Finland, Sweden, Norway, Iceland and Denmark.

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July 10, 2023
Queen Latifah Says Female Leaders Must Do These Four Things If They Want To Succeed | Entrepreneur

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Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

The good news is that, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, women-owned employer firms account for more than a third of all U.S. employer-owned firms and revenues at these women-owned businesses have grown almost 52% between 2012 and 2019 compared to a 34% rise in firms owned by men.

The bad news? Females are still struggling to get investment dollars. According to a recent study conducted by the research site Pitchbook, U.S. startups with all-women teams received 1.9% (or around $4.5 billion) out of around the $238.3 billion in venture capital allocated in 2022.

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Gene Marks

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July 5, 2023
Stanley Tucci says he thinks straight actors should be able to play gay characters | CNN

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CNN
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Stanley Tucci weighed in on the debate about straight actors portraying gay characters in a new interview with BBC Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs on Saturday.

Tucci, who is married to actress Felicity Blunt, said he believes that as an actor, “you’re supposed to play different people.”

“You just are. That’s the whole point of it,” he told the program.

Tucci has portrayed gay characters in 2006’s “The Devil Wears Prada” and in the 2020 film “Supernova” alongside Oscar-winner Colin Firth. He went on to say, “Obviously, I believe that’s fine.”

“I am always very flattered when gay men come up to me and talk to me about ‘The Devil Wears Prada’ or they talk about ‘Supernova,’ and they say that, ‘It was just so beautiful,’ you know, ‘You did it the right way,’” he said. “Because often, it’s not done the right way.”

For decades, Hollywood has cast actors in heterosexual relationships for gay roles.

Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal played lovers in “Brokeback Mountain,” and Cate Blanchett fell in love with a shopgirl in “Carol.” Benedict Cumberbatch recently played a sexually repressed cowboy in Netflix’s 2021 Oscar contender “The Power of the Dog,” and previously played Alan Turing in “The Imitation Game.”

While Ledger, Gyllenhaal, Blanchett and Cumberbatch were all nominated for Academy Awards for their performances, former late night host James Corden, who is married to a woman, was criticized for his performance as a flamboyant faded Broadway star in “The Prom,” with critics calling his performance “insulting” and “offensively miscast.”

Minority actors have long spoken out about their struggles to get cast in Hollywood, even as producers say they can’t find the right actors for projects.

Conversations around inclusivity in casting transgender actors in transgender roles have also become pertinent, and casting cisgender actors for those roles has recently fallen out of popular practice.

CNN previously reported that LGBTQ media advocacy organization GLAAD says casting this way “perpetuates this belief that trans people aren’t real.”

Straight actors playing gay roles, however, isn’t considered to be as “brave” in recent years as it’s been in the past, according to critic Guy Lodge, who told The Guardian in a 2021 interview: “The idea of being ‘brave’ for playing gay is going away.”

“I think that in itself is seen as fairly unremarkable now,” he added.

For the most part, Tucci and Firth received positive reviews for their performances in “Supernova,” where they played a longtime couple grappling with the dire challenge of early-onset dementia.

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July 2, 2023
Ringo Starr says The Beatles would ‘never’ fake John Lennon’s vocals with AI on new song | CNN

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Ringo Starr is doubling down about the authenticity of the vocals on the highly anticipated new Beatles song recently teased by former bandmate Paul McCartney.

Starr spoke with Rolling Stone for an upcoming podcast, in which he ensured that they would “never” fake the late John Lennon’s vocals for the new track, which instead uses AI to clean up previously recorded snippets.

The song will also feature the voice of the late George Harrison, Starr confirmed.

Paul McCartney says a ‘final’ Beatles song is coming

“This was beautiful,” he said, noting, “it’s the final track you’ll ever hear with the four lads. And that’s a fact.”

McCartney attempted to clarify last month how artificial intelligence is being used on what he said will be the “final” Beatles song.

“We’ve seen some confusion and speculation about it,” he wrote in a note posted on his verified Instagram story at the time. “Seems to be a lot of guess work out there.”

“Can’t say too much at this stage but to be clear, nothing has been artificially or synthetically created. It’s all real and we all play on it,” he added. “We cleaned up some existing recordings – a process which has gone on for years.”

In a June 13 interview with BBC Radio 4’s “Today” program, the legendary musician, 81, said that AI technology was being used to release a “new” track featuring all four Beatles, including fellow band members Lennon and Harrison, who died in 1980 and 2001, respectively.

“When we came to make what will be the last Beatles record – it was a demo that John had that we worked on and we just finished it up, it will be released this year – and we were able to take John’s voice and get it pure through this AI,” McCartney said. “So then we were able to mix the record as you would normally do.”

Starr, meanwhile, is about to celebrate his 83rd birthday on July 7.

The music icon, who just finished a spring tour with his All-Starr Band, told Rolling Stone that he’s feeling great. “You never know when you’re gonna drop, that’s the thing,” he added. “And I’m not dropping yet.”

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July 1, 2023
The Most Iconic Red Hair Moments of All Time

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Tasha Nicole Smith is ELLE Magazine’s beauty assistant. She loves all things hair, makeup, and skincare so you’ll find her talking about it here. She enjoys Marvel movies, a good pair of heels, and lemon drop martinis and also shares a birthday with Beyoncé, which is her go to fun fact.

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June 30, 2023
Prince William believes you can have zero homelessness and he’s using Finland as a case study | CNN

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London
CNN
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Prince William believes you can have zero homelessness and he’s using Finland as a case study.

The Prince of Wales is launching a five-year, locally led plan in six flagship locations around the UK that will demonstrate it is possible to end homelessness, Kensington Palace announced on Monday.

The program, “Homewards,” will bring together “an unprecedented network of organisations and individuals,” tapping into their collective expertise to “create and deliver a tailored plan to prevent homelessness in their areas,” the palace said.

It will provide up to £500,000 ($637,000) of flexible seed funding in each of the six locations – which will be announced later this week – to support projects, and findings from the program will be used to create a model that can be used elsewhere across the UK and internationally.

“In a modern and progressive society, everyone should have a safe and secure home, be treated with dignity and given the support they need,” the Prince of Wales said in a statement Monday, marking the launch of his first big initiative as heir to the throne.

“Through Homewards, I want to make this a reality and over the next five years, give people across the UK hope that homelessness can be prevented when we collaborate.”

The project draws inspiration from Finland’s “Housing First” policy which unconditionally offers rental homes with contracts to people experiencing homelessness, as well as support if needed and wanted.

Finland’s successful homelessness policy “has been the leading example for a number of years,” Matt Downie, CEO of homeless charity Crisis told reporters. Its collaborative approach and “the whole of society committing for the long term” is key to its success, added a spokesperson for the Royal Foundation, the charity established by the Prince and Princess of Wales.

Similarly, William said in an interview with British newspaper The Sunday Times last week that he hopes to bring “all the wonderful people and pieces together of the puzzle.”

“And from that, we can then get other councils in other parts of the country to copy,” he added. “It’s about that momentum. So you go, ‘Right, we can fix this and we will fix this.’”

William was careful to stress that he wasn’t trying to interfere with government policy, saying that his plan “is an additive to what is already being done.”

His initiative will also focus on reframing the issue and improving understanding among the general public.

More than 300,000 people in the UK are affected by homelessness, research from the Royal Foundation found, though the number is likely to be larger given the number of people sofa surfing, living in cars, or staying in hostels or other types of temporary accommodation.

Over the next two days, William will travel to each of the six locations to formally kickstart the program.

William has long used his platform to spotlight homelessness, ever since his mother, Princess Diana, first took him to homeless shelters as a child.

“I was 11 when I first visited a homeless shelter with my mother, who in her own inimitable style was determined to shine a light on an overlooked, misunderstood problem,” he wrote in a piece last year published in The Big Issue, a magazine which offers employment opportunities to people in poverty.

He took up Princess Diana’s patronage of the homelessness charity Centrepoint in 2005, spent a night sleeping rough in temperatures that reached -4 degrees Celsius (24.8 degrees Fahrenheit) four years later, and spent two days volunteering with Centrepoint, helping young people directly with its accommodation services.

Last year, William attempted to go undercover on the streets of London and sell The Big Issue to “experience the other side and see what it was like to be a Big Issue vendor,” he wrote in the magazine afterwards.

Sign up for CNN’s Royal News, a weekly dispatch bringing you the inside track on the royal family, what they are up to in public and what’s happening behind palace walls.

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June 25, 2023
Emilia Clarke says she almost ran Samuel L. Jackson over on the ‘Secret Invasion’ set | CNN

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CNN
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Emilia Clarke was thrilled to join the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but a near accident involving Samuel L. Jackson almost sent her reeling.

“I nearly ran him over,” the “Game of Thrones” star revealed to Yahoo Entertainment in a video interview published on Friday, in reference to a mishap on the set of the new MCU series “Secret Invasion.”

Clarke described how she was instructed to drive a Lada – which she explained “is like a very old Russian car” – for a scene in the sci-fi thriller show, in which she was supposed to drive right up to the camera, and Jackson, and stop short.

The transmission and the shifter were confusing, though, as the Lada had something like six knobs and 10 pedals, akin to “a tractor,” Clarke explained.

Production was running behind, however, and there was pressure to get the shot, so Clarke went for it.

“I pressed the wrong thing, I pressed the accelerator rather than the brake,” she said.

The actor was able to correct her error in the nick of time though, thereby avoiding certain disaster and a collision with Jackson – a.k.a. Nick Fury.

As for how Jackson handled the moment, Clarke said, “He was very gentlemanly and lovely and nice.”

But, Clarke continued to say, “Then I cried a little bit and someone else drove it for me.”

“Secret Invasion,” also starring Cobie Smulders, Ben Mendelsohn and Oscar winner Olivia Colman, follows a covert infiltration of alien race Skrulls – first introduced in 2019’s “Captain Marvel” – on planet Earth.

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June 24, 2023
Kourtney Kardashian says she’s ‘overwhelmed with gratitude’ following epic pregnancy announcement | CNN

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CNN
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Kourtney Kardashian and Blink 182 drummer Travis Barker have a lot to be grateful for.

The reality star and Poosh founder revealed she was pregnant in a video on Instagram Saturday in which she’s seen in the audience at a Blink 182 concert holding a sign that read, “Travis I’m pregnant.”

Kardashian posted more behind-the-scenes photos from the concert on Sunday, showcasing her growing baby bump.

“Overwhelmed with gratitude and joy for God’s blessing and plan,” she captioned the post, which features a photo of Barker playfully holding his drumsticks over Kardashian’s belly.

Kardashian and Barker got engaged in October 2021 and wed last year in multiple ceremonies.

Following a not-technically-legal walk down the aisle in Las Vegas after the Grammy Awards in April 2022, the pair exchanged vows at the Santa Barbara Courthouse in May and wrapped up the wedding festivities with a lavish Italian ceremony at Dolce & Gabbana designers Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana’s private villa.

This will be Kardashian and Barker’s first child together, but they each have children from previous relationships.

Kardashian shares three children – Mason, Penelope and Reign – with her former longtime partner Scott Disick. Barker is father to Landon, daughter Alabama and stepdaughter Atiana, whom he shares with ex-wife Shanna Moakler.

The two have shared a bit about their fertility journey on Hulu’s reality series, “The Kardashians.”

Kardashian told The Wall Street Journal in September 2022 she had paused in vitro fertilization treatments leading up to getting married because it was “a lot” and she wanted to focus on planning her wedding ceremony.

On Sunday, Barker added to the chorus in the joyous comment section of Kardashian’s post with his own message of gratitude, saying, “God is great.”

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June 18, 2023