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  • Sophia Loren Fast Facts | CNN

    Sophia Loren Fast Facts | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    Here’s a look at the life of award-winning screen legend Sophia Loren.

    Birth date: September 20, 1934

    Birth place: Rome, Italy (grew up in Pozzuoli, outside of Naples)

    Birth name: Sofia Villani Scicolone

    Father: Riccardo Scicolone

    Mother: Romilda Villani

    Marriages: Carlo Ponti (April 9, 1966-January 10, 2007, his death; September 17, 1957-September 3, 1962, annulled)

    Children: Edoardo, Carlo Jr.

    At six, her chin was cut by shrapnel during a bombing in World War II.

    Other screen names used before becoming Sophia Loren were Sofia Lazzaro and Sofia Scicolone.

    Nominated for two Academy Awards and won one. She also received an honorary award.

    Nominated for eight Golden Globes and won five. She also received the honorary Cecil B. DeMille Award.

    Nominated for one Grammy Award and won.

    An accomplished cook, she has written three cookbooks.

    1949 – Enters the Queen of the Sea beauty contest and comes in second, winning a train ticket to Rome, where she begins modeling and acting in B-movies.

    Early 1950s – Is the runner-up in a nightclub beauty contest for Miss Rome. Movie producer Carlo Ponti is one of the judges.

    1951 – Makes her US film debut as an uncredited extra, with no lines, in the film “Quo Vadis?”

    Early 1950s – Adopts the last name Loren.

    October 23, 1953 – “Aida” opens; it’s her first major leading role.

    1957 – Loren appears in her first English-speaking leading role, “The Pride and the Passion.” She learns her lines by using cue cards of English words written phonetically.

    1962 – Wins the Best Actress Academy Award for “La ciociara (Two Women).”

    September 3, 1962 – Her marriage of almost five years to Carlo Ponti is annulled. Neither the Vatican nor Italian law recognizes Ponti’s 1957 divorce by proxy from Giuliana Ponti. Loren and Ponti are forced to annul their marriage after warrants for their arrest are issued.

    1964 – Stars in the movie, “Matrimonio all’italiana (Marriage Italian Style).” Nominated for an Academy Award.

    1964-1965 – Moves to France with Carlo Ponti and becomes a French citizen.

    1965 – Giuliana Ponti obtains a French divorce recognized by Italian law.

    April 9, 1966 – Loren and Carlo Ponti marry for the second time.

    July 24, 1968 – Loren and Ponti cleared of bigamy charges by Rome’s criminal court.

    January 23, 1979 – Loren is tried (in absentia), and acquitted, of complicity with Ponti in income tax evasion, misuse of government subsidies, and illegal export of Italian funds and artwork. Carlo Ponti is convicted and sentenced to four years in prison (two years were pardoned) and fined 22 billion lire ($24 million). All charges against him were cleared in 1987.

    1980 – Portrays both herself and her mother in the made-for-TV movie “Sophia Loren: Her Own Story,” based on her 1979 autobiography, “Sophia: Living and Loving, Her Own Story,” written with A. E. Hotchner.

    May 20, 1982 – Loren begins her 30-day jail term for tax evasion, for unpaid supplementary taxes for 1963-1964.

    June 5, 1982 – Serves 17 days of her 30-day jail term.

    1991 – Receives Honorary Academy Award for Lifetime Achievement.

    2003 – Winner, Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album for Children (along with Bill Clinton and Mikhail Gorbachev) for reading Prokofiev’s “Peter and The Wolf.”

    2009 – Appears in the movie “Nine,” her first role in five years.

    November 2014 – Loren’s memoir, “Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow: My Life,” is published.

    November 13, 2020 – “The Life Ahead” premieres on Netflix. The film stars Loren and is directed by her son, Edoardo Ponti.

    April 2021 – Loren opens Sophia Loren Original Italian Food, a restaurant and pizzeria, in Florence, Italy.

    September 24, 2023 – Is taken to hospital for surgery after falling in her home and suffering several fractures to her hip and thighbone.

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  • Screen Actors Guild Fast Facts | CNN

    Screen Actors Guild Fast Facts | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    Here’s a look at the Screen Actors Guild. In 2012, a merger was completed between the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA). The SAG-AFTRA labor union has more than 160,000 members.

    June 30, 1933 – Articles of incorporation are filed. The guild is formed to get better working conditions for actors.

    1935 – Granted an American Federation of Labor charter.

    May 1937 – In order to prevent a strike, producers sign a contract with the guild ensuring minimum pay and recognizing the guild.

    1943 – Actress Olivia de Havilland sues Warner Brothers studio for extending her contract. She later wins her case.

    1945 – The US Supreme Court hands down the “de Havilland decision,” which declares that studios may no longer hold contract players for more than seven years. This breaks up the system of the studio maintaining control over an actor’s career.

    1952 – The Guild signs its first contracts for filmed television programs.

    December 1, 1952-February 18, 1953 – The first SAG strike is over filmed television commercials. The strike ends with a contract that covers all work in commercials.

    August 5-15, 1955 – SAG holds its second strike. This time for increased television show residuals.

    March 7, 1960-April 18, 1960 – Third strike over residuals for feature films sold, licensed, or released to television.

    December 19, 1978-February 7, 1979 – SAG strikes for better residuals on television advertisements.

    July 21, 1980-October 23, 1980 – SAG strikes with the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA). This strike centers on the distribution of profits from pay television and video cassette production.

    March 21, 1988-April 15, 1988 – SAG and AFTRA television commercials strike. The strike is over payment for commercials appearing on cable TV.

    February 25, 1995 – The first annual Screen Actors Guild Awards show is held.

    May 1, 2000-October 30, 2000 – SAG and AFTRA strike against the advertising industry over commercial work compensation for basic cable and internet.

    July 1, 2008 – SAG’s TV/theatrical agreement expires.

    November 22, 2008 – Talks between SAG and the Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers (AMPTP) end after federal mediation fails to jumpstart a five-month stalemate.

    January 26, 2009 – SAG chief negotiator Doug Allen is fired in a bid by the union’s moderate faction to re-enter contract talks with the studios.

    April 19, 2009 – SAG leadership split 53% – 47% to accept a new two-year contract with AMPTP.

    June 9, 2009 – Members ratify the two-year contract covering television and motion pictures.

    January 29, 2012 – Ken Howard, president of the guild, announces during the SAG Awards, that the merger between SAG and AFTRA has been approved by both groups.

    March 30, 2012 – The merger of SAG and AFTRA is completed with more than 80% approval from both unions. The one union is named SAG-AFTRA.

    January 27, 2013 – The first SAG Awards are held under the union banner “SAG-AFTRA One Union.”

    March 23, 2016 – SAG-AFTRA President Ken Howard dies. Executive Vice President Gabrielle Carteris assumes his duties until the regularly scheduled national board meeting April 9.

    April 9, 2016 – Carteris is elected president. She will serve the balance of Howard’s unexpired term, which ends in 2017.

    August 24, 2017 – Carteris is elected to a two-year term as president.

    February 10, 2018 – SAG-AFTRA introduces new guidelines for members, called “Four Pillars of Change,” aimed at fighting sexual harassment in the workplace.

    September 2, 2021 – Actress Fran Drescher is elected to a two-year term as president.

    July 14, 2023 – SAG-AFTRA goes on strike after talks with major studios and streaming services have failed. It is the first time its members have stopped work since 1980. On November 8, SAG-AFTRA and the studios reach a tentative agreement, officially ending the strike.

    Ralph Morgan 1933, 1938-1940
    Eddie Cantor 1933-1935
    Robert Montgomery 1935-1938, 1946-1947
    Edward Arnold 1940-1942
    James Cagney 1942-1944
    George Murphy 1944-1946
    Ronald Reagan 1947-1952, 1959-1960
    Walter Pidgeon 1952-1957
    Leon Ames 1957-1958
    Howard Keel 1958-1959
    George Chandler 1960-963
    Dana Andrews 1963-1965
    Charlton Heston 1965-1971
    John Gavin 1971-1973
    Dennis Weaver 1973-1975
    Kathleen Nolan 1975-1979
    William Schallert 1979-1981
    Ed Asner 1981-1985
    Patty Duke 1985-1988
    Barry Gordon 1988-1995
    Richard Masur 1995-1999
    William Daniels 1999-2001
    Melissa Gilbert 2001-2005
    Alan Rosenberg 2005-2009
    Ken Howard 2009-2016
    Gabrielle Carteris-2016-2021
    Fran Drescher 2021-present

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  • John F. Kennedy Assassination Fast Facts | CNN

    John F. Kennedy Assassination Fast Facts | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    Here’s some background information about the assassination of President John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963.

    November 22, 1963
    – 11:37 a.m. – Air Force One arrives at Dallas’ Love Field with the President and his wife, Jacqueline Kennedy, Texas Governor John B. Connally Jr. and his wife, Idanell Connally. Vice President Lyndon Johnson and his wife, Lady Bird Johnson, arrive in a separate plane. It is a campaign trip for the coming 1964 election, although not officially designated as such.

    During a 10-mile tour of Dallas, the President and Mrs. Kennedy and the governor and Mrs. Connally ride in an open convertible limousine. The motorcade is on the way to the Trade Mart where the President is to speak at a sold-out luncheon.

    – 12:30 p.m. – As the President’s limousine passes the Texas School Book Depository, shots are fired from a sixth-floor window.

    President Kennedy and Governor Connally are both wounded and are rushed to Parkland Hospital.

    Wire services report three shots were fired as the motorcade passed under Stemmons Freeway. Two bullets hit the President and one hit the Governor.

    Emergency efforts by Drs. Malcolm Perry, Kemp Clark and others are unsuccessful at reviving the president. Governor Connally’s injuries are critical but not fatal. From one bullet, he sustains three broken ribs, a punctured lung and a broken wrist. The bullet finally lodged in his left thigh.

    – 12:36 p.m. – The ABC radio network broadcasts the first nationwide news bulletin reporting that shots have been fired at the Kennedy motorcade.

    – 12:40 p.m. – The CBS television network broadcasts the first nationwide TV news bulletin also reporting on the shooting.

    – 1:00 p.m. – Kennedy is pronounced dead by Parkland Hospital doctors, becoming the fourth US president killed in office.

    – 1:07 p.m. – News of the shooting causes the New York Stock Exchange to halt trading after an $11 million flood of sell orders.

    – 1:15 p.m. – Lee Harvey Oswald kills Dallas Police Patrolman J.D. Tippit approximately 45 minutes after the assassination.

    – 2:00 p.m. – A bronze casket carrying the President’s body, accompanied by Mrs. Kennedy and the Johnsons, leaves Parkland Hospital for Air Force One.

    – 2:15 p.m. – Oswald, a 24-year-old ex-Marine, is arrested in the back of a movie theater where he fled after shooting Tippit.

    – 2:39 p.m. – Johnson is sworn in on the runway of Love Field aboard Air Force One. Federal Judge Sarah T. Hughes, of the Northern District of Texas, administers the oath of office. Witnesses include Jacqueline Kennedy and Johnson’s wife.

    – 5:00 p.m. (6:00 p.m. ET) – Air Force One arrives at Andrews Air Force Base, Maryland. The coffin bearing the President’s body is taken by ambulance to Bethesda Naval Hospital for an autopsy. The flag-draped coffin is taken to the East Room of the White House early the next morning following the autopsy.

    – 7:15 p.m. – Oswald is arraigned for the murder of Tippit.

    November 22-25, 1963 – Major television and radio networks devote continuous news coverage to ongoing events associated with the President’s assassination, canceling all entertainment and all commercials. Many theaters, stores and businesses, including the stock exchanges and government offices, are closed through November 25.

    November 23, 1963 – Oswald is arraigned for the murder of the president.

    November 23, 1963 – Johnson designates November 25 as a day of national mourning.

    November 24, 1963 – As Oswald is being transferred from the Dallas city jail to the county jail, nightclub owner Jack Ruby shoots and kills him. The shooting is inadvertently shown live on TV. Ruby is immediately arrested.

    November 24-25, 1963 – Kennedy’s flag-draped casket lies in state in the Capitol Rotunda.

    November 25, 1963 – Kennedy is buried at Arlington National Cemetery with full military honors and representatives from more than 90 countries in attendance.

    November 26, 1963 – Ruby is indicted in Dallas for the murder of Oswald. He is later convicted, has the conviction overturned on appeal, and dies of cancer in 1967 awaiting a new trial.

    November 29, 1963 – Johnson appoints the President’s Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy. Commonly called the Warren Commission, its purpose is to investigate the assassination.

    September 24, 1964 – The Warren Report is released with the following conclusions: “The shots which killed President Kennedy and wounded Governor Connally were fired from the sixth-floor window at the southeast corner of the Texas School Book Depository.” And: “The shots which killed President Kennedy and wounded Governor Connally were fired by Lee Harvey Oswald.”

    October 26,1992 – President George H.W. Bush signs the President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act into law. The law directs the National Archives to establish a collection of records consisting of any materials, by any state or federal agency, that were created during the federal inquiry into the assassination.

    October 26, 2017 – The US government releases more than 2,800 records relating to Kennedy’s assassination in an effort to comply with a 1992 law mandating the documents’ release. President Donald Trump keeps roughly 300 files classified out of concern for US national security, law enforcement and foreign relations. In a memo, Trump directs agencies that requested redactions to re-review their reasons for keeping the records secret within 180 days.

    April 26, 2018 – Trump extends to 2021 the deadline for the public release of files related to the assassination. More than 19,000 documents are released by the National Archives, in compliance with the records law and Trump’s 2017 order.

    October 22, 2021 – The White House announces that it will further postpone the release of more documents related to the assassination, pointing to the “significant impact” of the Covid-19 pandemic.

    December 15, 2021 – The National Archives releases almost 1,500 previously classified documents related to the assassination.

    December 15, 2022 – The National Archives releases over 13,000 previously classified documents collected as part of the government review into the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

    June 30, 2023 – The White House announces the National Archives has concluded its review of the classified documents related to the assassination of President Kennedy, with 99% of the records having been made publicly available.

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  • Barbra Streisand Fast Facts | CNN

    Barbra Streisand Fast Facts | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    Here is a look at the life of singer and actress Barbra Streisand.

    Birth date: April 24, 1942

    Birth place: Brooklyn, New York

    Birth name: Barbara Joan Streisand

    Father: Emanuel Streisand, a teacher

    Mother: Diana (Rosen) Streisand Kind

    Marriages: James Brolin (July 1, 1998-present); Elliott Gould (March 21, 1963-1971, divorced)

    Children: with Elliott Gould: Jason Emanuel Gould

    Changed her name from Barbara to Barbra.

    Her father died when she was 15 months old.

    Has suffered from severe stage fright.

    Nominated for 46 Grammy Awards and has won eight.

    Nominated for nine Primetime Emmy Awards and has won four.

    Nominated for five Academy Awards and has won two.

    Nominated for two Tony Awards, and has received a special Tony Award.

    1962 – Makes her Broadway debut in “I Can Get It For You Wholesale.”

    1962 – Signs a contract with Columbia Records.

    1963 – Her debut album, “The Barbra Streisand Album,” is released and wins her two Grammy Awards.

    1964 – The Broadway musical “Funny Girl,” in which Streisand plays Fanny Brice, debuts.

    1965 – Her television special, “My Name Is Barbra,” airs. It earns Streisand an Emmy Award and a Grammy Award for the accompanying album.

    April 14, 1969 – Wins the Academy Award for Best Actress for her role in the film “Funny Girl.”

    1970 – Receives a special Tony Award.

    1973 – The film “The Way We Were” opens.

    March 28, 1977 – Receives the Academy Award for Best Original Song, for the song “Evergreen (Love Theme From A Star Is Born)” from the movie “A Star Is Born.”

    1983 – Streisand’s directorial debut, “Yentl,” opens.

    1986 – The Streisand Foundation is established.

    1991 – “The Prince of Tides” opens, a film in which Streisand produces, directs and acts.

    1995 – Receives a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.

    2008 – Receives the Kennedy Center Honors.

    September 2014 – Streisand’s new album, “Partners,” is released and goes to the top of the Billboard 200 album chart. This makes her the first artist to have a No. 1 album in each of the past six decades.

    November 24, 2015 – Is awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama.

    February 2018 – Variety magazine releases an interview in which Streisand reveals that two of her dogs are clones of her deceased dog Samantha, who passed away in 2017.

    November 2, 2018 – Streisand’s album, “Walls,” is released. Streisand says the album embodies her feelings about Donald Trump and his presidency.

    July 7, 2019 – Streisand reunites with her “A Star Is Born” co-star Kris Kristofferson on stage at London’s Hyde Park for a sold-out crowd of 65,000 – the biggest audience she’s performed for since a Central Park performance for 150,000 in 1968, according to Variety.

    October 18, 2021 – Streisand funds The Barbra Streisand Institute at UCLA. The institute’s goal involves “solving societal challenges” and will focus on four areas the artist and activist is most passionate about.

    November 4, 2022 – “Live at the Bon Soir,” a live album originally intended to be Streisand’s 1962 debut, is released for the first time.

    November 7, 2023 – Streisand’s memoir, “My Name is Barbra,” is published.

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  • Britney Spears and Jada Pinkett Smith demonstrate the delicate dance of the celeb memoir | CNN

    Britney Spears and Jada Pinkett Smith demonstrate the delicate dance of the celeb memoir | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    Would you want to revisit your life and your past in order to share it all, both the good and the bad?

    I certainly wouldn’t, but I’m not famous nor do I have famous people problems (knock on wood). Being a celebrity is something many people dream about, but while the riches certainly make life more comfortable, what comes a long with it probably isn’t what most of us would want.

    Let’s talk about it.

    Both Britney Spears and Jada Pinkett Smith grasp the concept that drama sells.

    Before their memoirs – Spears’ book is titled “The Woman in Me” and Pinkett Smith’s is “Worthy” – were recently released, there were plenty of tabloid treats from them teased throughout the media landscape.

    The two biggest revelations from the stars’ tomes both happened to involve their celebrity relationships.

    Spears shared that she had an abortion during her time with Justin Timberlake in the early aughts, while Pinkett Smith went public with the news that she and Will Smith have been living separate lives since 2016.

    While both of these revelations sparked conversation, they also showed how there’s a delicate dance when it comes to the art of publishing a celebrity tell-all.

    On the one hand, you have to share enough to get people excited for the book. Yet at the same time you don’t want to reveal too much, because then what is the incentive to purchase said book?

    It should be said, though, that both Spears and Pinkett Smith are most probably used to a lot of attention by now.

    David Beckham and Victoria Beckham in 2004.

    Another instance of a star laying it all out there for public consumption is the “Beckham” docuseries on Netflix.

    I am far from a soccer fan, but I greatly enjoyed visiting the highs – and lows – of David Beckham’s stellar career. The series is really well done and filmmaker Fisher Stevens got both Beckham and his wife, Spice Girls member Victoria Beckham, to open up about difficult times.

    One of those tough times featured in the doc is the decades-old alleged affair between David Beckham and his former personal assistant Rebecca Loos.

    In a recent interview, Loos complained that Beckham was portraying “himself as a victim” in the series. That’s another tricky area when it comes to celebs telling their life stories – it affects others who were also there, and who are portrayed via the star’s lens and recollections.

    Taylor Swift performs during the

    At this point I am aiming to see how many newsletters in a row I can talk about Taylor Swift.

    This time it’s the fact that she’s dropping “1989 (Taylor’s Version),” Swift’s latest rerecording of her old music after losing her masters.

    Yes, much of the recent attention paid to Swift has more to do with her love life than her love of music, but if you know Swift you know that there is a direct correlation between the two.

    I don’t even have to sell it here because it’s Taylor Swift, the star of the moment, and her music. Enough said – except that the new(ish) album debuted Friday.

    Fabrice Morvan attends the

    Reader you know it’s true – Milli Vanilli was the duo to beat back in the day. Rob Pilatus and Fab Morvan had hits in the late 1980s/early 1990s and were flying high in the music industry.

    Until they weren’t.

    A new self-titled documentary traces their rise and eventual fall when the world learned they weren’t actually singing on those songs. It’s a more tender look at the pair than one might expect, given the vitriol that was spewed about the controversy at the time which resulted in their best new artist Grammy being revoked.

    The “Milli Vanilli” documentary is streaming on Paramount+.

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  • Britney Spears Fast Facts | CNN

    Britney Spears Fast Facts | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    Here is a look at the life of Britney Spears, pop singer and Grammy Award winner.

    Birth date: December 2, 1981

    Birth place: McComb, Mississippi

    Birth name: Britney Jean Spears

    Father: Jamie Spears, former building contractor and chef

    Mother: Lynne (Bridges) Spears

    Marriages: Sam Asghari (June 9, 2022 – present); Kevin Federline (September 18, 2004-July 30, 2007, divorced); Jason Alexander (January 3, 2004-January 5, 2004, annulled after 55 hours)

    Children: with Kevin Federline: Jayden James, September 2006 and Sean Preston, September 2005

    Number one hits on the Billboard Hot 100 chart include: “Baby, One More Time” in 1999, “Womanizer” in 2008, “3” in 2009 (debut), and “Hold It Against Me” in 2011 (debut).

    Six albums have reached #1 on the Billboard 200 chart: “Baby One More Time” (1999), “Oops!…. I Did It Again” (2000), “Britney” (2001), “In the Zone” (2003), “Circus” (2008), and “Femme Fatale” (2011).

    Has won one Grammy and has been nominated for eight.

    1993-1994 – Cast member on “The Mickey Mouse Club.”

    1997 – Signs a contract with Jive Records at age 15.

    January 12, 1999 – Releases her debut album “…Baby One More Time.”

    May 16, 2000 – Releases her second album “Oops!…I Did It Again.”

    2002 – Is named Hollywood’s Most Powerful Celebrity by Forbes magazine.

    November 17, 2003 – Receives a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

    February 13, 2005 – Wins a Grammy Award for Best Dance Recording for “Toxic.”

    February 16, 2007 – Shaves her head at a beauty parlor in Tarzana, California.

    October 1, 2007 – Temporarily loses physical custody of her children after failing to attend court hearings.

    January 3, 2008 – Spears is hospitalized over issues involving the custody of her children. Kevin Federline, her ex-husband, is awarded sole custody on January 4, 2008.

    February 1, 2008 – A Los Angeles court grants temporary conservatorship to Spears’ father, Jamie Spears, after Spears is taken to a hospital and deemed unable to take care of herself.

    July 18, 2008 – In a custody agreement, Spears gives Federline sole custody of the children, but retains visitation rights.

    August 2008 – Becoming Britney, a musical based on her life, debuts at the New York International Fringe Festival.

    October 28, 2008 – Jamie Spears is granted permanent conservatorship of his daughter’s affairs.

    February 3, 2009 – Sam Lutfi, Spears’ former manager, sues Spears and her parents for defamation and breach of contract in Los Angeles Superior Court. A judge dismisses the lawsuit on November 1, 2012.

    September 8, 2010 – Is accused of sexual harassment and sued by her former bodyguard, Fernando Flores. The lawsuit is settled in March 2012.

    January 11, 2011 – Her single, “Hold It Against Me,” is released and debuts at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100.

    March 30, 2011 – A $10 million lawsuit is filed by Brand Sense Partners against Spears and her father for breach of contract relating to a perfume deal between Spears and the Elizabeth Arden company. The lawsuit is settled in February 2012.

    May 15, 2012 – “The X Factor USA” announces that Spears, along with Demi Lovato, will join Simon Cowell and L.A. Reid on “The X Factor” judging panel. On January 11, 2013, Spears announces that she will not be returning as a judge.

    September 17, 2013 – Spears announces that she will do a two-year residency at Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino in Las Vegas with a show titled “Britney: Piece of Me.” The show begins its run December 27.

    September 2014 – Releases her own lingerie line, “Intimate Britney Spears.”

    November 5, 2014 – Clark County, Nevada, proclaims November 5th as “Britney Day” on the Las Vegas Strip.

    September 9, 2015 – Spears announces that she has extended her residency at Planet Hollywood Resort and Casino in Las Vegas for two more years.

    August 26, 2016 – Spears’ ninth studio album, Glory, is released.

    April 12, 2018 – Spears is honored at the GLAAD Media Awards as the recipient of the Vanguard Award, an award that goes to a performer for making a difference in promoting and supporting equality.

    January 4, 2019 – Announces that she is going on an indefinite work hiatus in order to focus on her family due to her father’s health issues.

    April 3, 2019 – Spears announces that she is taking “me time” after it is reported that she has checked into a mental health facility to cope with her father’s health issues. On April 25, Spears checks out of the mental health treatment facility after undertaking an “all-encompassing wellness treatment.”

    June 13, 2019 – Spears and her family are granted a five-year restraining order against Lutfi.

    April 29, 2020 – Spears announces that she accidentally burned down her home gym with candles.

    November 10, 2020 – Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Brenda Penny declines Spears’ application to remove her father as her conservator, but says she would consider petitions “down the road” to remove her father as the head of her estate. The move comes amid the #FreeBritney social media movement, driven by some fans who believe she is a prisoner in her own home because of the court-ordered conservatorship.

    June 23, 2021 – Spears appears remotely in court to request her court-ordered conservatorship be lifted, calling it “abusive.” During the hearing, she speaks for more than 20 minutes, saying she felt she had been forced to perform, was given no privacy and was made to use birth control, take medication and attend therapy sessions against her will.

    July 6, 2021 – Spears’ longtime manager Larry Rudolph resigns, citing the singer’s desire to retire. On the same day, Samuel D. Ingham, a court-appointed attorney who has represented Spears for the entirety of her almost 13-year conservatorship, submits a petition to resign from his position, according to a court filing obtained by CNN.

    July 14, 2021 – Judge Penny accepts Ingham’s resignation, along with the resignation of Bessemer Trust, a wealth management firm that had been appointed co-conservator of the singer’s estate. Spears is granted permission to hire her own attorney. During a hearing, Spears calls for her father to be charged with conservatorship abuse.

    August 12, 2021 – Jamie Spears signals in a legal response that he intends to step down as conservator of the singer’s estate, according to a prepared copy of the response obtained by CNN.

    September 1, 2021 – The Ventura County District Attorney’s Office says in a press release they decline to file charges against Spears. Last month Spears’ housekeeper alleged that the singer struck a cell phone out of her hand during an argument over the veterinary care of her dog.

    September 7, 2021 – Spears’ father files a petition to terminate the 13-year court-ordered conservatorship. On September 29, a Los Angeles judge suspends Jamie Spears as conservator of his daughter’s estate, and designates a temporary replacement selected by the singer and her attorney to oversee her finances. On November 12, a Los Angeles judge terminates Spears’ 13-year conservatorship.

    September 12, 2021 – Spears announces her engagement to boyfriend Sam Asghari in an Instagram post.

    January 18, 2022 – Spears’ lawyer, Mathew Rosengart, sends a legal cease-and-desist letter to the singer’s younger sister, Jamie Lynn Spears, regarding her new memoir, “Things I Should Have Said.” In Rosengart’s letter, he calls the book “ill-timed” and that it makes “misleading or outrageous claims about her.”

    January 19, 2022 – Judge Penny rules against a request from Spears’ father to set aside money from her $60 million estate in a reserve to potentially cover legal fees, which would include her father’s.

    February 21, 2022 – It is revealed that Spears has signed a contract with Simon & Schuster to write a book about her life. The deal is valued at more than $15 million.

    April 11, 2022 – Spears announces that she and Asghari are expecting a baby. The following month, the pair announce the loss of the pregnancy.

    August 26, 2022 – Spears and Elton John release “Hold Me Closer,” an EDM reimagining of John’s 1971 hit “Tiny Dancer.” The song marks Spears’ first new release since her 13-year conservatorship ended.

    August 16, 2023 – Asghari files for divorce.

    October 24, 2023 – Spears’ memoir, “The Woman In Me,” is released.

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  • The New York Times walks back flawed Gaza hospital coverage, but other media outlets remain silent | CNN Business

    The New York Times walks back flawed Gaza hospital coverage, but other media outlets remain silent | CNN Business

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    Editor’s Note: A version of this article first appeared in the “Reliable Sources” newsletter. Sign up for the daily digest chronicling the evolving media landscape here.



    CNN
     — 

    Most news organizations seem eager to sweep last week’s negligent coverage of the Gaza hospital explosion under the rug, moving on from the low moment covering the Israel-Hamas war without admitting any mistakes.

    While The New York Times and BBC — both of which faced enormous scrutiny for their coverage of the blast — have in recent days issued mea culpas, the rest of the press has remained mum, declining to explain to their audiences how they initially got an important story of such great magnitude so wrong.

    On Monday, I contacted the major news organizations that amplified Hamas’ claims, which immediately assigned blame to Israel for the blast that it said had left hundreds dead. Those organizations included CNN, the Associated Press, Reuters, Al Jazeera, and The Wall Street Journal.

    Did these outlets stand by their initial reporting? Was there any regret repeating claims from the terrorist group? Since the explosion, one week ago Tuesday, Israel and the U.S. have assessed that the rocket originated in Gaza, not Israel. Additional analysis from independent forensic experts, including those contacted by CNN, have indicated that the available evidence from the blast was inconsistent with the damage one would expect to see from an Israeli strike.

    But if there was even a morsel of contrition from news organizations that breathed considerable life into Hamas’ very different version of events, it hasn’t been shown. A spokesperson for The WSJ declined comment. Meanwhile, spokespeople for the AP and Al Jazeera ignored my inquiries.

    Reuters, which initially reported that Israel had struck the hospital, citing a “civil defense official,” stood by how it covered the unfolding story, conceding no blunders in the process. A spokesperson told me that “it is standard practice for Reuters to publish statements and claims made by sources about news in the public interest, while simultaneously working to verify and seek information from every side.”

    “We make it clear to our readers that these are ‘claims’ made by a source, rather than facts reported by Reuters,” the spokesperson for the wire service told me. “In the specific instance of the fast-breaking news about the attack on the hospital in Gaza, we added precise details and attribution to our stories as quickly as we could.”

    CNN went even further. Not only did the outlet amplify Hamas’ claims on its platforms at the outset of the story, but its initial rolling online article definitively stated — with no attribution to any party — that Israel was responsible for the lethal explosion. The story was later edited, but the error was never acknowledged in a correction or editors’ note. While it is common for news outlets to update online stories as new information becomes available, when errors are made, standard practice is to acknowledge them in formal corrections. A CNN spokesperson declined to comment specifically on the online story when reached Monday.

    In response to my larger inquiry on the network’s broader coverage, the CNN spokesperson pointed me to the forensic analysis it published over the weekend indicating the explosion was inconsistent with an Israeli strike. Like Reuters, CNN admitted no fault in its coverage of the blast.

    Which makes what the BBC and The Times have done in recent days stand out. While the rest of the press has sought to move on from the journalistic fiasco, the British broadcaster and Gray Lady have charted a different course.

    The BBC said in a statement posted online last week, “We accept that even in this fast-moving situation it was wrong to speculate in this way about the possible causes and we apologise for this, although he did not at any point report that it was an Israeli strike.”

    And The Times published a lengthy editors’ note on Monday, confessing its early coverage “relied too heavily on claims by Hamas, and did not make clear that those claims could not immediately be verified.”

    “The report left readers with an incorrect impression about what was known and how credible the account was,” The Times added.

    Bill Grueskin, a renowned professor at Columbia Journalism School, told me Monday that he believes that each outlet that gave credence to Hamas’ version of events should put out similar notes explaining to their audiences precisely how things went awry behind the scenes. (I should note that Grueskin didn’t believe that The Times’ note went far enough, questioning, among other things, why it took almost a week to issue its mea culpa.)

    “The notes should be signed; they should provide a more detailed understanding of how their newsroom managed to not just get it wrong at the first moment but why it took so long to scale back; and they should be more explicit about what they got wrong since most readers can’t be expected to recall all the details,” Grueskin said.

    Indeed, one of the crucial differences between newsrooms and less reputable, unreliable sources of information is that newsrooms issue corrections and accept fault when it occurs. When news organizations err, it is expected that they own up to their mistakes.

    Grueskin pointed out, however, that “newsrooms often find it easier to correct a misspelled middle name than a collapse in verification standards on a major, breaking-news story.”

    “It’s easier to address a simple, common mistake than one that goes to the heart of how a news organization is built to handle breaking news in a contested environment,” Grueskin added.

    That might be true. But it doesn’t mean that it should be acceptable.

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  • Tom Emmer cast doubt on the 2020 election and supported lawsuit to throw election to Trump | CNN Politics

    Tom Emmer cast doubt on the 2020 election and supported lawsuit to throw election to Trump | CNN Politics

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    CNN
     — 

    In the aftermath of the 2020 election, Tom Emmer, a leading Republican candidate to be speaker of the House, baselessly said there were “questionable” practices in the 2020 presidential election.

    Later, Emmer signed an amicus brief in support of a last-ditch Texas lawsuit seeking to throw out the results in key swing states.

    Though he would vote to certify the results on January 6, 2021, the comments and actions show Emmer flirted with some of the same election denial rhetoric as far-right members of the Republican caucus.

    Speaking with the radio show for the far-right publication Breitbart News 12 days after the election, Emmer baselessly suggested that mail-in ballots might have “skewed” the election against Trump.

    “I think that you will see the courts, if nothing else, this president is making sure that he stays focused and his team stays focused on these questionable election practices,” Emmer said. “We’re gonna find out – if it’s accurate – how much they skewed the outcome of the election in Georgia and elsewhere.”

    “I had one of my colleagues telling me in Georgia that where we got voter ID we’re doing great, where we can’t reasonably identify the voter, we’re getting killed,” he added, saying he hoped the state would restrict vote by mail in the then-upcoming January Georgia Senate runoff elections.

    Emmer was quieter than many Republicans in the aftermath of the 2020 election. But in interviews and public comments, reviewed by CNN’s KFile ahead of the speakership vote, Emmer refused to say Biden won the election and bashed the press for calling the race.

    Speaking to local news outlets in early December 2020 – after results had been certified in all swing states – Emmer attacked the press for calling the race for Joe Biden.

    “Everybody has the right to count every vote. Right now, we’re in a process where the media wants to call the race, the media wants to create this situation that they’re the ones that determine when people are done with the process,” Emmer said. “It’s about making sure that everybody – people that voted for Joe Biden, people who voted for Donald Trump, or people who voted for somebody else – that they know every legitimate vote is counted and they have confidence in the outcome.

    “There’s a process,” Emmer added. “The process is the votes are cast, if there’s a question, there are recounts, there are signature verifications. This time across the country, mail-in ballots threw a whole new curveball into it. And then if you have specific areas where there’s more to be done, you do have the right to go to a court to have a difference of opinion result. That’s all following the process. It’ll be resolved soon.”

    Emmer later defended signing the amicus brief in support of the Texas lawsuit filed by Attorney General Ken Paxton to invalidate 62 Electoral votes in swing states won by Biden – which would have effectively thrown the election to Trump. The lawsuit was rejected by the US Supreme Court.

    “This brief asserts the democratic right of state legislatures to make appointments to the Electoral College was violated in several states,” Emmer said in a statement published in the local St. Cloud Times. “All legal votes should be counted and the process should be followed – the integrity of current and future elections depends on this premise and this suit is a part of that process.”

    Speaking at a forum on Dec. 17, 2020, Emmer acknowledged Biden’s win was certified by the Electoral College days earlier but said the process still had yet to play out and declined to call Biden president-elect when prompted.

    “The media would like to declare the ultimate end to this process. I think certain elected officials would like to declare the end of this process, but as someone who was in a recount himself 10 years ago, I know that we need to respect the process whether you agree with it or not,” Emmer said. “Because once it’s over you’ve got people that are going to be on one side or the other, and they’ve all got to be satisfied that our election was conducted in a fair and transparent manner.”

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  • Supreme Court declines to revisit landmark libel ruling, though Clarence Thomas wants to reconsider the decision | CNN Politics

    Supreme Court declines to revisit landmark libel ruling, though Clarence Thomas wants to reconsider the decision | CNN Politics

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    Washington
    CNN
     — 

    The Supreme Court declined on Tuesday to revisit the landmark First Amendment decision in New York Times v. Sullivan, rebuffing a request to take another look at decades-old precedent that created a higher bar for public figures to claim libel in civil suits.

    The media world has for years relied on the unanimous decision in the 1964 case to fend off costly defamation lawsuits brought by public figures. The ruling established the requirement that public figures show “actual malice” before they can succeed in a libel dispute.

    Despite being a mainstay in US media law, the Sullivan decision has increasingly come under fire by conservatives both inside and outside the court, including Justice Clarence Thomas, who said on Tuesday that he still wanted to revisit Sullivan at some point.

    “In an appropriate case, however, we should reconsider New York Times and our other decisions displacing state defamation law,” Thomas wrote in a brief concurrence to the court’s decision not to take up the case. He said that the case, Don Blankenship v. NBC Universal, LLC, was a poor vehicle to reconsider Sullivan.

    Just a few months ago, the conservative justice attacked the ruling in Sullivan in a fiery dissent in which he called it “flawed.” Thomas issued other public critiques of Sullivan in recent years, including in 2019, when he wrote that the ruling and “the Court’s decisions extending it were policy-driven decisions masquerading as constitutional law.”

    The case at hand concerns Don Blankenship, a former coal baron who was convicted of a federal conspiracy offense related to a deadly 2010 explosion at a mine he ran, in what was one of the worst US mine disasters in decades. His sentence of a year in prison was one day less than a felony sentence.

    “Blankenship himself admits this was a highly unusual sentence for a misdemeanor offense; he notes that he was the only inmate at his prison who was not serving a sentence for a felony conviction,” according to a lower-court opinion in the case.

    During his unsuccessful 2018 US Senate campaign in West Virginia, a number of media organizations erroneously reported that he was a convicted felon, even though his conspiracy offense was classified as a misdemeanor.

    Blankenship sued a slew of news outlets for the error, alleging defamation and false light invasion of privacy. Lower courts ruled against him, finding that the outlets did not make the statements with actual malice, the standard required by Sullivan.

    Attorneys for Blankenship told the justices in court papers that the “damage was irreparable” since no felon has ever been elected to the Senate, and urged them to overturn the Sullivan decision.

    “The actual malice standard poses a clear and present danger to our democracy,” they wrote. “New York Times Co. v. Sullivan and its progeny grant the press a license to publish defamatory falsehoods that misinform voters, manipulate elections, intensify polarization, and incite unrest.”

    Attorneys for the media outlets urged the justices not to take up the case, arguing that it’s “as poor a vehicle as one could imagine to consider” questions related to Sullivan’s holding because, they said, the reporting mistakes were honest ones.

    “There is good reason why the actual malice standard of New York Times has been embraced for so long and so often,” the media organizations told the justices. “At its essence, the standard protects ‘erroneous statements honestly made.’ While it permits recovery for falsehoods uttered with knowledge of falsity or with reckless disregard for the truth, it provides the ‘breathing space’ required for ‘free debate.’ A free people engaged in self-government deserves no less.”

    Just last year the court declined to revisit Sullivan in a case brought by a not-for-profit Christian ministry against the Southern Poverty Law Center.

    At the time, Thomas dissented from the court’s refusal to take up the case.

    “I would grant certiorari in this case to revisit the ‘actual malice’ standard,” he wrote. “This case is one of many showing how New York Times and its progeny have allowed media organizations and interest groups ‘to cast false aspersions on public figures with near impunity.’”

    In 2021, conservative Justice Neil Gorsuch also questioned the decision in Sullivan, writing in a dissent when the court decided not to take up a defamation case that the 1964 ruling should be revisited in part because it “has come to leave far more people without redress than anyone could have predicted.”

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  • Elon Musk’s X adds to fog of war at outset of Israel-Hamas conflict | CNN Business

    Elon Musk’s X adds to fog of war at outset of Israel-Hamas conflict | CNN Business

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    CNN
     — 

    Misinformation has run rampant on Elon Musk’s social media platform X in the 48 hours since Hamas militants’ surprise attack on Israel, with users sharing false and misleading claims about the conflict and Musk himself pointing users to an account known for spreading misinformation.

    Multiple users over the weekend shared a fake White House news release falsely claiming the US was sending billions of dollars in new aid to Israel in response. Accounts on X with hundreds of thousands of followers in total quickly spread the doctored White House press release after it appeared online on Saturday. Social media influencer Jackson Hinkle, who was among those shared the fake release, claimed it was a slap in the face to Ukraine, which has been pleading with Washington for more money to defend itself from Russia.

    Musk himself added to the information chaos on Sunday by recommending X users follow the Israel-Hamas conflict by following an account known for spreading misinformation, including a fake report earlier this year of an explosion at the Pentagon.

    Musk and Hinkle later deleted their posts. Musk later posted: “As always, please try stay as close to the truth as possible, even for stuff you don’t like.”

    Elsewhere on X (formerly known as Twitter), an account impersonating the Jerusalem Post shared a bogus report that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had been hospitalized. (The account was later suspended.)

    CNN has requested comment from Musk and X on the posts related to the Israel-Gaza conflict.

    A slew of mischaracterized videos and other posts went viral on the platform over the weekend.

    One video that is purported to show Israel generals after being captured by Hamas fighter was viewed more than 1.7 million times by Monday. The video however actually shows the detention of separatists in Azerbaijan.

    Another post viewed more than 500,000 times on X purported to show an airplane getting shot down with the hashtag #PalestineUnderAttack. The video is in fact a clip from the video game Arma 3, as was later noted in a “community note” appended to the post.

    Community notes allow users on X to fact-check false posts on the platform. While notes were appended to both of these false posts, they often come after a false post has been viewed thousands – or in some cases millions – of times.

    X has relied more heavily on community notes to moderate content since Musk laid off thousands of the company’s employees, including many responsible for detecting and addressing false claims, following his takeover of the platform last year.

    Israel’s National Cyber Directorate, one of the government’s main cyber defense agencies, on Monday took to X to urge people not to spread unverified information. “[T]he rumor mill is overflowing,” the directorate wrote in Hebrew. The Anti-Defamation League also raised concerns in a statement Saturday about false and antisemitic claims being spread on the platform, including posts by a verified user falsely claiming that Israel helped to facilitate 9-11 on US soil, which have been viewed thousands of times.

    The viral nature of the misinformation has alarmed experts on information operations, offering a fresh example of social platforms’ struggle to deal with a flood of falsehoods during a major geopolitical event.

    “In times of war, social media becomes a propaganda battlefield; there is always an element of disinformation and exaggeration,” said Emerson Brooking, senior resident fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab. “Today, X is the main platform where this online battle plays out.”

    Brooking said changes to X policy under Musk’s ownership have incentivized propagandists and scam artists. Any user can now purchase a “verification” checkmark on X by signing up for the platform’s $8 per month subscription program, and their posts are then boosted by the platform’s algorithm and eligible for monetization.

    “Paid verification means that you cannot distinguish between a vetted journalist and a scam artist,” Brooking told CNN. “The for-profit ‘views’ system incentivizes accounts to impersonate news outlets and to post as frequently as possible, drawing from whatever source they can or just making things up.”

    Twitter has long played a pivotal role in information sharing during conflicts, from the Arab Spring to the 2014 and 2022 invasions of Ukraine, and during previous violence in Israel and Gaza.

    Viral misinformation has always existed on the platform, but it has become particularly pronounced under Musk’s stewardship, experts say.

    “In the past decade, every conflict has inevitably bred a digital “fog of war,” where both sides, and their supporters, try to use social platforms to spin the narrative in their favor,” Joe Galvin, a journalist who has specialized in open-source intelligence for more than a decade, told CNN Monday.

    “The volume and reach of misinformation today, though, far exceeds what we saw in the early social media era conflicts, and is exacerbated by platforms like X, which has taken the guardrails off and allows the most egregious types of disinformation to run rampant,” Galvin said.

    He said other platforms that have little or no guardrails including the social media messaging app Telegram are also hotbeds of misinformation, but X is unique given Musk’s behavior.

    “Even the owner of X takes part in the chaos, promoting accounts that are known to spread falsehoods to his 150 million followers. The fact is that malicious users, state-backed and otherwise, have become better at spreading falsehoods, with more sophisticated networks being built and better technology – including AI – being used. The platforms are in a perpetual state of catch-up.”

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  • Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour movie hits a presale record for Cinemark | CNN Business

    Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour movie hits a presale record for Cinemark | CNN Business

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    New York
    CNN
     — 

    Taylor Swift’s concert film hasn’t even been released yet and it’s already toppling box-office records.

    Cinemark, a theater chain with about 500 locations, said that ticket sales for “Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour” are “setting domestic presale records” with demand “10 times higher” than any other event film the company has exhibited. The reaction has “blown everyone away,” Cinemark announced in a press release.

    Excitement has been building for the 3-hour-long film, which is opening Friday, October 13. An ad for the movie even aired during NBC’s “Sunday Night Football” last weekend, where Swift made an appearance to cheer on her possible boyfriend, Kansas City Chiefs star Travis Kelce.

    Cinemark is not the first theater chain to experience an increase in sales via Swift: AMC Theaters previously announced that the singer’s Eras Tour concert movie “shattered records for single-day advance ticket sales revenue,” with $26 million sold on the first day that presales went live on August 31.

    Swift’s movie crushed the single-day record less than three hours after tickets became available, prompting AMC to add extra showtimes where possible.

    The concert film, which is being screened in some theaters in both IMAX and standard versions, is expected to rake in between $100 million to $125 million in its opening weekend, according to industry estimates.

    Superstar Beyoncé is also releasing a film version of her “Renaissance World Tour” for a theatrical release. Ticket presales began Monday for the December 1 premiere.

    For theaters eying a potentially grim fall with the ranks of movies thinned out by the (recently resolved) writers strike and the actors strike, the one-two punch looks like a gift from the musical gods. It’s a potential means of filling seats that doesn’t rely on what has come to look like an increasingly shaky theatrical business even with usually reliable studio blockbusters.

    In addition to Swift and Beyoncé, the box office also has been helped out by another fierce female: “Barbie.” The film hit the $1 billion global box office mark barely three weeks into its run — only about 50 films in history, adjusted for inflation, have reached the benchmark. It’s made more than $630 million in the US box office since its July release. (CNN and “Barbie” movie distributor Warner Bros. Pictures share the same parent company.)

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  • Detained WSJ reporter Evan Gershkovich’s parents describe what it was like seeing him in Russia | CNN Business

    Detained WSJ reporter Evan Gershkovich’s parents describe what it was like seeing him in Russia | CNN Business

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    New York
    CNN
     — 

    Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich remains “defiant” six months after he was detained in Russia on spying charges, which he and the Journal strenuously deny, his mother told CNN’s Anderson Cooper Thursday night.

    “He’s smiling. He understands what’s going on,” Ella Milman said. “And I have to say, under all the circumstances, he’s doing really well.”

    Gershkovich’s parents have been able to go to Russia twice. They saw him in June and were able to talk to him, though Cooper noted he was essentially in a glass box.

    “Being there, it was like having him back,” his father, Mikhail Gershkovich, said. “Just the physical presence and his voice made you very happy.”

    Gershkovich was arrested in March during a reporting trip. The FSB, Russia’s main security service, accused him of trying to obtain state secrets — a charge Gershkovich and his employer have extensively denied.

    If convicted, he faces up to 20 years in prison.

    Gershkovich’s parents left the Soviet Union to come to the United States. Evan’s initial reporting trips in the country didn’t worry the two of them.

    “He came to Russia in 2017. Things were a lot different at the time,” Milman said.

    The family keeps in touch with Gershkovich through letters, which are up to 10 pages long and include printed pictures. His sister, Danielle Gershkovich, says they can hear his voice through his writing — fitting, Cooper noted, as he’s a print journalist.

    “It’s like sitting on the couch,” Milman said. “The only thing is that the answer comes the following week.”

    Those who want to help need to keep the focus on Evan, Danielle said, whether it’s people posting on social media or reading his reporting.

    From a young age, Gershkovich was curious and easily connected with people, Milman said.

    “He always would come home after his fancy trips and wanted to have a hamburger and buffalo wings and watch baseball and watch American football,” Milman said. “He’s an American boy who has roots in Russian culture.”

    The journalist’s detention is a source of tension between Washington and Moscow.

    “The US position remains unwavering. The charges against Evan are baseless. The Russian government locked Evan up for simply doing his job. Journalism is not a crime,” US ambassador to Russia Lynne Tracy said to reporters earlier this month.

    In September, a Moscow court refused to hear an appeal against his pre-trial detention, leaving Gershkovich behind bars. His pre-trial detention has been extended twice since his arrest, once in May and again in August. An appeal against his first pre-trial detention was also denied.

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  • Fran Drescher ‘looking forward’ to talks resuming between actors’ union and Hollywood studios next week | CNN

    Fran Drescher ‘looking forward’ to talks resuming between actors’ union and Hollywood studios next week | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    SAG-AFTRA President Fran Drescher is gearing up to resume negotiations with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers next week.

    Talks will resume between the actors’ union and studio representatives on Monday, two and a half months after the more than 160,000 members of the guild went on strike and one week after the Writers Guild of America and the AMPTP reached a tentative contract agreement.

    “We’re happy WGA came to an agreement but one size doesn’t fit all,” Drescher told CNN on Thursday. “We look forward to resuming talks with the AMPTP.”

    SAG-AFTRA negotiators will meet with several executives from AMPTP member companies to work out new television and theatrical contracts, according to the union.

    SAG-AFTRA and the WGA have both sought contract changes related to streaming residuals and artificial intelligence. Actors are also asking for better relocation expenses for actors working out of state or country and limited long breaks between television seasons in order to give actors more stability while under contract.

    The WGA has voted to authorize its members to return to work following the tentative agreement reached this week.

    SAG-AFTRA has been on strike since July 14.

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  • Travis Kelce talked Taylor Swift on his podcast | CNN

    Travis Kelce talked Taylor Swift on his podcast | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    Travis Kelce was already famous, but now he is learning what it means to be Taylor Swift-adjacent-famous.

    The new episode of his podcast, “New Heights,” which he hosts with his brother, fellow NFL football player Jason Kelce, dropped Wednesday.

    Jason Kelce introduced the TSwift of it all in the midst of some football talk by saying, “We’re here.”

    “We’ve been avoiding this subject out of respect for your personal life,” Jason Kelce, who plays for the Philadelphia Eagles said. “But now we gotta talk about it.”

    “My personal life that’s not so personal,” Travis Kelce quipped. “I did this to myself Jason. I know this.”

    Jason Kelce then brought up Swift’s recent attendance at his brother’s game to watch his Kansas City Chiefs take on the Chicago Bears in Arrowhead Stadium. The superstar singer sat in a suite alongside the matriarch of the Kelce family and it pretty much broke the internet.

    After Jason Kelce asked his brother what his life is now like, Travis Kelce said he’s on the “roller coaster of life.”

    “I noticed a few things,” Travis Kelce said. “Paparazzi at my house. S**t like that.”

    The paps are there with cameras and screaming his name he said. His brother naturally asked about his special guest at the game.

    “Shout out to Taylor for pulling up,” Travis Kelce said. “That was pretty ballsy.”

    He hailed Swift who “looked amazing” and he said his friends and family had nothing but amazing things to say about her. Not to mention that his Chiefs won the game.

    “We script it all ladies and gentleman,” he (maybe) joked. “It was impressive.”

    Kelce said he found all the attention and excitement “hysterical.”

    “It’s definitely a game I’ll remember,” he said. “That’s for damn sure.”

    The brothers covered some more ground, including the sales of Travis Kelce’s jersey exploding post the Swift appearance, how everyone including football coaches have been talking about the possible couple and even how they drove off in his convertible after the game.

    As to whether they are a couple or not we still don’t really know because Kelce chose to pass and left it as, “What’s real is that it is my personal life. I want to respect both of our lives.”

    Moving forward he will stick to talking about sports he said.

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  • Entertainment strikes pushing toward $6 billion in losses: ‘It just gets worse each day’ | CNN

    Entertainment strikes pushing toward $6 billion in losses: ‘It just gets worse each day’ | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    As studios and writers return to the bargaining table Wednesday, the economic impact of the months-long writers’ and actors’ strikes has surpassed a staggering $5 billion, and the pain is increasingly being felt across multiple industries, according to economists.

    In New York alone, the disruption of 11 major productions, which applied for the state’s tax credit program, has resulted in a loss of $1.3 billion and 17,000 hires in the state, according to Empire State Development.

    Across the U.S., “we are definitely moving towards $6 billion in costs, but I cannot say for certain we are there yet,” says Kevin Klowden, the Milken Institute’s chief global strategist. Klowden says major impacts are coming from a rise in evictions, which is also tied to the end of eviction moratoriums in California. Klowden said he’s also observing a lot of staffing cuts in restaurants and service firms, as well as expenditure cutbacks at studios.

    Todd Holmes, an associate professor of entertainment media management at Cal State Northridge, points to the U.S. Bureau of Labor and Statistics (BLS), which recorded a drop of 34,800 employees in the motion picture and sound recording industries between May and August.

    “There’s no doubt that a lot of that is due to the strikes,” Holmes says, adding that there could be more strike-related losses recorded in other BLS categories, including those in makeup, catering, custodial work, and other businesses that support productions. “It’s been a real mess, and it just gets worse each day as the strikes continue,” he added.

    Many job losses are from entertainment industry adjacent businesses like History for Hire, a prop shop whose owner, Pam Elyea, feels the ripple effect on those that rely on the entertainment industry.

    Elyea’s company works to dress the sets of movies, TV shows, commercials and music videos, renting out everything from sports equipment to battle gear for period pieces.

    Before the strike, she says her 33-thousand square foot warehouse was “extremely hectic” with phones ringing and a staff of 15 to 20 moving orders of props in and out.

    Now, she’s had to cut half her staff because demand is drying up. The remaining staff members switched to a California workshare program this week, where they work reduced hours, receive partial unemployment benefits, while maintaining health insurance.

    “I would have people in and out here, I would have swing guys come and pull orders,” Elyea tells CNN, looking at just a few items on carts in her warehouse awaiting pick-up. “We’d be boxing stuff, we’d be on the phones, the phone would be ringing, I would have twice the staff that I have right now. It would be extremely hectic.”

    The ongoing strike is taking an emotional toll on Elyea, who says History for Hire has been in business for forty years.

    “I’m the one who worries at night,” a choked-up Elyea tells CNN. “You don’t lay somebody off without thinking, I’m not just taking their job, they’re gonna lose their home, they’re gonna lose their apartment because nobody makes enough to, to live in Los Angeles. This is an extremely expensive city to live in. So, so you’re really impacting someone’s life.”

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  • White House to send letter to news execs urging outlets to ‘ramp up’ scrutiny of GOP’s Biden impeachment inquiry ‘based on lies’ | CNN Business

    White House to send letter to news execs urging outlets to ‘ramp up’ scrutiny of GOP’s Biden impeachment inquiry ‘based on lies’ | CNN Business

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    CNN
     — 

    The White House plans to send a letter to top US news executives on Wednesday, urging them to intensify their scrutiny of House Republicans after Speaker Kevin McCarthy launched an impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden, despite having found no evidence of a crime.

    “It’s time for the media to ramp up its scrutiny of House Republicans for opening an impeachment inquiry based on lies,” Ian Sams, a spokesperson for the White House Counsel’s Office, wrote in the letter, according to a draft copy obtained by CNN.

    The letter, which said an impeachment inquiry with no supporting evidence should “set off alarm bells for news organizations,” will be sent to executives helming the nation’s largest news organizations, including CNN, The New York Times, Fox News, the Associated Press, CBS News, and others, a White House official familiar with the matter said.

    The correspondence comes one day after McCarthy announced that he had directed three House committees to begin an impeachment inquiry into Biden. House Republicans, most of whom have denied that disgraced former President Donald Trump committed any wrongdoing, have long sought to baselessly portray Biden as a corrupt, crime-ridden politician engaged in sinister activities.

    While news organizations have published innumerable fact checks on the matter, they have also often failed to robustly call out the mis- and disinformation peddled by Republicans in their coverage, frustrating officials in the Biden White House who believe that the news media should be doing more to dispel lies that saturate the public discourse.

    In its letter Wednesday, the White House will ask news organizations to be more clear-eyed in their coverage of the impeachment inquiry, and not to fall prey to the traps of false equivalency in reporting.

    “Covering impeachment as a process story – Republicans say X, but the White House says Y – is a disservice to the American public who relies on the independent press to hold those in power accountable,” Sams wrote.

    “And in the modern media environment, where every day liars and hucksters peddle disinformation and lies everywhere from Facebook to Fox, process stories that fail to unpack the illegitimacy of the claims on which House Republicans are basing all their actions only serve to generate confusion, put false premises in people’s feeds, and obscure the truth,” Sams added.

    McCarthy launched the impeachment inquiry Tuesday without a formal House vote in a bid to appease Republicans on his far-right, including those who have threatened to oust the California Republican from his speakership if he does not move swiftly enough on such an investigation.

    The Republican House-led investigations into Biden have yet to provide any direct evidence that the president financially benefited from Hunter Biden’s career overseas.

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  • It will be more confusing than ever to watch an NFL game this season | CNN Business

    It will be more confusing than ever to watch an NFL game this season | CNN Business

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    New York
    CNN
     — 

    You’re going to need a play-call sheet to keep track of where to watch the National Football League on television this season.

    The NFL season kicked off Thursday night with the Detroit Lions winning a surprise upset over the reigning Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs.(NBC and its Peacock app aired the game under its “Sunday Night Football” rights.)

    Long gone are the days when NFL games were shown on one or two networks. The league is showing more games across broadcast networks, cable, and digital streaming platforms this season than ever before, and more games exclusively on streaming.

    NBC, Fox, CBS, ESPN/ABC — as well as their streaming apps — and Amazon will all broadcast some games this year. The NFL’s own streaming app and YouTube TV will also stream some games.

    Here’s why there are so many different channels and streaming services, which many people might not even have, to watch the NFL.

    It’s all happening now because the NFL is television’s most valuable product, especially as the media and tech industries face turmoil and more people than ever end their pay-TV subscriptions. The NFL in 2021 signed more than $100 billion in media deals over 11 years, which included the rights to more games on streaming services.

    The owners of CBS, ESPN, ABC and NBC -— Paramount, Disney, and Comcast, respectively -— are pouring billions of dollars into their streaming services, which they see as the future of their businesses. They are showing more NFL games on streaming platforms, including games exclusively, to try to entice people to sign up.

    The decline in traditional broadcast and cable television viewership is accelerating, and the NFL is the “glue” holding the pay-TV bundle together, media analysts at MoffettNathanson said in a report Thursday.

    Last season marked the first-time people were able to watch three of the five NFL game packages through streamers.

    This season will also feature a few firsts: NFL Sunday Ticket offered on YouTube; a streaming-only playoff game on Peacock; and Amazon Prime Video’s Black Friday game.

    ESPN+ will air an international NFL game exclusively on its platform for the second time later in the year, and Amazon has exclusive rights again this season to Thursday night games. Amazon’s Thursday Night Football was the first NFL package to be shown exclusively on streaming.

    Football is the rare event that millions of people still watch live and advertisers will pay up for as viewership for TV other than sports rapidly declines.

    Excluding the Super Bowl, the NFL made up more than half of Fox’s viewership last season and around one-third of CBS and NBC’s, according to the MoffettNathanson report.

    “The NFL is the biggest driver of network ratings and advertising dollars during the fall TV season,” the analysts said. “The NFL remains an outlier when compared to all other forms of linear content.”

    So, NBC will show “Sunday Night Football” on primetime TV and Peacock. Fox will show National Football Conference games on its broadcast network. CBS will show American Football Conference games on its network and Paramount+. (CBS, which has the rights to the Super Bowl in February, will also show the game on Nickelodeon.) ESPN will air “Monday Night Football” games on ESPN and ESPN+. And Amazon holds the rights to Thursday night games, shown on Amazon Prime Video.

    The NFL itself is also betting on streaming.

    The NFL Sunday Ticket package, which broadcasts all out-of-market NFL games to fans, is moving to YouTube TV, owned by Google, this year after nearly 30 years at satellite provider DirecTV.

    “We have been focused on increased digital distribution of our games and this partnership is yet another example of us looking towards the future,” NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said last year.

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  • Why Taylor Swift wants you to watch the Eras concert film in theaters instead of on your couch | CNN Business

    Why Taylor Swift wants you to watch the Eras concert film in theaters instead of on your couch | CNN Business

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    New York
    CNN
     — 

    Taylor Swift’s fans know the greatest films of all time were never made, but that could be called into question come October 13, when her Eras Tour concert movie is set for release in North America.

    The bigger question might be: Why did Swift decide to release her highly anticipated film in theaters over a streaming service?

    Already, the film has reached notable milestones. It has broken records for single-day advance ticket sales revenue with $26 million of tickets sold on August 31, according to AMC Theaters, blowing past previous record-holder “Spider-Man: No Way Home.”

    But Swift’s latest film is a pivot from recent years, when she released her concert films and documentaries on streaming services. Experts say that choosing movie theaters for the Eras Tour film’s debut over the small screen is a move fitting of both Swift’s business acumen and relationship with her fans.

    Swift’s previous documentaries, “Miss Americana” and “Taylor Swift Reputation Stadium Tour” are on Netflix, while “Folklore: The Long Pond Studio Sessions” is available on Disney+. “Taylor Swift: Journey to Fearless” aired on The Hub, since re-branded as Discovery Family. “The 1989 World Tour Live” was released on Apple Music. Warner Bros. Discovery, CNN’s parent company, also owns the Discovery network.

    Unlike her previous concerts, the Eras Tour has become a cultural phenomenon. Many fans dress up in themed outfits to represent each of Swift’s “eras” or inside jokes among fans, donning everything from sparkly dresses to cowboy boots to cat costumes. Some make hundreds of friendship bracelets to trade during shows, and memorize lyrics and fan chants for her roughly three-hour performance.

    At a movie theater, Swifties can partake in those rituals with other fans, which wouldn’t be the case for an at-home viewing on the couch. The theater’s ability to recreate the concert experience is likely a key reason why Swift decided to choose the big screen for her film, said Jonathan Kuuskoski, chair of the entrepreneurship and leadership department at the University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre and Dance.

    “The movie basically functions as an overflow room for the concert tour,” said Kuuskoski.

    Swift seemed to encourage the theater as a make-shift concert venue, posting on social media: “Eras attire, friendship bracelets, singing and dancing encouraged,” adding “1, 2, 3, LGB!” the acronym to a concert fan chant.

    Demand for Swift’s concerts has been astronomical, crashing Ticketmaster’s website last November and prompting US lawmakers to investigate whether the company has a monopoly on ticket sales. Ticketmaster was hit with more glitches in July when fans tried to purchase tickets for her shows in France.

    While her concerts are in no short supply of attendees, a theater release opens the door to Swifties who couldn’t afford concert tickets, as well as potential new fans willing to pay for a movie ticket without committing to a concert, said Ralph Jaccodine, an assistant professor at Berklee College of Music and former concert promoter who has worked with Bruce Springsteen, Kiss and others.

    Adult tickets for the film are set at $19.89, a nod to Swift’s album “1989,” whose re-recording is set for release two weeks after the “Eras Tour” theatrical debut. Swift’s favorite number is 13, and tickets for children and seniors are aptly set at $13.13.

    Releasing the film in theaters is also a more financially lucrative decision than providing it to a streaming service, said Kuuskoski. For example, while moviegoers have to purchase a ticket each time they view a film, that’s not the case for streaming. Swift could also sell the film to a streaming service after it runs its course on the big screen.

    Releasing the film in theaters before the tour is over seemingly runs the risk of potentially cannibalizing ticket sales for the actual concert. but the timing actually helps keep the momentum surrounding her tour going, says Jaccodine. Swift’s global tour ends in late 2024.

    “I don’t think she could get any less publicity than what’s going on now,” he said.

    Others seemed to have their own reasons for concern about the Eras Tour film release’s timing. The “Exorcist: Believer,” originally scheduled to be released on the same day as Swift’s film, moved it up a week.

    “Look what you made me do. The Exorcist: Believer moves to 10/6/23 #TaylorWins,” the producer of the upcoming horror film posted on “X,” formerly Twitter, just hours after Swift announced her film.

    The summer has already ushered in a film renaissance, as blockbusters “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer” raked in a combined $511 million in global box office sales over their opening weekend and rekindled hopes that consumers are returning to movie theaters after the pandemic forced them to shutter their doors. “Barbie” is distributed by Warner Bros. Discovery, which owns CNN.

    The Eras Tour’s film will likely extend the strong run of movie ticket sales set by the “Barbenheimer” phenomenon, especially as theaters ramp up their own efforts to lure in moviegoers, said Michael O’Leary, chief executive of the National Association of Theater Owners.

    AMC is selling collectible popcorn tubs and fountain drink cups in theaters starting the day of the film’s release, and offering free posters along with ticket purchases while supplies last.

    “I don’t think this is something which is going to be a two- or three-week phenomenon,” O’Leary said. “You’re going to have people going multiple times.”

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  • Taylor Swift Eras Tour movie breaks presales records at AMC Theatres | CNN Business

    Taylor Swift Eras Tour movie breaks presales records at AMC Theatres | CNN Business

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    CNN
     — 

    Taylor Swift’s concert film has already broken theater records more than a month ahead of its October 13 release. AMC Theaters said Friday that the singer’s Eras Tour concert movie “shattered records for single-day advance ticket sales revenue,” with $26 million of tickets sold on Thursday.

    It beat the previous record holder, “Spider-Man: No Way Home,” which sold $16.9 million worth of tickets in one day ahead of its release in 2021, AMC said in a statement.

    Swift’s movie crushed the daily record less than three hours after tickets became available, prompting the theater chain to say that it will add extra showtimes where possible.

    Movie theaters have been recovering from a pandemic-era audience slump, driven by summer blockbuster hits like “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer.” (“Barbie” is distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures, which is owned by CNN’s parent company, Warner Bros. Discovery.)

    But the ongoing Hollywood actors’ and writers’ strikes and the impasse with studio negotiations mean that the pool of movies making its way to theaters could dry up over the next year. While studios typically distribute movies to theaters, AMC is acting as the Eras Tour film distributor in what it called “the inaugural step of a new line of business for AMC Entertainment.”

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  • Buckle up because Selena Gomez, Miley Cyrus and Ariana Grande are all releasing new music on the same day | CNN

    Buckle up because Selena Gomez, Miley Cyrus and Ariana Grande are all releasing new music on the same day | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    Buckle up – it’s a big week for pop music, with artists such as Selena Gomez, Miley Cyrus and Ariana Grande among others all set to release new music starting Thursday night.

    Gomez first began teasing her new music last week when she tweeted, “Y’all have been asking for new music for a while.” She added that while she continues to work on her third studio album, she “wanted to put out a fun little song I wrote a while back that’s perfect for the end of summer.”

    That song, she revealed, is titled “Single Soon,” and will be released Thursday night along with an accompanying music video.

    Cyrus also announced last week that she’s releasing her new single “Used to be Young” at midnight on Thursday and that in celebration of the new song, a TV special “Endless Summer Vacation (Backyard Sessions)” will air this Thursday on ABC at 10pm local time.

    She wrote that the TV special is “a retrospective interview sharing stories about the first 30 years of my life,” and that the song “Used to be Young” is “dedicated to my loyal fans. I love YOU for loving every version of ME.”

    On Tuesday, Cyrus posted the full lyrics of “Used to be Young,” saying the lyrics were written almost two years ago, during a time she said she felt “misunderstood.”

    “I have spent the last 18 months painting a sonic picture of my perspective to share with you,” Cyrus wrote, adding “the time has arrived to release a song that I could perfect forever. Although my work is done, this song will continue to write itself everyday. The fact it remains unfinished is a part of its beauty. That is my life at this moment… unfinished yet complete.”

    Grande, for her part, is celebrating the 10-year anniversary of the 2013 release of her debut album “Yours Truly” with a week’s worth of new content.

    In a video posted to the “Sweetener” singer’s Instagram page last week, the entire schedule was revealed, starting with the release of a digital deluxe version of “Yours Truly” on Thursday at 9pm PST, along with newly recorded live performances of “Honeymoon Avenue” and “Daydreamin’.”

    On Saturday, she’ll be releasing the first of a two-part Q&A along with new merchandise, followed by the release of another live performance of “Baby I Live” on Sunday. The second part of the Q&A will arrive on Monday, with Tuesday bringing the release of the “Tattooed Heart” and “Right There” live performances.

    The week of celebration culminates on Wednesday with the release of a live performance of the album’s top single “The Way,” a track Grande recorded with the late rapper, and her ex-boyfriend, Mac Miller. She’ll also release “some behind the scenes stuff we found” on Wednesday, too.

    If that wasn’t enough, this Friday will also herald the release of new music from Iggy Azalea, BLACKPINK, and a new music video from Sza.

    Got all that? Now might be a good time to go make some room in that music library, because there are about to be a lot of new late summer jams to add in.

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