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☆ A Blockbuster-era video law is being used to ding big-name brands like General Mills, Geico, and Chick-Fil-A with privacy lawsuits
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-07 | by ( Ryan Joe | Lara O'Reilly | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Brands like Chick-Fil-A and Geico are being accused of violating 1980s privacy law the VPPA. Broadcasters have long been wary of running afoul of a 1988 privacy law called the Video Privacy Protection Act that went into effect after the video rental history of then-Supreme Court nominee Judge Robert Bork was leaked to a newspaper. Since November last year, brands as diverse as Hallmark, Folgers, Mattel, Chick-Fil-A, General Mills, Mars, La-Z-Boy, Geico, and Fossil have faced lawsuits accusing them of VPPA violations. But these dismissals don't completely neutralize the threat of VPPA lawsuits. At least 70 VPPA class action lawsuits have been filed in the past year, according to Bloomberg Law.

Persons: Chick, Robert Bork, VPPA, Mills, General Mills, Scott Ferrell, FloSports, Smucker, Keith Carroll, Rebeka Rodriguez, Melissa Fox, Eversheds Sutherland, Labaton Sucharow, Corepower, Garthwaite, Fox, Julie Rubash Organizations: ., Broadcasters, Hallmark, Mattel, Pacific, Hulu, Bloomberg Law, Meta, Protection Law, Facebook, AMC, Us, GameStop, Disney, United States, Court, Southern, of Locations: Mars, California, Virginia, of New York

☆ Prince Harry among star-studded crowd watching Lionel Messi and Inter Miami defeat LAFC
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-04 | by ( George Ramsay | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

CNN —No athlete attracts an A-list crowd quite like Lionel Messi, as demonstrated by Sunday’s Major League Soccer game between Inter Miami and Los Angeles FC. Ticket demand for Miami games has soared since the Argentinian’s arrival, with the average prices around $690 for Sunday’s match – the most expensive MLS game ever, according to online marketplace TickPick. Since moving from Paris Saint-Germain, Messi is having a huge impact on the pitch, as well as off it. Messi spoke with actor Owen Wilson after the game between LAFC and Inter Miami. It next faces Sporting Kansas City on September 9, while LAFC, currently third in the West Conference standings, plays the Portland Timbers.

Persons: Lionel Messi, Prince Harry, Leonardo DiCaprio, Owen Wilson, Edward Norton, Will Ferrell –, LAFC, Selena Gomez, Tyga, Germain, Messi, Harry, Sergio Busquets, Jordi Alba, Facundo Farías, Alba, John McCarthy, Aaron Long, Leonardo Campana, Ryan Hollingshead, Bouanga, Gary A, Vasquez, McCarthy, Gomez, “, ” Messi, “ Zoolander, ” Selena Gomez, Mark J, Terrill, We’ve Organizations: CNN, Sunday’s Major League Soccer, Inter Miami, Los Angeles FC, Miami, MLS, Paris Saint, LAFC, Sunday, Reuters, BMO, ”, Eastern Conference, Sporting Kansas City, West Conference, Portland Timbers Locations: California, Paris, Miami, Barcelona

☆ ‘Strays’ Stumbles at Box Office Without Its Stars’ Promotion
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-20 | by ( Nicole Sperling | More About Nicole Sperling | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

When selling a movie about raunchy talking dogs, it helps to have some star power to get moviegoers into seats. And “Strays,” which opened Friday, has it — at least on the screen. “Strays,” which had a budget of $46 million, is one of four movies that opened widely across the country this weekend. (The studio’s previous R-rated comedy that paired raunchy material with family-friendly characters, “Good Boys,” opened in 2019 to $21 million. “Cocaine Bear,” also from Universal, had a far more robust opening, $23 million, back in February.)

Persons: Will Ferrell, Jamie Foxx, Randall Park, Isla Fisher, Dylan Dreyer, Australian Shepherd, “, ” Organizations: Universal Pictures, Universal Locations: Australian

☆ ‘Strays’ Review: Will Ferrell’s Feral Comedy
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-18 | by ( Kyle Smith | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

This copy is for your personal, non-commercial use only. Distribution and use of this material are governed by our Subscriber Agreement and by copyright law. For non-personal use or to order multiple copies, please contact Dow Jones Reprints at 1-800-843-0008 or visit www.djreprints.com. https://www.wsj.com/arts-culture/film/strays-review-will-ferrell-feral-comedy-jamie-foxx-319a45aa

Persons: Dow Jones, ferrell, jamie, foxx

☆ Who was Henrietta Lacks? The life of the woman whose 'immortal' cells changed modern medicine forever.
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-03 | by ( Yoonji Han | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: 1 min

After her mother died when Lacks was 4 years old, her father sent her and her nine siblings to live with their maternal grandfather in a log cabin in Clover, Virginia. The cabin was once the slave quarters on the plantation that Lacks' white great-grandfather and great-uncle had owned. A tobacco farm in Virginia. Scott J. Ferrell/Congressional Quarterly/Getty ImagesLacks worked as a tobacco farmer starting from an early age, feeding animals, tending the garden, and working in the tobacco fields, according to her family. She attended a designated Black school, but had to drop out to help support the family when she was in the sixth grade.

Persons: Scott J, Ferrell Organizations: Congressional Locations: Clover , Virginia, Virginia

☆ I own a village of tiny homes in the Arizona desert that were built to feel like treehouses — see inside
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-28 | by ( Jamie Killin | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Urban planner Darin Dinsmore created a camp in Sedona, Arizona, with four tiny homes. My background in urban planning was one of the things that led me to start the TinyCamp project in Sedona and Cottonwood, Arizona. They're all permanent tiny houses with foundations and fire sprinklers, and they each have their own hot tubs and fireplaces. It shocks people, but tiny houses are expensiveA ladder leading up to the loft bed area of the TinyCamp home. The Achilles heel of the tiny house movement is that it's $10,000 for a sewer hookup.

Persons: Darin Dinsmore, I'm, Danielle Holman, We've, we've, It's, Jane Ferrell, Clarkdale Organizations: Service, Sedona, Google, TinyCamp Sedona Locations: Sedona , Arizona, Wall, Silicon, Sedona, Cottonwood , Arizona, California, Coconino County, Cottonwood, Sausalito , California, Sausalito, Arizona, Los Angeles, Northern Arizona, Clarkdale , Arizona

☆ ‘Barbie’ Review: Beyond Her Ken
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-19 | by ( Kyle Smith | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Margot Robbie Photo: Warner Bros. PicturesIn “Barbie,” Will Ferrell plays the CEO of Mattel, who muses, “Remember Proust Barbie? That did not sell well.” It’s the film’s second reference to the French modernist novelist, and its makers would have been well advised to heed their own joke and question the wisdom of stuffing this fantasy-comedy with references to the mastectomy and IRS troubles of the doll’s creator, gynecology, the mass devastation of indigenous people by smallpox, and (this comes up many times) “irrepressible thoughts of death.”

Persons: Margot Robbie Photo, “ Barbie, ” Will Ferrell, “, Proust, ” Organizations: Warner Bros, Mattel

☆ 'Barbie' review: Margot Robbie stars in Greta Gerwig's 'Barbie'
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-19 | by ( Brian Lowry | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

CNN —“Barbie” comes roaring out of the gate with an inventiveness and energy the movie perhaps inevitably can’t sustain. Still, the closest kin would probably be “The Lego Movie,” which similarly took a familiar toy and built a kind of existential crisis around it. Simu Liu, Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling in "Barbie." Courtesy Warner Bros. PicturesThe juxtaposition of those more thoughtful elements with the sheer giddiness elsewhere – alternating between the serious and the silly, between art and commerce – doesn’t always quite mesh or feel as fresh as it might. (The film is being released by Warner Bros., like CNN, a unit of Warner Bros.

Persons: CNN — “ Barbie ”, Greta Gerwig’s, Noah Baumbach, Margot Robbie, Ryan Gosling, “ Barbie ”, Ferrell’s, Helen Mirren, Barbie, Ken, Gosling’s Ken, Ariana Greenblatt, Simu Liu, Bird, Gosling, “ Justice League ”, “ Oppenheimer, “, overdoing, ” Organizations: CNN, Mattel, America, Warner Bros, “ Justice League, Warner Bros .

☆ ‘Mission: Impossible’ for Tom Cruise: Meeting Hollywood Expectations
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-16 | by ( Brooks Barnes | More About Brooks Barnes | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Gross, a film consultant who publishes a newsletter on box office numbers. “This opening is roughly average for an action thriller at this point in its series,” Mr. Gross said about the ultraexpensive “Dead Reckoning Part One,” which received sensational reviews. Early last week, he made surprise appearances in movie theaters at preview screenings in cities like Toronto, Atlanta and Miami. The blistering promotional campaign for “Dead Reckoning Part One” will be Hollywood’s last until a consortium of studios can come to terms with SAG-AFTRA, as the powerful actors’ union is known.

Persons: ”, David A, Gross, Mr, Cruise, Denzel Washington, Owen Wilson, Tiffany Haddish, Will Ferrell, Jamie Foxx Organizations: SAG, Universal, Sony, Disney Locations: United States, Canada, Rome, London, Abu Dhabi, Seoul, Sydney, New York, Toronto, Atlanta, Miami

☆ 13 Looks That Did the Most at the ‘Barbie’ Premiere
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-10 | by ( The Styles Desk | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

If the message of the movie is that all of us are Barbie and Barbie is all of us, the pink carpet did a good job of reinforcing that message (at least that’s what the cryptic trailers imply, but we’re not sure, as no screeners have been made available). Would Ms. Sontag have found the event sufficiently earnest? Many of the attendees paid homage to the plastic icon’s palette and smoothness of skin, but that’s par for the course in Hollywood. Following a cavalcade of YouTube personalities and influencers like David Dobrik, stars like Greta Gerwig and Issa Rae arrived in head to toe pink. Cast members like Helen Mirren and Will Ferrell did not make appearances on the carpet — a shame, as Mr. Ferrell surely would have looked great dressed as Barbie.

Persons: Susan Sontag, ’ ”, Barbie, we’re, Sontag, David Dobrik, Greta Gerwig, Issa Rae, Helen Mirren, Will Ferrell, Ferrell Organizations: Mattel, YouTube Locations: Los Angeles, Hollywood

☆ Meet the Mattel CEO who convinced Margot Robbie to become Barbie – and is being played by Will Ferrell in the movie
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-09 | by ( Ryan Hogg | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

He earmarked Margot Robbie to play Barbie, and has driven the group's push to exploit its brands. Ryan Gosling as Ken and Margot Robbie as Barbie in "Barbie." Warner Bros.Self-deprecationAccording to Bloomberg, Mattel gave Warner Bros. and Gerwig huge creative license on the movie – including how Mattel and its bigwigs would be portrayed. Kreiz, with his chiseled jaw, pearly white teeth and broader good looks, might look more like Ken, played by Ryan Gosling, than the ghoulish CEO played by funnyman Will Ferrell. Ferrell is listed only as "Mattel CEO" in the film's credits, adding an element of ambiguity.

Persons: Barbie, Margot Robbie, Will Ferrell, Ryan Gosling rollerblading, Ken, Kreiz, Barbie's, He's, Greta Gerwig's, Robbie, Mattel, Greta Gerwig, Ryan Gosling, funnyman Will Ferrell, Ferrell, Oscar, Daniel Kaluuya, Barney, Lena Dunham, helming, Lily Collins, It's, Polly Pocket, David Zalubowski, Kreiz – Organizations: Mattel, Bloomberg, Service, Maker Studios, Disney, Endemol Group, Brother, Fox Kids Europe, London's, Warner Bros, MGM, Arch, Hasbro Locations: Wall, Silicon

☆ Video has become the hottest topic in podcasting, as some look to it to supercharge growth and others worry about how it will change the industry
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-27 | by ( Marta Biino | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +9 min

And while Schwarzenberger comes from the world of YouTube, it's not just content creators and influencers who have embraced video. "Sometimes they don't differentiate between a podcast on an audio platform, and a podcast on a video platform. Spotify recently started partnering with payment startup Creative Juice to support podcast creators. Hosting company RSS.com launched a tool in June to generate video from audio podcast tracks to repurpose on social media. And several AI tools have launched that automatically chop up long-form video content for short-form social platforms.

Persons: it's, Jordan Schwarzenberger, Schwarzenberger, influencers, Alison Lomax, Louise Kattenhorn, Matt Wells, — chatty, Conal Byrne, Will Ferrell, Nikki Glaser, Ryan Seacrest, Joe Gagliese, Liam Heffernan, RSS.com, Josh Adley, YouTube's, Natalie Amos, Listen's Adley, Keith Jenkins, Jenkins, Kristen Bousquet, Bousquet, Jay Clouse Organizations: YouTube, Ireland, BBC, Cumulus Media, Apple, Spotify, iHeart, Viral, Gleam Locations: London

☆ To video or not to video? Inside the biggest debate in podcasting and how it could shape the industry's future
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-26 | by ( Marta Biino | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +9 min

☆ Silicon Valley's Hail Mary moment
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-07 | by ( Linette Lopez | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +14 min

Silicon Valley has entered the Hail Mary phase of its business cycle — a desertic part of a tech-industry downturn where desperation can turn into recklessness. Don't fear the robotsTo understand the Hail Mary moment, it's important to understand the actual capabilities of technology these tech titans are touting. Again, what Musk is describing is AI general intelligence — something much more advanced than the generative AI OpenAI is building on at the moment. During the pandemic when governments were handing out cash and people were stuck at home, the world bought everything Silicon Valley was selling. But those are exactly the types of workers getting laid off in Silicon Valley right now.

☆ Wrexham paint town red with open-top bus parade after promotion to EFL
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-02 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

[1/4] Soccer Football - National League - Wrexham Victory Parade - Wrexham, Wales, Britain - May 2, 2023 Fans light flares as Wrexham players celebrate with the trophy on the bus during the victory parade REUTERS/Carl RecineMay 2 (Reuters) - Wrexham's Hollywood owners Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney ditched the star-studded Met Gala to join the Welsh soccer club's open-top bus victory parade on Tuesday as they celebrated their promotion to the English Football League. Wrexham secured a fairytale return to the EFL following a 15-year absence last month after beating Boreham Wood 3-1 to win the National League with a game to spare. The dollop of Hollywood glitz has made Wrexham's promotion one of the most unlikely and heart-warming stories for many a season. Wrexham said the parade was also to celebrate the achievements of their women's team, who achieved promotion to Adran Premier, the highest level of league competition for the women's game in Wales. Reporting by Manasi Pathak in Bengaluru Editing by Christian RadnedgeOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ James Corden bids an emotional farewell to ‘The Late Late Show’
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-28 | by ( Toyin Owoseje | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

CNN —After eight years and multiple Emmy awards, James Corden’s time as host of “The Late Late Show” has come to an end. James Corden sings "That's Our Show" to say his last goodbyes to "The Late Late Show" on April 27, 2023. “I’ve watched America change a lot. Over these past few years, I’ve watched divisions grow and I’ve seen and I’ve felt a sense of negativity bubble and at points boil over,” he added. Corden ended his final appearance by performing a piano ballad, as a video montage of his finest moments on the show played.

☆ Late Night Hosts Fight Over the Best Bits on the Final ‘Late Late Show’
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-28 | by ( Trish Bendix | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

Welcome to Best of Late Night, a rundown of the previous night’s highlights that lets you sleep — and lets us get paid to watch comedy. Here are the 50 best movies on Netflix right now. Eight Years of ‘Late Late’James Corden signed off Thursday after eight years as the host of “The Late Late Show.” He followed a prime-time send-off special with one last show in his usual late-night slot, with his parents teary-eyed in the audience and with Harry Styles and Will Ferrell as guests.

☆ Hollywood agency WME's newest film agent is a twentysomething talent Midas whose must-read comedy newsletter spotted rising stars and launched careers
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-18 | by ( Reed Alexander | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

High-powered Hollywood talent agency WME has scooped up a new film agent from outside the company. Daniel Cramer, a former producer at Sony Pictures, was named by Insider as a 2022 rising star of the entertainment business. He became known as a talent spotter with his Cramer Comedy Newsletter, a curated email for industry insiders. As a producer and newsletter writer, Cramer has been an under-the-radar power broker in Hollywood for several years. Do you work in the entertainment industry?

☆ New documentary reveals how Jared Fogle led a 'double life' as a 'puppet master' who committed child sex acts while pitching sandwiches for Subway
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-05 | by ( Nancy Luna | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +9 min

Jared Fogle became Subway's pitchman after losing 245 pounds by mostly eating the chain's subs. He filmed over 300 ads for Subway before pleading guilty to child sex acts in 2015. Jared Fogle became a pop-culture icon after being tapped as the face of Subway in 2000. A random tip in 2015 finally exposed him as a child sex predator. Here are the most revealing highlights:Jared Fogle led a "double life," according to a documentary about his child sex crimes.

☆ Why you won't see many car ads during Sunday's Super Bowl
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-10 | by ( Michael Wayland | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +7 min

The average cost of a 30-second commercial during last year's Super Bowl was $6.5 million, up more than $2 million over 2016 rates. Automakers — historically among the largest Super Bowl advertisers — are mostly bypassing this Sunday's NFL championship game to preserve cash or spend ad dollars elsewhere. And EV startup Polestar, whose ad was a success in the 2022 Super Bowl, said it will also not advertise this year. Ferrell also appeared in GM's Super Bowl ad promoting EVs two years ago. Stellantis has not released its ads, while GM, Kia and WeatherTech released their commercials earlier this week.

☆ Take a Look at Some of the Best Super Bowl Ads Ahead of the Big Game
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-10 | by ( Aidan Pollard | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul return as Walter White and Jesse Pinkman in one of the much anticipated Super Bowl commercials. This year some advertisers have released what appear to be full-length Super Bowl commercials early, posting them to social media and YouTube. The Super Bowl has long been a kind of, well, Super Bowl for advertisers, leading companies to go bigger every year with their ads. The commercial pokes fun at corporate "rock stars" by splicing real rock and heavy metal icons into everyday office situations. Diddy does hitsA commercial released this week shows musician Diddy in a meeting with marketers from Uber who are asking him to write a song for the Uber One membership service.

☆ Super Bowl ads lean on stars, humor to grab attention
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-09 | by ( Sheila Dang | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

[1/3] Musician Ozzy Osbourne takes part in a Super Bowl ad for Workday, in this undated handout photo provided by Workday. Big-name celebrities are not uncommon in Super Bowl ads. A 30-second Super Bowl spot this year sold for a little over $7 million, according to a person familiar with the ad sales. “Advertisers want people talking about their brand, and not just during the 30 to 60 seconds of (Super Bowl) air time,” Rucker said. Some stars will poke fun at themselves or their careers in Super Bowl ads.

☆ Why Netflix is placing cars like the Chevy Bolt in its shows, and what the streamer's deal with GM means for its growing advertising business
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-02 | by ( Lucia Moses | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Netflix announced a new deal to integrate GM electric vehicles into popular shows like "Love is Blind" and "Queer Eye." On a press call announcing the deal, Lee said directors and showrunners would be involved in the process and that cars would be integrated in an "authentic" way so they don't "feel out of place." Netflix has a history of placing brands like Coke and GM in shows like "Stranger Things" and "Queer Eye." Lee insisted the GM deal isn't "product placement" and that GM isn't paying to put its vehicles on shows. Terms of the deal weren't shared; GM said it wasn't part of a TV ad buy on Netflix's Basic with Ads.

☆ Netflix to feature electric cars from GM and others in programming
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-02 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

[1/3] A Cadillac Lyriq electric vehicle (EV) under General Motors is seen during its world premiere on a media day for the Auto Shanghai show in Shanghai, China April 19, 2021. REUTERS/Aly SongLOS ANGELES, Feb 2 (Reuters) - Netflix Inc (NFLX.O) has unveiled a new star for some of its upcoming programming: electric vehicles from General Motors (GM.N) and other automakers. The streaming service announced an agreement on Thursday to feature vehicles including the Chevrolet Bolt, the electric GMC Hummer pickup and the Cadillac Lyriq in TV series and films "where relevant." Shows that will feature GM's electric vehicles include "Love is Blind," "Queer Eye" and "Unstable." Netflix productions also will include electric vehicles made by other automakers, the company said.

This year, women will hold all four of the top positions on the House and Senate Appropriations committees for the first time in history. “Oftentimes people say, you know, ‘We need to have women at the table.’ Well, women are the table.”Spending and debt fights loomOver the decades, these women have seen their share of spending fights. But I’m absolutely convinced that we have to stand together,” said Granger, who last week became the first female Republican to chair the House Appropriations Committee. Women, Murray said, are good communicators, and she and her colleagues can translate a big, complicated appropriations bill for everyday Americans. But as a 14-year House Appropriations staffer, she also intimately knows each of the top appropriators and recognizes the significance of this glass-ceiling-shattering moment.

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