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☆ How Paramount+ is punching above its weight with Stallone, Showtime, and reinvented library shows like CBS' 'Criminal Minds' and MTV's 'Teen Wolf'
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-07 | by ( Elaine Low | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Paramount+ (formerly CBS All Access) is beefing up by bringing sister network Showtime into the fold. "The shows with rich, deep libraries are the ones that get a lot of consumption," said Paramount+ streaming chief Tanya Giles. But Paramount+ (formerly CBS All Access) is beefing up by bringing sister network Showtime into the fold — rebranding both the Showtime cable network and the streamer as Paramount+ With Showtime. Paramount+ is also building upon its library with originals: The streamer recently revived "Criminal Minds," which aired on CBS for 15 seasons. In anticipation of "Criminal Minds: Evolution," viewership of the original CBS "Criminal Minds" jumped 46%, a Paramount+ spokeperson shared with Insider.

☆ Paramount is integrating Showtime into its streaming service and giving the premium network a new name
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-30 | by ( Oliver Darcy | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

Hello, Paramount+ With Showtime. The premium television network is getting its first name change in the channel’s 47-year history, Paramount Global boss Bob Bakish announced to staffers Monday. Merging Showtime and Parmount+ on streaming will be a far more compelling offering to consumers versus trying to convince them to subscribe to each service separately. “With Showtime’s content integrated into our flagship streaming service … Paramount+ will become the definitive multiplatform brand in the streaming space — and the first of its kind to integrate streaming and linear content in this way,” Bakish wrote in his memo. Showtime canceled “Let the Right One In” and “American Gigolo,” while also choosing not to move forward with “Three Women.”

☆ ‘The Ghost at the Feast’ Review: When America Kept to Itself
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-30 | by ( Paul Kennedy | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +1 min

The 19th-century world was emphatically multipolar, even if the British Empire held outsize influence in some areas outside Europe. The decades after 1945 were dominated by two nuclear powers—America and the Soviet Union. But the years before World War II cannot be summarized simply, or explained in a sentence or two. It was an economic force, all right, but it usually declined membership in international bodies or security arrangements. In 1919 the experienced British diplomat Harold Nicolson had called it “the ghost at all our feasts.”

☆ American Girl makes history with its first South Asian Girl of the Year doll
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-30 | by ( Brahmjot Kaur | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +2 min

American Girl unveiled its 2023 Girl of the Year on Thursday, and in a brand first, the title goes to a South Asian doll. Kavi Sharma, an Indian American from New Jersey, loves to sing, dance and hang out with her friends. Kavi, who takes weekly classical Indian dance classes, and her tight-knit family also celebrate their culture through holidays, food and clothing. American Girl, a subsidiary of toy company Mattel, debuted its first Girl of the Year in 2001. Although Kavi is the company’s first South Asian Girl of the Year, she is not the first South Asian doll.

In TV, the top 10 list ranges from the indefinable second season of “The White Lotus” to laugh-out-loud comedies and smoldering fantasy shows. “Catch the Fair One” is available on Hulu and various video-on-demand platforms. “Paris, 13th District” is available on Amazon Prime Video and various video-on-demand platforms. “Peter Von Kant” is available on various video-on-demand platforms. “Tár” is available on various video-on-demand platforms.

☆ 'Kidults' age 12 and up are buying more toys than ever, with teens and adults driving significant growth for the industry thanks to the pandemic and TikTok
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-24 | by ( Bethany Biron | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

'Kidults' age 12 and above are comprising a growing sector of the toy industry, according to NPD Group. NPD Group's Juli Lennett told Insider the growth is largely due to the pandemic and social media. "Now many of them are hooked," Lennett said of kidults who purchased toys early in the pandemic. Today, Lego now sells 100 adult Lego sets, according to the Associated Press, including a replica of Vincent van Gogh's Starry Night and a functional roller coaster. "We make LEGO sets specifically for adults with more detail, challenging building techniques, and cool ways to display."

☆ Soccer-In year of drama, World Cup shines spotlight on growth in the sport
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-20 | by ( Manasi Pathak | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

Dec 20 (Reuters) - Lionel Messi's World Cup fairytale lit up the year in soccer as heroics and heartbreak at the finals captivated fans and highlighted the growth of the world's most popular sport despite the criticism of host country Qatar's human rights record. With matches played in air-conditioned stadiums to cope with the heat of the desert state and no beer on tap in stadiums, spectators experienced a World Cup like never before. Playing in a fifth World Cup for Argentina, the incomparable Messi once again left everyone in awe of his magical powers on the field as he smashed records and delivered on the hopes of a nation, bringing the World Cup home after 36 years. The South American giants were handed a shock defeat by Saudi Arabia in their first group game, which statisticians Gracenote credited as the biggest upset in World Cup history. With every continent represented in the World Cup last 16, the most diverse knockout stage in the tournament's history was evidence of the sport's expanding reach.

☆ I help parents provide holiday gifts for their children. Here are the 6 biggest toy donation mistakes I see.
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-17 | by ( Jenn Morson | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

McGovern also collects toys during the holidays, and Insider asked what common mistakes people make. During the holidays, we collect toys for the children of our guests. After nearly 10 years of helping parents provide gifts for their children, here are some of the most common mistakes we see in donations. People are so much more acutely aware of their own poverty around the holidays, especially children. This is one of the biggest mistakes we make, because it delineates "them" from "us."

☆ What a Newsmax host's fake outrage over an American Girl doll tells us
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-15 | by ( Susanne Ramírez De Arellano | Susanne Ramírez De Arellano Is A Freelance Writer | Journalist Based In New York City. She Is The Former News Director Of Channel In Puerto Rico | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +5 min

“My daughter is just a cute little 6-year-old white girl — we couldn’t find anybody that looked like my daughter. It begs the question: What does an American Girl look like today? Because, going by the numbers, American Girl dolls represent what America looks like at present — not a “wokeified” version, but a real one. American Girl’s ethos is to build girls of strong character and help them reach their full potential. It is a future that can’t be stopped by a ridiculous anchor decrying that he can’t find a white doll for his cute white child.

☆ I ranked all 24 spreads in the viral $40 Bonne Maman Advent calendar. Here's why I think it's a gift worth the 600% price markup.
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-14 | by ( Rosa Pyo | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

The jam-and-spread brand Bonne Maman released its 2022 Advent calendar, whose 2021 version sold out. The calendar has 24 spreads to try and retails at $40 — a 600% price markup per 100 grams of jam. Google searches for "advent calendar" have more than doubled in the US since 2018, according to Google's trending data. The Bonne Maman Advent calendar 2022 edition comes with 23 limited-edition fruit spreads and one honey. The Advent-calendar jams cost $6.20 per 100 grams, versus the average Bonne Maman jam that costs about $1 per 100 grams — about a 600% markup.

☆ I visited the American Girl Doll Cafe in NYC and ate lunch with a few of the iconic toys. The experience was unforgettable — if a bit overpriced.
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-04 | by ( Ann Matica | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: 1 min

Only a few tables were occupied, which seemed expected for a Monday afternoon. Most of the diners were parents with their children, and I felt a little out of place being there as a 22-year-old, even though the American Girl Cafes have reportedly started to become a popular spot for influencers to visit. Ann Matica/InsiderSource: The New York Times

☆ Amazon Is Signaling its India Fatigue
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-30 | by ( Megha Mandavia | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

In September 2014, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos stood atop a truck in Bengaluru, dressed in traditional attire, flashing a $2 billion check: a brash demonstration of the American giant’s ambitions in India. Less than a decade later, with many more billions invested and Indian regulators increasingly taking a dim view of U.S. big tech, Amazon might be losing patience with the South Asian nation. Over the last week, Amazon has said it would close three ventures in India: food delivery, its education tech business and a wholesale e-commerce website. Closing these small subsidiaries doesn’t at first glance look like a major defeat. But the exit from wholesale e-commerce is important: It means that for now at least, Amazon is conceding to Walmart-backed Flipkart and Reliance in “kirana-tech.”

☆ Miss America reflects on her reign, talks about how brother with special needs inspires her activism
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-24 | by ( Brahmjot Kaur | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +3 min

Emma Broyles, the 2022 Miss America, has actually spent a lot of her life on the sidelines — cheering on her older brother at sporting events. Brendan Broyles, 22, who has Down syndrome, is an athlete in the Special Olympics and a major source of inspiration for his sister's activism as Miss America. Emma Broyles is the first Korean American and first Miss Alaska to win the title. “It’s a tremendous privilege to be the first Korean American Miss America. There she worked with a partner group to help provide glasses for students in the community for Alaskan Native Heritage Month.

That taught me a lesson: There's no sense in replacing things I own that still work. How much we've saved by keeping old itemsEven in pre-inflation days, replacing something I already owned with a newer model added up. The same goes for my old mixing bowls, cookie sheets, and dining room set. But as I grew older, I realized what an important lesson my parents taught me. But every time I'm tempted to replace something I already own for a slightly "better" model, I remind myself of my parents' old blue trash can and put away my debit card.

Others, like Target (TGT.N) and Barnes & Noble, sealed merchandise behind plexiglass or tethered it with steel cables to store shelves. One survey by the National Retail Federation (NRF) cited a 26.5% jump last year in "organized retail crime" carried out by groups of people. But it is unclear whether overall U.S. retail crime is on the rise, with little data available on the problem. Retailers rarely openly acknowledge the threat of theft or crime because they generally don't want to spook shoppers. "Along with other retailers, we've seen a significant increase in theft and organized retail crime across our business," Target CEO Brian Cornell told investors on a November 16 conference call.

☆ World Cup guide: Teams and players to watch
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-20 | by ( Ben Church | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +8 min

Doha, Qatar CNN —In just over 24 hours, Qatar 2022 will burst into life as the host nation takes on Ecuador in the opening game of the World Cup. Tournament favoritesOnly eight nations have ever won the men’s World Cup, many of which are among the favorites this time around. After being knocked out by England in the Euro 2020 semifinals, the team waltzed through World Cup qualification, winning nine of its 10 matches and conceding only three goals. In addition to making its World Cup debut, Qatar is a relatively unknown quantity with most of its players spending their careers in the nation’s top league. He will be an important player in Japan’s World Cup campaign and has already been dubbed the ‘Japanese Lionel Messi’ back home.

☆ A Classic Mercedes Helped Him Shift Gears in Work and Life
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-12 | by ( A.J. Baime | Photographs Martin Albert For The Wall Street Journal | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

William Li , 53, co-host of the television culinary series “Lucky Chow” and co-founder of the wellness brand the Hao Life, who lives in Columbia County, N.Y., on his 1988 Mercedes-Benz 560 SL, as told to A.J. To me, cars played an outsize role in the movies and TV shows of that era, and one model in particular. I remember seeing Richard Gere in “American Gigolo”—he drove a Mercedes 450 SL. The character Jennifer Hart in “Hart to Hart” was always in her Mercedes 450 SL. As a teenager, I thought that car typified success.

☆ Quentin Tarantino’s Greatest Hits of the ’70s
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-11 | by ( Tom Shone | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

CINEMA SPECULATION, by Quentin TarantinoMost film directors would no more comment on one another’s movies than they would score each other’s performance in bed. Then there is the Quentin Tarantino approach. “When Daryl Hannah walks down the hall of the hospital in ‘Kill Bill Vol. Any film critic would give her left arm to have made that connection. He never sees Reggie again, and whenever young Quentin brings him up, his mother just shrugs her shoulders and says, “Oh, he’s around.”

Language allowed me to make some meaning of the situation and take control of my own mental health narratives. “I’m gonna be honest, I didn’t wanna go to the mental health hospital,” she says in the documentary. She wants to be transparent about her mental health condition in order to inspire others and help them feel less alone. Moments like this highlight how risky it still is for a celebrity to be candid about mental health. For a celebrity who once had the most followed Instagram account, the performance of an identity versus the reality of it is crucial to understanding Gomez’s mental health advocacy.

☆ Casey DeSantis, Florida's 'co-governor': Rivals, friends, and former colleagues say she's the secret behind husband Ron DeSantis' meteoric rise
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-04 | by ( Lyz Lenz | Kimberly Leonard | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +29 min

Florida's first lady, Casey DeSantis, is a close confidant to her powerful husband, several people told Insider. He added, "We would not see Ron DeSantis outside of press conferences if he did not have a wife and kids." Ron DeSantis began clawing his way into the national spotlight in 2017 as a member of the US House of Representatives. She smiled wryly and said: "Everyone knows my husband, Ron DeSantis, is endorsed by President Trump, but he's also an amazing dad. "Ron DeSantis would be a very good candidate for the St. Johns county commission if he did not have Casey DeSantis in his life," Schorsch said.

☆ US woman files lawsuit against L’Oréal, claiming chemical hair straightening products are linked to her cancer
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-24 | by ( Jacqueline Howard | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

CNN —Cosmetics company L’Oréal, along with multiple other parties, is being sued over claims that its chemical hair straightening products put women at an increased risk of uterine cancer. Debrosse Zimmermann told CNN on Monday that the lawsuit marks a “watershed moment” for women of color who have used chemical hair-straightening products, such as relaxers. In the lawsuit, she claims to have no family history of cancer or uterine cancer. Black women tend to use these chemical hair-straightening products more frequently than White women, the researchers noted. “Black hair has been and always will be beautiful, but Black women have been told they have to use these products to meet society’s standards.

☆ LoveShackFancy built a pretty, skinny, rich-girl dreamworld. The fantasy was impossible to live up to.
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-24 | by ( Anna Silman | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +34 min

Suddenly, in the midst of discussing what Cohen should wear to the next LoveShackFancy store opening, there was the sound of glass clanging. (Another person confirmed hearing this exchange, though the person close to the company said multiple Zoom attendees did not recall it.) The person close to the company said, "It is not uncommon for trips to have dual purposes — they always generate content." Another time, during a visit to the Palm Beach store, Cohen freaked out after seeing staffers in sweatshirts and sneakers. "As with most contemporary fashion brands, we currently do not operate in the plus-size business," the person close to LoveShackFancy said.

☆ Ryan Reynolds says learning conflict resolution changed his life and how he approaches business
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-14 | by ( Sarah Jackson | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Ryan Reynolds says learning conflict resolution has changed his life, career, and approach to business. "You can't address problems with other people unless you understand them," he said at Indeed's FutureWorks conference on Thursday. The "Deadpool" actor credits conflict resolution with transforming his life and approach to business. Reynolds said he learned about conflict resolution when he attended a workshop on it after feeling "a little bit lost and a little bit angry" in his 20s. "So I took this workshop in conflict resolution, and I didn't expect it to, but it really changed my life and it changed how I applied those principles in business in particular."

☆ Ryan Reynolds reveals the No. 1 skill that's helped him succeed: 'It really changed my life'
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-13 | by ( Morgan Smith | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Reynolds credits his accomplishments to one important skill: conflict resolution. Conflict resolution is a skill Reynolds picked up in his 20s during a skills-building workshop he signed up for on a whim. "I wanted to get better … and I didn't expect it to, but it really changed my life." Mastering the art of conflict resolution has also helped Reynolds be a more effective communicator and build healthier, more productive relationships, both at work and in his personal life. "It's quite literally changed every relationship in my life, and it's changed the trajectory of my career and businesses," he said.

☆ ‘The Joy Luck Club’ may be getting a sequel
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-13 | by ( Lisa Respers France | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +1 min

CNN —Almost 30 years after the groundbreaking Asian American film “The Joy Luck Club” released, plans are being made for a new movie that will catch up with the characters from the original. According to Deadline, a sequel is in development with Oscar-winning screenwriter Ron Bass and author Amy Tan that will continue the story based on her bestselling novel of the same name. The 1993 film starred Rosalind Chao, Lisa Lu, Tamlyn Tomita, and Ming-Na Wen. It told the multi-generational tale of a group of Chinese mothers and their Chinese American daughters. A director has yet to be announced for the new film.

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