11/21/2024: High Rent, High Fashion
PLUS: Turkey Travel; CMA Awards; and Honorary Doctorate
Today is Thursday, November 21, 2024.
It is the 326th day of the year.
40 days remain.
WHAT’S ON TAP
Crooks in Michigan make off with an unconventional haul and a surprising ballot measure fails. Details in HIT LIST.
Five more lawsuits against DIDDY and DENZEL WASHINGTON opens up about his past love of wine. More in SHOWBIZ.
COLLEEN HOOVER’s other bestselling book is getting a film adaptation, with a big star already attached. Details in CASTING CALL.
YE wants to live forever. Find out more in KARDASH.
QUEEN CAMILLA earns a special award. Details in ROYALS.
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HIT LIST
For those tasked with lugging along part of the Thanksgiving meal through the airport next week, TSA has some guidelines for what can and cannot be carried on.
“If you can spill it, spray it, spread it, pump it or pour it, it is a liquid, aerosol or gel it must be packed in your checked bag if it exceeds the 3.4-ounce limit,” the press release states.
Heartier dishes, such as turkey, pie, stuffing, casseroles, baked goods, and fresh produce can all be placed in carry-on luggage.
Around 2.9 million people are expected to take to the skies the day before Thanksgiving. The same amount will fly home the Sunday after. [via TSA.gov]
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Another former executive of defunct crypto exchange FTX will avoid prison time.
Judge LEWIS KAPLAN sentenced the company’s co-founder, GARY WANG, to three years of supervised release and time served on Wednesday. His attorneys noted that Wang has since gotten a job having nothing to do with cryptocurrencies and has actively aided prosecutors in finding other financial fraud.
Prosecutors also took it easy, noting to the court that Wang was the first FTX employee to come to them and cooperated from the start, showing prosecutors the internal mechanisms that SAM BANKMAN-FRIED used to facilitate the crimes. [via Inner City Press]
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New York’s Fifth Avenue has long been the most expensive place to open a store when measured by rent prices per square foot, clocking in this year at $2,000.
NOW: Via Monte Napoleone in Milan, Italy, has taken the crown as the ritziest retail shopping lane in the world, where an 11% increase in rents year over year costs $2,047 per square foot.
Real estate analyst firm Cushman & Wakefield attribute the rise to simple supply and demand.
Rounding out the top 5 most expensive shopping spots are New Bond Street in London, Tsim Sha Tsui in Hong Kong, and Champs Elysees in Paris. [via CNN]
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Police in Dearborn, Michigan, are looking for crooks who robbed a pharmacy and made off with thousands of dollars worth of weight loss drugs.
Security camera footage shows at least four crooks involved in the heist. They specifically took about $15,000 worth of popular appetite suppressant Ozempic.
NOT SUPER BRIGHT: A quick review of the security footage also showed one of the robbers wearing a GPS tracking device. Figuring out who it was took little more effort than identifying which devices were at that location at the time of the breakin. That suspect has not been named, but police suggest they have leads on who else was in the posse. [via WXYZ]
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For the first time in nearly 30 years, a public ballot measure to increase the minimum wage has failed – in California of all places.
Proposition 32 would have raised the state’s minimum wage to $18 per hour by 2026. It’s already $16 per hour, more than twice the federal minimum, and fast food workers now earn $20 an hour. Amid all of that, health care workers will soon see a minimum wage of $25 an hour in the coming months. Still, Proposition 32 failed by a narrow margin, 51-49%.
In 1996, voters in two states rejected minimum wage hikes: In Missouri, to $6.75, and Montana, to $6.25 – the last time such measures failed in the United States.
WORTH NOTING: The vote is only final now because California takes literally forever to count all of its ballots. [via Nathaniel Rakich, Morning Martini]
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RELATIONSHIPS
Former football player JAY CUTLER is engaged to SAMANTHA ROBERTSON.
He’s 41 and she’s 33.
Cutler was previously married to reality star KRISTIN CAVALLARI. They share two sons, 12-year-old Camden and 10-year-old Jaxon and 8-year-old daughter Saylor.
Robertson, meanwhile, was married to actor TRACE AYALA. They share two daughters, Sophia and River.
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BY THE NUMBERS
📈 The DOW gained 139 points (0.32%) to close at 43,408 on Wednesday. The S&P was flat to close at 5,917 and the NASDAQ lost 21 points (0.11%) to close at 18,966.
🛢 WEST TEXAS INTERMEDIATE closed at $68; BRENT CRUDE at $73.
⛽ The national average price of a GALLON OF GAS was $3.06 on Wednesday.
₿ BITCOIN hit all-time highs again Wednesday, trading over $94,300.
💰Friday night’s MEGA MILLIONS drawing will be for a $453 million jackpot or a $209.6 million cash payout.
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SHOWBIZ NEWS
The 58th annual Country Music Association Awards aired last night, live from Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena.
On hand to host were LUKE BYRAN, PEYTON MANNING, and LAINEY WILSON.
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SEAN COMBS faces new allegations from five additional alleged victims -- one man and four women -- who claim he drugged and sexually assaulted them.
All of the suits have been filed by Houston-based attorney TONY BUZBEE, who is representing more than 120 alleged victims.
MEANWHILE: An offer has been made on Combs’ Los Angeles mansion. Bo Belmont of Belwood Investments put in an offer of $30 million for the place -- a fraction of the $62 million asking price. [via Page Six]
BY THE WAY: That's the same guy who scooped up YE’s gutted Malibu home for $21 million. [via TMZ]
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DENZEL WASHINGTON says that for 15 years he would drink wine for months on end, sober up while shooting a film, and then go back to popping bottles.
The pattern did a “lot of damage to the body,” he told Esquire, while revealing that he has now been sober for ten years. “I haven’t had a thimble’s worth since.” [via Esquire]
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The asking price for the home of the late GENE WILDER was just slashed by $3.5 million, dropping the price to $9.5 million.
Former owner ELON MUSK’s requirement that the future buyer preserve the property, meaning no tearing the place down, is still in place, however.
The place was purchased by Musk in 2013, then went to Wilder’s nephew in 2020. Musk lent the nephew $6.7 million to purchase the home, but it went into default after he and his wife fell behind on loan payments.
Wilder purchased the place in 1976 for around $300,000. [via TMZ]
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TORI SPELLING is done roughing it.
The actress recently traded in her RV for a $12,000-a-month mansion in Calabasas.
It was rumored at the time that Spelling was suffering financially, and was forced to downsize, but her ex-husband, DEAN MCDERMOTT felt she did it as a way to garner sympathy. [via The Blast]
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ELLEN DEGENERES and PORTIA DE ROSSI are making good on their promise to leave the U.S. if DONALD TRUMP was re-elected.
The pair have reportedly settled on a place in the Cotswolds -- that’s in South West England; about two hours from London.
As for their California real estate, insiders told TMZ that they have plans to list their Montecito mansion soon. [via TMZ]
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CASTING CALL
HALYNA HUTCHINS’ mom chose not to attend the premiere of “Rust” in Poland this week because of ALEC BALDWIN’s “refusal” to take responsibility for her daughter’s death.
Olga Solovey told Deadline that she could not attend as Baldwin “seeks to unjustly profit from his killing my daughter,” adding that he never reached out to the family to apologize.
Hutchins’ dad and sister also chose not to attend. No word on whether her husband went.
Baldwin was also not in attendance. [via Deadline]
WORTH REMEMBERING: Hutchins’ husband was given an executive producer role on the film following his wife’s death. He has also reportedly had conversations with Baldwin about the tragic incident.
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ANNE HATHAWAY will star in MGM Studios’ upcoming film, “Verity,” based on the No. 1 New York Times bestseller by COLLEEN HOOVER.
She will play Verity Crawford, a bestselling author who can no longer write after a mysterious accident.
Hoover’s other No. 1 bestseller, “It Ends With Us,” starring BLAKE LIVELY and JUSTIN BALDONI, hit theaters in August, grossing $346 million at the worldwide box office.
Other casting details will be announced at a later date. [via People]
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After 35 years, PAMELA HAYDEN announced she is retiring from voicing “The Simpsons” character Milhouse Van Houten.
Her final episode will be “Treehouse of Horror Presents: Simpsons Wicked This Way Comes,” airing on November 24.
Hayden also voiced several other characters on the show, like Jimbo Jones and Rod Flander, but Milhouse was her most consistent one. [via Variety]
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BLAST FROM THE PAST: Comedian TOM GREEN is making a comeback.
According to Page Six, the ex-husband of DREW BARRYMORE has several projects in the works, including a documentary, comedy special, four-part docuseries, and a country music album.
All of the shows will drop in January on Amazon.
A release date for the album -- which is not a parody -- has not been announced, but Green has released one of the songs. A diddy called “Get Er Done Tonight.” [via Page Six]
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THE DAILY KARDASHOPUS
YE wants to live forever.
The rapper is reportedly looking into storing his DNA in a special facility so he can be cloned in the future and “live on beyond death.”
Radar Online reports that Ye has also filed his plans with the US Patent and Trademark Office under “biological cloning.” [via Radar Online]
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WE’LL NEVER BE ROYALS
Add “Doctor” to QUEEN CAMILLA’s various titles and honorifics.
The Queen received an honorary doctorate of literature from the University of London on Wednesday as part of the school’s Foundation Day celebrations. As honorary Chancellor, PRINCESS ANNE presented her sister-in-law with the award.
Previous recipients of the Foundation Day honor include KING GEORGE V, QUEEN MARY, WINSTON CHURCHILL, and JUDI DENCH. [via Express]
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DAY OF THE YEAR
Guinness World Records Day
National Gingerbread Cookie Day
World Hello Day
World Television Day
Great American Smokeout
Social Enterprise Day
False Confession Day
National Stuffing Day
World Pancreatic Cancer Day
World Philosophy Day
Use Less Stuff Day
National Red Mitten Day
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ON THIS DATE
1783 - Two Frenchmen fly 5-and-a-half miles over Paris in an untethered hot-air balloon.
The flight took 25 minutes. It was the first significant and controlled human adventure into the sky.
Two months earlier the fliers had sent some barn animals up in one of their balloons in front of King Louis.
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1916 - Titanic's sister ship, Britannic, sinks in the Aegean Sea. It was functioning as a hospital ship to service wounded soldiers fighting in World War I.
30 people died and more than 1,000 were rescued.
It is known that an explosion caused the ship to sink, but it's uncertain what caused it -- though many historians suggest the ship hit a water mine.
The wreckage would be discovered 400 feet beneath the surface of the Aegean Sea in 1976 by Jacques Cousteau.
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1975 - A meddling Senate committee reports that American agents had engineered at least five assassination plots of foreign leaders.
The Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities linked the U.S. to a failed attempt on Fidel Castro's life. The bureaucrats found no information that an American president ever authorized an assassination.
President Ford decried the report, saying it undermined the country's foreign policy initiatives.
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1976 - "Rocky" premieres in New York City.
It would be released two weeks later across the country and become a huge hit at the box office.
The boxing flick would take home three Oscars, including Best Picture.
Then-unknown Sylvester Stallone even wrote the screenplay.
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1980 - A worldwide television audience of more than 350 million people watch the episode of “Dallas” that reveals who shot JR.
SPOILER ALERT: It was Kristin Shepard, his wife's sister and his former mistress.
The CBS drama ran for 12 full seasons, beginning in 1978.
In the US alone, the episode drew in 83 million people. That's 76% of all TV sets in the country at the time.
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1995 - Princess Diana admits she cheated on Prince Charles.
During her hour-long conversation with BBC reporter Martin Bashir, Diana admitted to an adulterous affair with her riding instructor James Hewitt.
She also shared her hurt at Charles’ affair with long-time friend Camilla Parker-Bowles.
The interview was watched by an estimated 15 million people -- one of the BBC’s highest-ever audiences.
The couple were separated at the time of the interview and would divorce in 1996. Diana would die in a car accident a year later.
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2019 - Elon Musk unveils Tesla’s all-electric pickup, the Cybertruck, at an event in Los Angeles.
While showing off how much of a beating the vehicle could take, Tesla Chefdesigner Franz Von Holzhausen took a sledgehammer to the body. He also hit the shatterproof windows with a metal ball that — to the surprise of Musk — shattered the window.
Earlier, Musk had claimed the truck was bulletproof against a 9mm handgun.
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BIRTHDAYS
Isabel May - actress, “Alexa & Katie” - 24
Grace Van Patten - actress, “Tell Me Lies” - 28
Justin Tucker - football player - 35
Carly Rae Jepsen - pop singer - 39
Jenna Malone - actress, “Into the Wild” & “Sucker Punch” - 40
Nikki Garcia - wrestler - 41
Brie Bella - wrestler - 41
Johnny Dany - “Jeweler to the Stars” - 50
Michael Strahan - football player & broadcaster - 53
Ken Griffey Jr. - baseball player - 55
Troy Aikman - football player - 58
Bjork - pop singer - 59
Goldie Hawn - actress, “Overboard” & “Foul Play” - 79
Born On This Date
Ken Block - race car driver - 1967 (d. 2023)
Harold Ramis - director, “Caddyshack” & “Groundhog Day” - 1944 (d. 2014)
Hetty Green - financier known as the “Witch of Wall Street” - 1834 (d. 1916)
Voltaire - French writer & philosopher - 1694 (d. 1778)
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