12/7/2023: Selfie Sabotage
PLUS: Penguin Micronaps; Time For Taylor; and MORE Dutch “Endgame” Revelations
Today is Thursday, December 7, 2023.
It is the 341st day of the year.
24 days remain.
WHAT’S ON TAP
An Australian Moon lander gets a name and McD’s has grand plans. Details in HIT LIST.
CARDI B and OFFSET appear to be done and LIMP BIZKIT announces a new tour. More in SHOWBIZ.
HUGH GRANT did not have fun filming “Wonka” and there is more drama brewing on “Yellowstone.” Details in CASTING CALL.
KIM KARDASHIAN gets called out by TAYLOR SWIFT. Find out more in KARDASH.
A British tabloid investigates more discrepancies between international versions of “Endgame.” Details in ROYALS.
###
HIT LIST
WIKIPEDIA announced its most popular articles of the year this week.
The writeup on CHAT GPT led the list with nearly 50 million pageviews. The pages on significant deaths in 2023 (42.6 million), the 2023 Cricket World Cup (38.1 million views), Indian Premier League (32 million views), and the movie “Oppenheimer” (28.3 million) rounded out the top five. [via Wikimedia Foundation]
WORTH NOTING: Despite the dueling release windows between “Oppenheimer” and “Barbie,” the former got more than 10 million more pageviews on Wikipedia – though that could also suggest more about the type of person who turns to Wikipedia for information.
###
A study of penguins suggests the Antarctic birds only sleep for seconds at a time during the weeks after they lay eggs.
While they end up clocking around 11 hours of sleep a day, the rest comes in the form of “microsleeps,” a habit they continue, about four seconds at a time, to fend off threats and predators. Typically, one parent performs the intermittent dozing while the other goes off to hunt.
Researchers used more than just observation for the study, relying on sensors they carefully applied to 14 adult penguins over the span of 11 days on King George Island. [via AP News]
###
The Australian Space Agency is indulging in a public voting contest to name the lunar lander it plans to send to the Moon in 2026.
Aussies decided to call the machine “Roo-ver,” a nod to the country’s native kangaroo population. Roo-ver will hitch a ride on one of NASA’s Artemis missions.
Nearly 20,000 Australians participated in the naming contest. [via Space.com]
###
While tech companies brace for layoffs, MCDONALD’s has its eyes on a massive global expansion.
The Arches has announced plans to expand to 50,000 locations by 2027. It currently has about 42,000 restaurants around the world.
A good chunk of these new locations include expansion into China through a licensing deal essentially managed by the Chinese Communist Party. The U.S. will get about 900 more, and the rest of the world about 1,900. [via NBC News]
###
SELFIE SABOTAGE: What should have been a peaceful gondola ride in Venice, turned into a polar plunge thanks to some selfie-taking tourists.
As the gondolier tried to maneuver the vessel under a bridge, he asked his passengers to please sit still and stop rocking the boat.
Instead of listening to him, the group kept trying to get the perfect photo, causing the gondola to sway and eventually tip over, landing them in the freezing water.
Thankfully no injuries were reported. [via NY Post]
###
DEATHS
Producer NORMAN LEAR has died.
The prolific television producer passed away Tuesday at his home in Los Angeles, according to a statement on his website.
Lear was behind wildly successful sitcoms, such as “All in the Family” and “The Jeffersons.”
He was 101.
###
BY THE NUMBERS
📈 The DOW lost 70 points (0.19%) to close at 36,054 on Wednesday. The S&P lost 17 points (0.39%) to close at 4,549 and the NASDAQ lost 83 points (0.58%) to close at 14,146.
🛢WEST TEXAS INTERMEDIATE closed at $69; BRENT CRUDE at $74.
⛽ The national average price of a GALLON OF GAS was $3.21 on Wednesday.
₿ BITCOIN’s rally slowed on Wednesday, dipping back under $44,000.
🛩 There were more than 1,650 FLIGHTS delayed within, into, or out of the United States on Wednesday and more than 70 such cancellations.
💰Friday night’s MEGA MILLIONS drawing will be for a $395 million jackpot or a $188.2 million cash payout.
###
SHOWBIZ NEWS
TAYLOR SWIFT has been named Time’s 2023 Person of the Year.
She was selected as the one person who “most shaped the headlines over the previous 12 months, for better or worse,” according to the magazine.
Also, Swift is the first Person of the Year to be recognized for success in the arts -- with her “Eras” tour, film and re-recorded albums. [via Pitchfork]
###
It seems there is trouble in paradise for CARDI B and OFFSET.
After unfollowing each other on social media, Cardi posted that she intends to “drop all dead weight” from her life, which many think means her rapper husband.
For his part, Offset posted a clip from “Scarface” that suggests he is the reason for their respective successes. [via TMZ]
###
Another sexual assault accusation has been hurled at SEAN “Diddy” COMBS -- making a total of four now.
The anonymous accuser claims she was only 17 when the rapper allegedly sex trafficked and sexually assaulted her at a recording studio.
As for why she waited 20 years to tell her story, the victim says she got a boost of confidence after other women came forward with similar allegations against Diddy.
Diddy has denied the new accusations. [via Rolling Stone]
###
The jersey KOBE BRYANT wore during his final away game with the Los Angeles Lakers, has sold for over $365,000. The shoes he wore for the game went for more than $118,000.
His last game was played on April 11, 2016 in Oklahoma City. [via People]
###
LIMP BIZKIT will hit the road in 2024.
FRED DURST, JOHN OTTO, WES BORLAND, DJ LETHAL and SAM RIVERS will kick off their Loserville Tour in Wisconsin on July 16.
From there they will hit 23 cities across North America, before ending in California in August. [via Billboard]
###
POLL RESULTS: Yesterday we asked if you thought BRITNEY SPEARS reconciling with her family will last or if there has been too much damage done. 100% of the votes were for the latter.
###
CASTING CALL
SAG-AFTRA members have settled on a new deal with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers.
The multi-year TV and theatrical agreement includes “more than $1 BILLION in new compensation and benefit plan funding, along with outsized gains to the traditional residuals formula,” according to a union rep. There are also new rules around consent and compensation regarding the use of A.I., and new sexual harassment prevention protections.
The union described the agreement as “an enormous victory” on X.
Actors were on strike for 118 days -- the longest in SAG-AFTRA history. [via People]
###
This year’s “New Year’s Rockin’ Eve with Ryan Seacrest” will look a bit different than years past.
Joining Seacrest as hosts of the evening for the first time will be singer RITA ORA and co-host of “The Real,” JEANNIE MAI. They succeed LIZA KOCHY and CIARA, the latter of which is expecting her fourth child.
Ora will be live in Times Square while Mai will be hosting things from Hollywood. The Central Time zone countdown from New Orleans has been axed from the program.
Airing live on December 31, the show will feature over 5.5 hours of musical performances, guests and celebrations from around the world. [via Deadline]
###
HUGH GRANT did not enjoy his time filming the new “Wonka” movie.
Appearing as an Oompa Loompa, opposite TIMOTHEE CHALAMET as the titular character, Grant says the process of filming him in a much smaller stature was “drivel” because of the awkward body movements.
“I couldn’t have hated the whole thing more,” he told Metro.
As for why he even agreed to make the film, Grant said, “I have lots of children and need money.” [via Metro]
###
As if there wasn’t enough drama on set…
“Yellowstone” creator TAYLOR SHERIDAN’s coffee company, Bosque Ranch, has filed a lawsuit against “Yellowstone” star COLE HAUSER’s Free Rein Coffee Company.
The lawsuit cites unfair competition and false advertising claiming that Free Rein uses “a brand mark strikingly similar to Bosque Ranch’s registered trademark,” which they say could “potentially mislead customers.”
SPEAKING OF “YELLOWSTONE”: Filming for the final five episodes is set to begin next spring, with a debut in November. Still no word on whether or not KEVIN COSTER will return as patriarch John Dutton. [via US Weekly]
###
Animated films “Soul,” “Turning Red,” and “Luca” will all make their theatrical debuts in early 2024 despite already being streamable on Disney+.
All three went straight to streaming, starting with “Soul” in 2020, because of the covid pandemic shuttering theaters around the world.
They will be followed by Pixar’s forthcoming new movie, “Inside Out 2,” which will hit theaters in June. [via Variety]
###
THE DAILY KARDASHOPUS
KIM KARDASHIAN was name dropped in TAYLOR SWIFT’s interview with Time for her Person of the Year cover story.
Swift told the magazine that her feud with Kardashian and then-husband YE took her down “psychologically.”
“I moved to a foreign country. I didn’t leave a rental house for a year. I was afraid to get on phone calls. I pushed away most people in my life because I didn’t trust anyone any more,” Swift stated.
THE FEUD: It all started in 2016, after Ye released a song called “Famous,” in which he raps, “I made that bitch famous,” referring to the infamous moment at the VMAs when Ye took to the stage, interrupting Swift’s win. Kim got involved in the drama by leaking a phone call between Ye and Swift, in which she claims the latter approved the lyrics. Swift claims the recording had been edited. [via Guardian]
###
WE’LL NEVER BE ROYALS
Another claim against the Royal Family has emerged in the Dutch translation of “Endgame” that didn’t appear in the English version.
The Sun reports that numerous passages cite “sources close to the Sussexes” who make accusations against PRINCE WILLIAM. In particular, one of these “sources” accuses Wills of being “heartless” for stopping his brother, PRINCE HARRY, from getting to Balmoral last year before QUEEN ELIZABETH died.
Harry had reportedly made plans to fly from London to Balmoral with his uncles, PRINCE EDWARD and PRINCE ANDREW, but William forbade them from letting Harry catch a ride. The source adds in the Dutch version, “William purposely ignored [Harry]. He didn’t want to see his brother and didn’t want to help,” specifically because of Harry’s public revelations of private family matters. William considers this betrayal “unforgivable.” [via The Sun]
###
DAY OF THE YEAR
National Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day
International Civil Aviation Day
National Cotton Candy Day
###
ON THIS DATE
1787 - The Delaware state legislature ratifies the US Constitution; it was the first State to do so.
By June of the following year, New Hampshire would follow suit, becoming the ninth of 13 states to ratify the Constitution, rendering it binding.
The laws of the new government would go into effect March 4, 1789.
###
1805 - Westward explorers Lewis and Clark build camp at what would become known as Fort Clatsop, near present-day Portland.
The Winter home was built after the crew laid eyes for the first time on the Pacific Ocean just a couple months earlier. The weather would be too brutal to continue an eastward crossing back across the newly-explored territory.
The area was full of elk and deer, providing plenty of food and resources for the winter. The nearby mountains provided protection from exceedingly inclement weather.
The crew departed Fort Clatsop in March the following year.
###
1941 - At approximately 7:02 a.m., radar operators stationed at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii spot a fleet of aircraft on the radar headed toward the island. They were expecting American B-17s, so they found no reason to be alarmed.
They were wrong.
More than 360 Japanese fighter planes appeared less than an hour later, attacking the quiet Naval base.
Over 2,400 Americans were killed and 1,200 were wounded. Five of eight battleships were destroyed, three destroyers were sunk, and seven more were left severely damaged.
It was one of the worst foreign attacks on American-held land ever.
The next day the Senate voted 82-to-0 to go to war with Japan.
###
1987 - Soviet premier Mikhail Gorbachev flies into the United States to meet with President Reagan.
During the visit, the two heads of state would approve the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Force Treaty, which would have each nation do away with stockpiles of ballistic missiles in Europe with ranges between 320 and 3400 miles.
This treaty was unique in that it called for eliminating weapons, not just limiting the number a country could have.
###
1999 - The Recording Industry Association of America files a lawsuit against music service Napster for allowing free sharing of copyrighted tunes.
The case would define the new rules of file sharing on online networks.
It took almost eight years to tie up the case. Though Napster shut down at first, it would later return as a paid service.
###
2018 - Kevin Hart steps down as host of the 2019 Oscars after past homophobic statements he made resurface.
Hart was given an ultimatum to either apologize or be replaced. He chose to step down and later posted a video on Instagram where he didn’t apologize or admit any wrongdoing, but instead said he did not want to “contribute to feeding the internet trolls.”
The show would go on host-less for the first time since 1989.
###
2020 - Bob Dylan sells his entire catalog of more than 600 songs to the Universal Music Publishing Group for over $300 million.
Dylan has sold more than 125 million records and continues to perform worldwide.
###
BIRTHDAYS
Pete Alonso - baseball player - 29
Clara Berry - model - 30
Jasmine Villegas - R&B singer - 30
Nicholas Hoult - actor, “About a Boy” & “The Favourite” - 34
Emily Browning - actress, “Sucker Punch” & “Pompeii” - 35
Jon Moxley - wrestler - 38
John Terry - soccer player - 43
Sara Bareilles - pop singer - 44
Terrell Owens - football player - 50
C. Thomas Howell - actor, “The Outsiders” - 57
Larry Bird - basketball player - 67
Johnny Bench - baseball player - 76
Ellen Burstyn - actress, “Exorcist” - 91
Born On This Date
Aaron Carter - pop singer - 1987 (d. 2022)
Alex Johnson - baseball player - 1942 (d. 2015)
###