3/20/2025: College Shmollege, Part 3,271

PLUS: Woman v Bureaucracy; Defamation Dismissal; and Trademark Snags (Again)

Today is Thursday, March 20, 2025.

It is the 79th day of the year.

286 days remain.

Photo by Clay Banks on Unsplash

WHAT’S ON TAP

NOTABLE & NOTEWORTHY: Good news for X’s financial house.

One guess who topped Billboard’s Top 100 Women Artists of the 21 Century. More in SHOWBIZ.

ILONA MAHER joins the world of podcasting and another COLLEEN HOOVER novel gets an adaptation. Details in CASTING CALL.

Yet another hiccup for MEGHAN SUSSEX’s rebranded brand in ROYALS.

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When ELON MUSK bought Twitter in 2022, he raised about $44 BILLION from banks, private investors, and his own investment fund. Detractors widely mocked the inflated purchase price at the time, and even friendly reporting since then has suggested Musk has expressed regret over the major acquisition.

BUT NOW: As a privately-held company, X is raising a new investment round right at its $44 BILLION valuation. The Financial Times reports that the platform is raising $2 BILLION to pay off some of the debt Musk took on to complete the purchase.

At the time of purchase, bank loans composed $13 BILLION worth of the cash to complete the sale.

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SHMOLLEGE: On Monday, Harvard announced expanded financial aid resources for students coming from families with household incomes under $200,000 a year.

Now, the university’s student-run newspaper, The Harvard Crimson, reports that the school is for the first time offering a remedial algebra class for undergrad students entering with poor math skills.

Harvard’s Director of Introductory Math says the dumbed-down course addressed pandemic-era learning loss: “Students don’t have the skills that we had intended downstream in the curriculum, and so it creates different trajectories in students’ math abilities.” [via The Harvard Crimson]

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RYAN REYNOLDS wants a judge to dismiss JUSTIN BALDONI’s $400 million defamation lawsuit against him and his wife, actress BLAKE LIVELY.

Baldoni’s defamation lawsuit was filed in response to Lively’s suit, accusing him of sexual harassment during the filming of “It Ends With Us.” In the suit, he accuses Reynolds and Lively of working to get him fired from his talent agency, WME, all while calling him a “sexual predator.”

Reynolds' attorney argues that it’s not defamation as his client “genuinely believes Mr. Baldoni is a predator.”

The whole saga is set to play out in court next March, though will continue to be part of the court of public opinion in the meantime. [via NY Post]

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Pro-Israel and pro-Palestine protesters interupted GAL GADOT’s Hollywood Walk of Fame ceremony on Tuesday.

While the protesters were kept away from the actual event, their chants could be heard in the background.

Gadot, who was born in Israel and fought in the Israeli army, has not shied away from her stance on the matter. [via EW]

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Actress MAIKA MONROE will star in the adaptation of COLLEEN HOOVER’s novel “Reminders of Him.”

The story follows Kenna, a young mother released from prison, who struggles to rebuild her life and reunite with her daughter, Diem, while dealing with societal judgment and a past she cannot escape.

Monroe most recently starred in the hit thriller, “Longlegs,” opposite NICOLAS CAGE. [via Deadline]

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UP NEXT: Put on your shocked face to find out Billboard’s top woman artist of the century; a disturbing new trend to target creators; and a delegation arrives in Paris on this date in history.

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