4/8/2024: Guacamole Gunfight
PLUS: Bogus Jobs Report; Pat Sajak’s Final Spin; and “Cooking & The Crown”
Today is Monday, April 4, 2024.
It is the 99th day of the year.
267 days remain.
WHAT’S ON TAP
An update from ELONWORLD and new career opportunities in El Salvador. Details in HIT LIST.
Check out the winners of last night’s CMT Music Awards and catch up on the latest SEAN COMBS legal drama in SHOWBIZ.
A “Legally Blonde” series is in the works and PETE DAVIDSON takes care of his crew. Details in CASTING CALL.
KIM gets blasted for a SKIMS-related typo. More in KARDASH
A royal-family D-lister has a new book out. Details in ROYALS.
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HIT LIST
Some updates from ELON MUSK-world, since it’s been a minute:
AT TESLA: On Friday, Reuters reported that TESLA has scrapped plans for an affordable, consumer-level electric vehicle, instead using the development technology to deploy a fleet of robotaxis. Making EVs practically affordable for the masses has been Musk’s stated goal of the company as far back as 2006.
On X, Musk said that Reuters is lying, but didn’t expand on the details.
AT SPACEX: Musk posted a video of a talk he recently gave at SpaceX outlining the company’s plans for the future of space travel. He said the next test of Starship and the Super Heavy booster will be in the next few weeks, marking the fourth test of the largest rocket to ever make it into space. The following mission could include an attempt to safely land the booster stage, allowing its main components to be reused.
In recent years, the reusability of boosters has been a hallmark of SpaceX’s research and success. It has successfully tested this technology and repeatedly uses it for smaller rockets. The first full test of this technology, including landing the booster on its original base in Texas, could be next year. For now, those tests will be conducted over the ocean. “We do not want to rain debris over Mexico or the U.S.,” Musk said.
IN BRAZIL: X announced that the Brazilian government has demanded the social platform delete and censor accounts critical of its policies, without any due process. Musk said the company will publish all the demands made by the government, specifically a powerful judge on Brazil’s supreme court, along with X’s arguments for why the demands violate Brazil’s own Constitution. [via @elonmusk, Morning Martini]
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President of El Salvador NAYIB BUKELE announced on Saturday a new program to attract talent from abroad to the prospering Central American country.
Bukele said the government will offer passports for 5,000 “highly skilled scientists, engineers, doctors, artists, and philosophers from abroad” whose “contributions will have a huge impact on our society and the future of our country.”
Bukele promised more details to come. El Salvador began a program at the start of the year to offer citizenship to Bitcoin investors who could shell out $1 MILLION worth of the cryptocurrency to be eligible. [via @NayibBukele]
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On Friday, the Labor Department released a gangbusters job report, showing 303,000 new jobs created in March.
But all jobs are not created equal. A cursory look at the report’s data reveals an economy artificially overheated with Americans working harder than ever to make ends meet.
In fact, in March, the economy lost 6,000 full-time jobs and gained 691,000 part-time jobs. So the 303,000 “jobs” created as part of the report’s topline summary are actually full-time equivalent jobs.
IT GETS WORSE: More than 217,000 Americans added at least one additional job in March. [via CNBC]
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A Detroit-area man upset about the cost of a side of guacamole shot the Chipotle employee who apparently refused to give it to him on Friday.
Bystanders tell local media that the employee and customer were loudly arguing. When the employee went to a room behind the kitchen, the customer went behind the counter to grab his bag. When the employee tried to stop him, they started fighting. In the scuffle, the customer shot the employee in the leg.
The gunman was apprehended by police shortly after and the employee is recovering in the hospital. [via Fox 2 Detroit]
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The newly crowned world’s oldest man says his secret to living 111 years is luck, moderation and eating some fish and chips every Friday.
John Alfred Tinniswood is the new record holder following the death of Juan Vicente Perez, who passed away on April 2 at the age of 114. Guinness World Records honored him with the title last Thursday at his care home in Southport, England.
Tinniswood will turn 112 on August 26.
FOR THE RECORD: The world’s oldest living woman -- and oldest-living person -- is Maria Branyas Morera. She is 117-years-old. [via AP News]
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BREAKUPS
Actors SACHA BARON COHEN and ISLA FISHER are calling it quits after 14 years of marriage.
He’s 52 and she’s 48.
They announced the news on their respective Instagram stories, with a tennis metaphor, writing, “We are finally putting our racquets down.”
Cohen and Fisher share three children, two girls and a son.
WORTH NOTING: The filing comes amid controversy involving Cohen, who tried to block the release of REBEL WILSON’s memoir, “Rebel Rising,” in which she details having a negative experience working with him. On the surface, it does not appear that this has anything to do with the divorce.
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CHRISTIAN DUMONTET has filed for divorce from his wife, “Selling Sunset” alum CHRISTINE QUINN.
He’s 45 and she’s 35.
He cited irreconcilable differences as the reason for the split, and is seeking sole legal and physical custody of their son. The filing comes just over two weeks after Dumontet was arrested for domestic violence.
They tied the knot in 2019.
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RELATIONSHIPS
AOKI LEE SIMMONS -- the daughter of Kimora Lee Simmons and Russell Simmons -- is dating restaurateur VITTORIO ASSAF.
She’s 21 and he’s 65.
Little is known about Aoki’s past relationships, but Assaf was previously married to model CHARLOTTE BONSTROM, who left him for her twin sister’s ex-husband in 2021.
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SICK BAY
Country music star COLT FORD is in stable but critical condition at a hospital in Arizona after suffering a heart attack last week.
The medical emergency occurred last Thursday following the 54-year-old’s show at Dierks Bentley’s Whiskey Row.
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WEDDINGS
DON LEMON and his longtime partner TIM MALONE tied the knot on Saturday in Manhattan.
The couple said “I do” in front of 140 guests at the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church before heading to their reception at Ralph Lauren’s Polo bar.
By the way -- Lemon is 58 and Malone is 40.
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WEEKEND BOX OFFICE
10. Immaculate: $1.4 million (down from 5)
9. Arthur the King: $1.5 million (down from 6)
8. Wicked Little Letters: $1.6 million (up from 26)
7. Someone Like You: $3 million (new)
6. Dune: Part Two: $7.2 million (down from 3)
5. Kung Fu Panda 4: $7.8 million (down from 4)
4. The First Omen: $8.3 million (new)
3. Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire: $9 million (down from 2)
2. Monkey Man: $10.1 million (new)
1. Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire: $31.7 million (stayed at 1)
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BY THE NUMBERS
📈 The DOW gained 307 points (0.8%) to close at 38,904 on Friday. The S&P increased 57 points (1.11%) to close at 5,204 and the NASDAQ increased 199 points (1.24%) to close at 16,248.
🛢WEST TEXAS INTERMEDIATE closed at $86 on Friday; BRENT CRUDE at $90.
⛽ The national average price of a GALLON OF GAS was $3.59 on Sunday.
₿ BITCOIN climbed over the weekend, trading around $69,300.
🛩 There were more than 2,450 FLIGHTS delayed within, into, or out of the United States on Sunday and more than 60 such cancellations.
💰Tuesday night’s MEGA MILLIONS drawing will be for a $97 million jackpot or a $45 million cash payout. An Oregon resident won Saturday night’s $1.3 BILLION POWERBALL jackpot. The winner has the option to take the jackpot or the $621 million cash payout. Tonight’s drawing will be for a $20 million or $9.4 million cash payout.
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SHOWBIZ NEWS
The 2024 CMT Music Awards aired live last night from the Moody Center in Austin, Texas.
Country singer-songwriter KELSEA BALLERINI hosted the event for the fourth time -- though it was her first time doing it solo.
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Another frightening sexual assault lawsuit filed against SEAN COMBS – and his 26-year-old son CHRISTIAN COMBS.
This suit, filed Thursday evening in Los Angeles, comes from an employee named Grace O’Marcaigh who worked on Combs’ yacht in December 2022. She has chosen to come forward publicly with her accusations. The suit details Christian Combs’ efforts to force her to drink tequila before forcing himself on her.
In a bizarre twist, the suit includes a transcript of the assault and O’Marcaigh’s attempts to fend him off. These likely came from the recordings held by music producer RODNEY JONES, who says he always had recording equipment on hand, as directed by Sean Combs. Jones has filed his own lawsuit against the rapper with similar claims. Jones and O’Marcaigh have the same attorney.
The latest suit also alleges that Sean Combs paid off the captain to keep quiet, even after O’Marcaigh went to the captain to report the attack. [via Rolling Stone]
WORTH NOTING: While there are multiple civil suits pending against Sean Combs, he still has not faced criminal charges. Federal prosecutors have not yet revealed the basis for raids on his properties late last month.
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PETA fired off a letter of disgust to actor JASON BATEMAN saying he made some “false and misleading marketing claims” on his “Smartless” podcast last month.
According to the letter, the animal rights org has an issue with Bateman promoting Organic Valley as a dairy company that ethically sources its products from small family farms. They claim that the company actually hooks their cows up to milking machines multiple times a day and “repeatedly and artificially” impregnates them “to ensure milk production;” all of which PETA says is “not a pleasant experience.” They have asked Bateman to remove the ad from his podcast.
HISTORY REPEATS: In 2019, PETA slammed Bateman over a Super Bowl ad in which he mocked a vegan dinner as “gross.” [via Daily Mail]
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FRANCIS BEAN COBAIN marked the 30th anniversary of her father, KURT COBAIN’s death on Friday, with some never-before-seen family photos.
She shared a lengthy caption with the pictures, writing how over the past 30 years her “ideas around loss have been in a continuous state of metamorphosing.”
“Kurt wrote me a letter before I was born. That last line of it reads, ‘wherever you go or wherever I go, I will always be with you.’ He kept this promise because he is present in so many ways,” she continued.
Francis was just a year old when her dad died by suicide. [via Deadline]
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Apparently MORGAN WALLEN fans are not Swifties.
During his show at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, Wallen claimed he set the attendance record for the building on back-to-back nights, the first person to ever do so.
After thanking his fans for showing up for him, Wallen joked that he would hold onto the record until TAYLOR SWIFT came to the stadium, which will happen in the fall. Instead of laughing along with the joke, the crowd shared their disdain with a chorus of boos.
It isn’t exactly clear why Wallen fans don’t approve of Swift. [via Daily Mail]
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DWAYNE “The Rock” JOHNSON was booed on “The View” Friday after a clip of him speaking on “Fox & Friends” was played.
In the clip, Johnson explains that while he endorsed JOE BIDEN previously, he is not doing that again this year because he is so disappointed in the state of the country.
Co-host JOY BEHAR seemed to enjoy the audience’s reaction to the clip, asking whether they should even “pay attention to who gives an interview on Fox, where they lie every day?” [via The Wrap]
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CASTING CALL
“Bridgerton” star NICOLA COUGHLAN demanded that some of her scenes be edited to be nudity-free so her parents could watch.
Speaking to SiriusXM Hits 1, Coughlan explained that she wanted to avoid any unnecessary awkwardness with her Irish-Catholic family, so editors made some of her scandalous scenes much more tame.
Coughlan is the focal point of the forthcoming Season 3, which will come out in two parts; Part 1 will debut in May, followed by Part 2 in June. [via TMZ]
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REESE WITHERSPOON and her production company, Hello Sunshine, are working on a “Legally Blonde” spinoff series.
“Legally Blonde” follows Harvard law student Elle Woods, played by Witherspoon. It debuted in 2001. “Legally Blonde 2: Red, White & Blonde” followed in 2003, as well as 2009’s direct-to-video spinoff “Legally Blondes.”
Rumor is…”Legally Blonde 3” has been in the works for years. It’s not known if that project is the same as the series spinoff or a separate project. [via Variety]
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Following the cancellation of his show “Bupkis” -- after only one season -- PETE DAVIDSON generously thanked the show’s staff with some cold hard cash.
Sources told TMZ that Davidson handed out cash prizes totaling hundreds of thousands of dollars to those who worked on the show.
As for the cancellation, NBC executives were ready to renew the show, but decided not to after Davidson revealed he wanted to pursue other projects. [via TMZ]
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PAT SAJAK’s time as host of “Wheel of Fortune” will end on Friday, June 7.
The farewell episode will serve as the gameshow’s Season 41 finale.
It’s not a full sendoff for Sajak, who will serve as a consultant behind-the-scenes for three more years.
RYAN SEACREST will take over as host in Season 42, with VANNA WHITE continuing her letter-turning gig. [via Deadline]
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THE DAILY KARDASHOPUS
KIM KARDASHIAN was trolled over a typo in a post promoting her new SKIMS bridal thongs.
The ad featured the words “Your Mine” instead of “You’re Mine.” The mistake was pointed out and corrected to “Yours Mine,” which received even more backlash.
“I am baffled by them adding the letter ‘s’ to make ‘yours’ instead of adding ‘e’ to actually correct the mistake? Is it the apostrophe? Is that why ‘yours’ was chosen over ‘you’re’? Maybe I'm overthinking this,” one fan wrote -- eloquently summing up what everyone else was thinking.
Others took the opportunity to blast Kim over her promoting the undergarment as “one size fits all” when it appears to barely fit the woman modeling it. [via The Mirror]
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WE’LL NEVER BE ROYALS
DID YOU KNOW? QUEEN CAMILLA’ son, TOM PARKER-BOWLES, is an established food critic and author?
He has a new book of his own coming out, chronicling favorite recipes of the royal family as far back as Queen Victoria. In his own promotion of the book, “Cooking & The Crown,” Parker-Bowles mentions using the royal archives at Windsor to research the project. It hits shelves later this year.
While having a mother and stepdad serve as monarch certainly provided a leg up in Parker-Bowles’ access to archival information, this isn’t his first book about food. He’s published eight titles since 2004. [via Town and Country]
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DAY OF THE YEAR
National All Is Ours Day
Draw a Picture of a Bird Day
National Zoo Lovers Day
National Pygmy Hippo Day
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ON THIS DATE
563 BC - Buddhists celebrate this date as Buddha's birthday.
Gautama Buddha is believed to have been born a prince of the Sakya people, situated near Nepal and India. But after a trip into the real world, where he found pain, death, and hardship among the people, he took to a more religious life.
In the years that followed he sought complete enlightenment -- or nirvana -- and established the religious tenets of modern Buddhism. Today there are nearly 350 million adherents to the religion.
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1935 - Congress green-lights the Works Progress Administration as part of FDR's New Deal.
For eight years the organization coordinated 8.5 million workers across 1.4 million public projects.
These "workers" also included students and artists who won federal grants to study -- which had little immediate impact on unemployment.
That same day the president was authorized to allocate $5 million at his discretion for additional work relief programs. That money was used in part to also create the Public Works Administration.
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1974 - Hank Aaron beats Babe Ruth's career home run record with his 715th.
He accomplished the feat in his last year with the Atlanta Braves, before he returned to Milwaukee as a Brewer for the final season of his career.
He would become an MLB Hall of Famer in 1982.
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1994 - Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain is found dead in his Seattle home.
He is believed to have committed suicide three days earlier. The day prior, Courtney Love had filed a Missing Person Report, and told police she thought Cobain might be dangerous.
An electrical inspector stumbled on the body while inspecting the property.
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2005 - Pope John Paull II's funeral draws thousands of mourners and dignitaries from around the world.
It is believed to have been the largest gathering of world leaders in one spot ever, surpassing the state funeral for Winston Churchill in 1965.
The leaders were arranged in alphabetical order, based on the French spelling of the country's name. This put the Israeli president two seats down from the President of Iran. The funeral also drew in the President of Taiwan -- but the Chi-coms never got an invitation.
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2019 - Actress Allison Mack pleads guilty to sex-trafficking charges for her involvement in the alleged sex cult NXIVM (pronounced NEX-ee-um).
Mack, known best for her role in “Smallville,” wept as she admitted her crimes and apologized to the women she manipulated into becoming sex slaves for Keith Raniere, the group’s spiritual leader.
NXIVM, a purported self-help group, was actually a cover to lure women who were then branded with Raniere’s initials and coerced into having sex with him.
At one point there were reportedly over 18,000 members of the group.
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BIRTHDAYS
Busby Quintuplets - reality stars, “Outdaughtered” - 9
Skai Jackson - actress, “Jessie” & “Bunk’d” - 22
CeeDee Lamb - football player - 25
Forrest Frank - rock singer, Surfaces - 29
Shelby Young - actress, “Days of Our Lives” - 32
Matty Healy - rock singer, The 1975 - 35
Taran Noah Smith - actor, “Home Improvement” - 40
Taylor Kitsch - actor, “Friday Night Lights” - 43
Emma Caulfield - actress, “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” - 51
Patricia Arquette - actress, “Boyhood” & “True Romance” - 56
Robin Wright - actress, “The Princess Bride” & “Forrest Gump” - 58
John Schneider - actor, “The Dukes of Hazzard” - 64
Robert Allen Litchfield - bank robber, on FBI’s Most Wanted list in the ‘80’s - 76
Steve Howe - guitarist, Yes - 77
Born On This Date
Chris Kyle - Navy SEAL sniper & author - 1974 (d. 2013)
Vivienne Westwood - fashion designer - 1941 (d. 2022)
Betty Ford - First Lady & founder of the Betty Ford Center - 1918 (d. 2011)
Juan Ponce de Leon - Spanish explorer, discovered Florida - 1460 (d. 1521)
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