8/24/2022: Sylvester Stallone In the Doghouse?
PLUS: Twitter Whistleblower; “Archetypes” Podcast; and Nick Saban’s Big Payday
Today is Wednesday, August 24, 2022.
It is the 236th day of the year.
129 days remain.
TRENDING
Jennifer Lopez was trending Tuesday after sharing a selfie from her wedding day on social media. More in Showbiz.
NBA star Kevin Durant landed in Twitter’s Top 10 Trends after agreeing to extend his contract with the Brooklyn Nets.
Nick Saban was trending yesterday after landing a big payday with the University of Alabama. More in Sports.
Taylor Swift fans celebrated the anniversary of the release of her album “Lover” on Tuesday with the hashtag #3YearsOfLover.
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HIT LIST
A former Twitter executive in charge of cybersecurity has filed formal whistleblower complaints to the federal government, accusing the platform of major issues with national security implications.
PEITER ZATKO says a lack of internal safeguards make it all too easy for foreign operatives to spy on accounts and execute disinformation campaigns, according to reporting in CNN and the Washington Post.
He also alleges that Twitter has no systems in place to understand just how many accounts are actual people and how many are bots – which make his complaint essential information in Twitter’s ongoing lawsuit with ELON MUSK to enforce his acquisition of the company.
WORTH NOTING: Zatko may be little more than a disgruntled former employee; he was fired in January. The official word is that he was let go for poor performance.
But Zatko says he was dismissed after repeatedly trying to bring these security lapses to the attention of the Board of Directors. In his role as head of security, Zatko reported directly to Twitter CEO PARAG AGRAWAL.
A rep for Musk’s legal camp says they’ve already issued a subpoena for Zatko.
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If all goes well, 17-year-old MACK RUTHERFORD will become the youngest person to fly solo around the world when he lands in Bulgaria today.
He’s been flying an ultralight Shark, which can go as fast as 186 miles per hour. Since March 23 he’s clocked 52 countries on five continents and crossed the equator twice to satisfy requirements by the Guinness Book of World Records.
Here’s how Associated Press describes his journey: “The flight took him through Africa and the Gulf region — where he face[d] periods of extreme heat — then on to India, China, South Korea and Japan. From there, he headed to Alaska and down the U.S. West Coast to Mexico. The teen then headed north again along the U.S. East Coast to Canada, across the Atlantic via Iceland, to the U.K. and Belgium.”
WORTH NOTING: Just last year, a Brit named TRAVIS LUDLOW set the record, at 18 years old. Rutherford’s sister became the youngest woman to accomplish the feat in January; she’s 19.
Rutherford turned 17 while on the trip.
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McDonald’s is testing a chicken Big Mac later this month, replacing the beef patties with chicken patties similar to those on a McChicken.
It’ll only be available in the Miami area at first, though.
The Arches first tested the new sandwich in the UK, where it was a hit.
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At long last! A meteorologist has been held accountable for getting the weather wrong.
Hungary’s Minister of Technology and Industry announced that the top two officials at Hungary’s National Meteorological Service got rain forecasts wrong, which led to the country canceling a fireworks display for its annual St. Stephen’s Day celebration over the weekend. The forecasters expected rain right around 9:00 pm.
Organizers say it’s the largest fireworks show in Europe.
It’s been rescheduled for later this week.
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NASA has scheduled the first launch of its Artemis program, which will take a rocket to the Moon as early as Monday.
The mission will take it farther than any spacecraft designed to carry humans, flying 40,000 miles beyond the far side of the Moon.
If it launches as scheduled, it will return October 10 after traveling 1.3 million miles. Mannequins fitted with sensors will help gather data on how the mission will impact humans on future flights.
ALSO: NASA is including a plush Snoopy toy as its zero gravity indicator, which will freely float around in space.
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BY THE NUMBERS
📈 The Dow lost 154 points (0.47%) on Monday to close at 32,909. The S&P lost 9.26 points (0.22%) to close at 4,128 and the Nasdaq lost 0.27 points (.0022%) to close at 12,381.
🛢 West Texas Intermediate ticked up Tuesday, trading north of $93 a barrel. Brent Crude is well back up over $100 a barrel.
⛽ The national average price of a gallon of gas was $3.89 on Tuesday.
₿ Bitcoin picked up $83 on Tuesday, trading around $21,480.
🛩 There were 3,151 flights delayed within, into, or out of the United States on Tuesday and 595 such cancellations.
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CHARTS
Top 5 Fiction & Nonfiction Books Currently on the New York Times Best Sellers List:
FICTION:
“Where The Crawdads Sing,” Delia Owens
“It Ends With Us,” Colleen Hoover
“Verity,” Colleen Hoover
“Ugly Love,” Colleen Hoover
“The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo,” Taylor Jenkins Reid
NONFICTION:
“I’m Glad My Mom Died,” Jennette McCurdy
“The Body Keeps The Score,” Bessel van der Kolk
“Path Lit By Lightning,” David Maraniss
“The Destructionists,” Dana Milbank
“Braiding Sweetgrass,” Robin Wall Kimmerer
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DEATHS
JERRY ALLISON has died.
The musician, who drummed alongside BUDDY HOLLY as a member of The Crickets, passed away Monday. No cause of death was shared.
He was 82.
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WEDDINGS
“Vanderpump Rules” stars SCHEANA SHAY, 37, and BROCK DAVIES, 31, are married.
The two tied the knot yesterday in front of their closest family and friends, including several of their “Vanderpump” co-stars including ARIANA MADDIX, TOM SANDOVAL and TOM SCHWARTZ, in Cancun, Mexico, PEOPLE magazine reports.
The pair got engaged in July 2021, just months after welcoming their daughter, SUMMER MOON, 1.
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THE SWAMP
Part of the $80 billion spending package on the IRS includes $15 million dedicated to simplifying the tax filing process — sort of.
The earmark requires the IRS to spend $15 million in the next year to determine the cost of an easier online filing system, how it would be designed and, per The Hill, “how taxpayers would feel about using one.”
IN OTHER WORDS: The government is going to spend $15 million just to find out if Americans would prefer a simple, digital option for filing their taxes and spend a year hiring consultants to tell them how to do it. And then it will take Lord-knows-how-long to actually implement it.
WORTH ASKING: Is there a financial technology startup that could do this for a lot less money and much more quickly? Only the federal government can arbitrarily throw millions of dollars at a bureaucracy and hope they can spend all of it merely in the spirit of trying to solve a problem without any results.
WORTH NOTING: Companies like TurboTax and H&R Block spend millions of dollars a year lobbying the government to ensure the tax filing process is complicated and next to impossible without their software.
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Remember when the Biden White House said the first they heard about a raid on Mar-A-Lago was when it broke on the news, just like everyone else? They implied that President JOE BIDEN was not involved with the decision to investigate former President DONALD TRUMP.
That was a lie.
Memos and emails between staff for the National Archives, White House lawyers, and Trump’s legal team, obtained by independent journalist JOHN SOLOMON, illustrate that not only was Trump’s team compliant and expedient with early requests for documents in their possession, but that Biden actively rejected Trump’s claims of Executive Privilege. The White House delegated full authority to the National Archives to demand certain documents from Trump, creating the illusion of being hands-off while having intimate knowledge of the investigation’s intent.
WORTH NOTING: This sets an absurd precedent. The Supreme Court has long established that former presidents maintain the rights of executive privilege, which allows even former presidents to withhold documents and information from subpoenas when they deem them in the interest of national security or other concerns. Renowned Democrat legal expert ALAN DERSHOWITZ says, “The current president should not be able to waive the executive privilege of a predecessor, without the consent of the former president. … What president will ever discuss anything in private if he knows the man who’s beat him can and will disclose it.”
IN OTHER WORDS: Biden is circumventing norms and ordering third parties to conduct an investigation of his chief political rival. Sounds like a familiar accusation.
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The White House could announce as early as today a program to cancel up to $10,000 in student debt for individuals who earn less than $125,000 a year.
The current moratorium on federal-backed payments is set to end in a matter of days, at the end of the month.
BUT WAIT: The White House has likely dragged its feet on this issue in order to throw red meat to its lazy, entitled base of voters just ahead of midterm elections. Even an executive decision to cancel student loans would certainly face legal challenges all the way up to the Supreme Court.
The strategy is a gamble for Democrats: On one hand, the forgiveness could hit borrowers’ accounts before midterms, and boost turnout from a grateful base. But it might not be enough: most Americans don’t hold student debt, but the ones who do — dorks in the media who spent tens of thousands of dollars on journalism degrees — have the loudest mouthpiece. That’s why it seems to be a more popular issue than it is.
If the measure is tied up in legal challenges, Democrats get to once again make Republicans the boogeymen for not just handing out free money.
WORTH ASKING: Why haven’t student loan debt balances gone down more significantly since the start of the pandemic? No payments have been owed and even interest was paused while the government pumped trillions of dollars into the economy.
ALSO WORTH ASKING: What’s next? How does this solve the problem of students borrowing too much to go to college that they can’t pay back?
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LOTTERY
No winner for Monday night’s Powerball drawing. Tonight’s drawing will be for a $100 million jackpot or a $56.7 million cash payout.
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SHOWBIZ NEWS
JENNIFER LOPEZ shared an up-close photo of herself in her wedding dress and veil on social media Tuesday.
Along with the photo she wrote “First peek at my wedding looks at OnTheJLo.com,” though fans claim they did not receive anything in their inboxes from her site.
Several on Twitter questioned why multiple outlets reported her post as “Breaking News,” and others wondered why she didn’t choose to post a photo of her AND her new hubby, BEN AFFLECK.
MISSING CASEY: Several outlets continue to run pieces on Ben’s brother, CASEY AFFLECK, missing the wedding. While previous reports say he was off spending time with his college-bound son, others seem to want to make his absence an issue. Casey did take to social media the day after the wedding, welcoming JLo to the family.
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SYLVESTER STALLONE recently covered up a tattooed image of his wife, JENNIFER FLAVIN, with one of a dog.
Tattoo artist ZACH PEREZ shared photos of him inking Stallone’s bulging bicep with the face of Butkus, the famous Bullmastiff from the “Rocky” movies, completely covering up Flavin’s face.
Perez removed the post after several followers commented on the picture, asking why Stallone inked over his wife of 25 years.
SOMETHING IS BREWING: Last week, Flavin unfollowed Stallone on Instagram. She also posted a photo of her hugging her three daughters, with the caption “These girls are my priority [heart emoji] nothing else matters. The 4 of us forever.”
REP’S RESPONSE: Stallone’s publicist MICHELLE BEGA told the Daily Mail that it is all a “misunderstanding.”
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Former Atlanta Housewife NENE LEAKES has dropped her lawsuit against Bravo, “Real Housewives of Atlanta” executive producer ANDY COHEN, and the production companies behind the reality series.
She filed the suit in April, claiming she worked in a hostile and racist environment. Leakes’ former co-star KIM ZOLCIAK-BIERMANN was named multiple times in the filing, citing several instances where she allegedly made “racially offensive and stereotypical” comments.
According to court documents obtained by TMZ, the lawsuit has been dismissed “without prejudice,” meaning Leakes could potentially bring up another suit later on with the same claims.
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RIHANNA’s Fenty Beauty company has teamed up with art collective MSCHF on a limited-edition makeup palette filled with “six packets that each contain either ketchup or lip gloss.”
Fans took to the comment section of Fenty Beauty’s post to sound off on the unique product.
“I’m sorry but who wants to spend $25 to end up getting ketchup packets,” one wrote, while another asked, “Is Rihanna still on maternity leave…who signed off?”
Others called the palette “so cool” and “cute.”
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JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE will perform at the Los Angeles Children’s Hospital Gala on October 8.
The event, hosted by actor CHRIS PINE and his father, ROBERT PINE, will raise money for the hospital to provide critical care to pediatric patients, according to a press release.
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CASTING CALL
PAUL RUDD has joined the cast of Hulu’s “Only Murders in the Building.”
He joins the upcoming third season of the show after making a cameo in the Season 2 finale.
It is unknown if Rudd will be a series regular, have a recurring role or appear as an occasional guest star.
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OWEN TEAGUE will star in the newest series of “Planet of the Apes” films.
Not much is known about the latest installment as director WES BALL has kept plot details under wraps.
The original “Planet of the Apes” film, from 1968, centers on an astronaut who lands on a planet inhabited by an advanced ape civilization that rules over primitive humans.
The film has a mind-blowing final plot twist…but no spoilers here.
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LUKE WILSON has joined the cast of “Horizon,” to be directed by KEVIN COSTNER.
He joins previously announced cast members SIENNA MILLER, SAM WORTHINGTON and JAMIE CAMPBELL BOWER. Role details have not been shared.
“Horizon” chronicles a 15-year span of pre- and post-Civil War expansion and the settlement of the American West. The film is told through the eyes of different characters.
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ABC is looking to do a spinoff of its medical drama “The Good Doctor.”
Insiders told Deadline that “The Good Lawyer” will center on Joni, a 20-something woman who battles OCD. She gets to be a defense attorney for Dr. Shaun Murphy, who finds himself in legal trouble.
Dr. Murphy, played by FREDDIE HIGHMORE, is the star of “The Good Doctor.”
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HBO Max has scrapped plans to air “Batman: Caped Crusader,” an animated series from executive producers JJ ABRAMS and MATT REEVES.
It is yet another project that has been cut or removed from the streamer as Warner Bros. Discovery continues to cut costs ahead of the merger of the HBO Max and Discovery+ services next year.
Other animated titles that have been axed include, “Merry Little Batman,” “The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Toons Movie, “Bye Bye Bunny: A Looney Toons Musical,” “Did I Do That to the Holidays: A Steve Urkel Story,” and “The Amazing World of Gumball: The Movie.”
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THE DAILY KARDASHOPUS
KIM KARDASHIAN and her big sister KOURTNEY KARDASHIAN were recently issued “notices of exceedance” by the Las Virgenes Municipal Water District, as Southern California continues to deal with extreme drought.
The “notice” goes to those who have surpassed 150% of their monthly water budgets at least four times since the agency declared a drought emergency at the end of last year.
The Los Angeles Times reports that those who receive a notice are subjected “to the installation of flow restrictor devices,” which can reduce showers to a trickle and shut down lawn sprinklers.
NOT THE WORST: Former NBA star DWAYNE WADE exceeded his allocated water budget in June by more than 1,400% (90,000 gallons), The Times reports. That is down from his May usage which was over by as much as 489,000 gallons.
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WE’LL NEVER BE ROYALS
On the debut episode of MEGHAN MARKLE’s podcast “Archetypes,” which dropped yesterday, she talked to her longtime friend SERENA WILLIAMS about a scary incident that occurred when she, PRINCE HARRY and their son ARCHIE traveled to Africa in 2019.
Meg detailed how she and Harry were speaking at an official engagement when a fire broke out in the nursery that their four-month-old son was staying in. Racing back to the residence, she says they found Archie’s nanny in tears and “visibly shaken,” but both she and their son were okay.
“She was supposed to put Archie down for his nap and she just said, ‘You know what? Let me just go get a snack downstairs’,” Meg explained. “And her instinct was like, ‘Let me just bring him with me before I put him down.’ In that amount of time that she went downstairs, the heater in the nursery caught on fire.”
What makes the whole experience even more daunting is that Meghan and Harry had another official engagement they needed to attend, so she wasn’t allowed to stay with Archie.
“We had to leave our baby,” she exclaimed.
A stunned Serena replied, “I couldn’t have done that. I would have said, ‘Uh-uh.’”
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SPORTS
Thanks to a new contract extension, University of Alabama football coach NICK SABAN is once again the highest paid college coach in the country.
According to The Tuscaloosa News, he will earn $10.695 million this season -- an increase from the $9.9 million he was set to make
The new deal extends Saban’s reign through the 2029 season. It comes to an end on February 28, 2030, just months before his 79th birthday.
WORTH NOTING: Saban has been the highest paid college coach since 2000 when his salary was $1.2 million a year. Since landing at Alabama in 2009, he has been paid more than $101 million dollars by the university. .
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DAY OF THE YEAR
National Hug Your Boss Day
National Waffle Day
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ON THIS DATE
79 A.D. – Beginning on a grim note: Mount Vesuvius erupts near the ancient city of Pompeii. A cloud of ash and pumice bursts into the atmosphere and covers the city 3 inches deep.
Many fled, while others hid in cellars or their primitive stone houses trying to ride out the natural disaster. To make things worse, volcanic mud poured into the nearby city Herculaneum.
Those who survived the initial blast most likely died the next morning, when the remaining toxic gas from the volcano engulfed the city, suffocating anyone who dared to stay. A letter by Pliny the Younger to his friend Tacitus documented the terror -- that's how historians have been able to pinpoint the date of the eruption so closely.
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1814 – British troops plow into Washington, D.C.
President Madison was barely able to flee in time. He previously led troops at the Battle of Bladensburg, one of the last times the Commander-in-Chief commanded at a battleground site.
British General Ross and his closest officers had dinner inside the White House that night. The rest of the troops started burning and pillaging the remaining buildings.
The Capitol building was one of the most serious casualties. It was still under construction. The growing Library of Congress was also destroyed, as was the White House later.
A rainstorm eventually put out the blazes.
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1875 – Matthew Webb swims the English Channel unassisted—the first to do so—and gained immediate celebrity status across Europe.
Webb was inspired by the failed attempt of J.B. Johnson two years earlier. His first try at crossing the icy channel failed 12 days earlier due to bad conditions. Webb doused himself in porpoise oil to insulate his skin.
Three boats kept watch over him. He even continued swimming after a jellyfish attack.
The entire feat took 21 hours and 45 minutes, swimming against the tide.
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1958 – Maria Teresa de Filippis races a Maserati in the Portuguese Grand Prix. de Filippis was the first woman to race a Formula 1 car professionally. But racing such a high-profile machine like the Maserati gave both her and the car manufacturer plenty of buzz.
She grew up with two brothers who dared her to beat them in car races, which she often did — inspiring her racing career. She never finished better than 10th in a race, but did break the gender ceiling in car racing.
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1981 – John Lennon's assassin is given 20 years-to-life for murdering the famous songwriter. Mark David Champan gunned Lennon down December 8 the year before in New York City.
On the day of his sentencing, Chapman read “Catcher in the Rye”—the same book he was found reading at the scene of Lennon's murder when taken into custody by NYPD officers.
Chapman served time at Attica before being transferred to the Wende Correctional Facility in Alden in 2012. His pleas for parole have been denied.
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2006 – The International Astronomical Union changes the definition of "planet.” The move downgrades Pluto from planet to dwarf planet.
The IAU has given it the designation Dwarf Planet 134340—not even worthy of a name.
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2015 - Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announces that his social media platform has hit a new milestone.
On this date, for the first time ever, over 1 billion people logged into Facebook.
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2019 - Prince Andrew’s name is first connected to Jeffrey Epstein.
The royal denies knowing his friend was involved in sexual trafficking of underage girls.
Andrew would later be accused of sexually assaulting a teen he met through Epstein.
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BIRTHDAYS
Sofia Richie - model, daughter of Lionel - 24
Justine Skye - R&B singer - 27
Rupert Grint - actor, “Harry Potter” films - 34
Arian Foster - football player - 36
Chad Michael Murray - actor, “One Tree Hill” - 41
John Green - author, “The Fault in Our Stars” - 45
Alex O’Loughlin - actor, “Hawaii Five-0” - 46
Dave Chappelle - comedian - 49
Ava DuVernay - director, “Selma” - 50
Reggie Miller - basketball player - 57
Marlee Matlin - actress, “Switched at Birth” - 57
Cal Ripken Jr. - baseball player - 62
Steven Fry - actor, “V for Vendetta” & “The Borrowers” - 65
Mike Shanahan - football coach - 70
Vince McMahon - former WWE CEO - 77
Mason Williams - guitarist - 84
Born On This Date
Rocky Johnson - wrestler & dad of The Rock - 1944 (d. 2020)
Carlo Gambino - Italian-born mobster - 1902 (d. 1976)
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