The Fix is In

I not particularly surprised that the major social media networks are refusing ads for Alex Gibney's new Elon Musk documentary.

Tech bros gonna protect tech bros.

All of the major social media platforms are refusing to run ads for the upcoming Musk documentary, which hits theaters Oct. 9, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Google-owned YouTube and Meta’s Facebook and Instagram have declined to run trailers for Musk, much to distributor Bleecker Street’s surprise. So has TikTok, which in the U.S. is run by an Oracle-backed joint venture. According to THR, all three tech firms cited reasons related to “political content.”

TikTok does not allow political ads. Meta has restrictions on political ads but not a strict ban, just pre-authorization. YouTube only requires disclosures. But all of those restrictions have until now mostly been understood as applying to political campaigns/parties and advocacy or lobbying groups, not Hollywood.

Not only has Elon Musk-owned X (née Twitter) refused to acknowledge Bleecker Street’s ad inquiries, X won’t “even accept advertising for any of its other films on its upcoming calendar,” THR wrote.

THR reported TikTok and YouTube “are still entertaining the petitions” from Bleecker Street to reconsider, though Meta is not and has rejected the distribution company’s appeal. None of the social media companies immediately returned THR’s requests for comment.

………

In other words, this is exactly the kind of thing that might piss off Musk, who has a notoriously thin skin and needs no excuse to slip into a fit of rage. Musk already has: he responded by tweeting Gibney has “ZERO integrity” and is a “horrible human.”

Musk’s webs of companies and business interests weave all throughout Silicon Valley and beyond—that’s how you become the world’s first temporary trillionaire. He has wealth, business relationships to threaten, and other methods of influence, not to mention an army of right-wing trolls and/or government officials who indulge his every grievance. No telling whether he’s called any of those favors in, or tech firms are just helping shush the baby as a matter of habit.

………

But Musk can’t stop people from talking about how much he doesn’t want them to see Musk, can he? Perhaps that Streisand effect will kick into motion soon enough.

One can only hope for the Streisand effect.

This Has Me Stoked

Disney is rebooting the Darkwing Duck animated series with Mark Hamill as the voice of the main character.

Disney is about to get dangerous. Six years after news of the project first broke, Disney has greenlit a brand-new animated version of the hit 1990s show Darkwing Duck for Disney+. Mark Hamill will voice the title character, with Seth Rogen producing and providing the voice of Launchpad McQuack.

The show is a continuation of the story told in the original series, which ran for 91 episodes in the early 1990s. “For the last 35 years, Darkwing Duck has been trapped in his worst nightmare: an alternate world that’s never heard of his superhero exploits,” the official description reads. “Now a rebellious teen named Duckie who knows all about his heroic past shows up to pull this ego-fueled vigilante back into battle. Together, this unlikely duo will get dangerous to fight old enemies like Negaduck and Megavolt and reunite with allies Launchpad, Gosalyn, and Morgana to save the entire universe.”

Duckie is voiced by Lilimar, who voiced Val in Inside Out 2. Lizzy Caplan is Gosalyn Mallard, Dan Stevens is Glade McTowers, and it’s being showrun by Sean Tretta (Star Trek: Picard) and Borja Peña Gorostegui. The original creator of Darkwing Duck, Tad Stones, consulted on the series.

“Like every other fan of the original show, I’m excited to see Darkwing getting dangerous again in a whole new series,” Stones said in a press release. “The new creative team has certainly amped up the action and comedy without forgetting the Disney heart. This series places DW in the literary tradition of Robin Hood, Zorro, and Sherlock Holmes, heroes whose lore has been reinterpreted by multiple creators in multiple mediums. They explored the core of those characters by tossing them into new eras, new relationships, and even new universes. No matter when or where, Darkwing Duck will appear in a cloud of blue smoke to grab the spotlight.”

There are some risks, but, "Like the chicken said, you knew the job was dangerous when you took it." (An actual homage of Superchicken used in the original series.)

I cannot wait for this to show up on the torrents. (Like I'm gonna give a cent to the f%$#ing mouse) 

Of Course They Caved

Despite every indication that they would win in court, state attorneys general have settled with Paramount for little more than some magic beans, because our political system has been deeply corrupted  by big money.

California Attorney General Rob Bonta has settled the challenge that he brought with 11 other state AGs to the merger between Paramount and Warner Bros. The deal to settle the suit is both improbable and outrageous.

The $81 billion merger will give the Ellison family control of two of America’s biggest media companies, rolled into one behemoth combining film, television, sports, entertainment, and news. It would slash jobs and reduce competition throughout several industries. David Ellison has already destroyed the independence of CBS News. This would allow him to destroy CNN as well.

As an indication of the strength of Bonta’s case, on July 20, U.S. District Court Judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín issued a temporary restraining order against the merger that rejected many of Paramount’s arguments, and scheduled a trial for next March. At that point, the Ellisons began applying political pressure for a settlement and threatening that Paramount would leave California if the suit succeeded.

In late August, Bonta canceled a scheduled meeting with representatives of Paramount after leaks of supposed settlement talks began appearing in the media, accusing Paramount of bad-faith tactics.

The tactics never changed. Paramount, Bonta, and other AGs spent the weekend in “advanced settlement talks” in which Paramount would stay in California, agree to 30 film releases per year among the two studios under threat of divesting some production companies if they don’t, invest $1.5 billion, and add an editorial board to allow for independence at CNN and CBS. The leaks of the deal very likely came from Paramount.

………

Yet Bonta caved under pressure, after being abandoned by every major politician in California (from current Gov. Gavin Newsom to heir apparent Xavier Becerra to Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass), all of whom are worried about jobs in the event of a Paramount exit. But Paramount’s stated plan post-merger includes $8 billion in “savings,” which translates into the loss of tens of thousands of jobs.

So, the right-wing nepo-baby, and his even more right-wing dad, end up with control over much of the US media landscape.

This sucks. 

Headline of the Day

Ex-Barclays boss denies having sex with woman dressed as Snow White after Epstein emails

—The Guardian

There are a lot of ,b.REALLY,/b. sick f%$#s out there.

The former Barclays boss Jes Staley has denied having sex with a woman dressed as Snow White, after being questioned about an infamous email exchange about Disney princesses with Jeffrey Epstein.

The comments were detailed in newly released transcripts from a closed-door interview last month with US lawmakers as part of their investigation into Epstein, who died in prison in August 2019 while awaiting trial on child sex-trafficking charges.

In the email exchange on 9 and 10 July 2010 Staley and Epstein referred to Disney princesses. In those messages, the details of which have been circulating in the media since 2021, Staley tells Epstein: “That was fun. Say hi to Snow White.”

Epstein then asks: “What character would you like next?” to which Staley replied: “Beauty and the Beast.” Epstein responded: “Well one side is availble [sic].”

During his congressional testimony, Staley, who spent more than three decades at JPMorgan Chase before joining Barclays in 2015, was asked: “Did you ever have sex with a young woman in a Snow White costume?

“No, I did not,” Staley said.

Mandy Rice-Davies Applies.  (Well, he would say that, wouldn't he?)

I expect Disney to file a lawsuit against Mr. Staley in the next few days. 

 

Nope

So it looks like Donald Trump is trying to put his name back on and shut down the Kennedy Center again.

Because his feelings are hurt when the judge told him that putting his name on the facility was unlawful. 

If I were judge Cooper, I'd be throwing the entire board in jail for contempt.

The board of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts voted on Thursday to inscribe President Trump’s name on the building beneath the main signage, according to two people with direct knowledge of the proceedings, aggressively testing a federal judge’s order.

According to the resolution approved by the Trump-allied board, the inscription underneath the institution’s name would read: “Restored and Renovated by President Donald J. Trump.” The board’s decision, which directs officials to act by “all legal means,” came shortly after it voted to move forward with Mr. Trump’s plan to shutter the building for renovations.

Restored and renovated by Trump? 

Is he swinging the hammer? Nope.

Is it his money that is being spent on this? Nope. 

F%$# this. 

………

The move appeared to attempt to find a creative workaround to a provision in the federal law governing the Kennedy Center that says “no additional memorials or plaques in the nature of memorials shall be designated or installed in the public areas.”

………

Both decisions will be subject to the scrutiny of the judge who, in response to a lawsuit from a Democratic lawmaker, found that the board had been “derelict” in considering the closure plan before approving it originally. Mr. Trump announced in February that the center would close for two years, with the objective of transforming what he called a “tired, broken and dilapidated” institution.

The board voted on Thursday to close the Kennedy Center’s main building while keeping a newer addition to the campus, known as the Reach, open for limited programming and to operate as an active memorial to John F. Kennedy. 

………

Outside arts administrators have suggested the financial realities for cultural organizations are far different from what the board is projecting, saying institutions typically do anything possible to avoid closure so they do not lose ticket revenue and donors. Ms. Beatty’s lawsuit questioned the true reasoning for the closure plans, arguing that it may be an effort to mask a financial downturn stemming from the president’s takeover.

Gee, ya think? 

I do hope that the judge goes postal on their flabby white asses.

The Good Guy Wins

Said good guy being Chuck Redd, who was just awarded $252,480 under an anti-SLAPP provision of DC law after the Kennedy Center sued him for canceling his Christmas concert.

They changed the name, and Redd canceled, so Trump's stooges sued him.

A superior court judge in Washington DC has ordered the Kennedy Center to pay more than $250,000 to a musician who canceled a performance at the arts center after the White House announced that Donald Trump’s name would be added to the venue.

Judge Tanya Jones Bosier ordered the Kennedy Center on Monday to pay $252,479.70 in legal fees and costs to attorneys for musician Chuck Redd within 45 days.

The Kennedy Center had sued Redd after he canceled a Christmas Eve concert at the venue. In June, the judge dismissed the Kennedy Center’s lawsuit and ruled in Redd’s favor under the district’s anti-Slapp statute, which is designed to protect people from lawsuits seeking to silence protected speech. Redd then requested that the court make the Kennedy Center reimburse him for the legal costs he incurred defending himself.

………

Redd’s decision to cancel came after the Kennedy Center’s Trump-controlled board voted to rename the institution “The Donald J Trump and The John F Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts.” Trump’s name was then added to the building’s facade and the center’s digital materials.

 

Good News Everyone!

It looks like the Ellison nepo-baby will have to delay the takeover of Warner Brothers, because it was clear that if they were not to do so voluntarily, then the judge would have made it mandatory.

I'm not sure whether the State Attorneys General suing to stop the deal will prevail, it would have been a long shot a decade ago, but antitrust law has shifted a lot in the past 10 years,

Paramount said on Friday that it had agreed to halt its merger with Warner Bros. Discovery until next June at the latest while a judge considers a lawsuit from state attorneys general who sued to block the deal. The delay is the latest curveball in a deal that would remake Hollywood.

In a legal filing, Paramount and the state attorneys general said that they had reached an agreement to freeze the $111 billion merger while the case works its way through court, extending a shorter pause imposed this week by a federal judge in California. The merger agreement expires on June 4, 2027, if the deal has not closed by that date.

The delay could be costly for Paramount. The company, run by the tech scion David Ellison, has agreed to pay Warner Bros. Discovery shareholders a fee of $650 million for every quarter that the deal does not close, beginning in October.

(Emphasis mine)

Given that Oracle corporation, the source of his family's wealth via his father is now approaching junk bond status, this may end up being more than just a delay.

………

The coalition of 12 states led by California includes New York, Connecticut, Oregon and Arizona. California Attorney General Rob Bonta, who led the states, said in a statement that the delay was “great news for audiences.” Letitia James, the New York attorney general, called the freeze “a crucial victory” in a statement.

The deal would unite under one roof two major movie studios, the streaming services HBO Max and Paramount+ and networks including CBS and CNN. Mr. Ellison has aggressively pushed to acquire Warner Bros., ultimately outbidding Netflix after proposing a handful of escalating offers.

The deal was already a big bet for David Ellison, his partners at RedBird Capital and his father, Larry Ellison, who personally guaranteed the acquisition. The combined company is expected to carry about $80 billion in debt, a daunting burden for the younger Mr. Ellison. Now, with the delay potentially triggering hundreds of millions of dollars in additional fees, the deal could become even less attractive.

I dunno, the deal is pretty f%$#ing ugly right now.

The merits of the deal are monopoly rents and currying political favor with Trump and his Evil Minions™.

This deal is pretty horrible for the rest of us.

Here is hoping that Oracle ends up in receivership before the deal goes through. 

It's Only 14 Days, But

I am heartened that federal district judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín has issued a 2 week injunction against the Paramont-Warner merger.

The only way this deal makes sense is through the extraction of monopoly rents, and they need those rents sooner rather than later.

With nepo-baby David Ellison's Paramount Skydance Corporation being largely dependent on his dad's Oracle wealth, and given that Oracle bonds are rapidly approaching junk bond status, any delay in the deal could both kill the deal and Paramount Skydance.

A federal judge on Monday ordered Paramount and Warner Bros Discovery to halt their $81bn merger for at least two weeks, allowing states that are challenging the deal more time to see their case through in court.

Twelve states, led by California, sued to block Paramount’s pending buyout of Warner last week – alleging that such a combination would “extinguish competition” in Hollywood and lead to fewer choices for consumers, particularly moviegoers and cable customers across the US.

The states’ top prosecutors called on Warner and Paramount to not close the transaction until after a court had time to “fully evaluate” their claims. And when the companies refused, they filed for a temporary restraining order – which is what district judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín granted on Monday. That opens the door to a potential preliminary injunction that the states are also seeking to effectively block the deal.

………

The temporary restraining order granted on Monday halts the deal from progressing for at least 14 days, although the pause could be extended for up to 28 days. The court has set 3 August as a date for a hearing on the states’ preliminary injunction motion, although that schedule could also be pushed back.

This does not appear to be anything more than a delay to allow for evidence to be presented and evaluated, but 14 days is better than no days.

Remember When Colbert Played the Vince Guaraldi Peanuts Music on his Last Show?

He ended up costing CBS a lot of money.

No amount disclosed for the settlement, the Lee Mendelson Film Productions announced that, "It would donate all proceeds to World Central Kitchen, the disaster-relief food non-profit founded by chef José Andrés."

Sweet, 

Today in Bullsh%$

In response to complaints about the Paramont takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery about dodgy foreign funding, mass layoffs, and the destruction of journalism at the merged entity, chief legal officer Makan Delrahim is saying that this is all just antisemitism.

Way to minimize the credibility of any claims of antisemitism.

Paramount is clearly getting nervous about the growing opposition to its $111 billion merger with Warner Brothers, which is being intensely criticized for dodgy overseas funding, its dire impact on journalism, and the inevitable mass layoffs, consumer price hikes, and shittier overall product that always results from debt-fueled mega-media consolidation.

There’s a certain desperation creeping into their arguments as state regulators send signals that they’re considering filing an antitrust lawsuit. Top Paramount lawyer Makan Delrahim recently sat down for an interview with the billionaire-owned LA Times (non-paywalled alternative), and insisted that opposition to the company’s terrible merger spree is somehow antisemitic:

“Let’s be honest,” he told the Times. “There’s a lot of fear-mongering, particularly from people in Washington, D.C. They are running a political campaign. Some of these people are trying to inflict harm on this transaction, really because of their own antisemitic views. Regulators and law enforcement officials will see right through that.”

That is, of course, a whole lot of bullshit. Delrahim is trying to pretend that opposition to the deal stems from the fact that billionaire Trump-donor Larry Ellison, who has retooled CBS News to be more friendly to Benjamin Netanyahu, is Jewish. But if there’s any personal ire directed at Ellison as it pertains to the deal, it’s that he has a generational track record of being a foundationally terrible person.

The real-world concerns about the deal have focused on things like the fact it’s heavily financed by Saudi Arabia and China. And there’s fifty years of history showing that deals like this (especially deals involving Warner Brothers) routinely result in mass layoffs, higher prices, and both a shittier company and a less healthy film and television production market.

Way to give Nazis an excuse to Nazi.

Mind Officially Blown

Heinz Doofenshmirtz as a good parent who has turned aside his own trauma to be a loving father and family man?

He's right, and I am shocked. 

Dead Man Walking

While I enjoyed the original film with Donald Sutherland and Kristy Swanson, I have never seen a full episode of the TV spinoff of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

It never appealed to me.

That being said, I understand and appreciate the sincere intensity of the fans of the series.

That being said, when I heard the news that a Buffy reboot with (most) of the original cast was canceled, I could imagine heads exploding through the "Sklayerverse."  (Is that what it is called, I honestly do not know)

In a recent interview, Sarah Michelle Gellar, who played the eponymous said that there was one executive at Hulu who hated the show who killed the new series.

If this report is accurate,  the executive mentioned below is in for a world of (hopefully just social) hurt.

This past weekend’s shock news about the death of Buffy: New Sunnydale felt like it came out of nowhere for fans hopeful for a return of the Slayer. That shock similarly applies to returning star Sarah Michelle Gellar and director Chloé Zhao, who have spent the past days since reflecting on the show’s sudden staking. But while Zhao has erred on the side of mystery about what went on with the show, Gellar herself has been much more open—putting the show’s axing in the hands of a single man.

In a new interview with People, Gellar reflected on the way the news rolled out—suddenly over a weekend, with the actress herself breaking the news to the public on Instagram this past Saturday. She especially questioned the timing of that news, with Gellar claiming that the call to confirm the series wouldn’t be moving forward at Hulu came as she was attending the SXSW premiere of her return to horror cinema in Ready or Not 2: Here I Come for Searchlight, one of the studios involved in making New Sunnydale for Hulu, and while Zhao was preparing to attend events tied to Sunday’s Academy Awards, where she was nominated for Best Director for Hamnet.

………

But while Zhao took to the Oscars red carpet and described the cancellation as unsurprising, saying that she would “welcome the mystery” of whatever came next, Gellar wasn’t willing to be so vague.

“We had an executive on our show who was not only not a fan of the original, but was proud to constantly remind us that he had never seen the entirety of the series and how it wasn’t for him,” Gellar told People. “That’s very hard when you’re taking a property that is as beloved as Buffy, not just to the world, but to me and Chloé. So that tells you the uphill battle that we had been fighting since day one, when your executive is literally proud to tell you that he didn’t watch it.”

While Gellar did not go as far as to name the executive she believes is responsible for delivering the killing blow to New Sunnydale, a new report from Deadline alleges that Gellar was talking about Disney Television Group President Craig Erwich. According to the trade, New Sunnydale‘s pilot, written by Nora and Lilla Zuckerman, had already undergone a significant round of changes after an initial version was described as playing to too young an audience and aiming its scope too small, putting more focus on the new Slayer, played by Star Wars: Skeleton Crew‘s Ryan Kiera Armstrong. A rework of the pilot’s script to make the tone more adult, and to incorporate more of Gellar as Buffy Summers, was much more strongly received, sparking talks that a pickup for new Sunnydale would be imminent.

This is like f%$#ing with Corvidae (Ravens, Crows, etc.). 

Incredibly Petty Bullshit

As you may have heard, Donald Trump's stooges renamed the Kennedy Center to the Trump-Kennedy center on December 18, despite the fact that the name of the center is mandated by law, and this law prohibits putting anyone else's name on the building.

In response to this, there were a number of cancellations, including the touring show of Hamilton, but the most abrupt cancellation came from the annual Jazz Jams concert, which is typically on Christmas eve.

So Trump's stooges are threatening to sue the organizer, percussionist Chuck Redd for $1 million.

This response was foreseen and foreseeable. 

Maybe if you decide to violate the law, and are accused by multiple artists of not paying them in a timely manner, you should expect cancellations.

The president of the Kennedy Center has demanded $1m in damages and fiercely criticized a musician’s sudden decision to cancel a Christmas Eve performance at the venue days after the White House announced that Donald Trump’s name would be added to the facility.

“Your decision to withdraw at the last moment – explicitly in response to the Center’s recent renaming, which honors President Trump’s extraordinary efforts to save this national treasure – is classic intolerance and very costly to a non-profit Arts institution,” the venue’s president, Richard Grenell, wrote in a letter to musician Chuck Redd that was shared with the Associated Press.

In the letter, Grenell said he would seek $1m in damages “for this political stunt”.

………

A drummer and vibraphone player, Redd has presided over holiday Jazz Jams at the Kennedy Center since 2006, succeeding bassist William “Keter” Betts. In an email Wednesday to the Associated Press, Redd said he pulled out of the concert in the wake of the renaming.

“When I saw the name change on the Kennedy Center website and then hours later on the building, I chose to cancel our concert,” Redd said. He added on Wednesday that the event has been a “very popular holiday tradition” and that he often featured at least one student musician.

I would suggest that Mr. Redd lawyers up, and that his lawyer be extremely during discovery.

While changing the name of the Center probably being unlawful (i.e. not a criminal infraction), making this decision could be prosecuted as a conspiracy, which is a criminal infraction.

Not Enough Bullets

Or Maybe a Guillotine 

After years of screwing up everything that he touched Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav is going to walk away from the proposed merger with Netflix $567,000,000.00 richer.

It's kind of like Typhoid Mary selling a restaurant for a million dollars back in the door. 

I’ve written a lot about the AOL–>AT&T–>Time Warner–>Discovery mergers simply because I think they perfectly encapsulate the pointless, destructive incompetence at the heart of modern media consolidation, and the cannibalistic nature of Wall Street’s obsession with illusory quarterly growth propped up by smoke, mirrors, and complex accounting.

Ever since the original AOL Time Warner merger back in 2001, an endless wave of pointless mergers promised no limit of innovative “synergies,” but instead resulted in more than 50,000 layoffs, shittier product, higher prices, the death of a ton of well-loved brands and IPs, decades of chaos, a decline in quality journalism, and a bottomless well of shit.

At the heart of this enshittification (at least the more recent mergers involving AT&T and Discovery) has sat Warner Brothers CEO David Zaslav. Like the AT&T execs before him, Zaslav has seen absolutely zero accountability for this chaos, and, in fact, has been repeatedly rewarded with a series of massive compensation packages that in absolutely no way reflect his competency.

With Netflix and Paramount (CBS) now scrapping over the remnants of Warner Brothers’ carcass, Zaslav stands to cash out with a golden parachute for the ages. All told, it’s expected that Zaslav is set to see $567 million in cash and other buyout options:

“Zaslav will receive $30 million in “golden parachute” compensation, along with $537 million in equity, for a total of $567 million in a transaction-associated pay, per the Wednesday filing. Zaslav has led Warners since it formally merged with Discovery in 2022 following a $43 billion spinoff from then-owner AT&T.”

………

The endless chaos created by “growth for growth sake” mergers may provide temporary stock boosts and tax breaks, but it simultaneously has generated no limit of ill will among consumers (something Zaslav sometimes pretends to recognize), massive stock fluctuations, a huge talent drain, lots of wasted money and time, significant animosity among creatives, and significant harm to core brands (like HBO and CNN).

It’s the extraction class abusing the rules of the game to pretend to be good at business. They’re not actually building anything useful, or remotely interested in the longevity of the company, its customers, the talent that powers it, or the people who work there. They’re playing with funny numbers to try and perpetually generate the illusion of impossible permanent growth at incredible scale, then cashing out when the check finally comes due for their complicated shell games.

As an FYI, Zaslav is the guy who canceled multiple projects, including finished movies, when he determined that the tax write-offs were more remunerative that releasing them to the public.

This Restores My Faith in Humanity

On Sunday at the Miss Universe competition in Chile, contestant Ignacia Fernández sang a song for the talent portion. 

That is not particularly unusual, what is unusual is that she is in a band, and she brought a band mate on stage to accompany her as she sang a song from the band's repertoire.

What is even more unusual is that her band is Decessus, a progressive Death Metal band.

Who’s to say you can’t be brutal and a beauty? Ignacia Fernández is a 27-year-old model, that much is clear, but what isn’t upon first look is how damn savage she is. While competing in the Miss World Chile 2025 (in Spanish, it’s Miss Mundo Chile) pageant semifinal last Sunday, November 2, Fernández stunned damn near everyone by performing a song from her progressive death metal band called Decessus. Yes, you read that right. Miss World Chile 2025 could be a headbanging guttural queen, and if I could vote for her, I definitely would.

Joined by her bandmate Carlos Palma, Fernández performed an original Decessus song while rocking a ball gown. She understandably garnered a standing ovation, with one of the judges saying he’s never seen anything like it in a beauty pageant before. We haven’t either, sir.

In an interview with the Chilean paper Las Últimas Noticias, Fernández said how she was nervous about her performance and the reactions it might receive. “Television lends itself to people making memes and making fun of you,” she said. The song I sang is by my band. It’s my job, my life.”

Fernández represents the Las Condes district, hoping to move on to represent Chile in Miss Universe. Her performance won her a spot in the pageant finals, which will take place this Sunday, November 9. Imagine how wonderful it’d be to have a death metal maven representing our universe. She’s even said: “I’m not trying to fit in. I’m trying to show myself as I am.” I couldn’t think of anyone better.

She made it to the next round of the pageant, because she was true to herself, and truth is power. 

He's Back!

I am referring, of course, to Jimmy Kimmel whose indefinite suspension ends tomorrow night.

Sinclair Broadcasting, whose right-wing Executive director David D. Smith was caught getting a blowjob from a prostitute in a company car, has announced that they will not carry the show.

This is par for the course for Sinclair Broadcasting, whose right-wing Executive director David D. Smith was caught getting a blowjob from a prostitute in a company car.

If you want to discuss Sinclair's actions, or perhaps put a comment into their file for a local station with the FCC, remember to mention that their right-wing Executive director David D. Smith was caught getting a blowjob from a prostitute in a company car. 

There Is Evil, and Then There Is

Ticketmaster.

In the latest case, we have the ticket selling website collaborating with scalpers to drive up prices and profits.

Why am I not surprised? 

The Federal Trade Commission sued Live Nation and Ticketmaster on Thursday, alleging that the companies tacitly worked with scalpers to profit from jacking up ticket prices on the secondary market.

As the FTC alleged in a press release, Ticketmaster's years of turning a blind eye to scalpers violated the FTC Act and the Better Online Ticket Sales Act, costing customers "billions in inflated prices and additional fees." Further, artists' efforts to keep event costs low were repeatedly frustrated by executives' greedy bid to drive Ticketmaster revenue by reaping as many additional fees as possible, the FTC alleged.

Rather than blocking scalping, Ticketmaster allegedly provided tech support to help so-called brokers exceed "fake" ticket limits that seemingly only applied to genuine customers buying tickets to see events.

The FTC's investigation revealed that five of the biggest brokers controlled thousands of fake or purchased Ticketmaster accounts buying hundreds of thousands of event tickets and making it impossible for fans to "have a shot at buying fair-priced tickets," FTC chair Andrew Ferguson said.

………

Ticketmaster controls about 80 percent of "major concert venues’ primary ticketing" and increasingly controls "a growing share of ticket resales in the secondary market," the FTC noted.

Seemingly, Ticketmaster uses this dominant position to "triple dip" on fees, maximizing gains from events by charging fees at initial purchase, then again from both sellers and buyers on the secondary market. Ticketmaster generates most of its revenue from these fees, the FTC said, raking in over $11 billion from 2019 through 2024—nearly $4 billion of which came from resale fees.

I'm thinking that these guys, and not the public relations department of Sirius Cybernetics Corporation will be the, "Bunch of mindless jerks who'll be the first against the wall when the revolution comes."

Quote of the Day

The hover text was, "Achilles was a mighty warrior, but his Achilles’ heel was his heel."
Link to xkcd comic

Comic Book Nerds and Theologians Are the Same Animal

—JR on  the Stellar Parthenon BBS,

We were discussing this xkcd cartoon, and JR made this observation.

Mind officially blown, because it is Charles Dickens (Turnips and Taxes) true, and I never realized it before. 

How did I miss this for so many decades? 

Ewww!

It's a little thing, but this report about restaurants creating false identities on dating apps to boost sales.

The idea is that they would set up a false date, and when the victim was stood up, they would end up sitting there in the restaurant, and they would order something to eat or drink. 

Really skeevy:

This greasy spoon did her dirty.

In the concrete jungle — where taking a dip in the murky shallows of the dating pool often leaves wannabe lovebirds high and dry — an online dater claims she was catfished by an East Village eatery that posed as a potential suitor on an app in an effort to get her business. 

“I was at the restaurant, thinking I’d been stood up, and ordered a cocktail and a meal for about $45,” Taylor Paré, 33, a vintage fashion curator in Manhattan, told The Post, “only to eventually find out that the restaurant is likely scamming me and other women out of our hard-earned money.”

The singleton shared the disturbing details of her date-night nightmare to a stunned TikTok audience of more than 57,000 viewers.

………

“We’re all out here just trying to have a meal with a cute date, and the restaurants have caught on,” added the brunette. “They’re using it as a tactic to increase their business, which is kind of like as dystopian as it gets.”

………

But after primping for the ill-fated night on the town, Paré waited 15 minutes for her no-show beau to arrive at the joint. 

When she reached for her phone, preparing to message the guy about his tardiness via the dating site, the no-nonsense New Yorker discovered that he’d unmatched with her on the app.

Unfazed by the apparent snubbing, Paré enjoyed her dinner, paid the bill and headed home.

However, several days later, while scrolling through an “Are We Dating the Same Guy”-like Facebook forum — a virtual town square, where scorned whistleblowers share red flags about would-be playboys — she was thunderstruck by the notion that she’d been duped. 

“A girl in the Facebook group recently had a very similar experience at the same restaurant,” Paré said. “I just started putting two and two together, and it seems like way too much of a coincidence for [the restaurant not to be involved].” 

Assuming that this is true, this is nasty.

If it's not true, I feel compelled to quote Mason Williams, "Who needs truth if it's dull." 

I Get This

I generally do not give much thought to the proclamations of celebrities, but something Keira Knightly said really resonated with me.

She will not have any more children in addition to her current 2, not because of the work, and not because the pain of labor, or the inconvenience of pregnancy, but because she cannot deal with having to watch Peppa Pig with her kids any more.

Keira Knightley is over having kids but it's not because of any of the reasons you may think.

The British actress and star of Netflix's new spy-thriller series "Black Doves" spilled the real reason why two children are enough for her on "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon."

“You know that thing where you’re like ‘Oh, you know they’re so nice. Should we have another one?’ ” Knightley said. “And you think, ‘Oh yeah, I could do the pregnancy. I could even do the birth but I cannot watch anymore Peppa Pig.’ So there's no more kids."

Knightley described her children, who are 5 and 9, as "very cool right now. They're into Studio Ghibli and just like beautiful things where you're just like 'oh, this is just lovely' after seven years of 'Peppa Pig.'"

 Thankfully, my kids were pre Peppa Pig.