Pop Culture
Elon Musk Officially Tries to Terminate Twitter Purchase
Elon Musk is officially trying — and here, ‘trying’ is a very important word — to break his $44 billion purchase agreement with Twitter. In a July 8th letter to the SEC, his representatives wrote, “Mr. Musk is terminating the Merger Agreement because Twitter is in material breach of multiple provisions of that Agreement,” and “appears to have made false and misleading representations upon which Mr. Musk relied when entering into the Merger Agreement.” As previously reported, Musk waived his rights to due diligence in his haste to consummate the Twitter deal, while also agreeing to pay a $1 billion penalty if he later backed out. He seems to have almost immediately regretted this, and very quickly began laying a legal groundwork to break the agreement without paying the fine....
Disney, Netflix, Amazon, Paramount, More Reimburse Travel Expenses for Employees Seeking Abortion
As the nation reels from the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn a constitutional right to safe abortion, some of the entertainment industry’s largest companies have announced that they will reimburse travel expenses for employees seeking that procedure. Following the ruling today, June 24th, Paramount sent their employees a memo emphasizing the option, while Amazon announced a similar policy last month, and Puck News reports Disney, Netflix, Comcast, Sony, and Warner Bros. Discovery have all made promises along those lines. “Across the country, we have entered a moment of profound uncertainty — from a legal and a policy perspective, as states pursue different paths regarding reproductive rights, but also on a personal level, as we try to understand what services will be accessible, when,...
J.K. Rowling Pranked by Russian Trolls Pretending to Be Ukrainian President Zelensky
J.K. Rowling recently hopped on to a Zoom call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, only to find out it was… not President Zelensky. Instead, Rowling was pranked by Russian-based comedy duo Vovan and Lexus, who pretended to be the president in an interview. Rowling agreed to chat about her Lumos charity, which has been working in the Zhytomyr region of Ukraine to help women and children made vulnerable by the ongoing Russian invasion. Instead, Vovan and Lexus — who have previously pranked such prominent figures as Vice President Kamala Harris and Prince Harry — asked the Harry Potter author if Dumbledore was really gay and who he slept with, adding that it was “hopefully not with a transgender,” a reference to Rowling’s rampant transphobia. Elsewhere in the interview, the...
R.I.P. James Rado, Co-Writer of Broadway’s Hair Dead at 90
James Rado, the actor, playwright, and composer best known for co-writing the seminal 1967 musical Hair, died Tuesday (June 21st). He was 90. The news was announced by Rado’s longtime friend, publicist Merle Frimark (via the New York Times), who said the Broadway legend died of cardiorespiratory arrest in Manhattan surrounded by his family. James Alexander Radomski was born on January 23rd, 1932 in Los Angeles. He was raised between Rochester, New York, and Washington, DC, and went on to study Speech and Drama at the University of Maryland. In college, he authored his first musicals, inspired by the likes of Rodgers & Hammerstein, Rodgers & Hart, and Cole Porter, as well as pop music from the 1930s onward. After spending two years post-graduation serving in the US Navy, Rado m...
Bill Cosby Found Guilty of Sexually Assaulting 16-Year-Old Girl
A civil court jury has found Bill Cosby guilty of sexually assaulting a 16-year-old girl in 1975, the New York Times reports. The incident occurred when the plaintiff, Judy Huth, accepted the comedian’s invitation to join him at the Playboy Mansion in Los Angeles. Huth, to whom a California jury awarded $500,000 in damages Tuesday, first came forward with her accusations against Cosby in 2014. She’s just one of dozens of women who have come forth alleging the Cosby Show star of sexual misconduct, including a woman named Andrea Constand, whose 2017 trial versus Cosby ended in a mistrial after he was charged with three counts of aggravated indecent assault. For many of those victims, the ruling in Huth’s case is a massive step towards justice: “I feel vindicated,” Huth told a repor...
Elon Musk’s Transgender Daughter Changes Name to Affirm Gender Identity, Spite “Biological Father”
Elon Musk’s transgender daughter has filed to legally change her name, giving as the official reason, “Gender identity and the fact that I no longer live with or wish to be related to my biological father in any way, shape or form.” The petition for change of name, recognition of change of gender, and issuance of new birth certificate was signed April 18th, three days after she turned 18. A hearing is scheduled on Friday, June 25th. Her chosen name is redacted on publicly-available documents, via Reuters. TMZ reports that according to the teen, her new name will be Vivian Jenna Wilson. Advertisement Related Video One of Musk’s seven children, she was born to Canadian author Justine Wilson in 20014. Wilson and Musk were married from 2000 to 2008 and have five children to...
Stephen Colbert Addresses Triumph the Insult Comic Dog’s Capitol Arrest
Stephen Colbert addressed the arrests of members of his production crew at the US Capitol late last week during the opening monologue of Monday’s episode of the Late Show. Seven members of the production crew were charged with unlawful entry after taping a sketch involving Triumph the Insult Comic Dog. Among those arrested was Triumph creator and voice actor Robert Smigel. “Triumph offered to go down to D.C. to interview some Congress people to highlight some January 6 hearings,” Colbert said of the sketch. “I said, ‘Sure, if you can get anyone to agree to talk to you. Because, and please don’t take this as an insult, you’re a puppet.” Advertisement Related Video “After they finished their interviews, they were doing some last-minute puppetry and jokey make-em-ups in a hallway, when Triump...
Tennessee Secretary of State Tre Hargett Arrested for DUI After Bonnaroo
Tennessee secretary of state Tre Hargett was arrested for driving under the influence late Friday night while leaving Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival in Manchester, Tennessee, Associated Press reports. “On Friday night after leaving the Bonnaroo Music Festival, I was stopped by the Tullahoma Police Department and subsequently arrested for DUI,” Hargett said in a statement Saturday. “Driving Under the Influence is a serious matter, and I regret the circumstances that led to my arrest. I respect law enforcement and will trust the legal process as we move forward.” Per jail records, Hargett was booked into the Coffee County Jail shortly after midnight Saturday and released a few hours later. He’s scheduled to appear in court on July 14th. Advertisement Related Video Hargett, a Republica...
Father’s Day Sale: Save 25% on Summer Merch at the Consequence Shop
In celebration of all the dad’s that rock, the Consequence Shop is holding its annual Father’s Day Sale. From now through June 21st, our complete Summer Collection of T-shirts, masks, and more are on sale for 25%. As an added bonus, we’ll give you 25% off all Flower Lab and GWAR Bud of Gods CBD products when you purchase any Father’s Day Sale item. Our Summer Collection is filled with apparel that your dad — or any music fan, really — is sure to love. There’s the “Punk Is Dead, Long Live Punk!” shirt, our “Hell’s a Beach” design, and the “Radiate Positivity” tee, plus our entire Wavvy collection and all three GWAR Bud of Gods designs. Even our Stanning BTS, Protect Live Music, and “Phantom of the Stadium” merchandise is included in our Father’s Day Sale! All o...
Jennifer Hudson Becomes Third-Youngest EGOT Winner
Jennifer Hudson had a little something extra to write home about from the 2022 Tony Awards on Sunday: The singer and actress achieved EGOT status, becoming just the 17th person in history — and the third-youngest — to achieve the title. Hudson earned her “T” as a producer of Michael R. Jackson’s A Strange Loop, which took home the Tony last weekend for Best Musical. Her journey to EGOT began in 2007, when her appearance in Dreamgirls earned her the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress. Her 2009 self-titled debut album then nabbed a Grammy for Best R&B Album, while 2021 brought her a Daytime Emmy as an executive producer of the animated film Baba Yaga. At 40, Hudson just barely became the youngest-ever EGOT winner, trailing just behind Robert Lopez and John Legend, who were ...
Jennifer Hudson Becomes Third-Youngest EGOT Winner
Jennifer Hudson had a little something extra to write home about from the 2022 Tony Awards on Sunday: The singer and actress achieved EGOT status, becoming just the 17th person in history — and the third-youngest — to achieve the title. Hudson earned her “T” as a producer of Michael R. Jackson’s A Strange Loop, which took home the Tony last weekend for Best Musical. Her journey to EGOT began in 2007, when her appearance in Dreamgirls earned her the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress. Her 2009 self-titled debut album then nabbed a Grammy for Best R&B Album, while 2021 brought her a Daytime Emmy as an executive producer of the animated film Baba Yaga. At 40, Hudson just barely became the youngest-ever EGOT winner, trailing just behind Robert Lopez and John Legend, who were ...
Marilyn Monroe Dress Appears Damaged Following Kim Kardashian Met Gala Appearance
Kim Kardashian spurred some Internet ire when she wore Marilyn Monroe’s dress to the 2022 Met Gala, especially after it was revealed that she couldn’t really fit in the invaluable dress in the first place. Now, it looks like those concerns may have been warranted, because the iconic garment appears to be damaged following the event. The Marilyn Monroe Collection posted before-and-after photos of Monroe’s dress, a Jean Louis design that she wore while singing “Happy Birthday” to President John F. Kennedy in 1962, to Instagram. In the photo taken after Kardashian’s May 2nd Met Gala appearance, the back zipper appears stretched and crystals are missing from the garment, leaving only loose thread behind. “So much for keeping ‘the integrity of the dress,’” the account captioned the post. ...
