Elon Musk Biographer Walter Isaacson Thought It Was ‘Idiotic’ for Billionaire to Buy Twitter

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Lawyers for Ozy Media, the defunct media and entertainment company founded by Carlos Watson, allege in a new lawsuit that Ben Smith, BuzzFeed and Semafor (the media startup co-founded by Smith in 2022) misappropriated Ozy’s trade secrets “for their own benefit.” The suit additionally alleges that BuzzFeed breached a nondisclosure agreement it entered into with Ozy in 2019 as part of its efforts to buy the company. Lawyers representing Ozy Media allege that Smith, former BuzzFeed News editor-in-chief and New York Times media columnist who is currently editor-in-chief of Semafor, wrote “a series of hit pieces” about Ozy Media but that he did not disclose “his central role in BuzzFeed’s efforts to buy Ozy two years earlier” while he was at BuzzFeed.

Jerry Seinfeld has been in Israel this week meeting with the families of hostages captured by Hamas along with some of those recently released.

Ellise Shafer During the final “Last Week Tonight” episode of the year, John Oliver devoted an entire 30-minute segment to rehashing the past 12 months in the life of Elon Musk, billionaire and CEO of X (formerly known as Twitter). Musk has had a particularly fraught 2023, which started with the removal of verified status from legacy blue-check holders and ended with him telling advertisers, who began to pull their spending from X when Musk endorsed an antisemitic conspiracy theory, to “go fuck yourself.” Oliver began his roast by calling Musk “a man who can pull off pretty much any bad-guy-in-a-movie look.” As different images of Musk flashed by on the screen, Oliver threw out some comparisons.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Adobe called off plans to buy Figma, a web-based collaborative design platform, citing regulatory opposition to the proposed $20 billion deal. Adobe and Figma on Monday said they mutually agreed to terminate their merger agreement, originally announced Sept. 15, 2022.

John Oliver decided to focus on Elon Musk on Last Week Tonight‘s last new episode of 2023. The comedian roasted the billionaire by recounting all the controversies he’s been involved in this past year and said he “could pull off any bad guy in a movie.”

“Wellness”Nathan Hill (Knopf)At turns (darkly) hilarious and heartbreaking, this 624-page novel from the author of “The Nix” skewers Gen X cynicism, self-care devotion, cancel culture and aspirational wealth — with a brutal breakdown of how Boomers fall for conspiracy theories online. Jack and Elizabeth fall in and out of love, raise a difficult child and strive, often begrudgingly, to climb the corporate and social ladder, in gentrified Chicago, until the suburban dream starts to look more like a nightmare.“The Berry Pickers“Amanda Peters (Catapult)In July of 1962, a Mi’kmaq family arrives in Maine from Nova Scotia to pick berries for the summer. Weeks later, their youngest child, Ruthie, vanishes.

Leave The World Behind, the film is a new post-apocalyptic thriller from Sam Esmail – the creator of the hit series Mr Robot – and reached the top of its most-watched charts shortly after its release on Netflix on Friday (December 8).It follows the narrative of a society which begins to unravel and descend into chaos after technological infrastructure begins to malfunction and shut down. It is produced by Barack and Michelle Obama and is an adaptation of the 2020 novel of the same name, written by Rumaan Alam.However, based on a new post he shared on X/Twitter, it seems that Elon Musk may have misunderstood the meaning of one of the scenes in the film – and the internet has been quick to criticise him for the blunder.The moment concerns a scene with Teslas in the film, where characters played by Julia Roberts and Ethan Hawke are chased by the malfunctioning cars which are moving without drivers.

Taylor Swift’s fans are defending the singer following Elon Musk’s reaction to seeing her latest recognition as Time Magazine’s 2023 Person of the Year. The acclaimed musician received the coveted title after the success of her Eras Tour, the premiere of her film, which resulted in record-breaking numbers, and the domination of the Billboard charts with her hit songs.TAYLOR SWIFT SHARES THOUGHTS ON BEYONCÉ COMPARISONSSAGITTARIUS CELEBRITIES: TAYLOR SWIFT, BRITNEY SPEARS, BRAD PITT AND MORETAYLOR SWIFT, YE, AND KIM KARDASHIAN’S DRAMA EXPLAINEDThe CEO of Tesla took to Twitter to congratulate Taylor after learning about the recognition, however, he also decided to give her a piece of advice from his own experience.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Elon Musk, continuing his campaign to make X a “free speech” refuge even to the detriment of the company’s business interests, said he is reinstating the account of far-right conspiracy theorist Alex Jones. Twitter banned Jones in 2018, along with his Infowars program. Last year Jones was ordered to pay nearly $1.5 billion to families of Sandy Hook victims over his lies about the 2012 school shooting, which left 20 kids and six adults dead.

custody battle with the boy’s mother, singer Grimes.Three-year-old X Æ A-Xii sat atop his dad’s shoulders as the pair watched the Army Black Knights close out the final game of the season with a 17-11 victory over the Navy Midshipmen.“ARMY NAVY,” Musk tweeted, along with a video showing a view from the top of the stadium.In a subsequent reply, the Tesla CEO indicated he was team Army.Musk appeared all smiles as he carried the oldest of his three children with the “Oblivion” singer throughout Gillette Stadium in Massachusetts.The father-and-son duo also posed with the Army Mules mascot and sat with the Army crowd.The outing comes just two months after Grimes, whose real name is Claire Boucher, sued Musk for parental rights of their three children.Musk, 52, and Grimes, 35, share X Æ A-Xii, who was born in May 2020, and Exa Dark Sideræl, who was born via surrogate in December 2021.It was only confirmed in September that the pair secretly had a third child, a boy named Techno Mechanicus, whom they call Tau.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Game designer Hideo Kojima, creator of the hugely popular “Death Stranding,” had two pieces of news coming out of the Game Awards 2023. On Thursday evening at the Game Awards show in L.A., Kojima appeared on stage with filmmaker Jordan Peele to announce his next game project: “OD,” which Kojima describes as an “immersive and totally new style of game” that will explore “what it means to OD on fear.” It’s being produced in partnership with Microsoft’s Xbox Game Studios.

TIME magazine’s choice for Person of the Year, pop star Taylor Swift, and suggested other finalists like the Trump prosecutors or the Hollywood strikers might have been more deserving of the title. “She does everything, but for me, the TIME magazine Person of the Year, used to be man of the year in 1927, when it started, it was ridiculous.

Elon Musk has jokingly warned Taylor Swift that her popularity could decline after being named Time’s Person Of The Year for 2023.In response to Swift’s post on X announcing she had won the accolade (December 6), Musk congratulated the pop singer before posting a cautionary reply.“Some risk of popularity decline after this award,” Musk wrote. “I speak from experience lol.”The SpaceX founder was named Time’s Person Of The Year in 2021 for his influence “on life on Earth, and potentially life off Earth too,” in a statement from the magazine at the time..@samlansky has such a wondrous way with words, and I’ve loved reading his pieces for over a decade.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Telecom giant Verizon hired Leslie Berland, previously the top marketing exec at Peloton and Twitter, as CMO. Berland will assume the role of executive VP and chief marketing officer at Verizon, effective Jan. 9, 2024.

Elon Musk takes a lot of space in the world. The South African-Canadian-American citizen is involved in all manner of companies dictating the future of the planet, whether we’re talking about X, the social media and tech platform previously known as Twitter, or SpaceX, the spacecraft manufacturer that hopes to colonize Mars. He comes from a family of interesting people, filled with entrepreneurs and business owners.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Get ready to see “The Kardashians” standing next to Baby Yoda on your Disney+ home screen. Beginning Dec. 6, the significant majority of Hulu content will be available on Disney+ in the U.S.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor It’s a wonderful… robot? An AI-generated voice of Jimmy Stewart, the legendary Hollywood actor who died in 1997, reads a new bedtime story on the Calm sleep and meditation app. The voice of Stewart, who starred in films including “It’s a Wonderful Life,” “Vertigo” and “Rear Window,” was recreated for the Calm story using AI voice-cloning technology. The project has the consent of Stewart’s family and his estate (managed by CMG Worldwide).

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Verizon is making its latest aggressive push to bundle up streaming packages — offering ad-supported versions of Netflix and Warner Bros. Discovery’s Max for $10 per month. That’s about a 40% discount on the services compared with the $17/month it would cost to purchase them separately.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Susan Sarandon issued an apology for controversial comments she made at a pro-Palestine rally in New York last month. At the Nov.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor In its never-ending effort to try to reach younger news consumers, CNN has launched CNN Shorts — a new vertical video player on its website designed for smartphones. CNN already produces vertical-video news briefs for platforms including TikTok, YouTube Shorts and Instagram Reels. Now it sees a growing opportunity for CNN Shorts on its owned-and-operated platforms — where it can directly sell its own advertising.