X/Twitter Will Bring Back Article Headlines in Posts, Musk Says

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor In case you didn’t get enough of Elon Musk in “Elon Musk,” the 688-page authorized biography of the tech mogul penned by Walter Isaacson, here comes a new podcast from Isaacson talking about his experience spending two years shadowing the world’s richest person to research the book. The “On Musk” podcast, produced by iHeartPodcasts and Kaleidoscope, premieres Dec. 12 on the iHeartPodcast Network (at this link) and all major podcast platforms, with all four episodes available at launch.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Netflix is adding another live sports event to its calendar: the Netflix Slam, featuring Spain’s Rafael Nadal and Carlos Alcaraz in a special one-night tennis exhibition match. The event is scheduled for Sunday, March 3, 2024, at noon PT at the Michelob Ultra Arena at MGM Resorts International’s Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino in Las Vegas. It will stream as a duaI broadcast in English- and Spanish-language markets.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor The show is over for Showtime as a standalone brand. As of Jan. 8, 2024, Paramount Global will rebrand the linear Showtime cable network as Paramount+ With Showtime — the same name as the company’s top-tier streaming package.

Elon Musk is sparking controversy once again.

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.

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.

EXCLUSIVE: USA Network‘s “blue sky” series of the 2000s and early 2010s are having a moment this year between Suits‘ blockbuster run on Netflix, which broke streaming records and led to a potential offshoot series at NBC, and the Monk reunion movie, which premieres today on Peacock and already is getting awards recognition.

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.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director As soon as news hit in November that Nintendo and Sony Pictures were joining forces for a live-action movie based on the The Legend of Zelda video games, many fans started to predict the the studios had the next “Lord of the Rings” on their hands. Not so fast. Speaking to Entertainment Weekly, the film’s director Wes Ball said he’s long envisioned a Zelda movie not as a “Rings”-like epic but as a live-action Hayao Miyazaki movie.

Layton Williams has been dazzling us on Strictly Come Dancing and now he’s bringing the ballroom fun to Bad Education for its all-singing, all-dancing festive special. The 29-year-old, who plays Stephen Carmichael in the comedy reboot, says he was “absolutely thrilled” to show off his West End skills. “I’ve been gagging for a Christmas singy-songy musical moment from day dot,” he confesses.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Elon Musk this week angrily told big advertisers like Disney and Apple who have halted spending on X/Twitter to “go fuck yourself.” Bill Ackman, head of investment holding company Pershing Square Holdings and an investor in X, believes Musk has a point — opining that large marketers employ a double standard in reacting to Musk’s combative rhetoric and “free speech” stance. “I thought @elonmusk’s interview with @andrewrsorkin was one of the great interviews ever,” Ackman wrote in a post on X Thursday evening, referring to Musk’s appearance the New York Times’ DealBook Summit.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor TikTok users in Big Sky Country are free — for now — to keep watching short-form videos on the app in the new year. A federal judge issued a preliminary injunction Thursday blocking Montana’s first-of-its-kind U.S. ban of TikTok in the state, ruling that the law set to take effect Jan.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Linda Yaccarino, who’s already facing an uphill battle in winning over advertisers to X, has her work cut out for her to restore trust with big marketers after her boss profanely dissed those who had suspended advertising from the platform. Almost six months into her gig as CEO of X, Yaccarino continues to try to clean up PR messes created by Elon Musk, the shoot-from-the-lip megabillionaire and self-appointed defender of free speech who owns the company formerly known as Twitter.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor A visibly irate Elon Musk said advertisers who pulled spending from X/Twitter, following his post that endorsed an antisemitic conspiracy theory, were trying to “blackmail” the company and threatened to drive it into bankruptcy. Musk, currently the world’s wealthiest individual, had a message to big advertisers including Disney that halted spending on his social network: “Go fuck yourself… Go. Fuck.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor After Sports Illustrated was called out for publishing articles from apparently nonexistent authors with AI-generated headshots, the company that operates SI said the content in question came from a third party that had provided assurances those were written by humans. The Arena Group, which publishes Sports Illustrated, said it has ended its partnership with AdVon Commerce, the company that supplied the posts.

It didn’t take long for First Dates maître d’ Fred Sirieix to cause a commotion in the I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! camp by confronting politician Nigel Farage over his “shameful” Brexit poster last week. But 24 hours later it was his clash with influencer Nella Rose that dominated the news. Nella, 26, accused the 51-year-old Frenchman of “disrespecting her” when he joked he was old enough to be her dad soon after she spoke to him about her father’s death in 2020.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent After skipping Venice due to the actors’ strike, a busy Willem Dafoe is back on the festival trail, attending the 20th edition of the Marrakech Film Festival with his wife, filmmaker and actor Giada Colagrande. He spoke to Variety about his ties to Morocco, why he’s “happy to be promoting and starting to work again” now that the strike is over, and his role in Tim Burton’s upcoming “Beetlejuice 2.” How does it feel to be back in Marrakech? I’m happy to be back. Morocco for me is “The Last Temptation of Christ,” a film that was a beautiful experience.

A number of angry villagers say they are boycotting their local Waitrose - after a popular car park attendant was suspended from duties. Residents in Alderley Edge are up in arms about the suspension of Robert Shaw, known as Bob, who patrols the Waitrose car park in the Cheshire village.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Elon Musk, as promised, is hauling Media Matters into court — alleging the liberal watchdog group “knowingly and maliciously manufactured” images depicting neo-Nazi and white-nationalist posts on X next to major marketers’ ads. The complaint seeks unspecified monetary damages, as well as an injunction requiring Media Matters to “immediately delete, take down or otherwise remove” the article titled “As Musk endorses antisemitic conspiracy theory, X has been placing ads for Apple, Bravo, IBM, Oracle, and Xfinity next to pro-Nazi content.” Media Matters reps did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the suit.

With ITV’s I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! back on our screens on Sunday 19 November, a whole new host of celebrities are getting ready to swap their day-to-day lives for bushtucker trials and a diet of rice and beans. Among those, is former UKIP leader Nigel Farage, with one political expert claiming that Nigel’s stint on the show could allow him to “connect with a new generation” while also making him a “man of the people”.