Todd Spangler Ny Latest Celebrity News & Gossip

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 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 Ted Sarandos is happy the twin Hollywood strikes are over — but the Netflix co-CEO claimed the streamer didn’t see significant “interruption” in its ability to launch original series and films. “We are mostly just thrilled that the strikes are behind us.

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.

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 The same day activist investor Nelson Peltz announced he was launching a proxy campaign to get seats on Disney’s board of directors, the company adopted amended bylaws covering nominations of directors by outside parties. In a bid to win shareholder favor amid the brewing proxy battle, Disney separately on Thursday announced a cash dividend of $0.30 per share, payable Jan.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Moonbug Entertainment, the kids’ entertainment powerhouse behind the hit “CoComelon” franchise, is bringing on board its first chief marketing officer: Peter Stone, a nine-year veteran of Netflix. In the new role, Stone will be responsible for Moonbug’s global marketing strategy, as well as the evolution and growth of its brands. He will be based in Moonbug’s London office and starts Dec.

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 Tubi, Fox Corp.’s ad-supported video-on-demand service, is eyeing a bigger international footprint: The streamer has tapped David Salmon, former CTO of Endeavor Streaming, as executive VP and managing director of international. Salmon, based in the U.K., will report to Tubi CEO Anjali Sud, the ex-chief exec of Vimeo who started at the streamer in September. Tubi’s biggest market is the U.S., where it first launched.

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.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor After Elon Musk last month decided to banish article headlines from posts on X, formerly known as Twitter, he’s bringing them back — but in a different format. In early October, Musk said the removal of headlines under posts of links on X would “greatly improve the esthetics.” On Wednesday, the tech mogul said, “In an upcoming release, X will overlay title in the upper potion of the image of a URL card.” He noted in a follow-up that the headlines would appear overlaid on the image of an article, not below it: “Every pixel matters,” Musk wrote.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor One week ago, OpenAI’s board fired CEO Sam Altman. Now, the pioneering artificial intelligence startup, which created buzzy AI chatbot ChatGPT, is bringing him back. “We have reached an agreement in principle for Sam Altman to return to OpenAI as CEO with a new initial board of Bret Taylor (Chair), Larry Summers, and Adam D’Angelo,” the not-for-profit research company posted Friday night on X.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Binance Holdings, operator of the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the world, pleaded guilty to U.S. criminal charges that it violated the Bank Secrecy Act and other laws and will pay $4.3 billion to resolve the investigation, the Justice Department said Tuesday. In addition, Binance founder Changpeng Zhao entered a guilty plea of failing to maintain an effective anti-money laundering program in violation of the BSA, according to the DOJ.

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.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor After a spate of major advertisers said they were halting spending on X over owner Elon Musk’s support of an antisemitic conspiracy theory, the tech mogul said he plans to file a “thermonuclear lawsuit” against a research group that had claimed to find ads on X/Twitter running against pro-Nazi and white nationalist posts. On Friday, Disney, Warner Bros.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor In a dramatic shakeup at artificial intelligence pioneer OpenAI, the organization said chief exec and co-founder Sam Altman is exiting after its board lost confidence in his “ability to continue leading OpenAI.” San Francisco-based OpenAI is a private research lab that develops AI, founded in 2015 as a nonprofit organization by Altman, Elon Musk (who is no longer on the board of OpenAI) and others. With Altman’s exit, CTO Mira Murati will assume the role of interim CEO while a replacement is sought. In addition, OpenAI president Greg Brockman will step down as chairman of the board and will remain in his role at the company, reporting to the CEO.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor The White House condemned Elon Musk as promoting “antisemitic and racist hate” after the tech mogul endorsed a conspiracy theory that Jewish people “promote hatred against whites.” On Wednesday, Musk — CEO of Tesla and SpaceX and owner of X — agreed with an X user who promoted the conspiracy theory that Jewish communities “have been pushing the exact kind of dialectical hatred against whites that they claim to want people to stop using against them.” In the now-removed post, the X user said they were “deeply disinterested in giving the tiniest shit now about western Jewish populations” who are facing “hordes of minorities that support flooding their country.” In response to that, Musk commented, “You have said the actual truth.” In a statement released Friday, White House spokesperson Andrew Bates said, “It is unacceptable to repeat the hideous lie behind the most fatal act of antisemitism in American history at any time, let alone one month after the deadliest day for the Jewish people since the Holocaust… We condemn this abhorrent promotion of antisemitic and racist hate in the strongest terms, which runs against our core values as Americans. We all have a responsibility to bring people together against hate, and an obligation to speak out against anyone who attacks the dignity of their fellow Americans and compromises the safety of our communities.” Reps for X and Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor YouTube has updated its monetization policy for adult content in two areas: Creators are now eligible to receive ad revenue from videos that feature “non-sexually graphic dance, such as twerking,” as well as content related to breastfeeding. In a notice posted Thursday, the video platform said certain content showcasing “sensual dancing” is now allowable under its advertiser-friendly content guidelines.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Kelly Rizzo, TV personality and entrepreneur who is the wife of the late Bob Saget, is launching “Comfort Food,” a new weekly podcast in which she hosts intimate conversations with guests about life, love and loss — while tucking into emotionally comforting food. In January 2022, Saget died at a Florida hotel at the age of 65. The comedian, known for his starring role on “Full House,” had just kicked off a new comedy tour.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor IBM said it was immediately pulling advertising from Elon Musk‘s X, formerly known as Twitter, after a report found that ads for the tech giant had appeared next to posts supporting Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party. “IBM has zero tolerance for hate speech and discrimination and we have immediately suspended all advertising on X while we investigate this entirely unacceptable situation,” a company rep said in a statement to Variety.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Is it real — or is it YouTube‘s robot singer copying a pop star’s vocal stylings? YouTube announced new AI music experiments it has been developing with Google’s DeepMind artificial intelligence lab. The most interesting (and possibly most disorienting) of YouTube’s AI tests is Dream Track in YouTube Shorts.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Get ready for Gawker 3.0: The twice-shuttered blog site has a new owner, who plans to bring the gossipy pop-culture brand back to life — but not in exactly the same way. Meng Ru Kuok, CEO and founder of Singapore-based Caldecott Music Group, acquired the assets of Gawker from Bustle Digital Group. In an email to Variety, Kuok confirmed that he has closed the deal buying the Gawker trademarks and domain name but not its article archives.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Reps heading a special committee of the U.S. House of Representatives are questioning Apple CEO Tim Cook about whether the tech giant’s decision to cancel Jon Stewart‘s Apple TV+ talk show was because the host may have been planning an upcoming episode about China.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor TikTok has long touted the app as a place to discover new music — and its ability to propel songs into viral hits. Now TikTok is hoping to derive incremental revenue from music fans who use the app. The company’s new Add to Music App feature lets users save songs from TikTok to third-party music streaming services.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Rachell “Valkyrae” Hofstetter, one of the biggest female streamers and gaming creators in the world, has signed with WME for representation. She most recently was repped by UTA. Valkyrae is known for streaming games “Among Us,” “Fortnite” and “Valorant,” among others.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor The actors strike is over, and news has emerged that a biopic of Elon Musk, directed by filmmaker Darren Aronofsky, is in the works. The movie from A24 is to be based on Walter Isaacson’s authorized biography of Musk.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Director Rob Reiner and journalist Soledad O’Brien have dug into the assassination of President John F. Kennedy — and they claim they have found evidence about who was really behind the killing. Reiner and O’Brien are the co-hosts of “Who Killed JFK?”, a 10-part podcast series featuring interviews with authors, witnesses, CIA officials and forensic experts as part of their investigation into JFK’s assassination 60 years ago, on Nov.