*By Conor White*
"Mad Men" creator Matthew Weiner's new anthology series for Amazon, "The Romanoffs," is about far more than Russia's last royal family, according to one of its stars.
"As I said to Matthew when I was doing this, I have to bone up on the Romanoffs," actor Aaron Eckhart said in an interview on Cheddar.
"And he said, 'Well, not really, because it really has nothing to do with the Romanoffs.'"
The family consisted of Tsar Nicholas II, his wife, and five children. After Russia's February Revolution of 1917, Nicholas II abdicated the throne and was later executed with the rest of his house. Within the last 30 years, all the bodies have been discovered and identified through DNA testing. Despite that evidence, whispers remain that one of his children, most likely Anastasia, escaped the killings. (The tsar's youngest daughter inspired the popular animated film, "Anastasia," which was recently turned into a musical.)
The Amazon ($AMZN) series features a different cast in each of its eight episodes, which are all linked by some sort of connection to the famous family ー be it real or fabricated.
Eckhart said it's the relationships between the show's characters ー whether directly linked to the royals or not ー that makes the show special.
"The magical part of the show is that it has thematics, and it has through lines with the Romanoffs," the Golden Globe nominee said. "But it's all these different scenarios with different people all over the world."
The series is creator Weiner's return to television after his seven-season run with "Mad Men" ー the highly-acclaimed show garnered two Golden Globes for "Best Drama Series" and eight Primetime Emmy awards.
It was Eckhart's first time working with Weiner, and he said the experience was "educational, interesting," and "fascinating,"
"It's very surprising and striking and bold. It takes a real genius to figure this all out," Eckhart added.
In the age of binge-watching, Amazon has made the choice to release one episode per week after releasing the first two episodes simultaneously on Oct. 12.
Eckhart is a fan of the move and called it "more traditional." But he admitted he has binged his way through at least one classic series.
"I did binge-watch 'Friends'," he said.
"'Friends' is a very good show."
For full interview [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/meet-the-romanoffs).
Lemonade, the insurance startup that uses A.I. and chatbots to pay claims within seconds, saw exponential growth in the U.S. in 2018, but the company is setting its sights on Europe for its next phase of expansion. "We've decided that if people in Berlin, and Tokyo, and New York are using Spotify, and Netflix, and Uber, why not Lemonade?" CEO and co-founder Daniel Schreiber asked in an interview on Cheddar.
Does your bank account spark joy? With Marie Kondo fever sweeping the nation, her tidying method has led to the purging of countless dressers and kitchen cabinets. But the theory underpinning the so-called KonMari method can extend to your finances as well. Committing to the Marie Kondo method tends to have an immediate effect on your spending, said Julia Glum, a reporter for Money who has written about Kondo and her new Netflix show.
These are the headlines you Need 2 Know for Wednesday, Feb, 6, 2019.
Papa John's CEO is hoping to bury the hatchet with its disgraced founder following a new $200 million strategic investment from the hedge fund Starboard Value. "What I believe is that we made the best decision that's in the best interest of all stakeholders, our employees, our franchisees, our customers, and ultimately the shareholders, and John [Schnatter] is clearly a very large shareholder," Steve Ritchie, president and CEO of Papa John's, told Cheddar Tuesday.
Why toke while you cook, when you can cook with cannabis? That's the question that inspired Joline Rivera to found Kitchen Toke, a foodie magazine about cooking with cannabis. "We saw [rapper] Action Bronson cooking ... getting high while he's cooking. And I thought to myself, 'you're getting high while you're cooking, why don't you just put the cannabis in the food?'" Rivera said.
Shares of Disney jumped after the bell on Tuesday, boosted by revenue growth in its television and parks divisions. The report was good news for investors looking to gauge Disney’s strength as it deepens its direct-to-consumer offerings in an effort to compete against rivals like Netflix and Apple.
When Didi Hirsch Mental Health Services opens its new, state-of-the-art suicide prevention center in Los Angeles, a literal sign of progress will hang boldly ー stating exactly what the institution is, a watershed moment in suicide awareness. "To be able to be that open about it shows me how far we've come," said Melissa Rivers, the entertainer and activist who recently joined the board of Didi Hirsch.
Producer, motivational speaker, and bestselling author DeVon Franklin thinks the vast majority of men have a lust problem ー but not in the traditional sense of the word. In his view, lust refers to a broader "selfish impulse for a personal, professional, financial, sometimes sexual gain by any means necessary," Franklin told Cheddar. In order to help men curb those impulses, Franklin has authored a new book, "The Truth About Men: What Men and Women Need to Know," a self help-style guide to self-control.
These are the headlines you Need 2 Know for Tuesday, Feb. 5, 2019.
When Allison Robinson first became a mother, she, like may new parents, struggled to balance her full-time career and family. Eventually, she transformed her frustration into "The Mom Project," an online marketplace to pair moms with parent-friendly workplaces.
