*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).
Although it has 3 million customers, home security company SimpliSafe isn’t a household name yet. It’s hoping that will change on Sunday after its first Super Bowl ad airs.“In a market where people are trying to lock you in a contract or harvest your data, we’re trying to keep you safe,” brand creative director Wade Devers told Cheddar. “There aren’t really a lot of places you can reach the number of people you can reach like the Super Bowl.”
These are the headlines you Need 2 Know for Friday, Feb. 1, 2019.
Actress Samira Wiley has a promise for fans of her character Moira in "The Handmaid's Tale:" She's both in season three and alive. At least for now. "We should just be happy that's a thing," she told Cheddar Thursday.
The appearances of model Iskra Lawrence and actresses Busy Phillips and Jameela Jamil have all been dramatically altered by retouching in photographs. And all three are have joined forces with American Eagle's Aerie line for a new campaign to show women that reality is a beautiful thing.
PopSockets, the company behind the massively successful grips attached to the back of mobile phones, is eyeing a potential initial public offering, CEO and Founder David Barnett told Cheddar Thursday. "We are considering an IPO. We're considering all options," Barnett said in an interview with Cheddar Thursday.
Airbnb has become the largest player in the lodging market and is growing by about twice the rate of traditional lodging chains as new travelers come onto the platform and existing users book more reservations, e-commerce analyst Ken Cassar told Cheddar Thursday. Cassar, the vice president of strategy and insights at Rakuten Intelligence, said Airbnb now boasts a 25 percent share of the lodging market and reported a growth rate of 40 percent.
Nick Cannon is a busy man. The multi-talented host, producer, rapper, actor, and comedian is in Atlanta for this weekend's Super Bowl in between his gigs hosting "The Masked Singer," the new hit singing competition on FOX, and filling in for Wendy Williams on her eponymous talk show. Cannon told Cheddar he built his career by following a simple maxim: "Say no to anything that sounds like work."
When you got to a sporting event or a concert, you always see a much longer line for the ladies' room than the men's. So why hasn't anyone fixed the problem? Joe Pinsker, staff writer at The Atlantic, joins us to break down some of the possible solutions.
Facebook's year of scandal is a thing of the past ー at least according to Wall Street, Meridian Equity Partners' Jonathan Corpina told Cheddar. Wall Street's positive response to Facebook's impressive earnings show 2018's scandals are old news, Corpina said. "That's an old story; we are in 2019 now. It seems like investors have shrugged off all those negative headlines."
NorCal is on a mission to be a juggernaut in the California cannabis market, and the company has $27 million dollars in fresh funding to help it achieve that goal.
"It brings our total capital raise since inception to well over $50 million. We'll be deploying that capital across the value chain," said NorCal CEO Doug Cortina in an interview on Cheddar.
