With critics' groups across the country starting to hand out their awards, the Oscar race is officially on. Cinemablend's Sean O'Connell joins us to handicap the major categories. With no clear frontrunner, it's anyone's guess which movie is going to break out before the big night.
In the Best Picture category, it's looking like things are boiling down to a showdown between "The Post" and "Lady Bird." O'Connell weighs the pros and cons of each, noting that he thinks the Steven Spielberg political drama is the best movie of the year. We also consider whether "Star Wars: The Last Jedi" could be the franchise's first Best Picture nominee since the 1977 original, "A New Hope."
Then, we tackle the contenders duking it out in the acting categories. Meryl Streep is looking to win her fourth Oscar for her leading role in "The Post." If anyone can stop her, O'Connell says it will likely be "Lady Bird's" Saoirse Ronan or "I, Tonya's" Margot Robbie. As for the actors, "Darkest Hour's" Gary Oldman is pulling ahead as the one to beat for his portrayal of Winston Churchill.
SoundCloud, the German streaming service that was on the brink of collapse before a financial rescue in 2017, is doubling down as a platform for creators with a new service that will allow artists to upload and push their content to all of the major streaming providers, including Apple, Spotify, and Amazon. SoundCloud CEO Kerry Trainor told Cheddar it's an "exciting and natural addition" to SoundCloud's value proposition as a place where artists go to distribute their music.
These are the headlines you Need 2 Know for Tuesday, Feb. 19, 2019.
The fallout continues over Amazon's decision to pull out of New York City. Many housing developers scooped up property in the area in anticipation of the 25,000 new employees that would have been coming to town. So what does that mean for the future of real estate in Long Island City? Amy Plitt from Curbed NY talked to Cheddar about how it will impact everything from rents to sidewalks.
If you are among the many who bought a condo in a glassy high-rise on the Queens waterfront sight unseen ー via text message ー when news broke last fall that Amazon was coming to town... well, that decision may not look so smart in the cold light of day on Friday.
Wham-O, a company best known for mass-marketing iconic toys like the hula hoop and Frisbee, manufactures most of its toys in China. But only now that has chosen to branch out into e-bikes does the company anticipate feeling the sting of the ongoing trade war. "To date, it hasn't really affected us that much," Wham-O President Todd Richards told Cheddar. "Now with this new technology and this new product, we foresee a little bit of a cost impact."
While his Fyre Fest business partner Billy McFarland does his time in prison, rapper Ja Rule is out living his truth, which ー as it turns out ー might include a revival of a Fyre Fest-like event.
TMZ caught Ja Rule at the Los Angeles airport, where he told the gossip site ー which is similar to the original Fyre booking app that the disastrous event was initially meant to launch ー will probably have its own festival.
When engineer Liz Fong-Jones took a job at Google 11 years ago, she was confident in her mission: to make "the world's information universally accessible and useful." But over time, she said she witnessed the company fail to protect its most vulnerable users, while turning a blind eye to the harassment of marginalized employees in its own workplace ー Fong-Jones among them.
Christina Ha, founder of the Meow Parlor, wasn't always a cat person. Ha, who is allergic to felines, paid them minimal attention until her husband brought one home ー and she fell deeply, madly in love (although she admitted she takes Benadryl daily). Eventually, her adoration became a bustling cat cafe in New York City. And now, she's adding another furry business to her portfolio ー cat camp.
Advancements in logistics and distribution are making it easier for entrepreneurs, especially women and minorities, to get their ideas out into the market, according to Interactive Advertising Bureau CEO Randall Rothenberg. "The supply chain is promiscuously available," Rothenberg to Cheddar.
These are the headlines you Need 2 Know for Friday, Feb, 15, 2019.
