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.
The company formerly known as Weight Watchers is shedding its image as a weight-loss company and is now "WW," with a focus on overall wellness. CEO Mindy Grossman said if Amazon is for shopping, Netflix is for entertainment, and Spotify is for music, then WW is for everything about well-being.
The co-founder of satire site The Onion is hitting back against Tesla CEO Elon Musk for poaching his staff writers. In his new book "Welcome to the Future: Which is Mine By Not Elon Musk," Scott Dikkers shares what he believes goes on in Musk's mind... and throws in a few jabs like only an Onion writer can.
Ro, originally known as Roman, recently raised $88 million in funding which it intends to use to expand into the new business. The "Zero" brand offers a nicotine gum and an app to help people quit smoking. Co-Founder and CRO Rob Schutz said the product comes at a comparable price to others on the market.
Facebook and Twitter have gotten the brunt of questions from the government, but so far Reddit has largely escaped scrutiny, despite seeing significant outside meddling on its platform. Christine Lagorio-Chafkin, author of "We Are the Nerds" documenting the history of Reddit, said the site has seen Russian influence before, during, and after the election, and the fight to prevent it has been an uphill battle.
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Bloomberg published a report on Thursday that the Chinese government placed microchips in Apple and Amazon servers to gain access to intellectual property and trade secrets. Both tech giants, chip maker Super Micro, and Beijing all strongly denied the report.
In the age of the internet, even comics have gone online.
Tapas Media works with over 34 thousand creators to bring their comics to life on its open platform. Chang Kim, CEO and founder of Tapas Media joins Cheddar to discuss how his site has reached 3 billion views.
The actress's mother, Leslie Cockburn, is an award-winning journalist who is turning her focus to the people of Virginia's fifth district. Wilde is hosting a rally at UVA with her fiancé Jason Sudeikis on Oct. 14.
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Dipayan Ghosh, fellow at the Shorenstein Center and a former adviser to both Facebook and the Obama White House, said that big tech has been ignoring "the little guy" for a long time and putting tech users and their privacy at risk.
