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.
"Use of marijuana is clearly not going to stop," said the Manhattan District Attorney, Cyrus Vance Jr. "So, we need to legalize it." Until that happens, the D.A. said his office won't prosecute pot smokers in an effort to remedy the "significant racial disparity" in the laws' application.
After years of spreading incendiary conspiracy theories, the right-wing gadfly Alex Jones was kicked off Facebook, YouTube, Apple, and Spotify because recent lawsuits highlight the "real-life harm" of his rhetoric, says Axios media reporter Sara Fischer, and the tech platforms have established a new standard for acceptable speech online.
Andy Swift, executive editor for TVLine, explains to Cheddar that 'peak TV' has evolved into 'panic TV.' And, Swift says, networks and streaming platforms are revisiting the old standbys to guarantee success in a market over-saturated with new content.
President Trump has proposed rolling back his predecessor's fuel efficiency standards. The move is effectively
an attack on states like California that set their own standards, says Dan Becker, director at Safe Climate Campaign.
Norwich University is offering students Income Share Agreements, the opportunity for reduced tuition in exchange for a share of their future paychecks. Daphne E. Larkin, Director of Media Relations & Community Affairs at Norwich University, describes the advantages of an ISA and tells Cheddar which students are eligible for this financing.
The tech giants' decisions to block content by the conspiracy theorist Alex Jones may encourage other platforms to crackdown on his incendiary rhetoric, says Mashable's Heather Dockray. "The claims he's making have always been dangerous," Dockray says. "But they seem particularly paranoid as of late."
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Josh Ostrovsky, the Instagram influencer known as The Fat Jewish says social media entrepreneurs should stop posting photos of their açaí bowls and make real products instead. He and his Swish Beverage co-founder David Oliver Cohen say there are too many influencers peddling brands and creating nothing but noise.
Zest Labs CEO Peter Mehring says his company is suing Walmart for $2 billion for allegedly stealing its fresh-food technology. The Silicon Valley start-up worked for years with the retail behemoth to develop ways to keep produce fresh for shipping before Walmart unveiled its own eerily similar solution.
Ripa Rashid, co-president of the Center for Talent Innovation, says that CBS's decision to keep Les Moonves as CEO after six women alleged he sexual harassed them could hurt the network's internal culture as much as its public reputation.
