In an interview with Anderson Cooper on 60 Minutes on CBS, Prince Harry revealed that he and his wife Meghan Markle haven't renounced their royal titles because it would not make much of a difference to their lives. He also told Cooper that the reason why the couple has been so forthcoming publicly about their experience with The Firm is because when they've attempted to have private conversations, "there have been briefings and leakings and planting of stories against me and my wife," he said.
Cheadle's MCU Deal
Don Cheadle revealed that while at his kid's laser tag birthday party, he was offered the opportunity to join Marvel as Rhodey before filming for Iron Man 2 got underway — but he only had an hour to decide if he would take the multi-year role. "It was a six-movie deal! In an hour I have to decide," he said in an interview with GQ Magazine. When he explained where he was to the Marvel reps, they told him to take two hours. So far, he's been part of the MCU for the last 12 years with a starring role in the film Armor Wars, which is awaiting a release date.
Avatar Climbs
Avatar: The Way of Water update! In what had been one of the most anticipated releases of the year, the film continues to live up to the box office hype as it raked in $1.7 billion after four weeks in theaters. Overseas audiences helped push the movie to become the seventh-highest grossing film in history with $1.19 billion in ticket sales. Domestically, it's taken home $517 million in the same time period.
The gaming industry has seen multiple large scales deals this month alone, including Microsoft's megadeal for Activision Blizzard. And, seemingly in response, rival Sony, picked up Bungie for $3.6 billion, a studio once owned by both Microsoft and Activision. The sector is reportedly on track to spend $150 billion on mergers and acquisitions just this year alone, a record-breaking total, according to investment firm Drake Star Partners. Michael Metzger, a partner at the firm specializing in technology, media, and communications, joined Cheddar to discuss the flurry of deals in the gaming space and what might be behind the hot M&A activity.
Ari Redbord, head of legal and government affairs and TRM Labs, joins Cheddar News to discuss why Facebook is ditching its crypto project and what that means for the space.
Natalie Fertig, federal cannabis policy reporter at Politico Pro, joins Cheddar News to discuss a new YouGov poll that looks at how Americans feel about marijuana and politics.
A virtual gathering in the online space, Decentraland, of Elvis Presley impersonators is looking to grab the Guinness World Record for most Elvis impersonators in one place after the record-keeping org recently approved the use of avatars as stand-ins for people.
A powerful winter storm hit the Northeast over the weekend leaving 100,000 New Yorkers in the dark as well as snowfall up to 30.9 inches in parts of Massachusetts. The nor'easter hit with blizzard conditions of wind speed and poor visibility.
After classic rocker Neil Young demanded removal of his music from Spotify over vaccine misinformation coming from The Joe Rogan Experience podcast, the platform made the decision to take down Young's songs and continue supporting Rogan with whom they have an exclusive contract. The move touched off a firestorm of controversy, leading to responses from both the streaming service and the podcasting host. Evan Nierman, CEO of Red Banyan Crisis PR, joined Cheddar to break down the latest on the fracas. "I think when [Spotify] initially said, we're not going to be commenting on that, that was a silly move because guess what? They did end up commenting about it, and nine times out of 10, when an organization says they're not going to be issuing a comment, they ultimately do," Nierman noted.
The 1999 cult classic "Fight Club" has been given a very different ending in China — and this time, the authorities win. Cheddar News speaks with Joan Solsman, senior media reporter at CNET who breaks down how China is using films for political messaging.
NFT art platform TRLab recently raised $4.2 million in funding. TRLab launched just last year but says its platform focused on NFT curation and distribution is growing quickly. The company hopes to bridge traditional and digital art worlds and help artists explore NFTs as an emerging medium. TRLab co-founder and chairwoman Xin Li-Cohen and co-founder and CEO Audrey Ou joined Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss.
