Some of Michael Jackson's iconic music catalog is up for grabs and the asking price is just shy of $1 billion. The King of Pop's estate is reportedly in talks with an unnamed entity to sell off half of his catalog. The actual dollar amount in the proposed sale is estimated to be between $800 million and $900 million. It would be the largest music catalog sale to date, surpassing Bruce Springsteen's, which was estimated to be around $600 million.
AOTY Controversy
Jay-Z thought Beyoncé's Renaissance album should have won the Grammy for album of the year over Harry Styles' Harry's House. She lost in the category after she'd collected her fourth golden gramophone of the night, her 32nd overall — the most for any artist in history. In an interview with Tidal, Jay-Z said, "For the culture, I love this s**t so much I want them to get it right," he said. "They play her whole album in the club. I don't know if I've ever seen that. The whole entire joint — like everything!"
'The Simpsons' Censorship
An episode of The Simpsons has been scrubbed from the Disney+ platform — but only in Hong Kong. The episode One Angry Lisa references forced labor camps in China, a sensitive topic for the country. The removal comes as China imposes ever stricter controls over the former British colony, which includes use of a 2019 national security law that was enacted following pro-democracy protests that swept the city.
The National Retail Federation reports Americans are expected to spend $20.1 billion on Father’s Day gifts this year. Yes, funny cards are still accepted.
Simpson’s gridiron legacy was forever overshadowed by the 1994 knife slayings of Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman. A criminal court jury found him not guilty of murder, but a separate civil trial jury found him liable.
Hollywood closed out an up and down 2023 with “Wonka” regaining No. 1 at the box office, strong sales for “The Color Purple” and an overall $9 billion in ticket sales that improved on 2022’s grosses but fell about $2 billion shy of pre-pandemic norms.
