No stranger to rabid fan bases in genre television, Emma Caulfield, who plays Dottie on Marvel Studios' WandaVision, is reveling in the various fan theories that have sprung up during the show's nine-episode run.
"Obviously I knew what the truth was, and I couldn't say anything," Caulfield told Cheddar regarding speculation about her character running rampant on social media. "These are all so good, and I wish that some of these were actually true."
The veteran actress, who also once starred as a demon-turned-human character in the series Buffy the Vampire Slayer, even issued a tongue-in-cheek plea to Kevin Feige, who runs the Marvel Cinematic Universe, to make more of those fan-derived storylines come to pass.
"Dear Kevin, what can I get you for Christmas?" she added with a laugh.
Without giving away the ending for the series, which is now completely available on Disney+ after a traditional run of weekly episode drops, Caulfield's Dottie is one of the significant residents of Westview, New Jersey, the setting for superhero Wanda Maximoff to seemingly living vicariously through TV sitcoms that magically envelop the town. The episodes of the streaming show correspondingly pay homage to classic broadcast staples that run the gamut from The Dick Van Dyke Show to Modern Family.
Caulfield noted that emulating some of those earlier TV aesthetics was part of the fun challenge of creating the series.
"Getting the period correct, making sure that the voice and the body language and all that stuff was spot on, the technical aspects of that, that was the most actor-y good stuff that you get to do," she said.
Offering up that the work environment was supportive to take on those challenges, Caulfield took time to praise dialect coach Courtney Young, as well as WandaVision showrunner and her previous collaborator on the film Timer, Jac Schaeffer.
"She's just this wonderfully supportive, hilarious, gifted person," Caulfield said of Schaeffer. "I would read the phone book for her if she wanted me to."
Daniel Madrzykowski, research director at the UL Fire Safety Research Institute, joins Cheddar News to discuss the deadly Bronx fire that killed 19 people and fire safety tips that people need to know about.
Markets closed the day mixed, and well off their lows of the day following a market meltdown earlier in the session. The Nasdaq staged a comeback late in the day, even amid ongoing worries about the Federal Reserve raising interest rates. Doug Flynn, certified financial planner and co-founder of Flynn Zito Capito, joined Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss the markets' close and what's driving the major indexes.
Two companies recently announced a new partnership aimed at addressing the growing demand to borrow against crypto - digital assets capital markets firm CrossTower is partnering with commercial bank, BankProv. The companies are launching a crypto lending platform that will allow Bitcoin miners to receive loans to invest in crypto mining equipment. The companies say the program also addresses the difficulty of breaking into crypto mining due to the high cost. CrossTower research analyst Martin Gaspar joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss.
Next-gen social sports platform Break the Love recently raised $2.5 million in seed funding. Break the Love's platform and iOS app allows users to discover and book group-based tennis activities, to either learn, train, or compete. The new company has already gotten support from a few big names in the world of tennis, including the coach of Naomi Osaka, as well as the United States Tennis Association and the brand Wilson. Break the Love founder and CEO Trisha Goyal joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss.
As the Omicron variant continues to sweep across the country. The US Supreme Court is expected to hear arguments at the end of this week on whether or not the Biden administration can force private companies to vaccinate or test millions of their employees. In addition, the National Nurses United has spearheaded legal action to protect nurses and health care workers, patients, and the public while on the job. President of the National Nurses Union, Zenei Cortez, joined Cheddar to discuss more.
China's ongoing crackdown of its own entertainment industry has been raising eyebrows for once now. With the ruling Communist Party instructing media companies to boycott immoral and overly entertaining stars. But the country has gone even further. Now experts warn that this could lead to further issues such as gender-based violence. Professor at the Institute of Sociology at National Tsinghua University, Hsiu-Hua Shen, and Associate Professor of Politics at Keough School of Global Affairs at the University of Notre Dame Joshua Eisenman, joined Cheddar to discuss more.
Today marks one year since the January 6 Attack on the United States Capitol. The Country watched as supporters of then-President Trump stormed what was assumed to be the most secure building in the country in an attempt to stop the certification of the 2020 Election. Several lawmakers, including the Vice President, could be seen ducking down as they feared for their lives. Democratic Michigan Representative Dan Kildee, joined Cheddar to discuss more.
Bed Bath & Beyond delivered disappointing fiscal third-quarter results for 2022. Shares initially dove more than 9% in premarket trading on the news but finished the day up nearly 8%. Bed Bath & Beyond has been a meme-stock target for online investors in the past -- so was meme-stock mania a factor in the recent stock movement for the company? Jaime Rogozinski, the founder of the subreddit WallStreetBets, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell for more, as his forum helped spark the meme stock phenomena. He also discussed some decentralized finance services and trends for the retail investor to watch for in 2022.
