Each week, Benzinga compiles the latest entertainment news into a cohesive column for your consideration. Read on for the latest updates — both useful and irreverent.
- McConaughey’s Millions. Oscar-winner Matthew McConaughey is ‘L-I-V-I-N‘ while thousands of Salesforce Inc CRM employees are getting L-A-I-D-O-F-F. Billionaire CEO Marc Benioff paid the “Dazed and Confused” star millions to be a “pitchman” while Salesforce staff were shown the door. Investors were clearly empathetic as the stock popped by 16%.
- Deep Space, Deep Fake: When Walt Disney Co DIS rebooted “Star Wars” in 2015, it dropped the ball. There were no scenes reuniting the original rebels: Luke, Han and Leia. Disney brass now wants to rectify this cinema crime, despite the great Carrie Fisher no longer being with us. The solution? [sigh] Deep fake artificial intelligence. Justine Bateman has a sobering assessment of this troubling trend.
- Speaking Of Artificial Intelligence. Florida Republican Governor Ron DeSantis is peddling a new memoir and those who have read it say it sounds like it was churned out using ChatGPT.
- Disney Vs. DeSantis. The GOP darling had Cinderella’s castle in his crosshairs ever since Disney spoke out against his homophobic policies. This past week, DeSantis essentially reclaimed Disney’s self-governing corporate district. “Today the corporate kingdom finally comes to an end… There’s a new sheriff in town,” DeSantis said at the bill signing. Woody, do something!
- Ash To Ashes. The adventures of Ash Ketchum, Pikachu‘s longtime trainer and Pokémon champion in both cartoons and Nintendo NTDOY video games, are coming to an end. Get ready for… Liko and Roy?
- How To Deal With Idiocy? “Cannabis,” Brian Cox says. The renowned thespian, who stars as Logan Roy in the Warner Bros. Discovery Inc. WBD‘s HBO series “Succession,” discovered “the wonderful world of cannabis” later in life. “It makes politics easier to bear,” he says. “It’s a way to deal with idiocy.”
- Change of Tune. Vinyl records are officially outselling CDs, and mixtapes are just sitting there wondering, “WTF?” Meanwhile, Spotify SPOT introduced its own artificial intelligence (them too?) dubbed “Personal DJ.” It’s only a matter of time until you say, “HAL, play Dave Matthews Band.” And it responds, “I’m sorry, Dave, I’m afraid I can’t do that.”
Next: Trump Accuses Fox News Of Promoting DeSantis ‘So Hard And So Much’
For last week’s column, click here.
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