You remember the Reddit Rebellion to mess up hedge fund plans to short GameStop stocks. When was that, let me think, oh yeah it was last week! Technically, six days ago. So of course we already have a book deal and projects in the works to take the story to the screen. Not one, but multiple. One such project is rumored to be going to Netflix and To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before boyfriend Noah Centineo is attached to star. Plus, The Hurt Locker and Zero Dark Thirty screenwriter, Mark Boal, is probably writing it.

As Wall Street developments unfold in real time in the David V Goliath battle between hedge funds and social media-fueled day traders that sent shares of GameStop soaring 135% on a single day, a bull market is developing for projects chronicling this unprecedented episode and its greater implications.

Deadline hears Netflix is in talks to make an untitled film that Mark Boal is in negotiations to write. He’s the Oscar winning screenwriter of The Hurt Locker and Zero Dark Thirty. Noah Centineo will be attached to play a major role — Centineo starred in the Netflix film To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before, completed the Jackie Chan-directed The Diary and will play Atom Smasher opposite Dwayne Johnson in the Jaume Collet-Serra-directed Black Adam. Scott Galloway, the activist/journalist and NYU prof and an expert on tech issues who teams on the the popular Pivot podcast, is in talks to consult on the script.

This follows close on the heels of last night’s Deadline scoop that MGM acquired in bidding a book proposal by Ben Mezrich about the GameStop trading. His previous books include The Accidential Billionaires, which became a pillar of The Social Network.

Netflix declined comment on the Mark Boal project, but sources said the intention is to use the GameStop episode as a specific way to shine a light on the phenomenon of how social media has leveled the playing field and allowed the masses to challenge status quo gatekeepers, for good and bad. The examples range from the stock spike for GameStop, AMC and other formerly lagging stocks that are subject to the short-selling maneuvers of billion-dollar hedge funds, to the social media spread of unfounded election rigging charges conveyed by conservative social media sites and Trump Tweets that fired up right wing extremists to storm the Capitol while President Biden’s election was being certified, leading to the death of five people.

[From Deadline]

CB and I were laughing about how we thought this was headline from The Onion when we first saw it. I’m still trying to figure out what happened during the whole stock surge/gouge, and someone is already getting multiple bids on the book outline? Sheesh! I guess I don’t have to do any more homework, I can just wait a couple of weeks and let a five-part mini-series explain it all for me.

As the events were happening, it read like an Aaron Sorkin screenplay. As the article stated, it was basically packaged with a bow for Hollywood. My first guess was Noah would be tagged to play Robinhood CEO Vladimir (Vlad) Tenev. But Noah’s almost a decade younger than Tenev. Maybe he’ll play a kid who gets screwed in the end and all our hearts will break when his big eyes well up with tears. All the names attached to the project are impressive. But I think there’s more fallout to come from this. I’d hate for this project to get made before we see how it turns out.

It looks like they really want to focus on how social media is influencing these mass movements. I agree that this is fascinating. But I’m not a fan of this particular event getting rushed to screen. Tenev isn’t even supposed to go before Maxine Waters and Congress until Feb 18. Let’s see how that plays out before we give this story a triumphant Hollywood ending.

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Photo credit: Avalon and Getty Images

First of all, we absolutely need to normalize Stegosaurus Chic. More back horns!! Ciara and her back horns cover the latest issue of Self. Ciara gave birth to her third child last year, a son named Win Harrison Wilson. Her oldest son, Future Wilburn, is the product of her disastrous relationship with Future. Future Jr. is pretty much being solely raised by Ciara and Russell Wilson, who treats the boy as his own. Ciara worked hard to bounce back after her first two pregnancies, but after her third… it definitely feels like she’s taking it easy on herself, and she’s not setting goals like “all of the baby weight has to be off in six months” or whatever nonsense. Ciara chatted with Self about all of that and more. Some highlights:

Parenting in a pandemic: “I don’t even know if you can call it organized chaos, but it is to some degree. Sometimes not even the most organized, to be honest. But I’m enjoying it all. I found my way to embrace it all. I just decided, Hey, this is a unique time. It is a challenging time. And the world is changing. But rather than letting the world change me, I’m going to figure out how to change with it. That’s been my mentality. How do I adjust? How do I really work and find the silver lining in the midst of it all?”

Affirmations: “I’ve always been a planner, always, since day one, even back to the start of my career with having a goal sheet. You can’t get to where you want to get to in life without a compass. I really believe that in order to get to where you want to get to in life, you got to envision it, you got to speak it, you got to plan it, and you got to write it down. I believe in those affirmations.”

Their kids are doing full remote learning: “With Russ and football, they have to take COVID tests every day—there’s so many people on a football team. Our babies have intermittent asthma, so we have to be super cautious. We don’t know how this virus performs. There’s so many reasons why we have to take super-high measures to make sure we’re being as safe as we can be considering everything.”

Doctor’s appointments in a pandemic: “That was just such, wow, an out-of-body experience. [Russell] drove me all the way down to my doctor’s office, an hour drive to my doctor’s office, to sit in the car and FaceTime with me to see the screen.”

Russell & the doctor were the only people in the delivery room: “Russ was literally everything in one. He was my husband. He was the photographer, the videographer. He was so cute because he set up the cameras. He was looking at the camera, checking the angle, and [saying], ‘The baby is going to come out this way, so I’ll be right here, and this camera will be right here.’ And then he also got to help pull the baby out, which was really sweet.”

She gave birth with a mask on: “My obstetrician, who’s delivered all my babies, was not playing any games about this COVID. I literally made my first push with Win and then he was like, ‘She needs a mask on. Get a mask on.’ It happened so fast, so I still had my mask [down]. But he was like, ‘Oh, no, no. She gon’ put that mask on.’ My mask was pretty good. I could still breathe alright through it, so that was good. But it was like, ‘Wow. This is crazy. I’m having to deliver a baby with a mask. What in the world?’ It was literally three pushes, good ones. Three good pushes and he was here.”

She & Russell still do date nights: “We do have to put ourselves first as husband and wife, and that’s a hard thing to really understand, I think, especially for women, moms. We love our babies so much. But we got to make sure our love is feeling good too, our husbands are feeling good too.”

[From Self]

The part about Russell being all things in the delivery room, including photographer, videographer, “catching” the baby and all that… come on. Stop it. I honestly don’t know how women can handle it when a guy trains a camera on crowning baby head. I just feel like… fathers should be on the other end, holding their baby mama’s hand and helping her do her breathing exercises. Then again, Ciara delivered her baby in 20 minutes – !!!! – so I guess there wasn’t time for all of the set-ups Russell wanted to do.

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Cover & IG courtesy of Self.

In January 2019, Jeff Bezos announced his divorce from his wife Mackenzie. The high-profile split was hastily announced because the National Enquirer was simultaneously breaking the story of his then months-long affair with Lauren Sanchez (who was also married at the time). Lauren and Jeff divorced their spouses in short order, and spent the next year jet-setting around the world. It was an obvious mid-life crisis for him, and Lauren is the dictionary definition of “golddigging grifter.” She comes from a family of grifters too – her brother was the one who outed their affair to the Enquirer. Anyway, that was all Jeff Bezos’ big moment in the tabloids. As far as anyone knows, he’s spent the past year with Lauren, and he’s still screwing over his employees. Now his midlife crisis has taken another turn though: he’s giving up his CEO position at Amazon, the company he founded and built into this empire.

Amazon Founder Jeff Bezos will step aside as CEO of Amazon later this year, the e-commerce giant announced Tuesday, with Amazon Web Services chief Andy Jassy set to take over the top title. The company announced ahead of its latest quarterly earnings call that Bezos “will transition to the role of Executive Chair in the third quarter of 2021 and Andy Jassy will become Chief Executive Officer at that time.”

The announcement marks the biggest transition of power to date for the tech behemoth, which rose from humble beginnings as an online book selling platform to become one of the first trillion-dollar companies in history, with a sprawling footprint that includes e-commerce, cloud computing and brick-and-mortar retailers like Whole Foods.

“Right now I see Amazon at its most inventive ever, making it an optimal time for this transition,” Bezos said in a statement announcing the move.

In an email to employees, he added that he will spend more time focusing on other “passions,” including his space company Blue Origin and his ownership of The Washington Post, a role that made him the continual focus of broadsides from former President Donald Trump. “I’ve never had more energy, and this isn’t about retiring,” he wrote.

Bezos has faced intense scrutiny in Washington during his time helming one of the world’s most powerful and profitable companies, as well as for long holding the title of world’s richest person — a title he recently ceded to Tesla founder Elon Musk. The Amazon mogul in recent years became a frequent target for politicians of both major parties, including former Trump and President Joe Biden, who have taken aim at his vast wealth and at the company’s business practices.

Democrats have assailed Amazon over its wages and treatment of its workers, an issue that has gained renewed attention as demand for online shopping has soared during the Covid-19 pandemic. Biden and other Democrats have also been critical of the company for not paying a larger tax share. Rival companies have accused it of leveling competitors across the economic landscape, as the rise of online commerce that Amazon helped pioneer has pummeled once-powerful retailers including Sears, Toys “R” Us, Borders and J.C. Penney.

Bezos defended the company’s business practices and approach to competition at a House antitrust subcommittee hearing in July, the tech mogul’s first congressional testimony ever and possibly last as Amazon CEO. House lawmakers had threatened to subpoena for his testimony after the company initially declined to explicitly commit to making him available, but he ultimately appeared voluntarily alongside the CEOs of Facebook, Apple and Google.

[From Politico]

Amazon should be investigated as a violation of existing antitrust laws. Elizabeth Warren needs take down Amazon, and I think the Biden administration will definitely make some moves too. But… is that why Bezos is stepping down? I don’t know. I think people are missing the fact that he torpedoed his marriage and began stepping away from his reclusive life, all for Lauren Sanchez. I wonder if she’s behind this move.

Photos courtesy of Backgrid, Avalon Red.

So… have you heard about “Courtside Karen”? LeBron James came up with the name, not me. She’s posted a video in response to getting thrown out of the game – for pulling down her mask DURING A PANDEMIC (not gonna lie, still uncomfortable with having fans at sports events right now) and yelling at him…

Tell me you don’t want to do a melancholy twirl on ice while listening to “Drivers License” after watching this. I got an email (hey Nadya!) about model Aaron Philip, who was just featured on Beyonce’s website for her trailblazing career. Maybe we’ll see her in Icy Park.Oh this is the perfect Kate…

SPOILERSWhen it began in 2016, Search Party was a social satire with a true-crime twist, as an aimless, self-absorbed Millennial made a nearly forgotten college acquaintance’s disappearance all about her. Dory Sief is the worst of all Millennial stereotypes: underemployed in Brooklyn, a bright kid w…

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Nick Loeb lost his latest appeal in his long-running attempt to gain custody of the fertilized eggs he created with Sofia Vergara when they were together, years ago. [Dlisted]
The latest Chanel collection looks so dated. [GFY]
Review of Netflix’s The Dig. [Pajiba]
Bush Republicans are exiting the Trump Republican Party. [Towleroad]
Steve Jobs’ daughter Eve Jobs is gorgeous. [JustJared]
A SoulCycle instructor got an early coronavirus vaccine because she claimed that she was a teacher. Again, a SoulCycle instructor. [Jezebel]
Angelina Jolie is selling a piece of art. Very interesting. [LaineyGossip]
Rita Ora is still doing… things. Fashion things. [Tom & Lorenzo]
An aerobics instructor danced through the Myanmar coup. [Buzzfeed]
Kate Hudson looks really cute here. [RCFA]

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Yesterday, it was announced that Ryan Coogler’s production company, Proximity Media, has signed a five-year deal with Disney to produce shows for their television outlets, including Disney+. The deal also includes development “for Disney’s other outlets as well”, which could mean shows for Hulu, or …

Meghan Markle’s given names were removed from Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor’s birth certificate a few weeks after he was born. The Sun reported on the change a few days ago, suggesting that Meghan made it happen because she wanted to be petty, or something. Meghan has since issued a strongly w…

During the Obama administration, dozens of artists, legendary athletes, writers and humanitarians received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor a president can give out. Those recipients were almost always super-pleased about receiving the medal during the Obama era. Then Trump came in and he was desperate to hang out with cool people, and he handed out those medals to random MAGA people and various Republican “celebrities.” The medal was devalued culturally. President Obama was asked last year why he never gave the medal to Dolly Parton and Obama admitted that it was some kind of mix-up, a major mistake which he hoped President Biden would rectify. Now it turns out that Trump tried to give Dolly the medal and she said “thanks but no thanks.”

Besides being East Tennessee’s songbird, country superstar Dolly Parton has always had a philanthropic side and it turns out even presidents have noticed! The queen of country, 75, told TODAY in an interview that former President Donald Trump’s administration tried to give her the nation’s highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, twice but she had to turn them down.

“I couldn’t accept it because my husband was ill and then they asked me again about it and I wouldn’t travel because of the COVID,” she explained, adding that she has since heard from President Joe Biden about the award as well. “Now I feel like if I take it, I’ll be doing politics, so I’m not sure. But I don’t work for those awards,” she continued. “It’d be nice but I’m not sure that I even deserve it. But it’s a nice compliment for people to think that I might deserve it.”

“I think everyone thinks you might deserve it,” TODAY’s Hoda Kotb reassured her.

Since 1995, the “Jolene” singer has run Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library, a literacy program that’s donated more than 100 million children’s books in the past 26 years. In 2016, her Dollywood Foundation donated $1,000 per month to several hundred families in East Tennessee that lost their homes to wildfires.

She also donated $1 million to help fund coronavirus research at Vanderbilt University, which helped make the Moderna vaccine. “I’m just happy that anything I do can help somebody else, and when I donated the money to the COVID fund, I just wanted it to do good,” she told TODAY last November. “Evidently, it is.”

[From Today]

Even if Dolly was “doing politics,” I don’t think anyone would blame her? Celebrities avoided the Trump White House like the plague, for good reason, and I’m sure Dolly did not want to be photographed with that orange dumbass. But I love that the Biden administration has already gotten in touch with her! Please accept the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Biden!

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.