As many Twitter users are calling foul on Elon Musk‘s plan to charge $8 a month for a blue “verified” checkmark, the company’s new CEO showed Kathy Griffin that nobody is above the company’s “terms and conditions.”
Kathy — and other users, including for a short time Valerie Bertinelli — thought it snarky to protest the new charge by turning their Twitter handles to “Elon Musk.” However, impersonating somebody on Twitter has always been a ban-worthy move, so Musk, in turn, switched off Griffin’s access to her account.
When Benny Johnson, an anchor for Newsmax took note of this, Musk responded to him Sunday by dropping a now-viral diss. “Actually, she was suspended for impersonating a comedian,” Elon wrote, earning more than 400,000 likes. One user even posted a picture of Griffin from her infamous Trump decapitation photo, but instead of a bloody head, she’s holding a bloody “checkmark” picture.
Elon then added, “But if she really wants to have her account back, she can,” before adding the cheeky caveat, “For $8.”
He later posted, “Going forward, any Twitter handles engaging in impersonation without clearly specifying ‘parody’ will be permanently suspended,” and that anyone who violates will lose their coveted tick.
Critics in the past have accused Twitter of withholding — or in some cases deleting — checkmarks from conservative voices on the platform.
Musk claims that by monetizing the symbol, he’s trying to democratize the process to steer it away from the “lords and peasants” former system.
Griffin returned to Twitter later Sunday evening using her “dead mother’s account,” saying Maggie Griffin “would not mind.” However, that, too, is a violation of the impersonation rules.
Following the loss of his brother Aaron on Saturday, Nick Carter still performed with the Backstreet Boys in London on Sunday, but the group made sure to pay tribute to him on stage.
During the show at London’s O2 arena, a photo was shown onscreen, along with the words “Aaron Carter 1987-2022.” Kevin Richardson spoke on the group’s behalf, telling the crowd, “Tonight we’ve got a little bit of heavy hearts ’cause we lost one of our family members yesterday. And we just wanted to find a moment in our show to recognize him.”
As Nick teared up, AJ McLean and Brian Littrell rushed to embrace him as Kevin continued, “Nick’s little brother Aaron Carter passed away yesterday…and he’s a part of our family and we thank you guys for all the love, all your well wishes and all your support.”
Howie Dorough spoke next, saying, “We’d like to dedicate this next song to our little brother Aaron Carter…may you rest in peace.”
The group then performed an a cappella rendition of the song “Numb,” whose lyrics go, “I suffocate without you…/It was good, what we had/Yeah, that was better times, can somebody take me back?/And it hurts looking back/If this is for the best, then tell me why it hurts so bad.”
Aaron died Saturday at the age of 34 at his California home. The cause of death has yet to be revealed.
Meanwhile, Aaron’s twin sister Angel took to social media to mourn her brother. “To my twin… I loved you beyond measure. You will be missed dearly…I know you’re at peace now. I will carry you with me until the day I die and get to see you again.”
(HOUSTON) — Thousands of Houston Astros fans are expected to line the streets of downtown Houston on Monday as the city celebrates the 2022 World Series champions with a parade.
The parade will begin at 1 p.m ET and travel down Smith Street, beginning at the intersection with Preston Street and ending at the intersection with Taum Street.
#WorldSeries parade will be tomorrow at 12pm‼️
Please utilize @METROHouston or ride share to get to the Parade. Services from @METROHouston will be free tomorrow. ⚾️⚾️🥳🥳
(NEW YORK) — Holiday shopping is underway and retailers have already started offering additional sales and discounts earlier than ever in an attempt to win over consumers, who are facing near-record high inflation this season.
With 73% of consumers expecting higher prices this holiday season, many are planning to buy fewer gifts compared to last year, according to a recent holiday retail survey from Deloitte.
“Inflation is at the top of every consumer’s mind. In fact, we did a study with Oracle that said that around 77% of consumers are thinking about inflation when shopping,” Hitha Herzog, chief retail analyst at The Doneger Tobe Group, told ABC News. “Retailers know that there are less dollars that are going around and less chances for them to sell to the consumer so they’re going to be very specific about making sure that the consumer shops with them.”
One strategy to win over shoppers? Convenience. Aside from prices, another major indicator consumers cited as a top factor for whether or not they will shop in-store this season is checkout speed, with 41% of shoppers listing it as important, according to a holiday consumer survey by Sensormatic Solutions.
The department store Neighborhood Goods recently adopted a new method of checkout called POS Go, a point-of-sale device by the e-commerce platform Shopify that allows customers to pay from anywhere in the store. Previously out of reach for most brands, it’s something that Shopify has recently made available to the tens of thousands of small businesses that use its platform, and consumers will likely start to see it popping up more and more inside their favorite stores.
“The modern consumer is more hybrid than ever.” Harley Finkelstein, Shopify President told ABC News. “Commerce happens everywhere, and as we head into the busiest season for our merchants, they need technology…that gives them the flexibility to meet consumers however and wherever they like to shop.”
“We’re bringing it to all of our locations now. And I think what’s been really important about it for us is that we’ve always believed from a philosophical perspective that the customer ought to be able to dictate their own terms as to how they shop,” Matt Alexander, co-founder and CEO of Neighborhood Goods, told ABC News.
Brick-and-mortar stores aren’t the only ones making the shopping experience more seamless. Online retail giant Amazon recently announced that it will be offering Venmo as a payment option, and the Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) market has become one of the fastest-growing alternatives to credit cards in the last few years. Used by hundreds of thousands of businesses, it allows consumers to pay off a purchase over a designated period of time, typically interest-free.
The number of BNPL loans in the United States grew from 16.8 million to 180 million — more than 970% — from 2019 to 2021, according to a September report from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
“One thing that retailers are doing to make sure that the customer has a very easy purchasing experience is to make sure that there are different ways that they can go ahead and pay for that product, not just in the store, but also online,” Herzog told ABC News.
“One of the biggest issues for retailers is cart abandonment and having that change of heart when you’re in the store,” Herzog added. “If there are different places to pay for things … and different methods to not abandon that cart as you are online purchasing … that will ensure that the retailers are selling the product and that the customer is having a great experiencing experience purchasing the product.”
Alexander built Neighborhood Goods with customer experience in mind, offering restaurants, refreshments and events in store for consumers to make the shopping experience unique and more enjoyable. He said the company wanted to create “a sense of magnetism to give people a really good reason to come in.”
“Even in the event of a recession, people still shop,” he said. “It’s just they’re more considerate about where they do so. And so if you can offer a really great experience, that doesn’t go out of style regardless of what’s going on in the world.”
Fresh off his induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame over the weekend, Lionel Richie has been announced as this year’s recipient of the Icon Award at the 2022 American Music Awards.
The Icon Award honors an artist for their achievements in the music industry on a global scale. Lionel, a 17-time AMA winner, will be on hand to accept the award and take a look back at his most iconic songs and AMA achievements. He’s reportedly the only artist in history to be featured on the AMAs stage in every decade since the show’s inception in the 1970s.
“I’m immensely grateful for a career that has taken me to places I never imagined that I’d go, from arenas worldwide to studio sets to the AMA stage,” Lionel says in a statement. “I can recall one of the first times I got to perform at the AMAs. It was to sing ‘We Are the World’ among the most iconic musicians of my generation, so it is surreal to be receiving this recognition 36 years later.”
The 2022 American Music Awards, hosted by Wayne Brady, airs live from Los Angeles on Sunday, November 20 at 8 p.m. ET/PT on ABC.
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever star Winston Duke will join Ryan Gosling in Universal’s movie adaptation of the 1980s adventure television series The Fall Guy, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The original series starred Lee Majors as a stuntman who moonlighted as a bounty hunter. The new take, however, will follow a washed up stuntman, played by Gosling, who finds himself back on a movie with the man for whom he doubled long ago and who later replaced him. A mystery unfolds when the star goes missing. Duke will play the best friend of the stuntman. Emily Blunt, Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Stephanie Hsu also star…
The CW’s improvisational comedy show Whose Line Is It Anyway? will end with its upcoming 12th season, the series’ longtime star Colin Mochrie announced on Friday. “Hey everyone. Hope you are enjoying the current season of Whose Line. In January, we shoot our final season. Thank you all for the support over the years,” Mochrie wrote on Twitter. The show. an adaptation of the British show of the same name, originally aired on ABC and ABC Family from 1998-2007, before the CW revived it in 2013. Whose Line stars Mochrie, Wayne Brady, Ryan Stiles and Aisha Tyler…
Vivica A. Fox will host the 9th Annual American Reality TV Awards, which recognizes the highest achievers in unscripted TV production. Special guests will include Sofía Vergara, Steve Harvey, Courteney Cox, Jerry O’Connell, Reba McEntire, Trace Adkins and Abbott Elementary’s Lisa Ann Walter, among others. The 9th Annual ARTAs will stream live for free on OUTtv, Monsters and Critics and in VR on ReelMood…
With Black Panther: Wakanda Forever hitting theaters this Friday, ABC Audio is looking back at the 2018 original film that started it all.
Black Panther‘s impact on both the culture and the entertainment world cannot be overstated. In an industry that incorrectly held onto the belief that a Black-led film couldn’t “open” at the box office, the 2018 Marvel movie, the first stand-alone adventure of the character the late Chadwick Boseman first played in Captain America: Civil War, debuted to $192 million — the fifth highest-grossing opening ever.
Over the four-day Presidents’ Day weekend on which it opened, the Ryan Coogler-directed movie’s bottom line ballooned to $218 million right out of the gate.
Black Panther went on to earn more than $1.34 billion worldwide, and currently ranks at #6 of the highest-grossing movies in the U.S. and #14 globally.
Filmmaker and film critic Mike Sargent explained to ABC Audio, “It’s not that this movie made a billion dollars just because Black folks went to see it; it made a billion dollars because everybody wanted to see it.”
It was a lesson for Hollywood, he explains: “There’s nothing wrong with seeing a Black hero….There’s nothing wrong with cultural pride in a superhero movie. It shouldn’t be the first time ever, but it is. So it was a first on an enormous amount of levels.”
Black Panther went on to win theOutstanding Cast award at the Screen Actors Guild Awards in 2019 — the year it became the first Marvel movie ever to be nominated at the Academy Awards.
The Best Picture-nominated film took home Best Score for Ludwig Göransson, and historic wins for Black women: Costume designer Ruth E. Carter and production designer Hannah Beachler both brought to life the secretive, technologically advanced kingdom of Wakanda.
“We knew that we had something special that we wanted to give the world,” Boseman summed up on the podium at the SAG Awards. “…[We knew] that we could create a world that exemplified a world that we wanted to see.”
(NEW YORK) — Supercar maker Lamborghini cannot keep up with demand.
The Italian marque said Monday it has sold 7,430 vehicles in the first nine months of the year and is on track to beat its 2021 sales record of 8,405 units.
Deliveries rose in every market — U.S., China, Japan, Germany and the U.K. — with the V10-powered Huracan seeing the largest bump in sales.
The Urus, Lamborghini’s dynamic SUV that debuted in 2018, continues to be the brand’s No. 1 model, with 4,834 units delivered to customers so far this year.
ABC News spoke with Stephan Winkelmann, the CEO of Lamborghini, about the company’s latest roadmap.
He reminisced about the “end of an era” — the company bid farewell to its lustrous 12-cylinder Aventador supercar in September — and discussed the excitement surrounding Lamborghini’s first plug-in hybrid supercar that will soon enter production at the company’s factory in Sant’Agata Bolognese, Italy.
By 2028, the company will unveil an electric supercar — a 180-degree turn from the powerful, euphonious gas-powered engines that helped make Lamborghini a success. Customers are ready for the future and so is the company, Winkelmann asserted.
The interview below has been edited and condensed for clarity:
Q: Sales have been very strong this year. Will the company surpass its sales record of 8,405 cars in 2021?
A: We will be ahead of this number for sure. We have no slowdown in sales. Every month we’re selling more cars than we’re able to deliver.
Q: Some market watchers have been calling for a global recession. Has the company seen a change in demand?
A: We have two things to protect us if a crisis is coming. One, we have an incredible order bank, which is already exceeding 18 months. Two, in the next couple of years, we’re going to renew our complete lineup. A new car always creates positive vibes in the community of super sports car lovers. So these are things that are going to help us.
Q: If someone walked into a Lamborghini dealership in the U.S. right now, is there new inventory to buy?
A: There might be some used cars…but 99.9% you won’t find a new car.
Q: Let’s talk about the company’s plans for electrification. You said the entire lineup will be hybrid by 2024. Why not a fully electric car by then?
A: Things have to be done in the right time and with the right technology. The hybrid technology for us is the best in terms of performance and also in terms of technology. We will be the first super sports car brand to have a full hybrid lineup. The first [EV] model will come by the end of this decade, around 2028. By then we think our community of customers will be ready for buying fully electric super sports cars.
Q: Will the Urus be the first hybrid since it’s the brand’s bestselling model?
A: The first hybrid car will be the follow to the Aventador, which will have a completely new V12 engine and it will be a plug-in hybrid. We’re going to present the car at the end of the first quarter of next year.
Q: Are you accepting deposits or preorders for this hybrid car?
A: Yes, we already have preorders which are close to 3,000. This means the acceptance is very high even though very few customers have seen the car. So [customers] really believe we’re doing the right thing, which is a positive sign.
Q: Lamborghini bid farewell to the Aventador last month after more than a decade of production. How did that make you feel?
A: I was present on the first day we started the project. For me, this is an end of an era which in a way is quite sad, but there are also very good memories.
Q: What would Ferruccio Lamborghini, the company’s founder, think of Lamborghini’s new direction?
A: He would be proud of the development of Lamborghini. He was a challenger of the status quo — this is exactly what we are doing. We are safeguarding the DNA of the brand and the design and also what performance is all about. We’re not selling mobility. We’re selling dreams. He would appreciate this, I think, and he would also be happy at what Lamborghini has become.
Q: Is Lamborghini still impacted by the supply crunch and chip shortage?
A: It’s a constant challenge but so far we have managed not to lose any production capacity…we’ve actually increased our production capacity. Also the war in Ukraine was affecting us a little at the beginning because we have a big supplier in Ukraine but thanks to their courage and dedication this is solved and we recovered all the delays that were happening in the first couple of days of the war. We have no major constraints in terms of the supply chain. We never had the problem of parking cars with missing parts.
Q: An all-terrain Huracan will be the company’s final send-off to the internal combustion engine. How did this idea come about?
A: In 2015, we had the idea to do an all-terrain super sports car. We are the only super sports car company with a four-wheel drive system. When I came back to Lamborghini three years ago I said, ‘Guys, I want to do this car.’ It’s the last internal combustion car we’re launching and it will be shown at Art Basel in Miami.
Q: What will production be like for the all-terrain Huracan?
A: We will communicate the number at Art Basel. It will be a limited number and this will increase the value of the car even more because it’s the first time we’re doing a car like this. You cannot go on the dunes of the desert but you can drive the car on dirt roads. It’s about ground clearance — it’s higher than a normal super sports car but not as high as an SUV. So there is a limit to this but you can take it off-road for sure.
Q: There are complaints among some in the automotive world that electric vehicles can be mechanical and not as enjoyable to drive as gas-powered sports cars. How will Lamborghini handle that challenge as the company moves forward with electrification?
A: What makes a Lamborghini a Lamborghini is the design, the performance in terms of naked numbers — lap times, top speed, acceleration — and perceived performance, or how much emotion you experience when you drive our cars. Normally electric cars are very good at longitudinal acceleration but they’re not very pleasant to drive — i.e. cornering, braking behavior, the reaction on the steering wheel. This is something we have to prove and we’re working on this before the first electric car comes to market from Lamborghini.
ABC announced Monday morning that the late-night host will report for podium duty for the third time at the 95th Annual Academy Awards on Sunday, March 12, 2023, at the Dolby Theatre at Ovation Hollywood.
Kimmel previously hosted both the 89th annual show in 2017, and the 90th in 2018.
In the announcement, Kimmel joked, “Being invited to host the Oscars for a third time is either a great honor or a trap. Either way, I am grateful to the Academy for asking me so quickly after everyone good said ‘no.'”
Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences CEO Bill Kramer and Academy President Janet Yang commented, “Jimmy is the perfect host to help us recognize the incredible artists and films of our 95th Oscars. His love of movies, live TV expertise and ability to connect with our global audiences will create an unforgettable experience for our millions of viewers worldwide.” They added that with Jimmy’s help, “…the Oscars will celebrate its rich 95-year history, the collaborative nature of moviemaking, and our diverse, dynamic and deeply creative community of filmmakers.”
Last year’s ceremony saw Wanda Sykes, Regina Hall and Amy Schumer sharing hosting duties, in a night that was overshadowed by Will Smith‘s infamous on-stage slap of comedian and presenter Chris Rock.
Black Adam provided a bright spot in what was another dismal box office weekend, holding strong at #1 for the third straight week with an estimated $18.5 million, bringing its total domestic gross to $137 million. The DC antihero film, starring Dwayne Johnson, has collected $182 million overseas, for a global tally of $320 million.
One Piece Film: Red, the highest-grossing film of all time in Japan with $120 million, had a solid North American debut with an estimated $9.5 million — good for a second place finish.
Third place went to Ticket to Paradise, which added an estimated $8.5 million in North America, for a three-week total of $46.7 million. The rom-com’s $90.5 million international gross brings its worldwide tally to $137 million.
Smile held on to fourth place, delivering an estimated $4 million. It’s six-week domestic tally is just shy of $100 million, to go along with $104 million overseas, for a total of more than $200 million globally.
Rounding out the top five was the horror flick Prey for the Devil with an estimated $3.88 million. It’s two-week domestic tally stands at $13.6 million.
