Jennifer Lopez, who has an estimated net worth of $400 million, explained how she became a powerhouse in the industry.
Lopez covers Entrepreneur Magazine and spoke about how she took ownership of her career. It happened when she launched her first fragrance in 2002, Glow by JLo, which went on to become one of the best-selling fragrances in the country.
When the perfume was predicted to earn $2 billion, the singer had an epiphany that she “didn’t make but 0.01% of that,” even though she was “building this brand on my back.” Lopez continued, “I realized, at a certain point, I’m still working my a** off, and everybody’s collecting checks.”
“When you start off as an artist, you’re just happy to get whatever you can,” she admitted. “You can’t believe your good fortune. I remember myself back then: I was like, ‘Oh yeah, I’ll do the perfume! Oh yes, I love fashion, I’ll do a clothing line!’ I’ll do this, I’ll do that. I was just so happy to be here.”
Lopez said she learned to demand a spot at the table and understand her worth — and now she hopes to inspire others to do the same. She launched Limitless Labs in 2021 to highlight Latina-owned businesses and has now partnered with Grameen America to support low-income female entrepreneurs.
The goal is to provide $14 billion in loans and six million hours of financial education to Latina-owned businesses by 2030.
Lopez said Latino-owned businesses are “the fastest-growing segment of all small businesses,” but Latina women face significant obstacles in securing loans. “We get, like, $1 out of every $23,” she said.
With this, Lopez hopes to even the playing field and inspire more Latinas to reach for their dreams.
(NEW YORK) — Nearly a third of Americans say they’re not prepared for a recession and they aren’t taking action to get their finances ready for one, according to a recent Bankrate poll.
Experts are calling it “recession fatigue” and it might be why younger generations in particular are failing to take active steps to weather an economic downturn.
“Recession depression, recession fatigue — whatever you want to call it, the hits to Americans’ financial security keep on coming, first with the devastating coronavirus pandemic, followed by 40-year-high inflation and now the growing risk of another downturn,” said Bankrate.com analyst Sarah Foster. “Sustaining motivation for two-plus years to prepare for tough economic times can no doubt feel exhausting.”
Bankrate’s poll found 40% of Gen Z (ages 18-25) say they aren’t prepared for a recession and aren’t taking any steps to get their finances in order. That compares with 31% of unprepared millennials (ages 26-41), 30% of Gen X (ages 42-57) and 27% of baby boomers (ages 58-76).
Gen Zers also say the pandemic interrupted their formative years and feel slighted that major life events, like proms and high school and college graduations, had to be canceled.
“Recession fatigue is the awkward cousin of revenge spending,” Foster said. “Americans were deprived of so many activities that brought them joy. It’s kind of like financial apathy.”
Experts say some Americans may not be preparing for a recession because they simply don’t know how. Many have never experienced an environment of high inflation and rising interest rates. For many Gen Zers, the closest they’ve come to a severe economic downturn is seeing how the Great Recession of 2007-2009 affected their parents.
Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell recently warned that the central bank’s aggressive interest rate hikes to combat stubbornly high inflation may cause “some pain,” including a rise in the unemployment rate.
A growing number of Americans now believe the Fed will not be able to achieve a “soft landing,” or bringing prices under control without tipping the economy into recession. According to a recent survey from MassMutual, 49% of respondents said they think there will likely be a recession next year. Experts seem to agree. A survey from the audit, tax and advisory firm Grant Thornton finds 72% of CFOs think the Fed’s rate hikes will spark a recession.
While the best time to prepare for a recession is often before it even begins, it’s never too late to get your financial house in order.
Start by identifying unnecessary spending and decide where you can cut back. Consider cutting subscriptions for monthly magazines or streaming services, eat out less or stop ordering food delivery.
Put the money you’re saving into an emergency fund. As a general rule of thumb, try to have at least three to six months of expenses set aside in case of a job loss or unexpected medical expense.
Once you have your emergency fund, prioritize paying down your debt, especially balances on high interest credit cards.
The Fed’s rate hikes are pushing the cost of unpaid balances even higher. Over the past six months, the average annual percentage rate on a credit card has jumped from 16.17% to 16.65%, closing in on a record high of 17.14% in 2019, according to the Fed.
If you’re carrying balances on multiple credit cards and you have good credit, consider consolidating them into a 0% interest rate transfer card or consider taking out a lower interest personal loan to pay off your higher interest credit card debt.
Finally, find a side hustle you enjoy. That doesn’t necessarily mean taking on a second job. It could mean turning your hobby, like jewelry making or photography, into an extra revenue maker.
R&B legend BobbyBrown and his wife, AliciaEtheredge–Brown, haveannounced the return of the Celebration of Serenity Gala and golf tournament in support of the fight against domestic violence during October’s Domestic Violence Awareness Month.
After a two-year hiatus, the celebration returns to shed light on staggering domestic violence statistics and to honor leaders who use their professional and personal work to advocate for social change.
“Pre-pandemic statistics show that nearly 20 people per minute are physically abused by an intimate partner,” Bobby Brown said in a statement. “That’s more than 10 million women and men a year. These numbers have heightened more behind closed in the midst of the pandemic.”
He added, “Our foundation is committed to doing our part through the BKSH to give a voice to the voiceless.”
Emmy-winning journalist and talk show host TamronHall will be honored with the Courage of Voice award for her humanitarian work with creating The Tamron Renate Fund for women, children and families who experience abuse. Singer-songwriter AngelaWinbush will receive the Thrivers Award, which honors those who persevere and achieve their goals despite life-altering circumstances.
The event will be hosted by actress TishaCampbell with entertainment provided by DJCassidy.
The Bobbi Kristina Serenity House is a nonprofit organization founded in 2015 with a goal to provide crisis intervention, emergency shelter, access to resources and advocacy for social change. BKSH was formed by Brown, whose daughter BobbiKristina was a victim of domestic violence.
After years of hints and being embraced by the queer community, Velma, the bespectacled brains of the Scooby-Doo team is canonically a lesbian.
In the new movie,Trick or Treat Scooby-Doo!, Velma’s famous glasses are figuratively — and literally — steamed up by a female character named Coco Diablo. The clip has already gone viral. “OMG LESBIAN VELMA FINALLY CANON CANON IN THE MOVIES LETS GOOOOOO,” read one tweet that got more than 130,000 likes.
The official revelation, however, isn’t news to the orange sweater-wearing character’s fans. In fact, James Gunn, who wrote the live-action Scooby-Doo movies before embarking on the Guardians of the Galaxy films, had tried to make it official back in 2001.
Linda Cardellini played the character back in the original and its sequel, which starred Freddie Prinze Jr. as Fred, Matthew Lillard as Shaggy and Sarah Michelle Gellar as Daphne.
For his part, Gunn retweeted a Variety story on the news, which quoted now-deleted tweets from the filmmaker.
“In 2001 Velma was explicitly gay in my initial script,” Gunn wrote. “But the studio just kept watering it down & watering it down” with Velma’s sexuality “becoming ambiguous [in] (the version shot), then nothing (the released version) & finally having a boyfriend (the sequel),” referring to 2004’s Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed.
Tony Cervone, who was a supervising producer with Gunn on the series Scooby-Doo: Mystery Incorporated, corroborated Gunn’s take in a recent Instagram post. “…Velma in ‘Mystery Incorporated‘ is not bi. She’s gay. We always planned on Velma acting…out of character when she was dating Shaggy because that relationship was wrong for her, and she had unspoken difficulty with the why.”
Trick or Treat Scooby-Doo! debuted Tuesday on digital.
Michael Gonzalez/Getty Images) SpaceX And T-Mobile Hold Joint Event In Texas
(NEW YORK) — Tesla CEO Elon Musk proposed the completion of a deal to acquire Twitter on Tuesday, reversing a monthslong effort to terminate the agreement.
Musk — the richest person in the world, according to Forbes — put forward a proposal to Twitter that would complete the deal at Musk’s original offer price of $54.20 a share at a total cost of roughly $44 billion, a person familiar with the proposal told ABC News.
Twitter filed a lawsuit against Musk in July over his effort to terminate an acquisition agreement. That trial is set to begin in less than two weeks.
Musk reached an acquisition deal with Twitter in April, but over the ensuing weeks, he raised concerns over spam accounts on the platform, claiming Twitter had not provided him with an accurate estimate of their number.
Twitter rebuked that claim, saying it had provided Musk with information in accordance with conditions set out in the acquisition deal.
“This is a clear sign that Musk recognized heading into Delaware Court that the chances of winning vs. the Twitter board was highly unlikely and this $44 billion deal was going to be completed one way or another,” Dan Ives, a managing director of equity research at Wedbush, an investment firm, told ABC News Tuesday in an email.
The move from Musk marks the latest reversal of course in a saga that started in January when the billionaire first invested in Twitter. By March, Musk had become the largest stakeholder in Twitter and the following month the social media company announced that Musk would join its board. Days later, however, Musk said he had decided against joining the board.
In April, Musk offered to buy Twitter at $54.20 per share, valuing the company at about $44 billion. The offer amounted to a 38% premium above where the price stood a day before Musk’s investment in Twitter became public. Roughly 10 days later, Twitter accepted Musk’s offer.
One month later, however, Musk said he had put the deal “temporarily on hold,” citing concern over what he said was the prevalence of bot and spam accounts on the platform. Roughly two hours later, Musk said he was “still committed” to the deal.
Eventually, Musk moved to terminate the deal in July. Soon after, Twitter sued Musk in Chancery Court in Delaware to force him to complete the deal.
A scheduling decision made by the court in July — to hold the trial over five days in October — appeared to align more closely with a timeline requested by Twitter, which had sought a four-day trial in September. Musk asked the court to set a trial date no earlier than mid-February 2023.
Now, it appears the court case may not take place, if the two sides reach a deal.
(BOSTON) — A worker at Northeastern University’s virtual reality lab was arrested Tuesday for arranging an apparent hoax that evacuated parts of campus and touched off a search at other Boston colleges and universities, according to the FBI and the U.S. attorney’s office in Boston.
Authorities have charged Jason Duhaime with one count of conveying false and misleading information related to an explosive device and one count of making materially false statements to a federal enforcement agent.
Duhaime was employed as the new technology manager and director of the immersive media lab at Northeastern University.
“In a recorded 911 call and in a subsequent recorded conversation with a federal law enforcement agent, Duhaime reported that he was injured by ‘sharp’ objects expelled from a plastic case that he opened inside the Immersive Media Lab (the ‘Lab’) on the evening of September 12, 2022,” the complaint said.
There was no evidence the package, contained in a hard plastic Pelican case, ever exploded. The package also included a threatening letter directed at the lab, the complaint said.
The FBI said Duhaime himself authored the threatening letter and the case contained no “sharp” objects. Agents are still investigating a motive.
Forensic analysis of one of the computers seized during a search of Duhaime’s office at Northeastern allegedly revealed a word-for-word electronic copy of the letter stored in a backup folder. Meta data associated with the file reflected a date and time of Sept. 13 at 2:57 p.m., roughly four hours prior to when Duhaime called 911, according to United States Attorney Rachael Rollins.
It’s unclear if Duhaime has obtained a lawyer.
Northeastern is a private research university located in Boston.
ABC News’ Alexandra Faul contributed to this report.
Rage Against the Machine has canceled their 2023 North American tour dates as frontman Zack de la Rocha continues to recover from a torn Achilles tendon.
De la Rocha suffered the injury over the summer during the Chicago stop of the band’s reunion tour, which was originally scheduled for 2020 but postponed to this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The concert was only the second date on the tour, and de la Rocha performed the remaining shows while seated.
“It’s been almost three months since Chicago, and I still look down at my leg in disbelief,” de la Rocha writes in a social media statement. “Two years of waiting through the pandemic, hoping we would have an opening to be a band again and continue the work we started 30 some odd years ago. Rehearsing, training, reconciling, working our way back to form.”
“Then one and a half shows into it and my tendon tears,” he continues. “Felt like a sick joke the universe played on me.”
De la Rocha also shares that the tear was so severe that just 8% of his tendon was “left intact” and says he has a “lot of work and healing” ahead of him.
“It’s not simply a question of being able to perform again, but extends to basic functionality going forward,” de la Rocha writes.
“I hate canceling shows,” he adds. “I hate disappointing our fans. You have all waited so patiently to see us and that is never lost on me. I never take that for granted. For you I have the ultimate gratitude and respect.”
Those who purchased tickets to the affected shows, which were among the dates originally postponed from 2020, will be refunded.
We will finally learn the complete story of Michael Jackson‘s groundbreaking album, Thriller, in a forthcoming documentary.
Billboardreports the doc is helmed by Sony Music Entertainment and will further celebrate the album’s 40th anniversary. Music historian Nelson George has been tapped to direct the film, which has already started production.
“The release of Thriller redefined Michael Jackson, taking him from teen star to adult superstar, who composed memorable songs, sang beautifully and reached the highest level of on-stage performance,” said George in a statement. He continued, “The album, and the short films they inspired, created a new template for marrying music and image. It’s been a privilege to explore this extraordinary album and revisit its magic.”
The upcoming tell-all will look into the album’s origins and the effect it had on the music industry, including its influence on the music video format. The documentary will bring to light some never-before-seen interviews and other video content to further demonstrate how Thriller transformed Michael’s legacy.
Sony is teaming with Optimum Productions for the work. A release date is forthcoming.
This isn’t the only celebration Sony Music has in store for Thriller. On November 18, the company will release Michael Jackson Thriller 40, a double CD set with a bonus record filled with rare audio recordings and demos that Jackson worked on during the 1982 album’s sessions.
Sony Music will also host pop-up events and other Michael Jackson-centered celebrations across the globe.
Thriller was released on November 30, 1982 and is hailed one of the best-selling albums of all time. The album, which won the Grammy for Album of the Year in 1984, is RIAA-certified triple Diamond in the U.S.
Constance Wu, the star of Crazy Rich Asians, Hustlers, and the recent Amazon hit The Terminal List, sat down with ABC News’ Juju Chang for a wide-ranging interview airing Tuesday on Good Morning America and later on Nightline.
In the emotional conversation, Wu opened up about her recent allegation that she was sexually harassed by a producer on her hit ABC show Fresh Off the Boat, as well as a separate alleged date rape experience from a different man years earlier, both of which she details in her new book, Making a Scene.
Wu recently returned to social media after retreating in 2019 when she complained on Twitter that Fresh Off the Boat was being renewed for its sixth and final season. As she stated this past July, the blowback led to her attempt to take her own life.
Wu told Chang she was silently suffering behind the scenes of the show.
In her book, the actress said she was allegedly “sexually harassed” and “intimidated and threatened a lot” by one of the show’s producers, an Asian American man whom she did not name. The harassment, she said, included the producer asking her for “sexy selfies at night,” making inappropriate comments, and unwanted touching.
Wu said she was “constantly terrified of being fired” from what was her first-ever network TV job if she were to speak up, noting that this was “pre-#MeToo Movement.”
“…I didn’t want to talk about it because I didn’t want to … stain the reputation of the one show Asian Americans had to represent themselves,” she added.
She said the harassment she went through “…was pretty common … in Hollywood those days.”
When the show became a hit, Wu explained, she felt able to “say no” to him, “and that is what made him furious.”
A reboot of the iconic horror franchise Hellraiser makes its debut at Beyond Fest in Santa Monica, California on Tuesday evening, ahead of its exclusive debut on Hulu Friday.
Director David Bruckner, veteran of the horror hits The Ritual and The Night House, takes over Clive Barker‘s frightening franchise for the new film.
In it, Hulu teases, “a young woman struggling with addiction comes into possession of an ancient puzzle box, unaware that its purpose is to summon the Cenobites, a group of sadistic supernatural beings from another dimension.”
Bruckner tells ABC Audio what it was like getting the reins. “Well, you really want to get it right. It’s a beloved franchise,” he explains. “And any time there’s the energy to mount one of these movies, there’s an opportunity to capture at least a touch of the, you know, the lightning in a bottle that was, you know, the old films.”
However, he allows with a laugh, “every movie’s terrifying! You know, every one of them is a massive leap of faith.”
“And that gets very real when you’re on the ground and, you know, you have people in full prosthetic Cenobite suits…,” he continues.
Hellraiser also stars trans actress Jamie Clayton in the iconic role of The Priest or as the lead Cenobite is commonly known, Pinhead. She called his casting decision “really dope” in terms of trans representation.
“[O]riginally when I got the audition, I never thought that in a million years I would book this,” she admitted. “….And when I met David and did the callback, he was everything I could ever dream of as an actor…in a director. And…in that moment I was like, I want to do this.”
