Latest news with #MyDinnerWithAdolf
Yahoo
08-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Remember That Larry David Crypto Ad? Court Rules He and Other Celebs Didn't Mean to Dupe FTX Users
Larry David had never appeared in a commercial — at least until 2022 when he debuted in a Super Bowl ad as part of a campaign for cryptocurrency platform FTX in a spot titled 'Don't Miss Out.' In it, he takes on his Curb Your Enthusiasm persona as a skeptic who travels through time and scoffs at inventions until he's pitched FTX as a safe and easy way to get into crypto. 'Ehhh, I don't think so,' he says. 'And I'm never wrong about this stuff. Never.' The ad ends with a title card that states, 'Don't be like Larry. Don't miss out.' More from The Hollywood Reporter Julia Garner Eyes FTX Limited Series at Netflix, Higher Ground Producing Bill Maher Reacts to Larry David's "Insulting" "My Dinner With Adolf" Essay: "It's an Argument You Lost Just to Start It" Larry David Pens Satirical "My Dinner With Adolf" Essay, Mocking Bill Maher's White House Visit Later that year, FTX collapsed. The fallout included investors suing David, who was allegedly paid $13 million for appearing in the commercial, and other big names who endorsed the company. Most claims in that lawsuit against David and a host of celebrities accused of illegally promoting the crypto exchange were dismissed on Wednesday, when a federal judge found that they didn't intend to deceive consumers. While they were 'uninformed, negligent, or even reckless,' U.S. District Judge K. Michael Moore concluded that the endorsers aren't liable for investor losses because they didn't have prior knowledge of FTX's fraud. The case — stemming from one of the most visible instances of financial fraud in U.S. history — concerns whether power brokers of the entertainment world, including athletes, supermodels, comedians and internet personalities, can be held liable for leveraging their fame to promote what some argue are unregistered securities. The proposed class action, filed in 2022, alleged that FTX was a Ponzi scheme that fraudulently shuffled customer funds between its affiliated entities. It accused celebrity endorsers of aiding the exchange's fraud. Named in the complaint: Shohei Ohtani, Stephen Curry, Tom Brady, Gisele Bundchen, Shaquille O'Neal and Naomi Osaka, among others, as well as talent management firm Creators Agency, which promoted the exchange. They all appeared in ads and events for FTX and didn't disclose that they received equity in the company in exchange for serving as brand ambassadors. In one commercial, Curry repeatedly denies being cast as an expert in cryptocurrency but says 'I don't need to be. With FTX I have everything I need to buy, sell, and trade crypto safely.' Included in the dismissal were alleged violations of state securities, consumer protection, unfair competition and false advertising laws. 'In the extensive list of promotions, advertisements, and statements, Plaintiffs have not provided any details related to Defendants' alleged scheme to engage in knowingly false or deceptive practices, other than that Defendants promoted the FTX products in exchange for a substantial compensation package,' Moore wrote. On the issue of intent to deceive, investors argued that celebrity endorsers were 'exposed to red flags of fraud.' They also stressed that promoters knew they were using their fame to encourage people to make risky financial decisions based on uninformed recommendations. For a claim accusing celebrities of conspiring with FTX to solicit purchases of what investors argue are unregistered securities, the court concluded that the endorsers can't be found liable for 'merely receiving payments and other monetary benefits in exchange for their promotional content.' Moore offered investors another chance to fix their dismissed claims, though they'll need to present stronger evidence that the celebrity promoters had knowledge of FTX's fraud but still continued to promote its platform. Some claims were allowed to proceed. They include violations of Florida and Oklahoma securities laws. The issue of whether FTX products and services constitute unregistered securities remains contested. Boosting crypto and crypto exchanges was a lucrative play for some. Shark Tank star Kevin O'Leary, also a paid ambassador to FTX, has testified before the Senate Banking Committee, telling them FTX paid him an $18 million to promote the exchange, including $3 million to cover taxes, $1 million in FTX equity (now 'most likely worthless,' he said), and $10 million in crypto tokens held in FTX wallets ('I have written them off to zero,' he told the committee). A-list promoters of crypto and other digital assets already have run into legal trouble — a key consideration in civil suits alleging fraud. In 2022, the Securities and Exchange Commission charged Kim Kardashian for endorsing on Instagram EthereumMax without disclosing a $250,000 payment she received for the promotion. She settled the case for $1.3 million. Floyd Mayweather Jr. and DJ Khaled have resolved similar suits filed by the SEC over failing to disclose payments they received for promoting investments in an initial coin offering. Best of The Hollywood Reporter How the Warner Brothers Got Their Film Business Started Meet the World Builders: Hollywood's Top Physical Production Executives of 2023 Men in Blazers, Hollywood's Favorite Soccer Podcast, Aims for a Global Empire
Yahoo
26-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Bill Maher calls out Al Gore for comparing Trump administration to Nazis
"Real Time" host Bill Maher challenged former Vice President Al Gore over his recent comments comparing the Trump administration to Nazis. Earlier this week, Gore invoked "Adolf Hitler's Third Reich" in a keynote speech he made at a Climate Week event in San Francisco, telling the crowd that despite reasons not to make such a comparison, "there are important lessons from the history of that emergent evil." "I just think that Nazis is a hard word to use with nuance," Maher told Gore on Friday during an interview. "So when you bring that word out, you know, I feel like they're the GOAT of evil." (GOAT is slang for "greatest of all time.") Bill Maher Fires Back At Larry David Over 'My Dinner With Adolf' Op-ed, Says It Insults '6 Million Dead Jews' "I agree with that. But look at what I actually said in that speech," Gore responded. "There was a group of German philosophers that went back after the war and conducted a kind of moral autopsy… One of them said that the first step on the descent into Hell in that case was, and I quote, 'The conversion of all questions of truth into questions of power.' They attack the distinction between true and false." Gore continued, "And when I see and hear over and over again the assertion of complete inaccuracies that Ukraine is responsible for starting the war with Russia. There's so many of them, and they keep asserting these things expecting us to believe it. The climate crisis is a hoax invented by the Chinese, that windmills cause cancer… that coal is clean. And they try to assert, with the force of power, their own special version of alternative facts." Read On The Fox News App Bill Maher Declares Himself A 'Hero' For Confronting Trump At White House Meeting "But I guarantee that the side of the country that voted for Trump, they hear Nazi and they just go, 'Oh, you're calling us Nazis?'" Maher pushed back. "First of all, it's a bit of a false premise as bad as they are. And also, it just says to them, 'Well, you just hate us.' And one thing I've learned in recent years is that the one thing that's more powerful than money is hate. When people hate you so much and when they think you hate them so much, even the money goes out the window." "This idea that well- just take a random example, you can't even break bread with them. We hate you so much. You're a deplorable and you're not worth having dinner with," Maher added. Maher has been vocal in his disapproval of liberals who compare President Donald Trump and his supporters to Nazis. On Thursday, he fired back at fellow comedian Larry David for satirizing Maher's recent White House meeting with Trump in a New York Times piece titled "My Dinner with Adolf." "I think the minute you play the Hitler card, you've lost the argument," Maher told Piers Morgan. "And also, I must say, you know, come on, man. Hitler? Nazis? Nobody has been harder about and on and more prescient, I must say, about Donald Trump than me. I don't need to be lectured on who Donald Trump is. Just the fact that I met him in person didn't change that, and the fact that I reported honestly is not a sin either." Click Here For The Latest Media And Culture News Maher continued, "But, you know, to use the Hitler thing, first of all, I just think it's kind of insulting to six million dead Jews, you know. Like, that should kind of be in its own place in history. And, you know, I know people can say, 'Well, we're just comparing it in this way.' Well, it's an argument you kind of lost just to start it." "Hitler has really kind of got to stay in his own place. He is the GOAT of evil, and we're just going to have to, I think, leave it like that," he article source: Bill Maher calls out Al Gore for comparing Trump administration to Nazis
Yahoo
26-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Ex-liberal comedian urges Americans to fight their media-driven demoralization and mental health crisis
Comedian and pro-Israel activist Daniel-Ryan Spaulding thinks America needs to get in touch with itself again to help address the nation's mental health crisis. The Canadian stand-up star told Fox News Digital that he is alarmed at what he has seen after recently moving to the United States, pointing out the demoralization, political division, and mental health crisis he believes are causing the implosion of society. "If you have been raised your whole life to think that America is evil and that the president of your country is the most horrible person in the world, and men are evil, and the military is evil, and all the systems and the history of your country is evil, you know, you're gonna end up really weird, and you're not gonna necessarily know the difference between right and wrong," he said. Larry David Mocks Bill Maher's Meeting With Trump As 'My Dinner With Adolf' In Nyt Satire Spaulding is a gay comedian who has gone viral in recent years for his social media posts mocking leftists that call for the downfall of Israel. In one of his most liked videos on Instagram following the Oct. 7 Hamas terror attack, the comedian mocked LGBTQ protesters for thinking that Hamas would appreciate their help in condemning the Jewish state. In addition to his concerns about Israel, the comic expressed worry about the cultural state of the West, particularly of the United States, where he believes many people have been taught to hate their own country and its ally, Israel. Read On The Fox News App "I believe that we've been so demoralized, the West has been so demoralized. Like, if we can get to the point where Jews are like on the side of Hamas, if we get to the point where gay people are on the side of Hamas, if we get to the point where young college kids are on the side of a terrorist regime, this is a big, big problem," he told Fox News Digital. "This is a level of perversion and self-hate, that is like, my mind can't even comprehend it," he added. He accused the mainstream media of greatly contributing to America's moral crisis. "And the way things are covered in the news – like the way the New York Times reports something versus the way the New York Post covers something – like, you'll see the same photo with a completely different write-up and headline, and people are just living in these little echo chambers, and no one is seeing the crap on the other side, you know?" "They're always focused on being angry at someone else. So, it's sort of this rage culture that's been developing," Spaulding added. Audience Walks Out On Dave Chappelle After He Criticizes Israel During Show In Boston: Report The comedian also pointed out the poor physical and mental health that many Americans are in, thanks to their poor diets, appetite for prescription drugs, and the "rage culture" he said the media's been amplifying. "But I think that from my time in America, having never lived in America and then moving there as an adult, like there's some real problems with health, like mental health, first of all," he said. "There's like full-on schizophrenic people everywhere in New York. People are nuts. And then also people seem like they're on medication. Like a lot of people are weird. Like I think a lot of people are on pills." "And then, also, yeah, the food," he continued, "Like you can get good food, but there's also just like a lot of crappy food as well. And the crappy food is cheaper than the healthy food. So I think that to get all those chemicals out of the food, like this is very important, this is important." Spaulding recently underwent a dramatic weight loss, having dropped 220 pounds over the course of three years, so he knows how important good health is and that it should be a priority for Americans. He praised new U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for targeting Americans' unhealthy diets and childhood obesity, saying if he makes progress on his agenda, "that will be a game-changer for the United States." When asked more about his thoughts on the nature of the country's mental health crisis, Spaulding pointed to the intersection between the pharmaceutical industry agenda and that of the media. Influencer Warns Gen Z Is Becoming 'Gen Terrorism' As Tiktok Takes 'Ominous Turn' After Oct 7 "Well, I think that, like, definitely the pharmaceutical industry makes money off of getting everyone anxious and getting everyone upset. I think the news in a lot of ways and the way the news is framed – like I can't even watch CNN or MSNBC or any of those programs anymore because it's just constant, 'Fear, fear, fear. Anger, anger, anger.' And it's not real." "So it's sort of this rage culture that's been developing," he added. The comic, who says he has always considered himself a liberal until seeing the radicalism of fellow liberals, says he sees hope for the future and senses a shift to a "hyper-patriotism" that will inspire people to love their country and its allies again. "So, I think that we need to move towards reclaiming patriotism, stop hating each other so much, learn from each other, take care of each other. You know? Have pride in your country, have love of country. I think if all of these things – success, patriotism – if we start to reprogram ourselves to enjoy that, 'America! Top Gun! Yeah!' sort of – but people really want that again."Original article source: Ex-liberal comedian urges Americans to fight their media-driven demoralization and mental health crisis
Yahoo
26-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Bill Maher Defends Trump White House Visit, Slams 'Nazi' Comparisons
Bill Maher still defends his White House visit with President Donald Trump. During the latest episode of his weekly HBO series, Real Time, the host sat down with Al Gore where the former vice president admitted that he understood why Maher accepted the invitation to meet with Trump, recalling how he himself met with Trump ahead of the Republican president's first term. More from The Hollywood Reporter Kennedy Center Events Set for LGBTQ+ Pride Celebration Canceled, Organizers Say Harvard Was First. Hollywood Could Be Next Bill Maher Reacts to Larry David's "Insulting" "My Dinner With Adolf" Essay: "It's an Argument You Lost Just to Start It" 'It's just that [when] somebody comes with an offer and says, this person who's been dominating our life, whether you like him or not, for 10 years like nobody ever has in history, would you like to see it up close?' Maher said on the show. 'Would you like to see the Trumpadopoulos up close? You know, I mean, of course, who wouldn't?' Earlier in the interview, the duo discussed Gore's recent speech opening San Francisco Climate Week, in which the 2000 Democratic presidential candidate criticized the Trump administration and made headlines for creating parallels between the actions of the Republican president and his team in their second term and what happened in the early days of Nazi Germany. 'I understand very well why it is wrong to compare Adolf Hitler's Third Reich to any other movement,' Gore said. 'It was uniquely evil, full stop. I get it. But there are important lessons from the history of that emergent evil.' He added, though, 'It was [Jürgen] Habermas' mentor, Theodore Adorno, who wrote that the first step in that nation's descent into hell was, and I quote, 'the conversion of all questions of truth into questions of power.' He described how the Nazis, and I quote again, 'attacked the very heart of the distinction between true and false.' End quote. The Trump administration is insisting on trying to create their own preferred version of reality.' On Friday's show, Maher said, 'I just think Nazi is a hard word to use with nuance. So, when you bring that word out, you know, I feel like they're the GOAT of evil, and it just conflates.' Gore defended his speech, though Maher argued that 'the side of the country that voted for Trump, [when] they hear Nazi, they just go, 'Oh, you're calling us Nazis.'' He added, 'First of all, it's a bit of a false premise, as bad as they are. And also it just says to them, 'Well, you just hate us.' One thing I've learned in recent years is that the one thing that's more powerful than money is hate.' Their conversation came after Maher responded to Larry David's satirical 'My Dinner With Adolf' essay that mocked the comedian's visit with Trump where he said the president was 'gracious and measured,' and not like the 'person who plays a crazy person on TV.' During a Thursday interview with Piers Morgan, the Real Time host said his essay was 'insulting to six million dead Jews' and that 'it's an argument you kind of lost just to start it.' 'Look, maybe it's not completely logically fair, but Hitler has really kind of got to stay in his own place,' Maher said Thursday. 'He is the GOAT of evil. We're just going to have to leave it like that.' In David's 'My Dinner With Adolf' essay, he satirically recalled having dinner 'with the world's most reviled man, Adolf Hitler.' He added, 'I had been a vocal critic of his on the radio from the beginning, pretty much predicting everything he was going to do on the road to dictatorship. No one I knew encouraged me to go. 'He's Hitler. He's a monster.' But eventually I concluded that hate gets us nowhere. I knew I couldn't change his views, but we need to talk to the other side — even if it has invaded and annexed other countries and committed unspeakable crimes against humanity.' The guest essay pulled similar verbiage from Maher's monologue from his April 11 episode where he recounted his visit with Trump and Kid Rock. During the visit, Maher said, he 'never felt I had to walk on eggshells around' the president. He added, 'Honestly, I voted for [Bill] Clinton and [Barack] Obama, but I would never feel comfortable talking to them the way I was able to talk with Donald Trump. That's just how it went down, make of it what you will.' Best of The Hollywood Reporter 22 of the Most Shocking Character Deaths in Television History A 'Star Wars' Timeline: All the Movies and TV Shows in the Franchise 'Yellowstone' and the Sprawling Dutton Family Tree, Explained
Yahoo
25-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Harvard Was First. Hollywood Could Be Next
Earlier this month, chatter surfaced of those in President Donald Trump's orbit suggesting to Warner Bros. Discovery that it could curry favor within the administration by giving Donald Trump Jr. a hunting or fishing show. Whether or not that was a mere trial balloon or a suggestion, the type of soft power at play is one of Hollywood's main assets. Look at Melania Trump's lucrative Amazon deal, for example, as one way that the giant companies that own studios can now wield influence and bend, if needed, for politically expedient purposes. More from The Hollywood Reporter Larry David Pens Satirical "My Dinner With Adolf" Essay, Mocking Bill Maher's White House Visit Can TikTok "De-Influencers" Save the World? Why Are Teenagers Rioting at Minecraft Screenings? Ask a 15-Year-Old. So when Trump threatened Harvard University's tax-exempt status last week after the school rebuffed his administration's demands for a series of policy changes, it became apparent that that soft power could be leveraged as another weapon in his arsenal to get what he wants out of the entertainment and media industries. Hollywood leans on a network of trade groups and associations representing various segments of the business. These include unions, guilds and professional organizations that advocate and promote the interests of its members. At the forefront: The Academy of Motion Picture and Arts and Sciences and the Recording Academy. The organization behind the Oscars and the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures is tax-exempt as a 501(c)(6), which covers trade associations. It hasn't been immune to the ongoing period of contraction across Hollywood, laying off some of its workforce last year as part of a larger restructuring. And while it saw TV ratings for the Academy Awards broadcast surge to a post-pandemic high, the numbers suggest that revenue associated with the Oscars may be slowing, with real uncertainty about what the license fees will look like when it either negotiates a new broadcast deal with Disney or seeks to take the awards program elsewhere. Overall, revenue is down, exacerbated by the leveling off of the Academy Museum after a hot start. The Academy losing its tax-exempt status will cost it tens of millions in the long run. If it was revoked last year, the group would've had to pay taxes on revenue ($15.3 million in 2024) and capital gains ($66.7 million in 2024). Trump's clash with Harvard is the latest turn in his sweeping bid to purge 'woke' ideology across the government, private sector and academia. The entertainment industry has been targeted too, with companies across Hollywood rolling back diversity, equity and inclusion programs under the administration's position that they violate civil rights laws. Conservatives have taken issue with what they consider pandering to certain audiences by advancing certain narratives that exclude straight white men and suppress their viewpoints. Members of the Academy have been critical of that line of criticism. In 2017, Warren Beatty nodded to it in his presentation of the best picture nominees, observing that those films, of which Barry Jenkins' Moonlight emerged as the winner, 'show us the increasing diversity in our community, and our respect for diversity and freedom all over the world.' If Trump does flout federal laws barring him from directing the Internal Revenue Service to conduct tax investigations targeted at specific groups, it could embolden his circle to do the same with trade groups and nonprofits in the entertainment sector. 'They would love to make an example out of Hollywood,' says Edward McCaffery, professor of tax policy at USC Gould School of Law. 'If you give Trump and his acolytes a tool, they're going to use it.' Unlike charities, the film and recording academies are allowed to engage in politics as a 501(c)(6), but it can't be the bulk of their work. Under the tax code that governs exemptions, political activity is defined exclusively as supporting and opposing candidates for public office. Legal experts observe that it'd be a losing proposition for the government to argue the trade groups, which don't make endorsements, aren't mostly focused on their objectives of advancing the appreciation of movies and music. 'I don't hear them going around saying that this candidate is better than another. That's all that counts,' says Rose Chan Loui, who specializes in teaching about nonprofits at UCLA School of Law. 'I don't see that leading to the revocation of their tax-exempt status.' Possible violations of civil rights law will be the wild card. In 1970, the IRS implemented a policy of barring tax-exempt status for private schools engaged in racial discrimination. And the Supreme Court years later upheld the agency's decision to strip Bob Jones' University's status because tax-exempt institutions 'must serve a public purpose and not be contrary to established public policy.' This administration has suggested that DEI programs illegally discriminate against straight white men. That could form the basis of stripping the film and recording academies of their tax-exempt statuses. Unlike entertainment giants who've complied with the government's position on the issue by rolling back diversity policies, they appear to have mostly maintained initiatives and goals that fall under that umbrella. One example: The film academy maintains standards requiring nominated movies to meet specific levels of diversity, explicitly mentioning certain racial and ethnic groups. The Recording Academy also remains committed to advancing DEI initiatives. Last year, it launched the Dream (Diversity Reimagined by Engaging All Music Makers) Network, which spotlights the work of creators from groups such as the Black Music Collective, Indigenous Peoples Network and Academy Proud, among others. 'There's a body of law that says a tax-exempt organization cannot be violating public policy,' Chan Loui says. 'But a lot of practitioners would say that this administration's interpretation doesn't make it a policy.' The courts will decide, though the answer isn't as clear-cut as it appears. Diversity programs that require companies to hire applicants from certain racial or ethnic groups have been legally tenuous for years, but especially since the Supreme Court struck down affirmative action in a 2023 ruling that implicated race-conscious DEI initiatives in the private sector. There's a reason why several of these policies no longer explicitly mention race, often using read-between-the-lines placeholders like 'underrepresented,' 'underserved' or 'unique perspectives.' Another possible target: nonprofits, specifically those that promote causes Trump has been hostile against, like immigration and the environment. 'There is a legitimate concern,' says Social Impact Fund executive director Craig Cichy, who previously was a program officer for philanthropic services at the Entertainment Industry Foundation, Hollywood's original major fiscal sponsor that was founded in 1942. 'When elected officials appear to target nonprofits based on the causes they support — whether in areas like immigration, climate or equity — it can affect both organizations and the willingness of donors and institutional funders to support those efforts.' For Trump, winning these potential cases is almost beside the point. His playbook involves drowning rivals in legal fees. And if it's a battle of deeper pockets, he stands to win. Trump has extracted nearly $1 billion in pro bono legal services from elite law firms — including Willkie Farr & Gallagher; Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison; and Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom. This administration already has news organization, universities and private companies yielding to its demands. It's easy to see why. Prosecutors will go after entertainment giants — many of which have publications under their corporate umbrellas — for adversarial coverage, and regulators will be hesitant to greenlight the sink-or-swim mergers they're chasing. There will be fewer law firms willing to defend them. Amid this landscape, it's becoming tougher to envision any opposition from gaining meaningful traction. Best of The Hollywood Reporter How the Warner Brothers Got Their Film Business Started Meet the World Builders: Hollywood's Top Physical Production Executives of 2023 Men in Blazers, Hollywood's Favorite Soccer Podcast, Aims for a Global Empire
