You better work!

 

The Beauty Products ‘Heated Rivalry’ Star Hudson Williams Uses to the Last Drop

Keep young and beautiful, / It's your duty to be beautiful ... especially if you’re a star.

Neon picks up ‘Artificial,’ hot potato movie about OpenAI

Independent Studio Buys Movie About OpenAI That Amazon Dropped 

Photo by Haiyun Jung/New York Times

 I was waiting for another studio to pick up Artificial. Take that, Amazon-MGM.

 

So much for taking the Mark Twain Prize seriously

 

Mark Twain must be spinning in his grave. According to this column by Marlow Stern from "Variety," Vance played Bill Maher like an old ukulele. I can't think of anyone less qualified to get the Twain Prize.

Bill Maher Gets Played

Sigrid Nunez had a surprising encounter at the Strand Bookstore

 Metropolitan Diary, June 28, 2026

Jay Kuo's “Just for Skeets and Giggles” for June 27, 2026

https://open.substack.com/pub/statuskuo/p/just-for-skeets-and-giggles-62726?r=1opwqh&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email

Support Jay’s work by subscribing to his Substack.

‘*****’s Ls for the Week’ from Amanda’s Mild Takes

 

Amanda's Mild Takes brings you the Dotard Leader’s “Ls for The Week.” It’s only Tuesday, and Everything is Going According to The Plan!™

https://youtu.be/rpqc-M2JCoU?si=1vBnd4My1SxhAErC

'Keep It Quarterly' call for comments

Not a good idea, no matter how you look at it. Consider also who tried to get it done in his first term, dropped it, and revived the proposed rule change this year. That's all I need to know.

Keep It Quarterly: Stop the SEC's six-month blackout 

Selected ‘AI Snacks’ for June 25, 2026

Here’s hoping that AI won’t cause the world to end for a while. Speaking personally, I have a lot of movies to watch.

In the meantime, software engineers’ jobs are safe. They’ll just have to turn out more code.

AI Snacks for June 25, 2026, from the humans at magica.ai

"Cats: the Jellicle Ball" at the Broadhurst Theatre is a must-see

Check-in: the Broadhurst Theatre for Cats: the Jellicle Ball.

This is not a post coded as a plea for help. It’s me, I’m at home, and everything is fine. What I want to tell you is that Cats: The Jellicle Ball is incredible. See it before it’s made illegal to have so much fun in public, and in a theater. Turning Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Cats into a gay ballroom competition was a stroke of genius by Zhailon Livingston and Bill Rauch, who absolutely deserved their Tony Award. The cast delivers everything they’re asked to do, and more, number after number. They “all own everything,” as RuPaul likes to say (I looked it up, so don’t give me shade), and the realness is off the hook. It’s also just about the gayest show I have seen in my life, and that includes the original La Cage aux Folles.

Don’t question me, just see it. I don’t want to hear that you don’t have the time. It’s been extended through January 17, 2027. You can thank me later, as I am thanking Randall David Cook, who reviewed it for https://therecs.co.uk/cats-the-jellicle-ball/ and gave the production .

AI news of the day from humans at magica.ai

 

'The money behind a network of sham "progressive" super PACs' from "Popular Information" substack

The APA is a key part of the GOP financial infrastructure. It was established in 2022 and received $5.5 million in seed funding from the American Action Network, a non-profit associated with the House Republican super PAC, the Congressional Leadership Fund. Brian Walsh, a top aide to former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R), is a senior advisor to the APA, according to a 2024 report in NBC News. Walsh was a founder and former president of the Congressional Leadership Fund and former president of the American Action Network.

Since 2022, the APA has raised over $100 million from undisclosed sources. Millions of dollars were routed from the APA, usually through intermediaries, to the Congressional Leadership Fund and its sister organization, the Senate Leadership Fund. The APA has also funneled cash to MAGA Inc, President Trump’s super PAC, the Republican Convention, and a host of other Republican groups. The APA does not have to disclose its donors because it is organized as a 501(c)(4) non-profit group.

Earlier this month, Popular Information connected Lead Left PAC, Real Change PAC, and California Blue PAC to the Congressional Leadership Fund through shared vendors, personnel, and addresses. Lead Left, for example, listed its address as a mailbox at a Staples at 2241 North Monroe Street in Tallahassee, Florida. Of the roughly 48,500 distinct political committees that have filed with the FEC since 2016, only two others share an address with Lead Left. Both of those committees are connected to the Crosby Ottenhoff Group, the political compliance firm founded by Caleb Crosby, the treasurer of the Congressional Leadership Fund.

Read more: UPDATE: The money behind a network of sham "progressive" super PACs