Paramount Back To Publishing
Paramount Launches Publishing Imprint, Looking To Boost Established Franchises And Develop Original IP
By Dade Hayes
Paramount is launching a publishing imprint, saying it will help boost established franchises and brands and develop original IP.
Dubbed Paramount Global Publishing, the imprint will start in the U.S. and Canada, with other international markets to follow in the future. Projects will span print, digital and audio, aiming for a wide range of audiences, from kids and families to adults.
For many years before its 2025 merger with Skydance, Paramount and its predecessor companies had major publishing house Simon & Schuster in their corporate portfolio. In 2023, Paramount Global sold the publisher to private equity firm KKR for $1.62 billion. An earlier, richer sale to rival Penguin Random House was blocked by a judge over monopoly concerns and potential harm to authors and consumers.
Adell The Bandit
Satellites Swarming
‘This feels fragile’: how a satellite-smashing chain reaction could spiral out of control
Today, the space around Earth can no longer be considered empty. More than 30,000 objects are in orbit, and that figure is rising exponentially
by Frederick O’Brien, Ashley Kirk and Oliver Holmes
Some reports suggest that by the end of this decade there could more than 60,000 active satellites in space. Launch by launch, what began with a handful of scientific and military spacecraft has accelerated into a constant flow of objects, publicly and privately owned, placed into different orbital lanes, each serving a variety of purposes.
There is now a diverse collection of satellites spinning around the globe, including communication and weather satellites, navigation satellites and Earth observation technology that takes images of the surface
John Steinbeck Solicits Marilyn Monroe
King Larry
How Larry Ellison is Quietly Shaping the Future of A.I., Social Media and Hollywood
Oracle’s Larry Ellison wields $190 billion to reshape A.I. infrastructure, safeguard TikTok U.S. and secure a $110 billion Warner Bros. Discovery deal.
Larry Ellison stepped down as Oracle’s CEO more than a decade ago. Yet the company’s co-founder, now executive chair and chief technology officer—with an estimated net worth of $190 billion—remains deeply involved in Oracle’s biggest moves. His influence ripples far beyond enterprise software, extending from A.I. infrastructure and social media to Hollywood. Ellison is a key backer in the Trump administration’s Stargate project, the U.S. takeover of TikTok and the $110 billion Warner Bros. Discovery acquisition led by his son, David Ellison.
Chuck Norris Gone (really?)
Chuck Norris, Action Icon and ‘Walker, Texas Ranger’ Star, Dies at 86
By Carmel Dagan
Chuck Norris, the martial arts champion who became an iconic action star and led the hit series “Walker, Texas Ranger,” has died. He was 86.
As an action star, Norris had a degree of credibility that most others could not match.. Not only did he appear opposite the legendary Bruce Lee in 1972 film “The Way of the Dragon” (aka “Return of the Dragon”), but he was a genuine martial arts champion who was a black belt in judo, 3rd degree black belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, 5th degree black belt in Karate, 8th degree black belt in Taekwondo, 9th degree black belt in Tang Soo Do and 10th degree black belt in Chun Kuk Do.
Norris was extremely prolific in the late 1970s and ’80s, starring in “The Delta Force” and “Missing in Action” films, “Good Guys Wear Black” (1978), “The Octagon” (1980), “Lone Wolf McQuade” (1983), “Code of Silence” (1985) and “Firewalker” (1986).
Johnny Blue Skies’ Situation
Banksy Revealed
Banksy Finally Unmasked? Reuters Investigation Claims to Reveal Graffiti Artist’s True Identity “Beyond Dispute”
Despite rumors, the U.K.’s most prolific graffiti painter is not Massive Attack frontman Robert Del Naja, according to an extensive report from the wire service.
BY LILY FORD
Journalists at Reuters claim to have unmasked Banksy, the anonymous graffiti artist who has long ruled the U.K. art scene with politically provocative murals.
In an investigation published Friday titled In Search of Banksy, reporters Simon Gardner, James Pearson and Blake Morrison detail a complex and extensive hunt for Banksy’s real name, pulling information from a trip to Ukraine, where he was photographed and met with locals; a fallout with Jamaican photographer Peter Dean Rickards, who is said to have posted photos of Banksy’s face; and a 2000 New York arrest, where they discovered a signed, handwritten confession.
AlphaPussy
Growing up in the Valley, Gina Gershon learned how to steer through toxicity
By Cat Woods
Gina Gershon considers herself a storyteller, first and foremost. When we connect via video call, Gershon admits this is the first interview she’s done since submitting the manuscript for her latest book, “AlphaPussy: How I Survived the Valley and Learned to Love My Boobs.”
“I don’t have my spiel yet!” she warns, inquiring for the first of a few times what I thought of it and whether I enjoyed it. Despite the many decades Gershon has been treading the boards, starring in indie films and Hollywood star vehicles, and stalking the stage as a singer-guitarist, she still really cares about what you think, even if it won’t change her own mind. Perhaps that’s the key to her professional longevity.
“AlphaPussy” is neither a memoir nor a guide to self-betterment, but elements of both feed into Gershon’s stories. Each wittily titled chapter plunges readers into Gershon’s freewheeling 1970s childhood, defiant adolescence, burgeoning performance career and collaborations with some of the biggest names in film (including Sharon Stone, Paul Verhoeven and Tom Cruise). Most of the stories take place in the San Fernando Valley, where young Gershon was discovering weed, mushrooms and rock ‘n’ roll. This is not a titillating tell-all, and all the better for it.
Superbloom ’26
Death Valley sees its most spectacular superbloom in a decade
The wildflowers have painted the usually barren landscape of Death Valley National Park — one of the hottest and driest places in the country — in pretty pink, purple and yellow.
By Denise Chow
A superbloom of wildflowers has painted the normally barren landscape of Death Valley National Park — one of the most extreme places on the planet and the hottest and driest spot in North America — in pretty pink, purple and yellow hues.
“This area that’s known basically for hot weather, sand and dirt has just become this amazing landscape of colors,” said David Blacker, executive director of the nonprofit Death Valley Natural History Association. “The smell is just amazing.”
This year’s superbloom is the most spectacular that Death Valley has seen in a decade, according to the National Park Service. It’s a result of rainier-than-normal conditions throughout the region last fall and early winter.
Go Cinema!
David Ellison Says ‘Top Gun: Maverick’ A Pivotal Event For Him As Paramount CEO Commits To 30 Theatrical Releases A Year Post-Merger: “Movies Should Be Seen In Theaters”
Paramount CEO David Ellison was emphatic about theatrical during a call with Wall Street on Monday. “It’s something we deeply, deeply believe in,” he said. “Large franchises and big pieces of intellectual property are launched in theaters, period.”
Talking through Paramount’s massive merger with Warner Bros Discovery announced Friday, he wound back to 2022 when one film in particular had a huge impact on his thinking regarding theatrical versus streaming.
No Ghee-na!
Gina Gershon says she turned down role after Prince wanted to rebrand her with a single name
By CASSIE CARPENTER, US SHOW BUSINESS REPORTER
Gina Gershon had a glamorous, close encounter with the late great Prince Rogers Nelson in 1983 while he was searching for someone to play his onscreen leading lady in the film Purple Rain.
‘”Prince wants to meet you. He’s doing a movie and the lead woman has to be able to sing, dance and act. I told him about you,”‘ a musician friend told the 63-year-old Showgirls alum – according to Page Six.
At the time, Gershon was still a senior enrolled at New York University pursuing a BFA degree in drama and psychology/philosophy but she eagerly took the trip to Minnesota where the Purple One picked her up by limousine.
The Devil’s Tone
The science behind why Black Sabbath and Ozzy Osbourne’s music sounded ‘satanic’
The tritone has been blamed for chaos, banned by choirs, and embraced by metalheads. Here’s what the ‘devil’s interval’ really does to your brain.
By Simon Ingram
The idea that two simple notes—not a song, just tones—could be “banned“ may seem ludicrous. But that’s the legend behind the crushing opening riff of Black Sabbath’s 1970 debut. With just three ominous notes, guitarist Tony Iommi, alongside the anguished vocals of the late Ozzy Osbourne, unleashed a sound so unsettling it was said to have been forbidden for centuries.“Those notes were banned many years ago,” Iommi told the BBC in 2014. “It’s supposed to have been a satanic thing.”
While rock legend has never been the most reliable (see: Ozzy and the bat), this one does have a whisper of truth. Black Sabbath recruited what music theorists refer to as the ‘tritone,’ —a dissonant interval once avoided by medieval choirs and now known in music lore as the “devil’s interval.” Also referred to as the augmented fourth, diminished fifth, or sharp eleven, the tritone spans three whole tones on a scale, creating a clashing, unstable sound that has long made listeners squirm. But what is it about this ancient musical interval that has unnerved audiences for centuries—and why does it still strike such a primal chord?
The First Writers
Humans could have been ‘writing’ 40,000 years earlier than anyone thought
by Rory McKeown
Researchers have uncovered compelling evidence that Stone Age humans were engraving complex, meaningful symbol systems onto tools and sculptures 40,000 years ago.
The findings challenge the long-held assumption that writing began in ancient Mesopotamia around 3,000 BCE.
An international research team, led by linguist Christian Bentz of Saarland University and archaeologist Ewa Dutkiewicz of Berlin’s Museum für Vor- und Frühgeschichte, analysed more than 3,000 engraved signs found on 260 prehistoric objects.
Not ’til you’re 18, son
Peter Thiel and other tech billionaires are publicly shielding their children from the products that made them rich
Despite building an increasingly screen-focused world, billionaire tech leaders are keeping their own children away from the tech they helped create.
As far back as 2010, Apple cofounder Steve Jobs told a New York Times reporter his kids had never used an iPad and that, “We limit how much technology our kids use at home.”
Since then, the trend of Silicon Valley billionaires keeping their families away from technology has become even more pronounced, thanks in part to the rise of social media and short-form video.
Excessive device use among children has grown more common in recent years as busy parents turn to screens to find some peace. The trend has accelerated so much that some young children accustomed to extensive screen time are dubbed “iPad kids.” On average, children in the U.S. ages 8 to 18 spend 7.5 hours per day watching or using screens, according to the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.
YouTube cofounder Steve Chen said at a talk at the Stanford Graduate School of Business last year that he wouldn’t want his kids consuming only short-form content, noting that it might be better to limit kids to videos longer than 15 minutes.
Willie Colón Gone
R.I.P. Willie Colón: Salsa legend dead at 75
“His music was not just heard; it was lived,” Fania Records shared in a statement.
Innovative composer, vibrant trombonist, bandleader, and salsa visionary Willie Colón has died. On social media yesterday (February 21), his family confirmed the news. “It is with profound sadness that we announce the passing of our beloved husband, father, and renowned musician, Willie Colón,” their statement read. “He passed away peacefully this morning, surrounded by his loving family.” Colón was 75 years old.
Colón’s Puerto Rican grandmother exposed him to Latin sounds at a young age. In the Bronx, he heard guaracha, jíbaro, tango, and Cuban music and, by 1961, he learned the flute, trumpet, and bugle before eventually settling on the trombone. It was Barry Rogers’ playing on Mon Rivera and Joe Cotto’s “Dolores” that nudged him in the instrument’s direction. At 15, after gigging at weddings under the stewardship of Rivera, the Fania label signed Colón to a record deal. His first album, 1967’s El Malo, sold over 300,000 copies, and Colón later became one of the best-selling salsa artists of all time. His work combined funk, jazz, R&B, Latin rhythms, and the political teachings of figures like Martin Luther King Jr. together. “It was rebellious music,” he told the Miami Herald 20 years ago. “The music wasn’t explicitly political yet, but the music was a magnet that would bring people together.”
Gold Fever Pandemic Surging
The gold rush is back in California’s Inland Empire
In San Bernardino County, gold and silver mining companies are pushing to expand
By Erin Rode, Contributing LA Outdoors Editor
Calico Ghost Town Regional Park certainly did not feel like a ghost town last weekend. The line just to pay entrance fees at the San Bernardino County-managed attraction was at least a dozen cars deep, and neon-vested parking attendants tried to quell the sudden rush of traffic at the remote park as a shuttle ferried visitors from far-flung corners of the dirt parking lot to the town’s entrance. Once inside, visitors had their pick of a jam-packed schedule of events that included live bands, historical reenactments, pony rides and gun-draw competitions. Cold beers were poured at Lil’s Saloon at a nearly proportional rate to the number of parents buying prop guns for their kids as souvenirs.
Thousands of people descended on the tiny ghost town north of Barstow last weekend for the fifth annual Calico California Days, an event advertised as a celebration of California’s early history. Visitors stepped back in time, panning for fake gold nuggets and touring long-abandoned mining tunnels. Performers in 19th century garb played banjos and staged gunfights. But while the event offered a glimpse of California’s past, the giant mining corporations that sponsored the festivities are already hard at work excavating the region’s future.
Venusians, maybe?
Something Was Making Stone Tools In China 600,000 Years Before Homo Erectus Showed Up
Reviewed by John Anderer
In A Nutshell
- Ancient skulls found in Hubei Province, China, have been redated to 1.77 million years old, making them the oldest confirmed Homo erectus fossils found in place anywhere in eastern Asia.
- The new age pushes the site back by 700,000 to nearly a million years from its previous estimate.
- Stone tools at other Chinese sites predate these fossils by hundreds of thousands of years, leaving the identity of their makers an open mystery.
- The findings support the idea that early human relatives spread across Asia quickly after leaving Africa, reaching central China at nearly the same time they appeared on the far western edge of the continent.
Stone tools discovered in China date back as far as 2.4 million years. The oldest confirmed human fossils from the same region? Only 1.77 million years old. That gap, now significantly narrowed by new research, leaves one question stubbornly unanswered: who, or what, was already there?
Jesse Jackson Gone
Jesse Jackson Still Provides Light in These Dark Times
We would be wise to follow the path he forged.
“Jesse Jackson is one of the very most significant political leaders in this country in the last 100 years,” declared Senator Bernie Sanders, summarizing the importance of Jackson’s remarkable life and his historic 1984 and 1988 presidential campaigns.
His historic journey began in the humblest of circumstances. He was born the son of a single, teenage mother in Greenville, South Carolina, deep in the Jim Crow segregated South. He rose to be in the public eye for over six decades, a globally recognized warrior for justice. He became the youngest of Dr. Martin Luther King’s SCLC leadership group, organizing Operation Breadbasket, which mobilized African Americans to apply economic pressure on corporations to open their jobs, contracts, and boards to minorities. After King’s tragic assassination, he rapidly rose to be a leading voice of the civil rights movement as the head of People United to Save Humanity (PUSH), which he founded in Chicago.
Social Silent Reading
A different party scene: How Books & Books is building community through silent reading
WLRN Public Media | By Sofia Zarran
The party scene in Miami is not just changing, it’s rewinding. In some cases, it’s going analog. The kids are turning to yoga, retro cameras and, at one local bookstore, silently reading with a group of strangers.
Since last June, Books & Books in Coral Gables has opened its doors — once a month on Wednesdays — to those looking for a brief refuge from an often noisy, digital world. Instead of loud music, dark rooms and flashing lights, the store offers a quiet space with chairs, a carpet, some hummus and wine, and a collection of books at your disposal for at least an hour.
At the Books & Books Silent Reading Party, all are welcome. From fiction to romance to biographies, the reading party comes prepared with prompts for readers to share their responses to when the party ends.
Robert Duvall Gone
Robert Duvall, Star of ‘The Godfather’ and ‘The Great Santini,’ Dies at 95
By Carmel Dagan
Robert Duvall, who won an Oscar for “Tender Mercies” and was nominated for his roles in films including “The Godfather,” “Apocalypse Now,” and “The Great Santini,” has died. He was 95.
Duvall’s gruff naturalism came to define the acting style of a generation that included Robert De Niro, Dustin Hoffman and Gene Hackman in such films as “Network” and “The Apostle,” which he also directed.
And while he may never have been as big a star as DeNiro, his unshowy ability to fully embrace the characters he played earned him respect both from his peers and from critics. As Francis Ford Coppola once told the New York Times, at a certain point, it’s “hard to say the difference between leading men and great character actors.”
Odd Thinking
3 Unique Ways Smart People Think
Three ‘odd’ thinking patterns are consistently linked to higher intelligence.
People often picture intelligence as mental efficiency. We tend to imagine a smart person as someone who responds quickly, has strong opinions, and sees things clearly. However, highly intelligent people are not always faster, calmer, or more decisive. Sometimes, their minds are busier, slower, and more conflicted.
In my work as a psychologist, I’ve noticed that people with higher cognitive ability are often misunderstood simply because their mental habits don’t always look the way we expect intelligence to look. These tendencies get labeled as overthinking, indecision, or hesitation when, in reality, they reflect deeper cognitive processing.
Bud Cort Gone
Bud Cort Dies: ‘Harold And Maude’ Actor Was 77
By Greg Evans
Bud Cort, whose indelible portrayal of the gawky, death-obsessed young man barely out of his teens who falls in love with a spirited 79-year-old Holocaust survivor played by Ruth Gordon in 1971’s Harold and Maude, died Wednesday in Connecticut following a lengthy illness. He was 77.
Born Walter Edward Cox on March 29, 1948, in Rye, NY, the young actor — instantly recognizable with his owlish looks and rail-thin frame — was discovered and cast by director Robert Altman in two 1970 hit films MASH and Brewster McCloud. He would go on to play character roles in such films as Heat (1995), Dogma (1999) and The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou (2004) among others, but it was his co-starring role in Hal Ashby’s midnight movie classic Harold and Maude that would establish his place in the cinema of the 1970s.
To The Moon Again!
Astronauts Are Going Back to the Moon For The First Time in Half a Century
Humanity has changed an awful lot in the past 58 Years. The moon? Not so much. It was in 1968 that astronauts first drew near the moon, and it will be early this year, if all goes as planned, that a crew will return, representing a species with gadgets and abilities—and yes, problems—that didn’t exist that half-century-plus ago.
Back then, the darkest concern was that to visit the moon would be to ruin the moon. That was the way Susan Borman put it to Chris Kraft, NASA’s then-director of flight operations, a few months before the Dec. 21 launch of Apollo 8. Borman was married to Frank Borman, the commander of the mission, who would lead a crew that for the first time would leave Earth orbit and venture moonward.
Apollo 8 had two possible mission profiles: the safer one and the scary one. The safer one involved whipping once around the moon’s far side and then relying on lunar gravity to slingshot the spacecraft back to Earth. The scary one involved reaching the moon and using Apollo 8’s howitzer of a main engine to slow the ship down and settle into lunar orbit, circling the moon 10 times before coming home.
Sly Dunbar Gone
Sly Dunbar Dies: Drummer Of Celebrated Reggae Rhythm Duo Sly & Robbie Was 73
By Greg Evans
Sly Dunbar, whose drumming with bassist Robbie Shakespeare made for an all-but-unrivaled reggae rhythm section utilized by such greats as Bob Marley, Bob Dylan and Mick Jagger, has died. He was 73.
Born Lowell Fillmore Dunbar on May 10, 1952, in Kingston, Jamaica, Dunbar began playing drums at a young age, joining his first band at 15 and, in 1972, becoming friends with bassist Shakespeare. Through early gigs with the band The Revolutionaries (also known as the Aggrovators) Sly & Robbie, as they became known, laid a foundation for the Jamaican reggae that would soon explode in worldwide popularity.
Aethelmaer’s Comet
Halley’s comet may need a new, medieval name
Astronomers suggest the honor should go to an 11th century monk known for a disastrous flying attempt.
by ANDREW PAUL
One of most recognizable comets in astronomy may require rebranding. But even if everyone continues to call the famed space rock Halley’s comet, some researchers say an eccentric 11th century monk deserves at least some credit. According to a review of historical materials including the famous Bayeux tapestry, a team from Leiden University in the Netherlands believes it makes more sense to name the icy space rock in honor of Aethelmaer of Malmesbury—a member of the Order of Saint Benedict who also lived with an ill-fated fascination with flying.
Every 76 years, a comet from the depths of our solar system reaches its nearest point to Earth. Its orbit is anything but new, however. Chinese observers recorded the appearance of a bright light traveling from east to north in the night sky as far back as 240 BCE, while Roman historian Cassius Dio described a similar sounding event in 12 BCE. It wasn’t until 1705 that the English astronomer Edmond Halley concluded that these regularly returning sights weren’t different objects, but a single comet traveling along a predictable trajectory. Today, his discovery is reflected in both the comet’s everyday name as well as its official classification, 1P/Halley.
Lessons From The Dead
What the Grateful Dead Can Show a Fractured America
COMMENTARY by J. Peder Zane
After the last key member of the Grateful Dead, guitarist Bob Weir, died last week at the age of 78, the cascade of loving tributes published far and wide underscored how he and his fellow band of misfits had created a new form of music that personified America.
In our melting pot nation, the Dead uniquely wove together the many strands of music brought to and developed on our shores. You could hear English and Scottish ballads and hymns, African rhythms, classical music, the avant-garde in their songs and jams, as well as blues, gospel, country, jazz, and rock. While clearly drawing on all these sources, they produced music that was identifiably their own. They were deeply traditional and truly original.
A rare dynamic informed their distinctive sound. In many rock groups, the instruments usually back the lead guitar. In the Dead, every instrument seemed to be soloing at once, like a Dixieland band. In their commitment to improvisation, each player pushed their own vision and creative powers. Yet, those “solos” worked because they were part of a conversation as the musicians listened and responded to one another; each individual effort served the collective sound. They were alone and together at once.
Celebrating Mel
‘Mel Brooks: The 99 Year Old Man!’ chronicles the comedic genius of a living legend
by Robert Lloyd
Judd Apatow and Michael Bonfiglio have made a two-part, four-hour documentary about a comedy idol, “Mel Brooks: The 99 Year Old Man!,” premiering Thursday on HBO and HBO Max. It follows Apatow’s “The Zen Diaries of Garry Shandling” and “George Carlin’s American Dream,” also directed with Bonfiglio, in a growing library of comic biographies; a film on Norm Macdonald is in the works.
It’s a basically chronological telling of the life and work of a man who helped shape the comedy of the 1950s, ‘60s and ‘70s, and as an influence, of the ‘80s and ‘90s and beyond — there is perhaps no “Airplane!,” no “Austin Powers,” without the trail blazed by “Blazing Saddles” and “Young Frankenstein.” When I told my friend Jack, 33, that a “Spaceballs” sequel is coming, co-starring and co-written by Brooks, he could not have been more excited.
Valentino Gone
Valentino Garavani, Legendary Italian Fashion Designer, Dies at 93
Valentino Garavani — the legendary designer of the signature red dress and founder of the Valentino brand — has died
By Hedy Phillips and Jill Menze
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc():focal(749x0:751x2)/valentino-garavani-011926-eb4e7c61fb214ecea804d086b902dfb9.jpg)
Valentino Garavani, the Italian fashion designer and founder of the celebrated Valentino brand, has died. He was 93.
Valentino was a favorite of stars such as Jennifer Aniston, Gwyneth Paltrow, Nicole Kidman and Anne Hathaway.
Born Valentino Clemente Ludovico Garavani on May 11, 1932, in Voghera, Italy, Valentino — famously mononymous — studied fashion at the École des Beaux-Arts and the Chambre Syndicale de la Couture Parisienne in Paris before serving apprenticeships with Jacques Fath and Balenciaga.
The Airlines On Ozempic
The latest winner from weight-loss drugs? Airlines
One in eight U.S adults have used GLP-1s for weight loss or chronic conditions, according to a recent survey
by Katie Hawkinson in Washington, D.C.
.png)
Weight-loss drugs could save U.S. airlines millions in fuel costs this year, according to a new report.
The increased popularity of weight loss drugs, such as GLP-1s, means airlines are carrying slimmer passengers, which in turn reduces their fuel costs, Bloomberg reports, citing a report by the Wall Street firm Jefferies. These drugs could save the airline industry up to $580 million this year alone, the report says.
A 10 percent reduction in passenger weight could save top U.S. airlines — such as United and Delta — up to 1.5 percent in fuel costs and boost earning per share by 4 percent, according to the analysis. The top four airlines in the country are expected to spend $38.6 billion on jet fuel between them this year.