Celebrity News

Attorney General Karl Racine Brings Spotlight Back to Mark Zuckerberg’s Involvement in 2018 Cambridge Analytica Scandal

Daisy Cooper Daisy Cooper on October 15, 2022

The Cambridge Analytica scandal in 2018 recently started making waves again as Attorney General Karl Racine announced his office is suing Meta (formerly Facebook) CEO Mark Zuckerberg for his role in Facebook’s misleading privacy practices and failure to protect millions of users’ data.

Four years ago, whistleblower Christopher Wylie revealed that London-based electioneering firm Cambridge Analytica exfiltrated the personal data of more than 70 million Facebook users to influence the results of the 2016 United States presidential election. The data trove included Facebook users’ ages, interests, pages they liked, groups they belonged to, physical locations, political affiliation, religious affiliation, relationships, and photos, as well as their full names, phone numbers, and email addresses.

The personal data of millions of Facebook users in the United States that Cambridge Analytica used to manipulate the election accounted for more than half the total votes during the 22016 presidential elections in an election decided by a few hundred thousand people.

Facebook and its CEO Mark Zuckerberg publicly condemned Cambridge Analytica’s data collection three years later, which, according to Racine, only demonstrates that what they say publicly is part of an intentional plan to mask the devastating consequences of their actions.

“This unprecedented security breach exposed tens of millions of Americans’ personal information, and Mr. Zuckerberg’s policies enabled a multi-year effort to mislead users about the extent of Facebook’s wrongful conduct,” said the Attorney General. “This lawsuit is not only warranted, but necessary, and sends a message that corporate leaders, including CEOs, will be held accountable for their actions.”

According to Racine, the latest suit against the Meta CEO comes from an existing investigation and lawsuit his office filed against Facebook after the Cambridge Analytica scandal in 2018. The attorney general claims that because Zuckerberg holds the most significant number of shares of Meta and has the final say in everything that happens within the company, he is ultimately responsible for Facebook’s daily operations. As a result, according to Racine, Mark Zuckerberg is also responsible for the events that led to the scandal.

When Facebook rebranded as Meta in October 2021, suspicions were raised. Despite the company sharing its focus on the Metaverse, many believed that the name change was a move for Facebook to distance itself from its ongoing legal troubles.

Attorney General Karl Racine previously attempted to name Mark Zuckerberg personally responsible for the user data leak in 2018, but the judge dismissed the move, reasoning that Racine waited too long to name Zuckerberg in the case.

Sadie Dupuis Stars in The New Yorker Cover

Alicia Cross Alicia Cross on October 15, 2022

The New Yorker has an amazing star on the cover of this week: Sadie Dupuis – the poet and songwriter for Sad13 and Speedy Ortiz.

The piece entitled “Sun-Dappled” by Nicole Rifkin is on the cover of the August 22 issue, showing Dupuis reading. A magazine that doesn’t usually feature indie rock artist now puts one in the cover? How did that come about?

“I was asked to develop this cover originally to be for The New Yorker’s fiction issue,” Rifkin said in an email response to Pitchfork. “I thought that Sadie, who is a friend who also always has about 10 books on deck to read a week, would be the best person to ask to be in the drawing.”

Dupuis and Rifkin had been friends for many years and had previously admired each other’s artistry even before that.

“She’s very involved in an extended Exploding in Sound community and has illustrated some of my favorite show posters and album covers, especially for my friends like Mister Goblin, Bethlehem Steel and Pile,” Dupuis said in an email.

“She illustrated an issue of Wax Nine’s journal and did the cover of the Adam Schlesinger tribute compilation we helped co-release, too – very luck us!”

Meanwhile, Rifkin also opened up about how much she admires Dupuis’ work.

“Speedy Ortiz was and still is a really big deal to me,” Rifkin stated. “I remember seeing them open for the Breeders at Webster Hall, and now I get to text her stuff randomly like ‘hey, how’s Lavender’ or ‘hey, can I draw you into a New Yorker cover?’”

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Sadie Dupuis Recruited through Text

Dupuis shared that it was a text conversation in May that Rifkin asked her to  model for the cover of The New Yorker.

“The idea made me exceedingly anxious, but then I remembered it’s Nicole, who is a masterful artist, whose past drawings of me have made me feel cooler than maybe any other visual representation,” she stated.

Dupuis further shared details of the process.

“I sent some timer-shot selfies in a pose from her reference drawing, and then a couple days ago, I found out this cover was a go-ahead and was psyched to finally see and discover all the easter eggs (which Nicole is very good at) – including my dog, Lavender, on the back cover of a fictional Wax Nine issue,” she added.

“Plus Dan Ozzi and Thursday by proxy and Imogen Binnie, and a little shout out to Shea Stadium and Death By Audio!”

Rifkin stressed that featuring Dupuis on The New Yorker cover is like honoring a friend whose records have been of great value to her in years.

“I feel like her songwriting has given me so much over the years that I wanted to give something back,” she stated.

Art editor of The New Yorker Françoise Mouly also released a statement to Pitchfork regarding the cover.

“I was so glad when Nicole Rifkin sent her references for the cover (everything at TNY, including covers, gets fact-checked by our fabled team), and I found out that Nicole had posed a musician friend, Sadie Dupuis, for the image of a woman relaxing and reading in the stiflingly hot city,” she stated.

“It’s a wonderful homage. So many artists are musicians themselves (Nicole Rifkin, for one) or inspired by music. It may be that both forms of expression, art and music, are non-verbal and draw from the intuitive and emotional parts of our brain. Drawing is manual labor, and for many, it’s best done with music.”

Taylor Reveals Details About Her Relationship with Joe Alwyn In Her Upcoming Track “Lavender Haze”

Jimmy Brown Jimmy Brown on October 15, 2022

Taylor Swift is infamous for her whirlwind romances and musical tracks to follow. Her romantic life has been in the spotlight for the majority of her career however, after being constantly shamed for it, she’s made the shift to being more private. So private in fact that she’s been dating someone for six years and the world just found out.

Getting closer to the release of her highly anticipated album, Midnights, Swift has been sharing clues about individual tracks through a TikTok series called Midnights Mayhem with Me.

Yesterday, she shared a clip about track number one titles ‘Lavander HAze,’ and she is keeping no secrets that it’s about her lover of six years, Joe Alwyn.

“Protect The Real Stuff”

She shared, “I happened upon the phrase ‘lavender haze’ when I was watching Mad Men. I looked it up because I thought it sounded cool. And it turns out that it’s a common phrase used in the ’50s where they would describe being in love. If you in the ‘lavender haze,’ then that meant you were in that all-encompassing love glow. And I thought that was really beautiful.”

Swift continued, “I guess, theoretically, when you’re in the ‘lavender haze,’ you’ll do anything to stay there.”

“And not let people bring you down off of that cloud. I think that a lot of people have to deal with this now, not just like ‘public figures,’ because we live in the era of social media, and if the world finds out if you’re in love with somebody they’re going to weigh in on it.”

(the song hasn’t even been released yet and she’s already working her magic again, being so relatable.)

The Grammy Award Winning artist touched on her personal relationship explaining, “Like my relationship for six years, we’ve had to dodge weird rumors and tabloid stuff, and we just ignore it. So this song is about the act of ignoring that stuff to protect the real stuff.”

One of the most attention-grabbing rumors about the couple was speculation of an engagement which Alwyn actually spoke about to WSJ in April. He stated, “If I had a pound for every time I think I’ve been told I’ve been engaged, then I’d have a lot of pound coins. I mean, the truth is, if the answer was yes, I wouldn’t say, and if the answer was no, I wouldn’t say.”

Swift herself hasn’t spoken on the topic however, when spotted by paparazzi in July with her beau, she wore no engagement ring.

‘Midnights’ Coming October 21

At the end of August, Swift announced the news about her upcoming album Midnights while accepting the award for Video of the Year at MTV’s Video Music Awards. And, as we mentioned, she’s been using TikTok as a way to keep fans engaged and excited about her music to come.

The multi-genre artist has officially released the entire track fan which has fans buzzing.

Midnights:

01 Lavender Haze

02 Maroon

03 Anti-Hero

04 Snow on the Beach [ft. Lana Del Rey]

05 You’re on Your Own, Kid

06 Midnight Rain

07 Question…?

08 Vigilante Shit

09 Bejeweled

10 Labyrinth

11 Karma

12 Sweet Nothing

13 Mastermind

So, we already know the details of ”Lavander Haze.’ Now, fans are curious about the track titled ‘Karma.’ Some believe that it’s a dig at the 2016 feud between herself, Kanye West, and Kim Kardashian.

Although Swift may not get into the nitty gritty of the truth of every song, we can assume to count on her creative wordplay to give us some hints when we listen to the full track.

CELEB Sat Down With The Next Face Of Television Innocent Onanovie Ekakitie

Jimmy Brown Jimmy Brown on October 15, 2022

As it’s often said, “kids are the future,” so, CELEB figured that it only made sense to sit down with the future of television, Innocent Onanovie Ekakitie. The bubbly 8-year-old Nigerian-American actor currently plays the supporting role of “Leo” in the highly anticipated Netflix film series, Ivy & Bean. Innocent and his mom were kind enough to share their time with CELEB and give us the inside scoop on his career so far and everything that we have to look forward to.

Filled With Heart

Innocent was born in Woodland Hills and stepped into the world of acting at just three years old. With his mom, Makeda Tene’ Ekakitie as his manager, he’s made strides in the industry. So, if you were wondering how a 3-year-old read his lines, well Makeda is the answer. Innocent shared, “You know voice memos? She would read all my lines and then she would give me a book and she said [listen to them] 10 or 20 times and she said to check it off how many times you did so I know you did it 10 times. I would do that and I just got the whole thing memorized from listening to it 10 times.”

In the past five years, he moved to North Hollywood, California, and has landed roles on 9-1-1, Tom & Jerry, For The Love of Jason, and many more.

His current role as “Leo” on Netflix’s Ivy & Bean is one of his biggest roles yet, with three separate films. When telling the story about getting cast, Innocent giggled with excitement, “we were just taking out the trash one day and my mom just saw a text and said ‘Innocent, you got Ivy and Bean!'”

Following his audition against 10,000 other young actors, Innocent was chosen to play “Leo” after one of the lead actresses expressed her sense of comfort working with him, to which the directors agreed.

Innocent also works with one of the top voice-over agents in LA, Atlas Talent within Pantheon, as a voice over artist. Makeda shared, “He’s currently a series regular on Warner Bro’s Tom and Jerry Time.”

The young actor does both voice-over and on-camera acting. He explained, “So, there’s a difference between voice-over and on-camera.” Continuing, “with voice-over you just have to say the lines.” He says, “You can sound cartoony but, don’t make it sound fake.”

Being on camera of course requires more studying of lines and memorization paired with the acting (vocals and body language). Innocent exercises those skills and his imagination through reading books, beginning at the age of five during the pandemic.

Keeping Education In Play

Innocent attends a private school that allows him to continue his education while on set. He says, “You know there’s a thing called set school? There’s like a set teacher. The kids go into the room and they do all their school homework and they go on the computer if they can go on Zoom [for school].”

The young actor continued, “When I was in Good Trouble I was using my phone to go on Zoom and see my classmates.”

Makeda shared, “What’s great about going to a private school is that whenever he has work or has to leave, they’re very good about letting me take him out of school and they give him a packet of work to work on while on set.”

To The End Credits And Beyond…

The day before our conversation, Innocent went on an audition for a Disney Jr. series.

Makeda recently followed up with CELEB that Innocent landed a lead role in an animated pilot as well as another role on a Disney Jr. animated series.

“There’s three people that I would love to work with, Tom Holland, Zendaya, and Kevin Hart,” said Innocent. He told CELEB that he hopes one to day see only his name in all of the film credits which, if you had the pleasure of meeting him, you’d believe that he’s very capable.

‘I’m Going to Be Okay’: Justin Bieber Prioritizes his Mental Health over Touring

Jimmy Brown Jimmy Brown on October 15, 2022

Justin Bieber has announced recently that he is going to postpone the rest of his world tour due to his mental health. He announced this just a month after he announced his initial break due to being sick.

The singer was meant to tour the whole year of 2021 but because of the COVID pandemic, the tour had been pushed back and began again in the year of 2022 – but he was forced to a take a break because of his mental health struggles.

Bieber Postpones World Tour

The Justice World Tour began in February but by September, Bieber had said he was in desperate need of relaxation.

He said, “So I’m going to take a break from touring for the time being. I’m going to be ok, but I need time to rest and get better.”

He assured his fans that the time off will give him energy again and he will soon re-vamp.

He then added, “After getting off the stage, the exhaustion overtook me and I realize that I need to make my health the priority right now.”

The tour had been announced to restart again in March of 2023. According to TMZ, some of the upcoming dates that Bieber will no longer be making include, “dates in the UK, Ireland, Germany, Italy, Poland, The Netherlands.”

The Biebers Have Been Dealing with a Lot

With Bieber wanting to work on his mental health, he also pointed out that earlier this summer was also diagnosed with Ramsay Hunt Syndrome, which he shared a video of himself with partial facial paralysis.

Bieber states in the video, “As you can probably see from my face, I have this syndrome called Ramsay Hunt Syndrome and it is from this virus that attacks the nerve in my ear and my facial nerves.” He clearly looks unstable and uncomfortable in the video.

After seeing the video, it was made clear that it was probably impossible for him to sing or perform the way he wanted to. He needed to take time to heal and he did. He has been taking time to recuperate but just keeps showing that he needs more time to process everything going on and get the rest he needs.

The good news with all of this is that he is going to pick up the tour so fans will not be disappointed, and no one will have to worry about getting refunds.

Both Justin and wife Hailey Baldwin Bieber have been public champions for addressing mental health in recent months, and instead of frustrating fans it just makes them all the more beloved.

Get better soon, Justin!