EXCLUSIVE Inside story of Blake Lively's disastrous attempt to copy Gwyneth Paltrow: Staff blow whistle on drugs, affairs and a bed IN THE OFFICE
Established in 2014, Preserve was meant to be Blake's answer to Gwyneth Paltrow 's , selling high-priced artisanal goods online. But it within a year.
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The Independent
13 minutes ago
- The Independent
Uber will soon allow female passengers and drivers to stop being paired with men
Uber is rolling out a suite of features allowing U.S. customers and drivers to opt for women-only rides. 'Across the US, women riders and drivers have told us they want the option to be matched with other women on trips,' Camiel Irving, vice president of U.S. and Canada operations, wrote in a statement on Wednesday. 'We've heard them—and now we're introducing new ways to give them even more control over how they ride and drive.' The updates will allow riders to set a preference for only female drivers on on-demand or pre-booked trips, as well as offering drivers the ability to set a preference for only female customers. The features will be piloted across San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Detroit over the next five weeks, the company said. Uber began experimenting with such features for drivers in Saudi Arabia in 2019, after women there gained the legal right to drive. Since then, according to Uber, the Women Rider Preference program has expanded to 40 countries and been used across 100 million trips, and the company has continued to test features in markets like Germany and France. 'But making this work reliably—not just symbolically—required thoughtful design,' the company added in its statement. 'Most drivers are men, so we've worked to ensure this feature was truly usable in different places around the world.' A 2015 company survey estimated that about 20 percent of its U.S. drivers are women. Later this year, the company is expected to head to trial in federal court to face a consolidated set of cases stemming from hundreds of claims from women who say their Uber drivers sexually assaulted them. The suits, some of which were thrown out earlier this month, allege the company didn't do enough to notify riders about the risk of sexual assault in ads touting the service as a safe way to avoid drunk driving, and doesn't disclose allegations or records of past misconduct against drivers on in-app features listing driver information. Uber has said it does not comment on pending litigation. In court, it has argued that its drunk driving PSAs are unrelated to the topic of the risk of assault. It has also insisted it has no duty to add misconduct records to its driver notifications, and that it had no intent to mislead consumers, who haven't proven they relied on the content of driver notifications when decided to enter Uber rides.
The Independent
13 minutes ago
- The Independent
MrBeast CEO and 'Beast Games' winner rally brand partners and rare disease support on Wall Street
MrBeast's new CEO hit Wall Street Wednesday as YouTuber Jimmy Donaldson's media empire looks to develop long-term brand partnerships and, in turn, unlock more funding for its charitable content. Venture capitalist Jeff Housenbold took over MrBeast leadership last summer with a mandate to professionalize an ever-growing entertainment company. YouTube's most popular creator had reached record audience levels far outpacing its startup days, while vowing to reassess its internal culture amid multiple controversies. But, despite joining Nasdaq 's closing bell ceremony on Wednesday, Housenbold said their strategic plan does not currently include a public offering — or any active funding rounds. 'Do I want to make banger content? Yeah. That's cool," Housenbold told The Associated Press. "But what can we do with that banger content? Generate profits, make a sustainable business that gives us greater ability to impact people's lives around the world.' 'We're marching quickly to profitability, so we don't have to raise additional capital,' he added. Instead, MrBeast is focused on securing multi-year exclusive advertising deals as opposed to single-video brand partnerships. With 416 million subscribers and legions of impressionable young fans, Housenbold argued that MrBeast is uniquely positioned to deliver more bang for companies' marketing bucks by pointing that 'firehouse of attention' at them. Along the way, Housenbold said he is encouraging Donaldson to tout the channel's charitable works — which often feature quantifiable stunts such as building wells, removing ocean plastic or covering cataract surgery costs. The company, in his view, 'can do good while doing well.' 'The more people who like us 'cause we do good, the more people watch our videos," he said. 'The more people watch our videos, the more we're able to drive in fees from our advertising partners... the more we can invest in more content to do more good in the world.' New projects such as the Amazon Prime reality show and a James Patterson novel from HarperCollins aim to diversify the genders and ages of his audience. Housenbold said that base has historically consisted mostly of 8-to-25-year-olds and men. But Housenbold acknowledged missteps in last year's production of 'Beast Games," which prompted allegations of 'unsafe' conditions from some contestants who said an unorganized set led to injuries, irregular food provision and lacking access to medication. While describing most of those reports as 'inaccurate,' Housenbold said they were 'better prepared' for the second season's recently wrapped shoot. 'Building sets for a 10-episode show is different than a 22-minute YouTube video," he said. "The scale, the size, the sophistication, the safety, the security, the cost effectiveness of doing that. We didn't staff up enough for Beast Games.' Ringing Nasdaq's closing bell Wednesday with Housenbold was the winner of the $10 million grand prize awarded in that inaugural 'Beast Games' season. Jeffrey Allen, the father of a child with creatine transporter deficiency, has promised to put some of his winnings toward existing treatments and research for a cure to the rare genetic disorder. He said the Association for Creatine Deficiencies, where he is a board member, added 1,000 new donors in the weeks following the final 'Beast Games' episodes' release. He hopes Wednesday's visit will draw more attention and money to all rare diseases. 'This is where companies that are bringing true change to the marketplace come to listen to other companies," Allen said. "So, there's no better place for a budding rare disease nonprofit to come and show, 'Hey we're trying to change the world, too.'' ___ Associated Press coverage of philanthropy and nonprofits receives support through the AP's collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content. For all of AP's philanthropy coverage, visit
The Independent
13 minutes ago
- The Independent
Incoming CBS owner promises Trump's FCC it will review ‘complaints of bias' at news network and eliminate DEI policies
Skydance Media, the production company that will soon take over Paramount, told the Trump administration this week that it would eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) policies and hire an ombudsman to review 'complaints of bias' at CBS News once its $8.4 billion merger is complete. In a pair of letters to FCC Chairman Brendan Carr this week, Skydance's general counsel Kyoko McKinnon noted that while Skydance 'does not have DEI programs in place today,' the company confirmed that the New Paramount would not establish any similar practices in the future. Following President Donald Trump's executive orders earlier this year calling for the eradication of diversity and equity policies, Carr launched investigations into media conglomerates Disney – which owns ABC News – and Comcast, the parent company of NBC News, over their DEI hiring and editorial initiatives. Trump's hand-picked FCC chief, meanwhile, has also said that his agency would block any media mergers and acquisitions if the companies involved had diversity policies in place. 'Any businesses that are looking for FCC approval, I would encourage them to get busy ending any sort of their invidious forms of DEI discrimination,' he told Bloomberg in March. 'If there's businesses out there that are still promoting invidious forms of DEI discrimination, I really don't see a path forward where the FCC could reach the conclusion that approving the transaction is going to be in the public interest.' McKinnon additionally told Carr that Skydance would hire an ombudsman for at least two years, noting that the person would report directly to the president of the New Paramount and 'receive and evaluate any complaints of bias or other concerns involving CBS.' The letter added that the company's executive leadership would 'carefully consider any such complaints in overseeing CBS's news programming.' This pledge comes weeks after Paramount settled a lawsuit brought by Trump alleging 'election interference' due to the editing of a 60 Minutes interview with 2024 Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris. Even though the network denied the president's claims of 'deceptive' editing and called the lawsuit 'meritless,' Paramount paid Trump $16 million amid the pending merger, sparking accusations of bribery from Democratic lawmakers, free press organizations and CBS employees. 'New Paramount's new management will ensure that the company's array of news and entertainment programming embodies a diversity of viewpoints across the political and ideological spectrum,' McKinnon also noted, echoing similar promises Skydance CEO David Ellison made to Carr in a meeting this month. Ellison, the son of billionaire and Trump ally Larry Ellison, urged Carr to approve the merger and 'promptly grant' Paramount's request to transfer control of its broadcast licenses to Skydance. He further vowed that CBS would be 'unbiased' under the new corporate leadership. 'Relatedly, we discussed Skydance's commitment to unbiased journalism and its embrace of diverse viewpoints, principles that will ensure CBS's editorial decision-making reflects the varied ideological perspectives of American viewers,' Ellison's lawyer wrote in a regulatory filing. The meeting between Ellison and Carr took place days before Paramount and CBS announced that they had canceled outspoken Trump critic Stephen Colbert's late-night show, leading to further speculation that the demise of The Late Show was not a 'purely financial decision' and may have been politically motivated. Paramount has insisted that the cancellation was due solely to the dwindling ad revenues for late-night television and the high production costs of Colbert's show, though many CBS staffers feel it is actually 'part and parcel of the Trump shakedown settlement.' Regardless of whether Colbert's cancellation was a move to appease Trump or not, both the president and Carr have gloated over the decision. 'I absolutely love that Colbert got fired,' Trump declared on Friday. 'His talent was even less than his ratings.' Carr, meanwhile, tweeted on Tuesday that the 'partisan left's ritualist wailing and gnashing of teeth over Colbert is quite revealing,' adding that 'they're acting like they're losing a loyal DNC spokesperson.' Later on in the day, the president repeated his claim that he had struck a secret side deal with Skydance to give him up to $20 million more in pro-Trump advertising and PSAs as part of the 60 Minutes settlement. A group of liberal senators is investigating whether Ellison made any such promises to Trump. Paramount has denied knowledge of that backdoor arrangement, asserting that its payoff to Trump "does not include PSAs or anything related to PSAs.'
