logo
What to know about the CEO caught embracing an employee on the jumbtron at a Coldplay concert

What to know about the CEO caught embracing an employee on the jumbtron at a Coldplay concert

Independent4 days ago
A routine moment of crowdwork at a Coldplay concert went viral last week when a couple tried to avoid the spotlight after they were caught hugging on the jumbotron. Internet sleuths quickly figured out that they were the CEO and chief people officer of a little-known tech company called Astronomer.
The snippet of video set the internet alight, fueling a wave of memes and drawing attention to the erosion of privacy in public spaces.
Here are some things to know:
What happened at the concert
During the concert on Wednesday at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts, lead singer Chris Martin asked the cameras to scan the crowd for his 'Jumbotron Song,' when he sings a few lines about the people the camera lands on.
A man wearing a birthday sash was up first. Two people in banana costumes were highlighted.
But in between, something unexpected happened. For several seconds, a couple was shown on the big screen. They were cuddling and smiling, his arms wrapped around her, as she leaned back into him.
When they saw themselves on the big screen, her jaw dropped, her hands flew to her face and she spun away from the camera. He ducked out of the frame, as did she.
'Either they're having an affair or they're just very shy,' Martin joked.
It didn't end there.
Who was involved
After the video went viral, the internet got to work.
Online sleuths rapidly figured out that the man was Andy Byron, chief executive officer, while she was Kristin Cabot, the chief people officer — in other words, the head of human resources.
Astronomer, based in New York, provides big companies with a platform that helps them organize their data.
The company at first said little about the incident. In response to an initial inquiry from The Associated Press, Astronomer's spokesman said only that a statement attributed to Byron that circulated online immediately after the incident was a 'fake from a clearly labeled parody account.'
The company later confirmed the identities of the couple in a statement to AP.
What happened to the CEO
In the hours after the video went viral, Byron's name was at one point the most searched term on Google.
Astronomer eventually addressed the situation, announcing in a LinkedIn post that Byron had been placed on leave and that the board of directors had launched a formal investigation.
The company said a day later that Byron had resigned, and that its cofounder and chief product officer, Pete DeJoy, was tapped as interim CEO while it searches for Byron's successor.
'Astronomer is committed to the values and culture that have guided us since our founding. Our leaders are expected to set the standard in both conduct and accountability, and recently, that standard was not met,' the company said in its post on LinkedIn.
Most concert venues warn attendees that they can be film ed
It's easy to miss, but most concert venues have signs informing the audience that they could be filmed during the event. Look for them on the walls when you arrive and around the bar areas or toilets. It's common practice especially when bands like to use performances for music videos or concert films.
The venue in this case, Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, also has a privacy policy online which states: 'When you visit our location or attend or participate in an event at our location, we may capture your image, voice and/or likeness, including through the use of CCTV cameras and/or when we film or photograph you in a public location.'
Once captured, a moment can be shared widely
In the internet age, such videos — or ones taken on someone's smartphone — can quickly zip around the world.
This video rocketed around social media, as people speculated about why the couple dodged the camera.
Empathy for the pair and their families was mixed with plenty of snarky commentary and countless memes, with the fake statement from the chief executive generating a lot of additional vitriol. And news reports said that Byron's LinkedIn account was disabled after it was flooded by a wave of comments.
'It's a little bit unsettling how easily we can be identified with biometrics, how our faces are online, how social media can track us — and how the internet has gone from being a place of interaction, to a gigantic surveillance system," said Mary Angela Bock, an associate professor in the University of Texas at Austin's School of Journalism and Media. "We are being surveilled by our social media. They're tracking us in exchange for entertaining us.'
_____
Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

New York Giants guard with iconic SNF intro adored by fans retires from football at 35
New York Giants guard with iconic SNF intro adored by fans retires from football at 35

Daily Mail​

time11 minutes ago

  • Daily Mail​

New York Giants guard with iconic SNF intro adored by fans retires from football at 35

Former New York Giants first round pick Justin Pugh has announced his retirement from the NFL. The offensive guard and Pennsylvania native, who turns 35 in mid-August, announced his intentions to retire from the sport as a member of the team that picked him. Pugh, who gained popularity for his humorous 'Sunday Night Football' intro in October 2023, admitted he wanted to come back for one more season. 'I've played here six of my 11 years in the NFL,' Pugh said. 'Not many players get to go out on their terms, and after 11 years playing in the NFL, I am officially retiring from the league. 'I thought I was going to do another one, but just didn't have it in the tank. I started losing weight and started feeling good, and didn't want to do a 12th year. 'But like every little boy, I always dreamed of playing in the NFL ... I definitely never planned on making a block so Eli (Manning) could throw the ball down the field. Justin Pugh keeping it real in his first game back 😂 @JustinPugh 📺: #NYGvsBUF on NBC 📱: Stream on #NFLPlus — NFL (@NFL) October 16, 2023 'I never dreamed of being an offensive lineman. I don't think any little boys are out there right now being like, 'Let me pass set and block in the playoffs to make something happen.' 'What I realized, offensive line was the position that was for me. I was built perfectly for it, and it's something that you don't choose. 'Everyone wants to be that star position, but it's something that really defined me as a man, as a father and as a teammate.' Pugh last took the field in the 2023 season - taking part in 12 games after overcoming a significant knee injury. In that 'Sunday Night Football' matchup in Orchard Park, New York against the Buffalo Bills, Pugh greeted the audience by saying he came from 'straight off the couch'. Pugh was picked by the Giants 19th overall in the 2013 NFL Draft after a four-year tenure at Syracuse University. He played five years with the Giants before spending his next five seasons with the Arizona Cardinals. His last season with the Cardinals ended after five games due to a torn ACL. Pugh then returned to the Giants for one more season in 2023 and did not take the field in 2024.

A science journal pulled a controversial study about a bizarre life form against the authors' wishes
A science journal pulled a controversial study about a bizarre life form against the authors' wishes

The Independent

time11 minutes ago

  • The Independent

A science journal pulled a controversial study about a bizarre life form against the authors' wishes

A microscopic discovery in a California lake sparked buzz and controversy more than a decade ago when it was first revealed. Scientists said they'd discovered bacteria that used the element arsenic — poisonous to life as we know it — to grow. If true, it expanded the possibilities for where life could exist on Earth — or on other worlds. Several research groups failed to replicate the results, and argue it's not possible for a living thing to use something so toxic to make DNA and proteins. Some scientists have suggested the results of the original experiments may have been skewed by undetected contaminants. On Thursday, the journal Science, which first published the research, retracted it, though not because of misconduct on the researchers' part. 'If the editors determine that a paper's reported experiments do not support its key conclusions, even if no fraud or manipulation occurred, a retraction is considered appropriate,' the journal's editor-in-chief Holden Thorp wrote in the statement announcing the retraction. The researchers disagree with the journal's decision and stand by their data. It's reasonable to pull a paper for major errors or suspected misconduct — but debates and disagreements over the findings are part of the scientific process, said study co-author Ariel Anbar of Arizona State University. 'One doesn't retract a paper because the interpretation is controversial, or even because most disagree with the interpretation,' wrote Anbar in an email. 'At least, that hasn't been the case until now.' Science has more frequently retracted papers for reasons beside fraud in recent years, said Thorp and Vada Vinson, Science's executive editor, wrote in a blog post. NASA helped fund the original work. The space agency's science mission chief Nicky Fox said in a statement that NASA does not support the retraction and encourages Science to reconsider. —- The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute's Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

Anne Hathaway makes desperate bid for Meryl Streep's attention in scene for Devil Wears Prada 2
Anne Hathaway makes desperate bid for Meryl Streep's attention in scene for Devil Wears Prada 2

Daily Mail​

time11 minutes ago

  • Daily Mail​

Anne Hathaway makes desperate bid for Meryl Streep's attention in scene for Devil Wears Prada 2

Anne Hathaway and Meryl Streep were glimpsed together Friday while filming the long-awaited sequel to their 2006 film The Devil Wears Prada. Meryl, 76, captivated audiences of the first movie as the fearsome fashion editor Miranda Priestly, who was inspired by the now outgoing Vogue chief Anna Wintour. The original novel was a roman à clef by the real Anna's former assistant Lauren Weisberger, whose fictional stand-in Andrea 'Andy' Sachs was portrayed in the silver screen adaptation by Anne, 42. News broke last July that a sequel was in the works, and it has since been confirmed that Anne and Meryl are both returning to their old roles. Both Meryl and Anne were spotted separately in New York City this week, hard at working shooting the upcoming motion picture. Now reunited, and the dynamic between their characters appears unchanged, with Andy dashing around in panic as Miranda drips with hauteur. Anne was seen filming a scene in which she runs desperately out of a building and into the street, holding a sheaf of papers up into the air. The front page is splashed with the title: 'The Revolution That Never Was,' possibly the headline of an article written by Andy, who is a journalist. Andy appeared in the scene to be trying to catch someone's attention - presumably that of Miranda, her tyrannical onetime boss at Runway magazine. At one point Andy gets winded and can be seen slumped over on the sidewalk, panting theatrically with her tongue hanging out. The original film sees Andy plunge into the fashion industry and get swiftly made over from a mousy bookworm into a high-octane glamour-puss. Her transformation in The Devil Wears Prada seems to have lasted into the sequel, as Anne was spotted in character on Friday in two fashion-forward outfits. One consisted of a half-sleeved white top with a floor-length cape, teamed with matching trousers and a snowy pair of kitten heels. Accessorized with a chunky chain necklace and a dark pair of sunglasses, the outfit was brought together by a bulging black handbag. News broke last July that a sequel was in the works, and it has since been confirmed that Anne and Meryl are both returning to their old roles Anne was seen filming a scene in which she runs desperately out of a building and into the street, holding a sheaf of papers up into the air The front page is splashed with the title: 'The Revolution That Never Was,' possibly the headline of an article written by Andy, who is a journalist Anne's other Andy Sachs outfit that day brought back memories of the character's earliest incarnation as a studious university graduate. She is more conventionally attired in jeans and a short walnut brown coat, though the residue of her life in fashion is still evident in her silk scarf and snakeskin boots. Meanwhile Meryl was spotted in her unmistakable 2006 Miranda Priestly look, complete with the character's swirl of ice-white hair. She also had on the sunglasses Miranda constantly wears - an affectation lifted directly from Anna, who has confessed to using her shades as a form of 'armor.' Meryl's costume was perfectly fitted to highlight her lithe frame, from the tucked-in white blouse to the midnight blue slacks to the slimming camel coat. With a black leather folder tucked neatly under one of her arms, Meryl balanced expertly on a towering pair of scarlet stilettos that augmented her 5'6" stature. Other members of the original cast have also been spotted this week filming the sequel, including Emily Blunt and Stanley Tucci. Emily played Miranda's chic, perpetually harried senior assistant Emily Charlton, who hisses that she is 'one stomach flu away from my goal weight.' She also had on the sunglasses Miranda constantly wears - an affectation lifted directly from Anna, who has confessed to using her shades as a form of 'armor' Anne's other Andy Sachs outfit that day brought back memories of the character's earliest incarnation as a studious university graduate She is more conventionally attired in jeans and a short walnut brown coat, though the residue of her life in fashion is still evident in her silk scarf and snakeskin boots The character was rumored to be inspired by former Vogue writer Victoria 'Plum' Sykes, though Plum herself has strenuously denied as much. Meanwhile Stanley was a scene-stealing presence in the first film as Runway magazine's waspish art director Nigel Kipling, who announces Miranda's arrival at the office by warning his colleagues: 'All right, everyone, gird your loins!' David Frankel and Aline Brosh McKenna, the director and writer respectively of the original movie, have been enlisted for the same jobs on the sequel. New faces have also joined the team, from Kenneth Branagh as Miranda's new husband to Australian heartthrob Patrick Brammall as Andy's latest love interest. Timothée Chalamet's sister Pauline and The Office actor BJ Novak were also seen on Wednesday working on the movie in New York. Although Lauren Weisberger wrote a sequel to her novel called Revenge Wears Prada, the reported plot of the second film is different from that of the second book. In the upcoming movie, Miranda is said to be attempting to steer Runway through a new media landscape as her old world of print magazines slides into increasing irrelevance in the digital age, according to Variety. She is bent on making a deal with a luxury ad firm, only to hit a snag in the shape of Emily, who is now an executive at the company. When the book The Devil Wears Prada was published in 2003, it spent six months on the New York Times bestseller list and set off a blizzard of gossip that Lauren was writing about her former boss, who had employed her for less than a year. In public, the real Anna Wintour kept her cool, breezily remarking that she was 'looking forward to reading the book' to the New York Times. However one of Anna's subordinates claimed to her unauthorized biographer Jerry Oppenheimer that the Vogue capo was 'spitting fire' behind the scenes and 'felt she had been used and abused by Weisberger.' When the movie came out three years later, Anna leaned into the publicity and attended the New York City premiere wearing Prada. Several years after the film's release, Anna was asked in a CNN interview whether she regarded her ex-assistant's novel as a 'breach of trust.' 'Well...,' Anna replied with a weak laugh. 'I think that she brought attention to fashion in a way that, you know, you can look at it in a negative way or a positive way. I choose to look at it in a positive way. In some ways, I think I should be grateful to her.'

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store