Newsweek 3/20-3/27/2020

1963 “How could any movie, even one with Elizabeth Taylor and a cast of thousands, cost $40 million?” asks Newsweek. The public blamed Taylor for what they saw as lavish expenses, but unforeseen setbacks racked up costs throughout the movie’s production—like the “$7 million and sixteen months spent in Britain for twelve minutes of film.” Directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz, Cleopatra was, at the time, the most expensive movie ever made. Now, Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (2011) holds that title, with expenses topping $378.5 million, nearly 10 times that of Cleopatra. 1997 “Discovered only two years ago, a brilliant Hale-Bopp arrives in the night sky,” says Newsweek. “This one is worth the watch.” For 18 months, the unusually bright comet was visible to the naked eye across the Northern Hemisphere—and…

WHEN ACTOR JACK BLACK GOT A STAR ON Hollywood’s Walk of Fame in 2018, he volunteered this political commentary: “Donald Trump’s a piece of shit.” In a recent column for Variety, Barbra Streisand was more circumspect but just as passionate, writing that Trump “has demolished our standing in the world with his laughable boasts and breathtaking ignorance.” But while anti-Trump sentiment is widespread among showbiz liberals, there is much less unanimity about which Democrat should take his place in the White House. “We’re spinning around trying to find our ass,” says actor and activist Ed Asner. “We’re all confused. But defeating Trump is more important than finding our ass.” Asner has agreed to appear at an upcoming rally for Bernie Sanders though he hasn’t yet decided who he’ll officially endorse. In terms of…

JACK WELCH DIED ON MARCH 1 at the age of 84. He was one of the most successful men of the 20th century—a working class Irish kid who, through enormous talent and hard work, rose to be one of the most acclaimed businessmen of all time. An entire generation of managers and business leaders studied his every move, pushed his books up the bestseller lists, quoted and emulated him. He succeeded at everything he touched, except perhaps the one thing he cared most about—his legacy. Very few have worked harder to shape what future generations would think of them than Jack Welch. He wrote books—three of them—with immodest titles like Winning lest anyone forget that’s what he did. He lent his name to a business school at Sacred Heart University and later…

THE U.S. SUPREME COURT HEARD arguments in the case of June Medical Services v. Russo on March 4. While the name of the case may not be widely known, the issue raised has been a centerpiece of partisan politics for half a century—namely, abortion rights. If the Court upholds the Louisiana law at issue, which requires doctors performing abortions to obtain admitting privileges at nearby hospitals, only one doctor at a single clinic would be permitted to provide abortions in the entire state. This result will be devastating to the women of Louisiana, most particularly black women. And, of equal importance, such a ruling will mark the death knell of the Supreme Court’s credibility as an institution and protector of the rule of law. Forty-seven years ago, the Court upheld a…

“It was really easy to get over, to be honest. It was really quite simple, I did the tour and I felt fine.”—MICK JAGGER ON HEART SURGERY“GIVE BIRTH! EVERY WOMAN IS TO HAVE SIX CHILDREN! EVERY ONE! FOR THE GOOD OF THE COUNTRY!”—VENEZUELAN PRESIDENT NICOLÁS MADURO“I served the longest suspension in MLB history. It cost me well over $35M. And you know what? I deserved that and, as a result, I came back, I owned it after acting like a buffoon for a long time.”—ALEX RODRIGUEZ“I can’t even begin to imagine a conversation between a scientist and Donald Trump. It would be like watching Bill Gates explain the internet to a dog.”—SETH MEYERS“I BROKE A NAIL.”—Joe Biden advisor Symone Sanders, who tackled a protestor trying to interrupt Biden on Super…

What do politics, traders and cryptocurrencies all have in common? If you answered that ‘none of them have been keeping their promises,’ you’d be wrong. Now let’s not get our hopes up. Politics hasn’t abruptly changed overnight and even though a “Political Revolution” is supposedly underway, that is only according to an almost-eighty-year-old male candidate who has held office for the past 40 years; not exactly a ‘new face’. In comparison, the supposedly complex world of crypto-trading is currently experiencing a real revolution; one that is led by a young and fresh entrant called FTX. Neither democrat nor republican, this crypto-derivative exchange platform has been attempting to render cryptocurrency trading both inclusive and accessible. Created in April 2019 by Sam Bankman-Fried, an MIT Graduate with puffy-hair and a keen eye for…