Since its release in just two theaters in 2001, "Wet Hot American Summer" went from box-office bomb to cult classic.

For years to follow, director David Wain and co-writer Michael Showalter have discussed the possibility of reuniting the entire Camp Firewood gang for a sequel. 

After years of discussion, that plan has finally come to fruition in an eight-episode Netflix prequel series called "Wet Hot American Summer: First Day of Camp." It seems a bit strange to do a prequel rather than a sequel, given that the actors are now much older than they were in the original, and the fact that they even allude to a possible sequel very early in the film.

According to a lengthy interview with Wain and Showalter in Rolling Stone, it wasn't until Netflix came into the equation that they decided to approach their "Wet Hot" follow-up as a miniseries instead of a followup film.

"Netflix became a medium that would run thing that weren't quite a TV series, but not quite a feature film," Wain told Rolling Stone. "It was the perfect wide canvas for us."

Showalter and Wain have a loyal following but have always had trouble keeping a television series on the air for long. "Stella," which they co-created and starred in with "Wet Hot" co-star Michael Ian Black, was canceled by Comedy Central after one season. "Michael & Michael Have Issues," starring Showalter and Black, didn't make it past seven episodes on Comedy Central. 

Showalter concurred that Netflix's unconventional TV model worked for their unique style of humor.

"Their creative model really lent itself to what we were thinking, which was to have way more material than we could fit in just one movie. This was more like a miniseries or serialized story, and not an open-ended network TV show that just goes on forever. It was perfect." Showalter also told Rolling Stone.

Wain added that if it weren't for Netflix, the "Wet Hot" prequel may very well have been a movie, if it was done at all. 

You can read Wain and Showalter's full Q&A with Rolling Stone, here.

All eight episodes of "Wet Hot American Summer: First Day of Camp" will be streaming on Netflix July 31.

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NOW WATCH: There's no other way to put it — the trailer for Netflix's 'Wet Hot American Summer' reboot is INCREDIBLE

With this weekend's release of "Mission: Impossible — Rogue Nation," Tom Cruise will likely dominate the weekend at the box office. In many ways, the "M:I" franchise has become Cruise's career lifeline. When things were at their darkest, it was these films that brought him back to stardom. 

In August 2006, it seemed like Tom Cruise was finished.

In an announcement unprecedented by the head of a major conglomerate, the chairman of Viacom, Sumner Redstone, publicly ripped into the star, who at the time was one of the most profitable at Viacom's movie studio, Paramount Pictures.

“We don't think that someone who effectuates creative suicide and costs the company revenue should be on the lot,” Redstone told The Wall Street Journal. “His recent conduct has not been acceptable to Paramount.”

Nine years ago was certainly the toughest and strangest time of Cruise’s career. The then 43-year-old actor had a lifetime box-office gross of over $1.5 billion, but his flawless transition from young heartthrob to respected dramatic actor to gargantuan action star seemed to self-destruct as quickly as one of the messages his character, Ethan Hunt, receives in the “Mission: Impossible” movies.

The studio he'd called home for 14 years was parting ways with him.

Today, with the anticipation of “Mission: Impossible — Rogue Nation” opening worldwide, it's hard to imagine the veteran actor's career being at such a low point.

His strange downfall and subsequent rebirth as one of the most bankable movie stars began with an innocent act of love.

When Cruise agreed to go on “The Oprah Winfrey Show” in May 2005 to promote his next blockbuster film, “War of the Worlds,” it was a big deal. Not only did most women believe he was one of the sexiest men alive, but Cruise rarely did interviews, especially on daytime TV.

As Cruise walked onto Oprah's stage, the crowd went wild. Oprah playfully tousled Cruise's hair, and the actor was clearly in a great mood.

During the interview, Oprah brought up Cruise's latest love interest, Katie Holmes, who was off-stage where no one, especially the cameras, could see her.

The excitement of talking about his new girlfriend led him to leap up on Oprah's couch with joy (he did it a second time for good measure).

After the couch jumping, Oprah even got Cruise to chase down Holmes and get her to come on stage.

It seemed harmless at the time, but thanks to a very young internet video-posting site called YouTube, the image of Cruise on top of Oprah’s couch would become a pop-culture phenomenon.

A month later, Cruise agreed to go on the “Today” show to continue promoting “War of the Worlds,” and also talk about his religion, Scientology. But when the interview topic changed to Scientology, and specifically to Cruise not agreeing with psychiatry, the tone changed. Especially in regard to Brooke Shields’ use of antidepressants for postpartum depression.

Here’s an excerpt of Cruise and Lauer's uncomfortable exchange:

Cruise: “Do you know what Adderall is? Do you know Ritalin? Do you know Ritalin is a street drug? Do you understand that?”

Lauer: “The difference is — ”

Cruise: “No, Matt, I’m asking you a question.”

Lauer: “I understand there’s abuse of all of these things.”

Cruise: “No, you see here’s the problem: You don’t know the history of psychiatry. I do.”

Later in the conversation:

Lauer: “Do you examine the possibility that these things do work for some people? That yes, there are abuses, and yes, maybe they’ve gone too far in certain areas, maybe there are too many kids on Ritalin, maybe electric shock — ”

Cruise: “Too many kids on Ritalin?”

Lauer: “I’m just saying — but aren’t there examples where it works?”

Cruise: “Matt, Matt, Matt, you’re glib. You don’t even know what Ritalin is. If you start talking about chemical imbalance, you have to evaluate and read the research papers on how they came up with these theories, Matt. OK? That’s what I’ve done. You go and you say, ‘Where’s the medical tests? Where’s the blood test that says how much Ritalin you’re supposed to get?’”

Lauer: “It’s very impressive to listen to you, because clearly you’ve done the homework and you know the subject.”

Cruise: “And you should. And you should do that also, because just knowing people who are on Ritalin isn’t enough. You should be a little bit more responsible … ”

Within minutes, the exchange was on loop all over the world.

Within a few weeks, Cruise had gone wild on Oprah and lashed out at Matt Lauer, and by then the tabloids had gone overtime on the Cruise-Holmes relationship, which they called “TomKat.”

It was time for Cruise to get off the grid, but he couldn't.

For most of his career, an experienced publicist named Pat Kingsley reportedly kept Cruise’s private life out of the tabloids. According to a 2014 LA Weekly story, she even talked Cruise out of being more vocal about Scientology when he did press for his 2003 film “The Last Samurai.” A year later, according to the LA Weekly story, Cruise let Kingsley go after 14 years and formed a publicity team that included his sister, Lee Anne De Vette, and fellow Scientologists.

Now in a typhoon of backlash that Cruise had never experienced before, his team may have been too inexperienced to protect him.

Despite all the negative attention, “War of the Worlds” still went to No.1 at the box office during its opening weekend ($65 million), and ended up with a worldwide take of $592 million. It would be the last time a film starring Cruise would make over $500 million worldwide for the next six years.

Following the “War of the Worlds” release, TomKat was still daily tabloid fodder, especially with the news that the two were expecting a child. And then, in March 2006, Cruise went global again with the controversial “South Park” episode“Trapped in the Closet.”

The episode originally aired in November 2005 and revealed what Scientologists believe is the origin of life, but it also depicted Cruise as an insecure person and played on rumors of his sexuality.

In the episode, one of the main characters on the show, Stan, is thought by Scientology to be the second coming of its founder, L. Ron Hubbard. This leads Scientologists, including Cruise, to flock to Stan’s house to pay their respects. But when Stan insults his acting ability, Cruise hides in Stan’s closet, leading to Stan saying, “Dad, Tom Cruise won’t come out of the closet.”

Comedy Central delayed re-airing the episode in March 2006, because allegedly Cruise declared he would not promote “Mission: Impossible 3” unless Viacom (which owns the film’s studio, Paramount, and Comedy Central) canceled the rebroadcast.

Cruise’s reps denied he ever threatened not to promote the film.

The controversy made headlines all over the world and led "South Park" fans to declare they would boycott “Mission: Impossible 3” until Comedy Central aired the episode.

The episode finally re-aired in July of that year.

“Closetgate,” in what it would become known, was the last straw.

The constant tabloid coverage of TomKat, plus rumors of Cruise’s involvement with Scientology — like that Cruise and Holmes’ relationship was allegedly arranged by the church — had turned people off. (Cruise and Holmes married in November 2006 and divorced six years later.)

The bad press soon began to affect Cruise's career. “Mission: Impossible 3” opened in theaters in May 2006 and Cruise's Q score — the appeal of a celebrity, brand, or company on the public — was down 40%.

Though the film was No. 1 in the US its opening weekend ($48 million), it lost appeal as the weeks passed. Ticket sales dropped 47% its second week in theaters, and then 53% the following week.

“Mission: Impossible 3” is the lowest grossing film in the franchise to date with a $400 million worldwide gross.

It was at this point that Viacom chair Sumner Redstone gave Cruise his wake-up call: “We don't think that someone who effectuates creative suicide and costs the company revenue should be on the lot. His recent conduct has not been acceptable to Paramount.”

After being kicked off the Paramount lot, Cruise hired a publicist with more experience and buckled down for a comeback. He brought his production company over to MGM and took partial ownership of the iconic United Artists studio.

Cruise also became less vocal about Scientology in public, though he was apparently involved internally. In 2008, a Scientology-produced video went viral on YouTube of the actor explaining what the religion means to him.

Cruise hit the pause button on doing action movies, turning to dramas like “Lions for Lambs” and “Valkyrie."

In between those films he agreed to star in pal Ben Stiller’s 2008 comedy “Tropic Thunder” as the overweight, bigger-than-life movie exec Les Grossman. It was the best move Cruise had done in years. In doing something so out of character, he began to win back fans.

“Tropic Thunder” reunited Cruise with his former studio, Paramount. Although Cruise's production company was kicked off the lot, it didn't mean he couldn't still be cast in the studio's films. The wheels were now in motion for Cruise to get back on Paramount’s good side so he could make more “Mission: Impossible” movies.

Being a hit in “Tropic Thunder,” the biggest comedy of the year for Paramount, was a good starting point. Director J.J. Abrams, who directed Cruise in "Mission: Impossible 3" and was in Paramount's good graces after directing the studio's hit "Star Trek Into Darkness," was also working to get Cruise back in the franchise.

In the summer of 2010, news broke that Cruise would be starring in “Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol,” with Abrams as producer. But this installment in the franchise would not be titled “Mission: Impossible 4,” because the idea was that the film would be a refresh on the franchise, with Cruise stepping aside as the lead and giving way to rising star Jeremy Renner.

Cruise didn’t get the message.

Back in the Ethan Hunt role, Cruise cemented his place in the franchise by scaling the tallest building in the world, the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, without a stunt double. That, and the other insane stunts featured in the film, led to “Ghost Protocol” earning the biggest worldwide box office in the franchise, with $695 million. It was also the second-highest earning film for Paramount in 2011, just behind “Transformers: Dark of the Moon.”

Cruise is not back to his pre-Oprah couch-jumping glory, as evidenced by disappointments like "Knight and Day" and "Jack Reacher," but he's trying. Following “Ghost Protocol,” Cruise came out with “Edge of Tomorrow” and though it had a slow start when it opened in the spring of 2014, it ended up passing the domestic $100 million mark. That makes it the first time in nine years a non-“Mission: Impossible” Cruise film hit that landmark number.

Now, with the excitement for “Rogue Nation” — which includes critical praise — Cruise's mission to return as one of the top action stars has been accomplished. Even his fans are willing to overlook HBO's explosive Scientology documentary, "Going Clear," in which Cruise is criticized for remaining the face of the controversial religion.

SEE ALSO: Why Tom Cruise is Hollywood's last movie star

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NOW WATCH: This 'Mission Impossible' behind-the-scenes footage of a 53-year-old Tom Cruise hanging off a plane is terrifying

Jessica Alba's billion dollar start-up, The Honest Company, is known for its organic and "safe" baby and household products. 

But furious parents are saying the company's sunscreen doesn't work. 

Chicago mother Gretta Stabler purchased The Honest Company's SPF 30 sunscreen at Costco, according to the local NBC affiliate. During a recent trip to the pool, she applied sunscreen to her 6-year-old daughter Maggie four times, Stabler claims. 

"She got really burned on her arms, shoulders, legs face, pretty much everywhere. I was angry," Stabler said.

The Food and Drug Administration told NBC that companies are responsible for testing the effectiveness of their own products. The company says the product was tested by an independent third party, and is safe when its used properly, NBC reported.

The Honest Company recently reduced the amount of zinc, an ingredient that protects skin from the sun, according to NBC. The company says it added other ingredients instead. 

Amazon reviews for the sunscreen are largely negative. About 57% of the 135 people who reviewed the product gave it one star. 

"I've tried dozens of different sunscreens and words can't come close to describing how terrible this product compares even to the cheapest stuff you find at discount stores," one customer writes on Amazon. "First, the product applies like a layer of grease — imagine putting melted butter on your skin. Next, the grease doesn't wash off, even with vigorous scrubbing and multiple hand washes. Last, and most importantly, the sun protection from this product is about as good as no sunscreen. I was in the sun for less than an hour and my whole family was burnt."

Other customers complained of burns and blisters. 

Other parents on Amazon gave the product positive reviews. 

"This is the only sunblock we use on our daughter...I actually like that it's a little greasy when you first rub it in, her skin is dry and just soaks it up," one customer writes. 

The Honest Company provided this statement to Business Insider: 

"The Honest Company is committed to providing safe and effective products, and we take all consumer feedback very seriously. Our Sunscreen Lotion was tested, by an independent 3rd party, against the protocols prescribed by the U.S. Food & Drug Administration's (FDA) monograph for over-the-counter sunscreen products. The results showed that our product is effective and safe for use as an 80 minute water-resistant (FDA's highest rating), SPF 30 sunscreen lotion in accordance with FDA regulations when used as directed (Shake Well. Apply liberally and evenly 15 minutes before sun exposure. Reapply after 80 minutes of swimming or sweating, immediately after towel drying and at least every 2 hours). The number of complaints received on our own website about our Sunscreen Lotion constitute less than one half of one percent of all units actually sold at honest.com. We stand behind the safety and efficacy of this product. "

SEE ALSO: 21 secret menu items you didn't know existed

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NOW WATCH: The one reason Zara is dominating the fashion industry right now

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg just announced that he and his wife, Priscilla Chan, are expecting their first child together. But they're not the only ones who will be welcoming a new baby this year. 

We found the most powerful babies who have either been born recently or will be born this year. 

These babies might still be drooling and crawling, but they're already poised to become major players who will one day rule the world. 

SEE ALSO: The 12-year relationship of college sweethearts Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan

Future U.S. President: Charlotte Clinton Mezvinsky

Parents: Chelsea Clinton and Marc Mezvinsky

Presidential daughter Chelsea Clinton and her husband, hedge-funder Marc Mezvinsky, gave birth to their first child, Charlotte, in September 2014.

If this baby is anything like his or her grandparents, a former U.S. President (Bill Clinton) and a potential U.S. President (Hillary Clinton), she has a good shot at being president, too.

Future English Monarchs: Prince George and Princess Charlotte

Parents: Kate Middleton and Prince William

Prince George, the son of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, who just turned two, is third in line to the British throne. Little sister Charlotte Elizabeth Diana was born in May to great fanfare.

Future Politician: Margaret Laura ‘Mila’ Hager and her future sibling

Parents: Jenna Bush Hager and Henry Hager

The former First Daughter and husband Henry Hager welcomed their baby girl in April 2013.

As the  first grandchild of a former U.S. President (George W. Bush) and the great grandchild of another former U.S. President (George HW Bush), this baby will have some serious political clout.

This spring, Bush Hager, a special correspondent for Today, announced that the couple was expecting a second child.

It’s official. The final three guests to appear on Jon Stewart’s final week as “The Daily Show” host will be Amy Schumer on Monday, August 3, Denis Leary on Tuesday, August 4, and Louis C.K. on Wednesday, August 5, according to numerous reports.

There’s been no word yet who Stewart will have on for his final episode on Thursday, August 6. The same night as the first televised Republican presidential debate.

“We’re going to have a ball,” Stewart told the audience at the end of Thursday’s show. “I can’t wait to show my appreciation for all the support and enthusiasm that you guys have given the show all these years.”

Comedy Central will be airing a day-long “Daily Show” marathon on Sunday.

SEE ALSO: The author of Jon Stewart's biography thinks this is what the host will do after leaving "The Daily Show"

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NOW WATCH: Watch Jon Stewart break it to his audience that he's leaving 'The Daily Show'

"Rowdy" Roddy Piper, who trash talked his way to the main event of the first WrestleMania and later found movie stardom, has died. He was 61.

The WWE says Piper died Friday. It had no additional details.

Piper, born Roderick Toombs, was the second WWE Hall of Famer to die this summer following the June death of Dusty Rhodes.

Piper's death also comes days after Hulk Hogan, his biggest rival for decades, was fired by the WWE. Hogan had used racial slurs in a conversation captured on a sex tape.

Piper and Hogan battled for years and headlined some of the biggest matches during the 1980s. Hogan and Mr. T defeated Piper and Paul Orndorff on March 31, 1985, at the first WrestleMania at Madison Square Garden.

Piper was a villain for the early portion of his career, once cracking a coconut over the skull of Jimmy "Superfly" Snuka. He later starred in the movie "They Live."

WWE chairman Vince McMahon says Piper "was one of the most entertaining, controversial and bombastic performers ever in WWE, beloved by millions of fans around the world."

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NOW WATCH: George R.R. Martin explains why you shouldn't trust everything you read in 'Game of Thrones'

Whether he's clinging to the side of an Airbus plane or holding his breath for a seemingly interminable amount of time, you cannot take your eyes off of Tom Cruise in "Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation."

In a summer filled with superheroes, sequels to films of '90s past, and countless Warner Bros. movies, the fifth installment to the "Mission: Impossible" series is probably the most fun you're going to have at theaters all summer.

The plot, which revolves around a secret criminal organization called the Syndicate which is trying to eradicate Ethan Hunt (Cruise) and the Impossible Missions Force (IMF) is fine, but admit it, if you're heading out to see this film, it's for one reason and one reason alone — to watch a 53-year-old Cruise performing ridiculous stunt after ridiculous stunt.​

Paramount made that clear from its big marketing promotion for the film showcasing the actor, who insists on doing his own stunts, hanging dramatically from the side of plane as jet fuel was coming right at him.  

It's been touted in every billboard, poster, and most trailers for the film. And for good reason. When everyone found out Cruise was actually the one climbing aboard that plane, hanging on for his life at 5,000 feet from the sky, people were excited. He's doing that — at WHAT age? Paramount even released a featurette on making the scene which included Cruise saying he was "scared s--less" before take off.

The best part? 

That plane scene is just the start of "Rogue Nation."

My colleague and I were both surprised that the most heavily marketed scene in the film came at the very beginning, especially after trailers for Paramount's last big summer release, July 1's "Terminator: Genisys", gave away some of the biggest spoilers in the film.

​From there, the film steps firmly on the gas pedal and never really relents. Throughout much of "M:I5" it's often Cruise trying to top himself by performing an even crazier stunt than the last as he goes from speeding BMWs to motorcycles on freeways hopping from destination to destination like Austria, Morocco, and then London.

There's a moment early on where Cruise muscles his way up a pole while handcuffed and barefoot, using sheer upper body strength to power himself free and take on a guy named the Bone Doctor (Jens Hulten). It's times like that where you'll wonder to yourself, "No really? How is he doing these stunts? He's 53." (P.S. This is how. And THIS is how.)

And seriously. If you thought the plane scene looked crazy, it's really not even Cruise's best stunt. 

In what is easily the best part of the film, Cruise dives off a 120-foot ledge into an underwater safe to swap out computer keycards and help Benji gain access into a building. In the film, Cruise’s character preps himself for three minutes of time underwater. What makes this scene so extraordinary is knowing that Cruise is really holding his breath the ENTIRE time this sequence is playing. And, it’s not just for three minutes, either. The actor prepped for weeks to learn how to hold his breath for over six minutes while performing the scene.

You get immersed in this scene, hearing Cruise’s heartbeat reverberate through the giant underwater chamber. You may as well be in there with him. When Cruise begins to struggle underwater, making gagging reflexes, the sound of his heart racing in your ear as you’re unsure if he’ll complete his mission, you almost can’t help but hold your breath yourself.

Another stand-out scene includes Cruise tracking down villain Soloman Lane (Sean Harris) and the syndicate at the Vienna Opera House in Austria. Cruise does his best balancing act atop moving stage lights sneaking up on and fighting a Syndicate member timed perfectly to the beautiful backdrop of Turandot's ”Nessun Dorma." (Curiously, this is the second time I can think of where we’ve heard the classical piece in popular culture. It popped up earlier this year in Netflix's riveting first season of "Daredevil.”) 

After stealing the spotlight in May's "Avengers: Age of Ultron," Jeremy Renner sadly takes a backseat in his second blockbuster spectacle of the summer.

There can only be one real IMF agent in this film and it is definitely not Hawkeye. Instead, Renner spends a good half of the film essentially as the IMF's lap dog. He's like the Robin to Cruise's Batman, except he has to stay in the Batmobile for most of the film, only allowed out to help fight the bad guys in the final leg of the film. Even then, it's Cruise who's doing most of the heavy lifting. 

And really, that’s the film’s biggest pitfall. If it weren't for Cruise and his comedic sidekick Benji (Simon Pegg), this film wouldn’t be all that exciting. (Though it is enjoyable to watch Swedish actress Rebecca Ferguson take down men barefoot one moment and wield a sniper in a revealing dress the next.)

The villain — played by a robotic, stiff Sean Harris — doesn't seem all that dangerous. Once he and Cruise finally go head to head, it doesn't take much for Cruise to get his way.

I'd be remiss not to give a shoutout to Ving Rhames, who has been in all five M:I films. The man doesn’t have many lines, but he makes every moment on screen count. Plenty of laughs from the audience for him. 

Speaking of laughs, the best line in the film goes to Alec Baldwin. Yeah, he's in this, too, as CIA chief Alan Hunley. No spoiler here. You'll know the line when you hear it. He delivers it to Cruise in a pivotal moment.

Overall, Cruise carries the film on his back (a feat which the actor would probably try to accomplish if physically possible), which is kind of funny considering there was a time when Paramount reportedly wanted to fire the star from the franchise.

One other quibble — M:I5 is a lengthy 131 minutes long. While it doesn't necessarily drag on, the action scenes all feel the perfect length, it just feels a trite longer than it needs to be. That's really all to say there. 

"Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation" — come for the catchy theme song and characters you know, stay for the ridiculous Tom Cruise action stunts. 

"M:I5" is in theaters nationwide Friday, July 31.

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NOW WATCH: This 'Mission Impossible' behind-the-scenes footage of a 53-year-old Tom Cruise hanging off a plane is terrifying

At 12:01am on August 1, 1981, history was made when MTV, the first 24-hour video music channel, launched onto our television sets and literally changed our lives with the birth of the music video.

The first video ever played on the network was quite ironic — “Video Killed The Radio Star” by The Buggles.

Though virtually unknown in the States, The Buggles would be reborn and become one of the biggest one-hit wonders of all time thanks in large part to the “Video Killed The Radio Star” music video airing on MTV.

“It was very much an afterthought,” Downes told Business Insider via e-mail when asked if he watched the video launch MTV. “It was kind of cool to hear about, but it didn’t really seem groundbreaking at the time. How wrong we were?”

The music video was shot in one day and before airing on MTV had only played on BBC’s "Top of the Pops" when the single came out in 1979.

The British new wave band was made up of Trevor Horn and Geoff Downes. They formed The Buggles in 1977 and released their debut album "The Age of Plastic" in 1979 through Island Records. The debut single off the album was “Video Killed the Radio Star.” The song topped singles charts in the UK, Australia, France, Italy and other countries, but barely made it on the top 40 in the United States.

As quickly as The Buggles formed, they disbanded. First, following the release of "The Age of Plastic," they joined the band Yes. But that version of Yes broke up in 1981, so Horn and Downes reteamed as The Buggles and came out with their second album, "Adventures in Modern Recording." The album turned out to be a commercial failure, leading to Horn and Downes breaking up The Buggles for good.

The memory that stands out most for Downes about making the video was the last second change they had to do to the ending.

“When we first saw the original edited version, everyone was up in arms with the shot of the young girl exploding on top of a pile of old radios,” said Downes. “I thought it was pretty cool, but the label thought [the video] might not get shown, so the video director Russell Mulcahy had to edit that bit out. The end result was the radio exploded on its own, and the girl was just shown standing on them. In hindsight, there was a wisdom in the decision.”

Though the music video would launch the imagination of countless artists and filmmakers for the decades that followed, Downes believes it’s the music itself that is responsible for the song’s longevity.

“We make the music,” he said. “That was the most important aspect for us was to get the record. We spent months recording the song to that end. The video itself was a byproduct of our endeavors. The song was already a hit and had picked up massive airplay prior to the release of the video. So, I still think the song stands on its own as an iconic piece of work.”

Watch the complete “Video Killed the Radio Star” music video here:

 Attempts to contact Trevor Horn to comment for this story were unsuccessful. 

SEE ALSO: The one crucial reason Apple Music and Spotify can never replace your music collection

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NOW WATCH: The tragic story of Cecil the lion and the American dentist who killed him

MILAN (AP) — Snoop Dogg has had another run-in with European authorities.

Italian financial police said they stopped the rapper at the Lamezia Terme airport in Calabria on Saturday with $422,000 in cash, well above the limit that can legally be transported across EU borders undeclared.

The incident comes less than a week after Snoop Dogg was briefly stopped in Sweden on suspicion of drug use after a concert near Stockholm.

Financial police confirmed a report by the Italian news agency ANSA that half of the cash was impounded under Italian anti-money laundering codes. In such cases, the balance is returned minus any fine set by magistrates.

Travelers within the European Union are required to declare 10,000 euros ($11,000) or more in cash.

Snoop Dogg played in Calabria Friday night, and is scheduled to perform Sunday at the Kendal Calling Festival in England.

Last weekend in Sweden, the rapper was questioned and tested for suspected drug use north of the capital. Authorities said test results would not be available for some time.

SEE ALSO: Snoop Dogg banned from Norway following drug bust

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NOW WATCH: 50 Cent testifies his lifestyle is an illusion

Curtis Jackson, otherwise known as the rapper 50 Cent, acknowledged in open court this month that he literally threw money away during a visit to a strip club right after he filed his bankruptcy petition.

50 Cent's bankruptcy came after he lost two high-stakes lawsuits, including one filed by a woman whose sex tape he published on the internet. Lawyers for that woman, Lastonia Leviston, have publicly suggested that 50 Cent filed for bankruptcy just because he doesn't want to pay up — not because he's really broke.

In Manhattan civil court earlier this month, Leviston's lawyer grilled 50 Cent on his arguably lavish behavior in the immediate aftermath of his bankruptcy filing — including the strip-club incident, in which he said he tossed wads of cash into the air.

For his part, 50 argued in court that he visited the strip club to generate interest in his brand as part of his "grand activations." (It's not clear this is an actual term, but it appeared that 50 Cent used it in court to refer to his self-promotion.)

Here's the exchange from the transcript, which Business Insider has obtained:

Lawyer: And in Los Angeles — was it right after you filed this petition for reorganization that you went to a strip club and threw wads of cash up in the air?

50: I was in — I had to attend a strip club because it was already on the itinerary prior to that.

Lawyer: You said what?

50 Cent: It was on the itinerary. It was part of the same grand activation I was telling you about from me attending New York and going to Miami and then Los Angeles. Generating new interest. So, I then open up new opportunities.

Lawyer: You threw money up in the air. Kept throwing money up in the air, right?

50 Cent: I did.

We reached out to lawyers for 50 Cent and will update this post if hear back.

SEE ALSO: 50 Cent is the Lehman Brothers of hip-hop

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NOW WATCH: Ridley Scott is about to show us a world where the Allies lost World War II

Teenagers Ian Hecox and Anthony Padilla were living at home in 2005, months after graduating from high school, when they began to unlock the secrets of going viral.

“We had no one to hang out with and we just decided to joke around in my room and record ourselves on the webcam that my dad had let me borrow lip-synching the 'Power Rangers' theme song I had downloaded that day,” Padilla told Tech Insider. “We died laughing and thought that it was, for some reason, worthy of putting on the internet.”

The duo, who called themselves Smosh, posted their “Power Rangers” video to Myspace. It got enough reaction that they filmed a followup to the song from “Mortal Kombat.” Then they polled their audience of around 20 or so to see what video they should do next. “Pokémon” was the clear winner.

The two filmed themselves in Padilla's bedroom lip-synching the theme while showing the two work together to capture a "wild" Pikachu. Afterall, the goal of the hit phenomenon, as made clear in the song's theme, is that you "gotta catch them all."

The result was nostalgic, bizarre, and slightly controversial.

The guys lip-synched a portion of the theme with their belly buttons.

At another point, Anthony serenades a Mountain Dew bottle telling it, "You're my best friend, in a world we must defend," before drinking from it.

In one split second, Anthony can be spotted in just a pair of Spongebob Squarepants boxer shorts and socks. And then there was the moment where Ian licked a Jesus figurine. Just ‘cause.

Most impressive, the video showed off some cool effects, making a Pikachu plush disappear inside a Pokéball and Anthony emerge from another as a Pokémon called "Anthonymon."

They posted the video to YouTube in November 2005, a platform which wouldn’t leave beta for another month, and with a little help from friends and followers, they got it to the front page. They were as shocked as anyone when it started going viral and kept growing to become the most popular video on the site, eventually amassing over 24 million views.

And then they were stars like the world had never seen. By April 2006, a New York Times article referred to Smosh as “viral video’s Matt Damon and Ben Affleck.” By December, they were featured in the “Person of the Year: You” issue of Time Magazine.

It hardly mattered in 2007 when the "Pokémon" video was pulled due to a copyright claim from The Pokémon Company: By then Smosh was already building a comedy empire.

Building the Empire

As successful as Smosh was in the early days of YouTube, their growth in the past decade has been equally impressive as the two expanded past lip-synch videos into comedy shorts.

Today, the two claim over 7 billion views across six YouTube channels on more than 3,000 videos. Their original Smosh channel is currently the fourth most popular YouTube channel. An original site, Smosh.com, launched in 2002, averages 30 million monthly unique page views. Hecox and Padilla, now both 27, even have their own film, “Smosh: The Movie,” which recently premiered at VidCon in Anaheim, California and is available on video on demand.

How did they do it? Some of the credit goes to Defy Media's chief content officer Barry Blumberg, a Disney executive who started working with Hecox and Padilla back in 2006.

“I didn’t really get it, but they were good looking guys and they had a great name and they had millions of views very early on in the YouTube universe,” said Blumberg. “And, I said, there must be something to this. Clearly they’re connecting with an audience. I reached out and flew up to Sacramento and sat down with the guys and said, ‘You know, I think you could really build something here. And, if we’re successful, you’ll never have to get a regular job.’”

“There was no money on YouTube at the time. It was just for fun,” he added. “They were making hundreds of dollars a month from display ads on their website and selling T-shirts.”

The guys liked what they heard and Blumberg joined Smosh, mentoring the two and helping them grow from a two-man comedy duo to a structured business. About six months later, YouTube came knocking.

“We were one of ten channels that were considered to be part of this new program YouTube was doing where they would include ads on your video and they would make money off of it,” said Padilla. “And we were just ecstatic because we were like, ‘Oh wow, we can do this for, you know, we can kind of spend more time, almost full time, doing this, and we can make money to pay for equipment. We can pay a camera guy and do a few other things that we’ve been doing for a long time. Before that, everything was coming out of our pocket.”

Starting in May 2007, YouTube's partnership program allowed users to share revenue produced by advertising on the site after it took a reported 45% cut. The guys joined up along with other popular YouTubers of the time like Lonelygirl15 and LisaNova. They soon started taking college courses on acting, improv, and screenwriting while focusing on YouTube full time.

While it was a nice source of initial income, Blumberg kept thinking longterm.

“When YouTube came calling with their partner program and guaranteed $9,000 a month that couldn’t be our sole source of revenue,” explained Blumberg. “So we had to continue to upload video content to our website using our own player. We had to make sure that we had a merchandise business. We had to make sure that we sold display ads on the website.”

“Regularly scheduled programming was not something they thought about,” said Blumberg. “Writing scripts was not really something that they had initially thought about.”

Before Blumberg joined Smosh, Hecox and Padilla were distributing videos maybe once or twice a month on YouTube. After he joined, output became more frequent.

“Each of the videos would have a bonus component — a behind-the-scenes or an alternate ending and that would be distributed, at the time, exclusively on the website [Smosh.com]. So you’d watch a video on YouTube and then we’d say, go watch the bonus video on the website. It would drive a lot of traffic,” Blumberg explained. 

Taking over YouTube, one channel at a time

While the duo’s YouTube page grew, they continued to expand their brand on YouTube and their personal site Smosh.com. 

In 2006, Hecox and Padilla launched Smosh 2nd channel on YouTube, originally Hecox’s channel called IanH. In 2006, Smosh.com also launched Smosh Pit, an editorial blog which consists of comedy articles and photo galleries from the duo and several other bloggers.

For their second channel, they started sharing a lot of behind-the-scenes day-in-the-life videos with their fans. The videos quickly became very popular. By 2008, they were uploading one video every Friday at 1 p.m. to their original channel, while uploading weekly extras onto their second channel.

Since then, the second channel has expanded to include Anthony and Ian reading fan mail, and a side series called “Lunchtime with Smosh," in addition to a few other weekly series that have emerged over the last several years. The channel currently has over 4.7 million subscribers.

In 2011, Smosh was acquired by digital media company Alloy Digital, which became Defy Media in late 2013 after a merger with Break Media. Today, Blumberg serves as chief content officer at Defy in addition to his continued work with Smosh.

The acquisition led to the production of more channels on YouTube including “Shut Up! Cartoons” in April 2012, which produces original animated shorts as part of the YouTube original’s program. Along with Clevver Media, they also launched Smosh Games, which includes video game commentary and "Let’s Play" videos, game playthroughs with commentary.

Smosh also has two additional channels delivering their content in Spanish and French, ElSmosh and Smosh France, respectively. 

While privately held Defy will not disclose numbers, Business Insider estimated in 2014 that, after YouTube’s 45% cut, the two make between $448,000 and $4.5 million per year, according to a range of earnings estimates provided by YouTube analytics company SocialBlade. Forbes estimated the two brought in $10 million in revenue between 2012 and 2013. 

Smosh: The Movie

How does the group that has taken over YouTube get even bigger? This summer the duo are making their next big move by starring in their own film. 

Co-produced by Defy and AwesomenessTV, the aptly titled “Smosh: The Movie” premiered at VidCon in Anaheim July 23 before receiving a video on demand release the following day. Variety reports the budget was around $1 million. 

The film, which sees Hecox and Padilla head to YouTube HQ to get an embarrassing video of Anthony removed from the site, features a number of other YouTube stars including Jenna Marbles, Grace Helbig, and Dominic "D-Trix" Sandoval. Directed by Alex Winter, it has been touted as a modern update to “Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure.”

While “Smosh: The Movie” was first announced in September 2014, it’s been in the works for years. 

“The movie was something the fans always wanted and was kind of an exciting idea for us,” said Hecox. “We just never really had the opportunity to do it before, but then Awesomeness came to us and they said, ‘Hey, why don’t we work together and make this a thing?’” 

For Hecox and Padilla, who are used to producing several weekly five-minute videos, the challenge of making a nearly 90-minute movie was a bit intimidating. 

“Our scripts were normally about six to nine pages long and then suddenly we see this 130-page script slapped in front of us and we’re like “All right!” This is a little bit more of a task. But it was a lot of fun. It was really fun to do something different and to do something a little bit … I guess a little bit more serious,” said Hecox. 

What’s next for Smosh? 

Hecox and Padilla both agree "Smosh: The Movie" is just the beginning of their next chapter. After all, they're 27. Older than most YouTube stars but hardly ready to retire.

Recently, they started a new series called “Every [Blank] Ever”, a parody series which pokes fun at everything from parties to video games. The series also features several other cast members, younger YouTubers Olivia Sui, Keith Leak, Noah Grossman, Courtney Miller, and Shayne Top. 

“We’re working with them [the new cast] a lot, introducing them as part of the Smosh family, kind of creating an SNL-type cast where people aren’t coming on just to watch [Smosh], they’re coming on because they love the entire cast. Everyone has something of their own to contribute,” says Padilla. 

Smosh is also working on a new series, “Part Timers,” through a partnership with YouTube as part of their originals program. It will be the duo’s first venture toward an actual sitcom, which Blumberg likens to something you would see on a streaming site. 

“It is definitely a sitcom format that we haven’t done before,” explains Blumberg. “Each episode stands on its own, so it would not be unlike something that you would see on traditional TV or on Netflix or Amazon and that’s I think the next area of focus for us … working in this different environment. It is very different for us to do a large number of episodes of the same series.” 

While Anthony and Ian will star, it will also feature a few others who have yet to be named. 

When asked what all of this success means to them, the two 27-year-olds reflect on how YouTube helped them evolve from lip-synching teens to bonafide comedy kings.

“It’s so exciting to be in this space and [be] given this opportunity and it’s all because of the viewers. They’ve chosen to watch us and stay watching us for years and years and years, and hopefully they continue to do the same,” says Hecox.

“For some reason, to me, it’s the most exciting to try new things, and over the past 10 years, we’ve tried a ton of new things and sometimes they work and sometimes they don’t,” says Padilla. “If we would have just kept doing the same lip-synch videos from the start we would have never stayed relevant. And to me, it’s just a lot of fun to be part of this growing space.”

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Here's the trailer for the first movie by two of the world's biggest YouTube stars

Teenagers Ian Hecox and Anthony Padilla were living at home in 2005, months after graduating from high school, when they began to unlock the secrets of going viral.

“We had no one to hang out with and we just decided to joke around in my room and record ourselves on the webcam that my dad had let me borrow lip-synching the 'Power Rangers' theme song I had downloaded that day,” Padilla told Tech Insider. “We died laughing and thought that it was, for some reason, worthy of putting on the internet.”

The duo, who called themselves Smosh, posted their “Power Rangers” video to Myspace. It got enough reaction that they filmed a followup to the song from “Mortal Kombat.” Then they polled their audience of around 20 or so to see what video they should do next. “Pokémon” was the clear winner.

The two filmed themselves in Padilla's bedroom lip-synching the theme while showing the two work together to capture a "wild" Pikachu. Afterall, the goal of the hit phenomenon, as made clear in the song's theme, is that you "gotta catch them all."

The result was nostalgic, bizarre, and slightly controversial.

The guys lip-synched a portion of the theme with their belly buttons.

At another point, Anthony serenades a Mountain Dew bottle telling it, "You're my best friend, in a world we must defend," before drinking from it.

In one split second, Anthony can be spotted in just a pair of Spongebob Squarepants boxer shorts and socks. And then there was the moment where Ian licked a Jesus figurine. Just ‘cause.

Most impressive, the video showed off some cool effects, making a Pikachu plush disappear inside a Pokéball and Anthony emerge from another as a Pokémon called "Anthonymon."

They posted the video to YouTube in November 2005, a platform which wouldn’t leave beta for another month, and with a little help from friends and followers, they got it to the front page. They were as shocked as anyone when it started going viral and kept growing to become the most popular video on the site, eventually amassing over 24 million views.

And then they were stars like the world had never seen. By April 2006, a New York Times article referred to Smosh as “viral video’s Matt Damon and Ben Affleck.” By December, they were featured in the “Person of the Year: You” issue of Time Magazine.

It hardly mattered in 2007 when the "Pokémon" video was pulled due to a copyright claim from The Pokémon Company: By then Smosh was already building a comedy empire.

Building the Empire

As successful as Smosh was in the early days of YouTube, their growth in the past decade has been equally impressive as the two expanded past lip-synch videos into comedy shorts.

Today, the two claim over 7 billion views across six YouTube channels on more than 3,000 videos. Their original Smosh channel is currently the fourth most popular YouTube channel. An original site, Smosh.com, launched in 2002, averages 30 million monthly unique page views. Hecox and Padilla, now both 27, even have their own film, “Smosh: The Movie,” which recently premiered at VidCon in Anaheim, California and is available on video on demand.

How did they do it? Some of the credit goes to Defy Media's chief content officer Barry Blumberg, a Disney executive who started working with Hecox and Padilla back in 2006.

“I didn’t really get it, but they were good looking guys and they had a great name and they had millions of views very early on in the YouTube universe,” said Blumberg. “And, I said, there must be something to this. Clearly they’re connecting with an audience. I reached out and flew up to Sacramento and sat down with the guys and said, ‘You know, I think you could really build something here. And, if we’re successful, you’ll never have to get a regular job.’”

“There was no money on YouTube at the time. It was just for fun,” he added. “They were making hundreds of dollars a month from display ads on their website and selling T-shirts.”

The guys liked what they heard and Blumberg joined Smosh, mentoring the two and helping them grow from a two-man comedy duo to a structured business. About six months later, YouTube came knocking.

“We were one of ten channels that were considered to be part of this new program YouTube was doing where they would include ads on your video and they would make money off of it,” said Padilla. “And we were just ecstatic because we were like, ‘Oh wow, we can do this for, you know, we can kind of spend more time, almost full time, doing this, and we can make money to pay for equipment. We can pay a camera guy and do a few other things that we’ve been doing for a long time. Before that, everything was coming out of our pocket.”

Starting in May 2007, YouTube's partnership program allowed users to share revenue produced by advertising on the site after it took a reported 45% cut. The guys joined up along with other popular YouTubers of the time like Lonelygirl15 and LisaNova. They soon started taking college courses on acting, improv, and screenwriting while focusing on YouTube full time.

While it was a nice source of initial income, Blumberg kept thinking longterm.

“When YouTube came calling with their partner program and guaranteed $9,000 a month that couldn’t be our sole source of revenue,” explained Blumberg. “So we had to continue to upload video content to our website using our own player. We had to make sure that we had a merchandise business. We had to make sure that we sold display ads on the website.”

“Regularly scheduled programming was not something they thought about,” said Blumberg. “Writing scripts was not really something that they had initially thought about.”

Before Blumberg joined Smosh, Hecox and Padilla were distributing videos maybe once or twice a month on YouTube. After he joined, output became more frequent.

“Each of the videos would have a bonus component — a behind-the-scenes or an alternate ending and that would be distributed, at the time, exclusively on the website [Smosh.com]. So you’d watch a video on YouTube and then we’d say, go watch the bonus video on the website. It would drive a lot of traffic,” Blumberg explained. 

Taking over YouTube, one channel at a time

While the duo’s YouTube page grew, they continued to expand their brand on YouTube and their personal site Smosh.com. 

In 2006, Hecox and Padilla launched Smosh 2nd channel on YouTube, originally Hecox’s channel called IanH. In 2006, Smosh.com also launched Smosh Pit, an editorial blog which consists of comedy articles and photo galleries from the duo and several other bloggers.

For their second channel, they started sharing a lot of behind-the-scenes day-in-the-life videos with their fans. The videos quickly became very popular. By 2008, they were uploading one video every Friday at 1 p.m. to their original channel, while uploading weekly extras onto their second channel.

Since then, the second channel has expanded to include Anthony and Ian reading fan mail, and a side series called “Lunchtime with Smosh," in addition to a few other weekly series that have emerged over the last several years. The channel currently has over 4.7 million subscribers.

In 2011, Smosh was acquired by digital media company Alloy Digital, which became Defy Media in late 2013 after a merger with Break Media. Today, Blumberg serves as chief content officer at Defy in addition to his continued work with Smosh.

The acquisition led to the production of more channels on YouTube including “Shut Up! Cartoons” in April 2012, which produces original animated shorts as part of the YouTube original’s program. Along with Clevver Media, they also launched Smosh Games, which includes video game commentary and "Let’s Play" videos, game playthroughs with commentary.

Smosh also has two additional channels delivering their content in Spanish and French, ElSmosh and Smosh France, respectively. 

While privately held Defy will not disclose numbers, Business Insider estimated in 2014 that, after YouTube’s 45% cut, the two make between $448,000 and $4.5 million per year, according to a range of earnings estimates provided by YouTube analytics company SocialBlade. Forbes estimated the two brought in $10 million in revenue between 2012 and 2013. 

Smosh: The Movie

How does the group that has taken over YouTube get even bigger? This summer the duo are making their next big move by starring in their own film. 

Co-produced by Defy and AwesomenessTV, the aptly titled “Smosh: The Movie” premiered at VidCon in Anaheim July 23 before receiving a video on demand release the following day. Variety reports the budget was around $1 million. 

The film, which sees Hecox and Padilla head to YouTube HQ to get an embarrassing video of Anthony removed from the site, features a number of other YouTube stars including Jenna Marbles, Grace Helbig, and Dominic "D-Trix" Sandoval. Directed by Alex Winter, it has been touted as a modern update to “Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure.”

While “Smosh: The Movie” was first announced in September 2014, it’s been in the works for years. 

“The movie was something the fans always wanted and was kind of an exciting idea for us,” said Hecox. “We just never really had the opportunity to do it before, but then Awesomeness came to us and they said, ‘Hey, why don’t we work together and make this a thing?’” 

For Hecox and Padilla, who are used to producing several weekly five-minute videos, the challenge of making a nearly 90-minute movie was a bit intimidating. 

“Our scripts were normally about six to nine pages long and then suddenly we see this 130-page script slapped in front of us and we’re like “All right!” This is a little bit more of a task. But it was a lot of fun. It was really fun to do something different and to do something a little bit … I guess a little bit more serious,” said Hecox. 

What’s next for Smosh? 

Hecox and Padilla both agree "Smosh: The Movie" is just the beginning of their next chapter. After all, they're 27. Older than most YouTube stars but hardly ready to retire.

Recently, they started a new series called “Every [Blank] Ever”, a parody series which pokes fun at everything from parties to video games. The series also features several other cast members, younger YouTubers Olivia Sui, Keith Leak, Noah Grossman, Courtney Miller, and Shayne Top. 

“We’re working with them [the new cast] a lot, introducing them as part of the Smosh family, kind of creating an SNL-type cast where people aren’t coming on just to watch [Smosh], they’re coming on because they love the entire cast. Everyone has something of their own to contribute,” says Padilla. 

Smosh is also working on a new series, “Part Timers,” through a partnership with YouTube as part of their originals program. It will be the duo’s first venture toward an actual sitcom, which Blumberg likens to something you would see on a streaming site. 

“It is definitely a sitcom format that we haven’t done before,” explains Blumberg. “Each episode stands on its own, so it would not be unlike something that you would see on traditional TV or on Netflix or Amazon and that’s I think the next area of focus for us … working in this different environment. It is very different for us to do a large number of episodes of the same series.” 

While Anthony and Ian will star, it will also feature a few others who have yet to be named. 

When asked what all of this success means to them, the two 27-year-olds reflect on how YouTube helped them evolve from lip-synching teens to bonafide comedy kings.

“It’s so exciting to be in this space and [be] given this opportunity and it’s all because of the viewers. They’ve chosen to watch us and stay watching us for years and years and years, and hopefully they continue to do the same,” says Hecox.

“For some reason, to me, it’s the most exciting to try new things, and over the past 10 years, we’ve tried a ton of new things and sometimes they work and sometimes they don’t,” says Padilla. “If we would have just kept doing the same lip-synch videos from the start we would have never stayed relevant. And to me, it’s just a lot of fun to be part of this growing space.”

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Here's the trailer for the first movie by two of the world's biggest YouTube stars

Hip-hop mogul Jay Z's Roc Nation Sports is being sued by a pair of boxing promoters for $20 million.

The suit claims that Jay Z's company tried to poach a world-class fighter, Demetrius Andrade, away from an existing deal Andrade had with other promoters. Roc Nation Sports is accused of later backing out of the deal, and dumping the fighter altogether.

According to the New York Daily News, Joe DeGuardia with Star Boxing and Artie Pelullo with Banner Promotions claim that Roc Nation Sports wanted the currently undefeated Andrade, 27, to become the sports management firm's first signed fighter last September.

Roc Nation allegedly agreed to pay Andrade $550,000 to drop out of a fight already negotiated by Andrade's two existing promoters, which was already set to air on Showtime last December.

It was part of an effort, the suit alleges, to "interfere" with the plaintiffs' "Exclusive Promotional Agreement" with Andrade, and facilitate a buyout of his contract so that Roc Nation Sports could sign him.

According to The Daily News, reps for Roc Nation told Andrade that by dropping the Showtime fight and his existing promoters, the company could negotiate a bigger, better fight deal with HBO.

Label reps allegedly took Andrade and his family under their wings; inviting them to the company's headquarters where they met president of Roc Nation Sports, Juan Perez and others.

The fighter eventually pulled out of the match, allegedly under pressure from Roc Nation, but was never paid, the suit claims, and "no serious efforts" were made to buyout Andrade's contract.

According to The Daily News, the filing seeks $20 million and punitive damages on the basis that Roc Nation acted “willfully, maliciously, recklessly, wantonly and with intent to injure Star Boxing and Banner Promotions.”

The boxing promoters also claimed their relationship with Showtime has been irrevocably damaged, according to the New York Business Journal.

"Roc Nation's promise to Andrade was made under false pretenses, namely, that Roc Nation was negotiating to purchase Andrade's contract from the promoters and thereafter would negotiate a more lucrative bout for Andrade on HBO," the official filing states. "Ultimately, Andrade agreed to Roc Nation's false inducements and spurned the professional boxing match the promoters had negotiated with Showtime."

Business Insider has reached out to Roc Nation and will update the post accordingly.

SEE ALSO: President Obama's former adviser calls Meek Mill's beef with Drake 'brilliant marketing'

Join the conversation about this story »

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Each year, Elvis Presley super fans and impersonators from around the world congregate in a single place to celebrate the King in a big way.

The Festival, which takes place in Collingwood, Canada, is the largest Elvis festival in the world. All things Elvis-themed take over the streets in the form of parades, carnivals, weddings and even midnight performances at the local McDonald's. 

Take a trip down memory lane at this year's festival celebrating the King, which ended July 26.

(Captions by Sarah Jacobs and Reuters)

SEE ALSO: Hard Rock Cafe Founder Flips Elvis Presley's LA Mansion For $4.7 Million Profit

The annual Collingwood Elvis Festival launched in 1995. Then, only 35 tribute artists performed compared to this year's 120.

This father and son Elvis duo, Norm Ackland and Jax, performed in the streets.

This year's Festival kicked off with a meet and greet of last year's tribute artist champions.

NOW WATCH: We took a GoPro on the tallest drop ride in the world and it was terrifying

Spoiler alert if you haven't watched the season-five finale of "Game of Thrones"!

Is Jon Snow still alive? HBO's top programming executive has answered the question once and for all.

That has been the major topic of debate among fans since season five's finale saw Snow's bloody demise at the hands of his fellow Night's Watch soldiers.

Fans have been tracking the whereabouts of the actor who plays Jon, Kit Harington, and paying close attention to his hair while trying to prove or disprove whether the character will return for season six.

"Dead is dead as dead as dead," HBO's programming president, Michael Lombardo, said Thursday during the Television Critics Association press tour in Beverly Hills, California.

He continued: "He be dead. Yes. From everything I’ve seen, heard, read, Jon Snow is indeed dead."

Lombardo's statement gels with what GOT's showrunner and Harrington had already said previously: Jon Snow is dead.

The surviving "Game of Thrones" characters will be back when the series returns next spring.

SEE ALSO: HBO plans to end 'Game of Thrones' after season 8

MORE: Northern Ireland wants to turn the 300-mile ice wall from 'Game of Thrones' into a tourist attraction

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Here's how to get HBO Now on your TV without Apple TV

Instead of wriggling your way through a crowd of people to achieve the perfect view of First Aid Kit at Chicago music festival Lollapalooza, you're spending your Saturday sprawled on your couch at home. 

That doesn't need to stop you from getting in on the action, though. 

Thanks to Facebook's widespread roll out of  remotely-accessible "Place Tips," you can still see photos, posts, and the line-up from the music festival even if you or your friends aren't there.

"This is the first time Place Tips will be implemented for an event and until now, Place Tips have only been available when you’re at a particular place," a company spokesperson said in an email. "During Lollapalooza, fans around the U.S. will be able to browse Lollapalooza Place Tips to see posts and photos from their friends who are there and live, trending content from the festival."

You should see a "Place Tips" info box when you fire up your Facebook app. Press it to start scrolling through Lolla-related content:

More striking than the umpteenth screaming-fans photo is the fact that Facebook is throwing itself into the same live-events space that Twitter, Snapchat, and Instagram are tackling too. 

Back in June, Twitter announced plans to launch "Project Lightning," which will curate events-centric photos, videos, and tweets. Snapchat's Live Stories do the same thing (sans tweets of course). During Facebook's recent earnings call, CEO Mark Zuckerberg called Instagram one of the "best places to get a real-time snapshot of the world," and the app's recent redesign puts a much greater emphasis on tapping into live events. .

Even Tumblr has been experimenting with using live-events — like the music festival Coachella— as big opportunities for combining organic content curation with marketing. 

By making Place Tips remotely accessible for Lollapalooza, Facebook hints at greater live-events ambitions for the future.

"Lollapalooza Place Tips are just one example of the deeper, immersive Place Tips we’re developing for specialized events and other new applications, too," the company says.  

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: How to use Google Maps when you have no phone service

A lot of people feel guilty when they spend a weekend binge-watching a favorite TV show instead of, say, reading a novel or watching TED Talks.

But one of the great things about modern television is that it can be simultaneously entertaining and instructive, especially about business.

We picked nine series that could make you a better businessperson, whether you're interested in learning more about effective leadership, integrating your work and home lives, or managing office politics.

Best of all, you'll be so enthralled by the crime, love affairs, and fantasy warfare that you won't even realize you're being educated.

SEE ALSO: 11 documentaries that will make you smarter about business

'House of Lies'

This Showtime series is based on a book by the same name, written by a former consultant at Booz Allen Hamilton. The show features a group of corrupt management consultants who will do seemingly anything to close a deal.

While the episodes aren't perfect reflections of reality, real-life consultants say they do highlight some important truths of modern consulting, such as the relationship between the CEO and his No. 2, who is usually a smart individual the CEO doesn't really listen to. The fifth season begins in 2016.

'Game of Thrones'

Based on George R.R. Martin's book series, "A Song of Ice and Fire," this HBO fantasy television series features multiple plotlines, one of which involves a fierce battle for the Iron Throne of the Seven Kingdoms.

Management experts say the show teaches some important lessons about leadership and power dynamics, such as the idea that being different (which in the show means being a dwarf or an illegitimate child) can make you a stronger leader. The sixth season begins in 2016.

'House of Cards'

Frank Underwood is one of the more Machiavellian characters on television today, or in this case, on Netflix. He starts out as a Democratic congressman from South Carolina and spends the series trying to weasel his way into positions of greater political power.

Underwood's dealings are instructive for any current or aspiring business leader, as they show the importance of treating your subordinates with respect (which Frank doesn't) and bouncing back from setbacks (which Frank does).

It's also a lesson in how to manipulate people and trade favors to get what you want. As writer and creator Beau Willimon told US News: "To be effective leaders, you often have to do things that are morally abhorrent to the rest of us."

The fourth season begins in 2016.

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"BattleBots" just aired its thrilling, flame thrower-filled, metal shrapnel-rich finale on Sunday and pronounced Bite Force its champion, but that doesn't mean the competition show is finished — not by a mile.

The show did pretty well for ABC. It averaged 4.6 million viewers and saw increases in both viewers and the advertiser-coveted 18 to 49-year-old demographic over the past two weeks.

"We don't know about Season 2 and I don't want to jinx it," "BattleBots" co-founder and executive producer Greg Munson told Business Insider of the chances for renewal. "But, if you look at the Magic 8-Ball, it would say, 'All signs point to yes.'"

"BattleBots" producers are definitely looking forward and feeling confident that ABC will renew the series for a second season (seventh if you count the five seasons it ran on Comedy Central from 2000 to 2002). And they've definitely given some thought as to what they'd like to do similarly and what they'd like to change up.

Here's four things the producers have planned for a likely second season of "BattleBots":

1.) Continue to emphasize the competition as a sport.
"We invested in the tournament as a trackable sports event," executive producer and head of unscripted for Whalerock Industries, Chris Cowan, told BI. "I don’t want to be too self-aggrandizing although we do believe that it is legitimately a sport. This is not to challenge all the traditional sports that are out there. we just believe it’s a fantastic outlet for people who can get into real competition with these things."

Next season, the series would continue its emphasis on the "March Madness-like" bracket, how it's set up, and the back story behind the teams and their robots.

"We want it so you can guess who’s going to win the matches," Cowan explained. "It’s more digestible to a broader audience, because we’re framing it in a way they understand.

2.) Improve on the technical coverage.
While the producers wanted to focus on builders and backgrounds, they found that the technical side of the competition wasn't getting as much time to shine.

"A little more tech," Munson emphasized. "I think the sport side of it is great. We've seen the pit and how the builders are working on them between rounds. I just want to see a little more of that. That's something we can tweak for Season 2."

3.) Hold the competition as an open-invitation tournament.
Due to time constraints, Season 1 had to be an invitation-only tournament in order to guarantee that everybody who competed was a builder of a high enough caliber for the tournament. But with Season 2, that could open up.

"Our dream for this is that it be an open invitation tournament," Cowan said. "I’m hoping that what this show is doing is lighting the fuse of the imagination who want to now tear their lawnmowers apart and start building."

Producers hope to have more competitors, more episodes, more matches, 

4.) Foster the evolution of bots through its rules.
In many ways, an open ournament helps here. But, the producers encourage competitors to find loopholes in the rules.

"With any established competition — it doesn’t matter if it’s a game show or a hundred-year-old sport — it’s almost tradition that the competitors will look for ways to evolve their interpretation of the rules," he said. "You’re never going to be able to stop that. We actually encourage it as long as it’s done in good sportsmanship."

"We have a small competition committee looking at the rules and trying to tweak them, so we encourage innovation in design," Munson said.

5.) Encourage evolution through changes to the arena.
"It’s an entertainment program and we want the most exciting fights we can possibly put on television with the most badass, interesting and creative-looking robots and best builders," Munson explained. "So, we also have to look at the arena itself and find ways to tweak it to push these builders to evolve their machines."

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Northern Ireland could score the best "Game of Thrones" tourist attraction.

On the HBO show, it is the 300-mile barrier of ice fans know simply as "The Wall." Looked over by the voluntary military order, the Night's Watch, it's the only thing that keeps the seven kingdoms safe from the wildlings and other free people, tribes that exist outside of the kingdoms.

Currently, the fantasy series is shooting its sixth season. But local representatives are looking to the future and hoping that HBO will leave the structure up after the series ends.

"It is a magnificent site and it would be a massive tourist attraction," Antrim parliament member Sammy Wilson told the Belfast Telegraph. "The number of buses and people who stop to try and get views of it."

Built over a former cement works in County Antrim, the set overlooks the Irish Sea.

Regardless, area officials are already planning to build out some recreational areas once the show's production ends and they're very excited about possibly having The Wall as a major attraction.

"To have the set there as well would be the icing on the cake," he added.

"Game of Thrones"-related tourism, as well as shows that have followed "GOT" to shoot in the country, has already given Northern Ireland's economy a boost.

An HBO representative has yet to comment for this article.

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Watching a live performance is thrilling in itself, but getting to do it while being in the midst of a stunning stage makes the experience unforgettable. 

In countries around the world, there are music venues that have been built in breathtaking natural and historical locations that include underground caverns and 19th-century forts. 

From Ireland's Slane Castle, which has hosted musicians like the Rolling Stones and David Bowie, to Sweden's Dalhalla amphitheater, built in a former limestone quarry, here are 15 fascinating places you can enjoy live music around the world.

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The annual Bregenz Festival, which is held in Vienna, Austria, from July through August, is known for the incredible fantasy-like sets built on its floating stage.

Learn more about the Bregenz Festival.

At SteelStacks, a cultural venue located in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, grand mills rise from the stage. The venue is located in the former site of Bethlehem Steel, the second largest steel manufacturer in the nation.

Learn more about SteelStacks.

The Théâtre Antique d’Orange, a UNESCO World Heritage Site located in Orange, France, is an ancient Roman theater that dates back to the first century. Today, the venue features the original stone architecture on its stage and surroundings.

Learn more about Théâtre Antique d’Orange.

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