SURPRISE: Only 8 of the 10 Best Picture spots were filled. Apparently the Academy didn't think any other films were worthy.
SNUB: Twitter was up in arms after "The Lego Movie" failed to get a nod for best animated feature film. The movie made over $468 million worldwide at the box office and was the first hit film of 2014.
But Wix’s CMO Omer Shai tells Business Insider a Super Bowl ad slot is well worth the money. He is determined Wix’s Super Bowl push will reach “hundreds of millions” of people.
While $4.5 million might seem like an eye-watering amount for 30 seconds of airtime, Shai says that as a branding tool, the only thing on par with the Super Bowl is something like sponsorship of a sports team. That would require a lot more money and a far longer contractual agreement.
And to make sure Wix is really getting its money’s-worth, the brand has started its Super Bowl campaign online weeks before the game itself on February 1.
It first began teasing more details about the creative direction of its “#ItsThatEasy” Super Bowl campaign on January 7, releasing the first in a series of build-up videos. The first featured NFL legend Terrell Owens making the leap from football star to small business owner, teaming up with celebrity chef Matty Matheson to start baking.
The next in the series was released Thursday (January 15) and sees “Entourage” star Rex Lee teach former NFL star Brett Favre how to roll his Rs (watch the full video below.)
Shai says it is content like this, seeded by Wix’s “massive social media team” that is going to make its Super Bowl effort this year a big success.
And what does success look like for Shai?
“Our goal is to make Wix accessible to people who have not heard of the brand or what we do. Our goal is to become synonymous with building websites, for people who are thinking about building a website to think about coming to Wix,” Shai said.
That’s not something that will happen overnight, but Shai says he’s set the brand an extremely ambitious target: “The thing I decided to go with is the amount of users that we have touched with the content we have created. Reach is what we want. We are looking in the hundreds of millions.”
Last year the Super Bowl drew 111.5 million views, according to Nielsen, so to boost that reach into the “hundreds of millions,” Wix will be relying heavily on its digital output to make the most of its big game effort.
Here's Wix.com's latest Super Bowl 2015 teaser ad:
In December, I relocated from New York to London to work for Business Insider's newly opened UK bureau.
I had never set foot in Europe before moving here, so it has been an adjustment.
The differences between London and New York might not faze a seasoned traveler. But for an American who hasn't spent much time in other countries, it has been a little tough getting used to daily life in the UK.
I've lived here for only a month, so this isn't a comprehensive list, but these are the things that have surprised me so far:
Some of my favorite apps don't work in the UK.
I've been obsessed with the music-playlist app Songza ever since I was introduced to it. I used it every day at work and at home, so I was devastated to see the above message on my first day in the UK when I tried to access the app. You don't realize how attached you've become to the "Tom Haverford, Boo Of Your Dreams" playlist until it's gone.
Netflix doesn't have the same selection.
The movies available on British Netflix are much better, but some of the TV shows I loved watching over and over again in the US (like "Parks and Recreation") aren't available for streaming on Netflix in the UK.
Most of the shows I watched on Hulu in the US aren't available in the UK either. The site blocks virtual private networks that make it look as if your computer is located in a different country, so that workaround isn't an option.
You have to bag your own groceries.
The UK's grocery stores don't pay for the extra employees to stand at the end of checkout lines and bag groceries, and I guess that makes sense because customers can do that themselves.
But I was still flustered on my first trip to the store because I didn't realize I was supposed to bag my stuff until the cashier had already rung everything up. I was that annoying foreigner who made everyone else in line behind me wait.
Also, most grocery stores I've been to don't play music. I got a really uneasy feeling the first time I visited a Sainsbury's Local in the UK, and it took me a minute to realize that it was because the store was completely silent.
Custom sandwiches and salads aren't really a thing here.
Nearly every lunch spot I've been to so far has the setup pictured here. The sandwiches and salads are all pre-made pretty early in the day, and they sit out in the open until people buy them. This is unlike most places in the US, where food seems to be made to order. This has taken some getting used to, as I'm someone who is known for making substitutions on nearly everything I order.
The bacon is weird.
I got a shock at my first English breakfast when I ordered bacon and got this limp ham-type thing in return. The sausage was much better than American breakfast sausage, but I was not a fan of the bacon. Some places do offer what's called "streaky bacon," which is more similar to the American variety.
Movie theaters don't put liquid butter on the popcorn.
The first time I went to a movie theater (or "cinema," as the Brits say), I asked where the butter was when the concession guy handed me my popcorn. His response: "You're American, aren't you?"
My British colleague laughed and informed me that people in the UK do not dump liquid butter on their popcorn. This keeps with my general impression that the British are a lot less excessive and much healthier than many Americans.
The downside is that liquid butter is delicious; the upside is that you're less likely to leave the theater with a stomach ache.
The nutrition labels are different.
When I picked up this box, I couldn't comprehend the nutrition label. I just want to know how much sugar is in the cereal bar! I recruited the help of my British colleagues in decoding this nutrition label (five grams of sugar seemed too low for a cereal bar with a bunch of chocolate in it), and now I think I've got the hang of it. Most of the same information seems to be here, but it's organized differently, which is jarring to see at first.
McDonald's and other fast-food chains have different menus.
This one is obvious. Thanks to our retail vertical, I was aware before I moved here that McDonald's offers different food in each country. But I am a big fan of American McDonald's — so much so that when I told a friend I was moving to London, the first thing he said was, "You know McDonald's is different there, right? Like they don't have the same stuff."
I laughed it off, thinking, "How different could it be?"
Since the whole idea behind chain restaurants is offering a similar or identical menu at each place, I assumed there might be a few UK-specific additions but that everything else would remain mostly the same.
Wrong. The food is actually very different. The burgers don't taste as good, and a lot of what is offered on the American menu is not available in the UK.
The same goes for KFC. I stopped there once to pick up dinner on my way home from work and was surprised to find out it didn't have mashed potatoes. KFC without mashed potatoes is pointless.
The portions are much smaller.
More evidence that Europeans are generally healthier comes from the portion sizes. Another thing I noticed when I went to a British McDonald's was that its medium soda was the equivalent of a "small" in the US.
Smaller portion sizes are found elsewhere, too. Plastic soda bottles are taller and thinner, and even shampoo comes in smaller bottles.
Although I do miss being able to stock up on bulk items (like shampoo) to save money, I don't miss the giant food portions that have become standard at American restaurants. These meals are usually too big for one person to eat in one sitting anyway, and the American trend toward larger food portions has been tied to obesity.
The Chinese food is just as bad as everyone says.
Countless Americans warned me before I moved here about the terrible food in London. I haven't found that to be true of most places (I've been to a few great restaurants so far), but my one experience with Chinese takeout made me never want to order Chinese here again.
I heard the Chinese food was especially unappealing in Britain, so I decided one night to find out whether that was true. This is what I got. Fried rice (which didn't appear to be actually fried) that had no flavor whatsoever and a giant "egg roll" that was basically just limp bean sprouts inside a greasy wrapping.
New York is very much a takeout culture, but I've been cooking a lot more since I moved here because the "takeaway" food that I've tried in the UK isn't nearly as good. It's probably better for me in the long run.
They sell hard cider in two-liter plastic bottles.
This was an exciting discovery. If I wanted to buy cider in the US, the only options available in most stores were a six-pack of glass bottles or a 40-ounce bottle. Some brands offered cider in cans, but those were often more expensive. Hard cider has just started catching on in the US, but it has been big in the UK for a while. Grocery stores here offer inexpensive cider in a variety of different containers.
Many studio apartments don't have proper ovens.
I was confused when I saw the kitchen of the first apartment I stayed in. We booked the place on Airbnb, and when I was looking through the photos online, it occurred to me that the "stove" looked as if it had only two burners. There seemed to be a microwave underneath but no oven. I asked the owner about this, and she told me the microwave oven doubled as a convection oven.
A colleague's studio flat has a similar setup, and she told me that when she turns her microwave on "convection" mode, it browns whatever is in there. But there isn't much space, so cooking large dishes is out of the question.
I've found that while tiny kitchens without proper ovens and stoves seem to be common in studio apartments, many larger flats have big kitchens.
Toilet paper comes in different colors and scents.
I'm still kind of freaked out by this. I get that it can't be easy to market toilet paper to consumers, but these gimmicks are a bit much. I've seen lemon-scented toilet paper, pink toilet paper, and Shea butter toilet paper. Why?
Eyedrops also come in strange varieties.
I always thought of eyedrops as functional rather than cosmetic, but Britain has you covered if you worry that your eyes aren't sparkly enough. I thought about buying these eyedrops out of curiosity, but I was a bit too intimidated by them, especially because the label on some brands says not to use these sparkling drops every day.
The bathrooms don't have outlets.
Because every bathroom in the US (in residences, at least) comes equipped with an electrical outlet, I was really confused to find that I had nowhere to plug in my blow dryer in my Airbnb flat. I thought that maybe it was just that bathroom, but every other bathroom I've seen since has also been free of any electrical outlet. Most bathrooms I've seen don't have light switches, either, but rather a rope or chain that you pull down from the ceiling to turn the light on.
The road tells you which way to look.
I used to worry that I would get hit by a car while I was over here. Once I got to London, I was happy to see that the city has a system in place to prevent that. These giant, hard-to-ignore letters remind you where to look when you're crossing the street so you don't get blindsided while gazing in the wrong direction.
There are no "exit" signs.
I don't think I've seen a single "Exit" sign while I've been over here. Instead of "Exit," the signs typically read "Way out." It makes sense, but it was strange to see at first.
London wins the real-estate game.
As a final note, I will say that London definitely wins when it comes to affordable real estate.
I've been through three housing searches in New York City (the last of which ended with me giving up entirely and moving across the Atlantic Ocean), and each was incredibly stressful and took more than two weeks. Maybe I've just had exceptionally bad luck, but I could tell so many horror stories about apartments I've lived in, and I was shelling out a lot of money for those places.
I was bracing myself for a similar experience here because London has one of the most expensive housing markets in the world. But I was able to find an affordable place after just two days of looking. It's a palace compared with any of my New York apartments (it has two floors and a giant kitchen!), it's in a good neighborhood with plenty to do, and it's only 30 minutes away from my office. During my search, I looked at four places total, and only one of them looked like a prison. The three others were all pretty nice. Major points to London there.
Amid the long list of leaked emails from December's massive Sony hack was an exchange involving billionaire investor Mark Cuban, Mark Cuban Companies general counsel Robert Hart, and Sony Pictures Television president Steve Mosko regarding a "Shark Tank" contract Cuban deemed "beyond an insult" and had him threaten to leave the show.
After the leak, Cuban told Business Insider, the billionaire investor decided to handle negotiations of a new deal over his free texting app Cyber Dust, which features texts that disappear after 20-100 seconds, depending on length.
Following the leak, Cuban told Business Insider his future online interactions with Mosko would be done over Cyber Dust.
Last week Cuban sent a message to all of his Cyber Dust contacts, including BI, that he handled the negotiation of a new contract with Mosko exclusively over Cyber Dust.
We followed up with Cuban over email about the specifics of the deal and his decision to use the app. Here's our full back-and-forth, edited for format:
Business Insider: Was there any reluctance from Sony to negotiate over CyberDust?
Mark Cuban: No, they were wide open to it. My lawyer and I communicate almost exclusively in CD so she was able to communicate the benefits to Sony. It was simple to get them using.
BI: Are there any details surrounding the deal that you can share?
MC: Once Sony was back to business, it went pretty quickly. Despite what was reported about the one email the primary negotiating issues were about how closed deals could use Shark Tank IP in their marketing.
ABC and Sony have really come a long way in their understanding of the needs of the entrepreneurs. We were able to get through a checklist pretty quickly and get the deal closed.
BI: Is this a practice you will repeat in the future?
MC: I've been using it since we started Cyber Dust.
Interestingly, the leaked emails didn't tell the full story behind his anger.
The older proposed deal called for a salary of around $30,000 per episode from seasons 5-7, required he promote the show on any channel it was syndicated on, and even suggested that Sony could copyright Cuban's "catchphrases" and gestures. Much more importantly, according to our interview with Cuban, was the way that Sony wanted to restrict entrepreneurs' use of the "Shark Tank" brand in their marketing.
It's not the first time Cuban threatened to leave "Shark Tank" due in part to how entrepreneurs were treated. In late 2013, his threat forced the show's production company Finnmax to remove retroactively a clause that required every "Shark Tank" contestant to give it either 2% of their profits or 5% equity of their company.
From what he told us, however, it looks like he's happy with where all the forces behind "Shark Tank" are right now.
BMW is returning to advertising during the Super Bowl after a four-year hiatus, the automaker announced in a press release on Thursday.
The company has shelled out for a 60-second spot to promote its electric i3 vehicle. Super Bowl broadcaster NBC is currently asking up to $4.5 million per 30-seconds of air time during the commercial breaks.
Trudy Hardy, BMW of North America vice president of marketing, says in the release: "As one in three Americans will tune in to watch the Super Bowl, we are thrilled to use this platform to educate viewers on the importance of electric mobility. Big ideas like the BMW i3 take a little getting used to, and the creative surrounding our spot will play on this analogy."
KBS is the agency behind the spot.
Other than that, details are pretty scant.
BMW joins fellow car marques Lexus, Mercedes-Benz, Nissan and the Toyota Camry on the roster for the commercial breaks during Super Bowl XLIX, which takes place on February 1.
"So excited and honoured to receive this recognition. It's wonderful to be included by the Academy in this exceptional year of performances. To ring my parents who are both actors and tell them that their only son has been nominated for an Oscar is one of the proudest moments of my life.”
The actor has been on a roll in the past year in the awards circuit. Cumberbatch won his first Emmy for his role on BBC's miniseries "Sherlock" last August.
Beats co-founder Jimmy Iovine may be in the process of making a serious real estate upgrade. According to Variety, Iovine has quietly purchased the Malibu home of television producer Marcy Carsey in a secret, off-market deal.
The rumored purchase price is $60 million.
Carsey bought the home from Richard Gere for $10 million in 1995.
The home is made up of two parcels totalling four acres of land.
In addition to the main house, which is perched on top of a bluff near Paradise Cove, there's also a small beach hut and a recently renovated lagoon-style pool.
There's also a tennis pavilion situated closer to the main road.
Iovine currently lives in a 15,000-square-foot mansion in Los Angeles' Holmby Hills neighborhood. He purchased the home for $7 million in 1998, according to Variety.
After he gives the second-to-last State of the Union speech of his presidency, Barack Obama will sit down for interviews with three YouTube stars: Bethany Mota, GloZell, and Hank Green.
According to YouTube, the three will interview Obama "about the top concerns facing them and their audiences."
"Over the next few days, the creators will ask you to share the questions you have for the president, some of which may be asked during the interview," the company said. "Use #YouTubeAsksObama on social media to suggest issues that are important to you or any questions that are on your mind."
The company made the Thursday announcement, naturally, on YouTube:
Mark Cuban did something that no one's ever done on "Shark Tank" before: On the show, he made a deal not to invest in a company, but buy it outright.
The deal to buy struggling novelty sticker company evREwares for $200,000 made for great drama for the show's viewers, but it turns out the deal never went through.
When the sister cofounders behind evREwares, Becca Nelson and Ellie Brown, pitched their novelty sticker company to the Sharks in the latest episode of the sixth season, all the investors determined that the business was headed toward failure.
Cuban, however, saw an opportunity to take the company's existing connections and reinvent the brand as an outlet for fan merchandise for his NBA team, the Dallas Mavericks. He made an offer to buy evREwares, and after an emotional conversation, Nelson and Brown decided to let go of their baby.
But despite the great television that came from the surprising offer and subsequent tears, the sisters later decided that they couldn't follow through with it, according to ABC 11, the network's local affiliate for the sisters' hometown of Raleigh, North Carolina.
After taking some time to think about it, the sisters told ABC 11, they realized they got caught up in the moment and weren't willing to let go of their company, which produces premium wearable stickers meant for children's parties or lighthearted special events.
"We were berated for a solid 25 minutes," Nelson said in her ABC 11 interview, which led the sisters to believe in the moment that their company, which had $300,000 in sales in 2013 but was on track to make just $50,000 in 2014 after retailers decided not to place more orders, was struggling too much to survive.
It got them thinking about "the sacrifices that you make every day with your kids, your spouse, your family, everything" since founding evREwears in 2011, Nelson and Brown said. "In the hallway, we were like, 'We could take all that back.' You could feel the whole set, just the energy, change," Nelson said.
"Mark and his team reached out right after the show," Brown told the Triangle Business Journal. "It was really hard, but Becca and I didn't feel like we could sell our company."
On the set of "Shark Tank," Cuban told the misty-eyed sisters, "I promise to take good care of your baby and do the best I can to raise it from the dead and turn it into something special."
When the sisters told Cuban they changed their minds, he was "so nice about it," Brown said, and he even offered to be a free adviser to help turn the company around, which is a deal the sisters are more than happy to take.
Bethenny Frankel can find a business opportunity anywhere.
The original Skinnygirl says she plans on launching "her own line of 'Skinnygirl marijuana' in Alaska, Colorado, Oregon, and Washington, where recreational cannabis is legal," Us Weekly reports.
And an insider says this "strand of weed" won't give smokers the munchies.
Frankel, who got her start on "Real Housewives of New York" on Bravo, already has a line of massively successful low-calorie alcohol, which all began with the Skinnygirl margarita.
Isaacs was forced to respond to the nominations' lack of diversity shortly after they were announced.
When Vulture asked Isaacs whether the organization has a problem with recognizing diversity, she replied, "Not at all. Not at all."
While last year's Oscars were more diverse than past years ("12 Years A Slave" won Best Picture and Lupita Nyong'o Best Supporting Actress), many found this year's lack of color especially troubling because there was a film worthy of the accolades — "Selma," about Martin Luther King Jr.'s monumental Civil Rights March in Selma, Alabama.
Many expected "Selma" director, Ava DuVernay, would make history this year as the first black woman nominated for Best Director. She was snubbed. The film did earn a Best Picture nomination, but "Selma" breakout star David Oyelowo also failed to receive a Best Actor nod.
Vulture asked Isaacs about the seeming "Selma" snub:
"Well, it's a terrific motion picture, and that we can never and should not take away from it, the fact that it is a terrific motion picture," she said. "There are a lot of terrific motion pictures, it's a very competitive time, and there's a lot of great work that has been done. I am very happy that Selma is included in our eight terrific motion-picture [nominations]."
There's clearly a diversity and gender divide within the Academy. According to one report, Oscar voters are nearly 94% Caucasian and 77% male.
Media Diversified posted this graphic showing even more scary stats:
A universal story about working-class people living on the edges of society. Sandra (Cotillard) has just returned to work after recovering from a serious bout with depression. Realizing that the company can operate with one fewer employee, management tells Sandra she is to be let go. After learning that her co-workers will vote to decide her fate on Monday morning, Sandra races against time over the course of the weekend, often with the help of her husband, to convince each of her fellow employees to sacrifice their much-needed bonuses so she can keep her job. With each encounter, Sandra is brought into a different world with unexpected results in this powerful statement on community solidarity.
If you've never heard of the film, there's a good reason why.
"Two Days, One Night" is currently playing in only five US theaters.
The Belgian indie has been in theaters since Dec. 24, and, unsurprisingly, has made most of its money overseas.
The film's recognition shouldn't be as big of a surprise.
The movie debuted to extremely positive reviews. The Red and Black reports the film received a 15-minute standing ovation during its premiere at the Cannes Film Festival in 2014.
The film has also been nominated for multiple Best Foreign Language Film awards including the BAFTAs, Cannes, Dublin Film Critics' Circle.
At this year's Oscars, Cotillard will go up against Felicity Jones ("The Theory of Everything"), Julianne Moore ("Still Alice"), Rosamund Pike ("Gone Girl"), and Reese Witherspoon ("Wild").
Here's what critics have said about her performance in "Two Days, One Night":
It is also a study in human nature. Some are open; others openly resent Sandra as a loafer on the job when she is there and the reason they weren't getting their bonuses in the first place. Cotillard is remarkable in these moments, using even the pitch of her shoulders to let their pain, anger, fear, kindness, forgiveness wash over her.
Whether her character is popping Xanax, entreating co-workers whose problems dwarf her own, or sitting in a car listening to rock, Cotillard is magnificent, her luminous eyes reflecting a soul in crisis. The Dardennes have been creating major cinematic miracles out of minute details since La Promesse in 1996, and this film ranks with their finest.
Cotillard looks resolutely unglamorous in this film, and yet she comes across as a heroine. Sandra’s mettle, almost imperceptibly, strengthens. The Dardennes specialize in loosely framed, naturalistic-looking dreariness, but in this film their faux realism works because Cotillard gives the blahness a depth charge. She is one of the few high-profile actors they have worked with, but the glory of her performance is that she never turns it into a star turn – which makes her all the more a star.
Ms. Cotillard moves past naturalism into something impossible to doubt and hard to describe. Sandra is an ordinary person in mundane circumstances, but her story, plainly and deliberately told, is suspenseful, sobering and, in the original, fear-of-God sense of the word, tremendous.
With an Oscar nod for Best Actress, we wouldn't be surprised to see this film start rolling out in more theaters over the next few weeks.
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The Rev. Al Sharpton was left fuming mad after the Oscars revealed its all-white list of nominees for this year's Oscar awards on Thursday.
"The movie industry is like the Rocky Mountains, the higher you get, the whiter it gets," Sharpton quipped in a statement released later in the afternoon.
Sharpton, a critic of the lack of diversity in Hollywood, also announced he was holding an "emergency meeting" next week to address the issue.
"I have called an emergency meeting early next week in Hollywood with the task force to discuss possible action around the Academy Awards," he said.
The prestigious awards ceremony was widely criticized after its nominees for best actor, best actress, and best director were all white. In the past two decades this has happened only one other time, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Sharpton praised the Oscars for nominating the civil-rights film "Selma" for best picture, but said it was "ironic" because the film is based on Dr. Martin Luther King's marches.
Said Sharpton: "The lack of diversity in today's Oscar nominations is appalling and while it is good that Selma was nominated for 'Best Picture,' it's ironic that they nominated a story about the racial shutout around voting while there is a racial shutout around the Oscar nominations. With all of the talent in Selma and other Black movies this year, it is hard to believe that we have less diversity in the nominations today than in recent history."
“Guardians of the Galaxy” director James Gunn is among Hollywood talent speaking out against many of the snubs.
After recognizing Oscar nods for the Marvel film's visual effects and makeup, the director posted an impassioned note on Facebook to his fans regarding his thoughts on many Oscar snubs including "Nightcrawler," "Whiplash," "Foxcatcher," and "The LEGO Movie" (he suggests the Academy may have dismissed the film as a "silly movie" from its title without watching screeners).
His entire note is a must-read, providing some insight into the Academy voters.
We've pasted his note in full below, adding in artwork to accompany his post for context.
As I said, I'm extremely pleased with our Guardians of the Galaxy Oscar nominations in Visual Effects and Makeup. Here are some other quick thoughts on the Academy Award Nominations -
It was one of the best films of the year, not to mention one of the best animated films. It deserved to be nominated for Best Animated Film. Considering the average Academy voter is 63, perhaps the Tinkertoy Movie or the Erector Set Film would have fared better. Honestly, I don't think there can be any reason it wasn't nominated other than Academy members assumed it was a silly movie (like I did when I first heard of the movie, before seeing it) and didn't watch the screener.
2) Whoo hoo for Bradley Cooper being nominated for Best Actor.
Even though it must be noted that Rocket is a much better shot, Bradley's performance blew me away in American Sniper. When I first saw the film, I was afraid it wasn't showboaty enough for the Academy. But, obviously, he came through.
3) Jake Gyllenhaal deserved to be nominated for Nightcrawler. God, he was good in that film.
5) I think our Guardians costume designer, Alexandra Byrne, our Production Designer, Charles Wood, and our Sound team from Skywalker Sound were snubbed as badly as anyone.
All three of these departments created looks and sounds from nothing, from cultures that hadn't pre-existed, and created something beautiful that has already shifted the aesthetic paradigm of Hollywood films. Alex and Charles have been nominated by their peers in their guilds, but it'd be great to be acknowledged at the Oscars as well. I suppose they'll just have to be happy having made a film seen by more people than have seen all seven of the Best Film nominees combined.
6) I also think Damien Chazelle should have been nominated as Best Director for Whiplash which is, to me, one of the greatest film accomplishments of 2014.
7) Foxcatcher was nominated for Best Director and not for Best Film. I don't get it.
What other department, exactly, was holding Foxcatcher back from being nominated for Best Film? The Director has creative control of a film - although there are some great films made without great directors, it is impossible to distinguish that without being on the inside. It really bothers me when awards for Best Director and Best Film go to different movies.
8) The Academy has a long tradition of bad choices.
After all, in 1941 How Green Was My Valley beat Citizen Kane for Best Picture. That said, some of the fury that's directed at the Academy because of various nominations is outrageous. I saw a lot of nearly violent anger this morning on Twitter. There may be good reasons to turn over cars in the street, but that Jennifer Aniston wasn't nominated for Cake isn't one of them. In the end, the Academy is just a bunch of people, like you or me, doing what they think is best. And they should have the right to not vote for whomever they want... besides the Lego Movie. I mean, that's just fucking ridiculous.
The actor is currently shooting The Revenant, Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu’s frontier drama that also stars Leonardo DiCaprio, and that shoot is now looking to go longer than initially planned.
Press for "Mad Max: Fury Road" would also cut into "Suicide Squad" filming.
The 37-year-old actor was set to play Rick Flag in the adaptation of the comic-book movie which takes a look at villains recruited by a secret government organization to undertake high-risk missions.
Flag is the leader of the group.
THR reports "Nightcrawler" actor Jake Gyllenhaal is in talks to take on the role.
Mercedes-Benz is returning to Super Bowl advertising this year after a one-year break.
The ad, created by Merkley & Partners, will air during the fourth quarter of the big game. Mercedes-Benz says it is putting a “modern twist” on the classic Aesop’s Fables story of a race between a tortoise and a hare.
To tease the “Big Race” Super Bowl spot, Mercedes-Benz is airing a separate ad during this weekend’s NFL Conference Championships on Sunday January 18. Watch the video below.
The teaser ads will see NFL legged Jeffrey Rice and ESPN presenters Mike Greenberg and Mike Golic take part on in a sports talk show dubbed “Showdown with Jerry Rice.” They will invite on various guests to debate who will win “The Big Race.”
The “Big Race” campaign extends online to a dedicated website where visitors can see extra content from Mike and Mike and vote for who they think will win “The Big Race,” which will also see them entered into a competition.
The amount of automakers advertising during the Super Bowl has declined this time around, according to this year's broadcaster NBC, which provided an ad sales update earlier this month. General Motors and Volkswagen have previously indicated they won't be advertising. That said, we know Lexus, Nissan and the Toyota Camry are all joining Mercedes-Benz on the roster for the commercial breaks during Super Bowl XLIX, which takes place on February 1.
Watch the Mercedes-Benz Super Bowl teaser ad here:
"Shark Tank" viewers saw Scratch & Grain Baking Co. founders Leah Tutin and Taya Geiger shed a good amount of tears as they made their way through their pitch in the latest episode of the sixth season, but even so, Barbara Corcoran estimates the show's editors cut out 95% of the crying.
And although Corcoran says it's totally not her style to make a deal with overly emotional entrepreneurs, she still offered Tutin and Geiger a $150,000 line of credit in exchange for 20% of the company.
In the tank, Tutin and Geiger explain that they left comfortable careers because they wanted to pursue something they could be truly passionate about, and a cookie kit business allowed them to build something they could enjoy with their kids.
The Sharks say the Scratch & Grain cookies are delicious, but they get wary when the founders tell them that they've made only $52,000 in sales over 14 months. Tutin and Geiger say the low sales are mainly due to the lack of automation in their business, and the investors voice concern over how much effort it would take to kickstart the business.
Geiger starts to explain what the company means to her. She then tells the investors that she grew up with a single mother who had a drug problem and that she's dedicated her career to avoiding the mistakes her mom made. The tears start flowing and then spread throughout the room. Geiger later jokes that the investors shouldn't get a pregnant woman crying.
In the televised version, it appears as if the founders and investors let go of some tears and then move on, but Corcoran tells Business Insider that it stretched on much longer:
I thought they were gonna take a stretcher and haul them off. And they cried so much, I thought for sure it wouldn't air, and it is airing.
I'm like, geez, how did they edit that one down? I hope they took their 30 minutes of tears and cut it down to like a 10-second clip! But I don't know how they're going to do that, because even in their pitch, they're weeping.
Ay, ay, ay! If they weren't going to be taken out of there, I was going to be taken out. And I bought them. Not because of the tears, but I had to listen between the tears to really get what the heck they were talking about... I still can't believe I closed on that.
Corcoran says that she doesn't want anyone to get the impression that she made the deal because she was swayed by emotion. In retrospect, she's surprised that she decided to set aside the entrepreneurs' emotional reactions and rationally weigh a bet on them, since crying in the tank, she says, "turns me off totally."
But because Scratch & Grain already has connections with Whole Foods and Sur La Table and she's offering money that will be paid back, she's giving Tutin and Geiger a chance to cut costs of production and start cranking out products.
She stands by her decision today, she says. "They aren't crying anymore, and are off to a fast start with more than $50,000 in sales so far this week," a boost that came within two days of the episode's airing.
Secretary of State John Kerry brought singer-songwriter James Taylor to help sooth tensions in France on Friday after last week's terrorist attack against the Paris headquarters of satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo.
Taylor performed a live rendition of "You've Got A Friend" as Kerry stood next to him.
"Close your eyes and think of me and soon I will be there to brighten up even your darkest nights," Taylor sang softly.
The visit came after the White House admitted it made a mistake when it failed to send a high-profile US representative like Kerry to France's massive anti-terror rally last Sunday.
After the nominations were announced, people immediately noticed the lack of diversity among the nominees.
While last year's Oscars were more diverse than past years ("12 Years A Slave" won Best Picture and Lupita Nyong'o Best Supporting Actress), many found this year's lack of color especially troubling because there was a film worthy of the accolades 
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Jack Nicholson, 12 nominations (
Bette Davis, 10 nominations (
Laurence Olivier, 10 nominations (
Paul Newman, 9 nominations (
Spencer Tracy, 9 nominations (
Marlon Brando, 8 nominations (
Peter O'Toole, 8 nominations (
Al Pacino, 8 nominations (
Geraldine Page, 8 nominations (
Ingrid Bergman, 7 nominations (
Richard Burton, 7 nominations (
Judi Dench, 7 nominations (
Robert DeNiro, 7 nominations (
Jane Fonda, 7 nominations (
Greer Garson, 7 nominations (
Dustin Hoffman, 7 nominations (
