Elon Musk Under Fire for Using Slur to Attack Ben Stiller

Elon Musk criticized actor Ben Stiller for voting for Kamala Harris with a slur in a post on X Wednesday. The tech mogul shared a post comparing a headline of Stiller saying that “woke America” killed edgy comedy with a photo of his character Simple Jack from the 2008 satire Tropic Thunder. “Damn he went full r----d,” Musk captioned the picture, a reference to a scene in the movie. Stiller previously said that he “proudly” voted for Harris over Donald Trump in the November election. The post referenced an interview Stiller did with Collider, where he said that he didn’t think Tropic Thunder would get made today. “Even at the time, of course, it was dicey too,” he added. “The only reason we attempted it was I felt like the joke was very clear in terms of who that joke was on—actors trying to do anything to win awards.” The satire also featured Robert Downey Jr. in blackface.

Cher has told many tales of her love life in part one her new memoir, including of a horror first date with KISS frontman Gene Simmons that led to a two-year relationship. The 78-year-old singer said Simmons asked her out to a concert to which she brought good friend Kate Jackson, one of the original Charlie’s Angels. Simmons impressed neither of them though when he flirted with them both. However, he later apologized to Cher and called her from Japan, speaking long enough to rack up a $2,800 international phone bill and telling her that he loved her. “We didn’t do so much as kiss at first, because I didn’t want to yet. I’ve always felt that I don’t want to sleep with someone until I’m sure I’ll be happy to wake up next to them the next morning.” Cher’s sister Georganne LaPiere even started a romance with fellow KISS member Paul Stanley. Cher and Simmons did not have a monogamous relationship, and called it quits after two years, when he called up Diana Ross for advice on what to get Cher as a gift and ended up dating her instead.

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Pop star Ariana Grande, who plays Glinda in Wicked, reportedly put the kibosh on composer Stephen Schwartz’s plan to make the movie’s marquee tune “Popular” more hip-hop. “In the spirit of being open to new things for the movie, my music team and I thought, let’s refresh the rhythm. Let‘s, maybe, I don’t know, hip-hop it up a little bit,” Schwartz explained. Yet Grande said “Absolutely not, don’t do it,” reportedly telling Schwartz, “I want to be Glinda, not Ariana Grande playing Glinda.” She wanted to fully immerse herself into Glinda, and when it came to the vocalization of the songs, Schwartz said she needed some convincing to switch things up. “I had this idea for a new vocal ending,” explained Schwartz, “Ariana was a little hesitant about it, but I told her that if I had thought of it for the original show, this is how it would have been.” And with a little reassurance, Grande was on board to put her own vocal spin on the music. When Grande was cast in the role of Glinda, she reportedly told director Jon M. Chu, “I love her so much,” adding, “I’m gonna take such good care of her.”

The Académie Française, the top French council that sets the standards for the country’s language, has been asked by a leading human rights organization to amend several racist, bigoted and outdated entries in its latest official French dictionary. The Ligue des droits de l’homme (LDH) wrote Tuesday that it found “with amazement and dismay that many definitions are part of a vision of our world that is at best archaic.” Among them: the word “yellow” (jaune) is said to be okay to refer to people of certain races, heterosexuality is defined as a “natural” relationship between sexes but homosexuality is not, while multiple outdated slurs which refer to Black people are not defined as discriminatory or pejorative. Meanwhile, a woman is described as a human “defined by her sexual characteristics that allow her to conceive and give birth to children,” which the LDH said would exclude sterile and menopausal women. “The French language deserves better,” wrote the LDH. The Académie Française did not immediately reply to a request for comment from the Daily Beast.

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Newscaster Dan Rather is mourning the death of his wife, Jean Rather, the artist to whom he was married for 67 years. According to a statement from a family friend, the 89-year-old died from cancer in the couple’s Austin home, having been “on hospice care for some time.” The Rathers met while working at a Houston radio station, though she would go on to pursue a career in visual art, creating paintings and collages that “were shown in galleries and private collections across the United States,” according to her obituary. She also served as the vice chair of the New York City Art Commission and held board positions at several nonprofits. “Jean lived a full life as an incredible wife, mother, friend, and artist—and a true Texan," the statement says, noting that “today is the saddest of days for Dan and the extended Rather family.”

Ringo Starr revealed that Barry Keoghan has been tapped to play him in the Beatles biopic. “I think it’s great,” Starr said in an interview with Entertainment Tonight Wednesday. “I believe he’s somewhere taking drum lessons, and I hope not too many.” For the first time, Starr, Paul McCartney and the estates of John Lennon and George Harrison have granted full life and music rights to produce a four-part biopic about each Beatle which will be directed by Sam Mendes. Other stars floated for the project include Harris Dickinson (John Lennon), Joseph Quinn (George Harrison) and Paul Mescal (Paul McCartney). A source close to the film told Variety that nobody has been officially signed to the project yet, including Keoghan. Starr’s advice to Keoghan is to develop his own drumming style. “I’m not asking you to play like me, but you have to have the movement to do this stuff,” Starr said. “A lot of people come to the gigs we’re doing and say, ‘My son is taking drum lessons,’ and I say, ‘Not too many I hope.’ You’ve got to let them get their own feel.”

Donald Trump has called on a retired general to be his Ukraine war envoy, which he hopes will lead to peace between the country and Vladimir Putin’s Russia after nearly three years of war. Getting the nod is the 80-year-old Keith Kellogg, who co-authored a paper in April that called for the U.S. to use military aid as leverage to push peace talks with the Kremlin. Kellogg, a Vietnam war veteran, served in Trump’s first term as VP Mike Pence’s national security adviser. He’d reportedly been in talks with Trump at Mar-a-Lago this week about returning to work in the White House. A trio of sources told Reuters that Kellogg personally presented Trump with a plan to end the war in Ukraine, but did not specify if that plan was the same as what he previously proposed in his research paper. “Keith has led a distinguished Military and Business career, including serving in highly sensitive National Security roles in my first Administration,” Trump wrote in his announcement. “He was with me right from the beginning! Together, we will secure PEACE THROUGH STRENGTH, and Make America, and the World, SAFE AGAIN!”

Three Americans detained in China have been released in a prisoner swap, the White House announced Wednesday. The release is the result of “years of work,” a person familiar with the situation told Politico, and resolves a situation that has burdened U.S.-China relations for years. “We are pleased to announce the release of Mark Swidan, Kai Li, and John Leung from detention in the People’s Republic of China,” a U.S. National Security Council spokesperson told CNN. “Soon they will return and be reunited with their families for the first time in many years.” Mark Swidan was detained in 2012 on drug-related charges and sentenced to death in 2019. Kai Li and John Leung were both arrested on espionage charges. Li was detained in 2016 and sentenced to 10 years in prison. Leung was arrested in 2021 and sentenced to life in 2023. Their release is seen as a victory for Joe Biden in the final months of his presidency. There are now no more American prisoners in China, and the U.S. has downgraded its travel advisory level to Level 2: Exercise increased caution for mainland China. The White House declined to share the identity of the exchanged Chinese prisoners.

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Investigators are looking into whether a Chinese ship that dragged its anchor for over 100 miles, severing critical data undersea data cables, did so on purpose and at the behest of Kremlin saboteurs. The 225-meter-long Yi Peng 3 bulk carrier was loaded with Russian fertilizer and, in recent months, dramatically altered its usual routes to take in ports in Vladimir Putin’s country, the Wall Street Journal reported. The hulking vessel departed the Russian Baltic port of Ust-Luga on November 15 and, last week, ripped two data cables in the Baltic Sea in Swedish waters. The country, which joined NATO after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, opened a probe but a Kremlin spokesperson blasted the suggestion of Russian involvement as “absurd, unsubstantiated accusations”. NATO ships belonging to Denmark, Germany and Sweden now flank the vessel. “The fundamental change in the ship’s operating region to Russian ports after years operating solely in Chinese waters should be a key area of investigation,” Benjamin L. Schmitt, senior fellow at the University of Pennsylvania’s Kleinman Center for Energy Policy, said.

Three men travelling in a taxi allegedly fell to their death when Google Maps led them down a bridge that had been broken in half by recent floods, according to reports in India. The tragic incident took place in the state of Uttar Pradesh Saturday in the middle of the night. The men were travelling between the towns of Dataganj and Faridpur, a driving journey of just 24 miles, when Google Maps reportedly guided the driver down a road over the Ramganga River, a tributary of the Ganges. The car hurtled off the bridge and the occupants were left without help overnight, until nearby villagers noticed the wrecked vehicle the next day. A local official told the Times of India that an investigation has been ordered. “Action will be taken against the guilty officials,” he said. The Ramganga washed part of the bridge away after recent flooding, reports added.