Note: This is the last edition of ND before the Holiday season. Have a great Christmas and Hanukkah. Blake Lively had complained about the on-set behavior of her co-starring director Justin Baldoni and the producer of her recent movie It Ends With Us. The movie positioned the filmmakers as feminist allies for the MeToo era, so any hint they could have been inappropriate (especially sexually) would have been bad news for their reputations, and likely bad news for the movie's bottom line. So they decided to hire a PR firm to deploy a preemptive attack—to damage Lively's reputation on social media to the extent that she couldn't really hurt them. Yes, there are PR firms that do this. Yes, with the help of schadenfreude starved social media users these efforts can be very successful. And yes, if you've noticed a negative buzz around Blake Lively over the past few months, this is why. This story is a reminder of how much discourse online (political, celebrity, etc) is manipulated. It's also worth noting that the PR of personal destruction can be deployed effectively even against a popular actress who is married to Ryan Reynolds and best friends with Taylor Swift. NYT (Gift Article): ‘We Can Bury Anyone’: Inside a Hollywood Smear Machine. "There have long been figures behind the scenes shaping public opinion about celebrities — through gossip columns, tabloids and strategic interviews. The documents show an additional playbook for waging a largely undetectable smear campaign in the digital era. While the film, about domestic violence, was a box office hit — making nearly $350 million worldwide — online criticism of the actress skyrocketed. 'He wants to feel like she can be buried,' a publicist working with the studio and Mr. Baldoni wrote in an Aug. 2 message to the crisis management expert, Melissa Nathan. 'You know we can bury anyone,' Ms. Nathan wrote." (After this story, the PR people are gonna need to hire PR people.) 2Joint Venture"I was a working journalist; I sat and listened. My reporter’s curiosity and detachment often were replaced by a kind of awe. Listening to and watching the men talk about their crimes, their traumas, and their struggles before and after they had been imprisoned, I was moved by the depth of their honesty and the deep healing that I was witnessing." That's how my friend Robert Rosenthal reflected in his first experience seeing San Quentin's GRIP (Guiding Rage Into Power) program in person. What he didn't know at the time was that he'd return to interact with the group more than a decade later following the suicide of his son, Ben. "I never imagined that I would return not as an observer, but as a member of their 'tribe.'" An enlightening and moving essay: My Unexpected Healing at San Quentin. "To be entrusted with someone’s despair is a great privilege and something happens that is very important. You become intimate, vulnerable, worthy of your suffering. It is honest, not hidden and it gives others the opportunity to do the same. To be entrusted models a way of being." 3The Hole Thirty"What was their home is now a cement slab, with bits of granite and linoleum flooring sticking out. The county sent a $38,000 bill, which incurs interest monthly. The Pelleys owed more than half a million dollars for a home that no longer existed on land that was unbuildable. Insurance, the Pelleys say, still refused to pay. Water didn’t come into the house into this second event, either, as it had been erased." The latest piece in Bloomberg's(Gift Article) excellent series on how climate change is making parts of the planet uninsurable. The 30-Year Mortgage Wasn’t Designed for Climate Chaos. "Homeowners in Florida and California have already been trying to reconcile their mortgage duration and dwindling insurance options with neighborhoods that may not live to see 30 years. In a nation where long-term loans are the gateway to homeownership for most families, climate change is rewriting the basic assumptions about risk." 4You Hold All the CardsWhat's the most popular gift this holiday season? If it's anything like past years, it will be gift cards. And if what follows is anything like past years, a lot of those cards will be lost, forgotten, or otherwise unused. The Hustle on the economics of unused gift cards. "In an ideal world, the gift card is a win-win: For the buyer, it’s a hassle-free gifting experience; for the recipient, it’s a cash equivalent that can be used at any store or restaurant. But gift cards aren’t always ideal. Oftentimes, they go unused — whether we lose them, forget we have them, let them expire, or fail to spend the full amount that was gifted. And when that happens, there’s only one winner: The companies that sell the cards." 5Extra, ExtraAG Me With a Spoon: "The House Ethics Committee on Monday accused Matt Gaetz of 'regularly' paying for sex, including with a 17-year-old girl, and purchasing and using illicit drugs as a member of Congress, as lawmakers released the conclusions of a nearly four-year investigation that helped sink his nomination for attorney general. The 37-page report by the bipartisan panel includes explicit details of sex-filled parties and vacations that Gaetz, now 42, took part in from 2017 to 2020 while the Republican represented Florida’s western Panhandle." You can read the report for yourself. A reminder that this was Trump's pick to be America's Attorney General. 6Bottom of the NewsIt's the holidays, so let's mix the bottom of the news with a hint of feel good Friday. Detroit-area library says Chicago man can keep overdue baseball book -- 50 years later. The book is Baseball’s Zaniest Stars. This story is almost moving enough for me to consider returning my copy of The Horse That Played Centerfield. But not quite...
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