Paramount's Hostile Takeover Lost Its Inside Robot-Man

Part of David Ellison’s pitch to WBD shareholders is that Paramount’s hostile takeover will have a much better chance of being approved by the admininistration, presumably because the president’s son-in-law is one of the deal’s backers. Well… Jared is out. (Variety)

What did Gwyneth Paltrow and Jennifer Lopez talk about? (Lainey Gossip)

Travis Kelce’s NFL career probably just ended with a whimper. (Celebitchy)

The last thing Australia needs is advice from America. (Wonkette)

If you watched last week’s Conan Needs a Friend with Will Arnett, this is a horribly dark twist to all of the Christmas party talk. (Daily Beast)

Stranger Things 5 is propelling insane numbers for ’80s songs. (The Wrap)

The Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter p*ssing contest will never end. (Gizmodo)

Netflix is getting into the video podcast business. (THR)

Stephen King remembers watching Stand By Me with Rob Reiner. (Rolling Stone)

Oh, so Wonder Man is doing a press tour. (EW)

Vanity Fair did Karoline Leavitt dirty, and it couldn’t have happened to a more deserving person. (Instagram)

Happy 250th birthday to Jane Austen! Malin’s local book club read Sense and Sensibility together and considered whether Marianne is neurospicy, and the terribleness of men. “We were all in agreement that if [Willoughby] lived now, he would have a podcast and be a manosphere influencer.” Which is your favorite Jane Austen character? (Cannonball Read 17)

From Andrew, who apparently wants all of us to be blubbery messes. It worked:

@itssozer Benji met his idol John Cena! 🥹❤️ @True Classic @ryanbartlett #wwe #wrestling #johncena ♬ original sound - Samuel Weidenhofer