Sports & Entertainment Beat

Welcome back to the "Spotlight!" Perhaps you hadn’t heard, or you avoid news that lacks dep-th, but the verdict in the weeks-long, voyeuristically-watched Amber Heard/Johnny Depp defamation trial was announced yesterday, with Depp “prevailing” over Heard. The real winners? The seven members of the jury and the rest of us. The former will forever have, at worst, excellent cocktail party stories, if not prime time interviews and book deals. The latter will no longer have to hear about the Amber Heard/Johnny Depp defamation trial. Those of you holding out hope for an appeal? You, like Mr. Depp, should know (::cough, cough:: "Pirates of the Caribbean") that the sequel is seldom as entertaining as the original. One notable exception to that rule?: (maybe…? hopefully…? Probably not, but just go with it…) the "Spotlight."

• • "Top Gun: Maverick" appears to be another sequel holding its own, but I credit the box office success to the main characters’ familiarity and relatability to audiences used to wearing masks on a plane.
  • The man who stood out like a sore thumb at this year’s Masters golf tournament for appearing with a beer, but no phone amidst a crowd of spectators capturing the awe of a Tiger Woods tee shot on their smartphones may not have walked away with a homemade photo/video of Woods, but he did walk away with an endorsement/merchandise deal from Michelob. That’s enough to make me want to put my phone away.
  • No one will be crying Justin Timberlake a river, and that sunshine in his pocket better scooch over, as he becomes the latest songwriter to make a $100 million windfall from the sale of his song catalog.
  • The FTC’s latest crackdown on TikTok influencers highlights another way in which college athletes looking to profit from their NIL need to CYA.