Sports & Entertainment Spotlight

Welcome back to the Spotlight! With a little under a week until Thanksgiving, it has once again become fair “game” for small talk to be dominated by mostly unsolicited advice as to how one should prepare their turkey. Personally, I like to use a dry brine, rub a compound butter under the skin and load up the bird with aromatics, I digress. The truth is, there are many ways to cook the versatile poultry. The Spotlight is much the same way: stuffed with a tantalizing array of complementary flavors.

For instance, a deep fried turkey, like an Installment of the Spotlight can be a juicy crowd pleaser—each likely to bring (or burn) down the house in their own right. Other times, a roasted turkey can be tough and dry—adjectives that I would prefer to think of as describing the Spotlight’s commentary and sense of humor rather than its readability. The ingredients (sports/shallots, film/fennel, music/mushrooms, television/thyme, etc.) can vary depending on what’s available and interesting in the “kitchen.” Invariably, both turkey and the Spotlight pair nicely with a glass of wine, and yes, they may even make you drowsy. Still, even when the turkey or my writing is uninspired and bland, there’s usually some noteworthy sides to fill you up. So with that, however your turkey comes out, may your mac and cheese be as cheesy, and your cornbread as corny, as yours truly. For now, feel free to dig in on the below and fill your plate with enough to last you to when the Spotlight returns In December.

• • Injured New York Giants rookie sensation running back Cam Skattebo faced criticism after making a fun appearance on “WWE Monday Night Raw” at Madison Square Garden in which he had a scripted scuffle with wrestlers. In fairness to Skattebo, he was shut out of the New York Philharmonic.
  • Recording artist Usher sues a group of investors to recover an unpaid $700,000 on an original $1.7 million that he lent for the purchase and development of Atlanta restaurant and lounge space. Asked about whether he is optimistic about his chances of prevailing, Usher replied “Yeah!”
  • On the heels (and soles) of last week’s announcement that Steph Curry and Under Armour were parting ways, Curry has been “courting” other brands by wearing their sneakers in his past few games. First Nike, then Reebok. Undoubtedly, he has other plans afoot.

Welcome back to the Spotlight! Is it just me or are sports scandals becoming more and more prevalent? Perhaps it’s that there’s so much money changing hands, including in legalized gambling, there is more opportunity and temptation to game the system. Perhaps it’s that digital fingerprints make it easier for bad actors to get caught. Perhaps morals are loosening. Or perhaps people are just flouting Mary J. Blige’s (shoutout to the 914) pleas for “No More Drama.” Whatever the explanation (I’m pretty sure it is the last one), new indictments and punishments came down this week stemming from game manipulation for betting purposes—just weeks after similar allegations taking place in the NBA. The NCAA announced that a handful of former student-athletes were involved in schemes in which they intentionally did not score or “threw” their game.

Not to be outdone, in the MLB, Cleveland Guardians’ pitchers Emmanuel Clase and Luis Ortiz allegedly purposely threw balls so that gamblers could bet on pitches being balls or strikes. Clase and Ortiz are both excellent relief pitchers—the former being one of the top closers in all Major League Baseball—but the ultimate relief would be that each of these allegations prove to be false. However, all indications seem to be that the allegations are credible. Unfortunately, these incidents do not happen in a vacuum and inject a level of cynicism and skepticism whenever an umpire or referee makes a questionable call, a player sits out with an injury or makes a bone-headed play. Hopefully, all of these events will in the long run serve as examples of what not to do, but at least in the near term these instances all are unsettling affronts to the integrity of the games to which these scandals relate.

• • Twelve years after Under Armour beat out a notoriously ill-prepared Nike pitch to sign then NBA superstar Steph Curry to an endorsement deal, Curry and Under Armour are parting ways, with Curry taking all of his IP out on the open market. If you listen closely, you can hear an army of brand executives rehearsing the proper pronunciation of Curry’s name.
  • Financial giant Goldman Sachs buys a majority stake of sports talent agency Excel Sports Management. As part of the deal, Excel will get a direct pipeline to capital, while Goldman will get a direct pipeline of talent to appear at its executives’ children’s bar/bat mitzvahs, christenings, sweet 16s and quinceañeras.
  • Actors Michael Caine and Matthew McConaughey link up with AI audio company ElevenLabs, allowing virtual reproduction their famous voices. McConaughey’s voice is not yet available through ElevenLabs’ marketplace out of the company’s fear that users will overwhelm the system with requests for “Alright, alright, alright.”

For inquiries and/or unabashed compliments, please feel free to contact me at josh.bloomgarden@foster.com or add me on LinkedIn.

Welcome back to the Spotlight! This past week, amidst Halloween candy sorting (and sampling…and re-sampling…) a recording artist by the name of Xania Monet generated enough radio play to make a historic appearance on the Billboard R&B charts. Why was it historic? Not because Xania Monet is a relative of French impressionist Claude (though, kudos to you for retaining art history), but rather because Xania Monet is a relative of Claude…and Alexa…and Siri…and Grok. You see, Xania Monet is a creation of Telisha “Nikki” Jones, who uses generative software and her own lyrics to bring Monet to “life.”

On the one hand, this represents a democratization of the music industry. On the other hand, it’s an anxiety-inducing moment for recording artists of the human variety. Put differently, the ease with which new AI-generated music can be pushed out makes it more likely for consumers’ mass consumption of Xania and likelier still for traditional musicians’ mass consumption of Xanax. Whether this is a passing fad or a sign of things to come (probably the latter), one thing is for certain: the Spotlight is proudly AI-free and authentic since its very first founding. And based on what I’ve seen from my late night trials, that’s not in danger of that changing any time soon!

• • Highly decorated Men’s tennis star adds a deal to his endorsement portfolio, leading a $5 million seed round for “corn-free popcorn” brand Cob. What’s this corn-free popcorn, you ask? It is a snack product made with sorghum – which is incidentally exactly what I experience when I get a corn kernel stuck in my teeth.
  • Following on the heels of this week’s Mayoral election in New York City, President Trump published (and was forced to take down) a doctored New York Knicks logo to satirize a different doctored New York Knicks logo that Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani used (for which he received a cease and desist letter) during his campaign. While I am relieved to see the Knicks not wading into the political morass, I am confused about why there seem to be more graphic designers than IP lawyers on both sides of the aisle.
  • Just when you thought the “K-Pop Demon Hunters” craze might be winding down after Halloween, Netflix announced that a sequel will be made, triggering a $15 million cash bonus for Sony film studio. Golden indeed.

For inquiries and/or unabashed compliments, please feel free to contact me at josh.bloomgarden@foster.com or add me on LinkedIn.