• Ayo Edebiri called Elon Musk an "idiot" on her Instagram story for spreading a fake casting rumor.
• The rumor claimed Edebiri was being eyed for a new "Pirates of the Caribbean" movie.
• Musk shared the fake info on X, writing, "Disney sucks." Edebiri said it triggered online attacks.

"The Bear" star Ayo Edebiri has some choice words for DOGE overseer Elon Musk after he helped spread a fake casting rumor last year that she said triggered a slew of attacks against her.

"Just remembering when I got some of the most insane death threats and racial slurs of my life (idk if it's the #1 moment, but for sure top 3) for a fake reboot of a movie I had never even heard of because of this man LMAO," Edebiri wrote on her Instagram story Tuesday night.

"So not only is he double s**g h**l-ing fascist, he's an idiot," she added, alluding to gestures that Musk performed at President Donald Trump's inauguration rally that many interpreted as Nazi salutes; "seig heil," meaning "hail victory" in German, was a rallying cry adopted and popularized by the Nazi party. (After his gesture sparked backlash, Musk told Joe Rogan he is "not a Nazi.")

Edebiri also shared a screenshot of the rumor in question, which was circulated last February by the X account @unlimited_ls, which is dedicated to sharing political news and "social injustice" from a conservative angle.

The rumor claimed that Edebiri was being eyed as a "replacement" for Johnny Depp in a new "Pirates of the Caribbean" movie.

Depp last starred as Captain Jack Sparrow in the fifth installment of the franchise, "Dead Men Tell No Tales," released in 2017. He was set to appear in a sixth film, but according to court testimony, plans for "Pirates of the Caribbean 6" were scrapped after Depp's ex-wife, Amber Heard, wrote an op-ed about domestic abuse.

Musk reshared the rumor on his own X account, writing, "Disney sucks." The original post has since been deleted, but Musk's is still live.

The person who runs @unlimited_ls shared a reaction to Edebiri's criticism on Wednesday morning, calling the Emmy and Golden Globe-winning actor "unhinged."

"Ayo Edebiri waited over a year to address rumors and credible reports circulating in Hollywood from trustworthy sources. And, of course, she attacks Elon Musk," the post reads.

The @unlimited_ls user also clarified that their original post with the unverified rumor was deleted by mistake.

"I never made any claims; I clearly stated 'reportedly' because it was the latest information coming from credible Hollywood sources," they wrote in a follow-up post. "And yes, I am a HUGE fan and supporter of Mr. Musk. He has my loyalty for LIFE, and I don't say that lightly."

The casting rumor about Edebiri was not reported by any reputable trade publications; it seems to have originated with Daniel Richtman, a self-styled Hollywood insider who shared unverified details on his Patreon.

Richtman's blog post was picked up by Comic Book Resources, but the rumor gained more traction in the wake of Musk's repost, finding its way onto film blogs like JoBlo and ComingSoon.net.

After the post by @unlimited_ls went viral, Richtman chimed in to say its framing was disingenuous. "There's no 'Replacing Depp' or anything like that. She's only the 'Type' they're looking at for the lead in one of the planned spinoffs," he wrote.

Outrage over the claim that Edebiri, a Black woman, would be "replacing" Depp, a white man, seemed fueled by the ongoing right-wing backlash to diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts, also known as "DEI," which are designed to prevent discrimination on the grounds of race, gender, sexuality, or other protected classes.

Many opponents of DEI have conflated antidiscrimination efforts in the workplace and government with Hollywood's recent push for more inclusive casting. Female actors who've joined major movie franchises in the last decade, including Kelly Marie Tran ("The Last Jedi") and Brie Larson ("Captain Marvel"), have recounted similar experiences with sexist and often racist abuse on social media.

Musk has long been a vocal opponent of diversity initiatives in the corporate world, even before the second Trump administration officially launched its anti-DEI campaign.

As Business Insider reported, Musk's DOGE office has recently been working to pause and, in some cases, entirely cut government programs by flagging keywords like "equity," "gender," and "gay."

Representatives for Edebiri and Musk did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

• Billionaire Leon Black gave more money to Jeffrey Epstein than known, Senate committee says.
• According to the US Senate Finance Committee, he transferred $170 million to Epstein's accounts.
• Black has said he paid the accused sex trafficker for tax advice. Sen. Ron Wyden is skeptical.

Billionaire Leon Black was more responsible for Jeffrey Epstein's vast fortune than previously known, according to a Senate committee investigation.

Black, the billionaire financier and former CEO of Apollo Global Management, transferred $170 million to the Epstien's coffers over the course of five years, US Sen. Ron Wyden said in a letter to the US Justice and Treasury departments this week — not $158 million, as previously reported.

An investigation commissioned by Apollo's board appears to have missed $12 million in transfers, which were discovered by investigators working on the US Senate Finance Committee.

The Apollo investigation, conducted by the law firm Dechert LLP, led to Black's resignation in 2021 from the investment firm he cofounded.

It also wasn't clear why the bank handling the $170 million in transfers didn't raise any flags until months after Epstein's arrest on sex trafficking charges in 2019, Wyden wrote.

"The Bank did not make filings related to the Black and Epstein transactions until seven years after the transactions began in 2013," Wyden wrote. "In fact, the Bank first reported the payments from Black to Epstein more than eight months after Epstein was arrested on charges of sex trafficking involving underage girls."

Wyden, a Democratic lawmaker representing Oregon, asked US Attorney General Pamela Bondi and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to hand over documents related to the transfers by March 27, including from the trove of "Epstein documents" that Bondi promised to make public.

Black's relationship with Epstein came under scrutiny amid the accused sex trafficker's 2019 arrest and jail suicide. Epstein left an estate worth around $630 million around the time of his death, some of which has since been paid to compensate his victims.

According to the investigation commissioned by Apollo, Black paid Epstein for financial advice, including strategies that saved him around $600 million in estate and family trust tax payments. Epstein also helped manage issues related to Black's vast artwork collection, his yacht, and private jet, according to the Dechert report. The report also said Epstein and Black had a falling out in 2016 when Epstein believed he deserved more money.

In his letter, Wyden expressed skepticism that the advice from Epstein — who dropped out from college — would be worth anything close to $170 million Black paid over five years.

"For his services Epstein was paid amounts that far exceeded what Black paid other professional advisors involved in his tax and estate planning, which includes some of the most high-priced legal counsel in the nation," Wyden wrote. "At an annualized rate of $23 to $26 million per year, Epstein's compensation was higher than the median CEO pay for Fortune 500 companies."

One of Epstein's accounts that received money from Black, Financial Trust Company Inc., was previously used for Epstein's sex-trafficking operation, according to evidence filed in Ghislaine Maxwell's sex-trafficking trial.

Bank records made public in the trial of Maxwell — who is serving a 20-year prison sentence for trafficking girls to Epstein for sex — show that Epstein used the business to pay Maxwell. He transferred $30.7 million to Maxwell in the years they were together. Over $7 million of those funds were spent on a helicopter that accusers said Maxwell used to ferry girls to Epstein's private residence in the US Virgin Islands.

In 2023, Black later paid $62.5 million to settle claims from the US Virgin Islands Attorney General's office related to "how Jeffrey Epstein used the money Black paid him to partially fund his operations in the US Virgin Islands," according to a copy of the settlement Wyden made public.

Representatives for Black, Apollo Global Management, and Dechert LLP didn't immediately respond to requests for comment.

Wyden's scrutiny of Black could complicate the Senate confirmation process of the Trump administration's nominees.

President Donald Trump, who was friends with Epstein, selected Black's son, Benjamin Black, to lead the US International Development Finance Corp, also known as the DFC.

According to Reuters, Trump has considered converting the DFC into a sovereign wealth fund, which he said could buy TikTok.

The younger Black has also proposed repurposing funds from USAID, which was gutted by Elon Musk's DOGE initiative, to fund the DFC. Under Black's plan, the DFC would invest in developing nations to advance foreign policy goals rather than spend the money on aid.

• The FCC is seeking advice from the public on what rules it should axe.
• The agency in charge of communications law says it wants to remove "unnecessary regulatory burdens."
• FCC Chair Brendan Carr has previously promised to go after big media companies.

President Donald Trump's FCC chair wants you to weigh in on what rules the agency should "delete, delete, delete."

FCC Chair Brendan Carr on Wednesday announced a notice titled "In re: Delete, Delete, Delete," which asks the public to submit recommendations for what "unnecessary" regulations the agency should eliminate to fulfill Trump's agenda.

The notice references one of Trump's recent executive orders, called "Unleashing prosperity through deregulation," which directs federal agencies to identify 10 regulations that should be phased out for every one new regulation it proposes.

The FCC notice asks for comments on regulations that, for example, have greater costs than benefits, create barriers to entry, impose unequal costs on large and small businesses, are outdated, or "unfairly disadvantage" American businesses.

"We also invite more general comment on rules that should be considered for elimination on other grounds," the notice reads. "Submissions should identify with as much detail and specificity as possible the rule or rules that the commenting party believes should be repealed (or modified) and the rationale for their recommended action."

Though the independent agency — which is in charge of regulating and enforcing communications law — is supposed to be overseen by Congress and protected from direct White House control, Trump signed an executive order in February seeking to expand his power over it and other independent agencies.

"Under President Trump's leadership, the Administration is unleashing a new wave of economic opportunity by ending the regulatory onslaught from Washington," Carr said in a statement shared on X. "For too long, administrative agencies have added new regulatory requirements in excess of their authority or kept lawful regulations in place long after their shelf life had expired."

Carr, who previously served as an FCC commissioner before Trump appointed him as chairman in January, recently said he's investigating Comcast over its embrace of DEI, after promising last fall to go after big media companies.

Carr has also been a vocal defender of SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk and his companies.