Benioff interned at Apple in college and got to know Jobs as he moved on to Oracle and Salesforce.
On a recent podcast episode, he recalled advice Jobs gave him when he had "entrepreneur's block."
Ask a major tech CEO for a Steve Jobs story, and you'll probably get one.
Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff certainly has his fair share of stories regarding the late Apple cofounder.
Benioff interned at Apple while in college, and the two got to know each other as Benioff moved on to Oracle and ultimately cofounded Salesforce.
On a recent episode of "Lenny's Podcast," Benioff recalled some advice Jobs dispensed when Benioff was going through "entrepreneur's block."
Jobs said, "There's three things you need to do right now."
First: "Your company, it better get 10 times larger than it is now in 24 months, or it's over."
Second: "You better sign a huge customer for this Salesforce automation product like Avon." (Benioff notes: "The CEO of Avon was on his board at the time, so that was on his mind.")
And lastly: "You better go build an application economy."
Benioff recalls being confused and asking Jobs what he meant by that, to which Jobs responded, "I don't know, but you're going to go figure it out."
As he thinks back on that conversation, Benioff says it was "like meeting with your guru and getting a zen koan or something where now you have a puzzle I have to solve."
"I literally went away, and I had all the notes from the meeting," he said. "I went through it over and over again. Then, finally, I'm like, 'I think he wants me to build an app store.'"
Benioff, looking back, said he was "very grateful to have that relationship" with Jobs, which "dramatically influenced me in my career and my whole life."
Many companies showcased flashy product announcements and extravagant demonstrations at annual events this year, but a number of those offerings aren't available quite yet. Examples include Apple's revamped Siri, Meta's Orion glasses, and Google's Project Astra.
While some release dates remain unclear, here's what you can expect to see from Big Tech companies in 2025.
Meta
Meta is reportedly adding a screen inside its Ray-Ban smart glasses that could be available in an update as early as the second half of 2025, the Financial Times reported Monday. The screen would be able to display notifications and responses from Meta's chatbot, the report said.
CTO and head of Reality Labs Andrew Bosworth wrote in a December blog that in 2025, users can expect personalized AI assistants that don't just respond to prompts but help users throughout their day.
"One of the things I'm most excited about for 2025 is the evolution of AI assistants," Bosworth said in the post.
Apple
Apple is expected to release a "more personal Siri," but it's unclear if that will come next year or with the Siri update expected in 2026. Apple is expected to announce the "LLM Siri" in 2025.
Apple will also announce the release of a smart home device as early as March, according to a November Bloomberg article. The device may be a wall-mounted iPad-like tablet that can control appliances, manage video calls, and use AI to access apps.
The tech giant will reportedly announce an iPhone "Air" model that will take on the sleek look of the MacBook Air, Bloomberg reported. And Apple will also unveil new iPad Air models and a new version of the budget-friendly iPhone SE, Bloomberg said separately. The new iPhone SE will eliminate the home button and is expected to support Apple Intelligence, according to the report.
OpenAI
OpenAI has been working on GPT-5 for over a year and a half, but the model has been pushed back. It's unclear when exactly it will launch, but there's a chance it might in 2025. The model is expected to have impressive capabilities, surpassing GPT-4's power.
It will be able to complete multi-step tasks and work with audio, video, and text. It will also have a large context window, which would allow it to process larger amounts of text.
Tesla
While Elon Musk doesn't anticipate the Cybercab hitting volume production until 2026, he said in Tesla's third-quarter earnings call that he expects to get regulatory approval in 2025.
During the call, he also said that the company is on track to start producing more affordable EV models in the first half of 2025.
"These vehicles will utilize aspects of the next-generation platform as well as aspects of our current platforms and will be able to be produced on the same manufacturing lines as our current vehicle line-up," Musk said.
Musk also wrote in a post on X in July that Tesla will have humanoid robots in "low production" for the company's internal use in 2025, with high production for external companies in 2026.
Google
In partnership with Samsung and Qualcomm, Google is introducing its approach to mixed reality with the release of the Android XR spatial computing platform. The company said in an announcement that the first device is built by Samsung and codenamed Project Moohan, and will be available to purchase next year.
The device offers typical mixed reality experiences, as well as an integrated Gemini.
"With Gemini, our AI assistant, you can even have conversations about what you're seeing or control your device," the company said in the announcement. "Gemini can understand your intent, helping you plan, research topics and guide you through tasks."
A Google DeepMind spokesperson also said that capabilities from research prototypes like Project Astra, which Google hopes will become a universal assistant, will graduate to Google applications and services. However, there are no plans to make Project Astra generally available itself, the spokesperson said.
I tried my regular Starbucks latte with 2%, soy, coconut, almond, and oat milk.
The only option I wouldn't order again was almond milk, but at least it doesn't cost extra anymore.
I've been drinking 2% lattes for years, but soy is undeniably my go-to.
I used to pay extra to have my daily lattes made with a non-dairy alternative. At the time, I preferred the taste and often felt better on days I didn't consume as much dairy.
However, the cost of the substitution โ often around $0.80 a drink โ added up quickly. Eventually, I abandoned the habit and started ordering my lattes with 2% milk.
I ordered my standard 2%-milk latte alongside ones made with soy, coconut, almond, and oat milk. Then, I tried them all with and without sugar to compare.
Here's how the lattes stacked up.
Two-percent milk is a classic that's hard to beat.
I wasn't sure if I'd really taste much of a difference between the coffee drinks, so I also brought along a friend who has received training in discerning tastes from a professional sommelier and recipe developer.
He found the 2% latte boring and lacking "personality." Adding sugar made the taste more interesting, but he didn't think he'd order it again.
I've been drinking lattes made with 2% milk for years, and I wouldn't buy one (sometimes two) daily if I didn't like the taste.
This was almost like the experiment's control group for me โ something to compare the others to.
Although it didn't end up being the best of the bunch, it's a good choice for purists like me.
Soy milk used to be my go-to.
When I was drinking non-dairy lattes, soy milk was my preferred alternative. I was really looking forward to seeing if it was as tasty as I remembered.
Luckily, it didn't disappoint โ I knew I was onto something back then.
My friend described the drink as smoky with chocolate notes. Although I hadn't noticed that before, I'm starting to think the hints of flavor may be why I'm drawn to it.
Sugar detracted from the taste of this one for me, which is also a plus since I'd rather not add it.
The coconut milk made the coffee a little tropical.
I strongly associate coconut with tropical drinks, so I wasn't sure how I'd feel about a coconut-milk latte. However, I was pleasantly surprised.
In my friend's words, the coconut milk had a dry, caramel taste with a slight acidity.
Adding sugar really brought out the coconut flavor, which can be a good thing or a bad thing, depending on your tastes.
For me, a stronger coconut taste was welcome. However, my friend isn't a big fan of coconut and preferred this drink without sugar.
The almond-milk latte didn't wow me.
I like snacking on almonds and was looking forward to a latte with a nutty taste.
Unfortunately, I didn't like it.
There was a distinct almond quality, but it felt a bit watered down. I didn't think the milk added much flavor to the latte, and my friend agreed.
We both thought that adding sugar would dramatically improve the taste, it didn't.
Once I added sugar, the oat-milk latte was decent.
I enjoy Starbucks' iced brown-sugar oak-milk shaken espresso on warm days, so I was looking forward to seeing how oat milk translates into a hot drink.
Unfortunately, I was a little underwhelmed.
My friend said the oat-milk latte almost had a "cigar-smoke flavor," and neither of us liked that very much.
When I added sugar, the flavor was much better โ mostly because it largely covered up the oat milk, making it taste closer to a 2% latte.
There was a clear winner for me.
Although I'll still order it occasionally, the 2%-milk latte is no longer my go-to at Starbucks. After just one sip, I knew I'd be going right back to soy.
The delicious โ perhaps chocolaty โ flavor is perfect without any added sweetener.
Even though the coconut-milk latte wasn't my favorite drink, it was a close second. The tropical, caramelly flavors really work.
With sugar added, the oat-milk drink was also OK, but I didn't like the almond-milk latte and won't be ordering it again.
My dad started a gift-giving tradition years ago that he coined the 'go-to gift.'
He lets the recipient choose, but they have to pitch him on how they'll use the gift.
It encourages conscious spending and prioritizing quality.
My dad doesn't like spending money โ and he wouldn't mind me writing that.
He also doesn't like having excessive things. He keeps his space neat and tidy and buys only what he needs. An early lesson he instilled was the difference between a "want" and a "need," and he taught my brothers and me to spend only on the latter.
Gift-giving presents a challenge to my minimalist, money-conscious father, as it often involves spending money and spending money on things. He could opt not to buy us anything, of course, but he's more of a softie than he lets on.
His solution for his three kids, at least, is what he's coined the "go-to gift."
The concept is this: For any gift-giving event, such as a birthday or Christmas, he'll buy one "go-to gift" only after the receiver has successfully pitched him on why he should buy it.
I can pitch anything, within reason, but I have to convince him that I'll use it or that it'll add value to my life. As he likes to say, "Anything goes โฆ as long as it's utilitarian."
His strategy is useful for him and me: He feels better about how he's spending his money, and I have to spend time thinking about what I value and what items or experiences could have an additive effect.
In 2021, ahead of a particularly busy road racing schedule, including the Boston and New York City marathons, I pitched him on a pair of carbon-plate running shoes. One year, he subsidized my gym membership for six months. This year, he's buying me a case of tennis balls. The activity-focused gifts are a relatively easy sell for my dad, who values health and movement just as much as I do.
He hasn't flat-out turned anything down yet, but when I asked for a pair of high-quality joggers one year, he had a few follow-up questions. That was in 2017, and I like to remind him that I still own and wear them seven years later.
Around the holidays, when his gift-giving tradition is particularly top of mind, it reminds me to spend consciously โ to think before I swipe my credit card and ask myself why I'm purchasing what I'm about to purchase. Sometimes, I can justify it; other times, I can't.
The second money lesson folded into his tradition is to buy quality. Rather than trying to "save money" in the moment by buying the cheapest version of an item, I'd rather spend extra on something that will last longer and save me in the long run โ something like the joggers that are still kicking after seven years and hundreds of wash cycles.
Chipotle cheddar crackers are Garten's go-to homemade appetizer for any gathering, and we think they're perfect for a holiday party.
"I just like to make one thing and then buy the rest," Garten told Bon Appรฉtit when discussing how she constructs a cocktail hour or appetizer spread. She said these crackers are typically the only thing she'll make.
We loved how the crackers tasted like a Cheez-It combined with the texture of a biscuit.
Our favorite part of the turkey breast recipe was the wet rub that seasons the poultry. We used it to flavor our green beans and boost the brightness of our potatoes, and we put the rest in a bowl for the perfect dipping sauce.
If you're looking for a citrusy, fresh, herby way to tie multiple dishes in your hosting spread together, it's worth pulling it out of the turkey recipe โ even if you're not making the bird.
This recipe is both flavorful and comforting. It would be perfect for a cold and rainy winter day but also ideal for a cozy holiday meal served on the floor or on the couch by the fireplace.
The only hangup is that this one takes a few hours to make โ but we think it's worth it.
Plus, if you're cooking for less than five people, you'll have plenty of leftovers for days and weeks ahead.
This recipe isn't simple, but it's delicious and would be a great way to show yourself some love this holiday season. Nothing says holiday decadence like putting in some work to create an indulgent, satisfying, soul-warming meal for yourself.
With three types of cheese and thick-cut bacon, it tastes like a sophisticated version of the lunch we ate as a kid.
While there are several steps, Garten's recipe is precise with measurements and easy to follow, which can help even a timid home cook successfully complete it.
The Barefoot Contessa's giant chocolate-chip cookies are a great way to close out any holiday meal. They're sweet and salty, with a texture that manages to be crispy, flaky, crunchy, and gooey all at once.
The characteristic that sets these cookies apart is that they ripple out from the center to the edges, thanks to the Barefoot Contessa's tip of banging the tray on your counter every few minutes while baking. This can feel like a hassle, but it's worth the extra effort.
Garten's delicious corn bread is the perfect balance of sweet and savory. Its salty and crunchy crust gives way to a moist and fluffy filling that everyone loves.
The recipe is also easy and foolproof, even for novice bakers. And with such a stunning golden color, it's a showstopper at the dinner table.
Garten has a plethora of potato recipes that are great for the holidays, including her rosemary roasted potatoes and Parmesan mashed potatoes. But the "Barefoot Contessa" star's potato-fennel gratin is our favorite.
The gratin is a creamy dream. The combination of Gruyรจre cheese and heavy cream is so comforting, and the potatoes come out perfectly cooked every single time. The sautรฉed fennel also adds a lovely mild sweetness that cuts through all the cheesiness.
Garten's potato-fennel gratin also pairs well with everything, making it the perfect side dish for any holiday protein. It can also be made ahead of time and reheated, giving you some much-needed oven space on a busy cooking day.
Garten's recipe requires you to warm up the store-bought mashed potatoes, throw in sour cream, unsalted butter, and freshly grated Italian Parmesan cheese, then season with salt and pepper.
It might sound too good to be true, but these potatoes wowed us. The Parmesan cheese infused the dish with a delicious richness, and the sour cream added so much creaminess that no one even realized the mashed potatoes were store-bought!
We've made nearly a dozen Ina Garten pastas, but one of our absolute favorites is the penne alla vodka.
Garten's trick is to roast the vodka sauce in the oven, which infuses the tomatoes with so much delicious flavor that it truly takes this dish to another level.
Plus, it's such a visually stunning pasta. There's no doubt you'll hear everyone say "wow" when you bring this to the dinner table.
Garten said her rigatoni with sausage and fennel pasta is one of her "all-time go-to dinners" โ and it's perfect when you've got a big group.
The one-pot pasta is packed with delicious ingredients, including sweet Italian sausages, chopped fennel, freshly grated Italian Parmesan cheese, dry white wine, and heavy cream.
The dish is rich and creamy, and we loved how the sweetness of the sausage worked together with the saltiness of the Parmesan cheese. As we brace ourselves for a chilly holiday season, this one-pot pasta is sure to warm you up (without filling the sink with dishes).
Garten's garlic bread with a twist features a French baguette, freshly grated Parmesan cheese, butter, parsley, lemon zest, and plenty of garlic.
And the "outrageous" garlic bread lives up to its name in the best way. Each piece was delightfully crunchy, with a zingy brightness from the lemon zest and parsley. One of our friends declared that she "could have eaten an entire baguette's worth."
While pumpkin pie might dominate the Thanksgiving dessert table, we get to be a bit more creative in December. And who doesn't love some chocolate cake after dinner?
Garten said her Beatty's chocolate cake recipe is "the most fabulous chocolate cake that I've ever made." The delicious dessert features a secret ingredient โ one cup of hot brewed coffee โ which enhances the chocolate flavor.
We were blown away by how fluffy and moist the cake tasted. It's packed with chocolate, but the texture is still light as air โ an incredible feat. The cake is huge, so there's plenty to go around if you've got a big guest list. And it still tastes fresh days later, so everyone gets to enjoy some leftovers.
Garten's bourbon chocolate pecan pie features a store-bought crust, and she told The New York Times that it tasted even better than one made from scratch. Since the frozen crust is less buttery, it doesn't distract or compete with the rich bourbon-chocolate filling.
The recipe features diced pecans, semisweet chocolate chips, vanilla, and some good bourbon. And the pie couldn't be easier to assemble. After chopping some pecans and mixing everything together, it was ready to go in the oven โ talk about a stress-free holiday dessert!
We loved all the texture and flavor in Garten's bourbon chocolate pecan pie. There's the crunchiness from the pecans, the creaminess from the chocolate chips, and those sweet notes of caramel from the bourbon. It also tastes fantastic with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.
These Hollywood feuds offer a glimpse into the sometimes-fraught world of entertainment.
Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni's reported feud has already solidified its place in pop-culture history.
Though some make up after spats, other celebs never quite get over their friction.
"It Ends With Us," the long-awaited film adaptation of the Colleen Hoover novel of the same name, had no shortage of controversies, starting with its subject matter โ some critics said the story "romanticizes" domestic abuse.
Still, that's not the only reason you might have seen this movie in the headlines. Internet detectives became convinced there was drama between Justin Baldoni, the director (who also starred in the film), and Blake Lively, who played protagonist Lily Bloom earlier this year.
Those theories were proven right when Lively sued Baldoni for sexual harassment in December, confirming that the two did not get along during filming.
However, Baldoni and Lively aren't the only director-actor pairing to have reportedly dealt with on-set friction. This feud is frequent in Hollywood history, going back to the 1960s at least.
Here are some of movie history's most infamous feuds between actors and directors.
Melina Glusac contributed to an earlier version of this story.
Justin Baldoni and Blake Lively
Whispers of a feud started on social media after it became clear that Baldoni, who both directed and starred in "It Ends With Us," wasn't doing press with the rest of the cast. Then, internet sleuths discovered that while Baldoni follows the entire cast on Instagram, none follow him back.
Over the summer, reports emerged that there were two cuts of the movie: one approved by Baldoni and another done by editor Shane Reid, who has worked with Lively and her husband, Ryan Reynolds, which Lively commissioned, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Rumbles of a feud continued as Lively began getting called out for how she promoted the movie.ย Baldoni hiredย Melissa Nathan, a seasoned crisis PR manager, as this happened. Nathan is known for working with Johnny Depp during the Amber Heard trial.
After a quiet few months, their rift returned to the headlines when Lively sued Baldoni for sexual harassment in December 2024 and said that he worked with Nathan and his publicist, Jennifer Abel, to start a smear campaign against her.
Baldoni's lawyer, Bryan Freedman, said in a statement, "It is shameful that Ms. Lively and her representatives would make such serious and categorically false accusations against Mr. Baldoni, Wayfarer Studios and its representatives, as yet another desperate attempt to 'fix' her negative reputation."
Lively's representative directed Business Insider to a statement she shared with The New York Times: "I hope that my legal action helps pull back the curtain on these sinister retaliatory tactics to harm people who speak up about misconduct and helps protect others who may be targeted."
Celebrities have begun to support Lively publicly, including her "Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants" costars and "It Ends With Us" author Colleen Hoover. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Baldoni has been dropped by his agency, WME.
Olivia Wilde and Florence Pugh
Rumors about Wilde and Pugh not getting along began in July 2022,ย whenย Page Six reported that Pugh was "displeased" about Wilde's relationship with "Don't Worry Darling's" other costar (and pop music sensation) Harry Styles. Wilde and Styles have since broken up.
Eagle-eyed fans noticed that Pugh did little to no promotion of "Don't Worry Darling" on social media. Pugh also was not involved in any of the film's events besides its premiere at the Venice Film Festival (notably missing the much-memed press conference) and declined to comment about Wilde in a profile on the director in Variety.
At the premiere itself, fans seemed convinced that Pugh refused to make eye contact with Wilde, didn't stand next to her in any photos, and generally seemed unbothered.
"As for all the endless tabloid gossip and all the noise out there, the internet feeds itself. I don't feel the need to contribute; I think it's sufficiently well-nourished," said Wilde during the Venice press conference.
David O. Russell and George Clooney
Mounting tensions on the set of 1999's "Three Kings" reportedly led to a physical fight between the film's star, Clooney, and its director, Russell.
According to one of the film's producers, Charles Roven, Clooney was tired from working on both "ER" and "Three Kings" simultaneously, and Russell was experiencing budget pressure from the studio. Reportedly, when Clooney saw Russell yelling at a crew member, it was the final straw. The two engaged in a "tussle," per The Hollywood Reporter.
In a 2000 interview with Playboy, Clooney said Russell's aggression was a widespread problem on set, and that the director also made the script supervisor cry, physically pushed an extra, and embarrassed a camera-car driver.ย
After the reports about Harvey Weinstein came out in 2017, stories surfaced about Russell, with former co-workers accusing him of on-set abuse, as reported by Vulture.
It's been 25 years since "Three Kings," but the bad feelings have not disappeared. In an August 2024 GQ profile, Clooney said it was "not worth it" to work with a "miserable" person like Russell, who made every person on set's life difficult.
David O. Russell and Lily Tomlin
A video leaked a few years ago shows Russell screaming at Tomlin while filming 2004's "I Heart Huckabees."ย
The video is profanity-laden: After Tomlin complains to Russell about his constant re-writing of lines and scenes, he has a complete meltdown. Russell shoves and knocks items over on the set as crew members flee.ย
But the episode did not harm Russell and Tomlin's relationship for more than a few hours. She told The Hollywood Reporter in 2015, "We've overcome it. It dissipates and it's gone." The two have said they would gladly work together again.
Joel Schumacher and Val Kilmer
Schumacher told Entertainment Weekly in 1996 that the two even "had a physical pushing match" on set.
"He was badly behaved, he was rude and inappropriate. I was forced to tell him that this would not be tolerated for one more second. Then we had two weeks where he did not speak to me, but it was bliss," he continued.
Kilmer was eventually replaced in the sequel by George Clooney.
Time did not heal this wound, though โ in 2019, 24 years after the film, Schumacher doubled down on their beef. In an interview with Vulture, he called Kilmer "psychotic," though he did admit that he was a "fabulous Batman."
It's unknown if the two reconciled before Schumacher's death in June 2020.
Danny Boyle and Ewan McGregor
McGregor and Boyle were close friends due to Boyle casting McGregor in his directorial debut "Shallow Grave" and his follow-up, the critically acclaimed "Trainspotting" in 1996.
However, when it came time for Boyle to direct "The Beach" in 2000, he chose Leonardo DiCaprio to be his leading man, instead of McGregor. According to a 2021 interview between McGregor and The Hollywood Reporter, this fractured their relationship for years.
McGregor said the two did not speak for "a long time" and even sat together in a first-class cabin on a transatlantic flight "without exchanging a single word."
"It wasn't handled very well. There was probably both sides to it," McGregor said. "I was upset. But at the same time, it's part of life, it's just part of growing up."
Boyle has said he felt "great shame" about what happened, even admitting that he had given McGregor the impression that the role in "The Beach" would be his.
"I handled it very, very badly, and I've apologized to you," Boyle told McGregor on "The Graham Norton Show" in 2017. "I felt a great shame about it. I was not proud of the way I handled it," Boyle added.
Eventually, the two reconciled and worked together again on the 2017 sequel "T2 Trainspotting."
Roman Polanski and Faye Dunaway
Dunaway and controversial director Polanski apparently clashed on the set of 1975's "Chinatown."
At one point during filming, Polanski was upset by a stray piece of Dunaway's hair that was ruining his shot, so he walked up to Dunaway and yanked it out of her head. One urban legend even said that Polanski's refusal to allow Dunaway bathroom breaks led to her throwing a cup of her own urine at the director.
Dunaway vehemently denied the urine incident toย The Guardian but did tell the Sabotage Times that "the friction between Roman and me began from the start" of filming.
Henri-Georges Clouzot and Brigitte Bardot
French director Clouzot was well-known in the horror genre during the '50s and '60s. While filming "La Vรฉritรฉ" ("The Truth") in 1960, he wanted his lead actor, Bardot, to realistically fall asleep and drool for a scene.ย
So he apparently gave Bardot sleeping pills, claiming that they were painkillers, The Guardian reported. Bardot took too many and ended up having to get her stomach pumped as a result.
After the fact, Bardot called Clouzot "a negative being, forever at odds with himself and the world around him," according to the outlet.
This was just one of many incidents for Clouzot, however, as he reportedlyย slapped Suzy Delair while filming "Quai des Orfรจvres"ย in 1947.
Stanley Kubrick and Shelley Duvall
"The Shining" is one of the most iconic films in American history โ and the reported feud betweenย Duvall and Kubrick is just as infamous.
Kubrick's masterpiece took 13 months to shoot, and every bit of it seems to have been torture for lead actor Shelley Duvall. A perfectionist, Kubrick apparently nitpicked her performance, re-shooting scenes and lines and reaming her in front of the crew for missing cues, reported Rolling Stone. To get real desperation out of Duvall, he apparently filmed one emotionally taxing scene 127 times.
After "The Shining" was released in 1980, Duvall said to critic Roger Ebert, "Going through day after day of excruciating work. Almost unbearable ...ย in my character I had to cry 12 hours a day, all day long, the last nine months straight, five or six days a week."
Later in her career, though, Duvall celebrated the director. In a video posted to X by the Shelley Duvall Archive, Duvall (who died in July 2024) said she "wouldn't trade the experience" of shooting the film "for anything" because of Kubrick. "It was a fascinating learning experience," she said.
Tony Kaye and Edward Norton
"American History X" got off to a rough start: Controversial British director Kaye didn't even want to hire Norton to play the lead, but he told The Guardian in 2002 that he "couldn't find anyone better."
Norton and Kaye reportedly began to clash when the film was being edited. Kaye's 95-minute cut was not favorably received by New Line Cinema and Norton, who both began to offer Kaye some notes โ and he did not take the suggestions well, reported Den of Geek.
Entertainment Weekly reported in 1998 that Kaye was so furious with Norton that he punched a wall and broke his hand. Kaye also threatened to replace his director's credit with the name Humpty Dumpty. Kaye even called Norton "a narcissistic dilettante" to the outlet.
Norton has never spoken publicly about Kaye.
Michael Bay and Megan Fox
Bay and Fox openly slammed each other in the press, and the animosity seems to have started on the set of "Transformers" in 2007.
In a 2009 interview with Wonderland magazine, Fox said of her director, "[Bay] wants to create this insane, infamous mad-man reputation. He wants to be like Hitler on his sets, and he is ... He has no social skills at all. It's endearing to watch him. He's so vulnerable and fragile in real life and then on set, he's a tyrant."
Members of Bay's "Transformers" crew retaliated by writingย an open letter that year that called Fox "the queen of talking trailer trash and posing like a porn star," reported Deadline.
Fox was then fired from the "Transformers" franchise in 2011 and replaced with Rosie Huntington-Whiteley.
"I've always loved Michael," Fox told Entertainment Weekly that year. "We've had our battles in the past but even when I've been really outspoken about difficulties we've had, I've always followed up by saying that I have a particular affinity to him."
Alfred Hitchcock and Tippi Hedren
Hedren ascended to stardom after scoring lead roles in Hitchcock's "The Birds" and "Marnie." But Hedren later told Variety that the director made unwanted sexual advances on her throughout the filming of "The Birds" in 1963 โ and threatened her career if she didn't comply.ย
Hedren repeatedly rebuffed his advances. She said, "When he told me that he would ruin me, I just told him to do what he had to do. I went out of the door and slammed it so hard that I looked back to see if it was still on its hinges."
According to Hedren, the inappropriate behavior continued on the set of "Marnie." At one point, Hitchcock and Hedren were in the back of a limousine, and she said he lunged at her, begging her to kiss him.
"It was absolutely awful, and as soon as the movie 'Marnie' was over, I was out of there," Hedren said. "That was the end of the Hitchcock relationship."
Judd Apatow and Katherine Heigl
In a now-infamousย Vanity Fair interview from 2008, Heigl insulted her "Knocked Up" director, Apatow, by calling the movie "a little sexist."ย
Heigl went on to express discontent with her character's personality in the film: "It paints the women as shrews, as humorless and uptight," she told the magazine. "It paints the men as lovable, goofy, fun-loving guys."
Both Apatow and Heigl's costar, Seth Rogen, did not take this critique well. Apatow commented on Heigl's lack of an apology on "The Howard Stern Show" in 2009, saying, "[You'd think] at some point I'll get a call saying, 'Sorry, I was tired ...' and then the call never comes."ย
The incident dampened Heigl's career, leading her to apologize (via the press) in 2016. In 2017, Apatow told Vulture he still hasn't spoken to Heigl since the Vanity Fair interview came out a decade ago.
In 2021, Heigl spoke to The Washington Post about being branded as "difficult" in Hollywood after her "Knocked Up" comments.
"I may have said a couple of things you didn't like, but then that escalated to 'she's ungrateful,' then that escalated to 'she's difficult,' and that escalated to 'she's unprofessional,'" she said. "What is your definition of difficult? Somebody with an opinion that you don't like?"
Kevin Smith and Bruce Willis
Smith discussed the making of the 2010 film "Cop Out" on an episode of "WTF with Marc Maron" in 2011, almost a year after its release. He told the comedian that one of the stars of the film wouldn't sit for a poster photo shoot โ and once Maron pressed the director for a name, he let loose.
The "Mallrats" director confirmed that it definitely wasn't Tracy Morgan," who he called "a dream" and said he would "lay down in traffic for."
"Were it not for Tracy, I might've killed myself or someone else in the making of that movie," Smith said. "It was difficult. I've never been involved in a situation like that where one component is not in the box at all." He added it was "soul-crushing."
Wills, for his part, kept it simple in his response. "Poor Kevin. He's just a whiner," he told Time Out in 2013.
However, the two seem to have squashed their beef. Almost a decade later, in 2019, Smith told a story on his podcast, "Fatman Beyond," about the action star texting him to ask for his address, as Willis had some pictures he wanted to send Smith.
"Reach out to an old friend or to someone you never thought would be a friend again. You never know what bridges you can mend," said Smith.
In 2022, Willis' family announced the actor was stepping back from acting after he was diagnosed with aphasia, and the director had some kind words to say on X. "Long before any of the Cop Out stuff, I was a big Bruce Willis fan - so this is really heartbreaking to read," he wrote. He also expressed regret for his previous comments.
Harold Ramis and Bill Murray
Murray and Ramis were longtime friends and "Ghostbusters" costars, but they had a bitter falling out on the set of Ramis' 1993 film "Groundhog Day."
Murray was the star of the film, and, according to Ramis' daughter Violet's book "Ghostbuster's Daughter: Life With My Dad, Harold Ramis," his behavior became increasingly erratic while shooting โย he was repeatedly late to set and threw many a tantrum. The issue came to a head when Ramis, at one point, is said to have grabbed Murray by the collar and shoved him against a wall.
Ramis' daughter also wrote that "Bill was going through a difficult time in his personal life, and he and my dad were not seeing eye to eye on the tone of the film."
She added, "Eventually, Bill just completely shut my dad out ... for the next 20-plus years."
Ramis became terminally ill in 2010, and it was then that Murray extended an olive branch, arriving at Ramis' house with a police escort and a dozen doughnuts. The two were friends until Ramis' death in 2014.
Werner Herzog and Klaus Kinski
Kinski was known for being a difficult actor to work with, and this seemed to prove true for director Herzog on the set of "Aguirre: The Wrath of God" in 1972.ย
Kinski and Herzog began to disagree about how Kinski should play his character, and Kinski became defiant. He reportedly threw wild tantrums on set and constantly threatened to quit the production. In one of the latter instances, Herzog is said to have held Kinski at gunpoint in order to make him stay, reportedย Indiewire.
The two went on to work together four more times, and Herzog made a documentary about their mercurial, decadeslong friendship called "My Best Fiend" in 1999.
Lars von Trier and Bjรถrk
Both Bjรถrk and von Trier won many awards and accolades for their 2000 indie film "Dancer in the Dark." But in light of the #MeToo movement, Bjรถrk claimed in 2017 that von Trier made unwanted sexual advances at her during filming.ย
In a series of Facebook posts, Bjรถrk alleged that von Trier made "unwanted whispered sexual offers from him with graphic descriptions," and he threatened to "climb from his room's balcony in the middle of the night with a clear sexual intention."ย
Von Trier denied the claims, saying that sexual harassment was "not the case. But that we were definitely not friends, that's a fact," reported The Guardian.
John Carney and Keira Knightley
Carney blasted Knightley in a 2016 interview with The Independent after their film "Begin Again" was released, calling her a "supermodel" who was unable to capture the essence of her musician character.
Carney said, "Keira's thing is to hide who you are and I don't think you can be an actor and do that ... being a film actor requires a certain level of honesty and self-analysis that I don't think she's ready for yet, and I certainly don't think she was ready for on that film."ย
Directors rallied to defend the Oscar-nominated actor on Twitter (now X), calling her "utterly spectacular" and "a joy" to work with. Carney then issued an apology on X in 2016, saying, "Keira was nothing but professional and dedicated during that film and she contributed hugely to its success."ย
In 2019, Knightley revealed in an interview with the Irish Times that Carney had privately apologized to her, and she had accepted it.
"It was a very difficult shoot. We didn't get on. It's just a thing that happens sometimes and I say that with no blame. It takes two to tango," she said. "I think we can both be very proud of ourselves for the film that we made because it's difficult when a lead actor and director don't get on. And I don't think you could tell that from watching the film."
Paul Thomas Anderson and Burt Reynolds
Anderson hit it big with his critically adored second film, "Boogie Nights," in 1997. But Reynolds, who won a Golden Globe for his performance, never saw the film.
Reynolds told GQ in 2015 that he and Anderson clashed on set, personality-wise. He found Anderson to be too pleased with his own ability, saying they butted heads "mostly because he was young and full of himself. Every shot we did, it was like the first time [that shot had ever been done]."ย
Anderson extended an olive branch by offering Reynolds a part in his next film, "Magnolia," but Reynolds told The Guardian he declined the offer, saying, "I'd done my picture with Paul Thomas Anderson;ย that was enough for me."
Adrian Lyne and Kim Basinger
Basinger spoke to The New York Times in 1986 about the grueling experience of shooting the erotic drama "9 1/2 Weeks."
Basinger was reportedly bullied by director Lyne, who also convinced costar Mickey Rourke to completely ignore Basinger off-camera in order to add to the duo's intensity on-screen. Lyne said to the Times, "In order for her to be angry I would rage at her and she would rage back at me."
It wasn't until after "9 1/2 Weeks" was released that Basinger realized the level of manipulation that was happening on set. She reflected, "Mickey was egging me on โ I hated him sometimes. I got confused. I didn't know who I was after a while. My husband [Ron Snyder] and I had a bad time during this movie."
Even though Basinger said there were times she was ready to quit the movie, she holds firm that the experience โ and the final product โ were worthwhile.
Bernardo Bertolucci and Maria Schneider
Though the scene depicting the rape of Schneider's character was in the script for "Last Tango in Paris," director Bertolucci created a disturbing last-minute addendum.
Bertolucci and actor Marlon Brando had the idea of using a stick of butter as a lubricant for the scene, but they apparently didn't warn Schneider beforehand because Bertolucci wanted "her reaction as a girl, not as an actress," he said in 2013.
In 2007, a few years before her death in 2011, Schneider told The Daily Mail that the scene felt real to her. "Marlon said to me: 'Maria, don't worry, it's just a movie,' but during the scene, even though what Marlon was doing wasn't real, I was crying real tears," she said.
Bertolucci said Schneider hated him for years after the film, and "Last Tango In Paris" received renewed media attention in 2016 before the #MeToo movement, as celebrities โ both actors and actresses โ rallied to defend Schneider on X.
Elon Musk has set his sights on MacKenzie Scott's charity work once again.
The Tesla and SpaceX CEO said the billionaire's gifts to liberal nonprofits were "concerning."
Scott, the ex-wife of Jeff Bezos, has donated over $19 billion to charities since 2019.
Elon Musk has taken aim once again at MacKenzie Scott over the billionaire's charitable giving.
The Tesla and SpaceX CEO shared on Monday an X post written by John LeFevre criticizing Scott. The author and ex-banker's post sounded the alarm on Scott's gifts to nonprofits focused on issues such as racial equity, social justice, immigration protections, and LGBTQ+ rights.
Scott, the ex-wife of Amazon's founder, Jeff Bezos, has donated over $19 billion to more than 2,450 nonprofits since 2019 via her Yield Giving organization. Her net worth remains above $30 billion thanks to the rising value of her Amazon shares.
"So she's just getting started," LeFevre wrote.
Musk reposted the critique along with a single word: "Concerning."
The world's richest man, who stumped for Donald Trump and donated more than $270 million to help the former president win reelection, has blasted Scott's support of liberal causes before.
"'Super rich ex-wives who hate their former spouse' should filed be listed among 'Reasons that Western Civilization died,'" Musk said in a now-deleted X post in March.
About two weeks later, Scott announced she was more than doubling the size of her latest batch of donations to $640 million, spread across 361 organizations.
In May 2022, Musk said the Democratic Party was sidelining his companies because Scott had donated to political action committees "posing as charities." He also said that she disliked Bezos and that this was resulting in many other people "getting caught in the crossfire."
But Hans Peter Schmitz, the Bob and Carol Mattocks distinguished professor of nonprofit leadership at North Carolina State University, told BI in September that Scott was setting a powerful example for other philanthropists to follow.
Schmitz said Scott was giving strategically, investing more directly, and relying on consultants to ensure she gave to the best nonprofits in an area. He noted, however, that she was letting the recipients decide how to spend their gifts and hadn't tied up her fortune in a grant system or foundation.
Christopher Nolan's next film after "Oppenheimer" adapts a Greek epic, Homer's "Odyssey."
"The Odyssey" stars Tom Holland, Matt Damon, Zendaya, and Anne Hathaway.
Here's what to know about the upcoming film's plot, release date, and cast.
After his box-office hit, award-sweeping "Oppenheimer" movie, Christopher Nolan is next adapting "The Odyssey" for his next film.
"Oppenheimer" was the biggest film of Nolan's career, winning seven Oscars, including Nolan's first best director award.
After being set as a double feature with "Barbie," the film also grossed $975 million, Nolan's third-biggest ticket sales for a movie.
On Monday, Universal Pictures announced that Nolan's next film would adapt Homer's Greek epic poem and will be shot "across the world using brand new Imax film technology."
The film will arrive in theaters on July 17, 2026.
"The Odyssey" will likely have cast of stars.
Outlets have reported in October and November โย before it was public what the film would be โ that several A-listers were in the frame for Nolan's next project.
"I have so many feelings about it that I don't even know how to articulate. It fills me with so much joy, and I don't know how to talk about it," she said. "I love Chris and Emma Nolan so much, and to be invited into their world is, I mean, I know from experience it's one of the best places you can find yourself. Getting to be invited twice really felt like something, three felt like it would've been greedy, so I never let myself hope that that would happen, and that it has makes me emotional, to be perfectly honest. It makes me feel like I'm doing something right."
Nobody has said which role Hathaway โ or any of the actors โ might play.
Penelope, Odysseus' wife, is the most significant woman in the source material, along with Athena, the goddess of wisdom who watches over Odysseus.
Deadline and THR also reported, citing unnamed sources, that another Nolan veteran, Robert Pattinson, who starred in "Tenet," will also star in the film.
The publications also said Zendaya, Tom Holland, Lupita Nyong'o, and Charlize Theron would be in the cast.
Major characters include Odysseus himself, the legendarily cunning hero, as well as his son Telemachus, the beguiling witch Circe, the monstrous one-eyed cyclops, and Poseidon, the sea god who wants Odysseus to suffer.
On December 18, Holland said on an episode of the "Dish" podcast that he is in the film but doesn't "know anything about" the plot, which was at the time a secret.
"I'm super excited. Everything is very hush-hush. I met with him it was awesome. He kind of loosely pitched what it was, and I'm sure when he's ready, he'll announce what it is," he said.
He seemed to confirm that Pattinson, Zendaya, and Damon would be part of the cast with him.
This would be the first film Zendaya and Holland had worked together on since 2021's "Spider-Man: No Way Home."
"The Odyssey" is one of the foundational stories of Western literature.
Homer is known for two epic poems, "The Iliad" and "The Odyssey," both of which tell the story of the Trojan War.
"The Iliad" narrates the end of the war, while "The Odyssey" tells of the ten-year struggle by Odysseus to return to his island home, Ithaka.
During the journey, Odysseus and his crew fight against a man-eating cyclops, powerful giants, and the sirens. They defeat witches and sea monsters, and anger the Zeus and Poseidon. But Odysseus has Athena on his side, trying to help him get home.
Meanwhile, a band of suitors are trying to take over Odysseus' kingdom on Ithaka, supplanting his son Telemachus and convincing Penelope to marry one of them.
In a dramatic conclusion, Odysseus sneaks back to the island and slaughters the suitors, reclaiming his family and kingdom.
This will be Nolan's first film about Greek mythology, breaking away from his regular sci-fi and war films. Nolan will be writing the script for the movie.
Nolan's film could beat "Troy" as the most commercially successful Homer adaptation.
Several filmmakers have brought Homer's work to screen over the years, including the Oscar-winning directing sibling duo the Coen Brothers and Oscar-nominated German director Wolfgang Petersen.
Petersen's "Troy," which premiered in 2004 starring Brad Pitt and Orlando Bloom, was based on Homer's "The Illiad." It was the most commercially successful Homer adaptation, grossing $497 million worldwide, but received a lot of criticism that it didn't translate Homer's story well.
Pitt told The New York Times Magazine in 2019 that he was "disappointed" by the film, and the experience made him pivot toward "quality stories" for the rest of his career.
The Coen Brothers' "O Brother, Where Are Thou" and the 2004 "The Spongebob Squarepants Movie" are two other Hollywood movies loosely based on "The Odyssey."
Homer's work has also been adapted into multiple TV series, including the 1997's "The Odyssey," which starred Christopher Lee and Vanessa Williams.
"Business development" has become a coveted role at hedge funds amid the war to recruit top PMs.
The Citadel BD ace Matthew Giannini's joining Walleye was one of the most noteworthy moves of 2024.
Hedge funds hired dozens in BD in 2024 โ BI tracked the names of more than 40 who joined top firms.
One of the most intriguing hedge-fund personnel moves in 2024 came late in the year. It wasn't a superstar portfolio manager or another big bank executive migrating to the buy side.
It was someone with barely any media profile at all: Matthew Giannini, a senior leader in Citadel's business-development unit whom Walleye Capital hired in October as chief operating officer of its long-short equities business.
The move from the industry's $66 billion killer whale to a much smaller fish surprised several industry insiders Business Insider spoke with at the time, underscoring the continued demand for the niche role of vetting and wooing investment professionals.
BI wrote in May about the evolution of the "business development" role, which has grown into a coveted specialty amid the boom in multimanager hedge funds. These firms, prized by investors for robust returns uncorrelated with the stock market, have added $200 billion in assets since 2019. Hiring has followed suit โ head count since then soared by 90% at multimanagers compared with just 6% at other hedge funds โ provoking a talent war that has been one of the industry's defining themes and challenges over the past few years.
Though total assets managed by these firms declined in 2024 for the first time in seven years (some investors pulled money amid growing costs paired with lackluster returns in 2023), "the war for talent appears to be continuing unabated," Goldman Sachs' prime-services team said in a September report on multimanager hedge funds. These roughly 50 firms added 2,400 employees over the previous year, Goldman found, a 15% increase.
Business development was no exception, with dozens of hires by top hedge funds in 2024, according to industry sources, LinkedIn bios, and publicly reported moves.
Millennium, the largest multimanager, with $72.1 billion in assets under management and more than 6,000 employees, hired at least 10 people in business development in 2024, BI found. Balyasny, which spent hundreds of millions of dollars hiring PMs this year, added at least six new BD executives to facilitate hiring, including three managing directors โ most recently the commodities specialist David O'Connor, who joined in November from the external search firm Maven.
Citadel has been hiring as well, adding a handful of people to one of the most revered BD units in the industry. The hedge fund last year became the most profitable of all time, something its founder and CEO, Ken Griffin, attributed in part to an "unparalleled" ability to "recruit experienced professionals to Citadel" and "tremendous success attracting gifted graduates from the premier colleges and universities." Unsurprisingly, Griffin's talent whisperers are highly sought after.
Perhaps none has more gravitas than Giannini. Several industry professionals who know him say he's tall, charismatic, intelligent, and deft at winning over PMs โ someone who provides an actual edge in an industry desperate for it. Giannini's leaving Balyasny in 2018 to rejoin Citadel contributed to a turf war between the funds.
"Matt is, if not the best, one of the best closers I've ever met," a BD professional told BI this year.
Leaving Citadel for Walleye may raise some eyebrows, but joining Walleye offers a potentially lucrative upside for Giannini compared with a typical BD role. Business group heads at these funds usually take home a cut of their unit's profits, and while Walleye struggled in 2023, it has been executing an overhaul that's bearing fruit. The fund was up by 15.4% through November, putting it near the top of its peer group for 2024.
He also joins some familiar faces at Walleye, including Thomas DeAngelis, an ex-Citadel BD leader who's now Walleye's president, and Anil Gondi, a longtime PM who joined from Balyasny this summer and will oversee the long-short equities division with Giannini. The two overlapped at Balyasny in the 2010s.
The hiring of Giannini and dozens of others at top funds in 2024 signals that the burning demand for investment talent, and those gifted in recruiting it, isn't likely to dim anytime soon.
"One clear theme from our conversations with multimanagers was that the 'war for talent' synonymous with this segment has not seen any material de-escalation in the last year," Goldman Sachs said in its report.
BI tracked business-development professionals who joined top funds in 2024, using industry sources, LinkedIn bios, and publicly reported moves. This list isn't exhaustive, and we may update it as we learn more.
As any December 24 or December 25 baby knows, it's hard to have a birthday around the holidays.
But they aren't alone โ these celebrities were born on Christmas Eve or Christmas.
Justin Trudeau and Sissy Spacek will celebrate their birthdays on December 25.
Sometimes, sharing your birthday with a holiday can be fun โ think: Halloween, St. Patrick's Day, or July 4. But trying to celebrate your day of birth while many others are celebrating Christmas can be tricky.
Christmas babies: We see you, and now you have 14 more celebrity friends to commiserate with. These 14 celebrities, from Stephenie Meyer to Ricky Martin, were born on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day.
Keep scrolling to see who's sharing their birthday with the reason for the season.
Ryan Seacrest
On December 24, Ryan Seacrest will turn 50.
Two years ago, Seacrest celebrated his birthday with a family gathering and playing games with balloon animals, according to Instagram.
Ricky Martin
Ricky Martin's 53rd birthday is on December 24, 2024.
To get into the Christmas spirit, Martin voiced a character in the Netflix holiday film "Jingle Jangle: A Christmas Journey."
Dr. Anthony Fauci
The most famous expert on infectious diseases, Dr. Anthony Fauci, will turn 84 on Christmas Eve.
Fauci was born on December 24, 1940 โ and while he might not have been a huge celebrity for the first seven decades of his life, Decade No. 8 is shaping up to be his busiest ever.
Louis Tomlinson
Louis Tomlinson's 33rd birthday is on Christmas Eve.
Tomlinson is the oldest member of One Direction, and the oldest of seven siblings.
Jimmy Buffett
Jimmy Buffett would have celebrated his 78th birthday on December 25, 2024.
Of the many,ย many,ย albums Buffett released over his decadeslong career, he put out two Christmas albums: 1996's "Christmas Island" and 2016's "'Tis the SeaSon."
Stephenie Meyer
"Twilight" author Stephenie Meyer will celebrate her 51st birthday on Christmas Eve.
In 2020, Meyer released the eighth installment in the "Twilight" saga, "Midnight Sun," a re-telling of the first "Twilight" book from Edward's perspective.
Lee Daniels
Lee Daniels turns the big 6-5 on December 24 this year.
The Oscar-nominated director is celebrating his 65th birthday this year, 19 years after his directorial debut, "Shadowboxer."
Barbara Mandrell
Barbara Mandrell's 76th birthday is this Christmas Day.
The iconic country singer released a Christmas album in 1984, "Christmas at Our House."
Jeremy Strong
Jeremy Strong was born 46 years ago on Christmas Day, 1978.
The "Succession" star has a few things to celebrate this year. He's been receiving awards buzz for his performance as Roy Cohn in "The Apprentice" and won a Tony for his role in "An Enemy of the People."
Sissy Spacek
Sissy Spacek's 75th birthday is on Christmas Day.
The Oscar winner starred in the 2008 Christmas rom-com "Four Christmases."
Justin Trudeau
On December 25, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau turns 53.
At 43 years old, Trudeau was the second-youngest prime minister in Canadian history when he was elected in November 2015.
Dido
Dido will also turn 53 on Christmas Day this year.
The British singer takes a page out of Paddington Bear's book to celebrate her birthday โ since Christmas is already a holiday, she celebrates her birthday on June 25, according to The Guardian.
Annie Lennox
Annie Lennox's 70th birthday is on Christmas Day.
The "Walking on Broken Glass" singer released her first and only Christmas album, "A Christmas Cornucopia," in 2010.
Helena Christensen
Danish supermodel Helena Christensen will turn 56 on December 25, 2024.
Christensen first gained mainstream recognition 35 years ago when she starred in the music video for Chris Isaak's "Wicked Game."
Kelsea Myers, 20, traveled throughout North America during her freshman year of college.
She took online classes while staying in hostels.
Eventually, she wanted to have a more typical college experience.
This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Kelsea Myers. It has been edited for length and clarity.
My parents have always been clear that I would need to pay for college. During my senior year I was applying to schools and realizing I could easily graduate with $200,000 or more in debt for my undergrad degree. That gave me a lot of financial anxiety.
I had a bit of a breakdown with my parents about it during the spring of my senior year. I knew I wanted to go to college and then law school. I wasn't interested in a gap year. I also wanted to get far away from my hometown in Missouri. The University of Hawaii was at the top of my list of schools, but it was just too expensive.
My stepmother is great at thinking outside the box, and she had an idea: I could enroll in online classes at the University of Missouri, my state school, to keep costs low. Then, instead of paying for room and board, I could travel. I thought it was a brilliant idea, but I was nervous. I booked a plane ticket before I could change my mind.
I traveled the US, Canada, and the Caribbean
My first stop was in Portland, Oregon. I also visited Seattle and San Diego. Once I worked up my confidence to travel internationally, I went to British Columbia, Canada. Then, I headed to the Caribbean, where I took my finals in an Airbnb on the beach while the waves crashed and sand crabs scuttled across the floor.
I stayed at each place for about three weeks, so by the end, I felt a bit like a local. I created a routine where I would wake up and do a few assignments. Then, I'd use the daylight to explore the city. At night, I'd listen to my lectures and do more school work in the hostel or a nearby cafรฉ.
I had to pay a lot of attention to school work and not get distracted by travel or the party atmosphere at some of the hostels. I'm pretty studious, so that wasn't too much of a challenge. I was upfront with my professors about my travel, and they didn't have a problem. The trickiest part was making sure I submitted everything on time when I was in a different time zone. I also learned not to do assignments at the last minute because sometimes the internet access was unreliable.
People assumed my parents were paying for my travel
My peers were mostly supportive of my choice, but they had questions. They thought I might be lonely, but I met so many people. There were lots of Europeans in the hostels I stayed in. Many were in their mid-20s, so it was easy to connect.
People assumed my parents were paying for my travel, but they weren't. Scholarships covered a lot of my tuition. I took subsidized student loans through school, which paid for the rest of my tuition and some travel. I also used the money I had saved while working.
I never ran out of money because I budgeted meticulously. I knew I had a set amount of money each week, so I made compromises on how I spent it. For example, when I went to the Space Needle in Seattle, I cooked for myself the rest of the week to make up for the money I spent. I also scoured the internet for flight deals and stayed in hostels that were affordable but safe.
I wanted to try living closer to school after a year
Throughout the year, I came home for holidays or if I needed a quick two-week break between destinations. I loved the way travel helped me see new places, meet people, and learn about myself.
At the same time, I also wanted to try a more typical college experience. Plus, I was worried about money. I wanted to minimize my loans, and living in one place would let me pay for school by working rather than taking on debt.
I returned to Missouri and got an apartment off campus with friends. I went to football games and frat parties and had those traditional experiences that I had sometimes worried about missing out on.
One thing didn't change: I stayed enrolled in online classes, which gave me flexibility to work.
I'll never regret traveling during freshman year
I'm on track to graduate this spring, completing my undergrad in just three years. I still budget travel. My best friend and I went to London and Paris for spring break. I adored it and couldn't believe my classmates were partying on a beach while I was seeing the Mona Lisa.
Lots of people say they never would have thought to travel during college. I thought there was only one way to do college until my stepmom urged me to think outside the box. I'm glad she did because I learned so much.
With a prequel, Hollywood can get as much out of intellectual property as possible.
Prequels can also be a good way to illuminate something new about a story or character.
Here are some of the best, worst, and plain unnecessary sequels in movie history.
When the news dropped back in 2020 that Disney was producing a prequel to "The Lion King" about the adventures of young Mufasa and Scar, people were skeptical.
Of course, this movie might have something to do with the fact that the live-action remake of "The Lion King" earned $1.6 billion at the box office and the original 1994 film made $978 million.
This isn't the first time Hollywood has released a prequel that may or may not be totally necessary. We've compiled a list of the 22 best, worst, or confusing prequels of all time โ keep reading to see which films made the cut.
In contrast to "The Hunt for Gollum," we were excited about "Furiosa," the prequel to "Mad Max: Fury Road."
There have been four movies set in the world of "Mad Max," a postapocalyptic future where the entire planet looks like a desert and society has almost completely broken down โ and we can't get enough.
The 2015 installment, "Mad Max: Fury Road," introduced audiences to Imperator Furiosa (played by Charlize Theron), a general who fights against the tyrannical Immortan Joe (played by Hugh Keays-Byrne) to free his enslaved wives.
As "Fury Road" is technically a "Mad Max" movie, we spend more time with Max (played by Tom Hardy in "Fury Road" and originally played by Mel Gibson in the first three), but everyone left the theater wanting more Furiosa.
While "Furiosa" may not have been a hit at the box office, it was still so great to be back in the world created by director George Miller. Anya Taylor-Joy did a solid job as Furiosa, but it was Chris Hemsworth's performance as Dementus that we couldn't stop thinking about.
Another amazing prequel? "The Godfather Part II."
"The Godfather Part II," released in 1974, is both a sequel and a prequel to 1972's "The Godfather." The film simultaneously follows Al Pacino's Michael Corleone as he assumes the role of don in the Corleone crime family after the death of his father Vito, and tells viewers the origin story of a young Vito (played by Robert De Niro) as he immigrates to New York City from Italy.
Comparing and contrasting Vito and Michael at similar ages is a fascinating look into each of their personalities, and the film keeps viewers equally invested in both as they rise to power.
The less we say about "The Godfather Part III," the better.
"Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again" follows a similar format, and it's also a total banger.
In our opinion, "Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again," released in 2018, is far superior to the 2008 original film. Why? Because it somehow follows "The Godfather Part II's" playbook and is both a sequel and a prequel.
While we watch a grown-up Sophie (Amanda Seyfried) struggle to finally open her mother Donna's hotel in the present, weย alsoย get to look back at how a young Donna (played by the effervescent Lily James) met the threeย veryย handsome men, any one of whom could be Sophie's father.
It shouldn't work, but it does. All we know is that โ even if it doesn't make sense โ we need both James and Meryl Streep back for the rumored third film.
"The Good, the Bad and the Ugly" is a perfectly entertaining film, whether you've seen the other two films in the trilogy or not.
"The Good, the Bad and the Ugly," released in 1966, was the third and final film of director Sergio Leone's "Dollars Trilogy," which began with 1964's "A Fistful of Dollars."
But "The Good..." is actually a prequel, as it depicts Clint Eastwood's character (known simply as The Man with No Name) gaining the iconic items of clothing he wears in the other two films, and it explicitly takes place during the Civil War, while the others seem a bit more modern.
However, you don't need to see "Fistful" or its 1965 sequel to understand why "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly" rules. It's a staple of the spaghetti Western genre, Eastwood is as good as he's ever been, and the film's theme is still iconic almost 60 years later.
"Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom" is a controversial film, but there are still things to enjoy about it.
Yes, "Temple of Doom," released in 1984, takes place before 1981's "Raiders of the Lost Ark," even though characters from "Temple of Doom" (e.g. Ke Huy Quan's Short Round or Kate Capshaw's Willie Scott) are not mentioned in "Raiders" or "Last Crusade."
Instead, "Temple of Doom" is a rip-roaring adventure following archaeologist/treasure hunter Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) as he goes up against a religious sect that uses enslaved children and rips out human hearts while trying to save a rural village that's been cursed.
"Temple of Doom" hasย notย aged well in all aspects (its depiction of Indian food and culture is abysmal), and it doesn't really provide any context about Indy's early life โ you'd have to watch the prologue of "Last Crusade" to see River Phoenix playing a younger version of the character โ it's still worth the watch for the mine car chase, Ford's delivery of "We are going to die," and the ludicrous plane-crash scene.ย
"Rogue One" is the best "Star Wars" prequel โ bar none.
"Rogue One" is a prequel that explains exactlyย oneย plot point from the first "Star Wars" movie, originally released in 1977. Almost 40 years later, in 2016, fans finally got the answer to this question: How did the Rebels get access to the schematics of the Death Star?
Now we know: The daughter of an Empire engineer, Jyn Erso (Felicity Jones), teamed up with a ragtag crew comprised of a spy named Cassian Andor (Diego Luna), a reprogrammed Imperial droid named K-2SO (Alan Tudyk), a blind believer in the Force and his best friend (Donnie Yen and Jiang Wen), and a former Imperial pilot who turned good (Riz Ahmed), to steal the plans from an Imperial base on a suicide mission.
"Rogue One" is such an effective prequel because it almost immediately gets you invested in these characters, and you already know the stakes because of the original trilogy โ the fate of the galaxy is at stake.
If that wasn't enough prequel action for you, don't fret. The Disney+ series "Andor" is itself a prequel to "Rogue One."
"Star Wars: Episode III โ Revenge of the Sith" is also a solid prequel.
It all led to this: "Revenge of the Sith," released in 2005, finally showed "Star Wars" fans how exactly Jedi prodigy Anakin Skywalker (Hayden Christensen) turned into one of the most terrifying villains of all time, Darth Vader.
The final confrontation between Anakin and his erstwhile mentor, Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor), has basically become a meme at this point, but when you rewatch the movie, it still hits. These two actors are both operating at the top of their game, and you really feel the heartbreak coming from both of them.
This film almost makes the mediocre first two films in the prequel trilogy (more on them later) worth it.
"Bumblebee" gave audiences the chance to learn more about everyone's favorite yellow Transformer.
After the truly mind-boggling events of 2017's "Transformers: The Last Knight," which introduced the Knights of the Round Table and Merlin to the mythology, it was time to take the franchise back to basics.
And one year later, they did by releasing "Bumblebee," which takes the story back to 1987 and focuses on 18-year-old Charlie (Hailee Steinfeld). Charlie, who has just lost her father, finds Bumblebee in a scrapyard and begins to bond with him.
The stakes are a little lower, the lore is aย lotย more digestible, and Steinfeld is easily the best protagonist the franchise has ever seen.
"Transformers: Rise of the Beasts" is pretty good too โ "Transformers" might be the only franchise that's truly benefited from prequels.
In 2023, "Rise of the Beasts" was released. It's a bigger story than "Bumblebee" but not as incoherent as "Last Knight" or "Dark Side of the Moon." It also has a way more compelling cast of characters, led by Anthony Ramos as Noah Diaz, Dominique Fishback as Elena Wallace, and Pete Davidson as Mirage.
Again, this movie is a prequel to the original films, taking place mainly in 1994 and largely ignoring the events of both "Bumblebee" and the later films.
It's a fun time at the movies for anyone who simply likes to turn off their brain and watch giant robots beat each other up.
Because, against all odds, "Transformers One" makes this list too.
In 2024, audiences were treated to yet another movie focusing on the Transformers; this time it was an animated prequel about the origins of Optimus Prime, voiced by Chris Hemsworth, his best-friend-turned-archnemesis Megatron, voiced by Brian Tyree Henry, and Bumblebee, voiced by Keegan-Michael Key.
To put it plainly: This movie rocks. The voice casting is impeccable, the animation is beautiful, and the story is genuinely compelling.
"X-Men: Days of Future Past" was a fun way to see younger versions of our favorite characters while keeping around some of the original X-Men.
The "X-Men" franchise has one of the most complicated chronologies in movie history โ and much of that is made even more confusing with the events of 2014's "Days of Future Past," which sees characters from the original "X-Men" film go back in time to link up with the characters introduced in 2011's "X-Men: First Class" to change the future and hopefully save all of mutant-kind.
Seeing Hugh Jackman's Wolverine interact with the younger version of his mentor Professor X (played by James McAvoy) and his arch-enemy Magneto (Michael Fassbender) is entertaining, and the happy ending they manage to pull off for almost everyone feels earned.
The only prequel Pixar has ever produced is "Monsters University," which doesn't match the highs of "Monsters, Inc.," but is still a prequel worth watching.
"Monsters University" was released in 2013, 12 years after we last saw Sulley and Mike, our resident scarers (and later comedians).
The ending of "Monsters, Inc." should never be touched โ it's perfect โ so when it was announced that another film in this universe was coming, fans were a bit nervous. But the filmmakers managed to avoid ruining the end of "Monsters, Inc." by instead showing us how best friends Mike (Billy Crystal) and Sulley (John Goodman) met while they were attending Monsters University.
Fans get some genuine insight into how this world works, how Mike and Sulley were able to bond even though they're total opposites, and even how their beef with Randall (Steve Buscemi) started.
And before you ask: No, "Lightyear" isn't a prequel.
"Alien: Covenant" is more connected to the original "Alien" films than its predecessor, "Prometheus."
The world of "Alien" is a big one โ that's why there have been seven movies, with a TV show on the way next year.
While 2012's "Prometheus" takes place in the same universe as "Alien," its 2017 sequel "Alien: Covenant" directly ties into the events of the earlier films by essentially retelling the events of 1979's "Alien." But this time, it explains how the horrifying xenomorphs were actually created by the evil Weyland-Yutani Corporation and how learning to control these creatures has always been their plan.
Also, we have to shout out Michael Fassbender, whose dual performance as Walter and David is the highlight of this movie. Creepy androids are an important part of the "Alien" franchise, and he knocked it out of the park.
But not all prequels are great โ some are completely unnecessary, like "Oz the Great and Powerful," an origin story for the Wizard from "The Wizard of Oz."
"The Wizard of Oz" remains one of the greatest films of all time, even though it was released 85 years ago. That's probably enough of a reason to leave this story alone, but instead, there have been many attempts to create a worthy sequel of the film โ none of them have lived up to the original.
Sadly, neither does 2013's prequel "Oz the Great and Powerful," starring James Franco as the titular Oz. Part of the fun of "The Wizard of Oz" is that you don'tย reallyย know how the Wizard got to Oz, and that mystery adds to the fantastical vibes of the land of Oz.
But if you watch "Oz," you'll learn all about Oscar's career as a scam artist, how he manipulated everyone around him, and how he inadvertently created the Wicked Witch of the East.
It's not a horrible movie, but it kind of diminishes the magic of the original film, and for that, it's unnecessary.
We can't knock Emma Stone's performance in "Cruella," but did we really need an origin story for the Dalmatian-hating Cruella de Vil?
We know that anti-heroes are all the rage, but did Disney really expect us to start siding with a woman who wanted to skin 101 Dalmatian puppies for a coat? This 2021 film gives Cruella de Vil, the villain of the 1961 animated film, a convoluted back story in which she clashes with a legendary fashion designer known only as the Baroness (Emma Thompson).
It is fun to watch Stone and Thompson face off, the fashion is to die for, and it's overall a solid movie ... but there's no reason for it to exist. We didn't need to know any more about Cruella โ and we definitely don't need a sequel.
Many people loathe the "Hobbit" trilogy โ "Lord of the Rings" fans were content with the original three films.
Simply put: "The Hobbit" films (2012's "An Unexpected Journey," 2013's "The Desolation of Smaug," and 2014's "The Battle of the Five Armies") are slow. While the first three "Lord of the Rings" movies are based on a 1,200-page tome, "The Hobbit" films are based on a 300-page novel (that's downright cute in comparison).
Maybe "The Hobbit," which starred Martin Freeman as Bilbo Baggins, would've worked as a single film, but there was no reason for the story to be stretched out across three films โ especially when we know exactly how it ends thanks to Bilbo's appearances in "Fellowship of the Ring" and "The Return of the King," as played by Ian Holm.
We'll see if "The Hunt for Gollum" is a more worthy prequel โ the jury's still out on "The War of the Rohirrim."
"300: Rise of an Empire" took everything that was not great about "300" and doubled down.
"300," the 2006 historical epic, isn't exactly a work of cinematic art, but it is entertaining, and spawned many a meme and much interest in ancient Sparta.
However, "Rise of an Empire," released in 2014, is both a prequel and a sequel and also takes place during the events of "300." You could argue it bites off more than it can chew. Plus, in our opinion, Sullivan Stapleton does not hold the screen the same way Gerard Butler does.
As The New York Times' Nicolas Rapold put it, "Rise of an Empire" "[lacks] the momentum and bombastic je ne sais quoi of '300.'"
"The Thing" didn't live up to the '80s original.
The 1982 John Carpenter classic "The Thing" was negatively reviewed upon its release, but it has since been reappraised as one of the best sci-fi/horror films of all time. The special effects alone remain horrifying 42 years later.
The 2011 prequel, also called "The Thing," leads viewers right up to the first moments of the 1982 film, which completely removes the stakes โ you know that everyone in the film is toast.
As many critics noted, the 2011 version also didn't really deviate from the source material. NME's Owen Nicholls wrote, "The real mess lies in the fact that from Plot Point One until Act III we're treading over all-too-familiar snow prints."
Just watch the original.
"Star Wars: Episode I โ The Phantom Menace" and "Star Wars: Episode II โ Attack of the Clones" are just boring.
Think back to 1999 โ the first "Star Wars" movie in 16 years is about to be released. You can't wait to see how director George Lucas is going to show fans how the Jedi chosen one, Anakin Skywalker, became the space fascist known as Darth Vader.
You sit down with popcorn to view "The Phantom Menace" ... and you watch a movie that's about track blockades, contains a scientific explanation for the Force, and portrays the future Darth Vader as a whiny kid.
Three years later, in 2002, you sit down once again to see "Attack of the Clones." Maybe they've course-corrected โ but no. Now you have a whiny teenage Anakin Skywalker, the Jedi acting even more incompetently than they did in "Phantom Menace," and a movie that's just as boring. There's not a Han Solo-level character to be found.
Skipping to "Revenge of the Sith" is the best way to view "Star Wars," trust us.
"The Scorpion King's" only redeeming quality is that it started Dwayne Johnson on his path to movie stardom.
"The Scorpion King" is just a bad movie. The CGI is bad, the Rock hasn't mastered his on-screen persona yet (read: he does not have a personality in this movie), and there's really no reason we needed to see the Scorpion King's origin story: There's a scene dedicated to his origin story in "The Mummy Returns," and that tells us everything we need to know.
"Mufasa: The Lion King" does not justify its existence.
Prequels like this are tricky to pull off โ weย knowย that Taka will turn into the villainous Scar, who will one day push his brother off a cliff to his death, an act that traumatized so many '90s and 2000s kids. So, it's hard to get invested in him as a cute cub when we know what his future holds.
Similarly, it's hard to get invested in the action when we know that basically every character on screen will be fine. There are so many scenes where Mufasa almost falls off a cliff, which is supposed to be foreshadowing but also has no dramatic tension since we know he will be OK (for now).
The animation is better than in 2019's "Lion King" remake. However, it's still somewhat in the uncanny valley zone, and it's always going to be easier animating a cartoon lion to have expressions than a photorealistic one. If you're really in need of a "Lion King" sequel, check out "The Lion King II: Simba's Pride."
As a busy mom with a picky eater, I find lasagna a straightforward dish with familiar ingredients that pleases my family.
I have a standard family recipe I always use, but I recently tested out lasagna recipes from the celebrity chefs Giada De Laurentiis, Ina Garten, and Ree Drummond.
Here's how the unique recipes stacked up.
Gartenโs recipe calls for interesting ingredients, such as goat cheese.
Garten's easy turkey lasagna is a simple take on the standard recipe with a few surprising ingredients โ namely, goat cheese for the filling.
Her recipe calls for sweet Italian turkey sausage, but since I had trouble finding that at any grocery stores near me, I used regular ground turkey and seasoned it with Italian seasoning, red-pepper flakes, and a bit of sugar.
This base sauce has ground turkey and crushed tomatoes.
After seasoning the ground turkey, making the sauce was pretty straightforward.
When I simmered onion, fresh herbs, canned crushed tomatoes, and tomato paste together, I had a pretty standard, meaty sauce to work with.
Garten's recipe combines goat cheese and ricotta for a flavorful mixture.
I'd never made lasagna with goat cheese, but Garten's recipe meant I stirred 3 to 4 ounces of it into 15 ounces of ricotta.
The combination was tart and flavorful. The flavors of the goat cheese stood out in the dish, especially with the lightness of the ground turkey.
The chef then tops it all off with even more cheese.
I really liked that Garten's recipe included fresh mozzarella cheese.
So many lasagnas lean on grated or shredded mozzarella, so slicing up a fresh log was a nice touch.
Garten's lasagna would be the winner if I were giving awards for the cheesiness.
Garten's cheese-laden lasagna was a dairy lover's dream.
The goat cheese gave that layer some extra tang and flavor, and the fresh mozzarella provided layers of thick, cheesy goodness that made for a great cheese pull.
De Laurentiisโ lasagna recipe calls for lots of spinach.
De Laurentiis' classic Italian lasagna made me question the standard recipe I've been following for years.
I'm used to ground meat, cheeses, and tomato sauce. But De Laurentiis' recipe requires 20 ounces of frozen spinach and a mixture of white bรฉchamel sauce and homemade tomato sauce.
I cooked the meat separately from the sauce.
De Laurentiis' method puzzled me, but who am I to argue with a master of Italian cuisine?
I made a bรฉchamel sauce and a standard tomato sauce to assemble the chef's lasagna and stirred the two together.
De Laurentiis also said to keep the ground beef separate, layering it into the dish on its own.
I needed a lot of ricotta and eggs for De Laurentiisโ lasagna.
Before assembling, I followed the instructions and stirred together three large eggs and 1 ยฝ pounds of ricotta cheese.
I'm not a fan of a lasagna that's heavy on the egg flavor, but her recipe wasn't overly eggy in the end.
The large amount of spinach detracted from the dish's overall flavor.
De Laurentiis' recipe had a lot of spinach, and there wasn't much seasoning to add flavor.
The spinach was my least favorite ingredient in any of the lasagna recipes, and I'm usually a big fan of the leafy green.
De Laurentiisโ lasagna took the longest and was our least favorite.
De Laurentiis' lasagna disappointed me, mostly because it wasn't very flavorful.
I don't think the many steps of the complicated recipe paid off in the end.
Drummond's recipe calls for 3 pounds of meat.
Drummond, better known as The Pioneer Woman, doesn't mess around with protein-filled meals.
Her simple lasagna recipe calls for 2 pounds of ground beef and a pound of hot breakfast sausage.
The chef also included cottage cheese instead of traditional ricotta and tons of fresh herbs, such as basil and parsley.
Drummondโs sauce was full of ground meat and fresh herbs.
I eat a high-protein diet, so I was immediately drawn to Drummond's meat-heavy lasagna sauce.
Like Garten, Drummond's recipe relies on canned tomatoes and tomato paste to make up the rest of the sauce, along with lots of chopped, fresh herbs.
The recipe requires cottage cheese instead of ricotta.
Cottage cheese is a staple for meeting my daily protein goals, but I'd never had it in lasagna.
Drummond completely did away with traditional ricotta, and in the end, I enjoyed the flavor the cottage cheese brought to the meal.
My son, the picky eater, didn't even notice the switch.
Drummondโs meaty lasagna had the most flavor, hands down.
Tossing 3 pounds of meat into a lasagna felt like overkill, but I ended up loving it.
Lasagna can be carb- and dairy-heavy, so I liked how protein-packed Drummond's version was.
Of the three dishes, Drummondโs is the one Iโd make again.
From "macaron" to "nougat," here is the correct way to pronounce these common desserts.
Many popular desserts have French or Italian names, which can sometimes be challenging to pronounce for native English speakers.
However, if you don't want to feel insecure the next time you're at a bakery, patisserie, or restaurant, learning the correct way to pronounce these desserts can make you sound like an expert.
A study compiled by the language-learning platform Preply found the most commonly mispronounced dessert names.
Here's how to correctly pronounce them.
Macaron
Macarons are small French cookie sandwiches made from meringue and almond flour, and they often come in bright colors.
However, while you've probably seen these desserts at least once or twice, many people mispronounce them by calling them "macaroons," which are actually a different kind of cookie made from shredded coconut.
Incorrect pronunciation: mah-kuh-ROON
Correct pronunciation: mah-kuh-RON
Beignet
Popular in Paris and New Orleans, these fried doughnut-like desserts come with powdered sugar. While you may want to pronounce the "g" in this dessert's name, that's incorrect.
Incorrect pronunciation: beg-NAY or beg-NET
Correct pronunciation: ben-YE
Crรชpes
Derived from the Latin word for curled โ "crispus" โ the accent in the word "crรชpes" actually tells you exactly how to pronounce the "e": with an "eh" sound rather than an "ay" sound.
Incorrect pronunciation: KRAYPS
Correct pronunciation: KREHPS
Dulce de leche
Dulce de leche is popular across the world, but you still might be mispronouncing this popular dessert. Preply reminded us that when pronouncing "dulce de leche," keep the "e" letters open and don't pronounce them as "ee."
Incorrect pronunciation: dul-che-de-leh-chay
Correct pronunciation: dool-say-de-leh-chay
Kouign-amann
This French pastry is known for its flaky, buttery layers and sweet, crispy, and caramelized exterior. However, it can be difficult to pronounce at first glance. Remember that the first part of this royal dessert sounds like "queen."
Incorrect pronunciation: Coo-gun Ay-mun
Correct pronunciation: Kween Uh-mawn
Croissant
While croissants are popular breakfast pastries in the United States, many continue to mispronounce this classic French pastry. To avoid looking like a tourist if you ever find yourself in Paris, remember that the "r" and "t" in "croissant" are silent.
Incorrect pronunciation: cross-aunt
Correct pronunciation: kwah-sahn
Mascarpone
Pronounce this dessert the correct way by letting this Italian cheese's name roll off the tongue and giving it a little flair.
Incorrect pronunciation: mas-car-pohn
Correct pronunciation: mah-skar-poh-neh
Nougat
While you might have grown up pronouncing this nut-filled dessert with a hard "t" at the end, that's actually not the correct way of saying it.
Incorrect pronunciation: new-gat
Correct pronunciation: noo-gahh
Nutella
This fan-favorite hazelnut-and-chocolate spread is commonplace in many people's cabinets, but its French name might be a little bit difficult to pronounce. Rather than pronouncing it like the "nut" in "hazelnut," Nutella actually sounds like "Nootella."
Incorrect pronunciation: nut-ella
Correct pronunciation: noo-tell-uh
Pain au chocolat
The correct pronunciation of this tasty French pastry shouldn't be painful! Replace "pain" with "pan," soften the "ch" to make a "sh" sound, and ignore the "t" on the tail end of the phrase to sound like a true Parisian.
Incorrect pronunciation: payn-oh-choc-o-laht
Correct pronunciation: pan-oh-shoh-koh-lah
Canelรฉ
Remember to draw out the "e" at the end of this rum-and-vanilla-flavored French pastry's name.
Incorrect pronunciation: Cuh-nell-ee
Correct pronunciation: Cah-null-ay
Madeleine
While it might be tempting to pronounce these French cookies like the popular girl's name "Madeline," you should ignore the "e" found in the middle of the word. There are only two syllables in this dessert's name, not three.
Incorrect pronunciation: Maah-duh-line
Correct pronunciation: Mad-lenn
Clafoutis
This French pie, often made with black cherries and other fruits, can be intimidating to pronounce correctly.
Incorrect pronunciation: Klaw-phoo-tiss
Correct pronunciation: Klah-phoo-tee
Crรจme brรปlรฉe
Crรจme brรปlรฉe is a creamy custard dessert that's often regarded as a symbol of decadence and indulgence, with an equally fancy name. While English speakers might be tempted to pronounce the end of this name with a long "e," it actually sounds like "ay."
Incorrect pronunciation: Kreem Brew-lee
Correct pronunciation: Krehm Brew-lay
รclair
This chocolate-covered pastry's name is short but often mispronounced. To get it right, avoid elongating the first "e" and remember that this light and fluffy dessert rhymes with "air."
Incorrect pronunciation: Ee-klar
Correct pronunciation: Eh-klair
Maraschino cherries
While these cherries are popular in many desserts, people still seem to get the pronunciation wrong. Remember to replace "shee" with "ski" to get it right.
Incorrect pronunciation: ma-ra-shee-no
Correct pronunciation: ma-re-ski-no
Petit four
These colorful and uniquely designed desserts are often tiny, hence the use of the French word "petit." To nail the pronunciation, forget the hard "t" at the end of "petit" and slightly elongate the "for" sound so that it sounds like "door."
Incorrect pronunciation: peh-teet for
Correct pronunciation: puh-tee foor
Palmier
These French desserts resemble the wings of a butterfly or a palm leaf, which is where their name derives from. To get the pronunciation right, don't pronounce the "r" and instead use the "ay" sound.
An analysis says streaming services' Christmas-movie supply has surged, with growth peaking in 2020.
It suggests holiday movies are a big revenue generator for streaming services.
Demand typically begins in November and plummets after Christmas Day.
Streaming viewers' appetites for Christmas movies โ from time-tested classics like "Love Actually" to fresher fare like Netflix's "Hot Frosty" โ have grown massively over the years, and services are cashing in on the trend, a new analysis suggests.
It's a buzzy genre, accounting for a healthy chunk of overall ad revenue at Hallmark, which even operates a Christmas cruise.
Netflix, for its part, is becoming a formidable rival, releasing six holiday originals this year alone. It's amassed something of a Christmas cinematic universe with interconnected references in many of its projects.
An analysis by the data firm Parrot Analytics found that the supply of Christmas movies on streaming services, including classics and new films, grew sixfold from 2000 to 2023.
The firm found that growth peaked in 2020 at the height of the pandemic as viewers sought comfort. It looked at content on Amazon Prime, Apple TV+, Discovery+, Disney+, Max, Hulu, Netflix, Paramount+, Peacock, and Starz.
After 2020, the growth of new Christmas movies slowed. Still, the holiday-movie genre โ including films centered on Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's โ has become increasingly lucrative.
Parrot Analytics estimated that streamers generated $132 million from holiday movies in the fourth quarter of 2023. In the same quarter of 2021 that figure was $90 million, rising to $121 million in the fourth quarter of 2022.
Expectedly, Christmas-movie demand begins in November and peaks on Christmas Day, after which viewership plummets. Parrot said that while the peak increased steadily after 2019, growth appears to have slowed somewhat in 2024.
Citing data from November 1 to December 14, Parrot said that this year the most popular Christmas movie across platforms was Amazon's "Red One," starring Dwayne Johnson. It said that demand for the action flick was more than 50 times that of the average movie, based on metrics like consumption data, consumer research, and social-media interest.
The next most in-demand movies were the first two "Home Alone" films, followed by "The Grinch" and "How the Grinch Stole Christmas." David Harbour's "Violent Night" was sandwiched between two classics: "The Polar Express" and "It's a Wonderful Life."
Perhaps surprisingly, Netflix's "Hot Frosty" was well down the list, in 19th place, despite seeming to stir up interest, suggesting it's not quite a Christmas classic yet.
This spring, I planned a two-week tour through Italy with my parents, who are both in their 60s. It was their first time visiting Europe, and I couldn't wait to watch them discover one of my favorite countries.
Word quickly spread of our trip, and three additional family members asked to tag along. I soon found myself traveling around Italy with five relatives between the ages of 60 and 77.
Our trip was enjoyable, but there are three things I wish I'd planned differently โ both for my sake and theirs.
We probably should've booked more organized day tours
I'd been to Italy six times prior to this trip.
Knowing the ins and outs of travel within the country, I avoided organized group tours. I figured my relatives wouldn't want to spend the trip shuffling around in a bus from one city to another.
Instead, we prebooked only three excursions, including a guided visit to the Colosseum and a street-food tour in Naples. Otherwise, we were free to explore Italy's sites on our own.
The lack of a rigid schedule was freeing but wasn't always ideal.
In Rome, for instance, I naively assumed we could take a brisk, 2-mile walk to the Pantheon before it closed. My relatives' walking pace, however, was slower than what I'm accustomed to when traveling with friends my age.
This put us behind schedule, and we had to skip a visit to the Trevi Fountain. In hindsight, a guided bus tour with scheduled stops would have been more convenient for our group.
My relatives also loved the three excursions we booked, so I wish I'd planned more guided visits to sites like Pompeii and The Vatican.
I should've briefed my relatives on useful travel apps before we left
That said, traveling in 2024 is vastly different from when my relatives were younger, and not all of them were familiar with popular travel apps like Google Translate and Uber.
Had I given my family a list of apps to download before our trip and showed them how they work, they could've felt more comfortable navigating a foreign country.
I never quite knew where my aunts would end up while trying to follow directions on Google Maps.
After two mishaps, I wish I'd booked hotels over Airbnbs
When planning accommodation for our group of six, I turned to Airbnbs over hotel rooms โ in part so we wouldn't have to split up.
I prioritized rentals with scenic views and spacious outdoor balconies, but I wish I'd researched the nitty-gritty details of each listing more.
Our Airbnb in Sicily had gorgeous views of the mountains, but it also had a narrow, dark stairway that felt treacherous for my 77-year-old uncle.
If this had been a hotel, I probably could've called a staff member before booking to check in about accessibility.
As it was a rental, I relied on photos and self-written descriptions. Online, the person who listed the home seemed pretty nonchalant about the number of stairs required to reach the apartment.
Later, in Venice, we encountered issues with our Airbnb's heating and WiFi. Although this wasn't a huge deal and our host was communicative on the app, navigating these issues over chat made me wish I could've just spoken to a front-desk employee, like at a hotel.
Plus, with hotels, you can often easily move to another room if you have issues. With rentals, that's often not an easy option.
Overall, I think hotels could've been more consistently reliable and easier to navigate for our group.
Despite a few mishaps, I'm grateful for the wonderful memories I made with my family
At the end of the day, a slightly subpar rental or missed visit to the Trevi Fountain didn't ruin our trip.
After two weeks in Italy, we were exhausted and grateful for having made lifelong memories together.
Traveling with older family members was very different from vacationing with friends my age, but I'd do it all over again.
Courtney Ellis is a 42-year-old mom of three in Mission Viejo, California.
She found a used train set online and agreed to buy a quarter of the set.
When she went to collect the set, the seller gave her the entire set for no extra cost.
This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Courtney Ellis, author of Looking Up. It has been edited for length and clarity.
Ten years ago, my husband and I moved with our 2-year-old son from Wisconsin to California to work at a church. My husband was finishing a Ph.D., and our only source of income was a pastoral position at the church, which we split between the two of us.
We were eating through our savings just to make ends meet, living in a tiny condo, and hoping that in time, we'd both be able to take on more hours at the church.
Our first Christmas in California, I wanted to make our son's Christmas special despite the stress of money and budgeting. Retrospectively, I can now see he would have been just as happy with a cardboard box, but at the time, as his mom, I wanted to be able to give him the world.
I couldn't afford the train set
I'd recently found a train table at a garage sale for $5. Whoever had it previously had colored all over it with crayons, hence the price.
Knowing I needed trains to accompany the table, I looked online and found a beautiful Thomas the Tank Engine set just a mile away. It had all the character trains and accessories. When I saw the price, I knew I couldn't afford the full set, so I asked the seller if I could just buy a quarter of it. I knew she might say no โ that she might want to sell it as a package โ but I asked, and she agreed.
She asked what part of the set I wanted, and I requested enough tracks to make a circle and a few trains.
I was completely thrilled that we would be able to give him a gift I knew he would love on Christmas morning.
When my son fell asleep, I left him with my husband, and I drove my 20-year-old car a mile to get the train set, expecting I might arrive at a huge house. But I arrived at a small condo, much like my own. I assumed she was probably selling this train track to pay for her own kids' Christmas presents.
When she opened the door, she held out a clear Ziploc bag of train tracks and trains. I thanked her and explained that we had just moved to the area. I was so thankful she was willing to sell me just a portion of the track โ it was exactly what I had been looking for.
She gave me the entire train set
In that moment, we connected as frazzled, busy moms.
I got out the money to pay her, and she told me to wait, leaving me waiting at the front door with my money and train set in hand. I thought maybe she had forgotten one of the pieces.
She came back with three more bags of train sets. I was afraid there was a misunderstanding but I didn't want to say that I couldn't afford the rest of the set.
"Oh, I think we had just agreed on the one part of the set," I told her.
"I know," she responded. "Merry Christmas."
She handed me the bags, took my money, and closed the door behind her, leaving me on the front steps, trying to compose myself after experiencing such unexpected kindness.
I still cry thinking about that moment
I still tear up thinking about that moment. We were so financially strapped and really stressed about our budget, and she treated me with tenderness. It was life-changing, in a small way, and has stayed with me all these years later.
Recently, one of my sons told me a neighbor boy really liked these big trucks we have.
"I think I'm ready to say goodbye to my big trucks," he told me. "Can we take them over to the neighbor's house?"
Maybe at one time, I would have thought I could have gotten money for the trucks, but then I think back to how that woman gave me that extra train track. Since then, we have always tried to give as we have been given to, to pass on the gift of generosity, even in small ways. We decided to give as we have been given.
When I wrote about the train tracks on Threads, so many people commented about their own personal experiences of kindness. When we perform acts of generosity or share about how someone has been generous to us, I think it helps us and others begin to develop eyes to look for all the light around us in the middle of what can feel like darkness.
The US Navy wasted almost $2 billion on a failed effort to upgrade its cruisers, a watchdog report found.
Four Ticonderoga-class vessels in the program were decommissioned before refits were completed.
The report said schedule delays, poor planning, and quality oversight led to wasted funds.
The US Navy wasted nearly $2 billion on a failed effort to overhaul its aging cruiser fleet, a government watchdog investigation found.
After Congress rejected the Navy's 2012 proposal to retire its Ticonderoga-class cruisers,it provided funding for a 15-year ship modernization program. Since 2015, the Navy has spent roughly $3.7 billion of those funds trying to modernize seven cruisers.
But poor planning and oversight forced the sea service to decommission four of the seven cruisers mid-service, according to the Government Accountability Office. It said in a new report that "the Navy wasted $1.84 billion modernizing four cruisers that have now been divested prior to deploying."
The deactivated warships were then cannibalized for parts for the remaining cruisers in the modernization program.
Problems figuring out the future fleet
The Navy's Ticonderoga-class cruisers were the first warships to be equipped with the Aegis Combat System, an automated weapon control system designed to detect, track, and engage aerial, surface, and subsurface threats.
These warships were equipped with 122 vertical missile launchers capable of launching Tomahawk and Harpoon missiles, among other weapons, forward and aft deck guns, and two close-in weapons systems.
In 2001, the Navy started work on a new cruiser as it prepared to phase out the Ticonderoga fleet. Nine years later, it abandoned the next-generation program and instead procured upgraded versions of the Arleigh Burke-class destroyers to fill the gap before the arrival of future destroyers.
New destroyers are still being developed after the failure of the Zumwalt program and delays with the DDG(X) program.
Billions of dollars in waste
Worried about China, some lawmakers resisted the Navy's initial proposal to decommission the ships faster than it could replace them, so the modernization program was implemented instead.
The overhaul aimed to modernize the ships' aging infrastructure by replacing corroded and worn hull components, upgrading mechanical and electrical systems, and integrating more advanced sensor and radar systems. It was also designed to make the warships compatible with more advanced missile defense systems and next-generation missiles.
USS Huรฉ City
During its over three decades of service, the cruiser USS Huรฉ City provided humanitarian aid off the coast of New York in the wake of the 9/11 terror attacks and embarked on seven deployments in support of US operations in Afghanistan and other areas in the Middle East.
Despite allocating $161.15 million to upgrade the cruiser after entering the modernization program in 2018, the Navy decided to decommission the Huรฉ City in 2022, before work even started.
USS Anzio
The Anzio was decommissioned along the Huรฉ City in 2022 after 30 years of service. The cruiser participated in operations in the Mediterranean Sea, Indian Ocean, and Black Sea. The Anzio's crew also disrupted pirate activity in the Red Sea and Arabian Sea and fired over a dozen Tomahawk missiles in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom while stationed in the Persian Gulf.
The service spent $250.54 million to upgrade the Anzio but later discontinued work on the ship due to cost overruns.
USS Cowpens
The Cowpens is known for Tomahawk missile action. In 1993, the Cowpens fired 10 Tomahawks into Iraq after violating no-fly zone sanctions. A decade later, the Cowpens launched the first Tomahawk missile into Iraq at the start of Operation Iraqi Freedom.
The Navy invested $678.56 million to upgrade the Cowpens, but service officials inadequately managed the ship's maintenance and upgrades. Properly repairing and modernizing the vessel would have cost another $88 million. The Cowpens was decommissioned in August after 33 years of service.
USS Vicksburg
The Navy decommissioned USS Vicksburg at the end of June after 32 years in the fleet. It was the first ship to undergo modernization in 2016.
The Navy spent $745.05 million to upgrade the ship, but after the cruiser spent four years in the shipyard, the Navy found that the work was only 85% complete. Contractors dropped the ball on quality control while the Navy let maintenance slip to the point that key systems on the ship were simply not salvageable.
In September 2023, Navy officials found that the Vicksburg was still "years away" from completing its modernization, which would have cost another $120 million to finish.
Overhaul shortfall
Only three ships are expected to complete the modernization program โ USS Gettysburg, USS Chosin, and USS Cape St. George. The cruisers will serve until fiscal year 2030 due to a service-life extension that the Navy announced in November.
The Gettysburg was the first of the three vessels to complete its modernization in February 2023. Less than a year later, a Navy review identified defects in the ship's weapon systems and several structural issues. It wasn't until this past summer that the warship passed a missile launch test using its updated combat systems.
In September, the cruiser deployed to the Middle East with the Harry S. Truman Carrier Strike Group to help defend against Houthi attacks in the Red Sea.
USS Chosin completed its modernization in early 2024 after its nonfunctioning ventilation caused problems with the Aegis' computer equipment, delaying operational testing before it was redelivered to the Navy.
The Chosin was involved in the Navy's first successful attempt to reload a warship at sea. The Transferrable Reload At-sea Mechanism uses an apparatus of cables, rails, and pulleys to transfer missile canisters directly to a cruiser's vertical missile launchers, streamlining the reloading process at sea rather than traveling to the nearest port.
Commissioned in 1993, the Cape St. George is the youngest active Ticonderoga-class vessel. The cruiser is still undergoing modernization and slated to undergo sea trials next year. The Navy plans to deploy the cruiser at least once before decommissioning.
A temporary fix
The Navy's failed efforts to modernize its Ticonderogas highlighted the need to address flaws in the service's approach to maintaining a combat-ready fleet.
"The Navy did not effectively plan the cruiser effort," the GAO report said, adding that "this led to a high volume of unplanned work โ 9,000 contract changes โ resulting in cost growth and schedule delays."
The watchdog report said the Navy "has yet to identify the root causes of unplanned work or develop and codify root cause mitigation strategies to prevent poor planning from similarly affecting future surface ship modernization efforts."
The GAO report released earlier this week spotlighted the flaws in the Navy's modernization efforts for its cruisers. The new report followed the Navy's recently announced $10 billion effort to refurbish its older Arleigh Burke-class destroyers "to keep more ready players on the field" while it works on other shipbuilding projects, like newer Burkes and the Constellation-class frigates.
Multiple prohibited items were found in a woman's bag at Los Angeles International Airport, per the TSA.
A TSA officer flagged the bag after spotting the items in an X-ray image.
Jason Pantages, LAX TSA Federal Security Director, said the incident was "extremely concerning."
The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) said one of its officers found fireworks, knives, and other prohibited items in a woman's carry-on bag as she attempted to catch a flight at Los Angeles International Airport earlier this month.
In a recent press release, the TSA said one of its officers flagged the bag after spotting the items in an X-ray image.
"When the bag was opened with the passenger present, the TSA officer was shocked at its contents," the TSA said.
The bag, which belonged to a female passenger set to travel to Philadelphia, contained 82 consumer-grade fireworks, three knives, two replica firearms, and one canister of pepper spray, it added.
The incident occurred at LAX's Terminal 4 at around 10 p.m. local time on December 15.
The TSA said it informed the Los Angeles World Airport (LAWA) police department and that officers went to the security checkpoint and interrogated the traveler while a bomb squad confiscated the fireworks.
Jason Pantages, LAX TSA Federal Security Director, described the find as "extremely concerning."
"This traveler should have followed TSA's tried and true advice - unpack your bag before you pack it to ensure you don't bring any prohibited items to the security checkpoint," he said. "We are in the midst of the holiday travel season when security checkpoints will be busy everywhere."
The TSA reminded travelers that fireworks are not allowed on board an aircraft in carry-on or checked luggage and that knives and replica firearms should travel in checked baggage.
It also said that one four-ounce container of pepper spray is permitted in checked luggage as long as it has a safety mechanism to avoid "accidental discharge."
It comes as airports across the US brace for a busy festive season.
More than 3.2 million people are expected to pass through Los Angeles International Airport during the holidays, the Los Angeles Times reported.
The TSA, meanwhile, said it expected to screen nearly 40 million people from December 19 to January 2, up 6.2% from last year. It forecasts the busiest days as December 20, 27, and 30.
TSA and LAWA didn't immediately respond to requests for comments made outside working hours.
To be more exact, Friedman told Business Insider in a recent interview that he estimated spending about 4% of his waking hours this past year in a Waymo robotaxi, getting to and from his home and office in San Francisco.
"For me, the great thing about self-driving cars is you can really work out of them," he said. "So I just get into the Waymo, I tether my laptop to my phone, and it's basically like my office on wheels."
According to his stats from the Waymo app, which Friedman shared in a post on X, the angel investor has spent 12,536 minutes inside a Waymo, traveling 2,105 miles for a total of 517 trips in 2024.
"Hit 2,000 miles in Waymo last year," he wrote in the post. "Hard to imagine life without it at this point."
A spokesperson for Waymo confirmed to Business Insider that Friedman is in the top 1% of Waymo riders.
Friedman's enthusiasm for self-driving cars may not come as a surprise.
He was an early angel investor in Cruise, the robotaxi company founded in 2013 and acquired by General Motors three years later. Friedman said he knew Cruise cofounder Kyle Vogt back when Vogt was working on Justin.tv, which eventually became Twitch.
Vogt, who stepped down as Cruise's chief executive in 2023, recently criticized GM after the automaker announced that it was pulling back its investment in Cruise.
"In case it was unclear before, it is clear now: GM are a bunch of dummies," he wrote on X.
Friedman recalled one of his first rides in a Cruise from more than 10 years ago and reveled in the progress self-driving technology has made since then.
"I remember getting to do a very early ride in a Cruise car when it was still just driving around in parking lots, and it was very jerky and kind of terrifying โ very far from where we are now," he said. "But even at that time, there were some bold people who believed that this would be possible and 10 years and $10 billion later, it is."
Last August, Friedman said on X that he would exclusively get around San Francisco via self-driving cars since Cruise and Waymo at the time were more available to the public.
Cruise paused its robotaxi services in October 2023, shortly after California regulators suspended the company's permit to operate in the state due to several safety incidents.
Friedman said he took his first Waymo ride around the summer of last year. While he believes anyone can work in an Uber, Friedman said the Waymo experience is much smoother. He said he hasn't dealt with safety issues in any of his rides with a Waymo.
"You can do that in an Uber, but the Uber drivers are often quite aggressive," he said. "The Waymos are just very smooth drivers. You can really just focus. I think this has the potential to change the way people live and work."
Few technological innovations in his lifetime have instantly given Friedman that impression.
"One of them was the first time I picked up an iPhone," he said. "One of them was when I first used ChatGPT. And one of them was my first ride in a self-driving car."
"It was just absolutely obvious โ instantly โ that the world would never be the same," he said.