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SUMMARY

AUTONOMOUS ROBOTS PREPPED FOR CAVE SEARCH AND RESCUE MISSION ‘FOUNDATION’ BASED ON ASIMOV’S WORK THINKS BIG — GALAXY BIG SERIES 7: LARGEST EVER DISPLAY, A REFINED & DURABLE TIMEPIECE AT LONG LAST, BALLMER, CLIPPERS BREAK GROUND ON NEW HOME

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GM SAYS PRODUCTION STARTS ON REPLACEMENT BATTERIES FOR BOLTS 34 US GOVT TO PROBE ZOOM’S $14.7B FIVE9 DEAL FOR NATSEC RISKS 40 GOOGLE TO SPEND $2.1 BILLION ON MANHATTAN CAMPUS ACQUISITION 48 FACEBOOK OVERSIGHT BOARD REVIEWING ‘XCHECK’ SYSTEM FOR VIPS 78 BILLIONAIRES ROCKETING INTO SPACE DRAW UN CHIEF’S RED GLARE 94 5 STEPS TO LEVEL UP YOUR SIDE HUSTLE 100 FED LIKELY TO SIGNAL A COMING PULLBACK IN ECONOMIC SUPPORT 108 DON’T LET SOCIAL SECURITY STEER YOU WRONG 116 WITH EMPATHY, CHASTAIN PLAYS TAMMY FAYE BAKKER 140 NETFLIX BUYS WONKA AUTHOR DAHL’S CATALOG 148 APPLE, GOOGLE RAISE NEW CONCERNS BY YANKING RUSSIAN APP 162 CHINA SETS UP PLATFORM TO POLICE GAMING FIRM VIOLATIONS 172 MAN SENTENCED TO 12 YEARS IN $200 MILLION PHONE-FRAUD SCHEME 176 HUNGARY STATUE HONORING MYSTERIOUS BITCOIN FOUNDER UNVEILED 182 UK ENERGY CRISIS: GOVT IN CO2 DEAL TO AVERT FOOD SHORTAGES 188

MOVIES & TV SHOWS 124 MUSIC 132 TOP 10 ALBUMS 152 TOP 10 MUSIC VIDEOS 154 TOP 10 TV SHOWS 156 TOP 10 BOOKS 158 TOP 10 SONGS 160

AUTONOMOUS ROBOTS PREPPED FOR CAVE SEARCH AND RESCUE MISSION

After practicing in a former limestone mine and an abandoned hospital outside of Pittsburgh, a fleet of robots from Carnegie Mellon University is headed to Kentucky for the final test of the ability to autonomously navigate an uncertain, underground course. The challenge: Collect as many objects as possible in one hour while navigating a cave in Louisville, Ky. The goal: Create autonomous robots to help with search and rescue missions for military and first responders. The kicker: There’s only one operator and a fleet that could include a dozen robots, so the machines must be able to move and make decisions on their own. 09

It’s hard enough to make autonomous robots useful above ground. This CMU team is trying to do it in the depths below. “At the heart of this challenge, it’s really a problem of exploration,” said Sebastian Scherer, the colead for CMU’s team and an associate research professor at the Robotics Institute. “You’re going into an environment that you’ve never been into, so with that comes a lot of uncertainty and the robot needs to be able to decide what do I do when I face uncertainty.” The researchers and students at CMU partnered with Oregon State University to create their fleet, dubbed Team Explorer. The group is competing next week for a shot at the $2 million grand prize in the final round of the DARPA Subterranean Challenge, a competition hosted by the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency to develop autonomous tech that navigates underground scenarios. DARPA has hosted similar races in the past — and CMU has made a name for itself in several competitions, ranging from those focused on self-driving technology to those developing software that helps with language translation and document understanding, said Martial Hebert, the dean of the School of Computer Science. In 2007, a Pittsburgh team won the DARPA Urban Challenge, a race to develop a self-driving vehicle that could move through traffic, navigate intersections, merge and park. That, in turn, led to advances in the field of self-driving car research and propelled some team members to create their own companies, including Aurora and Argo AI. These types of challenges help researchers “discover the real problems,” Mr. Hebert said. “By 10

having this type of challenge scenario, it pushes us to identify what is the next frontier, what is the next problem, really, that we must address.” The DAPRA Subterranean Challenge, or SubT, is focused on autonomous robots that can navigate an underground course and be able to handle the uncertainty of an environment they haven’t seen before. The researchers also won’t see the course before sending their machines in. To them, it’s like putting your robots in a “black hole,” said Matt Travers, another Team Explorer co-lead and a systems scientist at the Robotics Institute. There’s no GPS and no communications, he said. The teams will each have 60 minutes to navigate the course in search of roughly 40 objects, including things like fire extinguishers, ropes and a helmet with a light on it. The objects and the course will simulate what a robot might find in an underground disaster scenario, as if it were sent on a search and rescue mission in a real-world application, the researchers said. “For a lot of rescue situations, it takes a long time for people to get in,” Mr. Scherer said. “You first have to make sure that it’s safe, that there’s no gases. ...The idea is that these (robots) can go in very quickly, give you a lot of awareness and then you can send people in or your other robots.” Now helping to lead the team, Mr. Scherer also participated as a student on CMU’s team for both the DARPA Urban challenge and the Grand challenge, which focused on self-driving technology to navigate a desert land scape.

CMU’s fleet for the SubT challenge includes four small drones, three large drones, three ground robots and two walking robots. Part of the challenge in creating their fleet was bringing all the different types of technology, Mr. Scherer said. Think of it like a human team, he suggested. Some colleagues will get along better than others and there’s bound to be some “friction” when all the co-workers come together. Just like a team of human co-workers have strengths and weaknesses among the group, the fleet of robots is also built to cover different tasks. Some robots are better at handling stairs, for example, while others are built for squeezing through narrow spaces, Mr. Scherer said. For now, the human operator will help the robots determine who is best suited to handle different tasks but, eventually, he hopes that decision making becomes part of the machine’s autonomous capabilities. In designing the technology, Team Explorer also had to consider the “hierarchy of autonomy,” said Steven Willits, the lead test engineer and a research scientist at CMU. That starts with a “local planner,” or software that helps the machine decide what to do based on its surroundings. That’s what keeps it from bumping into objects or falling off a cliff, Mr. Willits said. Then, the team layered on more tech that creates a “global planner,” which helps the machines paint a picture of the entire environment around them and communicate with one another. That helps make sure the robots don’t cover the same ground as other fleet members. 15

Team Explorer is also preparing for its robots to fail. Some will get stuck, some won’t survive the course and some will take a wrong turn. The goal, Mr. Scherer said, is to make sure the robots and the fleet overall are resilient enough to recover from those failures. “We expect these systems to get into trouble, and they’ll have to be able to get out of it themselves,” he said. The teams have been working on their fleets for more than three years, after the competition kicked off in September 2018. Over the course of the challenge, CMU and Oregon State have already taken home a first-place prize in the first round, which had the robots navigating a research mine in South Park Township, outside Pittsburgh. The mine is operated by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. Team Explorer also scored second place in the next round of competition, a course through an abandoned nuclear power plant in Olympia, Wash. For the final round, Team Explorer is up against seven other groups for a prize purse that includes $2 million for the first-place winner, $1 million for the runner-up and $500,000 for the third-place team. Team Explorer includes about 20 people that are “core” members and roughly 100 that are involved in an extended team, Mr. Scherer said.

‘FOUNDATION’ BASED ON ASIMOV’S WORK THINKS BIG, GALAXY BIG

Most TV dramas try to tell stories over a few years with maybe half a dozen central characters. The new series “Foundation” is a bit more ambitious — try 400 years and 25 million worlds. To say it’s sweeping doesn’t do it justice. Worldbuilding is one thing. “Foundation,” a four-year project debuting on Apple TV+ on Friday, is galaxy-building. “I love being transported in story. I love epics. I love generational sagas. And so I just wanted to go for it,” said David S. Goyer, the series’ cocreator, executive producer and showrunner. “Foundation” is built on author Isaac Asimov’s short stories that he started writing just after World War II as a 21-year-old and have gone on 21

to become a cornerstone of the sci-fi genre. The series is ambitious enough to redefine sci-fi onscreen. The saga begins 12,000 years in the future. Under the rule of the Galactic Empire, humanity has spread to the far corners of the galaxy and it has been peaceful, though authoritarian. Brilliant scientist Hari Seldon (played by Jared Harris) has discovered a mathematical theory that proves the empire is crumbling. Is he right? “Do you trust the math?” he asks. “When you got a character who can predict the future, the question is, ‘Is he predicting the future or a possible future? And in a world where you can predict the mass movements of civilization, does one person’s will matter? Do I matter in the broad scheme of things? Does it matter what choices I make?’” Goyer asks. Visually stunning and inventive, the series explores the trade-offs between individual liberty and the dangerous safety of dynastic rule, the notions of fate and free will, and extremism and dissent. It’s a series that puts science and math at the center of life, streaming into homes at a time when the facts of science are being challenged everywhere. “Math is never just numbers,” goes one line in the show. “In the wrong hands, it’s a weapon. In the right hands, deliverance.” Our guide is a gifted mathematician Gaal Dornick (actor Lou Llobell), who leaves her distant planet to go to the home of the empire and is as wideeyed as the folks watching at home on their couch. “I think she’s an ally for the audience,” says Llobell, whose character was male in the books. “I think 25

that’s quite a cool tool for the audience to kind of feel like they have someone that they can trust and follow and learn about all these worlds.” Goyer, whose screenwriting credits include “The Dark Knight” and “Batman Begins,” had been offered the chance to adapt Asimov’s “Foundation” earlier in his career as a feature film but turned it down. Back then, the notion was to condense it. His new 10-part series goes the opposite direction. “I was excited about the possibility of having enough real estate so that I could expand it and expound upon it,” he says. “It was the most ambitious thing I ever attempted even prior to the pandemic, and then once the pandemic hit, it just became so monumental that it was almost funny.” The look of the series is bold and arresting, mixing old and futuristic. There are laser cannons and yet flickering candles, Roman Empire-inspired costumes and biohacking. Simple water jugs sit beside hologram devices. It might be a time of massive space ships, but their commanders might sip from old-timey liquor flasks. Goyer says he wanted a classic, timeless feel. “I wanted the show to be very cinematic. I didn’t want to film a bunch of it against green screen. I wanted to get out in the world. We filmed about 60% of it on location in six different countries. That was really important to me because I wanted it to be visceral and textural.” The series jumps back and forth in time — centuries and decades can flash forward — and Goyer did not want to lean on pre-existing 27

props. Even basic items were rethought, like ingenious-looking wine glasses with the liquid filling the hollow stem. “There’s nothing that we can go to a store and just pick off the shelf. We had to manufacture everything and I mean everything,” he says. The show also had to solve its own scientific problems, like how to fold space. The answer: Each spacecraft needed to generate its own black hole. Llobell recalls filming on a soundstage in Limerick, Ireland, where the design team had built a replica of her character’s water-covered planet. “You walked in and you smelt the ocean. You could smell fish and algae and it stank,” she says. ”It was amazing because you were there.” It turns out her character’s water-covered planet wasn’t always so wet. The population there is going through a dark age where knowledge is forbidden, leading to warming and rising seas. “Foundation” preserves Asimov’s prescience. “This is a show about climate change. It’s a show about #MeToo. It’s a show about the rise of factionalism and nationalism, Brexit. And now it’s a show about a pandemic and the collision between science and politics,” says Goyer. Actor Leah Harvey plays the warden of a city on a planet at the farthest edge of the galaxy. Harvey laughs that despite all the high level quantum calculations, many in the galaxy refuse to acknowledge the truth. “So many people can’t understand it, but they question whether or not it’s true. And that is definitely a relatable thing in this world at the moment,” Harvey says.

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SUPERSTEAM+ BUILT-IN WALL OVEN ™

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www.sharpusa.com | simplybetterliving.sharpusa.com *Mobile Application and Home Assistant Skill available upon commercial release. © 2020 Sharp Electronics Corporation. All rights reserved. Sharp, Supersteam™ Oven and all related trademarks are trademarks or registered trademarks of Sharp Corporation and/or its affiliated entities. Product specifications and design are subject to change without notice. Internal capacity calculated by measuring maximum width, depth and height. Actual capacity for holding food is less.

GM SAYS PRODUCTION STARTS ON REPLACEMENT BATTERIES FOR BOLTS

General Motors said that production has resumed for battery modules used in recalled Chevrolet Bolt electric vehicles, and customers could start getting replacement parts by mid-October. GM said supplier LG has restarted production at plants in Holland and Hazel Park, Michigan, and is adding capacity to make more battery cells. The recall follows reports of 13 battery fires, GM said, which can occur when two separate defects are present in the battery modules. More than 140,000 Bolts are covered by the recall, which is expect to cost $1.8 billion. GM said it continues to negotiate with LG over who will pay. Shares of General Motors Co. fell more than 5% in afternoon trading. 34

GM said it expects over the next 60 days to develop diagnostic battery software that will let car owners charge their cars unattended and to full power. Currently, owners are told to limit charging to 90% and to park outdoors. GM and LG have been looking into how to fix the batteries. “We absolutely have figured out how these defects happened ... to make sure that they can’t happen going forward, and that’s what started our production up again,” Tim Grewe, GM’s director of battery cell engineering, told reporters this week. Grewe said the company’s goal in rebuilding customer confidence is to “statistically prove that none of these defects can get out of our factories.” For the recall, customers will be ranked according to where their battery was made and their recharging style. Owners who usually run their batteries nearly to zero power before recharging raise the risk of a fire, company officials said. GM shut down its Orion plant where Bolts are manufactured through the week of Oct. 11. It gave no update for resuming production there. The recall is a hitch in GM’s push to sell more electric cars and eventually sell only emissionsfree vehicles. And, along with recalls involving Ford, BMW and Hyundai, it has raised safety questions about lithium-ion batteries that are used in nearly all electric vehicles. GM issued the first Bolt recall last November after getting reports of fires, one of which spread to a house.

US GOVT TO PROBE ZOOM’S $14.7B FIVE9 DEAL FOR NATSEC RISKS

A U.S. government committee that reviews foreign investment in telecom is probing videoconferencing company Zoom’s $14.7 billion deal for cloud call center company Five9. In an August filing with the Federal Communications Commission, the Justice Department, which chairs the committee, said it would review the deal “to determine whether this application poses a risk to the national security or law enforcement interests of the United States.” The Justice Department “believes that such risk may be raised by the foreign participation (including the foreign relationships and ownership) associated with the application.” The Wall Street Journal first reported the probe. The Justice Department did not say in its filing what the foreign ties of concern were and spokesperson Wyn Hornbuckle declined to answer questions. Five9 spokesperson Allison Wilson declined to comment. Zoom said in an emailed statement that it anticipates getting the required regulatory approvals and closing the Five9 deal in the first half of 2022. Zoom spokesperson CJ Lin did not respond to further questions. Zoom is based in San Jose, California, and says more than half of its employees are in the U.S. But it has a “sizable number” of research and development workers in China, which the company has noted has exposed it to government and media scrutiny. Zoom’s CEO, Eric Yuan, was born in China and became a U.S. citizen in 2007. The company said in a late August regulatory filing that it is cooperating with ongoing 42

investigations by prosecutors in New York and California, who last summer had sent subpoenas that asked about interactions with the Chinese government, among other things. Zoom last year drew attention for blocking online meetings related to Beijing’s 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown and temporarily suspending the accounts of three U.S. or Hong Kong-based activists at the request of the Chinese government. The company then said it would no longer “allow requests from the Chinese government to impact anyone outside of mainland China.” Tensions in recent years have increased between Washington and Beijing, with disputes over trade, technology, cybersecurity and human rights. The U.S. government has taken a tougher stance on Chinese investment, with more scrutiny of deals. Zoom has said that buying San Ramon, California-based Five9 will accelerate its growth and give it access to more business clients. Zoom Video Communications Inc. went public in early 2019, before the pandemic made the company a household name with the shift to online school and work.

GOOGLE TO SPEND $2.1 BILLION ON MANHATTAN CAMPUS ACQUISITION

Google is planning to buy New York City’s St. John’s Terminal for $2.1 billion, making it the anchor of its Hudson Square campus. The announcement arrives with the city buffeted by the pandemic and most offices still largely unpopulated. While CEO Sundar Pichai said in a blog post late last month that Google is delaying its global return to offices until Jan. 10, the commitment by the company to further invest in New York City real estate was trumpeted both by Gov. Kathy Hochul and New York City Mayor Bill De Blasio, who called it “one of the shots in the arm we need as part of our comeback.” 49

“Google is leading the way here in our economic comeback but also further asserting what we know more and more: New York City is now one of the great tech capitals in the world,” de Blasio said at a virtual news conference this week. Google’s had a footprint in New York City for more than two decades and it is the company’s largest location outside of California. Its 1.7 million-square-foot Hudson Square campus is on the Hudson River just south of the New York University campus and Greenwich Village. “As Google moves toward a more flexible hybrid approach to work, coming together in person to collaborate and build community will remain an important part of our future,” the company’s Chief Financial Officer said. “It is why we continue investing in our offices around the world. Our decision to exercise our option to purchase St. John’s Terminal further builds upon our existing plans to invest more than $250 million this year in our New York campus presence.” Google currently leases the St. John’s Terminal property and expects to open its new space there by the middle of 2023. The company anticipates that its investment will add another 14,000 employees in New York City.

Series 7 Largest ever display, a refined & durable timepiece

Despite numerous reports that Apple would overhaul the design of this year’s Apple Watch, the announcement of a Series 7 smartwatch was a more muted affair. Still, the wearable packs its punch with a number of new features, including a re-engineered display that helps to maximize the screen area, an improved battery life, and tonnes of under-the-hood tweaks.

INTRODUCING THE APPLE WATCH SERIES 7 The Apple Watch has single-handedly revolutionized the smartwatch industry, helping users stay in control of their lifestyles and activity levels and saving dozens of lives in the process. It’s little wonder why Apple Watch is now one of Apple’s most popular and highly-anticipated product categories, so it

was no surprise to learn that rumors of a Series 7 featuring an all-new design were rife. Apple had been poised to work on a Series 7 with a square-edge display, inspired by the iPad Pro and iMac 2021 design language, but it appears that the Cupertino company decided to take a different approach. Apple has reportedly been plagued with production issues for this year’s smartwatch, so much so that its release has been delayed, but we at least know what the model will look like and how much it will cost ahead of release. The new model will be sold in five beautiful new aluminum case finishes, along with a range of new band colors and styles, and go on sale later this year. Speaking at the September Event, Jeff Williams, Apple’s chief operating officer,

Bigger screen. Epic durability. | Apple Watch Series 7 | Apple

said: “Apple Watch Series 7 delivers significant improvements — from our largest and most advanced display, to enhanced durability and faster charging — making the world’s best smartwatch better than ever before. Powered by watchOS 8, Apple Watch brings useful new capabilities to help customers stay connected, track activity and workouts, and understand their overall health and wellness.”

A REFINED DESIGN Granted, the Series 7 design might not be as striking as we’d seen in some leaked renders, but it’s still a refinement on the now-iconic smartwatch. Apple has transformed the display of the Apple Watch Series 7 and it now offers almost 20% more screen real estate, with thinner borders that are just 1.7mm thin. Compare it to the Series 3, and even the Series 6, and you’ll see just how far the smartwatch has come in recent years. The model comes with an Always-On Retina display that’s up to 70% brighter indoors than that of Apple Watch Series 6, so you can see your watch face without having to lift the wrist or wake the display, and Apple has tweaked the user interface to maximize the shape and size of the new display. Indeed, for the very first time on Apple Watch, there’s a QWERTY keyboard that can be tapped or swiped, so you can send full-on text messages and email from your wrist for the first time. What’s more, watchOS 8 adds larger menu titles and buttons in apps like Stopwatch, Activity, and Alarms to make the screen simpler to use, which should go some way in combatting the oft-controversial ‘sausage finger’ complaints. One thing that makes this year’s Apple 63

Watch even more attractive is that it sports a redesigned front crystal with stronger, more robust geometry that is 50% thicker than the Series 6. This makes the model more crackresistant without compromising optical clarity, and for the first time, it’s IP6X dust-resistant, making it more durable in environments like the beach or the desert, without compromising on swimming performance or water resistance. Apple has also confirmed it will bring faster charging to the Apple Watch Series 7. It offers an impressive 18-hour battery life on a single charge, and now charges 33% faster than the Apple Watch Series 6 thanks to a new charging architecture and Magnetic Fast Charger USB-C Cable. One common complaint about the Apple 66

Watch was that, if you wanted to wear it in bed to monitor your sleep, you’d need to take it off for hours. According to some reports, the new model will charge enough to track eight hours of sleep in just 8 minutes, so if you place it on the charger whilst you get ready for bed, it should be good to go all night.

MAXIMIZING THE SMARTWATCH WITH WATCHOS Earlier in the year, Apple announced the next update to its Apple Watch operating system, and at September’s event, the company confirmed new features and enhancements designed exclusively for its new hardware. Indeed, watchOS 8 debuts additional watch 67

faces designed especially for the larger display on Apple Watch Series 7, like the Contour face which takes the dial right to the edge of the display and fluidly animates throughout the day, whilst the Modular Duo face allows users to add two large, data-rich center complications like Activity and Weather. There’s also a classic World Time face, based on heritage watches and ideal for travelers, as well as Portraits which uses depth capabilities of iPhone Portrait mode to compose a personalized experience, with users’ heads appearing over the clock.

Apple will also include a new Mindfulness app to replace the previous Breathe app, as well as sleep respiratory rate tracking, and Tai Chi and Pilates workout types can help improve overall wellness. Apple has brought the Wallet and Home apps to the Apple Watch to offer more convenient access to the car and places users live, work, and visit, and the Messages and Photos apps have been improved to offer a better user experience from the wrist. There are new features for cyclists, too, with new advanced algorithms to analyze GPS, heart rate, accelerometer, and gyroscope data to detect when users begin a ride, and prompts them to

Introducing Apple Watch Series 7 | Apple

start an Outdoor Cycle workout if one was not initiated. Apple has also added an auto-pause and resume option for cyclists, so metrics can properly reflect when users are moving and when they’re stopped off for a rest or to admire the view. Users can even track their active calories when riding an e-bike, with Apple’s updated cycling workout algorithm evaluating the heart rates and GPS data to determine when users ride electric-powered and leg-powered bikes. What’s more, Apple has added new voice feedback through the Apple Watch and to AirPods to automatically announce workout milestones and Activity ring status, great for motivating users who want to reach goals such as calorie, distance, or workout minute goals. Apple launched fall detection back in 2018, and since then it’s helped offer users peace of mind and ensure that should a person fall hard, they can initiate a call to emergency services right from the wrist. With watchOS 8, fall detection algorithms are updated and optimized for detecting falls during workouts, including when cycling, making it a more convenient tool. Apple has said it will ship the Apple Watch Series 7 later this fall. Be sure to visit our website, AppleMagazine.com, for the latest updates and announcements on the new watch, which we’ll bring to you as soon as we get them. In the United States, the Apple Watch Series 7 will start at $399, whilst the Apple Watch SE will be available from $279, and the Apple Watch Series 3 - the only numbered watch to remain in the line-up outside of the Series 7 - will be sold from $199 in the United States. Trade-ins can lower those prices.

Though Apple might not have made as many changes to the Apple Watch this year as in previous years, it’s still an impressive refinement that makes the smartwatch more powerful than ever before. We can’t wait to get our hands on the new model when it drops this fall.

FACEBOOK OVERSIGHT BOARD REVIEWING ‘XCHECK’ SYSTEM FOR VIPS

Facebook’s semi-independent oversight board says it will review the company’s “XCheck,” or cross check, system following an investigation by The Wall Street Journal into the use of this internal system that has exempted high-profile users from some or all of its rules. The board said that it expects to have a briefing with Facebook on the matter and “will be reporting what we hear from this” as part of a report it will publish in October. It may also make other recommendations, although Facebook is not bound to follow these. 78

The Journal’s report found that many VIP users abuse the system, “posting material including harassment and incitement to violence that would typically lead to sanctions.” For certain elite users, Facebook’s rules don’t seem to apply. Facebook Inc. had told The Journal that the system “was designed for an important reason: to create an additional step so we can accurately enforce policies on content that could require more understanding.” The company added that criticism of it was “fair” and that it was working to fix it. A representative for Facebook declined to comment. The Journal’s report, the board said, has drawn “renewed attention to the seemingly inconsistent way that the company makes decisions, and why greater transparency and independent oversight of Facebook matter so much for users.” 80

AT LONG LAST, BALLMER, CLIPPERS BREAK GROUND ON NEW HOME

The design meetings have been going on for years. Technology has evolved throughout the process. Painstaking decisions were made time and time again, right down to what an inch or two difference in leg room between rows would mean or where cupholders should be affixed to the seats. Finally, Steve Ballmer and the Los Angeles Clippers are ready to build their new home. The Clippers’ long-awaited, $1.8 billion, privately funded arena officially got a name — Intuit Dome, it’ll be called when it opens in 2024, the team making that announcement hours before the formal groundbreaking ceremony. The practice facility, team offices for both business and basketball operations, retail space and more will all be on the site. 84

Ballmer, the team’s owner, simply believes it’ll be like no other building in the NBA. “Basketball mecca! Basketball palazzo!” Ballmer, in his usual excitable way, said in an interview. He might be right. Every detail — from the huge two-sided halo video screen that will hover over the court, to the triple-wide escalators, to how the bathrooms will be designed to get fans back in their seats as quickly as possible — has a purpose. The halo will include 44,000 square feet of 4K LED lighting, slightly more than one full acre and roughly six times the average size of other “big” screens in NBA buildings. The roof of the dome was designed to accommodate the halo, not the other way around. Things the Clippers have seen in play at German soccer stadiums, other NBA buildings, NFL stadiums, even the Amazon Go checkout-free convenience stores all sparked various ideas that will be put into play at Intuit Dome. “They’ve all led us here, to this vacant lot that we’re about to transform to the singular best place for fans and players throughout the world,” Ballmer said. The Clippers currently play at Staples Center, also the home of the Los Angeles Lakers and the NHL’s Los Angeles Kings. Ballmer — who originally didn’t want to build an arena when he bought the team — wound up beginning to plot a Clippersonly home years ago and formally unveiled the project in 2019, saying then that the Clippers would break ground in 2021 and open in 2024. So far, even with a pandemic and following some legal challenges, he’s right on schedule. 87

The Clippers often felt like tenants at Staples Center, sometimes playing 12:30 p.m. games — which they loathed — because the Lakers or Kings would be playing later that day in the same building. “We don’t want to play in anybody’s shadow,” Ballmer said. Soon, they’ll have a home of their own, built to what Ballmer says are ideal specifications for basketball and music. “Today, a construction site but tomorrow, a global destination for basketball fans, music lovers and anyone who’s ever been moved to stand with 18,000 voices that echo as one,” Clippers President of Business Operations Gillian Zucker said. Technology will be everywhere, such as some that would allow fans to leave their seat, walk to a concession stand in the concourse, grab a beverage or snack and then — if they do as Ballmer hopes — get right back to their seat. There would be no cashier, nobody to take the order, and the customer’s account would be charged automatically. Other than the payingfor-it part, it would be akin to opening the refrigerator at home, getting a drink and going back to the couch. Even the best suites won’t have big televisions. The reason is simple: Ballmer wants fans watching the game from their seat and being part of a home-court advantage. “It’s about the game of basketball ... and we’re trying to get you back in your seat as quickly as we can,” Ballmer said. He wants them comfortable in those seats, too. The leg room — which will be a constant 88

throughout the arena, from the lowest rows all the way to the very top — is going to far exceed the standard in most buildings. “We treated like the upper bowl like the lower bowl,” Ballmer said. “Nobody gets a bad seat, no matter where you sit in the building.” His favorite feature: It’ll be known as The Wall. Beyond the end of the court where Clippers’ opponents will have their bench will be 51 uninterrupted rows of seats, room for about 4,700 fans, with a standing-room-only section in the middle of it all. There’s no upper or lower deck there, just row after row after row of what Ballmer hopes is a bunch of fans that, well, act like he does during games. Again, it was designed with a purpose. Acoustics experts were brought in to ensure that The Wall generates as much sound as possible. “I mean, if we’ve got to do it right, we’ve got to get the fans there activated,” Ballmer said. Put simply, one of the league’s best-known fans, and one of the world’s wealthiest men — the former Microsoft CEO is generally believed to be worth around $100 billion — may be building the coolest possible basketball hangout for himself and 18,000 of his closest friends. “That’s a very well-put statement,” Ballmer said.

BILLIONAIRES ROCKETING INTO SPACE DRAW UN CHIEF’S RED GLARE

Space, we have an equity problem. When three billionaires rocketed into space this summer, they did more than escape Earth’s surly bonds, they helped spread “a malady of mistrust” plaguing an all-too hungry world, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told other world leaders this week. In his opening speech to the General Assembly, a grim Guterres highlighted the gap between the rich and poor with “billionaires joyriding to space while millions go hungry on Earth.” In July, billionaires Richard Branson and Jeff Bezos flew into space on private rockets that their companies built, gathering worldwide attention in their short trips that didn’t make it into orbit. Both bank on space tourism business from their fellow space fans with big wallets. After returning to Earth, Branson, 71, sprayed G.H. Mumm champagne over his crew and then chugged it from the bottle. 95

Billionaire Jared Isaacman led the first allprivate orbital mission that splashed down last Saturday after three days in orbit. His flight was on a Dragon capsule and Space X rocket built by a fourth space-obsessed billionaire, Elon Musk. Unlike the other two missions, Isaacman’s ride raised more than $200 million for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital including $100 million from Isaacman and $50 million from Musk. Guterres lumped billionaire space hops with the maladies of hopelessness, corruption, curtailing of personal freedoms and “when parents see a future for their children that looks even bleaker than the struggles of today.” After Branson and Bezos spaceflights and revelations that Bezos, the richest man in the world, didn’t pay any federal income tax in 2007 and 2011, critics called for taxing billionaires with some wanting to tax them out of the 10-digit income level. So far those proposals, unlike the billionaires, haven’t gotten off the ground.

5 STEPS TO LEVEL UP YOUR SIDEHUSTLE

The pandemic isn’t crushing the entrepreneurial spirit. It’s fueling it. People normally tied to a desk or working double shifts used lockdown to launch side hustles, often out of necessity. And some have turned those side gigs into full-fledged businesses. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 427,842 new business applications were filed in August 2021 alone. That figure was 288, 026 in August 2019. While a side gig can be spontaneous, growing a legit business requires research, planning and organization. Otherwise, your fledgling enterprise could crash and burn in a couple of years. 100

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These basic but essential steps can help you take things to the next level and give your new venture a shot at staying power.

CHOOSE A BUSINESS STRUCTURE There are six common types of business entities: sole proprietorship, general partnership, limited partnership, C corporation, S corporation and limited liability company. The option you choose determines how your business is taxed, as well as who is financially responsible if your business is sued. Entrepreneurs often default to sole proprietorship because it’s the easiest, but it’s also the riskiest, says Nellie Akalp, CEO and co-founder of corpnet.com, a document filing service that helps streamline the business formation process for entrepreneurs. “There is no registration required nor are there corporate requirements,” Akalp says. But “there is no legal separation from the company, so the sole proprietor is personally responsible for any debts or liabilities.” Registering as an LLC or corporation is more expensive and requires more paperwork, but it shields your personal assets from lawsuits.

OPEN A BUSINESS BANK ACCOUNT Mixing business and personal finances can get messy, especially when it comes to filing taxes or securing a business loan. Open a business checking account to keep business income and expenses organized and easily accessible. Look for a business account that has low or no monthly fees and fits your business needs in terms of transaction and deposit limits. 103

A business credit card can also help you track expenses and identify tax deductions. Plus, you can earn rewards, like cash back on gas, office supplies and business consulting services.

UPGRADE YOUR BOOKKEEPING No more manual spreadsheets or shoeboxes full of receipts; scale up to an accounting software that can do some of the heavy lifting for you, like tracking cash flow, managing invoices and generating reports. Expect a learning curve with any new system, but know that it will help your operation run more smoothly. The right accounting software can also give you deeper insights into your business and help you identify weak points and opportunities to save money. “Accounting is the language of business, so invest time and money into understanding how to do your books,” says Danetha Doe, founder of Money and Mimosas, a financial education platform for independent contractors, freelancers and smallbusiness owners. “As a business owner, learning how to manage your company’s finances, read profit and loss statements, and understanding cash flows will make you a better entrepreneur.”

SPELL OUT YOUR BUSINESS PLAN Your side hustle may have started organically, but turning it into a full-fledged business requires research and planning. Sketch out short- and long-term goals for your business, along with a sales plan, financial projections and potential roadblocks. Be realistic, set specific targets and spell out how you plan to reach them. 104

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Building a business plan gives you a road map for how to grow your business. It also shows lenders you’ve done your homework should you need to secure a business loan. Need help with your business plan? Turn to your local Small Business Development Center. These outposts are run by the U.S. Small Business Administration and offer free business consulting services.

INVEST IN PROFESSIONAL HELP Entrepreneurs, by nature, wear many hats. But you don’t need to wear all the hats. Outsourcing some aspects of your business frees you up to focus on other things, like customer service or product development. Not hip to social media? Consider hiring someone to build and manage your business’s presence on Instagram, TikTok and the like. Do tax forms make your eyes cross? Invest in a certified public accountant to file for you. “CPAs may be more expensive than doing taxes on your own, but it will be done right,” says John Pham, founder of The Money Ninja, a personal finance website. “Plus, they will maximize your tax deductions, which will most likely give you a higher return than the cost of a CPA.”

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FED LIKELY TO SIGNAL A COMING PULLBACK IN ECONOMIC SUPPORT

The Federal Reserve is expected this week to send its clearest signal yet that it will start reining in its ultra-low-interest rate policies later this year, a first step toward unwinding the extraordinary support it’s given the economy since the pandemic struck 18 months ago. Many economists think the Fed will formally announce a pullback in November, in response to a steady recovery from the pandemic recession and an acceleration in inflation that has raised widespread concerns. This week’s Fed policy meeting could lay the groundwork for that announcement. Fed officials are set to keep their short-term benchmark interest rate, which affects many consumer and business loans, near zero. They are also likely maintain their $120 billion in monthly bond purchases, which are intended to hold Image: Kevin Lamarque

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down long-term loan rates. In December, the Fed said it would continue those purchases until the economy had made “substantial further progress” toward its goals of maximum employment and annual inflation averaging 2% over time. In a speech last month, Fed Chair Jerome Powell said such progress had already been met for inflation, with prices having spiked this year amid shortages of manufactured goods and components, from cars and computer chips to paint and building materials. Powell also said “clear progress” had been achieved in job growth and that if hiring remained healthy, it “could be appropriate” to start reducing the bond purchases this year. A surprisingly weak August jobs report made it less likely that the Fed would formally announce a reduction in September and more likely it would do so in November or December. The central bank could signal in a statement it will release after its meeting ends that it plans to soon announce a reduction in the pace of its bond purchases, and Powell could reinforce that message in a news conference to follow. “A dud of an October jobs report could change these plans,” said Michael Feroli, an economist at JPMorgan Chase and a former Fed staffer, “but it would probably take something quite bad to knock them off track now.” The Fed also updated its quarterly projections for growth, unemployment and inflation through 2024. It will also provide a forecast for how its benchmark rate will change into 2024. In their previous such estimate in June, Fed officials collectively forecast that they would begin raising their key short-term rate in 2023. 110

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This week, it’s possible that the updated forecast will predict the first rate hike by the end of 2022. The Fed’s rate forecasts are unlikely to prove accurate, particularly for 2024. But they can provide insights into how quickly policymakers think they will need to raise rates in coming years. At his news conference, Powell will face a delicate task: He will try to signal that the Fed will soon begin withdrawing its economic stimulus, while simultaneously reassuring investors, consumers and business leaders that it won’t move so fast as to derail the recovery from the recession. And Powell will surely stress that a move to pare — or “taper” — its bond purchases doesn’t mean the Fed will soon begin raising its benchmark rate, a step that would have a bigger impact on the economy over time. “He has has to strike a fine balance between continuing to be accommodative, while inching toward the exit,” said Priya Misra, head of global rates strategy at TD Securities. One way to reassure investors would be to signal a relatively slow pace of tapering. The Fed is now buying $80 billion in Treasurys and $40 billion in mortgage bonds each month. Many economists expect it to reduce the Treasury purchases by $10 billion a month and mortgage-backed bonds by $5 billion. That would mean the taper would take about eight months to complete. But some presidents of regional Fed banks worry that current high levels of inflation will persist well into 2022 and are pushing for the taper to finish by the middle of next year, so the Fed could start raising rates in the second half of 2022. These officials include James Bullard of the St. Louis Fed and Raphael Bostic of the Atlanta Fed. 112

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And Fed Vice Chair Richard Clarida, a close Powell ally, surprised many observers last month by suggesting that the Fed’s goals of maximum employment and 2% annual inflation could be met by the end of 2022 — a sign that Clarida could support a rate hike then. If this week’s updated forecasts envision an initial rate hike sometime next year, that would mean a rate hike would quickly follow tapering and would suggest that the Fed is worried about excessive inflation. The last time the Fed started reducing bond purchases was in December 2013, after the Great Recession. It took 10 months to taper those purchases. The Fed then didn’t raise its short-term rate until more than a year later, in December 2015. A quick taper and a rate hike in 2022 would be a more aggressive timetable than financial markets now expect. David Wilcox, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics and a former director of research at the Fed, said that even though higher inflation could persist longer than the Fed may have initially expected, it could still fade as the economy normalizes, without requiring higher interest rates. “Holding back may be the right answer,” he said. John Williams, president of the New York Fed, suggested last week that the Fed won’t raise rates until it’s reached its goal of maximum employment. Though the Fed hasn’t defined that goal, it is likely an unemployment rate below 4%. The jobless rate was 5.2% in August. “There is still a long way to go,” Williams said.

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DON’T LET SOCIAL SECURITY STEER YOU WRONG

Few retirement decisions are as critical, or as easy to get wrong, as when and how to take your Social Security benefits. The rules can be so convoluted that many people rely on what they’re told by Social Security employees, but that could prove to be an expensive mistake. Certified financial planner Kate Gregory of Huntington Beach, California, uses sophisticated Social Security claiming software to recommend strategies that maximize clients’ lifetime benefits. Gregory advised one of her clients, a widow, to apply for her own small retirement benefit first so that her survivor benefit could grow, then switch to the larger benefit later. When the woman contacted Social Security, however, she was told she could get the survivor benefit only.

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“That left her really flustered,” Gregory says. The widow eventually was able to get the benefits she’s entitled to in the correct order, but Gregory and other financial planners worry about people who don’t get professional advice and who could be led astray. “Most people are going to say, ‘Well, that’s what the government told me’ and let it drop. And that’s unfortunate,” says CFP Mary Beth Franklin, author of “Maximizing Social Security Retirement Benefits” and a contributing editor for Investment News.

THE COST OF MISTAKES A lot of money is potentially at stake. The difference between the best claiming strategies and the worst could add up to $100,000 over the lifetime of a single person and $250,000 for married couples, says William Meyer, CEO of Social Security Solutions, a claiming strategies website. Even seemingly small decisions can have outsize consequences. People who apply for benefits may be told they’re eligible for six months of back payments and that claiming the lump sum reduces their monthly benefits only slightly. Over time, though, that reduction adds up, especially when cost-of-living increases are factored in. “The agents are saying, ‘Hey, your monthly income only goes down $50,’ or whatever it is,” Meyer says. “They don’t tell you, ‘Hey, over your lifetime, that could be a reduction of $20,000.’” A 2016 study by the U.S. Government Accountability Office found that applicants “were not consistently provided key information 119

that people may need to make well-informed decisions.” A 2018 report from Social Security’s Office of the Inspector General estimated that 9,224 widows and widowers age 70 and older were underpaid by about $131.8 million because they weren’t properly informed of their options.

EDUCATION, NOT ADVICE Social Security employees aren’t supposed to give advice, just education, Franklin says. But she and other financial planners can relate many stories of people being encouraged to sign up early when waiting was a better strategy, or receiving bad information such as being told they weren’t eligible for certain benefits or that they couldn’t take actions that were in fact allowed. William Reichenstein, Social Security Solutions’ head of research, was eligible for a sincediscontinued strategy called a restricted application that allowed him to receive spousal benefits based on his wife’s earnings record while his own benefit was left to grow. The Social Security agent who processed the application ignored Reichenstein’s directive and signed him up for retirement benefits instead. Reichenstein was able to withdraw the incorrect application and get the spousal benefits, but mistakes are often irreversible. He advises applicants to be informed and to respond quickly if Social Security makes a mistake. “Find out what you’re eligible for and make sure you get that,” Reichenstein says. To be fair, many people have no idea how complicated the claiming decision can be and may not understand what they’re being told by Social Security representatives, Franklin says. 120

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Social Security administers several different types of benefits — retirement benefits based on your own work record; spousal and survivor benefits based on the work record of a current or former spouse; child benefits for the minor children of people receiving Social Security and various kinds of disability benefits. Each benefit comes with its own regulations, and the best strategy may depend on your marital status, your longevity, your tax situation and many other factors.

WHERE TO GET INFORMATION People can educate themselves by visiting Social Security’s recently redesigned site and learning how the various benefits work, Franklin says. AARP has a free Social Security claiming calculator that allows people to model different strategies. Or you can spend $20 to $40 and up to use paid software, such as Social Security Solutions or Maximize My Social Security, that allows you to model more complicated situations, including those involving a minor child or a pension from a job that didn’t pay into Social Security. Consulting a financial planner who uses similar software also can be a smart move. Franklin urges people to learn as much as they can before approaching Social Security, then keep a record of all interactions with the agency, including the names of representatives and their direct phone numbers, in case they need to appeal or correct a decision. “I’m not here to bash Social Security representatives because most of them work very, very hard,” Franklin says. “But the rules are so complex.”

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THE SUICIDE SQUAD Official “Rain” Trailer

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&TV Shows

The Suicide Squad (2021) A number of heinous supervillains incarcerated at the prison Belle Reve agree to join the shadowy Task Force X in exchange for lighter sentences. These villains’ mission is to land onto the South American island nation of Corto Maltese and destroy evidence there of “Project Starfish”.

FIVE FACTS: 1. This is a standalone sequel to the 2016 film Suicide Squad. by James Gunn Genre: Action & Adventure Released: 2021 Price: $29.99

2. Margot Robbie, Joel Kinnaman, Jai Courtney and Viola Davis all reprise their respective roles of Harley Quinn, Colonel Rick Flag, Captain Boomerang and Amanda Waller from the 2016 film. 3. Will Smith was set to reprise his own role – that of Deadshot – from that film, but left The Suicide Squad due to scheduling conflicts. 4. Although Idris Elba was at one point to replace Smith as Deadshot, Elba was ultimately cast as a new character, Bloodsport, so that Smith could potentially play Deadshot again in the future. 5. John Cena has called his character, Peacemaker, a “douchebag Captain America”.

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Superstar cast talks ‘The Suicide Squad’

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Together In the United Kingdom during the COVID-19 pandemic, a husband (James McAvoy) and wife (Sharon Horgan) find themselves re-evaluating their relationship while contending with lockdown conditions and looking after their 10-year-old son Artie (Samuel Logan).

FIVE FACTS: 1. The events of the film begin in the early days of the UK’s first COVID-19 lockdown in March 2020. 2. Although the characters played by McAvoy and Horgan are never properly named in the film, it is established that “he” is self-employed while “she” is a charity worker.

by Stephen Daldry Genre: Comedy Released: 2021 Price: $14.99

3. The script was penned by Dennis Kelly, whose other credits include Utopia and The Third Day. 4. “I think everyone who got involved in this film had no intention of doing a COVID drama, but then we read Dennis’ script and changed our minds,” Horgan admitted ahead of the film’s release. 5. The film was shot in just 10 days.

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TOGETHER | Official Trailer | Bleecker Street

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TOGETHER Interview | James McAvoy and Sharon Horgan Talk COVID Lockdown Drama

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Carly Pearce - Next Girl (Official Music Video)

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29: Written In Stone (Video Deluxe) Carly Pearce

Genre: Country Number of Songs: 15 Price: $12.99

In February, rising country star Carly Pearce released the EP 29 in the wake of her divorce from fellow country singer Michael Ray. Now, she expands on that EP’s themes of heartbreak and recovery with 29: Written In Stone – essentially an LP version of the earlier namesake release.

FIVE FACTS: 1. “I just want people, no matter what they’re going through in their lives, to know they can listen to this album and see that even when you have to go straight through it, you can overcome it,” Pearce told Apple Music. 2. Pearce praised her 2020 hit “Next Girl” for its “true ‘90s sound, which I hadn’t heard from any female who’s out there right now.” 3. Meanwhile, with the closing track “Mean It This Time”, Pearce wanted to show that “I am hopeful and not a scorned woman and not feeling bitter”. 4. Pearce and Ray married in Tennessee in October 2019. 5. However, Pearce filed for divorce from Ray in June 2020.

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Carly Pearce, Ashley McBryde Never Wanted To Be That Girl (Lyric Video)

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Lil Nas X - MONTERO (Call Me By Your Name) (Official Video)

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MONTERO Lil Nas X The Georgia-born rapper Lil Nas X struck commercial gold in the late 2010s with his country-influenced single “Old Town Road” – and his unsurprising self-confidence is now in abundant evidence on his debut studio album MONTERO.

Genre: Pop Number of Songs: 15 Price: $9.99

FIVE FACTS: 1. “I feel like with this album, I know what I wanted,” Lil Nas X recently explained to Apple Music’s Zane Lowe, adding: “I know what I want. I know where I want to be in life.” 2. However, he conceded that “I know that’s going to take me being more open and bringing it out of myself no matter how much it hurts or feels uncomfortable to say things that I need to say.” 3. The rapper’s real name is Montero Lamar Hill. 4. Hill came out as gay on June 30, 2019 – when “Old Town Road” was at the top of the Billboard Hot 100 chart. 5. The next day, Hill admitted on Twitter that he thought he had previously made his sexuality “obvious”.

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Lil Nas X - SUN GOES DOWN (Official Video)

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Tammy Faye Bakker wore a lot of makeup. It was armor — a way for a person who didn’t consider herself beautiful to simply exist in the world. So it’s a particuarly a cruel irony that the mascara was also the thing that made her a target and a joke long before she and her ex-husband were brought down by brazen theft and misuse of ministry funds. Women have never been afforded the luxury of simply existing in the world, especially when they dare to live in public as Tammy did. Who cares what she says, it’s what she looks like that counts, right? And Tammy was a particularly easy target, for her childish voice, the “bad” makeup and garish clothes, and maybe most of all for the fact that she seemed to like the way she looked. 140

THE EYES OF TAMMY FAYE | Official Trailer | Searchlight Pictures

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It makes sense then that in this moment when we are reevaluating some of the women we so carelessly ridiculed for their appearances and supporting roles in the scandals of men that Tammy Faye would get another look as well. In the aptly titled “ The Eyes of Tammy Faye,” the camera, and star and producer Jessica Chastain, dare us to consider what’s underneath. The makeup is never explained or outwardly mocked by the filmmakers, but it is a focal point from the first frame as an unseen woman tries to wipe Tammy’s face clean and start fresh only to realize that most of it is permanent. In Chastain’s portrayal of Tammy from her college years through her early 60s, the layers just gradually pile on. When she first meets Jim Bakker (played with admirable restraint and just enough smarm by Andrew Garfield), she is downright fresh faced. In this conventional, soup to nuts biopic that’s based on a documentary, director Michael Showalter and screenwriter Abe Sylvia go out of their way to make Tammy sympathetic. They flash back to her childhood in International Falls, Minnesota, where her mother (Cherry Jones) forbids her from going to church with the family (as the child of divorce she’s not welcome). But she busts in anyway and after a sip of the sacramental wine is writhing on the floor, speaking in tongues and being declared a miracle. This begins her path, but her purpose doesn’t become clear until she spots Jim in college and they bond over the idea that poverty is not the kind of piety they aspire to. Soon, they’re wed and angling for their own spot in the newish arena of televangelism. 142

THE EYES OF TAMMY FAYE | “The Soul of Tammy Faye” Featurette | Searchlight Pictures

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THE EYES OF TAMMY FAYE | Official Trailer | Searchlight Pictures

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Tammy is presented as a relentlessly earnest and childlike charmer with a heart of gold, which Chastain sells without being too cartoonish — in and of itself an impressive feat from one of our most naturalistic actors. It’s a tightrope act straddling camp and Lifetime television, especially when she starts living on Ativan and Diet Coke. And it does help to reframe the women behind the mascara: She’s given likely overdue credit for being the mastermind behind their unique brand of televangelism and for speaking out about the things she believes in. Multiple scenes are devoted to showing her empathy for the LGBTQ community. And yet there seems to be no curiosity about the money that kept them in gold and furs. Tammy and Jim just keep acquiring more and more and asking their viewers for more and more. Was she complicit? Naive? A convenient combination of both? The film just glosses over it, letting her believe that their fortune is just a gift from God, as though an audience couldn’t handle a narrative where she can be both good and greedy. Efforts to comment on the world that their contemporaries like Jerry Falwell Sr. (Vincent D’Onofrio) were building around them also come across as trite. It’s a strange feeling to have spent over two hours with this Tammy Faye, come out on her side and still feel conflicted about it for all that the film doesn’t say or question. This is part of the problem with some of these reconsiderations — they overcorrect at the expense of a more clear-eyed truth.

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THE EYES OF TAMMY FAYE | “Note Perfect” Featurette | Searchlight Pictures

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But although “Tammy Faye” may be imperfect, it does succeed in at least one significant way: We’re not just looking at her makeup anymore. “The Eyes of Tammy Faye,” a Searchlight Pictures release in theaters, is rated PG-13 by the Motion Picture Association of America for “sexual content and drug abuse.” Running time: 126 minutes. Two and a half stars out of four.

MPAA Definition of PG-13: Parents strongly cautioned. Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13.

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NETFLIX BUYS WONKA AUTHOR DAHL’S CATALOG

Netflix has acquired the works of Roald Dahl, the late British author of celebrated children’s books such as “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.” The video streaming giant said this week that it acquired the Roald Dahl Story Co., which manages the rights to the author’s characters and stories. No financial terms were disclosed. The deal builds on a partnership struck in 2018 to create a slate of animated TV series, under which “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” is getting a reboot by Academy Award winning filmmaker Taika Waititi and Netflix is working with Sony on an adaptation of “Matilda the Musical.” The new deal paves the way for Netflix to bring all of the author’s back catalogue to screens. “These projects opened our eyes to a much more ambitious venture - the creation of a 148

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