Television
V’landys makes prime-time Trump pitch for NRL Vegas blockbuster
Peter V’landys isn’t giving up on his bold bid to get Donald Trump to the NRL’s Vegas season opener, taking his campaign straight to the former US president via American breakfast TV.
As Christian Nicolussi reports in The Sydney Morning Herald, the ARL Commission boss made his case on Fox & Friends, a Trump-favourite morning show, hoping to get the message in front of 45 himself – or at least someone in his orbit.
“If he shows up at Allegiant Stadium on March 2, the exposure would be priceless,” V’landys said. “There’s no one in America who could generate more awareness for rugby league.”
Tom Hanks cops conservative backlash over SNL skit
Tom Hanks has found himself in the firing line of conservative outrage after reprising his Saturday Night Live character “Doug” – a clueless, MAGA-hat-wearing contestant on Black Jeopardy – during the show’s 50th anniversary special.
As Patrick Riley reports in The Daily Telegraph, the two-time Oscar winner first played the role in 2016, and this time, his bumbling, Trump-loving character sparked fresh controversy.
Critics on the right weren’t laughing, slamming Hanks’ performance as “disgusting.”
Brands
Daily Telegraph cops heat over botched ‘undercover’ café story
The Daily Telegraph has admitted it “could have been better handled” after a failed sting at Sydney’s Cairo Takeaway sparked legal threats and backlash.
As Daanyal Saeed reports in Crikey, The paper planned a story titled “UNDERCOVER JEW”, featuring Ofir Birenbaum, who allegedly wore covert recording glasses. When the café called it out online, Birenbaum denied the claims and lawyered up.
By Monday, the café had apologised, but the controversy isn’t over.
Tech
AI’s big leap: Digital colleagues and Hollywood takeovers
Artificial intelligence is shaking up work and entertainment in 2024, with Silicon Valley calling it the biggest tech shift of our time.
As Jared Lynch reports in The Australian, Adobe has unveiled the world’s first “commercial safe” AI video generator, already catching the eye of film and ad directors. Meanwhile, HR giant Workday is rolling out tools to manage AI-powered “digital labour.”
“This is truly an AI revolution,” says Workday CEO Carl Eschenbach.
AI upstart DeepSeek shakes up the game – can it deliver?
Fourday co-founders Matt Boustred and Henry Badgery spent the first weekend of February stress-testing the latest AI disruptor: DeepSeek’s reasoning model, R1.
As Tess Bennett reports in The Australian Financial Review, they’d tinkered with the Chinese AI firm’s tech before, but with R1 now live on Fireworks.ai, they wanted to see if the budget-friendly model could match the hype.
DeepSeek had already spooked markets, wiping $600M off Nvidia’s value in a day. While investors scrambled, developers saw an opening – cheaper AI that could change the game.
Publishing
Actress ‘shocked’ as book pulled from US military schools
Julianne Moore says she was “truly saddened” to learn one of her books had been banned from schools serving US military families under the Trump Administration.
As Ella Creamer reports in The Guardian, the Boogie Nights star reacted on Instagram after a Pentagon memo revealed a review of books linked to “gender ideology” and “discriminatory equity ideology.” Access to all library books was briefly suspended, with a “small number” still under review.