Teen Rape Victim Forced to Pay Rapists Family $100k, Kanye Saves American Manufacturing?!, Emmy Awards on Life Support, Stallone's Gangster TV Show (The Five for 09/16/22)
Hey, welcome to The Five.
Due to time constraints, the News and Culture & Commentary issues have been combined into a single newsletter this week.
Let’s dive in!
[one]
Kanye West continues to…Kanye West. The rapper/mogul/fashion designer broke up with GAP this week over business disputes, and seems to be on the outs with Adidas as well.
West has also taken issue with Adidas over his partnership on Yeezy footwear. The company wanted to manufacture the shoes in China, while West wanted the shoes to be manufactured in the U.S.
"They've even gone and specifically hired people from my team to do collaborations with to attempt to make fake versions or to try to dilute my message," West said.
West said he has been buying factories in California in an effort to bring the manufacturing industry back to the U.S.
"In a lot of ways, Europe has been the head of prestige with the luxury brands and luxury vehicles and China has been the head of manufacturing, but America, we invented rock and roll ... we are the youngest startup ever, you know, America itself," West said.
"We invented Apple, we invented Ford and now we have Yeezy."
If West is able to start manufacturing his own shoes and clothing in California, it will be the first major turnaround for the American textiles industry, which has been in decline for decades, in the modern era.
[two]
A bizzare Iowa law has charged an Iowa teen to pay a six-figure sum to the estate of the rapist she stabbed to death in self defense.
A teenage human trafficking victim who was initially charged with first-degree murder after she stabbed her accused rapist to death was sentenced Tuesday in an Iowa court to five years of closely supervised probation and ordered to pay $150,000 restitution to the man’s family.
Pieper Lewis, 17, was sentenced Tuesday after she pleaded last year to involuntary manslaughter and willful injury in the June 2020 killing of 37-year-old Zachary Brooks of Des Moines. Both charges were punishable by up to 10 years in prison.
Polk County District judge David M. Porter on Tuesday deferred those prison sentences, meaning that if Lewis violates any portion of her probation, she could be sent to prison to serve that 20-year term.
As for being required to pay the estate of her rapist, “this court is presented with no other option,” Porter said, noting the restitution is mandatory under Iowa law that has been upheld by the Iowa Supreme Court.
Lewis was 15 when she stabbed Brooks more than 30 times in a Des Moines apartment. Officials have said Lewis was a runaway who was seeking to escape an abusive life with her adopted mother and was sleeping in the hallways of a Des Moines apartment building when a 28-year-old man took her in before forcibly trafficking her to other men for sex.
There’s no report on how a 17-year-old can possibly pay this sum of money, although the judge and prosecution repeatedly berated her:
Prosecutors took issue with Lewis calling herself a victim in the case and said she failed to take responsibility for stabbing Brooks and “leaving his kids without a father.”
The judge peppered Lewis with repeated requests to explain what poor choices she made that led up to Brooks’ stabbing and expressed concern that she sometimes did not want to follow rules set for her in juvenile lockup.
This entire situation is utterly horrifying.
[three]
The Five has an unbreakable policy against covering awards shows, because celebs congratulating each other is just…insufferable.
But perhaps there will be less awards shows to ignore next year, as the Emmy’s experienced absolutely abysmal ratings.
Viewership for Monday night’s Emmys dropped to a record low, with 5.9 million tuning in to watch the ceremony, according to Nielsen.
That was about 1.5 million fewer than for last year’s ceremony, and it was lower than in 2020, when the mostly virtual ceremony garnered 6.1 million viewers, which had been the record low.
Part of the Emmys ratings drop can be explained by its Monday night time slot, which generally depresses viewership totals. NBC broadcast this year’s Emmy Awards — the four major broadcast networks rotate airing the annual ceremony — and slotted it for a Monday night to avoid a conflict with the network’s Sunday Night Football rights. In both 2018 and 2014, the last two times NBC aired the Emmys on a Monday, viewership totals dropped from the Sunday night ceremony the year before.
In an era of nearly unlimited entertainment choices…awards shows appear to be long past the sell-by date.
It's easy to dunk on the Emmy's, a show that worked because it had all your favorite stars during the broadcast era.
Now, all your favorite stars are constantly on Instagram and TikTok, so who needs to sit down on a Monday night and see them give bad speeches?
[four]
There’s finally an end to the water crisis in Jackson, Mississippi, the largest city in the state, where nearly all residents were without clean drinking water for weeks.
Mississippi ended its boil water notice for all of Jackson's residents on Thursday, the state's health department announced.
The news comes nearly two weeks after water pressure returned to the state capital's residents after days of a water shortage crisis that impacted thousands of Jacksonians.
A boil water notice was in effect in Jackson since July 29, with the city saying that it needed "two rounds of clear samples" before it could lift the notice, adding: "We will alert residents as soon as this happens."
"On Tuesday, the Mississippi State Department of Health began officially conducting tests of the water quality. They collected 120 samples for two consecutive days," Gov. Tate Reeves said at a press conference on Thursday. "We can now announce we have restored clean water to the city of Jackson.”
Although The Five had not reported on this earlier in the week (due to publishing only once this week), it's a crime this wasn't the biggest story in the country.
[five]
Taylor Sheridan’s incredible run appears to be continuing. The filmmaker (Wind River, Sicario, Hell or High Water) turned TV kingmaker (Yellowstone, 1883) will debut both Yellowstone season 5 AND Tulsa King on November 13th, the latter being a vehicle for Sylvester Stallone (Rocky, Rambo: First Blood) to play a ganster released from prison, only for the Mafia to send him to run operations in Tula, OK…
And speaking of Sheridan, the super-producer is running over a half-dozen shows that are currently in production or development, including a new CIA anti-terrorism show based on true events, featuring Zoe Saldana (Avengers: Endgame, Avatar), which will be produced by Nicole Kidman (Big Little Lies, Cold Mountain)
No release date yet.
As the weather cools and the leaves turn colors, the self-serious dramas start coming out of the woodwork vying for awards season.
I’m not sure if former boy-band-er Harry Styles (Dunkirk, Eternals) is a good actor or not, but dude is sure in a lot of stuff. He’s joined by Emma Corrin (Princess Diana in The Crown) and David Dawson (The Last Kingom, Peaky Blinders) for something something flash-forward-and-back-beween-the-50’s-and-90’s big important drama that examines the human condition or something in Mr. Policeman.
I’m down for it. Going to theaters October 21st, then on Prime Video November 4th…which means Amazon believes this can win best picture (hence the required studio run).
I’m too young to have memories of Whitney Houston in her heyday, but the movie version of the singer’s life looks…pretty watchable.
In theaters 12/21.
Woah. Well, you’ll never see the Matthew McConaughey movie about the 1984 Dallas Sting girl’s soccer team playing in China against one of the best teams in the world.
Allegedly, part of the movie in the script…didn’t happen.
Well, that’s…pretty crazy.
MOVIE/MY PICK
This month marks the 30th anniversary of Singles, the most under-appreciated (in my humble opinion) from director Cameron Crowe (Say Anything, Almost Famous).
Filmed in Seattle in 1991, the movie featured “local” bands Mookie Blaylok (later Pearl Jam) and Soundgarden. The movie got stuck in editing for 18 months, during which time the grunge music movement exploded, meaning Crowe was able to feature TWO of the biggest bands in the world in a movie that only cost $9 million to make. (It was almost three, but then-local act Nirvana refused to participate in the movie due to…Kurt Cobain. He didn’t really give a reason).
I consider Singles to be the best snapshot of Gen-X subculture in movie format, and absolutely adore the music/grunge scene/wardrobes. The twentysomething characters “friends as your family” model, which Gen-X embodied, was reportedly a major influence on the biggest sitcom of all time…Friends.
Not streaming for free anywhere, but you can grab a rental on any of the major platforms (Prime Video, Apple, YouTube) for $3.99
NEW MUSIC
Apple Music | YouTube Music | Amazon Music
The new album from Marcus Mumford, aka the vocalist for the mega huge band Mumord and Sons, is both a departure from the sounds of his day job and an excellent showcase in songwriting. Marcus avoids the common pitfall of doing a “band record without the band” and goes in a pretty different direction here.
Apple Music | YouTube Music | Amazon Music
In the early aughts, Michelle Branch was one of the biggest pop stars on the planet, and later broke into the country world with her duo The Wreckers. Sadly, Branch is more recently known for attacking her allegedly cheating husband, Patrick Carney of The Black Keys.
The album, produced during the COVID lockdowns, comes out as the pair are in the middle of a divorce. So, there’s that.
Apple Music | YouTube Music | Amazon Music
Death Cab for Cutie are 25 years into their indie rock journey…and I can’t tell if this album will just feed their faithful or grow the audience. But, in my humble opinion, something feels fresh in their sound and songwriting approach.
Apple Music | YouTube Music | Amazon Music
Sadly, I have a professional connection to the Cyrus family…and I’m not surprised all the kids grew up to be a mess given the unstable household they were raised in. Noah Cyrus, younger sister of Miley Cyrus, seems about as stable as her older pop-star sibling…but gosh dang it, she can sing. Also, notable guest vocal on this debut from Benjamin Gibbard of Death Cab for Cutie.
Until the next one,
-sth