Note: This is the last edition of ND before the Holiday season. Have a great Christmas and Hanukkah.

Blake Lively had complained about the on-set behavior of her co-starring director Justin Baldoni and the producer of her recent movie It Ends With Us. The movie positioned the filmmakers as feminist allies for the MeToo era, so any hint they could have been inappropriate (especially sexually) would have been bad news for their reputations, and likely bad news for the movie's bottom line. So they decided to hire a PR firm to deploy a preemptive attack—to damage Lively's reputation on social media to the extent that she couldn't really hurt them. Yes, there are PR firms that do this. Yes, with the help of schadenfreude starved social media users these efforts can be very successful. And yes, if you've noticed a negative buzz around Blake Lively over the past few months, this is why. This story is a reminder of how much discourse online (political, celebrity, etc) is manipulated. It's also worth noting that the PR of personal destruction can be deployed effectively even against a popular actress who is married to Ryan Reynolds and best friends with Taylor Swift. NYT (Gift Article): ‘We Can Bury Anyone’: Inside a Hollywood Smear Machine. "There have long been figures behind the scenes shaping public opinion about celebrities — through gossip columns, tabloids and strategic interviews. The documents show an additional playbook for waging a largely undetectable smear campaign in the digital era. While the film, about domestic violence, was a box office hit — making nearly $350 million worldwide — online criticism of the actress skyrocketed. 'He wants to feel like she can be buried,' a publicist working with the studio and Mr. Baldoni wrote in an Aug. 2 message to the crisis management expert, Melissa Nathan. 'You know we can bury anyone,' Ms. Nathan wrote." (After this story, the PR people are gonna need to hire PR people.)

+ Here's a quick, really interesting video overview of the storyfrom the NYT's Megan Twohey.

+ Blake Lively Claims She Missed Hosting ‘SNL’ Season 50 Opener Due to Justin Baldoni Smear Campaign.

+ Amber Heard Speaks Out on Alleged Smear Campaign Against Blake Lively: “I Saw This Firsthand”

2

Joint Venture

"I was a working journalist; I sat and listened. My reporter’s curiosity and detachment often were replaced by a kind of awe. Listening to and watching the men talk about their crimes, their traumas, and their struggles before and after they had been imprisoned, I was moved by the depth of their honesty and the deep healing that I was witnessing." That's how my friend Robert Rosenthal reflected in his first experience seeing San Quentin's GRIP (Guiding Rage Into Power) program in person. What he didn't know at the time was that he'd return to interact with the group more than a decade later following the suicide of his son, Ben. "I never imagined that I would return not as an observer, but as a member of their 'tribe.'" An enlightening and moving essay: My Unexpected Healing at San Quentin. "To be entrusted with someone’s despair is a great privilege and something happens that is very important. You become intimate, vulnerable, worthy of your suffering. It is honest, not hidden and it gives others the opportunity to do the same. To be entrusted models a way of being."

3

The Hole Thirty

"What was their home is now a cement slab, with bits of granite and linoleum flooring sticking out. The county sent a $38,000 bill, which incurs interest monthly. The Pelleys owed more than half a million dollars for a home that no longer existed on land that was unbuildable. Insurance, the Pelleys say, still refused to pay. Water didn’t come into the house into this second event, either, as it had been erased." The latest piece in Bloomberg's(Gift Article) excellent series on how climate change is making parts of the planet uninsurable. The 30-Year Mortgage Wasn’t Designed for Climate Chaos. "Homeowners in Florida and California have already been trying to reconcile their mortgage duration and dwindling insurance options with neighborhoods that may not live to see 30 years. In a nation where long-term loans are the gateway to homeownership for most families, climate change is rewriting the basic assumptions about risk."

4

You Hold All the Cards

What's the most popular gift this holiday season? If it's anything like past years, it will be gift cards. And if what follows is anything like past years, a lot of those cards will be lost, forgotten, or otherwise unused. The Hustle on the economics of unused gift cards. "In an ideal world, the gift card is a win-win: For the buyer, it’s a hassle-free gifting experience; for the recipient, it’s a cash equivalent that can be used at any store or restaurant. But gift cards aren’t always ideal. Oftentimes, they go unused — whether we lose them, forget we have them, let them expire, or fail to spend the full amount that was gifted. And when that happens, there’s only one winner: The companies that sell the cards."

+ Quartz: Americans have billions in unused gift cards. (Sounds like a re-gifting opportunity...)

5

Extra, Extra

AG Me With a Spoon: "The House Ethics Committee on Monday accused Matt Gaetz of 'regularly' paying for sex, including with a 17-year-old girl, and purchasing and using illicit drugs as a member of Congress, as lawmakers released the conclusions of a nearly four-year investigation that helped sink his nomination for attorney general. The 37-page report by the bipartisan panel includes explicit details of sex-filled parties and vacations that Gaetz, now 42, took part in from 2017 to 2020 while the Republican represented Florida’s western Panhandle." You can read the report for yourself. A reminder that this was Trump's pick to be America's Attorney General.

+ Commute Time: "Make no mistake: I condemn these murderers, grieve for the victims of their despicable acts, and ache for all the families who have suffered unimaginable and irreparable loss ... [but] I am more convinced than ever that we must stop the use of the death penalty at the federal level." Ahead of Trump's swearing in, Biden commutes sentences of 37 federal death row prisoners.

+ Human Kind? "The assumption that our nature is predatory colors our everyday life. We might generally believe that other people mean well, but as soon as someone causes us harm — like cutting us off in traffic — we assume that they intended it (it’s why we get so angry). The predatory assumption also shapes our perceptions of politics: The 'other side' often seems ruthless, callous and happy to inflict harm." But what if humans aren't really all that bad? What if the way we think about each other is based on faulty science? NYT (Gift Article): We’ve Misunderstood Human Nature for 100 Years. (Look, we're probably bad as hell, but it's the holiday season.)

+ Here We Go Again: Trump again calls to buy Greenland after eyeing Canada and the Panama Canal. (Sorry, world.) Of course, this time, Trump can only buy Greenland if Elon doesn't buy it first.

+ Stolen Valor: "Henderson was, without question, the greatest leadoff hitter of all time and the greatest base-stealer of all time. He, arguably, possessed the greatest combination of power and speed of any player in the history of the game as well. Perhaps the best characterization of Henderson’s career came from Bill James who once wrote that, 'If you could split Rickey Henderson in two, you’d have two Hall of Famers.'" Rickey Henderson: 1958-2024.

+ Cadburied: "Earlier this year, the King was urged by campaign group B4Ukraine to withdraw warrants from companies 'still operating in Russia' after the invasion of Ukraine." Cadbury loses royal endorsement after 170 years.

6

Bottom of the News

It's the holidays, so let's mix the bottom of the news with a hint of feel good Friday. Detroit-area library says Chicago man can keep overdue baseball book -- 50 years later. The book is Baseball’s Zaniest Stars. This story is almost moving enough for me to consider returning my copy of The Horse That Played Centerfield. But not quite...

+ Have a great Christmas and Hanukkah! See you soon...