The 11th Hour Dispatch — Monday, July 23, 2018
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BIG BUSINESS
Uber and Lyft have both banned a St. Louis driver who was secretly livestreaming passengers on Twitch. The livestreaming platform has also blocked his channel. Jason Gargac’s stream featured passengers doing everything from kissing and gossiping about people in their lives to vomiting in the backseat of his vehicle. According to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, passengers “did not always know” they were being broadcast for the world to see, and believe it or not, that’s reportedly not technically illegal in Missouri. The state only requires that broadcasted footage have consent from one party involved — in this case, Gargac himself — but there are additional rules for situations when a party might have “reasonable expectation of privacy.” Who knows where this will end up legally, but as a selfish consumer, I’m not going to lie to you and say that I don’t wish I had known about this before it was shut down because it sounds very entertaining.
BINGE WATCH
The Queen of the Small Screen (a nickname I just made up but will definitely use from this point on) Shonda Rhimes gave The New York Times an excellent interview about plans for the future with her nine-figure Netflix deal. In that interview, she finally revealed the initial Shondaland slate for Netflix, which includes the previously discussed adaptation of the Anna Delvey story, as well as seven new additions:
- An untitled project based on Julia Quinn’s English romance novel series Bridgerton
- An adaptation of the Pulitzer Prize-winning book The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson
- Pico & Sepulveda, a drama set in 1840s Mexican California created and executive produced by Emmy winner Janet Leahy
- Reset: My Flight for Inclusion and Lasting Change, an adaptation of the Ellen Pao memoir of the same name that details her workplace discrimination case against a Silicon Valley powerhouse
- An adaptation of The Residence, a nonfiction book about the private lives of U.S. presidents, by Kate Andersen Brower
- Sunshine Scouts, a series that follows “foul-mouthed teenage girls who are trapped at the end of the world,” and will be Shondaland’s first greenlit comedy
- A docuseries titled Hot Chocolate Nutcracker that dives into Debbie Allen Dance Academy’s reimagining of the classic ballet The Nutcracker
Also, she gave this incredible quote: “Everybody thinks that there’s a ‘Shondaland show.’ No. There’s a Shondaland show that we made for ABC. Now I can’t wait to show everybody what a Shondaland show is that we make for the world.” So, in conclusion, if you’re a bookworm, Shonda-head, or just a fan of good television in general, there’s probably something for you headed your way.
YOUNG MONEY
Snap is abandoning its peer-to-peer payment service Snapcash on August 30. If you didn’t know that Snapcash even existed, you’re probably not alone. As of one year ago, Statista reported that 85% of Snapchat users “do not have an account or do not use” the Snapcash feature. The service, which launched in partnership with Square in 2014, allowed users to send money to friends, the funds of which would be directly deposited into the receiver’s bank account. Snap didn’t come out and say why this decision was made, but the growing popularity of other peer-to-peer payment apps like Venmo, Zelle, and the Cash App, probably didn’t help. Venmo has even reached Google status in that people simply say “Venmo me” when they need their bum friends to pay them back for that after-work beer. Snap has a lot of other things going on at the moment, so this cutback might free up some hands to enhance the Spectacles or find ways to fight off Instagram’s dominance of the Story format (unlikely, but it will be cute to watch).
NOTHIN’ BUT ‘NET
Lindsay Lohan is getting a reality show that has been referred to as “a cooler, hipper, edgier Vanderpump Rules” by production company Bunim/Murray Productions.
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