• The niche online car rental service Turo is getting massive media attention, but unfortunately for the company it is because its cars were used in both the New Orleans and Las Vegas terror attacks on New Year’s Day.
• We are getting an inside glimpse into the world of celebrity publicists and crisis communications, and it is every bit the cesspool you imagined. Actress Blake Lively obtained text messages between producer/actor Justin Baldoni and several of his crisis communications consultants that outline a media smear campaign to delegitimize the actress as she prepared to go public with claims that he behaved improperly on set. “All of this will be most importantly untraceable,” said Melissa Nathan, one of the crisis publicists, apparently unaware of how group texts work.
  • Not happy with the resulting media coverage, Baldoni has filed a $250 million defamation lawsuit against The New York Times. Expect it to be withdrawn just before discovery starts.
• De Beers is sitting on a $2 billion pile of unsold diamonds as demand for the gemstone has slumped to levels not seen since the 2008 recession. “It’s been a bad year for rough diamond sales,” said De Beers’ CFO.
• Two Oregon men who set out in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest to find conclusive proof that Sasquatch exists died of exposure. Weather conditions in the Cascade mountains had been below freezing in the days before and during the search, which included snow and freezing rain.
• United Airlines almost created its own operational meltdown when the food it served to employees at DIA on Christmas Day resulted in food poisoning.
• All five college football teams – Georgia (SEC), Arizona State (Big 12), Oregon (Big 10), Clemson (ACC) and Boise State (Mountain West) – who made the playoffs by virtue of winning their conference championships have already been eliminated.
• The Washington Post has assembled the list of 2024’s weirdest celebrity apologies.
• The cruise industry reported that December 2024 was the worst month for mass gastrointestinal illness outbreaks in more than a decade. Bon voyage!
• The Times Square Applebee’s offered a New Year’s Eve celebration package that starts at $850. And it sold out.
• A glowing-hot piece of space junk more than eight feet in diameter and weighing more than 1,000 pounds fell from the sky and crashed in a remote village in Kenya. No one was injured, but scientists warn we should expect more incidents like this as low-orbit space gets more crowded with satellites. Google “Kessler Syndrome” if you want to know more.
• The U.S. Surgeon General has proposed putting cancer warnings on alcohol, a move that could further depress sales that were already trending down since 2023.
• Westerra, the sixth-largest credit union in Colorado, selected New York-based Impact PR & Communications as its public relations firm.

Who won the week?

• 2024 was a mixed bag for the conglomerates that own Denver‘s television news stations. Tegna’s (9News) stock was up 20% for the year, but Nexstar (Fox31) was down 1% and Scripps’ (7News) was down 82%. CBS4 is owned by CBS, which is owned by Paramount, and Paramount’s stock was down 28% for the year. Even more concerning is that 2024 was a presidential election year, which resulted in about $18 billion in political ad money being spent with local television stations.
• Red Rocks Amphitheatre was the second-most attended concert venue in the country in 2024, trailing only Madison Square Garden. Globally, it ranked No. 4, behind MSG, the O2 Arena in London and Mexico City’s Auditorio Nacional.
• Actor Will Ferrell attended a post-Christmas L.A. Kings hockey game dressed as Buddy the Elf. This Buddy, however, had a three-day beard and was chugging beers with a cigarette dangling from his mouth. Ferrell, in character as Buddy, said it had been “a tough holiday season.”
• After eight years of acrimonious negotiations and legal filings, actors Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie finally reached a divorce settlement. They had been married for two years when they filed the initial divorce papers.