Steve Harvey Wrongly Crowns Miss Colombia At Miss Universe Pageant

Everyone is talking about last night’s Miss Universe pageant today. That’s because host Steve Harvey experienced perhaps the worst gaffe a host pageant could experience. He wrongly crowned Miss Colombia, Ariadna Gutierrez, as Miss Universe 2015 when, in fact, Miss Philippines, Pia Wurtzbach, should have been crowned. Minutes after his announcement, as Gutierrez was wearing the crown, holding the flowers, and basking in the glory of her win, Harvey returned to the stage and announced his mistake. The Family Feud host and comedian took full blame for the mistake and apologized profusely.

 

After the show, Harvey sent out a rushed apology on Twitter, later deleted, that apologized for the mistake to both Miss Colombia and Miss Philippines, but managed to spell the names of both countries wrong.

Donald Trump owned the Miss Universe pageant until earlier this year when he sold his stake to Ari Emanuel of IMG. Trump tweeted praise for Emauel and his ownership of the pageant before the show, where he also encouraged people to tune in. After the show, he retweeted those implying that Harvey’s mistake wouldn’t have happened if Trump still owned Miss Universe.

St. Louis’s Plan For A Riverfront NFL Stadium Gets Mayor Slay’s Signature Today

St. Louis city mayor Francis Slay is set to sign a bill today authorizing public funding for a $1.1 billion NFL stadium. The Board of Aldermen passed the bill on Friday on a vote of 17-10. The bill authorizes the city to spend $145.4 million, not including interest, on the project as well as $3 million per year in amusement taxes going to the NFL. The stadium can not be built without $550 million from a combination of the NFL and an NFL team.

Imo’s Pizza Moves Into Downtown St. Louis Headquarters

St. Louis company Imo’s Pizza recently moved into a new $5 million distribution center and headquarters in downtown St. Louis at 17th street and Delmar Boulevard. The St. Louis Business Journal has a look at the new location, which also includes a gift shop that sells Imo’s apparel, sauces, dressings and frozen pizzas.

The company moved its iconic sign from Hampton Avenue to the new location and will also move 50-60 employees there as well. Imo’s wants to change the address of the new company compound to #1 Imo’s Square and make it into a St. Louis tourist destination, akin to the nearby City Museum.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens Easily Sets Box Office Record

The big question going into the weekend of whether Star Wars: The Force Awakens would set a box office debut record was answered Saturday evening. The long-awaited seventh movie in the franchise set a Thursday opening record with $57 million as well as a Friday record with $120.5 million. Saturday saw an estimated $68.7 million in ticket sales and Sunday’s total came to an estimated $48.8 million. The estimated $238 million weekend domestic debut easily topped Jurassic World‘s $208.8 million opening back in June.

Final numbers may still allow Jurassic World to keep the all-time worldwide record, however. That film made $316.1 million overseas in its debut and $524.9 million worldwide. The Force Awakens, by current estimates, brought in $279 million overseas over the weekend and an estimated $517 million worldwide.

The Hollywood Reporter is reporting other box office estimates that indicate Star Wars: The Force Awakens will come in with a worldwide opening of $528 million, setting a new record.

The other films opening this weekend, Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Road Chip and Sisters, finished the weekend with estimated ticket sales of $14.4 million and $13.4 million, respectively.

Check back on Thursday for my Weekend Movie Guide. I’ll take a more in-depth look at the weekend box office numbers and talk about the movies opening on Christmas this year, The Hateful Eight, Joy, Point Break, Daddy’s Home, The Revenant and Concussion.

Sepp Blatter Banned From Soccer For Eight Years

The ongoing story of Joseph Sepp Blatter and FIFA just keeps getting more ridiculous. Blatter, the longtime FIFA president, has been banned from world soccer for eight years, but maintains his innocence and his position as the organization’s president.

Blatter and UEFA president Michel Platini were suspended in regards to a payment of $2 million that FIFA made in 2011 to Platini. Blatter, who signed off on the payment, said that the money was for work Platini did for FIFA as a technical adviser to Blatter from 1999-2002. Critics says the payment was made to Platini in return for his support of Blatter in the FIFA presidential elections.

Blatter and Platini will both appeal their suspensions to the Court of Arbitration for Sport as well as the FIFA appeals committee. Platini had hoped to succeed Blatter as FIFA president at the election on February 26.

Blatter publicly blamed the United States for his suspensions in a news conference, saying “if we awarded the World Cup in 2022 to the USA, we would not be here“. The 2022 World Cup was infamously awarded to Qatar,  despite the dates of the tournament having to be moved to Qatar’s winter months. FIFA has announced that the 2022 tournament will be played from November 21-December 18, 2022.

Deadspin has written several articles about the deplorable conditions that migrant workers face in Qatar.  In the face of the International Trade Union Confederation estimating that 7,000 migrant workers will die in association with construction in the company for the tournament, Qatar claims that number is “groundless and represents a deliberate distortion of facts.”

Previous reports claimed secret documents show Qatar paid as much as $5 million in bribes for the 2022 World Cup.

Women’s Semi-Pro Basketball Team Coming To Elsberry, Missouri

The Flyers Pro-Elite women’s semi-pro basketball team, a member of the Women’s Blue Chip Basketball League along with the St. Louis Surge, is moving from Auburn, Alabama to Elsberry, Missouri. Kari Koch-Dowell and team owner Brittney Koch-Dowell recently made a presentation to the Elsberry R-II school board asking to use the high school gym for its home games for the 2016 season. The school will receive 30 percent of gate receipts and possibly a portion of concessions. Tickets to the games are expected to cost $5.

The team’s move will immediately create a rivalry with the Surge, who beat the then-Auburn Flyers 82-79 in the semi-finals of last season’s national tournament. Brittney Koch-Dowell previously coached the Surge, while Kari Koch-Dowell starred for the team in 2012.

Kari Koch had a legendary career at Elsberry High School from 1999-2002. She finished her prep career with 3,077 points and led the team to a 105-12 record during her time there. She also was named Miss Show-Me Basketball in 2002 . Koch went on to star at Missouri State, where she led the Bears to the 2005 WNIT Championship.

The Flyers have signed several players already for the upcoming season aside from Koch, including former local prep stars Cherice Mack (St. Charles High) and Shakara Jones from Francis Howell Central.

Steven Jackson Signs With New England Patriots

Former St. Louis Rams running back Steven Jackson is coming back to the NFL. Released in February by the Atlanta Falcons, Jackson is expected to sign a one-year deal today with the New England Patriots.

Jackson played nine seasons in St. Louis, rushing for 1,000 yards in eight of those seasons. In 11 NFL seasons, Jackson has rushed for 11,388 yards. Should he played with the Patriots in a playoff game, it will be his first since 2004 with the Rams.

Martin Shkreli Arrested, Loses Two Jobs

Martin Shkreli is out from Turing Pharmaceuticals as well as KaloBios pharmaceuticals after his arrest last week on charges of security fraud.  The man who gained the title of Most Hated Man in America in record time after raising a cancer drug’s price and being generally awful on social media, was charged on Thursday of last week.

He claims he is innocent of the charges and that his antics were just a “social experiment” and not the real Martin Shkreli.

Bad Santa 2 Get November 2016 Release Date

Billy Bob Thornton will return to theaters as Willie Soke for Bad Santa 2 in November of 2016. The official release date is November 23, 2016.

 

Brought to you by Mills Apartments