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Kylie Jenner no longer a billionaire according to Forbes: She lied

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More than a decade into their fame, the Kardashian-Jenners tend to induce eye rolls and sighs among jaded media consumers. But when it comes to their wealth, even critics of reality TV’s first family are intrigued; the Kardashian-Jenner machine—and the cash it generates—has been the subject of articles, podcasts, even books. But no one cares more about the topic than the family itself, which has spent years fighting Forbes for higher spots on our annual wealth and celebrity earnings lists.

So when the youngest of the clan, Kylie Jenner, sold 51% of her Kylie Cosmetics to beauty giant Coty in a deal valued at $1.2 billion this January, it was a watershed moment for the family. One of the greatest celebrity cash-outs of all time, the transaction seemed to confirm what Kylie had been saying all along and what Forbeshad declared in March 2019: that Kylie Jenner was, indeed, a billionaire—at least before the coronavirus

“Kylie is a modern-day icon, with an incredible sense of the beauty consumer,” Coty chairman Peter Harf gushed when announcing the acquisition in November.

But in the deal’s fine print, a less flattering truth emerged. Filings released by publicly traded Coty over the past six months lay bare one of the family’s best-kept secrets: Kylie’s business is significantly smaller, and less profitable, than the family has spent years leading the cosmetics industry and media outlets, including Forbes, to believe.

Of course, white lies, omissions and outright fabrications are to be expected from the family that perfected—then monetized—the concept of “famous for being famous.” But, similar to Donald Trump’s decades-long obsession with his net worth, the unusual lengths to which the Jenners have been willing to go—including inviting Forbes into their mansions and CPA’s offices, and even creating tax returns that were likely forged—reveals just how desperate some of the ultra-rich are to look even richer.

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“It’s fair to say that everything the Kardashian-Jenner family does is oversized,” says Stephanie Wissink, an equity analyst covering consumer products at Jefferies. “To stay on-brand, it needs to be bigger than it is.”

Based on this new information—plus the impact of Covid-19 on beauty stocks and consumer spending—Forbes now thinks that Kylie Jenner, even after pocketing an estimated $340 million after taxes from the sale, is not a billionaire.

As with other Kardashian ventures, Kylie’s business began as a way to cash in on a minor scandal. The youngest of the family, she spent more than a year denying tabloid speculation that she was using lip filler injections before eventually finally fessing up to it in May 2015. Far from being embarrassed about being caught in a lie, she—and her shrewd mother, Kris—seized it as a marketing opportunity.

With $250,000 of her earnings from modeling, endorsements and Keeping Up With The Kardashians appearances, Kylie launched her first batch of 15,000 lip kits, consisting of a lip liner and matching lipstick, in November 2015. Thanks to clever Instagram marketing, the $29 kits were gone in less than a minute. “Before I even refreshed the page, everything was sold out,” she later told Forbes.

By the end of 2016, Kylie had dozens of new products and a reputation as a skyrocketing new entrant in the cosmetics industry. A few months after her sister Kim Kardashian West scored a Forbes cover in July 2016, Jenner publicists began a campaign to “get a Forbes cover for Kylie.” Revenues were $400 million over the business’ first 18 months, they said, with a personal take-home pay of $250 million for Kylie. Pressed for proof, they opened up their books. During meetings at Kris Jenner’s palatial Hidden Hills, California, estate and the family accountant’s office nearby, Forbes was shown tax returns detailing $307 million in 2016 revenues and personal income of more than $110 million for Kylie that year. It would have been enough to put her at N0. 2 on the Celebrity 100 list, behind only Taylor Swift, the accountant was quick to point out. But the documents, despite looking authentic and bearing Kylie Jenner’s signature, weren’t exactly convincing since the story they told, of e-commerce brand Kylie Cosmetics growing from nothing to $300 million in sales in a single year, was hard to believe.

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After speaking with a handful of analysts and industry experts who also found the Jenners’ claims implausible, we settled on a more reasonable estimate for our 2017 Celebrity 100 list: $41 million in overall earnings for Kylie, good for the No. 59 spot. Kris was “so frustrated,” the Jenners’ PR flack shot back. “We’ve done so much.”

Two months later, a story appeared in WWD, a trade publication known as “the bible of fashion,” using the exact numbers the Jenners first tried to give Forbes. “There has been raging speculation about the size of her business, with guesstimates ranging from $50 million up to $300 million,” the story reads. “Well, here’s the bad news for more-established beauty players: Jenner’s surpassed the higher figure with ease. Kylie Cosmetics actually has done $420 million in retail sales—in just 18 months—Kris Jenner revealed. . . . ” It was the first time the Jenners had publicly disclosed the size of the business, the story boasted—“and they provided WWD with documentation.”

That sky-high revenue number—repeated everywhere from People to CNBC and Fortune—took hold. By the summer of 2018, when Forbes set out to calculate Kylie’s net worth for our list of the richest self-made women, the industry’s opinion of Kylie’s business had shifted. Those huge revenues were “totally possible,” said one analyst, adding that she had heard similar numbers herself. Another suggested revenues were around $350 million. The estimates kept climbing. Revenues were $400 million, according to a Piper Jaffray research note in 2018. An Oppenheimer report projected sales would top $700 million by 2020.

The Jenners offered us their own number: 2017 revenues were up 7%, they said, to $330 million. “No other influencer has ever gotten to the volume or had the rabid fans and consistency that Kylie has had for the last two and a half years,” an executive at e-commerce platform Shopify, which manages Kylie’s online store, told Forbes at the time. Based on her rapid success—certified by industry sources, plus those 2016 tax returns—Kylie appeared on the cover of Forbes magazine in July 2018, ranking No. 27 on our listing of the richest self-made women. At age 20, she was worth $900 million, we estimated, and would soon become the youngest self-made billionaire ever.

“Thank you for this article and the recognition,” Kylie Instagrammed. Kim Kardashian West tweeted her congratulations—twice. “I am SO proud,” Kris Jenner wrote, finally pleased.

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The next month Kylie celebrated her 21st birthday at West Hollywood nightclub Delilah, in a Barbie-themed blowout complete with a pink ball pit, performances by Travis Scott and Dave Chappelle—and bartenders in black T-shirts with Kylie’s Forbes cover printed on them, her face plastered next to the words “America’s Women Billionaires.” By early the next year, she officially crossed the ten-digit threshold.


Any doubts that Kylie wasn’t a billionaire were seemingly erased in November 2019, when $8.6 billion (revenues) Coty announced it was snapping up 51% of Kylie Cosmetics for $600 million, effectively valuing the business at about $1.2 billion. The deal gave the struggling 116-year-old Coty a hip, social media-savvy brand to help turn around its sagging balance sheet. It gave Kylie a major chance at expansion, plus a boatload of cash and apparently clear proof of her billionaire status.

In a call with stock analysts, Coty’s chief financial officer heralded the deal as “a compelling financial equation” that would help “make Coty a modern, growing and profitable beauty player.” The analysts were immediately skeptical. It looked like Coty was paying way too much for a celebrity brand that could prove to be just a fad, one charged. Another asked how Coty could be sure Kylie will remain committed to promoting the business in the years to come.

Then there were Kylie’s financials. Revenues over a 12-month period preceding the deal: $177 million, according to the Coty presentation—far lower than the published estimates at the time. More problematic, Coty said that sales were up 40% from 2018, meaning the business only generated about $125 million that year, nowhere near the $360 million the Jenners had led Forbes to believe. Kylie’s skin care line, which launched in May 2019, did $100 million in revenues in its first month and a half, Kylie’s reps told us. The filings show the line was actually “on track” to finish the year with just $25 million in sales.

“I think everybody was surprised,” says Wissink, the Jefferies analyst, who was on the call. “The negative that came out of that announcement was that the business was a lot smaller than everybody had expected.”

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So much smaller, in fact, that there’s virtually no way the numbers the Jenners were peddling in earlier years could be true either. If Kylie Cosmetics did $125 million in sales in 2018, how could it have done $307 million in 2016 (as the company’s supposed tax returns state) or $330 million in 2017?

One explanation: Kylie’s business quietly fell by more than half in a single year. If so, Coty paid up for a “high-growth” brand that is actually a much smaller business than it was just a few years ago. (Coty would not answer any questions about Kylie Cosmetics for this story.) Data from e-commerce firm Rakuten, which tracks a select number of receipts, suggests there was a 62% decline in Kylie’s online sales between 2016 and 2018.

Still, virtually every industry expert polled by Forbes thinks the business couldn’t have collapsed by so much so quickly. “It seems unlikely that much revenue could have evaporated overnight,” says Evercore analyst Omar Saad. “There doesn’t seem to be any evidence the business has cratered,” adds cosmetics veteran Jeffrey Ten, who has led companies like Note Cosmetics, Nyx and Calvin Klein Beauty. “If so, why would Coty buy it?”

More likely: The business was never that big to begin with, and the Jenners have lied about it every year since 2016—including having their accountant draft tax returns with false numbers—to help juice Forbes’ estimates of Kylie’s earnings and net worth. While we can’t prove that those documents were fake (though it’s likely), it’s clear that Kylie’s camp has been lying.

There’s also the issue of profit: Forbes had been estimating that her business, which has little overhead, was notching 44% net margins. But Coty’s filings indicate that Kylie’s profits are likely lower than we figured, since her Ebitda margin—which factors in some, but not all, of her expenses—is only around 25%.

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For years, the Jenners insisted that all of those profits went directly to Kylie because she owned the business outright. But Coty’s purchase agreement specifically lists a “KMJ 2018 Irrevocable Trust,” controlled by Kristen M. Jenner, as owning a profit interest in Kylie Cosmetics. Upon the sale, the document says the trust would get a capital, or ownership, interest in the company. The Jenners initially told Forbes that the trust holds money Kylie Jenner earned before she turned 18 and that Kylie is its beneficiary. But the trust appears to have been created well after Kylie turned 18, and the Jenners declined to offer any proof to back up their claims. Given the lack of clarity—and the history of lies—we’re erring on the side of caution and assuming that the trust belongs to Kris Jenner. That means Kylie Jenner owns an estimated 44.1% of Kylie Cosmetics, rather than 49%.

“You have to remember they are in the entertainment business,” says Ten. “Everything in entertainment has to be exaggerated to get attention.”


Taking all this new information into account and factoring in the pandemic, Forbes has recalculated Kylie’s net worth and concluded that she is not a billionaire. A more realistic accounting of her personal fortune puts it at just under $900 million, despite the headlines surrounding the Coty deal that seemed to confirm her billionaire status. More than a third of that is the estimated $340 million in post-tax cash she would have pocketed from selling a majority of her company. The rest is made up of revised earnings based on her business’ smaller size and a more conservative estimate of its profitability, plus the value of her remaining share of Kylie Cosmetics—which is not only smaller than the Jenners led us to believe but is also worth less now than it was when the deal was announced in November, given the economic effects of the coronavirus.

Coty’s share price has fallen more than 60% since the deal was struck, and even better-performing competitors like Ulta Beauty and Estée Lauder are still down single digits. Add that to the fact that Wall Street tends to think Coty paid too much to begin with and there is no way to realistically peg Kylie’s net worth above a billion—despite her massive cash-out.

As usual, we asked the Jenners for input on our numbers. But pressed for answers on the many discrepancies, the typically chatty family did something out of character: They stopped answering our questions.

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Additional reporting by Chloe Sorvino.

Source: Forbes

 

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MICHAEL MCINTYRE CONFIRMS SOUTH AFRICAN DATES FOR HIS “MACNIFICENT” COMEDY TOUR

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Michael McIntyre remains one of the top-selling comedy tours ever in SA and will perform September 2024, on Thursday 12th at Sunbet Arena at Times Square, Menlyn and Friday 13th at GrandWest, Cape Town.

Much has happened in the five years since his last tour and Michael will be making mirth from the madness of it all. Michael is the host of two of the BBC’s most successful entertainment shows, the BAFTA-winning Michael McIntyre’s Big Show and The Wheel, which he devised and also hosts for NBC in America. His previous tours have sold over four million tickets and broken box-office records around the world. Michael’s return to stand-up is not to be missed!

Age restriction: STRICTLY 14+. Children younger than this will not be admitted even if accompanied by an adult Tickets available at TicketPro.co.za.

Pre-sales from 10 am THURSDAY 28th March.

Follow Real Artist Management on Facebook for access to pre-sales for Michael McIntyre with a code MACNIFICENT for the Menlyn and Cape Town shows.

General Public on sale from 11am Tues 2nd April – i.e. no code required

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Beast of Two Worlds (Ajakaju) Movie Premiere: Where Cinema Meets Couture

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BEAST OF TWO WORLDS AJAKAJU ENIOLA AJAO 3

On Sunday, March 25, 2024, the Nollywood industry saw a historic moment as the much-awaited debut of Beast of Two Worlds (Ajakaju) took center stage at Film House Cinemas, Circle Mall, Lekki. The film’s grand premiere, which was produced by Eniola Ajao in association with Anthill Studios, was a momentous occasion in the history of epic blockbuster movies.

Beast of Two Worlds (Ajakaju) had its much-awaited debut attracting a star-studded cast of industry professionals. A bit of star power was added to the premiere by the presence of well-known people like Toyin Abraham, Mercy Aigbe, Odunlade Adekola, Femi Adebayo, Iyabo Ojo, Yomi Fash-Lanso, Gbenga Adeyinka, Ronke Oshodi-Oke, Denrele Edun, Rukayat Lawal, Wasila Coded, Wumi Toriola, Phyna, Peju Ogunmola, Dayo Amusa, Iyabo Ojo, Antar Laniyan, and others.

Beast of Two Worlds (Ajakaju) opened with a grandiose fashion show that went above and beyond the usual moviegoing experience. The red carpet was a glistening display of avant-garde and opulent looks that added even more excitement to the evening’s festivities.

Directed by Odunlade Adekola and Adebayo Tijani, “Beast of Two Worlds” looks at the life of a desperate king facing banishment due to his three wives’ inability to produce a son, he takes a new wife from another world who promises him an heir but her arrival brings unforeseen chaos to the kingdom forcing the king to confront his fears and fight to secure his dynasty future.

The cast includes Odunlade Adekola, Eniola Ajao, Sola Sobowale,  Femi Adebayo, Lateef Adedimeji, Mercy Aigbe, Bimbo Akintola, Fathia Balogun, Ibrahim Chatta, amongst others.

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Beast of Two Worlds is set to show nationwide in cinemas from March 29, 2024, and distributed by Film One.

Watch the trailer here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17aQ8ibDXVg 

About Beast of Two Worlds

Beast of Two Worlds looks at the life of a desperate king facing banishment due to his three wives’ inability to produce a son, he takes a new wife from another world who promises him an heir but her arrival brings unforeseen chaos to the kingdom forcing the king to confront his fears and fight to secure his dynasty future. 

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Electric Forest Announces Additional Artists for Sold Out 2024 Edition

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2024 ElectricForest Billing Refresh 1080x1350 WEB

New Additions Feature Seven Lions, Sara Landry, G Jones, Hiatus Kaiyote, ODD MOB & OMNOM present HYPERBEAM, Layton Giordani, Boogie T, Cannabliss, Levity, Chaos in the CBD, Emo Nite, Brandi Cyrus + Many More

Taking Place June 20-23 in Rothbury, Michigan

Limited Wristbands Back On Sale Friday, March 29

https://www.electricforest.com

Today, Electric Forest announces 40+ additional artists joining the lineup for its sold out 2024 edition. Taking place June 20-23 in Rothbury, Michigan, Electric Forest remains one of the world’s most interactive festivals, fostering an immersive atmosphere of connection and discovery upheld by the pillars of community, creation, and inclusion.

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Electric Forest’s new lineup additions include melodic bass maestro Seven Lions, experimental bass veteran G Jones, high priestess of hard techno Sara Landry, and Grammy-nominated band Hiatus Kaiyote. The billing expands with techno new school selector Layton Giordani, post-punk revivalists Emo Nite,Nashville’s Brandi Cyrus, Kiwi brother-duo Chaos in the CBD, multi-instrumentalist live legend Boogie T,  Chicago’s rising electronic trio Levity, and the new collaborative project of tech house sensations ODD MOB & OMNOM present HYPERBEAM.

Electric Forest’s latest additions join a stacked roster of headliners including Forest favorite Pretty Lights, the bone-rattling sounds of Excision, and Cyclops Recordings founder Subtronics. A variety of rare collaborative artist sets are also on deck, including EVERYTHING ALWAYS (Dom Dolla + John Summit), LSZEE (CloZee + LSDREAM), and Big Gigantic and NGHTMRE teaming up for their Gigantic NGHTMRE project.

Jam fans can rejoice as The String Cheese Incident returns to perform two Incidents, plus sets from fellow torchbearers of the genre The Disco Biscuits and Umphrey’s McGee. Some of the more unexpected names on the lineup include Grammy-winning singer Nelly Furtado and famed Atlanta hip-hop artist Ludacris, each bringing their iconic sounds to the forest. The list of headliners is rounded out by Belgian techno queen Charlotte de Witte, a solo set from John Summit, and performances by Black Tiger Sex Machine, Ben Böhmer, and Knock2.

This year, Electric Forest will continue its offering of elevated culinary experience add-ons. Highlights include breakfast with a side of sass at the Drag Brunch, a four course meal inspired by the Forest, seasonal produce, and mystical creatures at Forest Feast, Buena Vida, an Agave spirits interactive cocktail tasting experience, and Wig Out Pig Out, a wig wearing authentic BBQ. Additional offerings include Brie Our Guest, Champagne French Fry, The Gouda Life, Forest Food Tour, and Good Life Brunch with Chef Sarah.

Fans will also be able to purchase exclusive guided tour experiences, allowing them to explore Sherwood Forest or experience the Dream Emporium before festival gates officially open. The exclusive tours will give fans an exclusive sneak peek at the new art, installations, and surprises the Forest has to offer while learning about the artists, history, and production process of the festival directly from the Electric Forest team. Sherwood Forest tours will conclude at TheWoodlands Bar for happy hour and are extremely limited capacity.

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Electric Forest also recently announced the full programming for its beloved Plug In Programs, offering fans the unique opportunity to contribute and collaborate directly with the festival’s production teams. Highlights include the Art Installation Sponsorship Program, allowing artists to bring their creations to life in the forest, The Brainery which offers educational workshops and classes, The Wish Machine which grants a wish in exchange for inspirational and charitable deeds done in the community, and the Electric Forest Radio On Air ExtraordinAIRE Program for aspiring radio personalities, show hosts, behind-the-scenes technicians, fan interviewers, and more.

Since 2011, Electric Forest has remained committed to the constant reimagination of what a festival experience can be. It’s this thoughtful and innovative approach to production and programming that has helped foster one of the world’s most dedicated festival communities. It’s a place where acceptance, safety, and self-expression are the most valuable currency, surprise and wonder hide around every corner, and no two journeys are the same.

Wristbands for Electric Forest 2024 are currently sold-out, but limited wristbands will go back on sale this Friday, March 29 at 12pm EST. More information can be found at ElectricForest.com.  Add-Ons, Vehicle Passes, Early Arrival, Group Camping, Shuttles, Lockers, and more can be found here.

The complete list of Electric Forest 2024 artists is available below.

Electric Forest 2024 Lineup (A-Z)

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ACRAZE

ALLEYCVT

ATLiens

AYYBO

Baggi

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Barclay Crenshaw

Ben Böhmer

Black Tiger Sex Machine

Boogie T

Brandi Cyrus

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Calussa

Cannabliss

Cannons

Caspa

Cassian

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Chaos in the CBD

Charlotte De Witte

Chase & Status

Coco & Breezy

Cuco (DJ Set)

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Dimension

Dirtwire

Dixon’s Violin

DJ Susan

DJ Tennis

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DRAMA

Dumpstaphunk

Eggy

Emo Nite

Equanimous

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EVERYTHING ALWAYS (Dom Dolla + John Summit)

Excision

G Jones

Gigantic NGHTMRE

Green Velvet

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Hamdi

Hiatus Kaiyote

INZO

it’s murph

Jenna Shaw

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JJUUJJUU

John Summit

Juelz

Kenny Beats

Kiltro

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Knock2

Layton Giordani

Levity

Le Youth

Lettuce

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LEVEL UP

Levity

Libianca

Little Stranger

LP Giobbi

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LSZEE (CloZee + LSDREAM)

Luci

Ludacris

LYNY

Maddy O’Neal

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MÆSØNIC

Major League Djz

Mascolo

Marsh

Matroda

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Mau P

Michaël Brun

Mojave Grey

NEIL FRANCES

Nelly Furtado

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Neoma

ODD MOB & OMNOM present HYPERBEAM

ODEN & Fatzo

Only Fire

PAPERWATER

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Peach Tree Rascals

Polyrhythmics

Pretty Lights

Próxima Parada

Ranger Trucco

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Rawayana

Redrum

Sammy Virji

Sara Landry

Seven Lions

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Shae District

Slayyyter

Subtronics

Sultan + Shepard

Super Future

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SWAYLÓ

The Disco Biscuits

The String Cheese Incident

Thought Process

Tripp St.

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TSHA

Umphrey’s McGee

Unusual Demont

venbee

Vini Vici

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VNSSA B2B Nala

Westend

Whyte Fang

Will Clarke

Wooli

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Zen Selekta

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Diddy reportedly sells off all his Revolt TV shares to anonymous buyer amidst home raids

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One day after Homeland Security descended upon his residences in Los Angeles and Miami, Diddy has reportedly relinquished his Revolt TV shares. (more…)

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Titanic’s door frame prop that helped Rose stay afloat sells for $718,750

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The floating piece of wood that kept Titanic’s Rose alive has been sold for $718,750 (£569,739) at auction. (more…)

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Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs breaks silence after federal agents raid his homes

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Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs’ team breaks their silence just over 24 hours after Homeland Security raided his homes. (more…)

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