Facebook’s 51st employee, and one of its very first females, is opening up about her experience with the social media giant. Katherine Losse, who joined the company in 2005 as a customer service rep and ended in 2010 as CEO Mark Zuckerberg‘s speech writer, just released the book, The Boy Kings: A Journey into the Heart of the Social NetworkThe Boy Kings: A Journey into the Heart of the Social Network. In it, not only does she call out the young founders’ immaturity, she lets everyone know who cleaned the company up: Sheryl Sandberg. More »
Katie Holmes and Tom Cruise announced their divorce to the public today in a statement. This is, of course, creating speculation that the marriage was just a business deal, complete with a contract, to help their careers. He needed rumors about his sexuality to be quashed and she, though her television work was stellar and she was on the brink of a big film career, wanted more celebrity status. The contract rumors initially emerged after the couple began their whirlwind romance in 2005 and seemed desperate to promote it. No news outlet has ever seen this alleged contract but the fact that Katie Holmes signed a prenup that would earn her $3 million a year so $33 million total for the duration of their marriage, doesn’t help their case. It’s very jaded to believe that two people would enter into an agreement like this but this is Hollywood and for some people everything is about their careers. More »
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Ever since Ann Curry announced her departure from her brief and not-so-successful stint on The Today Show, and insiders quickly filled the gap by announcing Savannah Guthrie as Matt Lauer’s new co-anchor, we know you’ve been dying to learn more about the woman you’re probably going to see first thing in the morning from now on. More »
We interrupt your Friday afternoon with this celebrity uterus update. Grammy-winner Adele is carrying a fetus whose cries will have a perfect pitch and sound prettier than your shower warbling. Now, we’re just waiting to hear how the successful lady will approach the debate du jour, working mother’s ability to “have it all.” More »
With the sad passing of Nora Ephron, one of the world’s most beloved screenwriters, the woman who showed us what a romantic comedy could (and should) be, we have lost one of a rare breed. Female screenwriters. And in an age when the box office is dominated by sexist atrocities like That’s My Boy, when even sex symbol in the making Blake Lively pushes back against playing a young female role written by a man, when female actresses need to found their own production companies to make movies they actually want to be in, we desperately need them. So with gratitude to Nora and all the other female screenwriters out there, here are some of the women you should know in the moviemaking biz. More »
People just confirmed that Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes are divorcing. When Katie and Tom started their whirlwind romance back in 2005 (they didn’t marry until 2006) there was a lot of speculation that she only married him to boost her career. Katie was best known for her work on Dawson’s Creek up to that point and was on the brink of a promising film career with roles in Pieces of April, Wonder Boys and the big blockbuster of the summer of 2005, Batman Begins. But she had kept a fairly low profile as a celebrity so a relationship with a major movie star would bring her exposure on to a whole new level. Katie did become a bigger celebrity but did it actually didn’t help her film career that much. Could this divorce actually help her career? More »
This week Katherine Losse, a former Facebook employee, published a book called The Boy Kings: A Journey into the Heart of the Social Network that provides an inside and very enlightening depiction of the early, mysterious days of Facebook. Katherine was the company’s 51st employee and she paints a picture of a modern day Mad Men-like office environment with founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg taking on the Don Draper role. “It was like Mad Men but real and happening in the current moment as if in repudiation of fifty years of social progress,”she wrote. More »
Last Friday, we took a look at summer job horror stories including the ice-cream truck driver who ended his first day on the job owing his boss $75. This week, enjoy a whole new round of nightmare summer jobs, including stories from a professional football mascot, two summer camp workers, a morgue assistant, and yet another disgruntled ice-cream truck driver. More »
You finally did it. You are starting your own business. You have some money saved for this but soon you find you have put every penny into starting your company. It’s so bad you have even considered selling your kidneys on the black market. We talked to some people who said they went broke starting their own businesses. More »
Amelia Dunne, Co-founder of AskYourUsers.com, has always been an entrepreneur. She had her own business cards (self-made) by the time she was 10 years old and in elementary school she would make hair scrunchies and sell them to boutiques in San Francisco. Most weekends she could be found at a stand in front of her parent’s house selling figs from her backyard, fake radio show cassette tapes (also self-made), or custom art projects. Dunne sat down with The Grindstone to talk about her unique path as an entrepreneur and how really listening to your customers can give you the best insight into what kind of business you should build. More »
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Adele’s embarrassing love mistake could happen to any of us (TheStir)
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The Boy Kings author Kath Losse on working at Facebook: “It was like Mad Men” (HuffPo Women)
Obamacare Ruling: What it means for you (SavvySugar)
How to throw a cheap wedding (LearnVest)
Best-selling novelist Jennifer Weiner is poking fun at the male-dominated literary establishment with a cheeky new ad, and I love her for it. The ad, at left, promotes her new book, “The Next Best Thing,” and it shows Weiner dressed like critically acclaimed male novelist Jeffrey Eugenides, author of “serious” books like “Middlesex” and “The Marriage Plot.” Weiner’s ad, designed to imitate Eugenides’ notorious (and ridiculous) billboard in Times Square, reads, “Jeffrey Eugenides doesn’t have a book out this summer, but Jennifer Weiner has … The Next Best Thing.” Score one for lady writers with senses of humor. More »
Thirteenth-seeded French tennis player Gilles Simon decided to stir up the controversy bowl this week at Wimbledon when he said that men’s tennis is “more attractive” to watch and that men play more sets, bring in more money and therefore should be paid more. Wimbledon top seed, the highest paid female athlete and all-around extremely hot lady Maria Sharapova rallied back with the fact that a heck of a hot more people watch her matches than his. Serena Williams chimed in that it was partly because Maria is way hotter or more attractive than Gilles. I’m not usually one to support people touting their hotness as means for getting paid more but in this case I say go for it Maria. Also, didn’t we prove that women were just as interesting to watch as me nin tennis about thirty years ago with Billie Jean King in the legendary Battle of the Sexes?
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The modern-day pageant circuit has changed quite a bit since the days when I stayed up late hoping that Miss Indiana would make the top 12. Today, pageant contestants are using their experience to launch careers in politics. And it makes sense. There are plenty of similarities between pageants and campaigns. More »
After In Touch Weekly reported that Simpson is “stressed and overwhelmed” by the $4 million deal she signed with Weight Watchers to shed 50 pounds in five months, the new mom has come out saying she has not felt pressure by her new employers at all. “Just so everyone knows…Weight Watchers hasn’t put ANY pressure on me!” she tweeted Wednesday night. “I’m trying to be as healthy as I can for myself and I feel great.” Excellent move to keep the company paying her a massive amount of money happy, but could Jessica screw up this deal? Could the company sue for breach of contract if she doesn’t lose the weight in time? More »
You might think that the news of 91-year-old Judy Agnew‘s death in California last week would be of interest only to political junkies and family members. Agnew is best remembered for her long marriage to Spiro Agnew, the vice-president under Richard Nixon, and she was a mother of four, a PTA president, and a Girl Scout leader. But she was also the living embodiment of femininity before feminism. When her husband popped in on a reception she was hosting for 75 female reporters in 1969, he told her “Have steak ready for dinner” on his way out. Judy just nodded. More »
What will Venus and Serena do? The WTA says it is working with Grand Slam tournaments and the International Tennis Federation to “drive excessive grunting” out of tennis. Actually current tennis professionals like the Williams sisters and Maria Sharapova will not be affected by this new rule. The effort is being designed to encourage younger players to tone the grunting down so they never get used to it. To this proposal we would like to say: Are you kidding?! And Gruuuuuugh! More »
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