1. LVMH TO RENAME SPECIAL PRIZE AFTER KARL LAGERFELD: LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton will rename its Special Prize the Karl Lagerfeld Prize, in honor of the late designer. The first award will be presented at the sixth LVMH Prize for Young Fashion Designers ceremony, which takes place September 4 in Paris. Women’s Wear Daily: “The new Karl prize is the latest LVMH-led tribute to the late designer, who had cultivated a close friendship with LVMH chairman and chief executive officer Bernard Arnault and his wife Helene, an acclaimed pianist … Meanwhile, the Karl Lagerfeld brand has enlisted a host of his famous friends and admirers, from Cara Delevingne and Kate Moss to Lewis Hamilton, to design white shirts that will be displayed during Paris Fashion Week in September and then auctioned off for charity.”
2. CNN TO HOST 10 BACK-TO-BACK CLIMATE CHANGE TOWN HALLS: CNN will broadcast 10 back-to-back climate change town halls with Democratic presidential candidates on September 4. The seven-hour event has been praised by climate advocacy organizations, as the Democratic National Committee voted against hosting a climate change-focused debate. The Hollywood Reporter: “Network anchors and hosts Wolf Blitzer, Anderson Cooper, Don Lemon, Chris Cuomo, Erin Burnett will do the questioning. … But CNN, which did not respond to a request for an interview about the town halls, is not the only game in town: the network's left-leaning competitor, MSNBC, is partnering on a two-day climate change forum at Georgetown University on September 18 and 19. MSNBC hosts Chris Hayes and Ali Velshi will moderate the forum and interview 2020 candidates about how they would address the crisis.”
3. SENATE DEMOCRATS CALL FOR INVESTIGATION OF ONLINE TICKETING INDUSTRY: Senators Amy Klobuchar and Richard Blumenthal have called for a federal investigation of the online ticketing industry, referring to a report that Ticketmaster-Live Nation has resisted a 2010 consent decree. The 2010 merger between the two companies was approved by the Justice Department under a negotiated consent decree, which sets rules they have to follow to make sure the deal doesn’t hurt competition. The senators wrote in a letter that Live Nation's power remained "virtually unchallenged" a year before the consent decree is set to expire. The Hill: “Klobuchar and Blumenthal cite a 2018 Government Accountability Office report finding fees are, on average, more than 25 percent of ticket prices and are frequently not visible until late in the buying process. The senators also cited a report by The New York Times noting that Live Nation ticketed 80 of the top 100 concert arenas in the nation in 2016. That, they added, necessitated a probe by the Justice Department’s antitrust division into whether Live Nation has abided by the consent decree or determine whether the decree tenure needed to be extended.”