1. LIVE NATION ON THE HOOK FOR $101 MILLION AFTER A CONCERTGOER FALLS: Event producer Live Nation has again been found liable, and ordered to pay up, to a Long Island man who suffered a fractured skull after falling during a 2013 concert. A Manhattan jury awarded the victim, Mark Perez, 36, a staggering $101 million payout. Perez had to undergo four brain surgeries and now suffers from memory loss and requires full-time care after tumbling from a 10-foot-tall booth at the Jones Beach Marine Theatre in Wantagh, Long Island. New York Post: “Perez was setting up the Best Buy booth on June 26, 2013 when a forklift crashed into the structure—causing him to plummet, according to his lawsuit. A judge had already found Live Nation liable for Perez’s injuries in 2016, but left it up to a jury to determine damages. The trial began October 28 and concluded last week with the stunning verdict. Perez’ attorney, said the victim likely will need further brain operations and is two or three times more likely to develop degenerative diseases, including early-onset dementia, Alzheimer’s, or Parkinson’s disease.”
2. AMERICA’S MOST EXCITING FOOD DESTINATION IS WASHINGTON: On the heels of a surprising World Series Win by its baseball team, and in defiance of conventional expectations, Washington has been named the most exciting food destination in America by Bloomberg. High rents and operating costs in Los Angeles and New York essentially took those well-known restaurant cities out of the running, while the food scene in the Nation’s Capital is thriving. Bloomberg: “Washington has a restaurant scene that mirrors its World Series-winning Nationals—a group of underdogs who are fun to watch as they raise their city to championship levels… Even the city’s $2 billion Wharf is entertaining, filled with such local hero chefs as Fabio Trabocchi of Del Mar and Cathal Armstrong at the Filipino Kaliwa. Contrast that with the $25 billion Hudson Yards, where the atmosphere is one of endless escalators and the only lines are at Blue Bottle Coffee.”
3. OLIVIA WILDE SELECTED FOR THE WILDE ARTIST OF THE YEAR AWARD: Honoring her directorial debut with Booksmart, GALECA: the Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics, announced Tuesday that it will give the "Wilde Artist of the Year" honor for 2019 to Olivia Wilde. The award will be handed down February 2 at the 11th annual Dorian Award Winners Toast. The Hollywood Reporter "'Olivia’s inventive direction of Booksmart, with its vivid, heartbreaking, and humanly funny depiction of teen lives—be they straight or gay—makes the movie a much-needed enlightened update to even the most beloved genre classics,’ said GALECA executive director John Griffiths in a statement. In correspondence with The Hollywood Reporter, he clarified that the matching of Wilde's name to the honor title is ‘a mere and happy coincidence.’ Griffiths continued, ‘As an organization whose awards go to all of film and television, not only LGBTQ-centric, we love how Olivia’s dedication to keeping all of Booksmart's characters’ emotions so affectingly real—amid the movie's fresh and layered plot, no less—practically leaps off the screen.’”