Our panel covers the gamut of Pop Culture goings-on including cloned dogs, a social media influencer flexing her muscles, e-sports in the Olympics and a sticky successor to the selfie stick.
Barbara Streisand clones her beloved pet
n Variety’s cover story this week, Barbra Streisand revelaed she used DNA from a former pet to create two clones.
Samantha was her 14-year-old coton du tulear who died in 2017. Two of Streisand’s current dogs, Miss Violet and Miss Scarlett, were cloned with the cells taken from Samantha’s mouth and stomach.
The dogs are dressed in the colors of their namesake so that Streisand can tell them apart, although Streisand says they have different personalities.
The power of a Kylie Jenner tweet
The reality TV star, Kylie Cosmetics businesswoman, and social media personality tweeted last week that she doesn’t use Snapchat anymore, adding “Ugh, this is so sad.”
Although she later called the app her “first love,” the damage had been done.
That day, Snapchat’s parent company lost $1.3 billion USD in market value and Snap Inc’s shares fell more than six per cent in trading. Just how powerful is celebrity influence?
Should e-sports become an Olympic sport?
Amongst criticism of an “aging problem,” the International Olympic Committee is debating adding e-sports to the 2024 Games in Paris.
The competitive video game industry has grown in popularity, especially with younger generations, and is thought to have the potential to bring in a younger audience to the Olympics.
But is popularity the only consideration that should be given to a new would-be Olympic sport?
A successor to the selfie stick
The inventors of the selfie stick are at it again!
But they’ve improved on the stick design, this time releasing a hands-free device called the Selfie Stick It. Will it revolutionize our selfie-ing as the stick did?
Our Pop Culture Panel consists of: Omar Mouallem, independent journalist; Kari Watson, editor and writer of theYYSCENE.com and Andrew Guilbert, assistant editor at Avenue Calgary
