Director Tim Royes was laid to rest today in London as the industry continues to mourn his tragic passing. Royes was fatally struck by a car in Manhattan earlier this month. As a director, he had been repped by Academy Films, London, and earlier RSA. He made his first major mark as an editor before successfully making the transition to the director’s chair. To share and read remembrances and to donate in Royes’ memory to one of his favorite charities, log onto www.timroyes.com….Laura Madalinski, an assistant editor at Outsider, Chicago, was named Grand Prize editing winner at the Trailer Park 2007 competition held the month in the Windy City. Trailer Park is an Association of Independent Creative Editors (AICE)-sponsored event which gives assistant editors the opportunity to showcase their editing prowess by cutting a :90 trailer for a selected feature, either selling or spoofing it in a different genre. Madalinski won on the strength of the trailer she cut for Hero. First runner up in the competition was Ruben Vela of Optimus for his Departed trailer. Second runner up was Outsider’s Brian Hepner for a St. Elmo’s Fire trailer….Sarah Nahas has joined Curious Pictures, New York, as a senior staff producer and bidder. Prior to joining mixed media and animation house Curious, Nahas was a New York-based freelance producer working for production houses on both visual effects and live-action jobs….
Supreme Court Allows Multibillion-Dollar Class Action Lawsuit To Proceed Against Meta
The Supreme Court is allowing a multibillion-dollar class action investors' lawsuit to proceed against Facebook parent Meta, stemming from the privacy scandal involving the Cambridge Analytica political consulting firm.
The justices heard arguments in November in Meta's bid to shut down the lawsuit. On Friday, they decided that they were wrong to take up the case in the first place.
The high court dismissed the company's appeal, leaving in place an appellate ruling allowing the case to go forward.
Investors allege that Meta did not fully disclose the risks that Facebook users' personal information would be misused by Cambridge Analytica, a firm that supported Donald Trump 's first successful Republican presidential campaign in 2016.
Inadequacy of the disclosures led to two significant price drops in the price of the company's shares in 2018, after the public learned about the extent of the privacy scandal, the investors say.
Meta spokesman Andy Stone said the company was disappointed by the court's action. "The plaintiff's claims are baseless and we will continue to defend ourselves as this case is considered by the District Court," Stone said in an emailed statement.
Meta already has paid a $5.1 billion fine and reached a $725 million privacy settlement with users.
Cambridge Analytica had ties to Trump political strategist Steve Bannon. It had paid a Facebook app developer for access to the personal information of about 87 million Facebook users. That data was then used to target U.S. voters during the 2016 campaign.
The lawsuit is one of two high court cases involving class-action lawsuits against tech companies. The justices also are wrestling with whether to shut down a class action against Nvidia.... Read More