Amazon’s quest for true world domination marches on, with Jeff Bezos reportedly eyeing a new niche in his corporate crosshairs: The event ticket industry, traditionally monopolized by Live Nation’s Ticketmaster. This is great news for consumers and frequent concert goers — Thanks to ridiculously expensive and asinine service fees tagged onto the face price of event tickets, the Ticketmaster empire is one of the most hated businesses in all of America. Maybe — just maybe — Amazon can change that:
Amazon.com Inc is seeking to partner with U.S. venue owners to sell event tickets, four sources have told Reuters, a move that could loosen Ticketmaster’s powerful grip on the lucrative ticketing business.
Access to tickets could be another means to lure members to the Amazon Prime shopping club. For music acts and sports teams, selling tickets through Amazon could help sell their merchandise.
Currently Ticketmaster, owned by Live Nation Entertainment Inc, is the exclusive seller of primary tickets for many top venues in the United States. Would-be challengers have struggled to compete in the face of Ticketmaster’s strong relationships with the operators of major U.S. sports stadiums, arenas, concert halls and other venues.
That said, I’m skeptical: Live Nation (and, similarly, AEG Live), are vertically-aligned conglomerates that own many of the venues they sell tickets for. Live Nation and AEG are able to maximize revenue across all aspects of the events/concert promotion industry, from the cost of the ticket to the beer you’re buying at a show. In order to truly be competitive in the industry, Amazon will need to figure out how to gobble up multi-million dollar venue contracts in order to gain exclusive rights to ticket sales on it’s platform. In the concert industry, they can probably make some headway with independent venues like Merriweather Post Pavillon in Maryland or the brand new Levitt Pavilion in Denver (and, while we’re at it, just straight up acquire TicketFly for a pile of Amazon stock + cash from Eventbrite).
As Reuters suggests above, Amazon will *probably* roll out ticket sales in a way similar to how AMEX does as a perk of membership for Prime members. If you’re a member of Prime, you get first dibs at a premium ticket pie before the general public does.
Will that cause ticket prices to go down? Probably not. But at least it will add some diversity to the marketplace for consumers.
Floyd Mayweather was a guest on Jimmy Kimmel Live last night where he talked about the fight against Conor McGregor. For better or worse, this will be the biggest fight of the year. The hype is insane. These two fighters are going to make hundreds of millions of dollars, and two weekends from now Vegas will be the most fun city on the planet in that moment.
During Floyd Mayweather‘s guest appearance on Kimmel last night he discussed how he’d make $300,000 at his strip club where he’ll be hosting an after party the night of the fight. He also sat with Jimmy Kimmel to analyze the fight prop bets. Floyd Mayweather IS allowed to bet on himself for this fight, and he says he plans on betting $$$$ on himself. Jimmy asks Floyd if he’s allowed to bet against himself, assuming that there are legal hurdles there because it could potentially lead a boxer to throw a fight for a great pay day. Floyd skirts the question and instead says that he’s never going to bet against himself.
The two then get into a discussion on the prop bets that are surrounding this fight.
I think my favorite part of this discussion is when Floyd Mayweather guarantees Jimmy Kimmel’s bet. Telling him whatever he bets and he doesn’t win, Floyd will give that money back to Jimmy. How fucking great would the world of gambling be if the athletes always guaranteed our bets?!
This hand was always meant to be a disaster. The only thing that stopped this from being an absolute blood bath is the fact that everyone sitting at the poker table is a seasoned professional. When you’ve spent as much time sitting at the felt as Daniel Negrenau and Antonio Esfandiari you KNOW when you’re beaten.
All three players in the hands have strong pocket pairs to start. Daniel Negrenau has QQ but he should’ve known he was beaten based on the action. Antonio Esfandiari found KK staring back at him. And Tom Dwan 4-bet his pocket rockets to get the action rolling.
This was all part of Poker After Dark, a cash game amongst professionals that’s featured on PokerGo. When it was all said and done, Tom Dwan won a $700,000 CASH hand in a clash that would cause any normal poker player to completely unravel. (h/t Poker News)
In her cover story the still only 25-year-old Upton talks a little bit about her new movie, The Layover with her potential sister-in-law Alexandra Daddario, which is in theaters now (no, really it is, go check the listings). Upton also admits that some of her favorite things are going out to dinner, drinking wine, and eating french fries and chocolate. Oh yeah, she also talks about exercise and weight training because she’s an expert on it now or something…I don’t know.
Kate Upton prides herself on being a badass. The 25-year-old model and actress can push a sled with 500-pound weights across the floor, no problem, and does hip thrusts with a 200-pound bar across her lap. (She’s always a source of gymspo.) “Here I am bragging,” she says with a laugh as she describes her fitness feats. “But it’s exciting, challenging, and empowering to see what I can do.”
Upton also shared a little bit about her eating habits…
“I eat a lot of protein like chicken and tons of greens. I’m like a female Popeye: I eat so much spinach that it’s insane. I love it with a little bit of cheese drizzled on it – it’s one of my favorites. I always have breakfast because I can’t do a hard workout if I don’t eat. I usually have eggs and spinach beforehand or an omelet with a bunch of veggies in it and maybe a little feta. If I’m at the gym acting like a badass lifting all those weights, it would be pretty embarrassing if I fainted.”
That it would. So there you have it. A little taste of how Kate Upton stays in good enough shape to have landed yet another Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue cover this year (even if she was a diva…allegedly).
Naturally, because no article featuring Kate Upton would be complete without pictures, Shape magazine took a bunch of them and I have to say, they turned out very well.
Most go kart tracks are the same: Flat, boring… A couple sharp turns while racing against your friends and you’re done. Not this one from Branson, Missouri-based Branson Tracks. They’re expanding to Niagara Falls, building a massive new go kart track with a four-story corkscrew and multiple elevated coaster sections. You go up! You go down! It looks… SO MUCH FREAKIN’ FUN.
According to NarCity.com, construction ends this fall before the brutal upstate New York winter. The amusement park is slated to open next spring. But if you’re dead set on a similar experience, there are three high-rise tracks at their Branson, Missouri locations…
Yesterday, we told you that Daniel Craig was still on the fence about reprising his role as James Bond for the 25th movie in the franchise, which is slated for release in November 2019. While the New York Times reported last month that the actor had signed on for one last hurrah, Craig has been incredibly coy about whether or not he’d actually taken the role.
Well, Craig was either lying in that interview or had some sort of life-changing revelation a few hours after giving it, because the actor finally confirmed he’d be returning as Bond in a lengthy interview last night on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert.
Craig had previously turned down a $100 million offer to return for two more films, but if this interview is to be believed, the upcoming movie will be his last. When asked about the future of the franchise, he said, “I think this is it. I just want to go out on a high note. I can’t wait”
This comes as somewhat of a surprise considering Craig gave an interview in 2015 in which he said he’d rather “slash [his wrists]” than appear in another movie as 007. However, the actor provided an explanation for that quote, saying:
“It was two days after filming the last one, and I went straight to an interview and someone asked me if I would do another one and I went no. And instead of saying something with style and grace I gave a really stupid answer.”
While Roger Moore will have ultimately starred in more Bond movies, Craig’s decision to sign on for one more film means that his tenure as 007 has lasted longer than that of any other actor. If he can make a movie that comes close to matching the quality of Casino Royale or Skyfall, it’s likely he’ll be able to cement his legacy as the best Bond of all time.
Another week, another episode of “Game of Thrones” leaks days before it is officially released on Sunday. Episode 6 of Season 7 was posted on file sharing sites and Reddit after it was leaked early. But the next “GoT” episode was not released by the hackers during the much publicized cyber attack on HBO where they stole 1.5 terabytes of data from the popular cable network and released emails, financial balance sheets, employment agreements, marketing strategy, and a list of personal phone numbers of the stars of the hit fantasy show. And the premature release did not happen like it did two weeks ago when employees of a company in India that stores and processes the HBO show for an app stole and leaked Episode 4 of Season 7. This most recent leak came when HBO accidentally aired the newest episode on their channel. That’s it. No infiltrating HBO’s data center and stealing the episode. HBO Nordic in Spain released the episode by accident and it was available for all to watch before it was removed an hour later.
“We have learned that the upcoming episode of Game of Thrones was accidentally posted for a brief time on the HBO Nordic and HBO España platforms,” an HBO spokesperson said. “The error appears to have originated with a third-party vendor and the episode was removed as soon as it was recognized. This is not connected to the recent cyber incident at HBO in the US.”
You can see a screenshot of the episode HERE if you’d like.
She’s also pretty great at Instagram, and oh yeah, there was also that little thing she did earlier this year called the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue. Remember that? That was good too.
Speaking of Instagram, Genie Bouchard, like many athletes, occasionally posts ads from her sponsors on her account. You don’t even want to know how much money some of these athletes like Cristiano Ronaldo make for a single ad. Seriously, you really don’t. Anyway, unlike many athletes, however, on Tuesday Bouchard posted a conversation by accident right there in the caption of one of her ads.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.
Genie Bouchard, Instagram
Love those comments.
She did eventually fix it, though there were still some A+ comments…
IGN and the WWE are a tag team in revealing the first peek at the roster of playable wrestling superstars available in WWE 2K18. This list of 47 playable WWE wrestlers is just the first installment of players that will be available on the video game. Back on WWE 2K17, there were nearly 170 playable characters taken from Raw, SmackDown, NXT, Legends, and Divas.
WWE’s Renee Young and WWE Raw commentator Corey Graves are joined by Goldust to make the announcement. IGN promises they will provide “four huge roster reveal shows over the coming weeks.”
Here is the first installment of all 47 playable wrestling superstars available for WWE 2K18:
Bray Wyatt
Dolph Ziggler
Sami Zayn
Dean Ambrose
Baron Corbin
Kalisto
Akira Tozawa
Sin Cara
Hideo Itami
Eric Young
Jinder Mahal
Bushwacker Butch
Bushwacker Luke
Konnor
Viktor
Cesaro
Sheamus
Karl Anderson
Luke Gallows
Nikki Cross
Alundra Blayze
Emma
Lita
Summer Rae
Paige
Brie Bella
Nikki Bella
British Bulldog
Buddy Roberts
Diamond Dallas Page
Big Boss Man
Mark Henry
Bam Bam Bigelow
Bret Hart
Dusty Rhodes
The Undertaker
Big Show
Andre the Giant
Kane
Diesel (and Kevin Nash)
Luke Harper
Erick Rowan
Sawyer Fulton
Alexander Wolfe
Killian Dain
Braun Strowman
Goldust
Here’s NXT superstars SAnitY’s full WWE 2K18 entrance video.
“Working on WWE 2K18 our goal is to not only create the best wrestling game ever but to create the best looking wrestling game ever,” explained WWE 2K creative director Lynell Jinks. “With that goal in mind, our team of artists and engineers worked effortlessly to up the quality on pretty much all of our art assets from our props to our environment to our superstars”
Jinks shows off the first footage of WWE 2K18 and how much it is improved from WWE 2K17.
WWE 2K18 slams onto your Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4n and Xbox One on October 17, 2017.
Atlanta Falcons are getting their very own Chick-fil-A inside of their shiny new state-of-art stadium, but unfortunately the fast food chain is going to keep it’s longstanding tradition of being closed on Sunday, which means, there will be no delicious chicken sandwiches on game day.
Zaxby's now the official chicken of the Falcons. That doesn't mean Chick Fil-A isn't in the new stadium. It is closed on Sundays, however. pic.twitter.com/TfCIa3rz5T
“Our founder, Truett Cathy, made the decision to close on Sundays in 1946 when he opened his first restaurant in Hapeville, Georgia. Having worked seven days a week in restaurants open 24 hours, Truett saw the importance of closing on Sundays so that he and his employees could set aside one day to rest and worship if they choose – a practice we uphold today.”
The only day the Chick-fil-A inside the Mercedez Benz stadium will be open, is on December 7, when the Falcons host the Saints on Thursday night.
And then there’s DJ. Another guy who not only plays golf for a living, he’s really damn good it. So he too is loaded with cash and, as we all know very well, he’s engaged to the daughter of “The Great One” Paulina Gretzky.
In fact, the two of them are, as I mentioned in the headline, currently on vacation somewhere warm. Here’s proof…
Editor’s Note: Welcome to Sports Finance Brief, a new daily column we’re running here at BroBible breaking down the day’s biggest stories in sports finance. It comes to us via our friends at John Wall Street, a new sports business e-mail newsletter worth subscribing to. Here’s what you need to know today…
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John Wall Street is not a person or location, but a destination for the educated sports fan.
While we won’t be publishing “hot takes” on LeBron’s relative greatness to Jordan, we will be offering up the most relevant sports related finance news, in easily digestible bites, with commentary from both the equities analyst and sports fanatic perspectives.
We’ll cover publicly traded professional teams & stadiums, broadcast networks, apparel & footwear retailers, sporting equipment manufacturers, ticketing companies, content and facilities providers. If it trades on Wall Street, and has a sports angle, it’s in our wheel house.
Howie Long-Short and Fan Marino will be providing their expert opinions on each story. They have slightly different areas of expertise. Fan Marino is a firm believer that the SEC is the premier football conference. Howie Long-Short knows it as the Security & Exchange Commission. Fan Marino lives and dies with the college selection of 5 star, blue chip recruits. Howie Long-Short spends his days analyzing blue chip stocks. Howie Long-Short knows that Black Monday occurred on October 19th, 1987. Fan Marino swears it happens every January after Week 17. You get the point.
Softbank Group Invests $1 Billion In Fanatics At $4.5 Billion Valuation
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Japanese telecom giant Softbank Group Corp (TYO: 9984) has made a $1 billion investment into Fanatics Inc., a leading sports merchandise licensor that handles e-commerce sales for a variety of teams & leagues, including the NFL and MLB. The deal places a $4.5 billion private market valuation on the company. Fanatics sells everything from t-shirts to lawn chairs and has built a burgeoning memorabilia business with the likes of Steph Curry, Ronda Rousey and Peyton Manning, signed to exclusive contracts. Softbank is looking to compete with the likes of Nike, Adidas and Under Armour within the licensed sports apparel space.
Howie Long-Short: Want to invest in Fanatics, but not interested in Softbank? Alibaba (BABA) contributed to a $170 million round in June 2013, at a $3 billion valuation.
Fan Marino: Fanatics is the ONLY place I shop for licensed sports apparel. Just make sure you don’t pay full retail; they are always running 20-30% off sales!
Amazon Looking To Disrupt Event Ticketing Space; Consumer Data Ownership Remains The Holdup
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Amazon (AMZN) is actively negotiating deals with U.S. venues in an effort to break into the lucrative event ticketing marketplace. Ticketmaster, the clubhouse leader in the space, generated $1.6 billion in revenue in 2016, without including the estimated $250 million they earned on the resale market. Amazon’s latest industry disruption would seem to benefit everyone, except Ticketmaster (LYV). Consumers strongly dislike Ticketmaster’s costly processing fees, AMZN wants to increase Prime subscriptions and venues, leagues & teams could use the help boosting ticket sales. The hold-up thus far remains who will own the consumer data. While Amazon; who is willing to pay millions of dollars in ad revenue to the venues understandably wants the data, venue owners use that information to create social campaigns and book future acts.
Howie Long-Short: The beginning of the end for Ticketmaster. See Barnes & Noble, Circuit City and most recently Blue Apron.
Fan Marino: Charging service fees, delivery fees and a facility charge for the right to purchase a ticket should be criminal. Sorry Ticketmaster, pigs get slaughtered.
Sheldon Alderson Trying To Stop Online Gambling In Own Self Interest; Looks To Extend Obscure ’61 Act
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As online gambling becomes closer to being legalized, Sandy Alderson, the Las Vegas casino (LVS) mogul who has made a $35 billion fortune in legalized gambling, is looking to Congress to shut down his competition. Alderson, who was influential in bringing the Raiders to Vegas, has spent both years and millions lobbying to ban online gaming; even going as far as to bankroll RAWA (an extension of the Federal Wire Act of 1961 designed to curb organized crime). Alderson’s opponents say that the law was not designed to prevent states from legalized online gambling and argue the extension of government would serve to benefit just one man. It should be noted that Alderson is only looking to prevent online gambling that competes with his casinos and not daily fantasy sports.
Howie Long-Short: Gambling companies trying to influence politics? What else is new? Casinos have generally succeeded by perpetually delaying online gambling efforts.
Fan Marino: Easier sale? Casinos as a healthy alternative to the “bad and addictive” online gaming sites or ice to an eskimo?
Tinder In Talks To Sponsor Manchester United Kit
Tinder (MTCH) is in talks with English Premier League club Manchester United (MANU) to sponsor the team’s new kit. The deal would place Tinder’s flame logo on the left sleeve of player jerseys. Worth a reported $16 million, it would become the most lucrative sponsorship of its kind for English clubs. While it may seem like a surprising match for the dating app, it would actually be their second futbol partnership. The company currently has a shirt sponsorship deal in place with Italian Serie A side Napoli.
Fan Marino: I’m a grown man (no, I’m not 40), so I don’t buy jerseys. If I was 20 again, I would not be buying a jersey with a corporate logo on it. It reminds me of a stadium giveaway.
Jeter Group Wins Marlins Bid
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Miami Marlins owner; Jeffrey Loria, has agreed to sell the franchise to a group of investors led by venture capitalist Bruce Sherman, and former Yankees shortstop, Derek Jeter for $1.2 Billion. Sherman will be the “control person” while Jeter, who only put up $25 million of his own money, will run business and baseball operations for the organization. Jeter has his work cut out for him. The team is expected to lose $60 million this season, with the league’s worst TV deal and among the lowest attendance in all of baseball. On the field, the Marlins haven’t made the playoffs since 2003. The deal, which must be approved by 3/4 of MLB owners is expected to be voted on in early October.
Howie Long-Short: Forbes valued the team at $940 million. Jorge Mas wasn’t going over $1.1 billion. I’m surprised by the winning number.
Fan Marino: Rumors are circulating that the Jeter group may remove the home run sculpture in left center field. I was a regular attendee at games during the ’12 season. Never has something brand new seemed so outdated from the start.
It’s time for us to all check out the newest funny memes and photos on the Internet. The BroBible ‘Best Damn Photos’ is a twice daily pic dump. It brings together the funniest photos and memes from all across the Internet. You can check out previous editions of the morning and afternoon Best Damn Photospic dump by following that link, but don’t go anywhere without viewing today’s best funny photos! Make sure to follow us on Instagram at @brobible for more funny pics. And to see your pictures featured here on BroBible, consider sending them to me on Twitter HERE, and if the pics are good I’ll include them.
The battle between the NFL and its players’ union over Ezekiel Elliott’s domestic violence suspension is starting to get ugly.
In a statement issued Wednesday, the league ripped the NFLPA, and accused them of spreading “derogatory information” about Elliott’s accuser Tiffany Thompson just hours after text messages between Thompson and her friend discussing blackmailing were leaked to the media.
For the past week, Elliott’s team and the NFLPA have been on the aggressive trying to discredit Thompson by painting her as someone who has been falsely accusing the Cowboys running back of domestic violence in attempt to ruin his life.
From #Cowboys RB Ezekiel Elliott's statement explaining his basis for appeal of his 6-game suspension… claims "factual inaccuracies" pic.twitter.com/zuaJ6dq7id
The NFL’s statement comes hours after Yahoo Sports! Charles Robinson leaked a portion of the NFL’s 160-page report on the Ezekiel Elliott domestic-violence case which details an exchange between Elliott’s accuser, Tiffany Thompson, and one of her friends in which they discuss using sex tapes of Thompson and Elliott as a means for blackmailing Elliott for money.
Simply put, it is the mathematical way to determine how long it will take your money to double at any given rate of return. For instance if your rate of return is 7% it will take your money 10.3 years to double. All you need to do is divide 72 by your expected rate of return and then boom, you can assume that the $10,000 invested in a low-cost index fund in a Betterment or Wealthfront or Vanguard account will be $20,000 in 10.3 year. Of course, your ongoing savings will help you fast surpass $20,000 even faster. But you already knew that.
So there you have it. If you need your money to double faster, you need to find more aggressive investments. For the rest of us, we can just save and invest as much money as possible be lazy and watch our accounts grow by an average of 7%.
But these NBA team logo-themed helmets created by designer Christopher Muñoz might be the best helmet designs we have seen yet. Maybe instead of wearing Color Rush helmets the NFL teams that also have NBA teams in their city should wear these bad boys some weekend. The NFL has certainly come up with worse ideas.
There’s been a lot of James Bond news over the past 48 hours. First, Daniel Craig said he was on the fence about returning as 007 and that it might not happen. Last night, Craig was a guest on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert where he confirmed that he will be returning for one last hurrah as James Bond. For what it’s worth, the NYT reported last month that Craig would be returning so there’s a chance we’re all puppets who have been strung along over the past few days.
I don’t know how I got on such a rant about Daniel Craig because we’re here to talk about Roger Moore. I’ll admit that Roger Moore is my least favorite of all the men to play James Bond. Sean Connery is #1, Daniel Craig #2, and after that, it’s a tie for mediocrity. The fact that Roger Moore’s amongst my least favorite Bond actors has always led me to judge him a little bit as a man, until now. I was cruising through Twitter and saw a Vanity Fair article titled ‘8 Movie Stars with Unbelievable Contract Clauses’…I clicked and saw Roger Moore’s contract clause for James Bond and realized that maybe I’ve been unfairly judging ol’ Roger all these years:
What better way to get into the James Bond spirit than by having an endless supply of fine cigars? That’s what the late Roger Moore required in order to sign on as the next 007 in the ‘70s, apparently getting “unlimited” Montecristo cigars written into his first contract.
There’s a valuable lesson to be learned here. When you are negotiating a contract you have the choice of including anything you want. It’s a negotiation. The worst thing that can happen is the other side says ‘no’ and you’re forced to pull it from the contract. Roger Moore swung for the fences and demanded unlimited Montecristo Cigars. Maybe you want a 2-hour lunch break instead of 1. Or you want 30 days of vacation instead of the company’s garbage 10-day policy. The world isn’t going to give you any handouts. You need to ask for what you want in life, bros.
Today, the Nevada State Athletic Commission today voted unanimously to grant a request from Floyd Mayweather and Conor McGregor’s camps to allow eight-ounce gloves to be used for the August 26th superfight between the two.
The ruling is fairly shocking considering Nevada rules state that fighters above 147 lb must wear 10 oz. gloves.
Wow. Nevada commission unanimously voted to break its rules. Will allow #MayweatherMcGregor to use 8-ounce gloves instead of 10. smh
During last week’s media workouts, McGregor’s longtime coach John Kavanagh seemed thrilled with the idea of Conor using 8oz gloves and believes the Irishman will be able to KO Mayweather wearing the smaller gloves.
“The lighter the glove the better for us. We’re used to 4 oz. It’s terrifying to think what he would be like with 8oz gloves.
Floyd is incredible accomplished boxer and fantastic defensive boxer. No matter how well things go for him it will take him a few rounds to figure things out. It doesn’t take Conor (much), he lands and people fall. I think I could be a round 1 fight with 8oz gloves.
It’s bad enough that Oakland Raiders fans are having to somehow deal with the fact that their beloved team will be shortly moving to Las Vegas. But now they are having to deal with their franchise quarterback Derek Carr going into making awful music and videos to accompany his songs. Or at least that what he led many people to believe on Tuesday.
Posting a teaser clip to his social media channels, Carr is seen announcing that he has a new single and music video coming out soon. And, well, it looked pretty awful.
So considering how many other pro athletes have fancied themselves as also being musicians it wasn’t completely out of the realm of possibility that Carr was being serious.
Thankfully, he was not, as it all turned out to be one hell of a great prank by the $125 million QB.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view. everyone calm down it's ALL a joke! I don't really dress like that and make music videos on the side Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.
Every day dozens and dozens of celebrities share pictures, videos, jokes, gear and other goodies to their Instagram accounts. There is literally so much going on with so many people that there’s almost no way the average bro can keep tabs on it all. So, because we care, we do it for you so you can waste your time at work, at home or wherever you may be in a much more efficient manner. After all, if you’re going to be wasting time, you want to do it right.
Here are the best celebrity Instagram posts we saw on the internet today…
