Friday, Oct. 1 Weekly Quiz: Sopranos, Surprises, Spectacular

As of August 2021, Forbes estimates that Rihanna is worth $1.7 billion — making her the wealthiest female musician globally and the second richest female entertainer after Oprah Winfrey.

How did Rihanna make her fortune?

An estimated $1.4 billion of Rihanna’s fortune comes from the value of Fenty Beauty, of which she owns 50%. Her stake in her lingerie company, Savage x Fenty, is worth an estimated $270 million, and her earnings from her music and acting careers account for most of the rest.

On Wednesday, Sept. 29, 2021, Russia threatened to block YouTube after it removed Russian state-backed broadcaster RT's German-language channels from its site, saying they had breached its COVID-19 misinformation policy. Russia accused YouTube of "unprecedented information aggression." Separately on the very same day, Russia fined Google 6.5 million roubles ($89,534) for failing to delete content that Moscow deems "illegal," such as an anti-government tactical voting app.

Is YouTube banning anti-vaxxers?

YouTube said on Wednesday, Sept. 29, 2021, it will block all anti-vaccine content - false information about the Covid-19 vaccines and misinformation about other approved vaccines - including claims that the flu vaccine causes infertility and that the MMR shot can cause autism. The online video company also bans channels associated with prominent anti-vaccine activists, including Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Joseph Mercola.

On Friday, Sept. 24, 2021, the Chinese government vowed to root out "illegal" cryptocurrency activities. Beijing's new blanket ban on all cryptocurrency trading and mining is the broadest yet by a major economy. China is, however, developing an official digital currency of its own.

In June 2021, The Chinese government announced it would now allow all couples to have three children instead of two while introducing new policies designed to reduce the financial burden of raising children.

Are abortions allowed in China?

On Sept. 27, 2021, China announced it would reduce the number of abortions performed for "non-medical purposes." China has already enacted strict measures aimed at preventing sex-selective abortions. Although China remains the world's most populous nation, the latest census showed population growth from 2011 to 2020 was the slowest since the 1950s and was expected to slow even more in the coming years.

“Moulin Rouge! The Musical” is a stage adaptation of the 2001 Baz Luhrmann musical film. The musical, reimagining present-day and classic pop songs, swept the musical categories at the 2021 Tony Awards held Sunday, Sept. 26, 2021, picking up ten prizes.

Tony Awards 2021 facts

The 2021 74th Tony Awards ceremony was held at Broadway’s Winter Garden Theater, with about a quarter of the audience at its usual Radio City Music Hall location.  Attendees were asked to wear masks that cover their mouths and noses and present proof of vaccination. The 2021 ceremony, postponed from June 2020, honored plays and musicals from the 2019-2020 season, which abruptly ended when Broadway was forced to shut down on Mar. 12, 2020, due to Covid-19 restrictions.

The Mann Act is an anti-sex trafficking law prohibiting taking anyone across state lines "for any immoral purpose."

Was R. Kelly convicted of sex trafficking?

R&B superstar R. Kelly, 54, was convicted Monday, Sept. 27, 2021, in a sex trafficking trial. A jury of seven men and five women found Kelly guilty of racketeering and sex trafficking (violating the Mann Act). On Jun. 29, 2022, Kelly was sentenced to 30 years in prison. The singer is also facing sex-related charges in Minnesota. Kelly had been tried once before, in Chicago, in a child pornography case but was acquitted in 2008. On Jan. 31, 2023, a Chicago judge dismissed other sex-abuse charges against the singer after the Cook County State's Attorney said she was comfortable dropping the case because Kelly will spend decades in prison for separate convictions in federal court.

Terence Blanchard became the first Black composer whose work was performed by the New York Metropolitan Opera on Monday, Sept. 27, 2021, when the Met Opera returned from its 566 days covid-19 time-out. An audience of about 4,000 watched the performance of "Fire Shut Up in My Bones," the first staged work in the house since March 2020 and the first by a Black composer in the company's 138 years of history. The return was simulcast live to video screens in Times Square and Harlem's Marcus Garvey Park.

What is "Fire Shut Up in My Bones"?

"Fire Shut Up in My Bones," with an all-Black cast, premiered in 2019 at the Opera Theatre of Saint Louis and was brought to the Met as part of a co-production that will travel to the Lyric Opera of Chicago in March and Los Angeles Opera in a future season. The final Met performance of "Fire Shut Up" will be broadcast to movie theaters worldwide on Oct. 23, 2021.

60 Coleherne Court, near London’s King’s Road, is the apartment where Princess Diana lived between 1979 and 1981 until she married Prince Charles. On Wednesday, Sept. 29, 2021, the house was honored with a blue plaque. The honor comes in the year when Diana Spencer would have celebrated her 60th birthday.

Photo: Spudgun67, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

What are London’s blue plaques?

Since 1876, London’s blue plaques commemorate historical figures who lived in London. There are approximately 970 official plaques in the British capital, including the London homes of writers Raymond Chandler and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Rock star Freddie Mercury. Princess Diana, who died in 1997, is the highest-profile former member of the monarchy to be bestowed the honor.

Michael Gandolfini, son of late actor James Gandolfini, steps into his father’s most prominent role of Tony Soprano in the 2021 David Chase Sopranos prequel, “The Many Saints of Newark.”

What’s “The Many Saints of Newark” premise?

In “The Many Saints of Newark,” David Chase and co-screenwriter Lawrence Konner focus on The Sopranos’s 1960s and ’70s prehistory — particularly on the character of Dickie Moltisanti (father of Michael Imperioli’s character, Christopher Moltisanti), who had been referenced on the TV series. The film was released on Sept. 30, 2021. Watch the trailer.

Red Notice, released on Netflix on November 12, 2021, is the streaming platform's most expensive film to date, with a budget reportedly around $200 million. Netflix's The Gray Man, released in July 2022, had the same sized budget - and was accordingly dubbed "Netflix's most expensive film to date" as well.

The Gray Man Facts

Image: The Gray Man, Netflix

Directed by brothers Anthony and Joe Russo of the Avengers' "Infinity War" and "Endgame" fame, The Gray Man is Netflix's attempt at a blockbuster series. In the film, Ryan Gosling and Chris Evans portray shadow employees of the CIA who try to kill each other. The Russos and Netflix plan to expand the "Gray Man" universe with other films and television series. Watch the trailer.

Red Notice Facts

Directed and written by Rawson Marshall Thurber ('Skyscraper,' 'We're the Millers',) Red Notice stars Dwayne Johnson, Gal Gadot, and Ryan Reynolds. Initially planned for theatrical release, the action film halted production due to the COVID-19 pandemic until Netflix purchased the film from Universal. Watch the trailer.

Last seen in 1944, the ivory-billed woodpecker was officially announced extinct by the U.S. government on Wednesday, Sept. 29, 2021, along with 22 more birds, fish, and other species. All 23 species were thought to have a chance of survival when added to the endangered species list beginning in the 1960s.