The Luigi documentary has an IG tip line
+ MrBeast is flailing, a CEO crisis hotline, Temu's takeover, teens' favorite apps, and this season's hottest gift
Within hours of the news of breaking that Luigi Mangione had been apprehended as the prime suspect in the shooting of UnitedHealth CEO Brian Thompson, people on the internet began buzzing over who would make the documentary.
Now, we have some answers. Two-time Emmy nominee Stephen Robert Morse, who produced the Netflix documentary Amanda Knox and directed Netflix’s How to Rob a Bank, a true-crime documentary about a prolific bank robber, is working on a doc about Mangione and the killing.
“This case is complex and raises important questions about vigilantism, the devastating cost of a privatized healthcare system and the inevitability of violence when peaceful change is seen as impossible,” Morse said. “My goal is to present a balanced exploration of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson’s assassination, showing all sides of the story while respecting the profound loss of life and its impact on everyone involved.” The documentary will also provide historical context around America’s broken privatized health insurance system.
I talked to Morse by phone on Monday, and he told me that one thing that interested him was the universal reaction to the killing across the political spectrum. “I think so many people have been affected negatively by [our health care system],” he said.
But to make a good doc, Morse needs stories and he wants to hear from everyone: friends of Luigi, his family members, those who knew Luigi over the years, workers at UnitedHealth and other insurance providers, people who knew Thompson, and people who have been negatively affected by our for-profit insurance system.
“We're at a stage now where we want to find as many stories as possible,” Morse said.
To do that, his team has set up an Instagram account where users with any connection to the case can reach out with tips and information. Morse said that he wants to reach young people, especially Luigi’s peers, where they’re at and make it easy for them to connect.
In addition to Morse, Anonymous Content and director Alex Gibney’s Jigsaw Productions are developing a competing documentary project. Gibney is also in production on a film about Elon Musk and another documentary based on Salman Rushdie’s memoir Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder. It’s unclear what angle Gibney’s project will take.
Morse said that the two projects will likely differ based on what information and access each are able to garner. He also added that there’s room for more than one project covering this event. “There are different ways to tell the same story and they can all be good,” he said.
MrBeast is getting desperate
In the influencer world, collaborations are currency. The bigger your platform, the more selective you can be about who to collab with. For years, Jimmy Donaldson aka MrBeast was the reigning king of YouTube and could be choosey.
But now, after a nearly five month cancellation following a string of controversies and allegations of workplace abuse and exploitation, Donaldson is throwing his usual selectivity out the window.
He’s half-assing videos with obscure members of the Costocoverse like TikTok dancer Jersey Joe (look at the pain in Jimmy’s eyes) and filming challenge-style collabs with creators he'd likely never engage with otherwise. He has also teamed up with the gaming content collective FaZe Clan, and is booting up his old Twitch channel to start streaming again. The man is pulling out all the stops.
None of this is organic, of course; it’s all a calculated PR onslaught designed to promote his new Amazon Prime game show, Beast Games, which premieres on December 19. Pre-cancellation, I don’t think Donaldson would have to had to work so hard. But watching these painful videos makes you wonder, what does it mean when even the most successful YouTuber of all time has to hustle this hard to stay relevant?
Nearly half of American teenagers say they are online “constantly”
The Pew Research Center just published a big new report on how teenagers are using the internet. YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, and Snapchat remain the most popular apps among U.S. teens, who report being on the apps almost constantly. Nine in ten teens use YouTube regularly, slightly down from 95% in 2022. Roughly six in ten teens use TikTok and Instagram, and 55% use Snapchat.
Meanwhile, usage of Facebook and X have steeply declined. Only 32% of teens say they still use Facebook, down from 71% in 2014-15. And only 17% of teens say they use Twitter/X – about half the share who said this a decade ago (33%), and down from 23% in 2022.
There’s also an interesting gender split, with teen girls more likely to use TikTok and teen boys more likely to use YouTube. Roughly one-quarter of Black (28%) and Hispanic (25%) teens said that they visit TikTok almost constantly, compared to just 8% of white teens. Black and Hispanic teens were also more likely than white teens to say they constantly use YouTube or Instagram. There were few to no racial or ethnic differences in the shares visiting Snapchat and Facebook on a near constant basis.
In terms of political leanings, teenagers who identified as Democrats or Democratic-leaning were more likely than Republicans and GOP leaners to say they use TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, Reddit and WhatsApp. TikTok especially stands out with a partisan difference: 73% of Democratic teens use the app versus just 52% of Republican teens use the platform.
What I’m reading
The $1 Billion Cookie Empire That Teens Love and Parents Hate
Crumbl woos young fans with social media and sugar. Each cookie packs in 700 calories. - WSJ
People Left Twitter Because Twitter’s Product Sucks, Not Because of Purity Politics
The notion that people left Twitter because we “don’t like Elon” is beyond absurd. - Splinter
Liberals Are Left Out in the Cold as Social Media Veers Right
If the election underscored anything about the internet, it was the ascendancy of social platforms for the right. That puts Democrats at a disadvantage. - NY Times
With Beehiiv, Tyler Denk Is Riding the Newsletter Wave
Tyler Denk has cultivated a brash online persona while building Beehiiv into a buzzy newsletter platform. Both are lucrative. - Inc
More fun stuff
New York state is considering creating a special hotline exclusively for CEOs to report when they feel threatened.
Starbucks is the new Venmo for Gen Alpha.
One of this season’s hottest gifts is a box of unclaimed mail. "Almost everything that we opened was something funny."
Movie stars, producers and financiers are traveling to Saudi Arabia looking for cash, describing the country as “Hollywood in the 1920s.”
A TikToker is doing the Apple Dance every day outside Luigi’s prison until he’s released.
The Associated Press has released their 100 best photos of 2024 (there are some really phenomenal shots).
Netflix’s Ted Sarandos is meeting with Donald Trump today. TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew met with the President-elect yesterday, and Jeff Bezos’ meeting is apparently on Wednesday.
Carlos Watson, a co-founder of defunct digital media company Ozy Media, was sentenced to almost 10 years in prison for trying to defraud investors.
The TikTok ban could cost U.S. small businesses over $1.3 billion in its first month.
Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson guest starred in the Broadway musical & Juliet, a modern adaptation of Romeo and Juliet.
Bottoms are getting longer and tops are getting shorter.
The White Lotus season 3 trailer is here!
Movie theaters are just playing Amazon Prime on the big screen now:
“Twitch has shuffled through several top streamers over the years. There was the Ninja era, then xQc’s reign, and now we are in the KaiCenat age.”
Whatever you do, do not text the words “call me” to someone.
If you've ever wondered what a day in a legal brothel is like, here's a peek.
More than 31,000 students have experienced a school shooting this year alone.
Know Your Meme has released their list of the Top 20 Memes of 2024.
This woman read the 150+ page Business of Fashion and McKinsey 2025 State of Fashion report so you don’t have to.
Temu was the most downloaded free app in Apple’s App Store in 2024.
This Shopify update is my favorite thing ever, all platform updates should be delivered this way. (h/t )
Betches is teaming up with the NFL to promote football to Gen Z and Millennial women.
Snapchat is overhauling how influencers earn money on the platform.
Nicole Kidman doesn’t know what Pop Crave is, bless her heart.
Timothée Chalamet called Bernie Sanders a "folk hero" while promoting his new Bob Dylan movie today on Theo Von's podcast.
You can now schedule Instagram DMs.
Tiktok failed to load.Enable 3rd party cookies or use another browser
For more great content follow my meme page, subscribe to my YouTube channel, and join my Instagram broadcast channel where I share links all week long.
Listen to my podcast Power User on Apple Podcasts:
Or follow Power User on Spotify: