ANGELA WATERCUTTER

HELLO, AND WELCOME to a fresh edition of The Monitor, WIRED’s entertainment news roundup. We’ve got a few crazy ones in the lineup today, including an online reading of James and the Giant Peach lead by director Taika Waititi and a Twitter spat between Elon Musk, Ivanka Trump, and Matrix co-creator Lilly Wachowski. Let’s dive in.Lilly Wachowski Slams Elon Musk and Ivanka Trump for Matrix Reference

Where to begin? OK, so, yesterday Tesla CEO Elon Musk—who has had a busy couple weeks of reopening car factories and becoming a father—sent a tweet: “Take the red pill,” it read, and included a rose emoji. Taking the red pill, for those who don’t know, is a reference to the film The Matrix, wherein taking the red pill means opening up one’s mind and escaping the simulated world known as the Matrix. In more recent years, “red-pilling,” has become, as WIRED’s Emma Grey Ellis notes, an internet “shorthand for having your eyes opened to a certain kind of ‘conservatism’” that’s generally nationalist and often tinged with racism and/or sexism.

Shortly after Musk sent the tweet, Ivanka Trump—President Trump’s daughter and advisor—retweeted it and added “Taken!” About an hour after Ivanka Trump sent that tweet, Matrix co-creator Lilly Wachowski replied with a simple: “Fuck both of you.” She followed that with a message asking folks to donate to Brave Space Alliance, an organization supporting black and trans LGBTQIA people on the south side of Chicago. See the exchange below.

https://www.wired.com/story/red-pill-matrix-tweet/

We still don’t quite know how to pronounce X Æ A-12’s name, but he certainly looks comfortable at home with his doting parents Grimes and Elon Musk.

As confusion continues to swirl surrounding the pronunciation of Elon Musk and Grimes’ unusual baby name, the doting parents have shared an adorable video of their son sleeping soundly at home.

Canadian musician Grimes gave birth to their son X Æ A-12 on May 4, baffling fans with the couple’s choice of name.

But the criticism seemed worlds away as the tiny boy snoozed on his dad’s chest and his mum looked on in footage posted today.

The singer captioned the video shared to her Instagram Story with a love heart as X Æ A-12 curled into a tight little ball and his dad patted his back lovingly.

In the days since the baby’s birth, the internet has been obsessed with trying to figure out how his name is pronounced.

And the duo has offered up even more confusion as their pronunciations of the name appear to be different.

In an interview on The Joe Rogan Experience, Musk, 48, discussed the name, seemingly claiming it was pronounced “X Ash Archangel Twelve”.

“First of all, my partner’s the one that actually mostly came up with the name,” he explained. “It’s just ‘X,’ the letter ‘X,’ and the ‘Æ’ is pronounced ‘ash’ and then ‘A-12’ is my contribution. Archangel 12, the precursor to the SR-71, coolest plane ever.”

In an Instagram post from Thursday, May 6, however, the 32-year-old musician offered a different take.

A fan commented on her photo – a pair of pictures from her photoshoot with Italian Vogue – asking, “how do you pronounce the baby’s name?”

Grimes, whose real name is Claire Boucher, replied to the comment.

“It’s just X, like the letter X,” she wrote. “Then A.I. Like how you said the letter A then I.”

Different still was Grimes’ previously-offered explanation of the meaning of X Æ A-12’s name.

“X, the unknown variable,” the singer wrote, adding an emoji of two crossing swords. “Æ, my elven spelling of Ai (love &/or Artificial intelligence).

“A-12 = precursor to SR-17 (our favourite aircraft). No weapons, no defences, just speed. Great in battle, but nonviolent,” she continued, adding a white heart emoji. “(A=Archangel, my favourite song) (metal rat).”

Musk later commented, correcting the aeroplane his girlfriend referenced.

“SR-71, but yes,” he wrote.

https://www.news.com.au/entertainment/celebrity-life/celebrity-kids/grimes-shares-instagram-video-of-x-a12-sleeping-on-elon-musk/news-story/8e74ad3730b2b2d47c8c90e4cbba42c8

JOSH K. ELLIOTT 

Elon Musk is having a moment, perhaps because his girlfriend Grimes is about to have their baby — or perhaps because he can’t stand the coronavirus lockdown.

The SpaceX and Tesla founder’s critics say he has become increasingly unhinged on Twitter over the last week, while railing against the stay-at-home order that has snarled much of his work in the state of California.

Musk has been bidding “bon voyage” to his more than 33 million followers, casting doubt on the threat of COVID-19 and tweeting “FREE AMERICA NOW” in a bizarre string of posts over the last few days.

He took things even further on Friday, when he seemingly woke up and launched into full-fledged meltdown mode. Musk rattled off several tweets quoting from The Star Spangled Banner, claimed that Tesla stock was “too high” in his opinion, then vowed to sell “almost all” of his physical possessions, declaring that he “will own no house.”“Don’t need the cash,” he said in response to one user. “Devoting myself to Mars and Earth. Possession[s] just weigh you down.”

Musk added that his girlfriend, the Canadian singer known as Grimes, is “mad” at him in a follow-up tweet about the house. He then responded to questions about the upcoming birth of their first child together.

“This is the best news I’ve heard so far. This means you’re still together, despite speculation to the contrary,” one user wrote in response to Musk’s tweet about Grimes.

“Baby due on Monday,” Musk replied.

Musk added one condition to selling his house, which apparently once belonged to actor Gene Wilder.“It cannot be torn down or lose any [of] its soul,” he wrote.

Although Twitter appears to be Musk’s favourite way to vent his frustrations right now, he also let loose during a Tesla earnings call on Wednesday.

“Forcibly imprisoning people in their homes is against all their constitutional rights,” he said on the call. “People should be outraged.”

Tesla was forced to close its plant on March 23 under a sweeping lockdown order in the San Francisco Bay area. It’s unclear when the order will end and Tesla will be allowed to re-open.

Tesla shares plunged by 10 per cent after Musk commented on their value Friday. The company lost about $14 billion in value and Musk’s stake dropped by $3 billion, BBC reports.

Some of Musk’s fans rallied to his defence on Twitter while observers cracked jokes about his apparent bout of self-sabotage.

Tesla Board of Directors should liberate Elon Musk from his board seat. Sell $TSLA #Tesla pic.twitter.com/jGJUIzWSNK

— Nancy Levine ?#StayHome (@nancylevine) May 1, 2020

“Elon Musk has gone off the deep end,” one user wrote.

“Elon Musk is a hell of a drug,” added another.