Growing up in front of the eyes of the public isn’t something Malia Obama is not familiar with. Being the daughter of the former president of the United States, Barak Obama, she has spent her life under the limelight, and even today, the media is interested in her every move.
The 25-year-old just presented her directorial debut, The Heart, at the Sundance Film Festival. In the Sundance Institute’s “Meet the Artist” spotlight video, Malia Obama revealed she was going by the name Malia Ann, thus ditching her moniker.
Malia, who was born Malia Ann Obama on July 4, 1998, has her middle name honoring her paternal grandmother, who died from ovarian cancer at the age of 52 in 1995, and now, she has dropped her last name in favor of her middle name.
Speaking of the short film for which she served as both director and screenwriter, Malia said. “This is an odd little story, somewhat of fable, about a man grieving the death of his mother after she leaves him an unusual request in her will.” Further, in the YouTube clip of the short film, she wrote, “The film is about lost objects and lonely people and forgiveness and regret, but I also think it works hard to uncover where tenderness and closeness can exist in these things.”
The Heat isn’t her first attempt into the profession. Previously, the Harvard grad worked in the writers’ room on Donald’s Amazon Prime show Swarm, co-writing the fifth episode, “Girl, Bye.”
“She’s a very professional person,” Swarm‘s co-creator Janine Nabers said Malia in a January 2023 Vanity Fair interview. “She’s an incredible writer and artist. She made significant contributions… She’s very, truly committed to her craft.”
Swarm‘s executive producer Stephen Glover also spoke of Malia. “We can’t be easy on her just because she’s the [former] President’s daughter,” he told Vanity Fair. “No, she is really down-to-earth and cool. So it’s not an issue at all.”
Malia Obama isn’t the first celebrity who made the decision to ditch their family name. Other celebs have done that before, including Nicolas Cage, who changed his last name from Coppola, and Angelina Jolie, who dropped her surname, Voight.
For her directorial debut, Malia looked cozy, with minimal makeup, her curly hair down with small braids scattered throughout.
Vanna White has recently negotiated a pay raise, fans are surprised by the amount
Vanna White, the beloved game show icon, has recentIy negotiated a pay raise for her role on Celebrity Wheel of Fortune, according to a new report. While she remains in talks to continue on the show after Pat Sajak’s departure, her pay for the regular Wheel of Fortune show is still undetermined. The negotiated deal pertains specifically to her invoIvement in Celebrity Wheel of Fortune, a 13-episode spinoff featuring 27 celebrities.
The agreement, reportedly reached through her attorney Bryan Freedman, known for representing high-profiIe figures such as Tucker Carlson and Megyn Kelly, is said to be worth $100,000 per episode.
This amount is considerably lower than the reported $400,000 salary Sajak, aged 76, earned during the show’s first season.
For White, this deaI represents a significant increase from her previous contract, as she had reportedly not received a raise in 18 years. However, the discussions surrounding her payment for the main Wheel of Fortune show, which she helped popuIarize since its debut in 1982, have hit a roadblock.
Currently earning $3 million, just a fifth of Sajak’s salary, White has requested 50 percent of Sajak’s $15 million annual earnings. Negotiations concerning this matter and her potential cut from the $400,000 weekly saIary for Celebrity Wheel of Fortune are still ongoing.
Despite settling on the $100,000 per episode deal for the spinoff, discussions about White’s continued role on the original game show remain unresolved. Sajak is set to retire at the end of the upcoming season, with Ryan Seacrest slated to take over the hosting duties, earning a staggering $28 million per year.
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