Today. 9am. Me and KEN AULETTA talk advertising, social platforms, media and more at THE MEDIA FUTURE SUMMIT in NYC... Something exciting happening on TV over the past few years. Nowhere near where we need to be but roles for female actors are getting better. Roles that traditionally go to men. Roles that aren't the obvious men-driven glamour. ELLEN BARKIN on ANIMAL KINGDOM. EMMY ROSSUM on SHAMELESS. MICHELLE DOCKERY on GOOD BEHAVIOR and many more. And now FRANKIE SHAW on SMILF. From the SHOWTIME series' site: "Bridgette Bird is a smart, scrappy, young single mom trying to navigate life in South Boston with an extremely unconventional family. She struggles to make ends meet, which leads her to impulsive and at times immature decisions. Above all, Bridgette wants to make a better life for her son. SMILF takes on motherhood, co-parenting, and female sexuality through a raw and unfiltered lens." I really liked the first two episode. She's an exciting voice. Even with all Bridgette's issues and actions, you love her. I think most of us are a lot more like Bridgette than we are KATNISS EVERDEEN. The imperfect ones are the most interesting and real. Watch the premiere episode for free... I love getting the kids cool things to play with. When I was up at INDUSTRIAL LIGHT & MAGIC and LUCASFILM I played with its new STAR WARS™: JEDI CHALLENGES AR HEADSET WITH LIGHTSABER CONTROLLER AND TRACKING BEACON. Yes, I'm a 46-year-old man. But anyway. Loved the experience so went to my favorite place on earth, AMAZON, and ordered it for my nephew's birthday. Five hours later I saw an ad that priced it $170 cheaper. I emailed my pal at DISNEY to see if I got ripped off. Yes, I did. They told me the device is exclusively sold by AT&T and BEST BUY. Amazon has a vendor called STL PRO, Inc. and apparently it bought up as much stock as it could and gouged Amazon customers. Not illegal but completely scummy. And it's charging me a restocking fee. It's the small things that get to me. Gouging a children's toy on a beloved shopping site. Amazon should throw it the f*** off. Bad for the brand. I so implicitly trust Amazon that I didn't second-guess the price. Hope the company is reading here. I know a few board members read REDEF... Are parents and leagues taking the threat of chronic traumatic encephalopathy seriously enough? There's a lot more to learn about CTE but fans and doctors already know it's a threat to the future of football, hockey and other contact sports. SportsSET: "CTE: The Three Most Dangerous Words in Sports"... I love APPLE products but my god the new IOS software update is a disaster. My phone is possessed. This update is like a spastic colon. And I just paid $1000 for an IPHONE X. Hope it doesn't destroy that experience like it has on my 6S... On her sixth album, TAYLOR SWIFT reckons with sex, celebrity, hip-hop, her enemies and her place in the pop universe. And not without controversy. Has new Taylor killed old Taylor? Has being bad made her better? Are pop critics, um, ready for it? MusicSET: "Judging Taylor Swift's 'Reputation"... Congrats to STEVE STOUTE on his new project UNITEDMASTERS. "What if there were a platform that instantly enabled musical artists to market themselves globally as effectively as the top technology companies market to their customers?"... Happy Birthday to ROGER GOLD, LIZ MARKS, TIM O'SHAUGHNESSY, GUINI SUAREZ, and MIKA SALMI.