'SNL' courts controversy, picking Elon Musk to host - Los Angeles Times

Famously temperamental billionaire Elon Musk will host “Saturday Night Live” on May 8 with Miley Cyrus as musical guest, NBC announced Saturday.

The Tesla CEO and SpaceX chief designer made other news in recent days as one of his SpaceX spacecrafts launched from Florida carrying four vaccinated astronauts, docking a day later at the International Space Station. The launch, from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, marked the third crewed launch for Musk’s company.

Musk is the first “SNL” host from outside the realm of entertainment since NFL player J.J. Watt’s appearance last year. Given the Tesla exec’s penchant for making controversial statements about everything from his own company’s stock price to COVID-19 lockdowns, he will likely be the most scrutinized host of the long-running late-night comedy since then-presidential candidate Donald Trump took the reins, to widespread criticism, in 2015.

Love Musk or hate him — you almost certainly have an opinion about him. And he has opinions about all kinds of things, and he isn’t shy about sharing them with his more than 51 million Twitter followers. The tech entrepreneur has made no secret of his love of weed, a stance that landed him in hot water with Tesla board members after he smoked a joint during a 2018 podcast. Stocks soon fell — evidence of how closely linked the reputation of the world’s second richest man is to his companies.

Musk moved to Texas in December, criticizing California for being complacent about its position at the forefront of the tech industry. He later tweeted encouragement for others to follow his lead.

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