Fortune Article

Good morning, Broadsheet readers! We get a look inside Lisa Su’s play to turn around AMD, Sarah Jessica Parker’s publishing imprint picks its first book, and Donald Trump “compliments” an Irish reporter on her smile. Have a great Thursday.

EVERYONE'S TALKING

•Smile! With the video of President Trump interrupting a phone call with the Irish PM to comment on journalist Caitriona Perry's "nice smile" making the rounds, Fortune's Alana Abramson takes a look back at the other occasions that the president has singled out or commented on the looks of female reporters.

That list includes NBC News reporter Katy Tur ("Little Katy"), Megyn Kelly ("blood coming out of her whatever"), Morning Joe co-host Mika Brzezinski (a "not very bright mess"), and Arianna Huffington ("extremely unattractive")—among others.

While I doubt any of those women enjoyed being insulted, the Perry video illustrates a type of behavior that's perhaps even more insidious. If you've ever fielded an inappropriate "compliment" in a work situation (and I bet you have), you understand the icky combination of awkwardness, self-consciousness, and even shame it can provoke. From the outside, these comments don't always seem like a big deal. But when you're on the receiving end, it can feel like all your professional poise and authority has been swept away by a few choice words. Fortune

ALSO IN THE HEADLINES

•Chip on her shoulder.Fortune's Aaron Pressman writes about CEO Lisa Su's big play to turnaround Advanced Micro Devices—with a flagship chip designed to run in personal computers and corporate servers (code name: Zeppelin). Will it be enough to revive the chipmaker? Fellow tech chief Meg Whitman is optimistic: “She has focused that company on building a great product. Beginning, middle, end of story.” Fortune

•Factory fail.Chinese authorities have released three activists who were detained for 30 days after investigating labor conditions at Huajian Group factories in southern China—which produce shoes for Ivanka Trump and other brands. Meanwhile, three workers spoke to The Associated Press about particularly poor conditions at one Ganzhou factory that produces Trump products, reporting overtime that stretched past midnight, steep production quotas, crude verbal abuse, and even beatings.

•A deal on office supplies. Staples, led by CEO Shira Goodman, has agreed to sell itself to the private equity firm Sycamore Partners for more than $6.5 billion. The deal would be the biggest leveraged buyout of the year. WSJ

•Look out, cancer. You may have seen the news this week that Vice President Joe Biden and Dr. Jill Biden are launching a new nonprofit, the Biden Cancer Initiative. In this letter, the board members of the new venture share their excitement about the opportunity to help "change the face of cancer for our and future generations." Fortune

MOVERS AND SHAKERS: PayPal has appointed Ann Sarnoff, president, BBC Worldwide - Americas.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

•SJP's book club. Sarah Jessica Parker has revealed her first acquisition for SJP for Hogarth, her new publishing imprint. The manuscript is the debut novel by Fatima Farheen Mirza and follows an Indian-American family that is reunited on the eve of their eldest daughter's wedding. New York Times

•Getting trashed. The phrase "passing the trash" is sometimes used to describe the practice of keeping allegations of harassment or other misdeeds quiet if the employee agrees to take a job elsewhere. This Buzzfeed story digs into how that plays out in academia, where high-profile professors can bring status and money to universities that either ignore or are unaware of their past scandals. Buzzfeed

•Oscar expands. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has issued a record 774 invitations to new members, 39% of whom are female and 30% of whom are people of color. The Hollywood Reporter

•Fake news? Sarah Palin has filed a defamation lawsuit against The New York Times, saying the newspaper had published a statement about her in a recent editorial that it “knew to be false.” The Times issued (and tweeted) a correction to the editorial in question, which erroneously linked Palin's PAC to incitement of a mass shooting. New York Times

Share today's Broadsheet with a friend:
http://fortune.com/newsletter/broadsheet/

Looking for previous Broadsheets? Click here.