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Jan 01, 2050
Chip Somodevilla/Getty
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Jan 01, 2050
Kevin Lamarque/ReutersJohn S. McCain III, an American hero who served as a Navy captain and a member of Congress for 57 years, died on TKTKTK DAY. He was 81.
McCain was a giant of the United States Senate and a lifelong public servant who won respect and admiration from his colleagues on Capitol Hill and world leaders for his staunch advocacy of democratic principles and his defiant policy positions, particularly on issues relating to the military and national security.
He was a tough and, at times, feisty and brash legislator, but he forged friendships and bonds that cemented his place in history as a dealmaker. His political opponents sometimes branded him a war-monger and a reactionary at worst but never doubted his unwavering adherence to his principles, his tireless support for American troops, and his enduring commitment to public service.
Read more at The Daily Beast.
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Apr 29, 2024
Kamil Krzaczynski/AFP via Getty ImagesEvery dog has its day—and Cricket's appears to be nigh.
News that South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem (R) shot and killed a 14-month-old wirehaired pointer two decades ago after determining it was "less than worthless" as a bird hunter has been met with near-universal condemnation and outrage, with some of the loudest voices being those of professional animal handlers, including rescues and kennels that specialize in the breed.
"At 14 months it's not like a puppy, it is still a puppy," Dan Griffith, a Sioux Falls breeder and the owner of Griffs Grassland Kennel, told The Daily Beast, "and in my opinion it sounds like the only thing wrong with it is that it lacked training."
Read more at The Daily Beast.
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Apr 29, 2024
Sean Zanni/GettyMAGA cable network Newsmax is attempting to force longtime Trump friend and billionaire grocery store magnate John Catsimatidis to testify in Dominion Voting System's defamation lawsuit alleging the right-wing channel knowingly peddled election lies.
The cable outlet also names Catsimatidis' media companies, Red Apple Media and WABC Radio, in its petition to enforce a subpoena.
According to the petition, obtained by The Daily Beast and filed Monday in the Supreme Court of New York County, Newsmax is seeking to depose Catsimatidis to ascertain why he and his radio station have not been named in Dominion's defamation lawsuits about the 2020 presidential election.
Read more at The Daily Beast.
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Apr 29, 2024
Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for The Recording AcademyRussell Brand has taken a new step to express his devotion to Christianity. In an Instagram post on Monday, the embattled actor-comedian turned commentator shared his baptism experience, months after being accused of rape and sexual assault by several women in a joint investigation by The Sunday Times, The Times, and Channel 4 docuseries Dispatches.
"I got baptized and it was an incredible, profound experience," he said in the video. "Many aspects of it were very intimate and personal," he continued, "As a person who has in the past taken many substances and always been disappointed with their inability to deliver the kind of tranquility and peace and even transcendence that I always felt I've been looking for, something occurred in the process of baptism that was incredible, overwhelming, literally overwhelming because I was obviously under water and it was the River Thames."
Prior to converting to Christianity, Brand had been "into Hinduism," according to ex-wife Katy Perry. He's been public about his Christian faith for years, but started posting his thoughts on Christianity to so
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Apr 29, 2024
Photo Illustration by Luis G. Rendon/The Daily Beast/Getty Images/Courtesy of Keren SitaAn Airbnb guest alleges her "attractiveness" became too much to bear for her spiteful host, whom she claims essentially pushed her out the door over fears her publishing-exec-cum-alpaca-farmer husband would fall for her during her stay.
In an eye-popping federal lawsuit obtained by The Daily Beast, 23-year-old Keren Sita, an aspiring law student who was crowned 2017's Miss Black Vermont, says Marcia Meinerth, 77, couldn't handle having a "young hot Black girl" in the house, and made things increasingly miserable for her until she finally packed up and went elsewhere.
"The intensifying animosity" was solely "based on superficial attributes," according to Sita's complaint. Meinerth "appeared to project her frustrations and insecurities onto me… leading to tensions in our interactions," the complaint states. "She treated me like I was going to steal her unattractive and old husband."
Read more at The Daily Beast.
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Apr 29, 2024
Pat Greenhouse/The Boston Globe via Getty ImagesKaren Read, the Massachusetts woman accused of fatally hitting her police officer boyfriend with an SUV after a night of drinking, is being "framed" for his 2022 death, defense attorneys argued at the start of her murder trial on Monday.
Read, 44, has pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder, manslaughter while driving under the influence, and leaving the scene of a crime after her boyfriend, Boston Police Office John O'Keefe, was found dead in a snowbank on January 29, 2022. She faces a life sentence if convicted of the second-degree murder charge.
The case has garnered national media—and sharply divided the Boston suburb of Canton, where O'Keefe was raising his niece and nephew. Prosecutors allege that Read backed her SUV into O'Keefe, a 16-year police veteran, while dropping him off at a friend's home for an after party in the midst of a blizzard and then cruelly left him to die in the cold. Defense lawyers insist that Read is actually the victim of an elaborate police cover-up.
Read more at The Daily Beast.
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Apr 29, 2024
Win McNamee/Getty ImagesDespite once claiming that his drag queen persona Kitara Ravache was a one-off when he was 18 years old, ex-U.S. Rep. George Santos is bringing his alter-ego back for special requests on the video-sharing site Cameo.
"I've decided to bring Kitara out of the closet after 18 years!" the famed resume-forger announced on X Monday. Fans can now purchase personalized videos from Kitara for just $385 a pop.
According to Santos, 20 percent of the proceeds are going to charitable organizations: Tunnel2Towers, a nonprofit that supports military and first responders, and The International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, which supports Israel.
Read more at The Daily Beast.
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Apr 29, 2024
Timothy Clary/AFP via Getty ImagesFar-right cable news network One America News apologized to Donald Trump's former lawyer and "fixer" Michael Cohen Monday after retracting a report that suggested he—rather than Trump himself—had been the one who carried out an affair with adult film star Stormy Daniels.
The affair in question, and a subsequent hush-money payout to Daniels orchestrated by Trump and Cohen, is at the center of Trump's first criminal trial, which opened two weeks ago in New York City.
"OAN today has retracted its March 27 article entitled "Whistleblower: Avenatti Alleged Cohen Daniels Affair Since 2006, Pre-2016 Trump Extortion Plan," and is taking it down from all sites and removing it from all social media," a note from the network reads. "This retraction is part of a settlement reached with Michael Cohen. Mr. Avenatti has denied making the allegations. OAN apologizes to Mr. Cohen for any harm the publication may have caused him.
Read more at The Daily Beast.
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Apr 29, 2024
Scott Olson/GettyEver since Kristi Noem revealed that she shot a 14-month-old dog for being "untrainable" and then doubled down on the puppycide for "politically incorrect" street cred, the once-rising GOP star has come under near-universal scorn and her veepstakes aspirations have seemingly tanked.
The South Dakota governor has found few defenders among her key right-wing allies. Fox News and Newsmax, for example, have largely ignored the story rather than attempt to excuse her puppy execution.
Nevertheless, there have been some MAGA media personalities who've rallied to Noem's side.
Read more at The Daily Beast.
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Apr 29, 2024
Kirsty O'Connor - WPA Pool/Getty ImagesPrince William and Kate Middleton will not meet Prince Harry when he returns to the U.K. next week as they don't want to create unnecessary stress while she recovers from cancer, friends of the couple have told The Daily Beast.
"Both sides understand each other's position clearly now," said one friend of the couple. "William and Catherine felt completely betrayed by Harry's memoir (Spare). They don't speak to Harry and Meghan, and they are certainly not about to start when Catherine is at her most vulnerable."
Harry's camp have let it be known that he reached out privately to the princess after her cancer diagnosis; however, it is not known whether he is seeking a meeting this time. His spokesperson declined to comment on the matter.
Read more at The Daily Beast.
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Apr 29, 2024
Amazon MGM StudiosFor a movie with no actual sex scenes, Challengers is very hot. Well, the more accurate word here is "horny"—because its hottest moments are the ones whose subtext is so glaring, it's shocking that the characters don't pounce on each other then and there. And one scene in particular should send director Luca Guadagnino straight to horny jail, for heavily implying the sex we wish the characters were just straight-up having instead. It involves—as is this food-lusting filmmaker's wont—a churro.
Yes, the man who brought you "Timothée Chalamet sticks his dick in a peach" and "Timothée Chalamet makes eating a human being look really sexy" has added a new moment of edible eroticism to his oeuvre. Mike Faist and Josh O'Connor have entered the pantheon of sensual cinema with their technically chaste, but unbelievably sensual shared churro chomp—an action so visceral with a food so phallic, I have to imagine it will inspire many porn parodies to come.
Challengers is already slathered in metaphors: Tashi (Zendaya) equates
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Apr 29, 2024
Photo Illustration by Luis G. Rendon/The Daily Beast/Getty ImagesPerhaps the only thing more shocking than Kristi Noem's execution of her wirehaired pointer is her joyful confession of it in her upcoming memoir. The revelation has clouded the South Dakota governor's political future—which anyone could have seen coming. What could possibly explain this? We have some ideas.
She really is that evilThere are plenty of ways to deal with an aggressive puppy: Hire a trainer. Return the dog to the breeder. Drop it off at a rescue. Only someone with very little heart or soul would instead drag the poor creature to a gravel pit and shoot it in cold blood, and then brag about it in their book. Also, who "hates" a dog—except Cruella de Vil?
Read more at The Daily Beast.
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Apr 29, 2024
Photo Illustration by The Daily Beast / GettyHunter Biden has told Fox News that he plans to sue for defamation within the next month, according to a demand letter obtained by The Daily Beast.
According to the letter, a detailed 14-page missive that Biden's counsel sent to Fox Corporation on April 23, the right-wing network has engaged in a years-long conspiracy to defame the president's son in the name of profit.
The notice demands that Fox News—whose obsessive coverage has mentioned Hunter Biden more than 13,000 times in the last four months alone—take immediate steps to remedy scads of coverage over the last five years that Biden's attorneys say has falsely maligned him.
Read more at The Daily Beast.
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Apr 29, 2024
Chaffee County Sheriff's OfficeSuzanne Morphew, the Colorado mom who went missing during a bike ride in 2020, was killed while under the influence of a powerful animal tranquilizer, a recently released autopsy found.
Morphew's death was ruled "homicide by undetermined means in the setting of butorphanol, azaperone, and medetomidine intoxication," the Colorado Bureau of Investigation said in a release Monday. Butorphanol, azaperone, and medetomidine—also known as BAM—is an animal tranquilizer that can be used to sedate bears and deer, according to veterinary pharmaceuticals manufacturer NexGen and a study by the Colorado Parks and Wildlife Division.
Authorities are still investigating the circumstances around Morphew's death and disappearance. Her husband, Barry Morphew, was charged nearly a year later with her murder, which prosecutors alleged he'd done after he discovered she was having an affair. They claimed he'd shot her with a tranquilizer gun—which he'd
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Apr 29, 2024
Courtesy of IFC Films and ShudderMoviegoers are facing an extreme struggle when they go to the theater these days: waiting for the movie to actually start. Once you get through the first AMC advertisement and the half hour of trailers, you have to sit through another AMC advertisement and a Nicole Kidman short film. But perhaps the hardest challenge of all is sitting through an indie film's opening crawl—that moment when a bajillion production companies you've never heard of appear on screen before the movie finally, finally starts.
As irritating as this may be for an audience member, it turns out that it does take a village to make a non-studio produced/distributed movie. Such is the case with Late Night With the Devil, which recently broke Shudder's all-time streaming record after going viral on TikTok for its bone-chilling premise and, yes, its neverending opening titles.
All in all, there are nine company logos that appear before the horror actually starts. This TikTok shows all of the companies, and is littered with comments that compare the phenomenon to a very similar moment in Family Guy.
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Apr 29, 2024
Todd Owyoung/NBC via Getty ImagesJerry Seinfeld hit some right-wing favorite talking points over the weekend with his comments that political correctness from the "extreme left" is "policing" modern sitcoms and has led to their demise.
In a new interview with the New Yorker ahead of his 70th birthday on Monday, the comedian explained his theory about why there's no "funny stuff" to watch on TV anymore. "Nothing really affects comedy," he said, "People always need it. They need it so badly and they don't get it." Instead of getting sitcoms like M*A*S*H, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, and All in the Family, audiences miss out, he said, as a "result of the extreme left and P.C. crap, and people worrying so much about offending other people."
To get their comedy now, people are "going to see standup comics because we are not policed by anyone," he continued, "The audience polices us. We know when we're off track." The comments set off a barrage of right-wing agreement, with anchors on the Fox News-competitor Newsmax reporting on his comments as "a great point." Breitbart echoed the sentiment, tweeting, "He's right." And conservative commentator Benny Johnson shared the clip with the overheated caption, "This mom
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Apr 29, 2024
Borja Puig de la Bellacasa/ReutersA feverish five-day political drama in Spain finally came to an end Monday with Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez's decision to remain in his role despite saying he was contemplating resigning over the launch of a corruption investigation into his wife.
Socialist Sánchez last week said he was considering standing down after a court decided to permit a judicial probe into his spouse, Begoña Gómez. Sánchez, who has led Spain since 2018, slammed his opponents for launching a "harassment and bullying operation" and canceled his public duties while he considered his future.
He also theatrically promised to make a statement announcing his final decision one way or the other on Monday. After a weekend of frenzied speculation about what would happen and a series of demonstrations around the country calling for him to stay, Sánchez announced in a speech that he would, in fact, be going nowhere.
Read more at The Daily Beast.
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Apr 29, 2024
Charly Triballeau/GettyColumbia University students are defying the university's order to disperse and dismantle the "Gaza solidarity encampment."
Columbia President Minouche Shafik gave protesters until 2 p.m. Monday to identify themselves to university officials, sign a commitment to abide by university policies until June 30, 2025, and voluntarily leave the protest, a notice obtained by The Daily Beast revealed. Students who remained past the 2 p.m. deadline would face suspension.
After weeks of demonstrations, protests, and arrests, talks between student protesters and the administration at Columbia University failed to produce a resolution, the university's president Minouche Shafik said in a statement Monday.
Read more at The Daily Beast.
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Apr 29, 2024
Charly Triballeau/GettyAfter weeks of demonstrations, protests, and arrests, talks between student protesters and the administration at Columbia University have failed to produce a resolution, the university's president Minouche Shafik said Monday.
In a statement to the campus community, Shafik was firm that the university would not divest from Israel—the main goal of the student protest known as the "Gaza solidarity encampment"—and told the protesters to pack it up.
"Since Wednesday, a small group of academic leaders has been in constructive dialogue with student organizers to find a path that would result in the dismantling of the encampment and adherence to University policies going forward. Regretfully, we were not able to come to an agreement," Shafik said.
Read more at The Daily Beast.
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Apr 29, 2024
David ‘Dee' Delgado/ReutersThe National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has launched an investigation into Ford's BlueCruise hands-free driving technology after it was found to have been engaged during a pair of deadly crashes.
Both of the fatal incidents involved electric Mustang Mach-E SUVs smashing into stationary vehicles, the NHTSA said in documents Monday. Both occurred in nighttime lighting conditions, the agency said, and "each incident resulted in at least one fatality."
BlueCruise is partially automated driver assistance software that can only be used on specific roadways. It uses cameras to make sure that drivers are still paying attention to the road when the system is in use.
Read more at The Daily Beast.
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Apr 29, 2024
DisneyBlue Ivy Carter might not appear in the first teaser for Disney's Mufasa: The Lion King, but she's already stolen the show. It turns out that both Beyoncé and her daughter will appear in the film: Queen Bey will appropriately play the Lion King Mufasa's wife, Queen Nala, reprising her role from 2019's Lion King remake; and Blue Ivy will play Kiara—Simba's heir. Neither of these characters makes a major appearance in the film's first teaser, which Disney released Monday, but X users are already singing their excitement from the rooftops.
Mufasa could help Blue Ivy break another record in show business. She already became the youngest woman to chart on the Billboard Hot 100 in 2019, when she sang on Beyoncé's "Brown Skin Girl" for the Lion King soundtrack at age seven. (Six-year-old Rumi Carter recently broke that record with a feature on the Cowboy Carter track "Protector.") With this appearance as Kiara, Blue Ivy will technically become the youngest-ever Disney princess—that is, assuming lions count. Either way, folks are excited.
Like most teasers, this roughly minute-long trailer doesn't tell us much. Naturally, we get the usual Lion King opening music, and then Rafiki lets us know what we're here for: "A lio
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Apr 29, 2024
Millie PilkingtonKate Middleton's ill-health was spotlighted again Monday, after she and her husband decided not to issue a new photograph to mark the anniversary of their wedding.
Instead, the couple marked their 13th wedding anniversary by issuing a previously unseen photograph taken on their wedding day.
The reluctance to issue a new photograph came as little surprise, Kate has asked for privacy as she undergoes preventative chemotherapy while recovering from cancer, although the decision may concern royal watchers hoping for a positive update on her health.
Read more at The Daily Beast.
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Apr 29, 2024
Andrew Milligan/Getty ImagesScotland's First Minister Humza Yousaf announced his resignation Monday in the latest setback for his Scottish National Party (SNP) and its goal of achieving Scottish independence from the rest of the United Kingdom.
Yousaf, who became the country's leader following Nicola Sturgeon's resignation last year, stepped down ahead of votes of no confidence expected to play out later in the week. His downfall came directly as a result of his own decision to rip up a coalition deal with the Green Party following disagreements over emissions targets and the medical treatment of children with gender dysphoria.
"After spending the weekend reflecting on what is best for my party, for the government and for the country I lead, I have concluded that repairing our relationship across the political divide can only be done with someone else at the helm," Yousaf said in a resignation speech. He added that he would remain as first minister until a successor had been found and became visibly emotional as he paid tribute to his family for their support.
Read more at The Daily Beast.
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Apr 29, 2024
Alessandro Bianchi/ReutersActor Gérard Depardieu was taken into police custody in France on Monday after two women made accusations of sexual assault, local reports say.
The claims against the 75-year-old relate to his alleged actions during the making of one film in 2014 and another in 2021, according to BFMTV. Depardieu has previously been accused by more than a dozen other women of sexual harassment and assault—he has consistently denied the allegations.
One of the complaints about which the actor now faces questions relates to the making of The Green Shutters, which was released in 2022. The accuser, a 53-year-old set designer, alleges that Depardieu grabbed her with his legs and began touching her inappropriately. A witness allegedly stepped in to free the woman from his grasp.
Read more at The Daily Beast.
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Apr 29, 2024
Alessandro Bianchi/ReutersActor Gérard Depardieu was released from police custody on Monday after reportedly being brought in for questioning about sexual assault allegations made by two women.
"The police custody is over. He is no longer held in the police station," his lawyer, Christian Saint-Palais, told reporters outside the police station in Paris, according to the AP.
The news comes hours after French media reported that the 75-year-old actor was being questioned over alleged groping incidents during the making of two films, one in 2014 and another in 2021. Citing sources, Reuters reported that Depardieu was released without charges.
Read more at The Daily Beast.
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Apr 29, 2024
Alessandro Bianchi/ReutersActor Gérard Depardieu will stand trial in October for allegedly sexually assaulting two women while on the set a 2021 film, Paris prosecutors said Monday.
Prosecutors say Depardieu, 75, will face criminal charges after allegedly assaulting two women while on the set of "Les Volets Verts," or "The Green Shutters," that was released in 2022. The New York Times reported that prosecutor's office did not identify the women or provide details about the assault, and lawyers for the actor did not respond for comment.
The news that Depardieu will stand trial comes just hours after he was released from police custody after he was brought in for questioning.
Read more at The Daily Beast.
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Apr 29, 2024
Andrew Lichtenstein/Crobis via GettyWith no other Republican presidential candidates left in the race to regularly rib and ridicule, Donald Trump is apparently channeling his energy into taking down independent Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Amid GOP fears that Kennedy could end up siphoning crucial votes from Trump's base in November, the former president issued a clarion call to his followers Sunday: "Don't waste your Vote on Kennedy!"
Writing on his Truth Social platform, Trump continued to push his favorite attack line that his vaccine-bashing rival is, in fact, a liberal extremist. "Why did Junior's family go so bonkers at the thought of him running against Crooked Joe Biden?" Trump asked in a post Sunday. "Because they are Radical Left Lunatics, and they can't conceive of their even more Liberal brother running as anything else?"
Read more at The Daily Beast.
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Apr 29, 2024
Lisa Maree Williams/Getty ImagesA group of teenagers in Australia discussed buying weapons and attacking Jewish people in the days after a bishop was stabbed in a church in Sydney, according to reports.
Five adolescents were charged last week on multiple charges including conspiring to engage in or planning a terrorist act. The defendants—all between the ages of 14 and 17—belonged to a network that, according to police, also included the 16-year-old accused of stabbing the Assyrian Orthodox Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel during a livestreamed service in his church.
According to a police fact sheet tendered to a local court, four of the teenagers charged last used the encrypted messaging app Signal to plan their attack, The Daily Telegraph reports. "I wanna die and I wanna kill … I'm just excited," one 17-year-old allegedly wrote on April 20, five days after the church stabbing, later asking: "Is your plan to get caught or die or escape?"
Read more at The Daily Beast.
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Apr 29, 2024
Illustration by Elizabeth Brockway/The Daily BeastWhen Congress left for a week-long recess on April 20, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) had a message for her colleagues: Go home and listen to your constituents.
It would be a harmless ask most of the time. But at that fraught moment, with the future of the House GOP on the line, Greene's proposal landed more like an ultimatum.
That same day, Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) had enraged conservatives by successfully pushing a $95 billion foreign aid package—with a huge tranche of support for Ukraine—through the House. Over half the House GOP conference voted against Ukraine aid.
Read more at The Daily Beast.
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Apr 29, 2024
Photo Illustration by The Daily Beast/MGMLuca Guadagnino's Challengers is a lot deeper than the "Zendaya-has-a-sexy-threesome" marketing would have had us believe. At its core, it's a dark portrait of a woman grasping for a taste of her lost love (not a man, but tennis) by engaging in a frenetic, tactical game of back-and-forth (not tennis, but sex).
After I saw a screening of Challengers, I left contemplating the film's nuanced take on power and obsession—and, bizarrely, my mind kept drifting back to one specific T-shirt. The deceptively simple T-shirt—marl gray with I TOLD YA sprawled across the chest—appears three times on two different characters in Challengers. It has since been replicated on multiple occasions throughout the film's press tour, and today, Loewe has announced an entire "I TOLD YA" collection inspired by the shirt.
What does it mean? Why is this shirt so significant? Could it perhaps hold the key to the film's complex dynamics? These are the questions keeping me up at night, so, I bring you something absolutely no one asked for: the ultimate deep dive into the I TOLD YA shirt from Challengers. I give you fair warning—this is a complicated, multi-layered sartorial journey and you might not like where we end up.
Read more at The Daily Beast.
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Apr 29, 2024
Illustration by Elizabeth Brockway/The Daily BeastThe U.S. intelligence and diplomatic community is helping to secure the Olympics in Paris this summer against possible terrorist threats, The Daily Beast has learned.
The U.S. National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA), which provides imagery intelligence and geospatial data for planning and support of national security, is providing the Olympics planning committee with geospatial reference products. The NGA, for its part, has been working on the security preparations for two years, an official told The Daily Beast.
A little known State Department-run group known as the Overseas Security Advisory Council (OSAC) is also running point on security matters for some security operations in Paris. It provides both public and private streams of information on regional security for American private sector interests.
Read more at The Daily Beast.
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Apr 29, 2024
Photo Illustration by Luis G. Rendon/The Daily Beast/Everett CollectionWelcome to modern rom-com week at The Daily Beast's Obsessed! In honor of two big romance releases this week—The Fall Guy and The Idea of You—we're celebrating everything we love about the last 15 years of romantic comedies.
It's time to quit saying the studio romantic comedy is dead. Sure, rom-coms may not make hundreds of millions of dollars at the box office like they once did. But, realistically Hollywood will never kill the rom-com—it'll always rise again.
In just the past 15 years alone, the studio rom-com has evolved multiple times, from the work of relatable everyman Judd Apatow to the incessant glut of Adam Sandler flicks and Sydney Sweeney's instant surprise success, to name a few iterations. It will continue to evolve and grow to suit new audiences, like any genre—and this year, it has been reborn again with the release of Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt's action-rom-com The Fall Guy.
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Apr 29, 2024
MaxAlright, ready those tomatoes and warm up your pitching arm because I've got something to say: Max's Velma series is fantastic. In a world where people have some grace and proper consideration for new things, loving the adult-oriented spinoff about the Scooby-Doo franchise's devoted brainiac wouldn't be such an outrageous take. But, much to my chagrin, we don't live in that universe.
Most people actively despised the first season of Velma, and largely for the wrong reasons. Some critics deemed it uneven, having too many flat, throwaway punchlines. (Not an unfair opinion, I echoed something similar in my own review.) Others didn't see the point at all, willfully misunderstanding the series' clever subversion of audience expectations. The clickbaity headline of Velma's existence is, essentially, "Woke Hollywood Made Velma Non-White and Gay," which almost everyone with an X account and your emphysema-ridden grandpappy bought into.
Some even went so far as to call the show's execution ironically misogynist in its attempts at parroting liberal ideologies. And then there were the racists, who simply hated Velma because,
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Apr 29, 2024
Jonathan Ernst/ReutersSouth Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem wants it known: It wasn't easy for her to kill her 14-month-old wirehaired pointer, Cricket, for aggressive behavior.
"But often the easy way isn't the right way," the Republican wrote on X on Sunday as she tried to defend the shocking act that almost certainly dashed any hopes of being Donald Trump's running mate.
What's clear to anyone who has ever loved a dog is that Noem failed to do the actual hard thing—training Cricket instead of dragging her to a gravel pit and shooting her dead.
Read more at The Daily Beast.
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Apr 29, 2024
Why Not ProductionsJohnny Depp has made far more headlines than movies during the past five years, thanks to a series of marital, legal, and professional scandals that have considerably dented his A-list stature. Those continue to this day, as the release of Jeanne du Barry has been greeted with a fresh round of reports that the Hollywood icon was a scary figure on the set of writer/director/star Maïwenn's French period piece. (Maïwenn has since walked back those rumors.) Yet amidst all this external noise, Depp's "comeback" performance turns out to be infinitely less wild and over-the-top than his tabloid reputation. Embodying King Louis XV with an understatement that's as wry as it is imposing, the actor proves that he remains one of cinema's most magnetic presences—even if his latest project doesn't do terribly much with him.
Following its world premiere at 2023's Cannes Film Festival, Jeanne du Barry, which hits theaters May 2, is primarily notable for Depp's participation, even though he's merely a supporting player in its 18th-century tale. Instead, the true focus is on its title character (Maïwenn), who's born Jeanne Vaubernier to a cook and a monk. Seemingly consigned to a simple life of obscurity, the young Jeanne enchants an aristocrat but is seen as a threat by this older man's wife and is thus sent to a convent, where her fondness for racy read
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Apr 28, 2024
Wally Skalij/Los Angeles Times via Getty ImagesA pair of celebrated writers scheduled to speak at a University of Southern California graduation ceremony that was shifted online have announced they will not be attending, accusing the school of gravely mishandling student protests against the war in Gaza that have rocked its campus in recent weeks.
The university called off its "main stage" commencement ceremony on Thursday, citing concerns for the safety of the more than 65,000 people who had been expected to flood campus on May 10. The ceremony's nixing came less than two weeks after the controversial decision to bar Asna Tabassum, its pro-Palestian valedictorian, from speaking at the event.
Instead, the school announced earlier this week, it would break graduation down into satellite ceremonies for its individual colleges.
Read more at The Daily Beast.
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Apr 28, 2024
Fox NewsFormer Donald Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway had some advice for her colleagues during a Fox News appearance Sunday morning, telling conspiracy theorists in the Republican Party that their repeated suggestion that former President Barack Obama is pulling the strings in the current White House may actually be counterproductive.
She began her appearance on Fox & Friends Weekend by reflecting on the White House Correspondents dinner Saturday evening, where Trump was a popular target.
Joe Biden, however, took his own share of the shots, something Conway seemed to revel in.
Read more at The Daily Beast.
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Apr 28, 2024
HBOWe ended last week's episode of The Sympathizer on a potential murder. But before Captain (Hoa Xunde) and Bon (Fred Nguyen Khan) kill Major Oahn (Phanxinê), they need to double check a few things. Does the General (Toan Le) still want Major dead? Yes, duh. The bigger question, though, is how Bon and Captain plan on pulling off a homicide without leaving any trace.
Captain pitches armed robbery, but Bon shrugs him off. Bon has something to admit: He wasn't just a regular paratrooper in the war. He was actually in the F-6 program—which specialized in killing and torturing—and never told Man (Don Nguyen) or Captain. Captain is frightened to hear this, although he's also relieved that he and Man aren't the only ones harboring secrets.
Before they can kill Major, though, Captain and Man will need to hatch a solid plan that they can both agree on. The pair stalk the Major at work, where his wife visits him with their new twin babies Spinach (named after Popeye) and Broccoli (named after…literally just the vegetable). This really makes Captain feel terrible. He's killing this new dad to cover his own ass. Nevertheless, Bon and Captain persist, visiting the Major's home to plot how they'll sneak in and perform the kill. They're caught scheming by the Major's mother (Kieu Chinh), who invites them to tea and demands they attend her upcoming birthday gala.
Read more at The Daily Beast.
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Apr 28, 2024
HBOWe ended last week's episode of The Sympathizer on a potential murder. But before Captain (Hoa Xunde) and Bon (Fred Nguyen Khan) kill Major Oahn (Phanxinê), they need to double check a few things. Does the General (Toan Le) still want Major dead? Yes, duh. The bigger question, though, is how Bon and Captain plan on pulling off a homicide without leaving any trace.
Captain pitches armed robbery, but Bon shrugs him off. Bon has something to admit: He wasn't just a regular paratrooper in the war. He was actually in the F-6 program—which specialized in killing and torturing—and never told Man (Don Nguyen) or Captain. Captain is frightened to hear this, although he's also relieved that he and Man aren't the only ones harboring secrets.
Before they can kill Major, though, Captain and Man will need to hatch a solid plan that they can both agree on. The pair stalk the Major at work, where his wife visits him with their new twin babies Spinach (named after Popeye) and Broccoli (named after…literally just the vegetable). This really makes Captain feel terrible. He's killing this new dad to cover his own ass. Nevertheless, Bon and Captain persist, visiting the Major's home to plot how they'll sneak in and perform the kill. They're caught scheming by the Major's mother (Kieu Chinh), who invites them to tea and demands they attend her upcoming birthday gala.
Read more at The Daily Beast.
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Apr 28, 2024
Courtesy of Pen FarthingLONDON—When the Afghan capital fell in August 2021, former British Royal Marine Pen Farthing raised a million pounds of private funds within days to evacuate 171 cats and dogs and his Afghan staff from the Kabul shelter he ran.
Paul ‘Pen' Farthing set up the Nowzad charity in Kabul 18 years ago to care for strays, military dogs and the animal victims of war. Over the years, he rescued thousands of cats and dogs and reunited them with soldiers they'd formed bonds with during their deployment in Afghanistan.
As the situation in Kabul descended into a horror show after U.S. and NATO forces abandoned the country and the Taliban seized control, there were traumatic scenes of people stampeding the airport, some even clung onto moving planes and fell to their deaths in their desperation to leave the country. Farthing's animal-rescue efforts amid the madness caused huge controversy in Britain as he was accused of valuing the lives of ‘pets over people' and leaving Afghans at the mercy of the Taliban.
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Apr 28, 2024
Courtesy of Pen FarthingLONDON—When the Afghan capital fell in August 2021, former British Royal Marine Pen Farthing raised a million pounds of private funds within days to evacuate 171 cats and dogs and his Afghan staff from the Kabul shelter he ran.
Paul ‘Pen' Farthing set up the Nowzad charity in Kabul 18 years ago to care for strays, military dogs and the animal victims of war. Over the years, he rescued thousands of cats and dogs and reunited them with soldiers they'd formed bonds with during their deployment in Afghanistan.
As the situation in Kabul descended into a horror show after U.S. and NATO forces abandoned the country and the Taliban seized control, there were traumatic scenes of people stampeding the airport, some even clung onto moving planes and fell to their deaths in their desperation to leave the country. Farthing's animal-rescue efforts amid the madness caused huge controversy in Britain as he was accused of valuing the lives of ‘pets over people' and leaving Afghans at the mercy of the Taliban.
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Apr 28, 2024
Mario Anzuoni/ReutersTaylor Swift reacted to the news Sunday that her latest album, The Tortured Poets Department, is as big her fans anticipated.
According to Billboard, Swift now ties with Jay-Z for the most Number One records for a solo artist after the album soared to the top spot on the Billboard 200 albums chart (dated May 4). She is beaten only by The Beatles, who have 19.
The Tortured Poets Department also marked the largest number of streams in a week for an album ever—at least since 2014, when Billboard began measuring the units. The publication described the debut as "gigantic," including a "staggering" number of vinyl sales totaling 859,000.
Read more at The Daily Beast.
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Apr 28, 2024
Emma McIntyre/Getty ImagesThe brother of iconic Tejano singer Selena Quintanilla-Pérez has apologized to fans after berating them during a performance in San Antonio over the weekend, revealing a cancer scare led to a chain of events that culminated in his on-stage blow-up.
A.B. Quintanilla and his act, A.B. Quintanilla Y Los Kumbia Kings All Starz, were headlining Tejano Explosion 2024 on Saturday night as the final concert in a weeklong series. But Quintanilla, who on Thursday performed at the Latin American Music Awards, was soon visibly frustrated by the apparent lack of audience participation.
"(It's) like somebody put a gun to your head and forced you to be here tonight," the 60-year-old said in video shared by TikTok user eat_teach_reapeat, identified as Dallas resident Maria Perez by the San Antonio Express-News.
Read more at The Daily Beast.
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Apr 28, 2024
Ricky Carioti/The Washington Post via Getty ImagesAn animal shelter in South Dakota is rebuffing the idea that there's such a thing as an "untrainable" dog as Republican Gov. Kristi Noem defends a years-old decision to shoot her 14-month-old puppy over its poor behavior.
The governor was widely viewed as a frontrunner in Donald Trump's vice presidential sweepstakes—until Friday, when The Guardian published excerpts from her forthcoming biography, including grisly details about killing animals on her farm, including the puppy, a female wirehaired pointer named Cricket.
In her book, Noem reportedly writes that Cricket was "untrainable," "aggressive," and "less than worthless" as a hunting dog. She recalls dragging Cricket to a gravel pit and shooting her in front of a stricken construction crew after becoming fed up with the dog, who had ruined a hunting trip, killed chickens, and bit her.
Read more at The Daily Beast.
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Apr 28, 2024
Photo Illustration by Elizabeth Brockway/The Daily Beast/GettyAt a Lake Tahoe golf course backdropped with azure waters and snow-capped mountains, adult film star Stormy Daniels took a ride on a cart with Donald Trump.
She and other porn actresses joined a potpourri of famous faces for the American Century Celebrity Golf Championship in July 2006, touring the green during a practice round and mingling in the gift room on behalf of the studio Wicked Pictures.
"He was introduced to everybody," Daniels recalled to InTouch years later. "He kept looking at me and then we ended up riding to another hole on the same golf cart together and he's like, ‘I want to come talk to you later.'"
Read more at The Daily Beast.
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Apr 28, 2024
Photo Illustration by Elizabeth Brockway/The Daily Beast/GettyAt a Lake Tahoe golf course backdropped with azure waters and snow-capped mountains, adult film star Stormy Daniels took a ride on a cart with Donald Trump.
She and other porn actresses joined a potpourri of famous faces for the American Century Celebrity Golf Championship in July 2006, touring the green during a practice round and mingling in the gift room on behalf of the studio Wicked Pictures.
"He was introduced to everybody," Daniels recalled to InTouch years later. "He kept looking at me and then we ended up riding to another hole on the same golf cart together and he's like, ‘I want to come talk to you later.'"
Read more at The Daily Beast.
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Apr 28, 2024
David Becker/NBAE via Getty ImagesCandace Parker is unlacing her shoes after a 16-season run in the WNBA that included three championships and two MVP awards.
The 38-year-old athlete announced her retirement in a social media post on Sunday.
"I promised I'd never cheat the game & that I'd leave it in a better place than I came into it. The competitor in me always wants 1 more, but it's time," she said.
Read more at The Daily Beast.
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Apr 28, 2024
Mark Peterson/Getty ImagesDonald Trump weighed in on the White House Correspondents' Dinner on Sunday, giving a terse, certified rotten review of its key players.
"The White House Correspondents' Dinner was really bad," he wrote on Truth Social. "Colin Jost BOMBED, and Crooked Joe was an absolute disaster! Doesn't get much worse than this!"
Though the only Trump in the building on Saturday night was Lara, the presidential daughter-in-law recently named head of the Republican National Committee, the former president's shadow was felt even in the absence of his distinct orange glow. He was a frequent subject of the roasts by both Biden and the keynote comedians.
Read more at The Daily Beast.
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Apr 28, 2024
Anna Moneymaker/Getty ImagesSouth Dakota governor Kristi Noem has released a new statement in response to the outrage that followed her unprovoked admission that she once shot a dog she "hated" because she couldn't train it to be obedient.
The former VP hopeful said she was just following the law and "being a responsible parent, dog owner, and neighbor" by killing the pup execution-style.
"The fact is, South Dakota law states that dogs who attack and kill livestock can be put down. Given that Cricket had shown aggressive behavior toward people by biting them, I decided what I did," Noem wrote on X Sunday afternoon.
Read more at The Daily Beast.
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Apr 28, 2024
Reuters/Brendan McDermidGreen Party presidential candidate Jill Stein was arrested alongside nearly 100 other protesters partaking in the pro-Palestinian demonstrations at Washington University in St. Louis on Saturday. She was the latest high-profile figure to join the student movement sweeping the nation's college campuses.
In a dramatic video shared to social media, 73-year-old Stein can be seen among the group of protesters shoved backwards by police officers, who used a bike to force them back. Stein, her campaign manager, and deputy campaign manager were all arrested by officers, her team said in a statement.
Footage from the scene showed the shocking degree of violence used in the arrests. A combined police force that appeared to consist of campus, local, and state officers could be seen violently tearing protesters away from the crowd, sometimes dragging them by their legs and feet, and zip-tying them as they lay face down on the ground.
Read more at The Daily Beast.
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Apr 28, 2024
CNNCNN anchor Dana Bash decimated her colleague David Urban on Sunday when he insisted that pro-Palestinian protests outside the White House Correspondents' Dinner received no cable news coverage.
"You were inside drinking!" Bash shot back after Urban, a CNN senior political commentator, claimed he never saw CNN's reporting on the demonstrations.
During Sunday's broadcast of CNN's State of the Union, Urban was part of a panel that discussed Saturday evening's dinner, otherwise known as "Nerd Prom." At one point in the conversation, the former Trump campaign adviser contrasted President Joe Biden's struggling poll numbers with the specter of "liberal elites" bashing conservatives at the D.C. gala.
Read more at The Daily Beast.
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Apr 28, 2024
Seminole County Sheriff's Office/FacebookTen people were injured when a suspect opened fire just after midnight Sunday morning at a bar and grill entertainment venue in Sanford, Florida, according to the Seminole County Sheriff's Office.
Deputies responded to the scene at Cabana Live, where a large crowd had gathered for a planned private event taking place that night. According to local media outlets, officers on area patrol heard gunshots coming from the back of the establishment, which caused the crowd to quickly scatter in panic. They believe an argument escalated into the gunfire, which struck 10 patrons with non-life-threatening injuries. Most of them were struck in the lower body.
According to police, a security guard apprehended the suspect, a 16-year-old, who was then booked into the nearby Juvenile Detention Center. It was unclear if the teenager was a guest attending the private event at the venue.
Read more at The Daily Beast.
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Apr 28, 2024
Seminole County Sheriff's Office/FacebookHouston Texans wide receiver Tank Dell was one of ten people injured at a Florida club on Saturday night, when a suspect opened fire near the back of the establishment.
In a statement, the team said he was recovering and had been released from the hospital "in good spirits" after treatment for a minor injury.
Nine other people also suffered minor injuries when the shots rang out at Cabana Live just after midnight Sunday morning, according to the Seminole County Sheriff's Office. Most of the victims were shot in the lower body, authorities said.
Read more at The Daily Beast.
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Apr 28, 2024
The Daily Beast/Marin County SheriffFormer Slack CEO Stewart Butterfield's teenage child has been "safely recovered" a week after being reported missing in San Francisco, the family said in a statement released Sunday.
The 16-year-old, who was considered a runaway after leaving their home in Marin County, was found on the streets of San Francisco Saturday evening, according to an email from the teenager's father, their mother, and their stepdad.
"Our hearts are full of gratitude tonight to the hard working men and women of the SFPD who safely recovered our child, Mint, from the streets of San Francisco this evening. A special thanks to Marin County Sheriff's office who led the effort along with all the other law enforcement agencies involved. A heartfelt thanks to all the family, friends, volunteers, and strangers who called in tips and made this recovery possible," the parents wrote in the email to the press on Sunday.
Read more at The Daily Beast.
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Apr 28, 2024
The Daily Beast/Marin County SheriffFormer Slack CEO Stewart Butterfield's teenage child has been "safely recovered" a week after being reported missing in San Francisco, the family said in a statement released Sunday. The teen was found with an adult man, who has since been arrested, according to local police.
Mint Butterfield, 16, was located around 11:30 p.m. on Saturday inside a white van owned by "an adult friend," Christopher "Kio" Dizefalo, who was also in the vehicle, according to the Marin County Sheriff's Office.
"Mint was uninjured and Detectives confirmed [they] had run away from their home voluntarily," the sheriff's office said.
Read more at The Daily Beast.
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Apr 28, 2024
CNNSen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) shrugged off the "catch-and-kill" scheme at the heart of Donald Trump's hush-money trial on Sunday, claiming that it wasn't a big deal because "a lot of celebrities" had done the same thing with the National Enquirer.
CNN anchor Dana Bash, meanwhile, helpfully reminded the Trump sycophant that those celebrities weren't running for president at the time.
During an appearance on CNN's State of the Union, Graham said that he believes the Supreme Court will likely send Trump's immunity claims back to a lower court to decide which actions fall under the scope of presidential immunity. He also added that it doesn't worry him at all that this could mean the ex-president's criminal cases won't be decided before November's election.
Read more at The Daily Beast.
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Apr 28, 2024
Hannah McKay/File Photo/ReutersWho will Harry see in the U.K. next week?
Prince Harry is to return to the U.K. next week for a church service celebrating the tenth anniversary of the Invictus Games, his paralympic-style games event for wounded servicemen.
Harry's potential attendance at the service on May 8 has been rumored for weeks. However, it was finally confirmed Sunday morning on Invictus social media accounts.
Read more at The Daily Beast.
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Apr 28, 2024
AFPAlthough Colin Jost is no stranger to solo stand-up comedy, most of America recognizes him best as part of a duo. He's famous for being the straight-edged "Weekend Update" co-anchor, working alongside the much raunchier, more dangerous Michael Che. How would Jost fare on his own? The answer, it turns out, is perfectly fine. His roast was nowhere near as brutal as Stephen Colbert's famous WHCD roast in 2006, but it was certainly entertaining.
Jost predictably focused a lot on the speculation that President Biden might be too old to run for re-election, starting off his speech with, "I have to admit, it's not easy following President Biden… I mean, it's not always easy following what he's saying."
Jost also referenced Biden's viral stumbling on the steps of Air Force One, and made light of the accusations that Biden was high on amphetamines during his recent energetic State of the Union address. "The last time I was in D.C., I left my cocaine at the White House," Jost said, in what initially seemed like a joke about Jost's Republican demeanor, before adding, "Luckily, the president was able to put it to good use for his State of the Union. I'm kidding, of course, the president doesn't call it cocaine—he calls it high speed rail."
Read mo
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Apr 28, 2024
AFPAlthough Colin Jost is no stranger to solo stand-up comedy, most of America recognizes him best as part of a duo. He's famous for being the straight-edged "Weekend Update" co-anchor on Saturday Night Live, working alongside the much raunchier, more dangerous Michael Che. How would Jost fare on his own? The answer, it turns out, is perfectly fine. His roast at Saturday night's White House Correspondents' Dinner was nowhere near as brutal as Stephen Colbert's famous WHCD roast in 2006, but it was certainly entertaining.
Jost predictably focused a lot on the speculation that President Joe Biden might be too old to run for re-election, starting off his speech with, "I have to admit, it's not easy following President Biden… I mean, it's not always easy following what he's saying."
The comedian also referenced Biden's viral stumbling on the steps of Air Force One, and made light of the accusations that Biden was high on amphetamines during his recent energetic State of the
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Apr 27, 2024
Oli Scarff/AFP via Getty ImagesLONDON—A crucial difference between the dinosaurs and Britain's ruling Conservative Party is that the dinosaurs had no way of knowing the asteroid was coming. For the Tories, portents of doom abound, with some polls suggesting that an extinction-level event of catastrophic political losses could be on the way in the next general election. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has signaled that he'll call the election in the second half of the year, and it can legally come no later than January 2025.
With his party trailing the opposition Labour Party by over 20 points, most pundits expect the election will be the end of Tory rule. But will it be the end of the Conservative Party altogether?
Lawmakers will get an early, if imperfect, indication of whether a Tory Götterdämmerung is in the making on Thursday, when local elections are held across England and Wales. The complex and varied ballots—which include elections for thousands of local council seats, several regional mayors, and law enforcement officials—will not affect the makeup of the British parliament or pose a direct threat to Sunak's grip on power. But some Tories fear this could be where the unraveling of the world's oldest ope
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Apr 27, 2024
Oli Scarff/AFP via Getty ImagesLONDON—A crucial difference between the dinosaurs and Britain's ruling Conservative Party is that the dinosaurs had no way of knowing the asteroid was coming. For the Tories, portents of doom abound, with some polling suggesting that an extinction-level event of catastrophic political losses could be on the way in the next general election. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has signaled that he'll call the election in the second half of the year, and it can legally come no later than January 2025.
With his party trailing the opposition Labour Party by over 20 points, most pundits expect the election will be the end of Tory rule. But will it be the end of the Conservative Party altogether?
Lawmakers will get an early, if imperfect, indication of whether or not a Tory Götterdämmerung is in the making on Thursday, when local elections are held across England and Wales. The complex and varied ballots—which include elections for thousands of local council seats, several regional mayors, and law enforcement officials—will not affect the makeup of the British Parliament and therefore pose a direct threat to Sunak's grip on power. But some Tories fear this could be where the unraveling of th
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Apr 27, 2024
Piero Cruciatti/ AFPHow do you solve a problem like Predappio?
This small town in the hills of northern Italy where Mussolini was born in 1883 remains something of an enigma. The previous mayor called it the "Chernobyl of Italy"—a place too toxic to touch. It plays host to large neo-Fascist rallies, souvenir shops selling Mussolini trinkets and the tomb of Il Duce himself, which lies in a crypt in the town's municipal cemetery. All of this co-existing alongside 6,000 citizens in one of Italy's most historically left-wing strongholds.
Since the end of World War II, Predappio's citizens have routinely elected mayors from the political left. This was until 2019 when, as part of a right-wing surge across Italy that eventually brought Giorgia Meloni to power, Predappio elected its first right-wing mayor since the death of its most famous son.
Read more at The Daily Beast.
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Apr 27, 2024
FacebookOne climber died and a second was seriously injured after falling 1,000 feet while ascending Mt. Johnson in Denali National Park and Preserve this week.
The accident happened in Ruth Gorge, as the team—Robbi Mecus, 52, and her climbing partner—tackled a treacherous route known as "The Escalator," on the night of April 25.
"The approximately 5,000-foot route involves navigating a mix of steep rock, ice, and snow," the parks service said.
Read more at The Daily Beast.
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Apr 27, 2024
FacebookOne climber was killed and a second was seriously injured after falling 1,000 feet while ascending Mt. Johnson in Denali National Park and Preserve this week.
The accident happened in Ruth Gorge, as the team—Robbi Mecus, 52, and her climbing partner—tackled a treacherous route known as "The Escalator," on the night of April 25.
"The approximately 5,000-foot route involves navigating a mix of steep rock, ice, and snow," the parks service said.
Read more at The Daily Beast.
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Apr 27, 2024
Photo Illustration by Luis G. Rendon/The Daily Beast/Getty ImagesSen. Ted Cruz has sought to soften his image as a conservative hardliner and recast himself as a lawmaker unafraid to reach across the aisle—but one of the top figures he's recruited for his "Democrats for Cruz" group has been accused of crossing far more serious lines.
Cruz (R-TX), facing a tougher-than-expected re-election struggle against Rep. Colin Allred (D-TX), lit up social media last month with ads and public appearances featuring supporters from the other side of the partisan divide. And none have featured more prominently, whether on Twitter, Instagram, or Youtube, than U.S. Hispanic Business Council President Javier Palomarez.
In a recorded event with Palomarez, the business booster sat alongside the senator—famous for his first-term filibuster antics—as a true bipartisan problem solver.
Read more at The Daily Beast.
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Apr 27, 2024
Photo Illustration by Luis G. Rendon/The Daily Beast/StarzWhen The Favourite premiered back in 2018, it ushered the period drama into a deliciously profane new era. Undoing expectations established by the prim-and-proper costume dramas of the past, the movie's scheming, swearing, and sexual innuendos made it a cinematic phenomenon—and paved the way for the likes of the steamy Regency-set rom com Bridgerton and the spiky, no-holds-barred humor of The Great.
In terms of raunchiness, though, Mary & George is perhaps the period drama to rule them all. In its two titular leads' cutthroat world, it's significantly not just strategic marriages that help get you ahead, but sex. And in this instance, it's sex with a refreshingly out-and-proud king.
Mary & George is consistently unabashed about gay sex—or any sex, for that matter. But it's more than just that; it's also an antidote to the staid period dramas of the past. Out of every straight-up Austen adaptation or Austen-adjacent drama (right up to Bridgerton), there has often arisen a misplaced nostalgia for archaic structures pertaining to courtship, marriage and romance. But in King James's court, heterosexuality and monogamy are—thankfully—not the norms. It's a refreshing change, one that more of its ilk stand to learn from.
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Apr 27, 2024
Photo Illustration by Erin O'Flynn/The Daily Beast/Tim Sheehy CampaignAt first glance, Caleb Oriet's social media accounts look typical of a young member of the fringe, online right, featuring likes and reposts of far-right influencers and white nationalists expressing incendiary and bigoted views about racial and religious minorities.
The account belonging to the 21-year-old Montanan and self-proclaimed "Anglo-Saxon Protestant" and "menace to society" liked, for instance, a tweet that refers to Black Americans as "the most criminal, dependent, and socially destructive part of the population" and attacks GOP efforts to connect with Black voters.
But Oriet isn't just a denizen of the far-right fringes of social media. He's also a staffer for one of the Republican Party's top candidates to flip control of the U.S. Senate this year.
Read more at The Daily Beast.
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Apr 27, 2024
Paramount Knuckles is one of the most surprising new shows of the year—yes, really. I know what you're thinking: How could a spinoff of the incredibly popular Sonic the Hedgehog movies starring one of the franchise's most popular characters be "surprising?" In fact, Knuckles is something of a Trojan Horse. While it presents itself as an action-packed show about Knuckles (voiced by Idris Elba), the no-nonsense red echidna, it's really about his friendship with a goofy human, Wade Whipple (Adam Pally). More than that, over the course of the six-episode Paramount series, Knuckles mentors Wade as he competes in a major bowling tournament—see, I told you it's surprising!
It's not totally absent from the typical Sonic the Hedgehog hijinks, of course. Along the way, they run into dastardly foes determined to kidnap Knuckles. But in response, Wade decides to take his new bestie somewhere the bad guys would never think to look: his mother's house. That leads to what is this series' most special installment: a glorious, emotional, and poignant episode about a Shabbat dinner. Yes, I'm serious—the third episode (titled "The Shabbat Dinner") of what is seemingly a big-budget action series about Knuckles from Sonic the Hedgehog is all about the weekly Jewish tradition of Shabbat.
For those unfamiliar with Shabbat, Wade's mother, Wendy (played by Stockard Channing, instantly entering the pantheon of great Jewish TV moms), explains it perfectly to Knuckles: "Shabbat is the day of rest. It's about home." Basically, according to Judaism, God created the world in six days, so on the seventh, he rested. For modern Jews, like myself, Shabbat is an opportunity to connect with family and spend time together without distraction. It's one o
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Apr 27, 2024
Photo Illustration by Luis G. Rendon/The Daily Beast/Getty ImagesFor weeks, it seems, the name on everybody's lips has been Zendaya. Coming into the Challengers press tour, we all knew that Queen Z would show up to every red carpet ready to serve. After all, the looks she used to promote past films like Spider-Man: Homecoming and Dune: Part Two are still etched into our brains. Still, the eye-popping green and white ensembles she and stylist Law Roach have put together this year feel like their magnum opus; night after night, photo after photo, they've had us basically screaming "game, set, match!"
(Is that the correct usage of that term? I'll be the first to admit that my interest in tennis began when Luca Guadagnino announced this movie, and it will end after it premieres this weekend.)
From her tennis ball stilettos, to her preppy white halter dress appropriately adorned with tiny tennis rackets, to her 2013 Louis Vuitton green and white checkered mini jacket dress
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Apr 27, 2024
Andrew Thomas/Getty ImagesPro-Palestinian protesters confronted guests arriving at the Washington, D.C. hotel where President Joe Biden is set to speak at the White House Correspondents Dinner on Saturday evening, criticizing what they say is media complicity in the "genocide" of Gaza.
With about 100 demonstrators in attendance, many of them dressed in Palestinian keffiyehs and watermelon symbols, they chanted "free, free Palestine" outside of the Washington Hilton, videos posted to social media show. Guests in evening wear could be seen passing protesters as they made their way toward the venue, with some of the demonstrators confronting them and chanting, "Shame on you!"
"We demand coverage!" the protesters chanted at one point, holding signs that said "Free Palestine" and waving Palestinian flags. A large Palestinian flag could be seen hanging from the window of a room on the top floor of the Hilton, where the event will take place several stories below.
Read more at The Daily Beast.
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Apr 27, 2024
Photo Illustration by Erin O'Flynn/The Daily Beast/Getty ImagesListen to this full episode of The New Abnormal on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon and Stitcher.
Right-wing comedian Alex Stein seems obsessed with talking to Lara Trump about anal sex.
The New Abnormal unearthed a clip of Stein talking to Trump a year ago about her views on sodomy for which he was briefly suspended from The Blaze.
Read more at The Daily Beast.
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Apr 27, 2024
Nathan Posner/Getty ImagesThe white supremacist group Patriot Front unboxed their U-Hauls and marched through the streets of Charleston, West Virginia, on Saturday in a demonstration timed to coincide with an anti-racism 5k race.
The neo-Nazis reportedly unloaded banners and other organization propaganda before a statue of Confederate General Thomas Stonewall Jackson in the city's downtown area. Wearing matching khakis, navy blue polos, white hats and face coverings, they chanted and paraded through Charleston's main streets, flying a banner with the slogan "America is not for sale." Some of them carried shields and many of them flew upside-down American flags. At least one Confederate flag could be seen in the parade.
The neo-Nazi romp happened at the same time a planned 5k race, the YWCA's Race to End Racism, was underway on the city's West Side. According to the organization's website, the race was a fundraiser for "community engagement and racial equity & inclusion programming" designed to bring corporate partners, congregations, police, non-profits and community groups together.
Read more at The Daily Beast.
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Apr 27, 2024
Contributor/Getty ImagesRussia has dismissed a report claiming Vladimir Putin did not order the killing of famed dissident Alexei Navalny, who died in an Arctic prison in February.
Dmitry Peskov, Putin's spokesman, told Russia's state-run media on Saturday that he had seen the Wall Street Journal report, which cited an assessment by U.S. intelligence agencies, and that there was little reason to believe it. He derided its logic and said it wasn't worth looking into.
"I would not say that this is high-quality material that deserves any attention. Some very empty reasoning," Peskov said.
Read more at The Daily Beast.
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Apr 27, 2024
Photo Illustration by Erin O'Flynn/The Daily Beast/Compass Real Estate, The Chernov Team, Getty Images and Public DomainWhen Prince Nawaf bin Sultan bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud sold his $75 million triplex in the Heritage at Trump Place building on Manhattan's Upper West Side, the anonymous buyer of the 10,500-square-foot manse, complete with a hair salon, a sushi bar, and three bulletproof panic rooms, was a mystery.
A real estate listing deemed the home ideal for a "member of the global elite." The new resident would walk upon slabs of sumptuous Tuscan Calacatta marble, glide through doors of Makassar ebony, and sleep beneath ceilings of the finest Venetian plaster. The 2018 sale made headlines; the transaction was co-brokered by Robert De Niro's son Raphael. However, the purchaser's true identity remained frustratingly cloaked behind a web of LLCs.
Now, the previously nameless owner of the unit has been revealed as a Kazakhstani oligarch who allegedly stole a coal mine out from under the former Soviet republic's top opposition leader during his unjust imprisonment on sham political charges, then snatched up the New York City spread at the relative bargain-basement price of $30 million—or, about 7,500 times the average annual household income in Kazakhstan.
Read more at The Daily Beast.
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Apr 27, 2024
Photo Illustration by Erin O'Flynn/The Daily Beast/Getty Images?Two of rapist Harvey Weinstein's convictions have been overturned, and in New York he has been granted a new trial. And while it's important to note that the rapist's conviction in California stands, and that the rapist is old, weak, and sometime soon he will die alone and unloved in a prison cell in one state or another, this injustice is just another example of how all of our American institutions are built to demean and devalue women-to them, our bodies are commodities to be used, and that will be their downfall.
?Take, for example, Brock Turner (now going by Allen Turner and living in the Dayton, Ohio area). He spent only three months in a jail—not a prison—for three counts of felony sexual assault. (He had been initially indicted on five charges: two for rape, two for felony sexual assault, and one for attempted rape, although the two rape charges were later withdrawn.)
The judge in that case, Aaron Persky, said that he was concerned about the "severe impact" of a long prison sentence on then collegiate athlete Turner when he sentenced him. Of course, the "severe impact" Allen (née Brock) Turner's victim didn't matter to Persky-a man's freedom was threatened, after all, and what does a woman's suffering and the safety of all other women matter in comparison to that? Rumors abound that Turner likes to
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Apr 27, 2024
Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post via Getty ImagesWhen Republican Gov. Kristi Noem proudly bragged about shooting her puppy in her new memoir, what she may have actually done was kill her chance at being Donald Trump's VP. At least this time, it was an accident.
Ever since The Guardian first reported that the MAGA politician, and potential Trump running mate had written a gruesome account about executing her puppy into her new memoir, Noem has been lambasted online, including by several members of her own party.
Alyssa Farrah Griffith, the Trump administration's former director of strategic communications, wrote that she was "horrified" by the story, in a post on X. "A 14-month old dog is still a puppy & can be trained. A large part of bad behavior in dogs is not having proper training from the humans responsible for them."
Read more at The Daily Beast.
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Apr 27, 2024
HamasThe militant group Hamas has released footage of 64-year-old American-Israeli hostage Keith Siegel, still alive after more than 200 days in captivity.
In the video, Siegel and Israeli hostage Omri Miran, 46, appear gaunt and clearly emotionally distressed as they address the camera. The two men speak in Hebrew to identify themselves and say they're hoping for a hostage deal that could allow them to return home, according to a translation by The Times of Israel.
Siegel has been missing since he and his wife, Aviva, were kidnapped by Hamas militants on Oct. 7 from the Kibbutz Kfar Aza. Aviva Siegel was released during the seven-day November ceasefire and hostage deal.
Read more at The Daily Beast.
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Apr 27, 2024
Vincent Ricci/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty ImagesNortheastern University had around 100 peaceful protesters arrested on Saturday at its Boston campus' pro-Palestine encampment, claiming that there had been reports of protesters using antisemitic slurs; but according to witnesses, the protester who spewed hate speech was a pro-Israel counter protester.
On Saturday morning, Northeastern Vice President for Communications Renata Nyul released a statement, announcing that the protest on Centennial Common would be cleared by campus police and local law enforcement. In the statement, she explained that the reason they were clearing the encampment was because of the presence of hate speech at the site.
"What began as a student demonstration two days ago, was infiltrated by professional organizers with no affiliation to Northeastern. Last night, the use of virulent antisemitic slurs, including ‘Kill the Jews,' crossed the line," she said. "We cannot tolerate this kind of hate on our campus."
Read more at The Daily Beast.
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Apr 27, 2024
HBOBill Maher took presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to task on Friday's episode of Real Time with Bill Maher, over his and his running mate's persistent efforts to spread anti-vaccine misinformation.
Maher has consistently platformed RFK Jr. throughout his presidential campaign, touting his "guts and integrity," as he's promulgated misinformation about COVID-19 vaccines. The presidential candidate's unsavory anti-vax rhetoric was once again pushed to the forefront of his campaign, when his running mate Nicole Shanahan called for a recall of the Moderna vaccine, earlier this month. Apparently the comment didn't sit so well with Maher.
"But your Vice Presidential pick wants to recall the Moderna vaccine, that's the one I got," said Maher, who looked out onto the laughing audience. "Do you agree with that? Recall it?
Read more at The Daily Beast.
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Apr 27, 2024
Photo Illustration by Erin O'Flynn/The Daily Beast/Mauricio Sulaiman/XArdi Ndembo, who was left in an induced coma in Miami for three weeks after a knockout loss, died on Thursday. He was 27.
World Boxing Council president Mauricio Sulaiman confirmed the news on X and paid tribute to the Congolese fighter and father-of-two.
"May he rest in peace," he wrote on X. "Ardi Ndembo has passed away in Miami. Our condolences go to his family."
Read more at The Daily Beast.
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Apr 27, 2024
Kena Betancur/Getty ImagesHarvey Weinstein, perhaps the #MeToo movement's most notorious villain, saw his sex-crimes conviction overturned last week, after an appeals court ruled that the trial court judge had improperly allowed in testimony about "uncharged, alleged prior sexual acts." Weinstein's 23-year prison sentence was vacated, and whether prosecutors will re-try him remains up in the air.
Weinstein is not a free man. He remains in jail in New York, although his lawyers say he is seriously ill and they are seeking medical care for him. He was also convicted of rape and sexual assault in California, and could face extradition to that state, where he would be staring down a 16-year prison sentence.
It's tempting to use this latest turn in the Weinstein case to make sweeping statements about the state of #MeToo and American feminism. And it does seem to be the case that, after a flash of feminist progress, the sights have dimmed for American women. The pussy-grabber ex-president, whose last election campaign flamed out in a spectacle of confederate-flag-carriers men coups and Rudy Giuliani dripping hair dye near a sex shop, is again the Republican nominee for president and may just find himself back in the White House—and this is after a jury found him liable for sexual abuse, and then defamation against t
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Apr 27, 2024
Acey HarperSonja Christopher, the first person to ever get booted off the island in Survivor's first season, had died at 87.
Liz Wilcox, who stars in the current season 46 of Survivor, posted the news on X. She shared a picture of them talking over FaceTime at Christmas.
"Today, the legend herself Sonja Christopher of Season One passed away. I had the pleasure of meeting her on Christmas. She had so much spunk love for Survivor and what the show brought to her life. I hope you're singing playing your heart out somewhere beautiful, Sonja."
Read more at The Daily Beast.
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Apr 26, 2024
CNNBill Barr, Donald Trump's former attorney general who once said that voting for the indicted ex-president would be "playing Russian roulette with the country," stood by his decision to vote for Trump in November while also suggesting that Trump used to regularly float the idea of executing his political rivals while in office.
Barr made the nonchalant admission Friday during a CNN interview when anchor Kaitlan Collins mentioned former Trump White House communications director Alyssa Farah Griffin claiming that Barr was present in the summer of 2020 when Trump suggested that an unknown White House leaker should be executed.
"I remember him being very mad about that. I actually don't remember him saying ‘executing,' but I wouldn‘t dispute it, you know… The president would lose his temper and say things like that. I doubt he would've actually carried it out," Barr said.
Read more at The Daily Beast.
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Apr 26, 2024
Photo Illustration by Luis G. Rendon/The Daily Beast/Getty ImagesPastel pink and soft vignette filters, images featuring thin girls with long eyelashes, and good grades and skincare products: These are all manifestations in the world of "Wonyoungism," a wellness trend growing rapidly online among K-pop fans that, amidst the milky images of bows and strawberries, has faced criticism for promoting eating disorders.
The term Wonyoungism itself derives from the K-pop idol Jang Wonyoung, a member of the girl group IVE. At 19 years old, Jang boasts more than 11 million followers on Instagram, and has become something of a platonic ideal for fans online. Wonyoung is confident, smart, pretty, sophisticated, according to those following her; so much so that she has evolved past a typical example of celebrity idolatry and into a theology unto herself. Using phrases like "The Wonyoung Effect" and "Wonyoung Motivation," evangelical fans online promote a message of self-improvement centered around the singer, telling each other that by making specific lifestyle changes, they can look and, more importantly, feel as seemingly confident as Jang.
The trend's first boom happened last year, after an audio clip from an interview with Jang went viral. "I don't care—you are you, I am me," she says, a message that drives home two
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Apr 26, 2024
Photo Illustration by Luis G. Rendon/The Daily Beast/Getty Images/Everett CollectionAccording to its own self-mythology, the entertainment industry is something far grander, more poetic and noble, than just a titanic money-maker. Our beloved movies and TV shows—Hollywood's "products," if we must call them that—are the sum of our cultural imagination, collective dreams that mesmerize and inspire.
Unfortunately, that sentiment rarely seems to last when studios start looking at their balance sheets. Just ask the filmmakers behind Coyote vs. Acme.
Last November, The Wrap and Rolling Stone reported that Warner Bros. Discovery planned to shelf Coyote vs. Acme—a live action/animated comedy starring Will Forte and the Looney Tunes character Wile E. Coyote—in exchange for a tax write-off. Days later, The Wrap claimed that, thanks to public outcry, the studio had changed its tune and invited the filmmakers to shop their project around to potential buyers. By February, however, the same publication reported that the company wanted $75-$80 million for the film and had rejected "handsome" offers from companies
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Apr 26, 2024
Photo Illustration by Erin O'Flynn/The Daily Beast/Getty Images"Bro, I already saw Tyler at Flog Gnaw," said a guy dressed in a flowery button-down to his friend, also in a flowery button-down. Tyler, the Creator, who put on his own festival at Dodger Stadium last fall, burst through a wall, kicking off his Coachella headlining set with the buzzing bass of "IGOR'S THEME." But by the time I met up with my friend in the crowd, the pair had already left to see Dom Dolla, the DJ playing at the Sahara stage.
In a way, my friends-in-floral summarized what many, including myself, hypothesized during the lead up to this year's fest. My doubts were never about whether Coachella would provide festival goers with exceptional music or a weekend of sweaty, sunny, sand-filled fun. My concerns were about whether this festival would matter as much as it had before.
Even with a lineup of EDM rarities, ‘90s nostalgia reunions, rising pop stars, and artists from around the globe, Coachella lost a little luster without a shocking, triumphant headliner. Rumors of low ticket sales called the festival's status into question. Headliners don't shape the attendees' day-to-day experience, but they do give Coachella its ubiquity and induce FOMO outside the desert. On a personal level, I, like the majority of the attendees, had a blast (Favorite sets: Militarie Gun, Chappell Roan, Tyler, the Creator, and Justice). But at the same time, it was the end of Coachella's influence in the larger music culture.
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Apr 26, 2024
ANDREW HARNIKThe retired cop who became the face of D.C. Metropolitan Police brutalized at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 has launched a private security business with a name evoking the attack—and is already providing services to a campaign of the congressman who helped spearhead the subsequent impeachment of President Donald Trump, as well as "major political organizations," the pol told The Daily Beast.
Federal Election Commission records show the campaign of Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) paid nearly $50,000 between August and February to Lower West Terrace LLC, a venture launched by Officer Michael Fanone and bearing the name of the entrance he defended on the infamous vote certification date.
As one of the managers of the second Trump impeachment trial, Swalwell committed to the congressional record Fanone's account of the injuries he sustained during the election deniers' bloody assault on the seat of government: Trump supporters swarmed him on the lower west terrace, tased him until he suffered cardiac arrest, and pummeled him into unconsciousness.
Read more at The Daily Beast.
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Apr 26, 2024
Jeenah Moon/Pool via Reuters Donald Trump knows how to play to the audience, whether it's the deluded millions of his MAGA base or the jurors in the first criminal trial of a former president.
That was clear on Friday when Trump seized a moment in his criminal trial to seemingly comfort a witness—his still-loyal ex-assistant Rhona Graff.
The jury had just finished listening to supermarket tabloid sleaze David Pecker testify about what prosecutors say was a criminal conspiracy to influence the 2016 election by paying hush money to kill potentially damaging stories about Trump.
Read more at The Daily Beast.
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Apr 26, 2024
StarzAs much fun as Mary & George can be, what with all of Julianne Moore's plotting and perversion as the devious Mary Villiers, it surprises when it reminds us that a soul is lurking somewhere beneath all of the show's delectable lechery. After a bout of orgies and murder in last week's episode, the limited series returns tonight with an installment that's slightly more tempered, though no less packed with sex and manslaughter—you've got to give the people what they want! Episode 4 sees the show continuing to operate at a level higher than contemporary series ever reach. It's a deftly written, droll chapter in the life of Mary and her second-born son George (Nicholas Galitzine), one that pushes the show past its halfway point, but still promises plenty more action to come.
Episode 4 opens in 1617, just before the show's normal timeline, with two lowly gravediggers in Scotland tasked to dig up something from an unmarked grave. The men unearth a human heart below the soil, and, shocked, wonder what kind of demented man this organ has been passed down from. The episode makes no secret of that, cutting immediately to a sight of King James I (Tony Curran) and George in the king's bed, naked. Why James is preoccupied with getting his hands on someone else's ventricles and vessels we don't yet know, but a bare heart resting six feet underground doesn't bode well f
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Apr 26, 2024
Illustration by Elizabeth Brockway/The Daily BeastTo the women of the world, I—and many people on TikTok—have a question for you: Would you rather be left in the woods with a man you don't know, or a bear?
It's an absurd question on the surface. Of course you'd rather be in the woods with a human being rather than a large beastly animal with terrifying teeth and claws that could maul and maim you. At best it could kill you instantly. At worst, it would be a prolonged death a la Grizzly Man, slowly being eaten alive.
Bears don't always stop to kill their prey before they start consuming them, either. Absolutely, no thank you.
Read more at The Daily Beast.
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Apr 26, 2024
Photo Illustration by Luis G. Rendon/The Daily Beast/Getty Images/XThis week:I'm Heading to the AsylumThe only thing worse than a meme that completely floods your social media timeline is not understanding what in god's name the meme means. As a burgeoning Old Person, this has become a frustratingly common occurrence. So in between refilling my acid reflux prescription and icing my sore knees, I finally broke down and googled the provenance of the meme that had been assaulting me all week, and now I'm more annoyed than I was when I was just blissfully elderly, clueless, and out of touch.
Read more at The Daily Beast.
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Apr 26, 2024
Photo Illustration by Luis G. Rendon/The Daily Beast/Getty ImagesThere's still life in the old dog yet. At the age of 93 Rupert Murdoch is about to marry for the fifth time. And there's no doubt what the best, and by far the most expensive, wedding present from his family would be: To shut down Prince Harry's litigation against Murdoch's British tabloids over their industrial-scale hacking.
This decades-old saga has already cost News Group Newspapers at least one billion pounds in settlements and legal costs. The next group of 45 cases, including Prince Harry's, are due to go to court next January.
Until now the Duke of Sussex has shown no sign of settling out of court. On the back of a huge settlement with the Daily Mirror's owners he still wanted to take the adversary he most despises all the way to a trial that would very likely have required Murdoch himself to face cross-examination alongside other top NGN executives.
Read more at The Daily Beast.
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Apr 26, 2024
Photo Illustration by The Daily Beast/Getty ImagesMaya Rudolph didn't mean to make waves this week when she sat down with Dax Shepard for an episode of Armchair Expert, but alas, sometimes you don't choose The Discourse™. Sometimes it chooses you.
It all started almost an hour into the episode, when Rudolph and Shepard were talking about their families, the biz, and their respective approaches to their careers. It was then that Rudolph's famous family came up. Her mother was venerated soul singer Minnie Riperton, and her father is music producer Richard Rudolph. Riperton died in 1979 at the age of 31, when Maya was only 7 years old.
When Shepard noted that Rudolph seems to have a pretty healthy relationship with her career, she attributed part of that to how her parents raised her. In doing so, she accidentally ignited a nepo discourse that, frankly, seems pretty unfair.
Read more at The Daily Beast.
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Apr 26, 2024
Photo Illustration by Erin O'Flynn/The Daily Beast/MGMApparently, it's not encouraged to shout, "Alright boys, pucker up!" at a movie theater screen during a packed showing of one of the most anticipated films of the year. God forbid anyone has a little bit of fun. You're telling me that no one else brought tubes of Blistex to throw at the screen during Challengers? What's next, I can't make loud smooching sounds when Zendaya, Josh O'Connor, and Mike Faist all gather in a hotel room, even when I've seen the movie's trailer 50 times and I know exactly what's about to happen? No, you grow up!
Just kidding, I would rather die than be caught dead disrupting a theater. Yet, Challengers has a way of thwarting even our most steadfast moral tenets, prompting audiences to act on impulse. My screening had plenty of gasping, hooting, and cheering as all three characters involved in a tennis-based love triangle wormed their way through each others' lives. There is so much seduction and subterfuge packed into the film that I found myself holding my breath as often as I did twirling my hair around my finger like a lovestruck schoolgirl with a secret crush. But part of Challengers' brilliance is that it lets no crush go secret for too long, and it's impossible to walk away from the movie without feeling like you just got a glimpse of something far more depr
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Apr 26, 2024
Spencer Platt/GettyPlans for alumni reunions at Columbia University are colliding with controversy, with some alumni planning to boycott over the continued protests against the war in Gaza on campus.
Debate raged in a Facebook group for members of the class of 1989 this week, with at least 10 people saying they would not attend their class's 35th reunion on campus.
A post declaring "I WILL NOT ATTEND REUNION!" and featuring an image of a star of David received 18 likes and more than 50 comments in less than 24 hours.
Read more at The Daily Beast.
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Apr 26, 2024
Nathan Congleton/NBC via Getty ImagesFans of comedian Jerry Seinfeld are going to have to stick to reruns, because the veteran comedian said his most recent comedy special will likely be his last.
In a podcast interview with David Remnick for the New Yorker Radio Hour, Seinfeld was brutally honest about the business and his own limitations as a comedian.
"I think comedians now try so hard to be all new all the time, I think the quality suffers because none of us are really that good," Seinfeld said. "A great comedian working his ass off his entire career writes two good hours, the rest is…," he trailed off.
Read more at The Daily Beast.
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Apr 26, 2024
Fox News Fox News contributor and Washington Times opinion editor Charlie Hurt was back on The Five Friday with another weird take: Showers "are terrible," and not even farmers have to take them.
The discussion was centered around a New York Post story published Thursday that called attention to how some experts consider daily showers more of a social construct rooted out of the opinions of others than a personal necessity for one's skin. One environmentalist, for instance, told the BBC this week that showers are more popular than ever "because we're afraid somebody else will tell us that we're smelling."
The Post also cited a Manhattan dermatologist who warned that prolonged, daily showers could damage the "skin's microbiome," which not only protects the skin but is "extremely important in overall health of the body."
Read more at The Daily Beast.
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Apr 26, 2024
Photo Illustration by Elizabeth Brockway/The Daily Beast/GettyFor the duration of his criminal trial, Donald J. Trump has moved back into the penthouse of Trump Tower at the corner of 5th Avenue and 56th Street. With the owner and former president back in residence, you might think they'd spruce up the abutting commercial and retail space. You'd be wrong. The Daily Beast dropped in earlier this week for a tour of the "crown jewel of The Trump Organization."
FIFTH AVENUE ENTRANCE
Metal barriers take up half the sidewalk and serve two purposes: (1) to hold back crowds; and (2) to force people to cross the avenue if they want a selfie of themselves giving the finger to Trump Tower.
Read more at The Daily Beast.
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Apr 26, 2024
The Daily Beast/Courtesy of Bernard CodyThe court decision overturning Harvey Weinstein's New York rape conviction came as a shock to victims, activists—and the man who was the foreman of the jury that found him guilty.
"This decision is so unfair to the women that were hurt by [Weinstein]," Bernard Cody told The Daily Beast on Friday. "When our conviction happened, the women were so relieved it was over. And so were we. To take that away is awful."
Cody and his fellow jurors deliberated five days, reviewing four weeks worth of testimony and evidence, before finding Weinstein guilty in 2020. The former producer was then sentenced to 23 years for sexually assaulting former Project Runway production assistant Miriam Haleyi and raping former actress Jessica Mann.
Read more at The Daily Beast.
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