"Bachelor in Paradise" has officially come to a dramaaaaatic close. This season has offered us all the laughter, tears, making out and backstabbing we could possibly hope for.

In this week's "Here To Make Friends" podcast, hosts Claire Fallon, Culture Writer, and Emma Gray, Senior Women's Editor, recap the finale of "Bachelor in Paradise" Season 2. We'll discuss Carly and Kirk's painful breakup, Jade and Tanner's dream proposal and why "whimsical attachment" is not a thing.

Plus, "Bachelor in Paradise" hero JJ Lane returns to recap the finale with us and give his insights on what the women will need to win Ben Higgins over.

Do people love "The Bachelor," "The Bachelorette" and "Bachelor in Paradise," or do they love to hate it? It's unclear. But here at "Here To Make Friends," we both love and love to hate them -- and we love to snarkily dissect each episode in vivid detail.

This week's best "Bachelor in Paradise" tweets ...

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"I just want to draw girls how they are. Some girls are skinny, some others are fat, some girls have a big belly, some girls have small boobs, and sometimes we appear to have hairy legs, that's just normal."

That's what artist Cécile Dormeau told The Huffington Post about her series of awesome illustrations of women's bodies and attitudes, BLOB.  

Dormeau's quirky illustrations capture a variety of body types, and the women she draws have strong attitudes. 

"Showing body shapes is [important], but showing girls' feelings is important for me too," Dormeau told HuffPost. "Frustrated girls, strong girls, gross girls, shy girls, idealized girls, girls who don’t care or girls who say 'f*ck you' with a lovely smile." 

Dormeau says that she's interested in the mixed messages women often receive about their bodies.  

"We hear and read everywhere that we should be proud of our bodies the way that they are, that all bodies are beautiful," she told HuffPost. "But on the other hand we are constantly bombarded with fitness and diet ads."

Dormeau hopes that people will see the humor in her illustrations, and that the pictures might help them feel more confident about their own perceived bodily flaws. 

"If my followers can recognize themselves in my illustrations and laugh at them (and with them), I hope that it can help them de-dramatize the flaws that they see in themselves," she said.

Check out more amazing illustrations from Dormeau below.

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During her performance at the Made In America festival this past weekend, Beyoncé introduced her song "Diva" with UFC fighter Ronda Rousey's "Do-Nothing bitch" speech. 

And it was, well, empowering. Kinda. Not really. Mostly, I wish it had been. 

Bey used a recent interview of Rousey's in which the mixed martial artist responded to body-shamers who called her "too masculine." (Scroll down to see a clip of the performance.) Written on the main screen in big, flashing letters, Rousey is quoted saying:

I have this one term for the kind of woman that my mother raised me to not be and I call it a 'do-nothing bitch.' The kind of chick that just, like, tries to be pretty and be taken care of by somebody else. That's why I think it's hilarious, like, that people like say that my body looks masculine or something like that. I’m just like, listen, just because my body was developed for a purpose other than f**king millionaires doesn’t mean it’s masculine. I think it’s femininely badass as f**k. Because there’s not a single muscle on my body that isn’t for a purpose. Because I’m not a do-nothing bitch.

As a card-carrying member of the Bey-Hive and a supporter of Rousey as a fighter, you'd think I'd be yelling all the lyrics to "Diva" and dancing in circles after watching this performance. But it left the feminist in me quietly cringing. 

It frustrated me that Bey presented Rousey's quote in almost the same exact fashion that she did feminist writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's quote, which is featured in "***Flawless," during her On The Run tour. That quote defines feminism as "the social, political and economic equality of the sexes." It's factual, powerful and wholly uncontroversial (unless you're an Internet troll).  

Bey likely had good intentions. On first listen, Rousey's quote feels like it was meant to challenge cultural ideas which tell women our bodies are first and foremost for the consumption of men. But when you actually listen closely, the interview is fairly woman-shamey. Hearing it paired with "Diva" left me feeling a bit gross.

Who exactly is this "do-nothing b*tch" that Rousey rails against? Is she the stay-at-home mom or housewife? Is she the hip-hop honey in rap videos? Is she the sugar baby who sleeps with older men to fund her education? Regardless, what does calling other women "do-nothing b*tches" really accomplish? It's certainly not empowering, and it certainly does nothing to combat the larger issues that create a society where athletic bodies like Rousey's are judged as less than. 

Rousey has broken down barriers as a fighter. She's the current UFC Women's Bantamweight Champion, an undefeated mixed martial artist and she won an Olympic medal in Judo in 2008. She even called out Floyd Mayweather on his infamous domestic violence charges. She's a role model for any little girl out there who hopes to one day dominate an MMA cage.  

And that's awesome. But. 

Rousey has made transphobic comments and her recent book My Fight/Your Fight has some racist undertones. She is by no means a feminist role model and her words should not share the same pedestal as Adichie's. 

As a long-time follower of Beyoncé feminism, I'm disappointed.

A lot of men and women are talking about feminism who probably wouldn't be if Queen B hadn't broadcasted it in her music and on the VMAs stage. But we need to understand Beyoncé feminism for what it is: A watered down, widely-digestable version of feminism. It's not always perfect, but it brings feminist dialogue to a wider audience. It also means that we should speak up when Bey's brand of feminism doesn't do its subject matter or its audience justice.

If Beyoncé is going to be seen and not heard, she needs to choose the words she broadcasts much more carefully -- especially if she's tying her message to the feminist movement. 

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Sometimes, life makes you hangry.

This baby is hangry.

This vampire is hangrier.

Saturn is hangriest.

Man: "Bernice, put your clothes back on and we'll think about serving the cheese."
Bernice: "I'M HANGRY."

Side-eye=hangry.

Excuse everyone in this painting, they've gone hinsane.

"Isabella, Bill is so hangry, he's weirdly threatening you with his leg."

Quick, give them all the ricotta. Their smiles are full of hangriness.

Salome is all of us when we're hangry.

These guys were hangry fighting for a while, but without sustenance, they gave up mid-brawl.

Every. Single. Person ... at this ice-cold picnic gathering is hangry.

Gorilla looks hangry to me.

No one saw it coming, but Mildred was truly hangry. R.I.P. Doodles.

The exact moment someone is hungry and angry.

Oh, that owl is definitely hangry.

With only fruit and vegetables in sight, Lisa is f**king hangry.

He got so hangry his face turned into chicken. 

Even the fish are hangry.

The original #hangry people. End scene.

Each week, HuffPost Arts & Culture attempts to bring to light a few forgotten gems with our slightly humorous look back at art history. For past examples see here, here, here and here.

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When you watch a reality dating show purportedly about finding "true love," you learn to take every relationship formed with a giant grain of salt (or an entire salt shaker of giant grains of salt). But once in awhile, you see a pair whose love is so convincing that you buy into it completely.

On this season of "Bachelor In Paradise," that couple was Carly Waddell and Jade Roper. (Sorry Tanner, you and Jade are pretty adorable too, but we need to talk about this BFF-ship.)

Carly and Jade first became friends during Chris Soules' season of "The Bachelor." They didn't find love with America's most boring farmer, but they did find love and affection with each other. And on "Bachelor In Paradise," their relationship got a chance to shine. 

We saw them supporting each other's romantic decisions, giggling about being "horny" for the dudes they were dating (holler! ladies have sex drives, too!), and coming through for each other when things got tough. Everything about Kirk and Carly's 11th-hour breakup gave me uncomfortable flashbacks to terrible breakups in my past, but the one silver lining was seeing just how deeply Jade felt for Carly -- and how quickly she lent her emotional support in a heartbreaking moment.

When Carly leaves Kirk after their initial breakup talk, she runs across the beach with tears streaming down her face calling Jade's name. Off-camera, viewers can hear Jade's voice: "I'm here. I'm here. I'm here," she says over and over again. Later on, Jade steps in when Kirk is trying to speak to Carly after she's repeatedly told him she doesn't want to have a conversation. "I feel like you should respect her," says Jade. Sometimes a woman needs a best friend to say what she can't.

Since filming "Bachelor In Paradise," Carly and Jade have been palling around Nashville, singing Taylor Swift songs and making adorable #friendshipgoals t-shirts. These could just be social media moments curated by two reality TV stars, but it feels like much more than that. What could be more realistic than two women forming a lasting bond while trapped at a Mexican resort/adult summer camp for a month with nothing to do but chill? It's far easier to picture finding a best friend in Paradise than a long-term boyfriend.

"The Bachelor" franchise is built around the idea that every person's biggest goal in life should be -- and is -- to find everlasting heterosexual romantic love, hopefully marked by a giant Neil Lane diamond. But more often than not, the relationships that really outlast the media frenzy are the platonic ones. (See: Andi Dorfman, Sharleen Joynt and Kelly Travis, William Holman and Kirk DeWindt, Lesley Murphy and Catherine Lowe, JJ Lane and Clint Arlis, Jaclyn Swartz and Rachel Truehart... the list goes on.)

Jade and Carly may just be the latest besties to steal the hearts of "Bachelor" viewers, but there's something deeply heartening about seeing women lust after a loving, supportive lady friendship rather than a lackluster "real man." 

#RelationshipGoals, indeed. 

For more on "Bachelor In Paradise," listen to our "Here To Make Friends" podcast finale recap, featuring JJ Lane: 

The best tweets about the "Bachelor In Paradise" finale...

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Worry about how you look in your underwear? Don't. This 81-year-old burlesque dancer will inspire you to have all the confidence in the world.

Meet Lynn Ruth Miller. At 71, she took up stand-up comedy, cracking jokes about being a granny gone wild. Then came the burlesque. Yes, you heard right.

"It just happened -- and I thought 'oh my god, this is even better than telling jokes,'" she told The Western Daily Press. "I only have to stand up and they cheer. It's not in the least bit sexy. It is just fun and a joke."

Miller only strips down to her underwear, but it gives her (and her audience) a thrill. "As soon as I got on stage, I was hooked," she told Britain's Got More Talent during an audition. 

Miller has toured around the world doing her stand-up and burlesque routine and recently finished a run at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Her stamina and confidence are something we can all learn from. She says she's determined to live to 100 and that getting older doesn't mean you can't stop doing as you please.

"I'm 81 and I've got mother-in-law wings -- or what you would call bingo wings -- and I'm skinny, I have got funny legs and I'm very wrinkled. If you look at what the average 80-year-old woman is doing and then look at me, it's very different," she told The Western Daily Press. "I'm not telling every 80-year-old to start ripping your clothes off, but I'm saying make every day different. Don't start letting someone pick out your clothes, dress you, feed you -- then you'll just be waiting to die."

Just goes to show, it's never too late to do something new. 

Check out Lynn's amazing photos below.

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This guy actually managed to make the "Cha-Cha Slide" ... fierce. 

A video uploaded to YouTube features a guy bringing his A game to dance floor and performing the most perfect version ever of the otherwise-cheesy-as-heck dance. 

The clip has been taking the Interwebs by storm, and has received quite a bit of attention on Reddit with more than 4,200 upvotes. 

Watch how he brings his own funky flavor to the steps. Just when you think his groove can't get any better, the dude breaks into a split at the 1:02 mark. 

Keep doing your thing, you're giving us life! 

H/T Mashable

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Whenever people gather for the phenomenon in the desert that is Burning Man, let's just say they bring all of their creativity -- especially when it comes to outfits and accessories.  

From animal horn headpieces and tiny pasties to goggles fit for a desert storm, these Mad Max/fairy-like festival goers always look stunningly unique. Despite the fact that dust storms generally coat everything in a thick layer of brown, at Burning Man this somehow translates into sequins, shimmering wings and bright colors. Let's just say we're going to start working on our look for Black Rock City, Nevada, ASAP. 

Take a look at the (very NSFW) looks below and pick a favorite -- if you can: 

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Books are awesome, aren’t they? They open a whole new world of imagination, letting the reader travel to a distant land or accomplish otherworldly feats without leaving the comfort of their home. They stimulate the mind, increase knowledge, expand the vocabulary -- and also teach important life lessons. In honor of International Literacy Day on September 8, here are 25 quirky, colorful children’s books that are ingrained with fundamental values - for every child to discover and enjoy.

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Brad Anderson, cartoonist and creator of “Marmaduke,” the beloved comic strip about a mischievous but lovable Great Dane and his long-suffering family, died on Aug. 30 in a hospital in The Woodlands, Texas. He was 91.

His son, Paul Anderson, told The Washington Post that his father had congestive heart failure.

The National Cartoonists Society paid tribute to Anderson on its website this week. The “world of cartooning” has “lost one of its true luminaries,” it said.

Anderson received the society’s Milton Caniff Lifetime Achievement Award in 2013. 

“Marmaduke” was created by Anderson in 1954. It chronicled the adventures -- and, more often, misadventures -- of the titular character, a gigantic and ungainly pooch. Anderson told American Profile in a 2010 interview that Marmaduke had been inspired by a large, “clownish” boxer who had belonged to his mother.

“Marmaduke is very expressive and very active, and he’s always doing something funny or ridiculous or crazy,” Anderson said. “He’s always jumping over the couch, chasing after a cat. In the car, he wants to take over and drive.”

At its peak, “Marmaduke” appeared in more than 500 newspapers in the U.S., Germany, England and several other countries, The New York Times reports.

Over the years, the popular comic strip was also adapted for books, animated cartoons and a 2010 film, which was directed by Tom Dey and starred Owen Wilson as the voice of the Great Dane.

Anderson had reportedly continued to draw the strip with the help of his son, Paul, up until his death. The cartoonist said in 2010: “Every day, I go to work still enjoying the challenge of creating expression and body language. It’s never a burden, never a job. It’s just fun.”

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Born in Jamestown, New York, in 1924, Anderson said he’d always had a knack for drawing.

“My mother said I started drawing before I could talk,” he told American Profile.

Anderson served in the Navy during World War II, before attending Syracuse University on the G.I. Bill. He graduated with a bachelor of fine arts degree in 1951.

After a short stint in advertising, Anderson started cartooning full-time. He soon came up with the idea for “Marmaduke.”

“I get a lot of letters from people who are in retirement homes, and sometimes they can’t keep a dog anymore, so this is their pet,” he told the Dallas Morning News in 1999 of the comic strip’s success, per the Times. “They watch the paper for it, and they clip it out and put it in scrapbooks.”

Anderson is survived by his wife of nearly 70 years, Barbara, his four children, and numerous grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

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Improv Everywhere’s latest stunt brought ballroom-dancing strangers to a busy crosswalk in Manhattan -- prompting plenty of smiles and confused double-takes.

In the video above, watch as pedestrians bump into each other and partner up for a bit of dancing in front of New York’s Penn Station on 7th Avenue. The crosswalk is “one of the busiest spots in the city,” the comedy collective wrote on its website on Tuesday. The dancers in the clip can be seen boogying right until the “Don’t Walk” countdown clock reaches zero.

The group said it found participants for the stunt by putting out a call to its New York City mailing list.

“For the most part participants didn’t know each other before this project, though some participated with their dance partners,” the collective said. “We had one loose rehearsal just to walk through the logistics [before the actual day].”

Improv Everywhere is the group behind the annual “No Pants Subway Ride.” It’s also organized several other ingenious flash mobs, like the somewhat creepy “mannequin mob” and the “frozen Grand Central” stunt.

The group replicated part of their “frozen” stunt in their latest ballroom dancing feat. Watch the video above to the end to see what we mean.

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Patrick Leonard can say he knew Madonna way back when -- at least as "back when" as her first two tours, on which he served as the musical director. Approached to work with Madonna after directing The Jacksons' 1984 Victory Tour, Leonard became one of her most trusted collaborators both in and out of the studio, co-writing and producing such hits as "Like a Prayer," "Cherish" and "La Isla Bonita." Two decades after 1985's inaugural Virgin Tour and several self-reinventions later, Madonna is launching the Rebel Heart Tour in Montreal on Wednesday. The Huffington Post called up Leonard to reflect on the early days with pop's biggest star. 

Coming off a huge tour with established artists like The Jacksons, how did you view Madonna’s persona at the very start of her career?

She did not get in the way at all where she did not know what was going on. Where she didn’t know what was going on, she allowed it to be, and yet kept her own vision very much intact. And that’s tough for people to do. Most people need to control everything, and she did not need to control everything. That was one of the first things I noticed. She was a total pro. Like our relationship remained, it was always real open and real simple -- you do what you do and I do what I do, and it’s good. She knew how to allow space for things that she didn’t understand.

Madonna is someone who experienced instant fame, but there's no doubt that her stature escalated by the time the Who's That Girl Tour launched in 1987. What had changed about her by then? 

You know, "change" is a dangerous word. I never saw change. She remained the same. The work ethic remained the same. Where there were things she knew that she wanted, she demanded them at the highest level, as we all do. And from there to working on her documentary film about Malawi some years ago -- and I think we did some things after that with a musical that was a potential -- nothing changed. I’m not in touch with her very much, but my communication with her is not through the press. I don’t care what people say. I’ve seen her be exactly the same human being and consistent as can be. She’s present and generous about what’s real. Even as it got bigger and bigger, she remained consistent. She really did.

There's a legend that on the second tour, Madonna wouldn't let her crew speak to her unless she spoke to them first. 

I don’t recall anything like that.

Was it a lot of straight men responding to the sexual nature of her act, or was it her gay fan base growing?

I remember just specifically in Europe that it was lots of straight men, and it was all about the sexuality. But you know, there was a lot of everything as well. It just seemed like when we were in Italy, or wherever we were, there was a certain degree of a lust thing going on. Also, this is so long ago. Who knows? I just remember on the first tour there were a lot of little girls dressed like her, and on the second tour I didn’t see that so much.

Madonna's offstage persona quickly became indelible to her image. As someone who worked with her musically, were you ever concerned antics would supersede the actual music? 

In those days, all those years ago, it was a touchy subject for me. I was much more conservative and more of a prude, and not going to clubs. I wasn’t doing it. Plus I had kids at home and everything else. I think I probably -- well, I know, I felt like, "Why are you doing this? It just makes you look tacky, blah blah blah." But ultimately, after some time passed and I was able to look at it, I said, "This is show biz." My favorite bands were driving cars into swimming pools when I was a kid, and I thought it was cool. It was very much in the spirit of rock ‘n’ roll: If you’re not pissing people off, you’re not doing your job.

At what point were you able to step back and reevaluate it?

I don’t remember a time, but I think once one becomes detached from the process, or it’s not about a song you wrote or an arrangement you did or a part you played or some precious nonsense like that, you look at it and go, "Yeah." I was in London in ’90 or ’91 working on a project, and I had lived across the street from a very famous, rebellious ‘60s rock-‘n’-roller. We would talk about it, and he would say, "It’s just great, what she does." And I went, "You know what, you’re right -- it’s rock ‘n’ roll." I think I just grew up a lot. We all grew up.

Can you tell me who that rock-'n'-roller was?

Nope. Actually, no, I will, because I think it’s pertinent. It was Pete Townshend. To my generation, he was the guy. He said, “No, man, rock ‘n’ roll is supposed to piss people off. That’s what it’s about. I like her for that reason alone.” I hadn’t thought about it that way. He was right.

With the second tour, you and Madonna rearranged some of her classics. It's risky not to give fans the versions they expect, especially with massive hits like "Like a Virgin" and "Material Girl." But it set the stage for what she'd do on every tour thereafter. What went into making those decisions? 

I’m big on the fans-getting-upset thing because I grew up going to a lot of concerts and if a band changed something I liked, you really did feel it. I think part of it was that we didn’t take it too seriously. Secondly, going to lots of rock ‘n’ roll shows and coming from a rock ‘n’ roll background, there were certain things that I just felt sounded good as a record, but in an arena, it ain’t gonna work. It’s too small. Just as a funny anecdote, the reason that “Like a Virgin” did what it did is -- I’m at my piano, so I can show you this -- "Like a Virgin" goes [Leonard plays the opening chords]. “Billie Jean” goes [Leonard plays the opening chords of the Michael Jackson hit, which sound similar]. So “Like a Virgin” very much derives from “Billie Jean,” which was derived from “Tears of a Clown,” so why not just put them all together? Originally it was just kind of a little anecdote that I showed her at one of our very first get-togethers with a band -- they’re the same song. It’s just one is in a major key and one is in a minor key. So it’s a little bit of a music-nerd thing, and she thought that was fun, so we just had fun with it. Plus, when we went out on the second tour, we’d already done “True Blue,” so all bets were off. There were hit songs all over the place. We had “Papa Don’t Preach” and all sorts of others.

What were the songs you felt needed some boosting for an arena?

I think on the Who’s That Girl Tour we did something pretty crazy with “Holiday.” I think we kind of made it into a rock song with guitars. And it was just because you could, and why not? A little experiment sometimes is fun. I don’t remember if it worked very well or if people even liked it, but I remember we tried it with a little bit of a grungy guitar moment. Because if you have a stadium full of people, if they’ve ever been in a stadium before, maybe there was a loud guitar. It was just something that goes there, like a golf ball in a golf course. It belongs there.

You produced the "Like a Prayer" album, which came out in 1989. Then the Blonde Ambition Tour, arguably her most famous, launched a year later. But you weren't involved. Why was that?

I had a lot going on at that time. I was doing a project of my own that was really important to me called “Toy Matinee” and I was starting an album with Roger Waters, and it was important for me not to go on the road. What I did was I spent time with her at the auditions, so as players got auditioned, I sat at those sessions. I helped her select the band. That was the extent of my involvement because I really couldn’t go. It’s really as a result of our work together, because if it weren’t for those records that were doing as well as they were, I wouldn’t have been producing Roger Waters and making records of my own just for fun. It provided that.

Did you go to see the tour?

I did, I saw it in LA.

What was your initial impression of Madonna's first tour without Patrick Leonard?

I mean, I remember things that stuck in my mind, like the bed onstage. That’s what I remember. Again, at that point, I still hadn’t quite gotten over my conservative thing. I felt like I wished it was more about the music and less about the theatrics. I think the band had sort of faded a bit back, appropriately so. I am in no position to say it would have been better another way. She was doing exactly what she needed to do. Of course, I probably felt that it wasn’t as musically refined. I’m sure I felt, one way or the other, like it would have been better with me. Duh. [laughs] What kind of narcissistic lunatic would I be if I didn’t believe that?

The Rebel Heart Tour is about to kick off, but if Madonna called you up for her next album, do you think you’re still in a mindset where you could direct her tour?

No. No, I couldn’t because the paths that our lives took are appropriate for what they are. When we met and did the work that we did, I was still in my 20s, or maybe my early 30s as we walked into “Like a Prayer." I was still really interested in the pop form. I’m not disinterested in it now, but for the last few years I’ve been working with Leonard Cohen and writing piano music. I’m more of a composer. I just wouldn’t be interested in it, and I don’t think she’d be interested in my ideas anymore. I think we could still write a great song -- I don’t think there’s any question about that. But my head just isn’t there at all. It would be fun to see her and fun to think together for a minute, because we were good at that at one point. But that was a long time ago, almost 30 years. I think she deserves better than what I would give her right now, for sure. If she wanted to write an opera, I’d be her guy.

Have you listened to "Rebel Heart"? What do you think of current trends in pop music, and specifically on Madonna's albums?

This is not any kind of diss to her. I love her. I think she’s great. I’m very selective about what I listen to. Not in a prudish way -- it’s all functional to me. I think about listening to it. I think about getting that record and sitting in front of my speakers in my studio and really taking it in. Someday I might, and I’m sure I will enjoy it very much because I’m sure it’s very well-done. She doesn’t mess around and I always know that. As for pop trends, I’m going to be 60 in March. Occasionally I’ll hear something and I’ll think, "That’s cool." Leonard Cohen showed me FKA Twigs, and I’m completely enamored. I think she’s brilliant. To me, that’s the first thing I’ve heard or seen in a long time where I go, “Yeah. This has really got something. There’s real art, there’s real emotion, there’s real vision.” It’s so accomplished. And I’m tough, believe me. I wouldn’t say that about just anything. We’ve been in a bit of a holding pattern, I believe -- I don’t think pop music is really that accomplished. That’s just my snotty opinion, but it seems to be moving a little bit because eventually people do get bored and it starts to change, and it seems to be changing a little bit. But I don’t hear that much. It’s only peripheral.

You were going to be the lead producer on "Ray of Light," but Madonna went with William Orbit after you guys started working on it. Then it was wildly acclaimed and earned a Grammy nom for Album of the Year. Were you disappointed that one passed you by?

No. We were always pretty straight ahead and upfront with each other. We went to Florida, we wrote all those songs, and then she just said, “Look, I came across this guy and I want to do it with him.” And I said, "Go." After a little while, she said, “Can you come and help? Just help guide it.” So I did. And that’s what it was. I wasn’t uninvolved. In some ways, I was very involved, because it was a lot of little contributions that got made. What I remember always with her is it was never veiled; it was never some shrouded thing -- it was like, "Here’s what I like, here’s what I want to do." And I think it’s a great album.

Are there any Madonna songs that never saw the light of day that you wish the world could hear?

Let’s see. We didn’t write excessively at all. I think there was one song that ended up a B-side. We didn’t really write things we didn’t use, so the crazy thing about it is the “Like a Prayer” album was written a song a day over a two-week period, with the exception of “Oh Father.” We would just go in and write a song, and then go in the next day and write a song. The day we wrote “Like a Prayer” was no different than the day we wrote “Dear Jessie.” Something either worked or didn’t. And if it didn’t work, it was so much easier to just come up with something else. 

One caveat is the stuff that we were going to do on “Ray of Light” that got changed -- she did it more electronically, the way it went. Obviously coming off of “Like a Prayer” and all those other things and all of our history, it wasn’t without juice in its concept. It would have been ferocious in a different way. It wasn’t like it was going to be bad and it suddenly got good. There were some of these exotic voices, and there were really intense rhythm figures played by multiple instruments -- stuff that was really fascinating. But some of those demos are still worth a listen to hear the song and go, “Wow, why didn’t we hear this?” I’m not saying it’s better than what came out, and I’m not saying it would have done better. None of that. But there was a lot of years there -- our collaboration was 10 years old at that point. Like, “Frozen” is “Frozen” -- that is the song we wrote. But I think “Skin,” the original version of that, was terrifyingly cool. And no one will ever hear it. It was something were you definitely went, “Wow, this is going to be amazing.” It was a really cool song, period, and it stayed a cool song. But there was something about that first song that was greasy and sexy and gross. It was really weird and I really liked it. The long and short of it is there’s no bad news at all from me where working with her was concerned. I wish her only the best and I’m proud of her for giving them hell all the time.

Do you have a favorite Madonna memory?

Yes. When we were on tour. We were in London and it was her birthday. There was a private party in a club, and all these people wanted to dance with her and hang out with her, and Jessie, my daughter, was with us on tour at that time. She was right around 2 years old. You can find things in the press that are still out there -- Madonna sat her up on the bar and put half a glass of champagne in her, or a couple of sips or whatever it was, and danced with her pretty much all night. Jessie stood in the middle of the dance floor and spun in her dress, and the next day you saw all these things in all these tabloids with all these faces of celebrities who wanted to dance with her, and Jessie was their foil all night. That was really fun to just see her embrace my daughter and have fun like that. It was really, really special. There are a lot of memories. She’s a good girl. Madonna is a good girl.

This interview has been edited and condensed. 

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Amy Pence-Brown just stood up to body shaming by stripping down in public. 

On August 29, the feminist writer and fat activist stood in the middle of a busy market in Boise, Idaho in nothing but a black bikini and a blindfold over her eyes. At her feet she put a sign that read: “I’m standing for anyone who has struggled with a self-esteem issue like me, because all bodies are valuable. To support self-acceptance, draw a <3 on my body.” 

The results of Pence-Brown's brave social experiment are undeniably powerful.

People of all ages, genders and ethnicities stopped to draw a heart on Pence-Brown's body. Some thanked her, others told her she was brave and one woman even started crying, Pence-Brown wrote on her blog. 

Pence-Brown was inspired after seeing a similar social experiment published a few weeks ago by The Liberators International. A young woman stood in a crowded intersection in London, wearing nothing but her underwear to also promote body love. 

In a recent blog post, Pence-Brown explained that she while she was excited, she was terrified at the thought of being so vulnerable. "I was scared that I might get asked to leave by the police or that people would yell terrible things at me," she wrote. "Or that no one would draw a heart on my body and I'd stand there alone and crying for minutes that felt like hours." 

Thankfully, the social experiment was the exact opposite. As soon as Pence-Brown stripped down to her bathing suit people came rushing over to read her sign and draw a heart on her body.  

After her hour-long social experiment, so many people had drawn hearts on Pence-Brown's body that they began drawing on her face. People wrote words of encouragement including "You are beautiful," "Divine" and "I love me."  

Pence-Brown wrote that one young man told her: "The power of this moment will go on and in ways you never thought possible. You are changing more lives than you know.

"All these people that are stopping to look at you and read your sign and watch the rest of us? You've reached them all in ways unimaginable," another woman told Pence-Brown. 

“In a society that profits from self-doubt, liking yourself is a rebellious act," the end of the video reads.

We couldn't agree more. 

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"Nashville" star and general goddess Connie Britton knows the key to true beauty. And in a new video, she's finally willing to share it with the world. 

Surprise! That beauty secret is feminism.

"When used regularly, feminism has been known to produce amazing results," explains Britton, "such as a woman's right to vote, a woman's right to her own body, a woman's right to become a kickass athlete, the Violence Against Women Act, the Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Restoration Act and more."

The PSA-style short is part of The Representation Project’s 2015 #AskHerMore campaign, which pushes red carpet reporters to ask more of female celebrities than "Who are you wearing?" and "Why do you have angel hair?" The video was written, directed and co-produced by actress (and Britton's "Nashville" co-star) Laura Benanti, who also happens to be a pretty badass feminist herself. 

"The fact that many young women shy away from calling themselves feminists shows us that there is still a misunderstanding of the word," Benanti told The Huffington Post. "All people should be feminists. Also... feminists are funny, too."

Hell yeah they are. 

As Britton says in the video: "Feminism is made to be used on a daily basis and works best when shared." 

So let's spread the love and feminist beauty -- and try to ask famous ladies something more interesting than "What does your manicure look like?" this awards season.

 H/T People

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The following article is provided by Rolling Stone. 

Before Hand of God, Ron Perlman had never spoken in tongues. Then, his character, Judge Pernell Harris, had an religious epiphany, so the 65-year-old actor had to learn quickly. "There's no right way of doing it, there's no wrong way of doing it," says the actor, who looked up YouTube clips to see how those touched by the Spirit speak. "It's one of these things that comes out differently depending on who it's coming out of." The trick, he says, was figuring out how a tough-as-nails character like Harris would react to the Lord flowing through him. "Some people do it very calmly and collectedly, and some people are just shaking and out of control," he says, speaking typically slowly. "I tried to find something that honored both extremes."

In this particular case, that meant standing in a public fountain naked, shivering and blathering. Hand of God — which premieres on Friday, September 4th — finds Perlman in familiar territory, playing a flawed and conflicted antihero beset by change around him, but he's one of the few actors skilled enough to navigate it without a compass. What's somewhat different for the actor, who is known best for unique outsider roles like Clay Morrow on Sons of Anarchy and the titular demon in Hellboy, is that his well-to-do pillar of society finds himself in the process of becoming an outsider.

The pilot for the Amazon show finds the Honorable Judge Harris grappling with a litany of conflicting feelings: His son is comatose following a suicide attempt; his daughter-in-law was recently sexually assaulted; he's married but he's trying to break off an affair with a call girl. Most troubling of all, Harris has begun seeing visions, leading him to carry out brutal, murderous acts of vengeance. And that's after he just found God.

"I couldn't believe my good fortune when I read the script, that I found a role with all of the characteristics about what's interesting in mankind rolled up into one," says the monolithic actor, leaning back on the couch of a Manhattan hotel room. "Loyalty, infidelity, fidelity, love, zealotry, insanity and inspiration — all these things are dealt with in this show. He possesses a compendium of characteristics that would be the envy for anybody who aspires to call themselves an actor." Here, Perlman tells Rolling Stone how he embraced those heinous-to-holy qualities, as well as how his experiences on Sons of Anarchy and working with Guillermo del Toro helped him get his footing on Hand of God.

What's the most challenging part of playing someone who's drawn in so many different directions?

Harris is compromised emotionally, and he's in emotional pain. He's a guy who's gone from being completely sure-footed in every situation to someone who, for the first time, is now possibly dealing with self-doubt.

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And he deals with it partly through this new religion. How was your baptism scene? It looked cold.
It was cold, and that scene took half a day. They lured me in there by saying they heated the fountain. Of course it's an acre and a half, so you're not going to heat an acre-and-a-half fountain in San Pedro. But when they turned it on to do the scene and those gusts of water came, it was like "Gah!" I had a lot of trouble just speaking because I was being pelted and assaulted by very, very cold water.

I figured it was cold because you were shaking.
Yeah, that's for real. I'm not even going to mention what it did to my penis.

Please don't. Hand of God is your first digital-only series. Previously, you've done network TV with Beauty and the Beast and cable with Sons of Anarchy. How has the experience of making television changed as the cultures have shifted?
The act of doing it is exactly the same regardless. It's all just filmmaking. But it's an exciting time to be doing television because it's where all the greatest, most original storytelling is taking place. The best writers are working in TV now. The quality of the storytelling is mind-blowingly original. When Sons of Anarchy was coming to an end, I wanted to find something in this medium.

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Speaking of Sons of Anarchy, what has surprised you about how it evolved from being a cult-TV show?

It's really interesting. Somewhere in the middle of Season One, the audience responded almost immediately in time to the plot turning dramatic and shocking. That's when we on the show realized what we were and what we weren't. From that point on, we got momentum that nobody could believe; even the network was surprised by how we kept shattering not only their own records for viewers but our own each year. But when you look back on it, you realize it was a singular event. It's phenomenal when you happen to be one of those guys that gets to enjoy that kind of juggernaut experience. It has probably changed the courses of all of our lives, those of us who were involved in it day to day.

Your character on the show was an antihero. Do Sons fans still give you love-hate reactions when they meet you?
Yes. They always will, I think.

That's got to be disarming.
It's very positive because everybody knew that he was the antagonist. Everybody knew this was the guy that you were supposed to love to hate. And at the end of the day, the "hate" stuff I get, I guess, is because I pulled it off. I remember Robert Ryan, who played a lot of bad guys and was a wonderful character, once said the best compliment he ever had was when he was walking down the street in New York and someone said, "Hey, are you Robert Ryan?" He said, "Yeah." And the guy spit right in his eye. He said, "I knew I did my job right when someone wanted to spit in my eye." 

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Has a fan ever done that to you?

Not yet.

They might be too afraid. What is the appeal of playing antiheroes?
They are flawed. An antihero is a hero who is fighting against his own demons in order to do things that are ultimately altruistic; that's an interesting thing to watch. The struggle to overcome the darker sides of yourself and then ultimately doing something that leads to self-sacrifice is basically the definition of heroism.

How do you throw yourself into an antihero role like Hand of God's Judge Harris?
It's a tightrope walk. How do you play a guy who is capable of doing incredibly reprehensible acts that almost make him unwatchable, and yet do it in such a way where there is always redemption inferred in the conversation? There is always a chance he is going to be better than these horrific things that are driving him. But is he going to go too far to the left or too far to the right? Or is he going to find a way to keep some sort of balance? That is compelling.

Do you think Judge Harris is a good guy, or has he just lost it?
He's a complicated guy. I think that watching him deal with this loss, and seeing aspects of himself that were not even apparent or evident to him or the people closely around him until he realized he was losing this thing, is worth watching. There's something very moving about his pain, which he experiences by the notion of losing his son and grappling with what a shitty dad he maybe was, how he probably should have played it differently, how he never should have taken for granted the fact that this is his one and only heir, and just purely the love he has for the kid and the innocence that all engenders. There's something quite beautiful about that. Whether you characterize him as a good man or not a good man, that that redemptive aspect of him is where the balancing act comes in.

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You've worked closely with Guillermo del Toro over the years. How does his directing style affect you when doing a role like Judge Harris?

Guillermo has become a really good "actor's director" over the course of the six films we have done together. Somewhere halfway through the journey, he became the person that took you off to the side and made a behavioral comment that showed you a whole side of a character that you hadn't considered of before. Very few directors ever make those insightful directions to actors where the whole trajectory is altered in a positive way. And Guillermo has turned into that guy.

So when he is not around, you say to yourself, "OK, what would he say in a situation like this?" Fortunately we work with great directors on Hand of God. Mark Forster has got that same amazing insight; he's able to say a word or two and you go, "Holy shit, I hadn't considered that." For instance, if you have a scene where you are supposed to be completely out of control with anger, he'd say, "Play it as if it means nothing to you," and then the anger becomes scary. Because it's implied in the writing — so when you decide not to play it, you are actually playing it twice as hard. It's counterintuitive but it's great direction.

What sorts of things would Del Toro tell you on movies like Hellboy?
They are quite personal. But he is somebody who can put a key in something, put a crack in the door that takes you to a different room that you've been in before and all of a sudden there is a whole new world of discovery there.

Has there been any talk about Hellboy 3 lately?
Haven't heard a word.

Lastly, you recently tweeted that Donald Trump will be "a president like you wouldn't believe!" What do you mean?
That's because he keeps saying, "I'm going to build a wall you're not going to believe," and "I'm going to talk to Iran like you wouldn't believe." Like, what does that fucking mean? The whole thing that is being thrust on all of us is carnival-like. When he was on Meet the Press, he probably said "like you wouldn't believe" about 40 times. I sent out that tweet this morning for my own edification and enjoyment. I'm having a ball watching all of this. It's very theatrical.

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He's a character.
It's been fun seeing people make an about-face with him. People are now treating him like he's a serious contender. Weeks ago, he was a joke to those same exact people, and he's done it through Pirandello-ish showmanship, like, "If I say it's this way, than it is this way." Even if it's not, it is. And that's what the people who have got him in the lead are reacting to. It doesn't matter what he's saying, he just believes in it so much that they're like, "Yeah, we'll buy that."

Yet he seemed a bit unnerved in the debate.
You want to be most powerful man in the free world and you get pissed off because somebody's asking you a tough question? And you're going to say, "They didn't treat me fairly because they asked me a tough question"? And then [Fox News chief] Roger Ailes ends up apologizing to him, and Megyn Kelly gets a week off? What the fuck is going on, man?

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WASHINGTON -- At this year’s MTV Video Music Awards, host Miley Cyrus appeared in a pre-taped segment with hip-hop artist Snoop Dogg and her own grandmother. Snoop told Cyrus that her “mammie” -- which has evidently long been Cyrus' affectionate nickname for her grandma -- had made the marijuana brownies they were eating.

When the segment was over and the broadcast returned to Cyrus live onstage at the VMAs, she introduced Snoop as -- and we'll give her the benefit of the doubt with the spelling, here -- “her real mammie.” To many people, it sounded like Cyrus was calling Snoop her "mammy" -- a term that's inseparably bound up with the painful history of African enslavement.

The remark prompted an immediate Twitter backlash, most prominently from the Chicago emcee Chance the Rapper, who posted a photo of Hattie McDaniel in "Gone with the Wind." In that film, McDaniel played a character, literally named Mammy, who was Scarlett O’Hara’s house slave and personal servant.

Representatives for Cyrus didn't immediately return a request for comment. 

To set the record straight, here's why it's a bad idea to call anyone, especially a black person, your "mammy," or any word that sounds like "mammy." Most Americans in the year 2015 have at least a vague sense that you're not supposed to do this, but fewer know the full context.

The mammy --  an archetype of a black domestic servant often depicted as good-natured, overweight and loud -- is arguably the most enduring image from the days of Jim Crow. She “began life as a caricature, a lie, a piece of propaganda that sought to portray black women as (mostly) ignorant, physically ugly, servants; obedient and loyal to her white ‘superiors,’” said David Pilgrim, the founder and director of the Jim Crow Museum at Ferris State University, in an email to The Huffington Post. Pilgrim's museum, in Big Rapids, Michigan, has acquired more than 100 Jim Crow-era items depicting mammy caricatures.

Outspoken and dominant, the mammy stood out in personality almost as much as she did in stature. She was, in essence, a parody of black women rooted in white perceptions.  

“She was offered, in and to the popular imagination, as proof of black acquiescence to white superiority and black inferiority," Pilgrim told HuffPost. "She loved her white family. She loathed her own black family... She was so distant from white male sexual interests that she was evidence that white men did not desire black women, did not sexually assault black women. This, too, was the lie of mammy.”

The truth is that white people created the mammy -- along with other insulting caricatures like the simple, docile Sambo; the jubilant, apelike coon; and the savage brute -- as a way to turn black people from human beings into something less than that.

During the antebellum era, only the wealthy could afford to have black women as house servants, since most slaveowners needed their enslaved Africans out in the field. In contrast to the classic mammy figure, who is plus-size and middle-aged, these real-life house servants were usually slender, young and of mixed race. Historically, these "mammies" were often forced to serve as concubines for the white master of the house. Slave owners sexually assaulted black women who worked for them. This happened especially often to younger, lighter-complexioned women who hewed more closely to European beauty standards. But all black women, regardless of age or body type, were at risk of having their bodies exploited by the white men around them.

One reason that fictional mammies have differed so widely from their real-life counterparts is rooted in "the complex sexual relations between blacks and whites," Pilgrim writes on the Jim Crow Museum’s website:

The mammy caricature was deliberately constructed to suggest ugliness. Mammy was portrayed as dark-skinned, often pitch black, in a society that regarded black skin as ugly, tainted. She was obese, sometimes morbidly overweight. Moreover, she was often portrayed as old, or at least middle-aged. The attempt was to desexualize mammy. The implicit assumption was this: No reasonable white man would choose a fat, elderly black woman instead of the idealized white woman. The black mammy was portrayed as lacking all sexual and sensual qualities. The de-eroticism of mammy meant that the white wife -- and by extension, the white family, was safe.

The mammy "was designed to... assist the white Southern mistress in terms of cooking and taking care of the home and family," Charlene Regester, an associate professor in the Department of African, African American, and Diaspora Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, told HuffPost. "Some people have argued that she was rendered unattractive, because of her size and weight... so that she would not be a [sexual] threat to white womanhood."

Indeed, one of the mammy's traditional responsibilities was to defend white womanhood by standing between the mistress of the house and her suitors. It was part of the mammy's role of being docile, loyal and protective toward the white people in her life.

With her bastardized English, her dominance over black men and her exaggeratedly, cartoonishly black attributes, the mammy figure was created to reinforce the idea that black people cannot mesh with white America. She was a prop, used for exactly the same purpose as all racial stereotypes everywhere -- to keep the powerful in power, and the powerless in their place.

The harmful influence of the mammy figure didn't end with the abolition of slavery. The legacy of the idea stretched into the Jim Crow era, when black women often had to work as house servants if they wanted to work at all, and it still has currency today, as the actress Viola Davis noted in an interview last year. Unskilled, undesirable, good-natured, simple-minded -- these ideas about what black women are, or what they should be, have shaped social expectations for black women and made their opportunities smaller than they'd be otherwise.

By definition, the mammy is a subservient figure: someone defined by her relationship to whiteness, someone who's perfectly happy being a second-class citizen. By seeming to refer to Snoop as her "real mammy," Cyrus -- whether she knew it or not -- was summoning up centuries-old stereotypes about smiling, domesticated black people serving as protective accessories for white women.

"We’ve been indoctrinated to these terms and epithets and other derogatory labels,” Regester said. “They remain latent in many of us." When they do pop up, she added, it tends to happen in racially charged contexts.

"It reflects how in this ‘post-racial era,’ race is rendered as being invisible," she said, "when the reality is that it’s still very prevalent and it surfaces in very interesting ways.”

When Hattie McDaniel won an Academy Award for "Gone with the Wind" in 1940, she was not sitting with the rest of the cast. She hurried from her segregated table to the stage to accept her award.

McDaniel, like many black women before and after her, was forced into these subservient positions in order to survive. And though McDaniel, like the classic mammy figure, was regarded affectionately by white America, she still wasn’t seen as "good enough" to share a table with her white co-workers. A few years later, Walter White, then president of the NAACP, begged black actors and actresses to turn down stereotypical roles.

“Why should I complain about making $700 a week playing a maid?” McDaniel reportedly responded. “If I didn't, I'd be making $7 a week being one." 

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I turned 25 early this summer, and for the most part I have no idea what the f**k I'm doing.

I'm three years out of college and pretty firmly ensconced in the "real world"-- employment, rent, taxes, commutes and all. However, I am still deeply bewildered about what the future holds, and what I'm "supposed" to be doing to get there. Shouldn't I be a fully-fledged human by now? I'm starting to suspect that no one ever really feels like one. 

There are many things I probably should be able to do by now, like drive a car when other people are on the road, going over 15 miles an hour. Or maybe wake up without pressing the snooze button once in a while. But amidst all the confusion and angst, there are some things I think I have figured out.

Here are 25 things you should aim to learn how to do by age 25 -- or whenever you get around to it. 

1. Negotiate a raise. Women -- especially women of color -- earn less than their male counterparts. If you don't think you are being paid what you are worth, know how to ask for more. 

2. Whip up a signature drink. Bee's Knees, anyone?

3. Give unwelcome news with tact and compassion. There are times when brutal honesty is OK -- and times when it is not. Learn the difference, and practice being an effective communicator. 

4. Put together furniture. You'll feel so proud every time you sit on that IKEA sofa that took you three hours, two beers and one private temper tantrum to assemble. 

5. Read and think critically. Don't believe everything you are told. Know how to read between the lines and analyze something for yourself, whether it's the morning news or someone's convoluted Facebook post.   

6. Spell properly. If you don't know something, look it up. 

7. Be a good houseguest. And for the love of god, write a thank-you note.

8. Understand your finances. No, your student loans won't magically go away. Yes, you should put money into your 401(k), especially if your company matches it. And so on. Financial literacy isn't something you learn in school, so you'll have to take matters into your own hands. It's worth it. 

 9. Have fun on your own. Not everyone is built for traveling the world solo, but being able to entertain yourself is a seriously underrated skill.

10. Make at least one simple, nutritious meal. Start here. 

11. Trust your instincts. Constantly second-guessing yourself is exhausting. 

12. Walk away. From a friendship, a job, a relationship, an argument, and anything else that you know in your heart just isn't right. 

13. Advocate for yourself.  Ask your doctor for a second opinion if you really think something is wrong. Ask that manspreader to move over so you can sit down. And don't let anyone steamroll you into making a decision until you're ready to make it. 

14. Perform simple repairs. YouTube will teach you how to sew that button back on or use a power drill to re-hang that badass feminist print. 

15. Say "no." It's a complete sentence. 

 16. Cut yourself off when you've had enough to drink. Enough said. 

17. Stick to a budget. Apps like Mint and You Need A Budget make this easier than ever. 

18. Take rejection well. This one is easier said that done, but as Aaliyah famously said: "If at first you don't succeed, pick yourself up and try again (you can dust it off and try again, try again)."

19. Use the items in your toolbox. Because the days of paying your friends down the hall in beer to hang your pictures are over. 

20. Argue without losing your cool. If you can stay logical when you are angry, any conversations you have in the midst of conflict will be far more effective.

21. Speak passably in public. Be prepared for that future work presentation, maid of honor speech or casual toast at a party. 

22. Tell a totally inoffensive, hilarious joke. Bonus points for clever puns. 

23. Apologize with sincerity. No matter how old you are, you'll mess up and get things wrong sometimes. But how you react after the fact is up to you. 

24. Go a full day without complaining. You'd be surprised at what you learn. 

25. Make a new friend. The squad goal of #NoNewFriends can't last forever. You can do it! After all, you're a grown-ass woman. 

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"What's wrong with your hands?!"

That's the question lifestyle vlogger Jordan Bone constantly receives in the comment section on her YouTube channel where she gives makeup and beauty tutorials. In a new video published on Aug. 25, Bone answered this invasive question. 

“The truth is I can’t move them, open them or close them. And it’s all because 10 years ago I became a tetraplegic after a car accident," Bone begins her video. 

The UK-native has over 90,000 subscribers on her YouTube channel and 69,000 followers on Instagram. 

She describes how for years she was depressed and struggled to do a lot of things because her arms and hands were so weak. "I want the world to still see Jordan, even though I became a tetraplegic," Bone says. "I lost a lot and I didn’t want to lose my identity too.”

But, she persevered. Now with a strong following of fans on YouTube, Bone explains that in this video she shows certain things she would normally edit out in her other makeup tutorials such as holding her mascara and brushes with her mouth. 

“There are so many struggles in my life. I mean, I can’t dress myself or do my own hair. So to be able to do my own makeup is my thing," she says. 

“My hands haven’t been able to move in 10 years, but I’ve taught myself a new way of doing my makeup," Bone says. "So if something is standing in your way, maybe it means trying a different way. Explore your options. The obvious route may not always be for you." 

Absolutely amazing, Jordan.

H/T Mic

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Wedding photographers may be behind the camera all night long, but that doesn't mean they're immune to the powerful emotions of the day.

We recently asked photogs to share with us the most moving wedding moment they've ever witnessed. Check out their selections below and read on to find out what made these shots so sentimental. 

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