Was novelist Steven Galloway’s dismissal from his university position justice for women, or a modern Salem witch hunt?

The former chair of the creative writing program at the University of British Columbia was fired in June following an investigation into multiple allegations of sexual harassment and other improprieties. This week, the Canadian literary world has been wracked with discord over the case following the publication of a scathing open letter to UBC signed by dozens of authors including Margaret Atwood, Yann Martel, Madeleine Thien and Michael Ondaatje.

The letter, reportedly circulated by author Joseph Boyden, calls attention to “growing evidence that the University acted irresponsibly in Professor Galloway’s case” and argues that as the case was widely publicized, “the situation requires public clarification.” The statement has drawn an explosive response, with many arguing it shows little concern for alleged victims and complainants. 

Galloway had been publicly suspended in November 2015 for what the dean of arts termed “serious allegations.” News reports from the past year indicate allegations that include sexual assault, sexual harassment, inappropriate relationships with students, bullying, and even an incident in which he slapped a student, though the details remain fuzzy. The open letter argues that the university’s public memo and actions following his suspension created “a cloud of suspicion over Professor Galloway [...] severely damaging Professor Galloway’s reputation and affecting his health.”

The statement also criticizes UBC for a lack of transparency regarding the specific charges and notes that criminal charges have not been brought. Furthermore, the statement maintains, UBC has failed to make public the results of an independent investigation conducted by former BC Supreme Court Judge Mary Ellen Boyd, although “[b]oth a statement from the UBC Faculty Association and the report of an independent journalist who had access to the Boyd report have since revealed that all but one of the allegations investigated, including the most serious one, were unsubstantiated.”

The most serious allegation, according to news reports, concerned an inappropriate sexual relationship with a student. However, the one charge that was deemed substantiated ― that is, supported by sufficient evidence ― was reportedly that of a multi-year affair with a student. Though the Globe and Mail saw copies of the report sent to multiple complainants, it was reportedly “so heavily censored” that “the parts of the report that deal with the sexual-assault allegation at the heart of the scandal” could not be reviewed.

Some in the Canadian writing community have pushed back on signatories, accusing authors like Atwood of doubting and silencing victims in the name of defending a powerful male colleague. “Here’s the thing,” tweeted writer Kaitlyn Tremblay, “many of the top writers signing that open letter to UBC sends a clear message: we protect our own, not students/victims.” 

Atwood defended her signature on Twitter: 

She also wrote a statement for press, republished in full on The Walrus, which argued: 

My position is that the UBC process was flawed and failed both sides, and the rest of my position is that the model of the Salem Witchcraft Trials is not a good one. [...] Obviously the university was trying to shield students from something — we are still not clear as to what, exactly, and if it’s a matter of rape then it should be a matter of jail — but their methods appear to have resulted in a big foggy mess.

This line of argument regarding Galloway’s dismissal has drawn criticism for seeming to imply that a professor shouldn’t be fired for misconduct such as sexual harassment, other harassment, or unprofessional behavior not rising to the level of criminal conduct.

Atwood also argued against taking the position that “the members of a group called ‘women’ are always right and never lie” and also that “members of a group called ‘accused men’ are always guilty.” In apparent reference to one accusation, in which a student claimed she saw Galloway slap a former student while they were out together as a group, Atwood wrote, “Does [UBC] need a clear code of conduct that everyone teaching there should adhere to? (Don’t socialize and drink with students, for beginners? No bets that involve slapping?)”

Though the slap was explained as the result of a mutual bet, one complainant who was present told the Toronto Star it had nothing to do with a bet: “She said her friend explained that it came about because she’d badmouthed Galloway’s writing, and he jokingly told her he would slap her as soon as she graduated.”

Signatories have defended the letter, since its publication earlier this week, as an attempt to defend justice for all parties ― both accused and complainants. Author Martel told the Toronto Star he took issue with the letter’s wording, but that he “did NOT sign the letter to defend an empowered white male [....] With a clear grievance process, everyone and anyone should feel confident that their voice will be heard.” 

Author Hart Hanson tweeted:

Nonetheless, the letter, entitled “An Open Letter To UBC: Steven Galloway’s Right To Due Process,” struck many as primarily concerned with Galloway’s rights, not the victims’.

Several complainants told journalists that the letter left them feeling hurt and unsupported by their community, rather than empowered to speak up. One, Andrea Bennett, commented to the Toronto Star, “Did [the writers] not understand the impact that they’d have on students, on emerging writers, on people who are thinking of coming forward to make a complaint?” Another, Chelsea Rooney, told the Globe and Mail, “To the complainants, [...] who have been going through this investigation for a year, it reads like Canada’s most powerful authors saying ‘Be quiet, we don’t believe you. And we don’t care.’” 

One author, Kathryn Kuitenbrouwer, asked that her name be removed from the statement, writing on Facebook that she “signed it in spirit of an open and honest inquiry and regret[s] not being more sensitive to how its wording could cause harm[....] I support complainants in equal measure to those who stand accused of sexual crimes or institutional misdemeanours.”

Canadian author Michael Redhill wrote on Facebook that he hoped the letter would be retracted. “It’s not a call for justice, it’s a cry of pain,” he wrote. “Our love for Steven is the love of family members; he’s part of us. But this isn’t the way to support him, through emotional arguments and intellectually dishonesty.”

Prominent writer Sheila Heti, who initially signed the statement, wrote in a comment on Redhill’s post that she’s working to change the letter. “I signed it because I do think UBC handled the case poorly and destructively, and my name was down there to convey to UBC that they have to reform the way they handle sexual harassment cases,” she wrote. “No one wanted to harm any or silence any students by signing this letter (or imply disbelief in their complaints).” As of the time of publishing, her name had been removed from the post; Heti declined a request for comment from HuffPost.

As for UBC, it responded to the open letter on Tuesday, saying the case will be reviewed as part of a grievance process next year. 

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

The answer is: probably. And if not expulsion, you’re definitely getting house points deducted. Because everyone knows being a student at Hogwarts is exponentially more amusing when you’re prone to hexing off eyebrows and experimenting with Whiz-bangs. 

This handy flowchart comes just in time for the release of “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them,” the first in a series of five films that predate the “Harry Potter” film plots but exist in the same universe. If you, like many people these days, are retreating into the corners of J.K. Rowling’s world, here’s a handy way to further immerse yourself.

The quiz comes courtesy of LucidChart.

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

Get ready to learn a little bit more about Hollywood’s elite in Kathy Griffin’s new book, Celebrity Run-Ins, My A-Z Index.

The comedian and actress shares her personal encounters with some of the biggest celebrities of our time, but one tale in particular is, what she calls, “a jaw-dropper.” It’s about filmmaker Woody Allen, who was surrounded by controversy in 2014 after his adopted daughter Dylan Farrow released damning allegations of sexual abuse, claiming he assaulted her when she was a child. Of course, Allen has always been somewhat of a controversial figure ever since he left his longtime partner Mia Farrow for her adopted daughter Soon-Yi Previn. 

During a recent interview with The Huffington Post on AOL’s Build Series, Griffin detailed meeting the director at a small dinner party, explaining, “I”m seated next to Woody Allen and I’m uncomfortable because I think he’s guilty.”

The real zinger came when the “frail and feeble” Allen introduced Previn as his “child bride,” before engaging in a conversation with Griffin about everything from his friend Liev Schreiber to directing amazing comedians. Griffin could sense that he clearly wasn’t interested in anything she had to say, so she shifted the topic to the one and only Miley Cyrus. Well, that clearly perked Allen up. 

“I’ve never missed ‘Hannah Montana,’” he told Griffin, who called his reveal “creepy but weird but funny.”

Allen continued, “’I don’t know, that girl, she just had something,’” before Griffin replied with, “‘Yeah, she was 8!’”

Allen, of course, went on to cast Cyrus in his recent Amazon series, “Crisis in Six Scenes.” 

But this is where her story gets even more horrifying: Their conversation ended after Griffin made a comment about how he’s met all the celebrities, and Allen replied with, “And now I have to watch my friend Bill Cosby get railroaded.”

Yup. 

Watch Kathy Griffin retell the entire story in the clip above and watch her full Build interview below. Celebrity Run-Ins, My A-Z Index is available on Nov. 22.  

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

South Asian American Sikh cartoonist Vishavjit Singh regularly fights bigotry and intolerance with his persona Sikh Captain America, walking the streets in full costume and engaging strangers in conversations around diversity.

But even he wasn’t prepared for the onslaught of racism and xenophobia that erupted across the country following Donald Trump’s win.

“Even my superheroic alter-ego is taking a moment to process this moment of vulnerability,” Singh told The Huffington Post on Thursday.

Just days after the election, Singh joined dozens of artists and scholars at the CTRL+ALT arts conference, hosted by the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center. His submission featured a cover of the Marvel comics fictional New York City tabloid newspaper, “The Daily Bugle,” and presented a new origin story of a Captain America that might exist in 2016.

“Captain America today would not be just focused on dark forces outside our borders but also those within our borders, our cities, our work places, our communities, our families and most importantly our minds,” Singh said.

The imagined cover aptly features a quote by a hypothetical president-elect, reading, “This turbaned avenger better watch out.”

”Bigotry we see today is not new,” Singh said. “It has been with us always. We, a nation of immigrants, just keep repeating the cycle of projecting our momentary fears and anxieties onto a chosen group of immigrants.”

Singh has experienced that bigotry first hand. Originally born in the U.S., Singh moved to India as a child, where he and his family survived the 1984 anti-Sikh riots. When he returned to the U.S., he experienced abuse and stereotyping often because of his turban and beard. These articles of faith, which have deep religious significance, frequently make their wearers vulnerable to abuse. Singh struggled with his faith, and ultimately found his voice through the art of cartooning.

His website, Sikhtoons, regularly features pointed commentary on the hypocrisy of common American attitudes towards people of color and religious minorities.

Since Trump’s win, Singh said he’s received messages from fellow Americans encouraging him to keep fighting for unity under the guise of Sikh Captain America. He plans to do just that, he said, and will be taking his character around the country in the coming months to engage Americans from all walks of life to stand up for justice and equality.

“There is a deep potential now for the emergence of some powerful art and activism in all forms and mediums,” Singh told HuffPost. “As artists we have to think first and foremost about the freedoms we so cherish, uphold, put into practice and, honestly, for most part take for granted.”

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

A Pennsylvania dad is showing the world what an “authentic” family portrait looks like.

Jeff Frandsen posted a funny photo (below) from his family’s holiday card shoot on Reddit. As you can see, posing with his 10-month-old daughter and pet goldendoodle came with some challenges. 

The dad, who also works as a photographer, captioned the post “An authentic family portrait.”

Frandsen told The Huffington Post that his friend and fellow photographer, Sam Interrante, took the photo during their studio shoot in Lancaster on Monday.

“The image was totally spontaneous!” he said. “My daughter Emerson has an affinity for grabbing my glasses, and because of her being slightly behind my left shoulder ... I didn’t see her reaching!” 

He added that his wife Liz tried to interfere because she knew he literally had his hands full holding their dog, Frankie. “I had no protection against our spectacle-snatching daughter!” the dad joked. 

Frandsen said they ultimately didn’t choose the hilarious action shot for their Christmas card and instead opted for a more “traditional” photo.

“This year, I wanted to go for a mix between Norman Rockwell and American Gothic,” he explained. “I was imagining a serious-looking, straight-faced photograph to use for our Christmas card.”

Below is the final photo they selected.

He added, “I also wanted a photo that show’s Emme’s face, since this is our first card with her.”

Frandsen told HuffPost he showed the funny outtake to loved ones, who got a real kick out of it. 

“I wanted to share the image with Reddit because the laughs and joy it was bringing to my friends and family was something I wanted others to experience,” he said. “It’s been a crazy few weeks around this country, and a goofy family photo can only put a smile on one’s face, right?”

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

Several years ago, Hollywood gave up on teenagers. Well, it gave up on movies that chronicle everyday teens, the ones who aren’t boy wizards or maze runners or heroes in a televised death match. The trials of high school ― once the purview of films like “Sixteen Candles” and “She’s All That” ― have been transposed to the vampires and werewolves of “Twilight.” Even “Juno” and “Easy A” feel like relics. 

Not anymore. Meet Nadine Byrd, the fiery-tongued protagonist of “The Edge of Seventeen,” a coming-of-age comedy that opens this weekend. Nadine (a career-best Hailee Steinfeld) has a Julia Stiles in “10 Things I Hate About You” quality, with a bit of Thora Birch in “Ghost World” for good measure. In other words, the world hates her, can’t understand her ― or so she’s convinced. But “The Edge of Seventeen” pushes past the brooding-girl-finds-peace trope: Like many teenagers, Nadine hates herself most of all, even if she projects that strife onto her snotty classmates. Every ill-worded text and uncomfortable social interaction prompts a minor identity crisis. 

“She’s masking her own pain with theatrics,” writer-director Kelly Fremon Craig said last month during a phone conversation with The Huffington Post.

Imagine the agony when Nadine’s only friend (Haley Lu Richardson) announces she’s dating Nadine’s older brother (Blake Jenner), a popular jock who always outshone her. With a home life she resents, Nadine’s only source of counsel is Mr. Bruner (Woody Harrelson), a wry history teacher who scoffs at her melodrama. When Nadine interrupts Mr. Bruner’s lunch break to declare her outlandish suicide plan, he says he’d off himself before willingly devoting another mealtime to her hysterics. “I would rather have the dark, empty nothingness,” he smirks. 

Nadine is a byproduct of today’s teenagers. Industry legend James L. Brooks (”Terms of Endearment,” “The Simpsons”) read the first draft of Craig’s script and urged her to meet with teens to inform the characters’ emotional cadence. Craig, 36, then spent six months interviewing and observing high schoolers across the country. Despite the advent of social media, she realized nothing about growing up had changed since she graduated. 

“I stepped foot back on a high school campus, and immediately every emotion I had came flooding back, just the insecurity and the awkwardness,” she said. “The hang-ups all had to do with the same hang-ups everybody always had: feeling judged, feeling like you’re scared to let your guard down and be your true self, that everybody is pointing and laughing, just feeling out of place generally, feeling alone in a crowd.”

So, Craig revised the script, hoping to capture the spirit of “Say Anything...,” “The Breakfast Club” and “Swingers.” She also hoped the experience would prove more encouraging than her previous film. The screenplay for the 2009 romantic comedy “Post Grad,” starring Alexis Bledel, bears Craig’s name, but, in her eyes, the results look nothing like what she wrote. Studios doing what they please with scripts is a common Hollywood anecdote, and that realization convinced Craig to try to direct the next project herself.

“It’s definitely incredibly painful to see something that you’ve worked really hard on and fallen in love with, and then it’s not what you had envisioned,” she said. “I think the big learning thing for me there is just that movies require such an exacting hand.”

Craig’s fears were assuaged. Brooks “went nuts” over the new draft, and STX Entertainment ― a young studio aiming to produce the mid-budget movies that have fallen out of favor amid Hollywood’s franchise obsession ― agreed to finance it for a reported $9 million. The closing-night feature at September’s Toronto Film Festival, “The Edge of Seventeen” has attracted gleaming reviews praising Steinfeld’s performance and Craig’s script. The next question is how teens will respond to the movie, which seems poised to become the next “Mean Girls.” The R rating could hinder its accessibility, but Craig knew from her research that she couldn’t shy away from F-bombs and bumbling sex banter ― even if some of those dynamics exist in text messages instead of notes passed in the hallway.

The magic of “Seventeen” is that Nadine realizes something most teen-comedy heroines do not: She is a demon of her own creation. She pushes her mother (Kyra Sedgwick) away, sabotages opportunities to make friends, jeopardizes a budding relationship with a charming gentleman (Hayden Szeto), and indulges in destructive behavior despite the wisdom to know better. Craig lands on a contemporary cocktail of self-absorption and self-awareness, a product of the Instagram age where everyone is keenly plugged in to what others think of them. For all its familiar grooves, “The Edge of Seventeen” offers just the right subversion to feel wholly original.

“I sure miss the films that I grew up on that just say, ‘Hey, here’s a snapshot of what it feels like to grow up today,’” Craig said. “’Here’s just an ordinary person.’”

“The Edge of Seventeen” is now in theaters.

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

Julian Richardson is a land artist, which means he creates his masterpieces in nature, submitting his designs to the chaotic whims of the surrounding world. He’s particularly fond of sand art, drawn to the “totally natural medium of [...] beaches,” as he writes online.

Not-so-secretly inspired by M.C. Escher, his ephemeral sand artworks appear like tessellations crafted a short walk from the water’s edge. Richardson has been making them for over two decades, leaving these geometric sketches on British shores, typically in Southwest England. To create them, he spends hours raking the sand, fighting against time in order to finish his shadowy markings before they succumb to the tide.

Before his land art disappears, though, he takes a photograph of the finished product, memorializing a unique configuration that will never be seen in person again. Even though a photo is all that remains, Richardson is confident that his efforts are worthwhile.

“By understanding the symbiotic relationship between sacred design and its position within an ancient landscape, my art has the ability to enter viewers  psyche and effect how they interpret the world around them,” Richardson writes in his artistic statement online. “This motivates me to continue pushing the parameters of these mediums’ creative possibilities. Following on from the stone circle-makers of old, I am effectively attempting to create sacred spaces for contemplation, a catalyst by which visitors can question life, the universe, and their place within it.”

It’s been a rough week. Enjoy the beauty that is Richardson’s work below, and see more of his sand work on his website.

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

Look at these photos and try to say that rescuing animals isn’t magical.

Rachele Totaro is an Italian woman who volunteers her photography skills for La Collina dei Conigli, an Italian charity that rehomes animals that were formerly used as test subjects in laboratories. Ever year, she takes photos of some of the animals to be used in a calendar, and this year’s theme was children’s books and fairy tales.

“This year the theme of the photosession [was] children books and fairy tales, because they teach us that we can reach a happy ending even through hard times and that each of us can be a hero,” Totaro wrote on BoredPanda.

It’s difficult to choose a favorite photo, Totaro told The Huffington Post, but she said that one of the most moving experiences was working with Opicina, the rabbit in the Secret Garden-themed photo.

“It was the most magical moment of the photoshoot,” Totaro said, explaining that the photos capture the first moments the rabbit had ever spent outside — in a carefully fenced area, of course.

“It was the first time she felt grass underneath her feet, and she moved in a delicate way,” Totaro said. “When she stood up I took the picture that later we decided to use in the calendar, but all the pictures taken are precious to me, because they tell her first steps in a brand, bright new life.”

The images aren’t just incredibly adorable — they also carry an important message about the animals that often spend their lives in lab. Totaro noted she is not a professional photographer, but that these photo shoots combine two of her greatest passions — photography and animal rights.

“Many people have no idea that animals previously used in labs can start a new, pain-free life and make gorgeous life companions, or that rats are a lot of fun and among the most clever animals, or that guinea pigs ‘sing’ all together when they hear someone handle food,” she said. “These animals were considered objects for the first part of their lives … what the volunteers do is [make] them feel and be wonderful sentient live beings again, and with my pictures I try to celebrate their new precious lives and to raise awareness about how gorgeous they are.”

Those interested in purchasing a calendar — the proceeds from which go to La Collina dei Conigli’s animal care — can email lacollinadeiconiglionlus@gmail.com. 

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

A memorial park honoring Beastie Boys member Adam Yauch was found defaced with anti-Semitic graffiti Friday, spray-painted with swastikas and the words “Go Trump.”

Adam Yauch Park in Brooklyn Heights, New York, where Yauch used to play as a child, was named for the Beastie Boy after he died of cancer at age 47 in 2012. Yauch and the other Beastie Boys were of Jewish heritage.

“This is the park where our kids play,” one Instagram user wrote. “Wake up people. This is not ok.”

“Adam Yauch stood for tolerance,” the New York City Mayor’s Office tweeted in the wake of the incident, condemning the hateful crime.

The defacing of Yauch’s memorial park follows a number of anti-Semitic, racist and hateful acts that have been reported in the days since Donald Trump became president-elect. In a similar act of vandalism, one student drew swastikas on classmates and another drew the anti-Semitic symbol on a white board along with the words “Go Trump.”

Many Americans have expressed concern over these displays of intolerance and have questioned the president-elect’s racist, misogynistic and anti-Muslim rhetoric during his campaign.

Since the election, thousands have taken to the streets to protest Trump’s election, chanting “Not my president” and “Love trumps hate.” 

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

When Vice President-elect Mike Pence went out for a night of theater in Manhattan, he probably didn’t expect to be the opening act.

Some of the attendees at a Friday night showing of “Hamilton,” Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Founding Fathers-themed Broadway musical, were apparently not thrilled to see the Indiana governor at the show.

They booed Pence as he found his seat. 

There was some clapping and a few stray cheers, but in the video above, many of the theatergoers don’t sound very happy to have Donald Trump’s No. 2 man in the audience.

According to a tweet from Twitter user Christy Colburn, the crowd “booed him like crazy” and reacted to a few script lines in particular.

Ouch.

At the end of the show, the cast had a few choice words for Pence’s benefit too. A lesson from the past to the present.

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

Fortune cookie fortunes can range from ominous to uplifting to downright hilarious. And now, you can be the voice of wisdom inside those sugary folded treats.

People from all around the world are submitting their own tidbits of advice to the Museum of Food and Drink in New York City, where they will be printed and baked inside a fresh batch of fortune cookies. The museum will then serve the desserts to visitors, who can crack open their cookies and read a message from a stranger.

It’s part of the museum’s current exhibit, “Chow: Making The Chinese American Restaurant,” an exploration of Chinese food in America from 1910 to today, which opened this month.

People are welcomed to submit fortune cookie wisdom by visiting Project Fortune on the museum’s website and typing an 80-letter message for the exhibit’s visitors.

Fortunes can also be submitted by tweeting to the museum (@mofad) and using #ProjectFortune, or by visiting the exhibit and writing one up in person.

The museum will only print messages that are positive and free of explicit and upsetting content. So, as the museum requested Friday on Twitter, keep the submissions SFW.

If you need inspiration, note that fortunes evoking Beyoncé seem to be all the rage.

The Chow exhibit also includes a timeline detailing the birth and expansion of Chinese food in America, with a culinary studio featuring renowned chefs, including Jonathan Wu of New York and Lee Anne Wong of Hawaii.

No exhibit on Chinese American food would be complete without the iconic white and red to-go boxes. The museum has a literal floating wall of takeout containers on display.

Below, check out the Chow exhibit and leave your own message for a stranger by visiting this link.

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

Twitter users are imagining what could be Vice President-elect Mike Pence’s favorite musicals, following his eventful evening watching “Hamilton.”

The Indiana governor was widely booed on entering the Richard Rogers Theater in New York City on Friday night, and the Broadway show’s cast addressed him with a powerful message as he later left.

News of the incident caused the #NameAPenceMusical hashtag to globally trend on the micro-blogging service, with users putting their own Pence spin on classic musical shows.

Here are some of the best posts we’ve seen so far:

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

WARNING: Spoilers below for “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.” 

In the world of “Harry Potter,” we know there are punishments for people who don’t follow the letter of the law. Book Three, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, gives us a look at the wizarding prison that’s like Alcatraz with Dementors. Those, of course, are the Dark ghoulish entities used to suck out the souls of the worst prisoners and leave them as empty shells ― a fate worse than death. 

The latest film adaptation in the series’ universe, “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them,” released Friday, introduces us to another solemn facet of wizarding life. In the 1920s when the film is set, the American wizarding society has its own punishment for rule-breakers ― and it’s possibly even more deranged than Azkaban’s.

Let’s review: When Tina (Katherine Waterston) and Newt (Eddie Redmayne) are sentenced for their suspected role in the mysterious magical destruction happening around New York City, they’re sent to a sterile white room primarily occupied by a dark pool. A witch takes her wand and, as we’ve seen in other “Potter” tales, extracts a long, silver-white thread of memory from Tina’s head. She tosses it into the pool, where it blossoms into a series of warm scenes that hypnotize Tina, who slides into a chair floating above the pool. While Tina gazes at her happy memories like a moth drawn to light, the pool rises up around her, forming a sinister jaw of silver-black liquid that burns through the chair as easily as volcanic lava.

She’s saved by Newt in the nick of time ― but what if she hadn’t been? Does the American wizarding society really burn people to death with scary magic lava? Is that humane because prisoners can’t see their fate coming? Is it inhumane because, um, scary magic lava? Is this a children’s movie? What? 

The original eight “Harry Potter” films certainly visit dark places. We see witches and wizards fight dark powers that include spells that kill, spells that torture, spells that bind victims to the caster’s will, magic to create a drink that causes a person to see terrible things, magic that splits souls, magic that binds a soul to another body, magic that creates a grotesque human figure out of a cauldron. 

The American magical community’s penalty may be simply a reflection of the times. Azkaban outlawed Dementors after the Second Wizarding War overseas in the mid-’90s ― perhaps Americans would have softened their prison system by that time, as well. Or perhaps not, because the main reason Dementors were outlawed was their defection to Voldemort’s side. Scary magic lava doesn’t seem to have such a presence of mind. 

Whatever the case, it seems like the next four “Fantastic Beasts” films are set to go way beyond showing the lovable Newt Scamander sheepishly bumbling around with his box of creatures. (As much as it warms our hearts to watch him do that.) With the capture of dark wizard Gellert Grindelwald (Johnny Depp, bizarrely) and his ominous threat at the first movie’s end, it’s all but promised that Grindelwald will feature prominently in the second installment.

If he’s anything like Voldemort, which he is, we’re in for another set of films that aren’t afraid to go to dark places. We’ll see black spells put to use ― even, evidently, by the “good guys” at the American wizarding society.

But this is “Harry Potter.” Good triumphs over evil and love trumps hate; by the end of “Fantastic Beasts,” we can expect the inherent optimism of J.K. Rowling’s series to pull us into the light. 

“Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them” is now in theaters.

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

Danny Pintauro has joined the cast of a colorful web series about the challenges of coming out of the HIV “closet” in 2016. 

The “Who’s the Boss?” star, 40, will appear on the second season of “Unsure/Positive,” which is loosely based on creator-star Christian Daniel Kiley’s real-life experiences. In it, Kiley plays Kieran, who must learn the “funny, sad, weird... and usually, complicated” nuances of life with HIV in the present day. Co-stars Tommy Derrah, Maureen Keiller and Ken Breese round out the cast. 

Kiley told The Huffington Post that “Unsure/Positive” was unique as “a serialized narrative about an HIV-positive person that wasn’t about their inevitable death, but rather about their inevitable life.” Its all-inclusive message, he added, is “meant to be relatable to anyone.” 

Meanwhile, the series immediately resonated with Pintauro, who revealed in a 2015 interview with Oprah Winfrey that he is HIV positive. 

“This is a step in the right direction – these filmmakers are providing those of us living with HIV with characters we can relate to,” he said in press materials, “who might be going through the same things we are, and this will also help bring more visibility to HIV and will hopefully remove some of the stigma associated with the disease.”

Kiley and his team are raising funds to complete the second season of “Unsure/Positive” via a Kickstarter campaign. You can watch a video about the campaign above, then check out more details of that campaign here. 

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

President-elect Donald Trump, who is just two months away from his inauguration, woke up Saturday morning with a pressing concern on his mind.

No, it wasn’t about the violence being carried out in his name, nor did it concern how to deliver his election policies amid a wave of protests across America against some of his most controversial pledges, such as building a wall across the U.S. border with Mexico, deporting millions of immigrants or registering Muslims.

What got him worked up was the fact that Mike Pence was booed by the audience during a performance of “Hamilton” on Friday, and that the cast took time to deliver a personal message to the Vice President-elect after the show.

Kellyanne Conway, Trump’s campaign manager, also tweeted that Pence shouldn’t have been booed when he entered the theater to watch the show.

After the last curtain call, actor Brandon Dixon addressed Pence respectfully from the stage and asked him if he would stick around for a special message.

“We have a message for you, sir. We hope that you will hear us out,” he said.

“We, sir, we are the diverse America, who are alarmed and anxious that your new administration will not protect us, our planet, our children, our parents or defend us and uphold our inalienable rights. 

“But we truly hope that this show has inspired you to uphold our American values and to work on behalf of all of us.”

Dixon, who plays Aaron Burr in the show, responded to Trump on Twitter and actually praised Pence for listening.

Trump was still upset about it Saturday night, tweeting that the cast was "very rude." The tweet was then deleted.

It’s not unusual for senior political leaders to be booed in public places, including presidents. But Trump seems to have a personal philosophy of letting no criticism go unnoticed.

“One of the things you should do in terms of success: If somebody hits you, you’ve got to hit ’em back five times harder than they ever thought possible,” he said in 2012.

“You’ve got to get even. Get even. And the reason, the reason you do, is so important... The reason you do, you have to do it, because if they do that to you, you have to leave a telltale sign that they just can’t take advantage of you.”

Pence said he was not offended by the remarks in an interview on “Fox News Sunday.” 

This article has been updated to include additional tweets from Trump and “Fox News Sunday.”

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

Friday night, Vice President-elect Mike Pence took a moment out of his Trump administration-building duties to attend a performance of the musical “Hamilton.” Many politicians have taken a seat at Richard Rodgers Theatre for the same musical. But Pence’s experience was a little different.

Before the show even began, Pence was reportedly booed (as well as applauded) as he took his seat. During the show, certain scenes of the production took on new meaning with the VP-elect’s presence ― King George’s “On Your Own” solo, for example, was met with a long ovation. Following curtain call, actor Brandon Dixon then spoke directly to Pence: 

“We, sir, we are the diverse America, who are alarmed and anxious that your new administration will not protect us, our planet, our children, our parents or defend us and uphold our inalienable rights, sir. But we truly hope that this show has inspired you to uphold our American values and to work on behalf of all of us.”

“Hamilton,” for those of you not familiar, is Lin-Manuel Miranda’s musical take on Founding Fathers’ history acted out by a cast of nearly all performers of color. As Dixon, who plays Aaron Burr (a former American vice president), reiterated, the performers playing historically white characters from America’s revolutionary years represent “a diverse group of men, women, of different colors, creeds and orientations.”

Miranda himself has spoken often about the production’s significance in this year’s vitriolic election season. “In a year when politicians traffic in anti-immigrant rhetoric, there is also a Broadway musical reminding us that a broke, orphan immigrant from the West Indies built our financial system,” Miranda explained at an address at the University of Pennsylvania earlier this year. “A story that reminds us that since the beginning of the great, unfinished symphony that is our American experiment, time and time again, immigrants get the job done.”

In response to Pence’s trip to Broadway, some critics have admonished crowds for booing our future vice president. President-elect Donald Trump called the “Hamilton” cast “rude,” asking them to apologize to his running mate for their public statement.

Still others questioned whether or not the media should be focusing on “Hamilton” at all, when there are other issues to highlight ― the increase in reports of hate crimes across the country, Trump’s agreement to pay $25 million in fines and restitution to settle three fraud lawsuits, the mounting conflicts of interest attached to Trump’s administration, the rise in visibility of white supremacists linked to Trump’s supporters.

Nonetheless, writers and actors and fans across the internet have celebrated the cast’s decision to send a peaceful, respectful message to a man who has attempted to institute policies harmful to the LGBTQ community. A man who supported “conversion therapy” as a member of Congress and gave a speech in which he said that marriage equality would lead to “societal collapse.”

In his statement, Dixon welcomed Pence to the theater, discouraged booing from the audience, and calmly voiced his and his cast-mates’ views to an audience they might never get again. The “Hamilton” cast took advantage of not only the fact that they, for one night, shared the same space as someone capable of influencing the make-up of our future presidential cabinet, but also the fact that “Hamilton” itself has an undeniable sphere of influence.

“Hamilton” has the power to capture the attention of the media. And it has the power to capture the attention of its audience ― two-thirds of which could constitute tourists not based in New York City. It’s true that an overwhelming number of Broadway fans capable of affording tickets have college degrees (Trump won two-to-one among people without a college degree), and that people attending “Hamilton” were likely there because a like-minded ― and probably liberal ― acquaintance suggested they attend (”personal recommendation was the most influential factor in show selection,” Broadway League reports).

Yet, a production expected to generate upward of $1 billion in sales, that has always engaged in the politics of our time, has the capacity to reach more people than your average pop culture phenomenon. (There’s a chance young kids in the #EduHam program are taking notes.) And that’s not a platform to be taken lightly. It’s precisely why Dixon told audience members to take out their phones and record his speech. 

Even if “Hamilton” isn’t speaking directly to Trump and Pence supporters, the cast is certainly speaking to dissenters wondering how they can stand up against people and policies dangerous to marginalized people ― to people of color, Muslims, LGBTQ individuals, women. This is what free speech looks like, Dixon might have said to his audience. This is what solidarity looks like. This is what respectful disagreement looks like.

We should be capable of thinking simultaneously about the issues that need more investigative reporting and the reality of freedom of expression in the United States. Now that “Hamilton” has the internet’s attention again, those of us spreading its message are capable of channeling that audience into action. So, here’s a list of volunteer and donation opportunities those affected by Dixon’s words can turn to. Here’s another. And another. And another. As writer Lauren Duca suggested shortly after the performance, people can also donate specifically to Broadway Cares Equity Fights Aids.

Why not dedicate that donation to Pence?

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

The “Hamilton” cast had a special message for Vice President-elect Mike Pence, whose presence at the hit Broadway musical on Friday night drew boos from the Manhattan audience.

Here is what actor Brandon Victor Dixon, who plays Aaron Burr, told Pence on behalf of the cast:

Vice President-elect Pence,

We welcome you and we truly thank you for joining us here at “Hamilton: An American Musical,” we really do.

We, sir — we — are the diverse America who are alarmed and anxious that your new administration will not protect us, our planet, our children, our parents, or defend us and uphold our inalienable rights, sir. But we truly hope that this show has inspired you to uphold our American values and to work on behalf of all of us. All of us.

We truly thank you for sharing this show, this wonderful American story told by a diverse group of men, women of different colors, creeds and orientations.

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

Zadie Smith writes novels about the people and themes that seem particularly freighted with political baggage these days: immigrants, multiracial families and social groups, the white and non-white working class. Though she’s writing about her own home turf ― England, typically north-west London ― those realities are no less incendiary there, in the Brexit era, than they are here, in the Trump one.

But Smith has also declined, most recently in an interview with Slate, to get too political about the multicultural world she depicts in her fiction. “I’ve always dealt with [multiculturalism] as a descriptive fact,” she said. And anyway, she added later, “I don’t have a political intelligence [...] Sometimes people’s intimate lives reflect the political world, but my first concern is always people.”

To those who love her fiction, this should make sense; her worlds jostle with the colliding energies of so many acutely observed characters ― tussling, flirting, gossiping, bullying, falling in love and giving in to hate. It’s the writing of someone who wants to get inside the minds of as many people as possible, to figure them out properly.

Swing Time carries that curious, energetic feel, but it’s also entirely different. It’s Smith’s first novel written entirely in the first person, muting the raucous din of her cast of characters by filtering them entirely through her nameless narrator, whose introspective yet often fragile consciousness purposefully distorts the narrative.

The novel hangs around the childhood friendship, and adult alienation, of the narrator and a girl named Tracey. They meet in a dance class in a church near the council estates in North West London where they both live. Both are biracial, the child of one black parent and one white; both are clinging to their mothers; both are intrigued by each other, though not immediately friends. The narrator’s mother is from Jamaica and has aspirations to middle-class acceptance, educational achievement and a career in line with her interests in political activism. While her husband, the narrator’s father, is a loving family man, he’s also relatively content with an unambitious life, while she’s beautiful, restrained, determined to act like any educated middle-class woman would ― and disdainful of Tracey’s mother, an overweight white woman with gaudy taste and no apparent goals except to get on disability. “It turned out ― as my mother had guessed at once ― that there was no ‘Tracey’s father,’ at least not in the conventional, married sense,” writes Smith. “This, too, was an example of bad taste.”

The girls are drawn together like “two iron filings drawn to a magnet,” soon becoming like sisters. The narrator’s studious mother disapproves of the friendship ― Tracey is spoiled with toys and TV time ― but can’t stop them from spending hours watching videos of old musicals and making up stories about ballet dancers. Though their similarities bound them together, in a crucial way the two dancers are different: Tracey has perfect arches and a gift for dance that the narrator simply doesn’t. As she carries on preparation to become a professional dancer, her friend resentfully finishes in standard school and attends university.

As they enter adulthood, they suffer a mysterious and traumatizing falling-out that effectively ends their friendship, and as the narrator goes to work as a personal assistant for Aimee, a famous pop singer, she slowly loses track of her old friend’s dance career and her life.

Meanwhile, Aimee takes a violently sudden interest in charity work, and the narrator finds herself spending weeks at a time in a small West African country working on a girls’ school her charismatic and impulsive boss has decided to found. There she meets Fern, an economist who manages the logistics of the project; Lamin, a handsome local teacher who’s in charge of guiding them; and Hawa, a bubbly young woman who teaches English. Well-intentioned but constantly misstepping, painfully reminded at every turn of her isolation ― not an equal of Aimee, nor capable of relating to the local people ― she’s frustrated by the mission she’s a part of, but also unsure of how to do better.

Back home, her mother, now a divorced politician, has fallen ill, and has begun hearing nonstop from Tracey, who seems bitter and unstable, full of grievances toward the narrator and her mother. When a personal and professional catastrophe devastates the narrator, Tracey is waiting, again, to vent her fury through revenge. Now a single mother of three, and no longer a dancer, she seems distant from her friend’s long-cherished ideal friend: spunky, sharp, beautiful, transcendently gifted.

What happens to Tracey, and to her friendship with the narrator? From the vantage point we’re given, it’s basically insanity ― a couple wild accusations from Tracey; first that their dance school piano player, an elderly man named Mr. Booth, touched her inappropriately; next a still-more shocking one about the narrator’s beloved father ― and then paranoia, rage, erratic behavior. The narrator vaguely disregards all of her friend’s claims, from a very early age; later, she’s horrified to hear that she’s sent “distressing emails” to such people as “[a] director at the Tricycle who had not cast her, she thought, because of color.” The accusation that Mr. Booth had been inappropriate, made directly to the dance teacher after Tracey was accused of stealing the cashboxes from a student show, is not only dismissed out of hand, but it’s clear that one friend worked hard to convince adults in charge to believe the teacher instead: “I made it as clear as I could that Mr. Booth had never laid a hand on me or on Tracey, nor anyone else, as far as I knew.”

Smith doesn’t seem to intend to give readers enough information to know whether Tracey was, specifically, harmed by Mr. Booth, or whether her career was thwarted by racist casting, or whether, as she complains, her black children have been discriminated against in the school system. The barrage of personal and political grievances seem, to the narrator, out of hand. On the other hand, her own story is full of unsettling stories of black girls being touched under their underwear by boys who crawled under their desks, of black actresses (including Tracey) treated as second-class in the theater world, and of black boys excluded from classrooms because their teachers somehow fear them. The cumulative effect is to make both the narrator’s struggles and her old friend’s paranoid twist seem more logical than at first glance.

During her rocky visits to West Africa, the narrator similarly finds herself befuddled by her surroundings ― but struggling not to superimpose the political over the personal. While her colleagues doggedly work to make the best of Aimee’s absurd resources, no matter how problematically distributed, the narrator becomes entangled in vaguely delineated suspicions of her employer’s privileged actions. When Aimee becomes infatuated with Lamin, or adopts a local baby, or sweeps in for a school opening, her assistant is always watching with the certain, sour sense that wrong is being done.

Is she wrong? Maybe not, but as the novel goes on, it’s difficult to see what good her political anxiety does, either. Time and again, Smith’s narrator offers the personal and the political, but she struggles to see how they might fit together, and in that she’s not so different from most people. 

The Bottom Line:

In a first-person twist on her buoyant, bustling London narratives, Smith examines the trouble of combining the personal and political, and captures the thrills of girlhood, dance, and first friendship. 

What other reviewers think:

The Atlantic: “Swing Time is criticism set to fiction, like dance is set to music. One complements — and animates — the other.” 

Jezebel: “Smith has a rare understanding of the psyche of girlhood, that rush of sexuality which is simultaneously exhilarating, frightening and confusing.” 

Who wrote it?

Zadie Smith vaulted to fame with the publication of her debut novel, White Teeth, when she was just 24. Smith has won a slew of prizes, including several for first novel. She has since published four more novels, including Swing Time and On Beauty, which won the Orange Prize for Fiction in 2006. She also writes criticism. Born and raised in North West London, Smith studied at Cambridge. She is married to poet Nick Laird, with whom she has two children.

Who will read it?

Who won’t? Smith is a literary superstar, and her new book showcases why.

Opening lines (from Chapter 1):

“If all of the Saturdays of 1982 can be thought of as one day, I met Tracey at ten a.m. on that Saturday, walking through the sandy gravel of a churchyard, each holding our mother’s hand. There were many other girls present but for obvious reasons we noticed each other, the similarities and the differences, as girls will. Our shade of brown was exactly the same ― as if one piece of tan material had been cut to make us both ― and our freckles gathered in the same areas, we were of the same height.”

Notable passage:

“Tracy could ― did ― tell a teacher to ‘fuck off’ without even being sent to stand in the hall, but Jordan passed most of his time in that hall, for what seemed, to the rest of us, small infractions ― talking back, or not removing a baseball cap ― and after a while of this we began to understand that the teachers, especially the white women, were scared of him. We respected that: it seemed like a special thing, an achievement, to make a grown woman fear you, though you were only nine years old and mentally disabled. Personally I was on good terms with him: he had sometimes put his fingers in my knickers but I was never convinced he knew why he was doing it, and on the walk home, if we happened to fall in step, I sometimes sang for him ― the theme tune to ‘Top cat,’ a cartoon with which he was obsessed ― and this soothed and made him happy.”

Swing Time
By Zadie Smith
Penguin Press, $27.00
Published November 15, 2016

The Bottom Line is a weekly review combining plot description and analysis with fun tidbits about the book.

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

We can always count on Chrissy Teigen to speak her mind ― it’s one of the many reasons we love her ― and that’s exactly what she did over the weekend after Donald Trump demanded the cast of the Broadway musical “Hamilton” apologize to Mike Pence. 

The Sports Illustrated model made her Twitter account public on Saturday to post a series of strident tweets slamming the president-elect. 

“Look who wants a fucking safe space now,” she wrote. “The very thing him and his supporters make fun of as liberal political correctness. God, what a POS.” 

“Donald is sensitive enough to actually seek out a way to punish/get back at anyone who dare criticize him. That’s such a sad thought,” Teigen added. “Donald knows very well what he is doing. He knows the Hamilton speech was NBD. He knows his tweet will fire both sides up to distract from the 25 million dollar settlement of yesterday. Most conniving human on planet earth.” 

This whole thing started when Pence, the incoming vice president, attended the record-breaking musical on Friday night. After the performance, the cast stood on stage as Brandon Dixon delivered a poignant message directly to him. 

“We, sir, we are the diverse America, who are alarmed and anxious that your new administration will not protect us, our planet, our children, our parents or defend us and uphold our inalienable rights,” Dixon said to Pence, who listened from the hallway. 

Dixon added, “We truly hope that this show has inspired you to uphold our American values and to work on behalf of all of us.” 

Naturally, Trump took issue with the cast’s message, calling it “rude” and demanding they apologize. 

For the record, Pence wasn’t quite as affected by the cast’s comments, telling Fox News he didn’t want an apology. 

“I really enjoyed watching ‘Hamilton,’” Pence told Fox News’ Chris Wallace during a pre-taped appearance that aired Sunday. “It was a real joy to be there. I heard a few boos. I wasn’t offended by what was said.”

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) - “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them” dominated the weekend box office, debuting to a boisterous $75 million and launching a new cinematic franchise.

It confirms Warner Bros.’ high hopes for the property and its decision to back five installments in the fantasy series. “Fantastic Beasts” is a spinoff of the Harry Potter films, but instead of Hogwarts, it unfolds in 1920s New York City and features an entirely new cast of wizards and mythical creatures.

The studio spent $180 million to make the picture, enlisting Harry Potter creator J.K. Rowling to write the screenplay and bringing back David Yates, the director of several previous boy wizard outings. Eddie Redmayne stars as Newt Scamander, a textbook writer and collector of the titular beasts.

“This is dead on what we were looking for,” said Jeff Goldstein, president of domestic distribution at Warner Bros. “Jo Rowling brilliantly told a story that inspired her fanbase to come out in a big way.”

It was a softer opening than any of the previous Potter films, but Warner Bros. argues that comparisons aren’t fair. Those movies were based on global best-sellers, whereas “Fantastic Beasts” is largely an original work.

“It’s not the same,” said Goldstein. “It’s apples and kumquats.”

Audiences may have embraced the return to Potter-dom, but they gave the cold shoulder to several new films, among them the boxing drama “Bleed for This” and the Iraq War drama “Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk.” Both pictures bombed, with “Bleed for This” eking out $2.4 million and “Billy Lynn’s” mustering $930,000 after expanding from four to 1,176 theaters. It has earned $1.1 million since opening in limited release a week ago, a disastrous result for a film that was expected to be a major Oscar contender.

Open Road is distributing “Bleed for This,” which chronicles Vinny Pazienza’s efforts to get back into the ring after a car accident. It has a $6 million budget, which cushions the box office blow.

Sony is backing “Billy Lynn’s” along with Bona Film Group, Film4, and Studio 8. The $40 million is a technological gamble. Ang Lee shot the picture so it could be exhibited at 120 frames per second in 3D at 4K HD resolution in order to achieve greater clarity and realism. Critics have been divided about the look of the picture, with some faulting it for looking too much like a telenovela. It’s something of a moot point, as only a handful of theaters have the ability to exhibit the film at the higher speeds.

STX’s “Edge of Seventeen” didn’t fare much better than the other struggling new releases. The teen dramedy with Hailee Steinfeld only managed to pull in $4.8 million for a seventh place finish. Heading into the weekend, it was expected to gross $10 million. The film is one of the year’s best-reviewed comedies. It centers on a high school girl grappling with the fact that her best friend is dating her brother. “Edge of Seventeen” cost $9 million to make, and was positioned as counter-programming for women between the ages of 17 and 39.

“I wish to god it had started better,” said Adam Fogelson, STX Entertainment Motion Picture Group chairman. “We hope that the love the critics have shown for it, and that audiences have for it, leads to it being seen now and going forward.”

The failures of “Edge of Seventeen,” “Bleed for This,” and “Billy Lynn’s” are signs of the difficulties that adult dramas and comedies face when they compete against big franchise films.

“A lot of these great little films are going the way of Netflix,” said Jeff Bock, an analyst with Exhibitor Relations. “The audience is not there anymore and they’re withering on the vine.”

Second place went to Marvel’s “Doctor Strange,” which brought in $17.5 million to push its domestic gross to $181.5 million after three weeks in theaters. DreamWorks Animation’s “Trolls” took third, earning $17.5 million to bring its haul to $116.2 million.

Paramount’s “Arrival,” a science-fiction thriller with Amy Adams, nabbed fourth place, picking up $11.8 million to bring its stateside gross to $43.4 million. Universal’s “Almost Christmas” rounded out the top five, picking up $7 million to push its domestic total to $25.4 million.

In limited release, “Manchester by the Sea” capitalized on glowing reviews and Oscar heat to open to $241,230 with a robust $60,308 per-screen average. Amazon bought the film out of Sundance for $10 million and is releasing it in conjunction with Roadside Attractions. Casey Affleck stars as a janitor trying to come to terms with a personal tragedy.

Focus Features also debuted “Nocturnal Animals,” Tom Ford’s noir-ish thriller, in 37 theaters where it made $493,000.

Weekend ticket sales were down more than 10% year-over-year, owing to a difficult comparison to “The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2,” which opened to $102.7 million during the same period in 2015.

Many analysts expect a rebound. Next week brings the Thanksgiving holiday, which is traditionally one of the busiest periods for movie-going, and Disney is debuting “Moana.”

“We can handle one down weekend,” said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst at comScore. “Next week could be one of the biggest Thanksgivings ever.”

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.