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Kevin Spacey Is Here To Save The 71st Annual Tony Awards

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From a murderous politico to charming emcee: Kevin Spacey, star of stage and screen, has been announced as the host of the 71st Annual Tony Awards.






Spacey, who currently stars in the hit Netflix series “House of Cards” as Frank Underwood, a scheming Southern Democrat with an unquenchable thirst for power, will take the stage at Radio City Music Hall on June 11 for the live CBS telecast of the awards show.


The TV, film, and theater actor is a veteran of award shows. In 1991, he won a Tony for Best Featured Actor in a Play for his performance in Neil Simon’s “Lost in Yonkers.” He’s also taken home two Oscars, for his work in “The Usual Suspects” and “American Beauty.” 


In comparison to the Academy Awards and the Emmys, the Tony Awards can be viewed as a relatively niche award show, honoring performances and productions many outside of the New York metropolitan area haven’t had the opportunity to witness. Its viewership is typically smaller: In February, the unexpectedly eventful Oscars broadcast garnered 32.9 million viewers, while the 2016 Tony Awards tallied 8.7 million viewers


Even that modest award-show viewership may prove to be an outlier for the Broadway awards, which have garnered around 7 million viewers in previous years. The 2016 awards, hosted by late-night host James Corden, saw a 35 percent increase in viewership that many attributed to the national obsession with Lin-Manuel Miranda’s “Hamilton.” Not only did the show clean up at the Tonys, but viewers were treated to a number from the musical ― without having to mortgage their house for an elusive ticket.







Now that the year of “Hamilton” has passed, producers fear that the audiences will leave, according to ABC. Can CBS hope to retain those gains in audience by leading with A-list host Frank Underwood Kevin Spacey? That remains to be seen ― and we’re willing to wait for it. (Sorry, “Hamilton” fans.)

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Play Featuring Gay Versions Of Bible Stories Causes Outrage

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An Atlanta-based theater company has been hit with a barrage of criticism for staging a play that re-imagines biblical figures as queer. 


The Out Front Theatre Company’s production of “The Most Fabulous Story Ever Told” doesn’t officially open until April 27, but has already deemed “blasphemous” by America Needs Fatima. Paul Rudnick’s 1998 comedy follows Adam and Steve, a gay couple who navigate the centuries with Jane and Mabel, who are lesbians. Along the way, they encounter Noah’s ark, the first Christmas and other well-known Bible stories before traveling to present day New York. 


America Needs Fatima members, however, took specific issue with the play’s portrayal of the Virgin Mary as a lesbian. The conservative Catholic group, which is based in Pennsylvania, launched an online petition asking Out Front Theatre’s Artistic Director Paul Conroy to cancel the production, The New York Times reported Monday


“I vehemently protest your showing the blasphemous play ‘The Most Fabulous Story Ever Told,’ which, among other blasphemies, refers to the Virgin Mary as a lesbian,” the petition, which had over 42,000 signatures as of Tuesday afternoon, reads. “The Holy Mother of God is most pure and holy. To refer to her as a lesbian, or even to insinuate it, is an unspeakable blasphemy, which I reject with all my soul. I fear God’s wrath will fall upon us if reparation is not made.” The group then threatens to oppose the play “loudly, peacefully, and legally in as large a protest as we can help make possible” if Conroy chooses to stage the play.  


Even though the theater company had been planning to mount “The Most Fabulous Story Ever Told” for over a year, Conroy told The New York Times that the pushback didn’t begin until March 27, possibly in response to America Needs Fatima’s petition. Since then, he said he and his team have been inundated with letters, emails, phone calls and Facebook messages condemning the production. Still, he vowed not to bow down to the criticism. 


“I think everyone has their individual beliefs and they are entitled to that,” Conroy told Georgia radio station WABE. “If that’s what they believe, they don’t have to come and see our production, but to disrupt a production is where I don’t think it’s okay.”


In a Tuesday Facebook post, he thanked the theater’s patrons for their support, but acknowledged that the controversy had “taken its toll” on the play’s cast and creative team. “To put it blunty, our creative expression is under attack,” he wrote. “People who have never seen or read ‘The Most Fabulous Story Ever Told’ are telling us what is wrong with the show, and people who have never met us are telling us what they think is wrong with us... I can promise that you will laugh, cry and think ― all the things theatre should do.”


Meanwhile, the Out Front Theatre Company cited a statement it had received from Rudnick himself on its official Facebook page. The playwright, who is best known for 1993’s “Jeffrey,” praised the theater, which is dedicated to telling “stories of the LGBTQIA experience and community,” for its decision to move forward with his show in spite of the complaints it had thus far received. 





“The play has always attracted a certain amount of controversy, mostly from people who haven’t read or seen the play, like the Fatima organization,” Rudnick wrote. “Blessedly, all sorts of people, gay and straight, and everyone from atheists to the most devout, most often end up truly enjoying themselves once they’re in the audience.”


For the latest in LGBTQ entertainment, check out the Queer Voices newsletter. 

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Tattoo Of Packer's Aaron Rodgers In Jockstrap Has Homophobes Losing Their Minds

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A tattoo artist in Denver, Colorado, enraged a group of homophobic trolls on Friday when she posted a new piece of work depicting a male figure wearing a jockstrap and Green Bay Packer Aaron Rodgers’ football jersey.




Alisha Rice did not expect the backlash when she posted the photo on her Instagram ― but trolls were quick to emerge from the depths of the internet.


One user wrote, “What in tarnation is this gay ass sh*t? This is what y’all do up in Wisconsin? Don’t even look like his face and that helmet is severely f**ked. This some homo ass sh*t.”


Another added, “The gayest tattoo ever. I’m sure A rod don’t want this shit on anyone.” There are many, many other comments that can be viewed on the artist’s Instagram.


“The idea for the tattoo was a combination of the client wanting a traditional American style male pinup and a packers tattoo,” Rice, who has been tattooing since 1992, told The Huffington Post. She noted that the tattoo wasn’t necessarily supposed to be Rodgers and that his “particular jersey was selected because [he] is a football legend and the client admires him as a player and as a person.”


Two days after posting the initial image of the tattoo, the 43-year-old artist followed up with another post directly challenging the “homophobic football fans and armchair tattoo critiques” she had received: 




Rice told The Huffington Post the tattoo was never meant to be a comment on Rodgers’ sexuality, as some commenters charged, but instead was “just meant to be a fun, tongue in cheek ode to team.” 


She added, “If anyone has an issue with the tattoo I’d challenge them to ask themselves why and reflect on the apparent double standard regarding the sexualization of the male and female forms.”



Alisha Rice tattoos at Think Tank Tattoo in Denver, Colorado. For more from her, check out her Instagram page here.

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'Simpsons' Superfan Gets Arm Inked With 52 Homer Tattoos

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Simpsons fans can be obsessed, but few are as faithful as Ricky Viner.


The 32-year-old restaurant manager is such a big fan of the animated series that he had his right arm inked up with 52 separate tattoos of Homer Simpson.



Viner of Wiltshire, U.K., fell in love with the cartoon series as a child.


“I instantly fell in love with the program when I saw it aged eight,” he told SWNS. “I was adopted when I was a kid and never really had a father, so, in a funny way, Homer became the father figure I always wanted.”


Viner decided to go big or go Homer when he was in a tattoo shop getting an anime drawing inked on his body. The conversation turned to Michael Baxter, a 52-year-old Australian who has 203 different Simpsons tattoos on his back.


“That’s when we came up with the idea of having a crack at a new record,” Viner told SWNS.


Viner hopes to get into Guinness World Records by having the most tattoos of a single cartoon character.


Woo hoo!


Viner decided to the perfect character to put on his arm was none other than the doughnut-loving dad.


So the artist drew various Homers ― 52 in all ― on Viner’s right arm, from shoulder to wrist. The complete tat took 14 painful hours in two separate sessions. It shows Homer’s face in different expressions.


“Some of the outlines really hurt ― especially the ones on the crease where my bicep meets my forearm ― it was remarkably painful.” 



The tattoos cost around $642, and it’s still a work in progress: Viner plans to get all his Homers colored in the future.


“They are going to need a lot of yellow ink,” he warned SWNS.


In order to get into the record books, Viner will have to provide Guinness World Records with proof from a dermatologist or doctor stating his tattoos are real.

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Med Student Is Marrying Her Diploma In An Awesome 'Graduwedding'

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Angie Hamouie is getting married... to her medical degree.


The 27-year-old from Houston, Texas is graduating from the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston in June and she’s celebrating by throwing what she has dubbed a “graduwedding.”


There’s going to be a wedding-style dress, a first dance with the diploma and, of course, graduwedding cake. Hamouie even created a website on wedding website The Knot to announce her union with her M.D.  


“This was such a big deal for her, because it was the culmination of three degrees and nine years of higher education,” Hamouie’s Knot page reads (in third-person, like so many wedding announcements). “Her match represented everything she had worked toward. Angie realized this graduation would only happen once in her life. She wondered, why is it that no one really celebrates their graduation? And if she threw a party, how could she convey that this party was a Big Deal?”


So, after her “enmatchment,” Hamouie planned a graduwedding. The party is set for May 13, and she’s invited friends and family to come join her on her big day. 



“I didn’t think folks would take this party seriously because it was ‘only’ a graduation,” Hamouie told The Huffington Post. “I wanted to convey that this milestone is a huge deal for me, and I thought the best way to do that would be by pretending to marry my degree.”


Hamouie, who is going into Obstetrics & Gynecology, explained that, for women, it’s especially important to celebrate a successful career just as much as we celebrate engagements and weddings.


“I feel that for women especially, we feel pressure to choose one or the other: the career or the marriage. And when we really only celebrate weddings, it sends a loud message about what we’re expected to prioritize,” she said. “The message I ultimately want to send with my graduwedding is that getting an education is a huge feat, and it should be celebrated as such.”


We couldn’t agree more, Angie. Scroll below to see some truly amazing photos from Angie’s graduwedding photo shoot. 



type=type=RelatedArticlesblockTitle=Related... + articlesList=58f0c9aae4b0bb9638e31c2c,5851a144e4b0e411bfd517d4

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Here Are Fitting Haikus For The Members Of President Trump's Cabinet

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We’re celebrating haiku poetry this week, so why not craft a special haiku for the members of Trump’s cabinet! You remember the haiku format, right? Just like Trump moving down the line of women at his Miss USA pageants: “5 ... 7 ... 5 ...”


See, it’s easy! 


 


Sean Spicer


After laying eggs


Every day for the press corp,


Spicer paints them, too



 


 


Steve Bannon


Bannon’s not Satan


But still … better show us his


birth certificate



 


 


Jared Kushner


Hi, Jared Kushner?


Here’s that green screen with custom


War sounds you ordered



 


 


Mike Pence


Mike Pence has a great


Relation with God, but what


If He is a Her?



 


 


Betsy DeVos


Retired teachers


Are more invested in school


Than Betsy DeVos



 


 


Rick Perry


Hire Rick Perry


To run a department he


Wants terminated



 


 


Ben Carson


Shh, Ben Carson, shh,


You said it yourself, you’re not


Qualified for this



 


Reince Priebus


Chief of Staff Priebus


Why are you hoarding all the


Letter I’s and E’s? 


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Barkley L. Hendricks, Painting Pioneer And Champion Of Black Portraiture, Dead At 72

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Barkley L. Hendricks, a painting pioneer who dedicated much of his work to capturing subjects of color, died early Tuesday morning of natural causes, Artnet reports. He was 72 years old. 


Jack Shainman, Hendricks’ gallery, released a statement confirming his death:



“We have had the great honor of working with Barkley since 2005. He was a situational painter, documenting the world around him in vivid and highly detailed paintings that capture the distinctive personalities of his subjects. He was a true artist’s artist, always dedicated to his singular vision; he was a figurative painter when it was trendy and especially when it wasn’t.”





Hendricks was known for his vibrant portraits, life-size paintings pulsing with subjectivity and style. Inspired by jazz culture and bold fashion, he rendered images that captured complex interiority and performed pizzazz with equal enthusiasm. 


As Huey Copeland wrote in Artforum in 2009, Hendricks “not only valorized blackness but gave rise to emphatic displays of a new, self-conscious ‘to-be-looked-at-ness.’” Although throughout his life Hendricks continuously denied that his paintings were political, his work paid tribute to the excellence and beauty of young black men at a time when such subjects were rarely immortalized in paint.


His paintings simultaneously celebrated the splendor and flair of everyday people, while acknowledging how black bodies are consumed by white audiences through the structure of the art establishment. “Hendricks explored the intersection of the black experience and painting history,” Christopher Knight wrote in 2009.


Hendricks’ influence is apparent in the work of contemporary artists like Kehinde Wiley and Amy Sherald, who also create vivid figurative portraits of black Americans. 




Hendricks was born in 1945 in Philadelphia and received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Yale University. After studying photography, he began depicting loved ones and acquaintances, predominately people of color, in large-scale oil paintings. His work was included in the 1994 Whitney Museum exhibition “Black Male” and displayed in a 2008 retrospective at the Nasher Museum of Art, curated by Trevor Schoonmaker. 


Schoonmaker shared a statement with Hyperallergic commemorating Hendricks’ lasting impact on the art world. “With so many artists and writers now responding to his paintings and photography, Barkley stands out as an artist well ahead of his time. Though his work has defied easy categorization and his rugged individualism kept him outside of the spotlight for too many years, his unrelenting dedication to his pioneering vision has deeply inspired younger generations.”



The news hit me hard this morning hearing of Barkleys passing. He will be missed. . #BarkleyHendricks

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#BarkleyHendricks (1945-2017) #Legendary

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Allison Williams On The 'Girls' Finale, Marnie's Legacy And Her Top Moments From The Show

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The day after the “Girls” finale aired, Allison Williams left New York to tour prisons in Los Angeles. She’s been working with the Anti-Recidivism Coalition, a nonprofit dedicated to helping convicts who are no longer incarcerated. In the HBO series’ sendoff, Williams’ character, Marnie, also lent a helping hand outside of her Big Apple bubble as she headed to the country to help Hannah raise baby Grover.


Less than 48 hours after “Girls” said goodbye, Williams called us up to debrief on the episode, Marnie’s future and her favorite moments from the show.


Have you spoken with anyone from “Girls” since the finale aired? 


Oh yeah, we’ve all been talking. I was with Lena when it aired. We FaceTimed with Jenni Konner right before. We talked to Judd Apatow after, and Jenni and the other girls. We’re a pretty tight group. It feels weird. For those of us who were involved, I think it was more emotional when we finished shooting it, but certainly the realization that there’s just nothing left anymore is very strange. It’s hitting me sort of slowly. It hit hardest when I was done playing Marnie.


It must feel odd doing a long-term series like this because of those waves. You wrapped months ago, and then you have to relive that same closure process with the rest of the world later. As a performer, it must be such a strange sort of déjà vu.


It’s really weird. One benefit is that that it’s a long goodbye, which is both excruciating and helpful at the same time. It would be a lot easier if everything happened all at once and we just had an entire day with our cast and crew where we all got to say long goodbyes, and really put a period at the end of our working relationship.


The ellipsis that it creates is a little gentler, and it allows for more reflection and also just prolonged and more specific gratitude for each person’s role in our lives. These are people who had great impacts on my life ― the crew we worked with, the other actors, the directors we worked with. It’s nice to have some distance on it to be able to process what they all meant to me and what the series as a whole meant. Also what our collective work, and what we did together, will end up meaning down the line to the people who watched it while it was on so loyally. Also the people who will discover it in the years to come, and what will they make of it, and how soon will it seem like an impossibly outdated world.


It’s interesting to think about the impact of what Lena and Jenni and Judd have done, and how it will continue to be felt over the years. I just feel lucky to be part of a project that even has that conversation around it. There are shows that are totally beloved about which there are no think pieces written in terms of what the legacy is gonna be.



The opening shot of the series finale is a mirror image of the first time we met Marnie, in the pilot. What did that mean to you?


It meant so much to me. It was something that I’d be dreaming of happening for two years. I didn’t say anything.


So you had the idea in your mind already?


Only because the symmetry of it was so satisfying to me, and also it would mean that Marnie and Hannah were still connected by their umbilical cord.


It’s such a Marnie thing to say the symmetry would be perfect.


Oh, of course! I, like Marnie, am very attracted to rules, so we’ll get to that later. If that shot didn’t exist, it would almost signify to me that maybe the driving breakup of the show was between Marnie and Hannah, and not Marnie and New York City, or Hannah and Adam, or whatever other relationships were severed. I’ve liked Marnie best when she was being a supportive, good friend, and this is her version of what that means, which is 50 parts for herself, 50 parts for other people. Even before I knew what was going to be happening in that final episode, to me it signified that their friendship had endured the span of the show. When I read the finale and I saw that in there, I was so happy. I was just happy that Marnie made the choice that she did.


It feels right to have Marnie stick around longer than the rest of the characters.


Even the resulting monologue about “I win,” which was the most intense Marnie had ever been about anything. But also you get the sense that, over all of these years, the people that Hannah drifted toward that were maybe more fun or interesting or cool had all kind of fallen away, and that just left the foundation of the two of them.


What conversations did you have about the evolution that Marnie and Hannah’s relationship would take in those final few episodes? I ask because Marnie was critical of Hannah’s choice not to tell Paul-Louis about the baby, and her showing up uninvited to Hannah’s house is a sacrificial mark of friendship on Marnie’s part. On the other hand, she doesn’t have much going on in her life, so she might as well pack up and go to the country for the indeterminate future.


Right. Hannah wouldn’t have gotten the name Grover if she hadn’t followed that advice. It was not only Marnie urging that she did that. It was literally everyone Hannah interacted with that reinforced the idea she should tell him. I think in Marnie, after that scene at the pawn shop, we started to see an increased sense of culpability and of willingness to take responsibility for her own shit.


She was definitely tested with regards to Shosh’s party and ignoring Hannah’s call because she was stuck between two friends. She’s not always gonna make the right choices when it comes to that stuff. Then Hannah’s showing up and revealing that she hadn’t told Marnie about the choice to leave the city. Marnie’s betrayed, but I think she was able to do a postmortem on that and realize where Hannah was coming from. Eventually showing up to be there for Hannah shows a level of forgiveness and processing that she hasn’t always had. To me, that just shows a lot of growth on Marnie’s part.


She’s also able give a pretty clear-throated explanation of why she was there and why she was ready to take this on with Hannah. She acknowledges that she doesn’t have a lot going on but she still has a lot to give. What she didn’t totally anticipate, and what Hannah didn’t anticipate, were the emotional struggles of the position that Hannah is in, and how tricky it is, plus you add hormones and your body not feeling like itself and the added stress of Grover not latching. Because Marnie is reading all the books she thinks are the right books, she’s putting all this pressure on Hannah, that she doesn’t even realize is just further stressing Hannah out.


Plus Hannah is resisting this connection with Grover in a way that at the end of the episode she relents to and allows a completely unbreakable bond, which is signified in this act with latching. You could argue is the first uncomplicated, reciprocated relationship Hannah’s been in.


Are you hopeful for Marnie’s future? We leave her in another state of limbo, even if there are glimmers of hope.


I feel very good about where Marnie is at the end of the series. I feel comfortable that she’s rewired the decision part of her mind to start with the fundamentals of who she is and work backwards from there, rather than picking a point on the horizon about who she’d like to be, and then moving awkwardly towards that. She’s saying, “I like rules. Maybe that indicates that I should go into law,” which I actually think is perfect.


Now I’m surprised it didn’t happen sooner.


We had talked about Marnie going to law school in prior seasons, but we thought going in the music direction was more interesting. It was always something I thought about in terms of Marnie. For a million reasons, I just think it’s a perfect avenue for her. With her conversations with Hannah’s mom, it’s helpful for Marnie to be able to hear someone say that to protect your friendship with Hannah in the short term you have to do things that feel like you’re neglecting her. Additionally, do not neglect yourself at this stage in your life, and make sure that you do something for yourself in a way that is actually for yourself, not for some version of yourself that doesn’t exist yet. I feel very good that Marnie’s gonna follow that instinct.


Do you think she’ll head back to the city right away?


Logically, she’s likely going to stay at the house, study for her LSAT, take the LSAT, hopefully do well, and then go off to law school. She’ll still be there for a little while. A lot of my friends have texted me and been like, “Just tell me she gets out of that house.” I reassure them that she’s on her way out of the house. It’s not gonna happen immediately, but it is going to happen eventually.


It’s interesting to think about how Hannah will reckon with Marnie’s absence. After having Marnie’s help, she’ll probably be more shellshocked than she realizes.


But I also think that Hannah’s mom saying she’s gotta go to save both of them shows she has the faith that Hannah can pull this off. More importantly, she needs to do it on her own, for a million reasons. She needs to take complete ownership of this task after being able to pass the buck to Marnie, and Marnie more than gladly picks it up.


It’s interesting to me that she feels that Hannah can do it. Also, she’s like, “I can help them here. You go do your thing.” People say it takes a village. The person who should help with Grover is the mother rather than the best friend, who also has her own life to live in a certain way. She’s willing to give her daughter what she needs in this time. I love that Hannah’s mom comes to intervene in the situation and help both of them sort out what has clouded over given the morass of hormones and pent-up passive-aggression.



With a TV show that runs for six seasons, viewers form opinions along the way, well before the full story has been told. With a movie, that only requires a couple of hours. “Get Out” is a great example. Your character starts one way, but within 90 minutes we know she’s very much somebody else, and then it’s over. As you know, Marnie has been a very polarizing character. Now that we’ve seen her full arc, what do you think Marnie’s legacy will be within the “Girls” universe? 


What a good question. I think Marnie, in some way, particularly illustrates the battle between who someone is to her core and who she wants to be. I think she recognizes very clearly, as I have in my life, that being Type A and uptight and organized, which she is organically drawn to, is uncool. To be a little bit more free and to follow her instinct in a certain way is going to give her more credibility and a more full, interesting life. In reality, there’s always that conflict. It’s knowing that Booth Jonathan wasn’t the right direction for her to go in, but going in it anyway. It’s thinking she has a passion for music, and then picking her most unstable partner imaginable in the midst of an affair to hitch her wagon to musically ― her finest moment being when she goes solo and then quickly goes back to the partnership.


Finally, in the end, we get to see someone starting to accept the things that she can’t change, rather than fighting it tooth and nail, which she had been doing. There’s certain parts of her that people observe. Obviously she’s very judgmental, she’s harsh at times, she’s more critical of other people than she is of herself. Towards the end, we started to see her turn that critical eye on herself. I hear from a ton of people who are Marnie defenders who inevitably have doses of Marnie in themselves. I think what they love about her is that same intensity is also applied to their friendship. When shit hits the fan and then someone needs her, she shows up in a big way. If Hannah’s stranded alongside train tracks with a bicycle and Adam, Marnie will just show up out of nowhere to protect her. Those gestures don’t always pay off. In that instance, it ended with Marnie stuck between the two of them in a cab, miserable. It’s late at night and Hannah’s grinning ear to ear that she has a boyfriend.


I expect her to signify someone who fought who she was for years, and in the end starts to actually get to know who she is. Hopefully with that increased comfort with who she is organically will come a much easier way of life for her, where she can actually start making fun of herself, being a little bit more self-aware, and thus free from all that she has been trying to avoid looking at for all these years.



What was your all-time favorite “Girls” scene to shoot? 


Oh my god. That’s so hard. One of my favorites was when we were sitting, waiting for the bus during the beach-house episode, where we start to silently do the choreography to the dance that we learned. It just felt like such a friendship-y moment where there’s been this knock-dead drama fight where Shosh really brought most of the artillery, and they said a lot of mean things to each other, purging all this pent-up stuff. All Marnie wanted all weekend was this Instagram-worthy, perfect weekend. She wanted her friends to take learning this dance seriously. Then, in this moment, it’s this quiet way that they have of coming back to each other and reconnecting. Shooting it felt really lovely. There’s a million scenes that were incredible to shoot.


And your favorite Marnie moment?


One of my favorite Marnie memories is her taking the stage solo, because that was really important for her. And breaking up with Desi. It was during the “Panic in Central Park” episode. In some ways, I think that was a good moment for Marnie to stand up for herself and extricate herself from something that was damaging.


There are a million. The reason I’m having trouble isolating is that truly, with the exception of scenes where people were yelling at Marnie, every day of going to work on this show was a happy, happy, happy day. Even when they’ve been hard, it’s been my favorite kind of hard, which is such a privilege, and I feel very fortunate for that. Even filming in the middle of the night, when I’m exhausted and grumpy, even those moments were the best possible grumpy and tired working moments I can imagine.


I owe a huge debt of gratitude to the show for literally everything in my career. Additionally for giving me this very fulfilling creative outlet for six years, where not only was I given an incredible thing to do as an actor, but also I was given a very happy, harmonious, safe, cozy work environment from which to do all of it. Trying to wrap my head around all of that going away is no easy feat, but you’ve caught me in the middle of it, so it’s a pleasure talking to you about it.


Absolutely. This show means a lot to people.


Thank you very much! I’m sorry it had to go away, but I hope many happy re-watchings!


This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity and length.

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'Stranger Things' Star Advises People Not To Watch '13 Reasons Why' (UPDATE)

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Netflix has another hit on its hands with the teen drama “13 Reasons Why,” but the star of a different Netflix success is warning viewers they may be better off not binging this one. 


Shannon Purser, who plays Barb on “Stranger Things,” took to Twitter on Monday to advise those dealing with “suicidal thoughts,” struggling with self-harm or facing sexual assault to not watch the show due to its graphic depiction of rape and suicide. 



”13 Reasons Why” is based on the 2007 book of the same name and tells the story of the events surrounding 17-year-old Hannah Baker’s choice to take her own life. Just before her death, Hannah recorded 13 tapes, each one dedicated to a different person whom she believed contributed to her decision. 














Viewer discretion is advised ahead of the show’s 13th episode, with a disclaimer warning of graphic depictions of violence and suicide. But the show’s entire premise is equally as fraught as its final scenes. 



Some reviewers praised the series for the way Hannah’s tapes drive the story, giving her agency and a voice. But one can’t forget that the tapes could also ignite a fantasy for someone who’s imagining how sorry everyone would be when they’re gone.


Purser isn’t the only one offering warnings about the show. Australian mental health organization Headspace told HuffPost Australia that it’s “dangerous” and irresponsible in depicting suicide methods.


Other health groups, including Suicide Awareness Voices of Education (SAVE), agree. 


“There should be no reason, no justification whatsoever, why any kind of production ― entertainment or news ― would be so descriptive and so graphic,” Dan Reidenberg, executive director of SAVE, told the Chicago Tribune of Hannah’s suicide scene. 


But the decision to include the graphic ― and perhaps, as some might say, voyeuristic or even instructional ― scene was not taken lightly. Netflix told the Tribune they consulted with four mental health experts while making the show, and showrunner Brian Yorkey previously told Entertainment Weekly, “We worked very hard not to be gratuitous, but we did want it to be painful to watch because we wanted it to be very clear that there is nothing, in any way, worthwhile about suicide.”


UPDATE ( 5 p.m. ET): Shannon Purser clarified her comments in a series of tweets on Wednesday.  






















 


If you or someone you know needs help, call 1-800-273-8255 for the National
Suicide Prevention Lifeline. You can also text HELLO to 741-741 for free,
24-hour support from the Crisis Text Line. Outside of the U.S., please
visit the International Association for Suicide Prevention for a database
of resources.


Need help? Visit RAINN’s National Sexual Assault Online Hotline or the National Sexual Violence Resource Center’s website.

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Old Hollywood Portraits Capture Stars In Candid Moments Between Takes

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Twentieth Century Fox had been accumulating behind-the-scenes portraits of its stars for decades before it decided to gather them all together in an archive in 1997. The candid photos ― production stills captured by various photographers over the years ― caught actors like Marilyn Monroe, Lena Horne, Cary Grant and Doris Day in between takes as they posed in glamorous costumes or awaited makeup in their bathrobes. 


In one photo, Monroe stares absent-mindedly beyond the camera, a comb at her chin and a towel concealing her hair. With her cat-eye glasses and just a hint of that platinum hairdo peeking out, she’s as stunning as ever ― maybe more so. She’s not pouting or smiling in character, but merely gazing out. Without the sheen of a posed portrait, she appears human, frozen in a moment of being herself.


Over 150 of these photos, oozing with Golden Age nostalgia, appear in the book Styling the Stars: Lost Treasures From the Twentieth Century Fox Archive. Written by former child star Angela Cartwright and actor Tom McLaren (with a foreword from the great Maureen O’Hara), the book is a tribute to the forgotten film stills that tell a decades-old story the public was never permitted to see.



Today, actors and film crews share endless amounts of behind-the-scenes photos, giving fans a taste of the intimate environment of a movie set. But in the 1930s or the 1970s, the so-called continuity photos, snapped by photographers on set to ensure that actors’ wardrobe and makeup remained consistent from one shot to the next, were the only rare bits of documentation studios collected. The only remnants of a time period when film studios operated like small towns.


“Because these [continuity photos] were not promotional shots, the actors wore a variety of expressions that often showed their personalities,” Cartwright writes. “Some were very serious, some clowned around, some posed like models, and some paid little attention at all, showing that it was merely a mundane part of the job. These photos often show the actor in a truly candid moment.”


According to Cartwright, over time, many photos intended for the archive have been lost, misplaced or stolen. While Twentieth Century Fox struck a deal with UCLA in 1973, providing the film department access to the 6,500 boxes of continuity shots and other materials saved in exchange for storage space, it wasn’t until the late ‘90s that the photo archive was organized.


Cartwright and McLaren managed to uncover a trove of negatives throughout their research in the archive, reprinted in Styling the Stars alongside anecdotes from movies past. See a preview of the book below, including forgotten shots of Rita Moreno, Rock Hudson, Candice Bergen and more.


Styling The Stars (2014) is available in paperback this month courtesy of Insight Editions.









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29 Inspiring Books About Immigration The New York Public Library Thinks You Should Read

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No week is the wrong week to dive into good books by or about migrants and immigrants. During a time of heightened scrutiny and inflammatory rhetoric directed at immigrants in the United States, these stories have never been more valuable. 


This may be the exact right week to read an migration or immigration narrative, though: It’s New York City’s annual Immigrant Heritage Week, and to celebrate, the New York Public Library’s Elizabeth Waters posted a fantastic list of NYC-based immigration books, both fiction and non-fiction, worth checking out. (The NYPL is also throwing a number of free events in honor of the week, for New York readers.)


It’s easy for some to see immigrants as threatening outsiders who are encroaching on their resources, jobs and space. But a closer look at the experiences of people who have immigrated or migrated to the United States often shows a more nuanced, humane viewpoint. Immigrants’ novels and memoirs can remind us that they’re simply flesh-and-blood people, who have often overcome great obstacles to earn a living, to improve their new communities and to become American. 


Check out the NYPL’s recommendations below ― click on the titles to check out the books from the NYPL ― and head to their blog for more on the selected books.


Nonfiction


1. The Other Half: The Life of Jacob Riis and the World of Immigrant America by Tom Buk-Swienty; translated from the Danish by Annette Buk-Swienty



Find this book on Amazon or your local indie bookstore.


2. The Rise of Abraham Cahan by Seth Lipsky



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3. 97 Orchard: An Edible History of Five Immigrant Families in One New York Tenement by Jane Ziegelman



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4. Down These Mean Streets by Piri Thomas



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5. When I Was Puerto Rican by Esmeralda Santiago



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6. The Factory of Facts by Luc Sante



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7.Tis: A Memoir by Frank McCourt



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8. Purpose: An Immigrant’s Story by Wyclef Jean



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9. Bird of Paradise: How I Became Latina by Raquel Cepeda



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10. Little Failure: A Memoir by Gary Shteyngart



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11. Not for Everyday Use: A Memoir by Elizabeth Nunez



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12. Undocumented: A Dominican Boy’s Odyssey from a Homeless Shelter to the Ivy League by Dan-El Padilla Peralta



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13. Love, Loss, and What We Ate by Padma Lakshmi



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Fiction


14. Maggie, A Girl of the Streets by Stephen Crane



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15. Bread Givers by Anzia Yezierska



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16. Call it Sleep by Henry Roth



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17. Christ in Concrete by Pietro Di Donato



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18. Brown Girl, Brownstones by Paule Marshall



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19. The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love by Oscar Hijuelos



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20. How the García Girls Lost Their Accents by Julia Alvarez



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21. Typical American by Gish Jen



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22. Breath, Eyes, Memory by Edwidge Danticat



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23. Native Speaker by Chang-Rae Lee



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24. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon



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25. The Russian Debutante’s Handbook by Gary Shteyngart



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26Brooklyn: A Novel by Colm Tóibín



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27. Girl in Translation by Jean Kwok



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28. Open City by Teju Cole



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29. Behold the Dreamers by Imbolo Mbue



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Parents Celebrate Two Rainbow Babies With Sweet Photo Shoot

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After losing their newborn son, Cindy and Jim Bob Haggerton were overjoyed when they welcomed not one, but two rainbow babies in the two years that followed.


A rainbow baby is a child born after a miscarriage, stillbirth, neonatal death or infant loss. In 2014, Cindy delivered a baby boy named Evans eight weeks early. He was soon diagnosed with Potter syndrome and passed away just three hours after birth.


A year later, they adopted their first rainbow baby, a boy named Tate. Then, less than a year after that, Cindy gave birth to another rainbow baby, Whitten.


Photographer Natasha Hance of Birth Unscripted captured a beautiful photo of their two baby boys during a rainbow-themed newborn shoot.



Cindy, Natasha and the photographer’s business partner Amanda Gipson had brainstormed ideas to honor all three babies and came up with the idea of putting the two boys on either side of the rainbow and a small butterfly on top to represent the brother they lost. 


Natasha  said everyone felt excited on the day of the shoot. “When we placed the rainbow over the brothers, it was bittersweet but so meaningful,” she recalled. “We had planned to do a newborn session with Evans, the baby they lost, so this felt almost like we all finally had closure with this part of our (photographic) journey. We had documented each of the babies births and then got to have the newborn session that honored all the baby brothers with this image.” 


The photographer said she’s honored to have been part of the family’s powerful journey and experience their unwavering strength, hope and faith.


Said Hance, “I think Jim Bob and Cindy hope that people are reminded that even in the darkest storm of losing a child there can still be joy that new life brings and that we can still honor and remember loved ones that aren’t with us anymore.”

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Some Of The Biggest Anti-Trump Voices Might Go Silent In A Matter Of Days

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With stinging criticisms cloaked in humor, late-night hosts Stephen Colbert, Samantha Bee, Trevor Noah and the whole cast of “Saturday Night Live” have provided American audiences a way to laugh off their political anxiety. But on May 2, we may have to say goodbye to them for now.


That’s because the day before marks the expiration date for the current contract between the Writers Guild of America, the organization representing 12,000 Hollywood film and TV writers, and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, which represents the writers’ employers. (The Huffington Post is unionized under the WGA-East.)


The current contract, a hefty 687-page document, specifies things like pay minimums and how disputes should be settled. If both sides don’t reach an agreement on a new contract in time, the WGA plans to strike, pending approval from its members. A vote currently underway online is widely expected to pass.


In the case of a strike, programs like “The Late Show,” “Full Frontal,” “The Daily Show” and “SNL,” that have voiced some of the toughest criticisms of President Donald Trump on national television, would face an immediate blackout, according to WGA-West executive director David Young. (Or rather, reruns, which are arguably even worse.)


Because they reflect the issues of the day ― from Trump’s Easter speech to his daughter’s ethically murky role in his administration to his press secretary’s combative demeanor with the media ― late-night programs don’t have a real stockpile of material like other scripted shows and are left with no other choice. It’s happened before, during the 100-day WGA strike that began in late 2007.


This time around, however, the dispute is a little different. Here’s a quick recap of what’s going on and how it might affect viewers.







If there’s a strike, what would happen to TV shows?


Most scripted TV won’t be immediately affected like late-night shows due to the timing of the strike ― just before summer break. Reality TV would go on more or less as usual. (Last time, networks aired more reality TV.) Fall TV would most likely be delayed, especially if the strike drags out as long as it did before. 


In the entertainment industry, there’s concern among traditional networks, like ABC, NBC and CBS, that a strike will encourage viewers to lean on streaming platforms like Netflix and Amazon. It makes sense: If you’re going to watch reruns, would you rather have control over which ones you watch, or not? Netflix CEO Reed Hastings has said his company would be “impacted” by a strike, but because it doesn’t adhere to the same rigid production schedules as traditional TV, viewers wouldn’t feel it as much. 


What would happen to movies?


Since they’re planned further in advance, movie releases won’t be impacted immediately ― we’ll still get our summer blockbusters. Those currently in production could face delays, though, as union members wouldn’t be able to produce the necessary script drafts, rewrites and polishes. 


What do the writers want?


The strike dispute is centered around TV: The WGA has stated that its writers aren’t profiting off the current boom in TV production as much as their employers are. They’re asking for more compensation across the board, and from digital platforms in particular. If you’re only raking in the bare minimums, network TV offers the most pay, as it has for some time; the WGA would like to close the gap a bit. The guild is also fighting for higher pension and health plan contributions by employers to financially stabilize them.


How is this strike different than the last one?


The last strike revolved around digital revenue, as writers wanted a slice of the online pie, which seemed poised to blow up. (Spoiler: It did.) Now, they’re fighting for a bigger slice, with a health care demand in the mix that is not popular with the AMPTP.


But the TV landscape has also changed since the last strike ― while there are more shows to watch than ever before, many times their seasons consist of fewer episodes. Think of “Big Little Lies,” with just seven, compared to a two-dozen-episode season of “The Big Bang Theory.” More TV hasn’t equalled more money for writers, though, because writers are typically paid per episode, and the shorter seasons can require nearly as much time as the longer ones. Then, there’s the added hurdle of “exclusivity provisions” discouraging writers from working on more than one show at a time. Those provisions take writers out of the application pool for the duration of a show’s run, even if they’re not actively writing scripts for it.


When will we know more?


Negotiations are set to resume Tuesday, April 25. Whether the two sides will reach a compromise quickly is anyone’s guess.



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Weird, People Are Protesting An Art Performance Featuring 500 Liters Of Bull Blood

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Even in the proudly freaky domain of performance art, Hermann Nitsch is an odd bird. Since the 1960s, his pagan performances have incorporated the carcasses, blood and entrails of slaughtered animals into elaborate aesthetic rituals resembling botched orgies or alien religious ceremonies. The Austrian artist, who has been arrested three times for his work, is no stranger to controversy.


Nitsch’s newest performance, part of his ongoing “Orgy Mystery Theater” series, just might be his most gag-reflex-triggering yet. The three-hour piece, titled “150.Action,” will feature 500 liters of bull blood as well as an actual slaughtered bull. 


“Action” participants, who Nitsch calls “disciples,” are invited to dress in white and engage with the bloody mess by bathing in blood, butchering dead animals, whatever floats your boat. The performance will involve a bizarre buffet of blood, semen and guts, a visceral event at once pleasurable, horrifying, pornographic, spiritual and grotesque. 


Nitsch’s work is slated to run in June as part of the Museum of Old and New Art’s Dark Mofo festival in Tasmania, but a petition by Animal Liberation Tasmania is calling on the Hobart city council to ban the literal blood bath. 


The appeal reads: “We are opposed to this event, which trivializes the slaughter of animals for human usage, and condemns a sentient being to death in the pursuit of artistic endeavors.” It had received over 9,000 signatures at the time of this article’s publication. 



Though an actual bull will need to be killed for this debauched sensory overload, Dark Mofo creative director Leigh Carmichael told ABC Radio Hobart that reports of a “live slaughter” are incorrect. Instead, the animal will be “slaughtered humanely” at a local butchery before the performance, he explained, adding that the blood used in the performance would also be locally sourced. 


Despite this clarification, Peter West, the general manager of animal welfare group RSPCA Tasmania, is still concerned with what will happen to the carcass after it’s slaughtered.


“I think the difficulty we have is the respect shown to the animal with this action, that’s the challenge that we have with this particular artwork,” West told Guardian Australia. “It’s clearly not respectful to the beast and even though it has been humanely and respectfully dispatched, what happens after that is anything but respectful.”


Surely no bull wants its life to end with a crowd of young art enthusiasts bathing in its blood, but for Nitsch, such an action evokes intensified sensations that are often muted in everyday life, feelings that get to the core of what it means to be a human being.


“I want my work stir up the audience, the participants of my performances,” the artist told Hyperallergic in 2014. “I want to arouse them by the means of sensual intensity and to bring them an understanding of their existence. Intensity is an awakening into being.”


As of now, Dark Mofo remains unsurprised by the controversy Nitsch’s performance has provoked and has no plans to cancel the performance. As Carmichael explained, the festival will “not shy away from presenting work that challenges us to consider the ethical implications of our actions both today, and in the past... Some artists use paint, he uses blood and meat.”


Barring cancelation, Nitsch’s “150.Action” will run in Hobart as part of Dark Mofo from June 8 to June 21. “Action” attendees ― all of whom must be 18 years or older ― may even be able to feast on the freshly butchered meat itself, if the museum can sort out the details with Australian health and safety regulations.



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These Travel Posters Depict A Dystopian Future If The U.S. Ignores Climate Change

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Rising sea levels have overtaken some of America’s most iconic landmarks in a series of mock travel posters released by a Boulder, Colorado-based marketing agency this week.


The project offers a dark prediction of the country’s future if U.S. lawmakers ignore climate research. Designers at Walden Hyde created the posters for purchase a few years ago and re-released them on the firm’s website for free this week in anticipation of this weekend’s nationwide March for Science.



Lucia Robinson, co-founder of Walden Hyde, designed the posters with the company’s art director, Stephanie Sizemore. She said activists are welcome to use the “fun free art” during demonstrations and hopes the project will drum up support for federal funding of climate science.


“Climate change can be a really scary topic,” Robinson said. “It’s an issue that will increasingly impact every part of our lives both environmentally and socially.”


The Environmental Protection Agency’s estimates for sea level rise by the end of the century range between 1 and 4 feet, with an uncertainty range of 0.66 to 6.6 feet. Some researchers argue that earlier predictions don’t sufficiently account for Antarctica’s melting ice and that a more accurate estimate is over 6 feet of sea level rise if greenhouse gas emissions don’t decrease.


In one poster, a kayaker paddles his way through Utah’s iconic Arches National Park, while scuba divers in another surreal scene explore a submerged Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.


The posters may be a dramatic representation, but the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has provided a tool to map what could actually happen to our coastlines and landmarks if sea levels rise up to 6 feet.




Thousands of people are expected gather in Washington and other cities across the country during the March for Science this Saturday, which is Earth Day. Participants in the nationwide day of action will call on U.S. lawmakers to embrace and form policies based on scientific evidence.


“Climate action initiatives introduced by the Obama administration are at risk of being rolled by back right now,” said Robinson, who plans to attend Denver’s science march this weekend. “We’d like to see those left in the place, and for the U.S. to take a leadership role in climate science.”


Environmentalists have spoken out against President Donald Trump and his administration’s regressive stance on climate change. Trump has vowed to “revive” America’s coal industry and signed an executive order last month to review the Obama administration’s signature program to combat climate change.


Meanwhile, EPA head Scott Pruitt, who sued the agency he’s now running over a dozen times during his tenure as Oklahoma’s attorney general, has denied that human activity is the principal cause of climate change ― dismissing a theory that 97 percent of climate scientists agree on. Last month, Pruitt intensified his anti-science stance, claiming that carbon dioxide doesn’t play a major role in global warming.


Pruitt, along with Trump adviser Stephen Bannon, has been a driving force behind the administration’s reluctance to support the 2015 Paris climate accord, in which nearly 200 countries pledged to cut back their carbon emissions to limit global warming.


Walden Hyde called its posters a “contribution to climate science advocacy” in a statement to The Huffington Post. You can download them for free on the agency’s website.



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Bruce Springsteen Takes Aim At Donald Trump In New Protest Anthem

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Bruce Springsteen already spoke out about President Donald Trump in concert, but now the rocker is taking it a step further.


On Wednesday, the New Jersey native unveiled a new collaboration with Joe Grushecky and the Houserockers called “That’s What Makes Us Great.”


In the protest anthem (featuring vocals by both Springsteen and Grushecky), Springsteen alludes to Trump with the lyrics:


Don’t tell me a lie


And sell it as a fact


I’ve been down that road before


And I ain’t goin’ back


And don’t you brag to me


That you never read a book


I never put my faith


In a con man and his crooks


Grushecky, who’s teamed up with Springsteen over the years, told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that he wrote the song in January, right around the time Trump entered the White House.


“I had this song, and Bruce and I had been talking. I sent it to him and he liked it. I said, ‘What do you think about singing on it?’ He gave it the Bruce treatment,” he said.


Grushecky said he was inspired to write the track when Trump “started making fun of special needs people,” adding, “How could a person like that be president of the United States? Regardless of all the other [stuff], that to me is appalling. I have special needs people in my family and in my neighborhood. I worked with special needs people my whole life and I was really offended by it.”


“That’s What Makes Us Great” is available on Grushecky’s website


Welcome to Battleground, where art and activism meet.


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Who Was Henrietta Lacks? 5 Striking Facts About The ‘Mother Of Modern Medicine’

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Hardly anyone knew of Henrietta Lacks’ life story prior to 2010.  


That year, Rebecca Skloot’s The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks was released, and went on to become a New York Times best-seller. The biographical book told the story of a black woman born on a tobacco farm in Roanoke, Virginia, in 1920 who revolutionized medical research and saved the lives of millions, without ever knowing it. Now, a new film by the same name starring Oprah Winfrey aims to make her life and impact more widely known.


Who exactly was Henrietta Lacks? And why is she described as the “Mother of Medicine”? Here are five fascinating facts about Lacks to better understand who she was and how she changed the world forever.  



1. Henrietta Lacks died from a cancer whose cells also made her immortal.


In 1951, at the age of 31, Lacks visited Baltimore’s Johns Hopkins Hospital, which served black patients in segregated wards during the Jim Crow era, so doctors could find out what was causing pain in her lower stomach. It turned out there was a cancerous tumor that had grown at a terrifying rate on her cervix.


At the time, cervical cancer was prevalent among women and research samples were taken from those who were diagnosed with it. Richard Telinde, a doctor at Hopkins who led a research study on patients who tested positive, hoped to grow living samples from both normal and infected cells to better understand the cancer. He worked with his colleague Dr. George Gey, the head of tissue culture research at Hopkins, who was relentlessly determined to develop the first line of immortal human cells ― those that could repeatedly replicate themselves outside of the body without ever dying.


Soon after her first trip to the hospital, the excruciating pain Lacks felt began to worsen as her tumor grew, so she checked herself into Hopkins for immediate treatment through surgery. The doctor who performed the surgery then removed two dime-sized pieces of tissue from Lacks’ body ― one from the infected cervix, the other from a healthy part of the organ ― and had them handed off to Gey. He and his staff used Lacks’ samples to successfully grow the first line of immortal cells. Lacks eventually died from the cancer, leaving five young children. 


However, her cells lived on ― and soon came to be known as HeLa.


2. Lacks never knew doctors took her cells ― and neither did her family, for decades.


In The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Skloot writes that while Lacks gave doctors permission to perform a surgical procedure on her, she “knew nothing about her cells growing in a laboratory.” The hospital had called Lacks’ husband, David, to tell him about her death and ask if they could do an autopsy on her. Her husband initially denied the request, but visited the hospital later that day to see Lacks’ body and eventually agreed to sign off on the autopsy because doctors said they wanted to conduct tests that may help their children, and he believed them.


Decades after Lacks’ death, Rolling Stone published a riveting piece in March 1976 that gave a detailed account of what happened to her cells and included comments from her husband. In the piece, he recounted his experience at the hospital after learning of her death and revealed that he had never explicitly been told by doctors or any official about what the samples had been used for:



“They said it wouldn’t disfigure her none, because it was all down in her womb, to begin with.” He nods. “They said it was the fastest growing cancer they’d ever known, and they was suppose to tell me about it, to let me know, but I never did hear.”



In the same interview, Lacks’ eldest son, Lawrence, told the reporter: “First we heard was about a month ago, a person called us on the phone and asked if we’d like to take a blood test. That’s the first time we heard about it.”


3. Her name was changed from Henrietta Lacks to Helen Lane.


Helen Lane had quickly become a pseudonym for Henrietta Lacks in print, which Skloot writes was apparently an intentional move made in an effort to disguise Lacks’ true identity from the public and the media. According to Skloot, one of Gey’s colleagues told her Gey himself had created the new name so the media wouldn’t discover who Lacks really was. The Minneapolis Star was the first to publish a report on Nov. 2, 1953, that more accurately identified Lacks, only the last name was incorrect: She was recognized as Henrietta Lakes.


Upon the release of the story, journalists dug in and began requesting interviews with Gey and other doctors central to the case, but they all were reluctant to release her real name at the risk of “getting into trouble,” according to the book. Skloot firmly concludes that had Lacks’ name been released to the public from the outset, it would have changed her family’s life forever.


“They would have learned that Henrietta’s cells were still alive, that they’d been taken, bought, sold and used in research without her knowledge or theirs,” she wrote.


4. HeLa cells have led to countless medical breakthroughs.


HeLa cells have entirely revolutionized medical research. The cell line can be found in labs across the world and has been used in studies that have resulted in countless breakthroughs.


The cells were used to develop the first polio vaccine in 1952 during a time when the disease swept the nation in an outbreak that left thousands of children paralyzed.


HeLa cells have also traveled to space to help scientists study the impact zero gravity has on human cells; been used to identify abnormalities in chromosomes; helped with research in the mapping of the human genome; and aided in studying the human papillomavirus, commonly known as HPV, which causes the cervical cancer that killed Lacks.


In 2014, chemists and engineers at Penn State University announced that in their study, HeLa cells had been implanted with technology that have potential to cure cancer if they are able to mechanically manipulate cells inside the body. 


5. Her family, while never given compensation, says her spirit continues to live on.


Both of Lacks’ daughters have died, including Deborah, who was hugely instrumental in bringing the book to life by working with Skloot and whom Oprah portrays in the film. But her legacy lives on through her three sons, who are now decades old. 


And it’s Lacks’ eldest son, Lawrence, reportedly the executor of her estate, who is leading the charge for the family to receive compensation from Johns Hopkins Hospital and others. However, the institute said in 2010 that it does not own the rights for the HeLa cell line and that they have not profited from the cells. Lawrence plans on continuing to pursue his mission. 


Before Deborah’s death in 2009, she told Skloot that even though she and her siblings lost their mother, Lacks always knew how to make her presence known. 


“Deborah believed Henrietta’s spirit lived on in her cells, controlling the life of anyone who crossed its path,” Skloot wrote. “Including me.” 


“The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks” premieres on HBO on Saturday, April 22. 

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Larry David's Daughter Cazzie's New Web Series Is Like 'Curb' For Millennials

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We’re all undeniably lucky for Larry David’s existence. If it wasn’t for the irritable genius, we wouldn’t have “Seinfeld” or “Curb Your Enthusiasm” and frankly, we wouldn’t want to live in that world. 


What some may not realize, though, is that there’s another David family member out there that’s also funny and unenthused: LD’s 23-year-old daughter Cazzie. 


When she’s not touring historical Civil War sites with her pops, she’s busy writing and starring in “Eighty-Sixed,” a new web series that explores the intricacies of love and breakups in the social media age.


Relatable post-breakup things she does in the first episode, which you can watch above:  


- Google the important questions ― like “how is Demi Moore doing post-Ashton Kutcher?”


- Shrug off the sage her friends bring over to clear the air of her toxic ex.


- Hate on another friend for tagging her in an inspirational breakup quote on Facebook (that’s literally the worst thing a “friend” can do after a breakup)


Watch the first episode above, and watch all four episodes on YouTube





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12 Baby Girl Names Inspired By Poetry

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April is National Poetry Month. If you’re seeking a name for your daughter that’s lyrical and poetic, a good source might be those that have inspired the poets of the past. Some are idealized Greek or Latinate appellations used by the early English pastoral poets in verse, some are found in later works by the Romantic poets, some of them are completely creative inventions.


Here are a dozen examples for your baby naming inspiration.


Annabel


One of the most famous and romantic muse names of all is Edgar Allen Poe’s Annabel Lee ― For the moon never beams, without bringing me dreams/Of the beautiful Annabel Lee.” This lovely old extension of Ann and variation of Amabel is now number 320 on Nameberry. Actor James Van Der Beek did a switch on the poem by naming his daughter Annabel Leigh.


Corinna        


Corinna is a delicate, underused name that’s been a favorite of poets going back to Ovid, but most famous via Robert Herrick’s “Corinna’s Gone A-Maying.” The Corinne version of the name has been much more popular here, as high as 249 in the 1920s and now 486 on Nameberry.


Evangeline


Another quintessentially poetic name, it was introduced by Longfellow in his hugely esteemed narrative poem Evangeline, A Tale of Arcadie, and is now riding a wave of popularity ― 261 nationally, 36 on Nameberry ― (props also to Evangeline Lilly). Mia Farrow has a granddaughter named Evangeline.


Amarantha  


One syllable longer than Samantha, this is a rare Greek botanical name recalling the sacred plant of Artemis, Richard Lovelace composed a “Song to Amarantha” ― “Amarantha sweet and fair/ Ah braid no more that shining hair.”


Miranda        


A shimmeringly lovely name invented by Shakespeare for a character in The Tempest, Miranda was used poetically in more modern times by W. H. Auden for an eponymous poem. Widely inhabited by book, movie and TV characters, and now ranking a relatively high 278, Miranda still manages to retain its romantic luster.


Christabel


The crystal-clear Christabel, which has never taken off in the U.S. (but which could in this age of Isabel), was originally popularized by a poem by Samuel Coleridge ― “The lovely lady Christabel whom her father loves so well.” Its most famous bearer was the poet’s own granddaughter, U.K. suffragist Christabel Pankhurst.


Constantia


If you find Constance a little stiff, there is the more poetic and unusual Constantia, used by the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley in his ode “To Constantia” ― “In thy dark eyes a power like light doth lie.”


Ianthe


A romantic, almost ethereal Greek mythological name meaning ‘purple flower’, Ianthe inspired a number of poets, including Byron and Shelley. In fact Shelley liked it so much he used it for his daughter.


Lalla


Move over Lila, Lola and Leila and make room for the rhythmic Arabic name Lalla. It was featured in the romantic poem “Lalla Rookh” by Thomas Moore, about a Mughal princess. Possible problem: hit film “La La Land.”


Lucasta


Lucasta was invented by seventeenth century poet Richard Lovelace for a collection of poems dedicated to a lover named Lucy, and makes a nice addition to the list of light-filled Luc/Lux names.


Phillida


It’s not Philippa, and it’s not Phyllis ― it’s Phillida, the Latin variation of Phyllida, which is the memorably distinctive name of Emma Thompson’s actress mother Phyllida Law. Poet Nicholas Breton wrote a pastoral poem called “Phillida and Coridon” ― “And Phillida with garlands gay/ Was made the Lady of the May.”


Phryne


If you’ve ever seen the British mystery show “Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries” and wondered how the heck the stylish protagonist spelled her name, now you know. The great 17th century metaphysical poet John Donne wrote a poem titled “Phryne.”

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There's A Japanese Word For People Who Buy More Books Than They Can Actually Read

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Book hoarding is a well-documented habit.


In fact, most literary types are pretty proud of the practice, steadfast in their desire to stuff shelves to maximum capacity. They’re not looking to stop hoarding, because parting with pieces of carefully curated piles is hard and stopping yourself from buying the next Strand staff pick is even harder. So, sorry Marie Kondo, but the books are staying.


The desire to buy more books than you can physically read in one human lifetime is actually so universal, there’s a specific word for it: tsundoku. Defined as the stockpiling of books that will never be consumed, the term is a Japanese portmanteau of sorts, combining the words “tsunde” (meaning “to stack things”) and “oku” (meaning “to leave for a while”). 


We were reminded of the term this week, when Apartment Therapy published a primer for those looking to complete book-hoarder rehab. Several blogs have written on the topic before, though, surfacing new and interesting details about the word so perfect for book nerds everywhere.


While most who’ve written on the topic of tsundoku use the word to describe the condition of book hoarding itself, The LA Times used the term as a noun that describes the person suffering from book stockpiling syndrome, or “a person who buys books and doesn’t read them, and then lets them pile up on the floor, on shelves, and assorted pieces of furniture.”


Tsundoku has no direct synonym in English, Oxford Dictionaries clarified in a blog post, defining the word as “the act of leaving a book unread after buying it, typically piling it up together with other such unread books.” An informative subreddit provides even more context, explaining that “the tsundoku scale” ranges from just one unread book to a serious hoard. “Everyone is most likely to be ‘tsundokursed’ one way or the other,” it warns.







According to Quartz, tsundoku has quite a history. It originated as a play on words in the late 19th century, during what is considered the Meiji Era in Japan. At first, the “oku” in “tsunde oku” morphed into “doku,” meaning “to read,” but since “tsunde doku” is a bit of a mouthful, the phrase eventually condensed into “tsundoku.” And a word for reading addicts was born.


Speaking of addictions ― the term “bibliomania” emerged in England around the same time as “tsundoku.” Thomas Frognall Dibdin, an English cleric and bibliographer, wrote Bibliomania, or Book Madness: A Bibliographical Romance in the 1800s, outlining a fictional “neurosis” that prompted those suffering from it to obsessively collect books of all sorts. 


Bibliomania has a dark past, documented more as a pseudo-illness that inspired real fear than a harmless knack for acquiring books we won’t have time to read. “Some collectors spent their entire fortunes to build their personal libraries,” Lauren Young wrote for Atlas Obscura. “While it was never medically classified, people in the 1800s truly feared bibliomania.”  


Tsundoku seems to better capture the lighter side of compulsive book shopping, a word that evokes images of precariously stacked tomes one good breeze away from toppling over. While there’s no English equivalent quite as beautiful, no one’s stopping you from incorporating the Japanese word into your regular vocabulary.


“As with other Japanese words like karaoke, tsunami, and otaku, I think it’s high time that tsundoku enter the English language,” Open Culture wrote in 2014. “Now if only we can figure out a word to describe unread ebooks that languish on your Kindle. E-tsundoku? Tsunkindle?”





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