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Carrie Fisher Remembered As Fans Celebrate 'Star Wars Day'

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The world marked “Star Wars Day” on Thursday by paying tribute to the late actress who portrayed Princess Leia.


Carrie Fisher died on Dec. 27, 2016. She was 60.


Dozens of Twitter users posted poignant messages in Fisher’s honor, lamenting the fact that this was the first “Star Wars Day” since her death. 


Here’s a sampling:




















































































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Stephen King Finally Found Something Scarier Than 'The Shining'

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Author Stephen King has been delivering chills for more than four decades with horror masterpieces such as “It,” “The Shining” and “’Salem’s Lot.” 


But King now believes there’s something more terrifying than anything he’s ever cooked up, and it’s living in the White House.


On Wednesday, King fired off a pair of tweets about President Donald Trump










One of the best-selling novelists of all time, King has been a frequent critic of the president’s antics. Last month, King told Trump voters that if they think the president has done a good job, they haven’t been paying attention


And last year, before the election, King tweeted: 





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'Chuck' Gives Liev Schreiber A Head Start In The Oscar Race

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Fame can be a fickle thing ― the highs are high and the lows are low. No one knows that more than ‘70s prizefighter Chuck Wepner, whose career is long rumored to be the inspiration behind Sylvester Stallone’s “Rocky.”


Wepner’s personal story is now featured in Philippe Falardeau’s new biopic “Chuck,” starring Liev Schreiber as “The Bayonne Bleeder,” who went almost 15 rounds with world heavyweight champion Muhammad Ali  in 1975. The movie follows Wepner through his ups ― his success after the Ali fight ― and downs ― getting thrown in jail for drug possession ― while telling the tale of his doomed marriage to first wife, Phyllis (played by Elisabeth Moss), and eventual romance with his current wife, Linda (Naomi Watts). 


The film, which hits theaters Friday, does a fine job entertaining the audience while presenting Wepner’s various tribulations, but it’s Schreiber who stands out amid the madness. The actor is pretty darn convincing as the New Jersey-bred boxer, even impressing the source himself. 


“We turned down four scripts and four different actors before [we landed on this version,] and when they told me that Liev Schreiber was going to play the part, I was thrilled,” Wepner told HuffPost in a sit-down interview. “I mean, this guy is a legitimate superstar. I love him in the part for a nomination because he played it great, and Elisabeth [Moss], too. She was drop-dead great as my other wife.”


“That’s a really nice thing to say. There are a lot worse things he could’ve said!” Schreiber joked of Wepner’s comment to HuffPost, adding of award murmurs, “I get excited, but self-consciously excited. But then, I do everything pretty self-consciously.” 


For Schreiber, the goal is never really to win awards, although it’s always nice to be considered among his esteemed colleagues. He credits his co-stars with helping him reach a level of success with this project, specifically calling his on-screen partners Moss and Watts “extraordinary.” 


“Both of them were so good in this movie. That was huge [working with them],” he said of his female co-stars, one of whom is his real-life ex. “Also, Michael Rapaport does a really gorgeous performance as Chuck’s brother. Jim Gaffigan, as well. All the actors in this. It’s something too about independent films. When you’re pressed for time and money, there’s a certain kind of resourcefulness that tends to pop up, and we had that going on this film.”



With “Chuck,” the 49-year-old actor really wants viewers to walk away feeling more aware about the effects of fame rather than boxing history in general.


“I never really thought of this as a sports movie. The best I could describe it is sort of a cautionary tale about fame and celebrity that is surprisingly enjoyable, which fame and celebrity often is,” Schreiber told us. 


The actor himself has dealt with the Hollywood spotlight, being in a high-profile relationship with Watts, with whom he separated in September 2016 after 11 years together. They have two sons, Sasha, 9, and Samuel, 8. 


“My kids don’t have any context for being swarmed in the streets and photographed, and people wanting to stop us and take pictures all the time. And it made me a little concerned about their expectations about fame and celebrity,” Schreiber said. “As I hear young people today talking about their aspirations to ‘blow up’ or become famous, it just felt important to me to add a counterpoint to that argument, which is to say, ‘It’s not everything you think it is.’ In fact, it’s a lot more precarious and dangerous existence than I think most people are aware of.” 


That’s not to say Schreiber doesn’t enjoy positive reviews or people coming up to tell him they love “X-Men” or “Ray Donovan.”  


“That feels terrific,” he admitted. “The problem, and I think ‘Chuck’ does a really good job articulating this, is that that feels so good that you could actually start to live your life for it. I think it’s important to have people close to you who know you and have always known you and will always know you so that you remember who you were before that film happened.”


He continued, “There are very few jobs that are deeply connected to personality and character ― I guess prizefighter is one of them, too. There’s some projection of the audience’s own aspirational stuff that is such a huge responsibility ― for professional athletes, musicians and actors, especially ― that you have to be careful to keep yourself separate from it, to some extent.”


“Fame can corrupt you and knock you down,” Wepner, who was arrested in 1985 on a drug charge, added. “There I was, on the top of the world, everything going good, and I got into [the wrong stuff]. I was a party animal and I was stupid and I got myself involved in something I shouldn’t have been in. But I fought my way out and I got Linda — she didn’t drink or do anything like that ― and I felt she was the right girl for me. She’s so terrific, I’m lucky and I’m here now.”



In order to make the film, producers had to reach out to another man who knows a thing or two about being famous: Sylvester Stallone. In “Chuck,” the filmmaker and actor is portrayed by Morgan Spector, in scenes where Stallone and Wepner meet to discuss the success of “Rocky” and creation of “Rocky II.”  


“We did very well by him in the movie,” Wepner told HuffPost. “I thought we were very good to him, and deservedly so. He took us to Bulgaria to his studios and let us use his boxing ring for the filming of the Ali fight, because they wanted a great deal of money to shoot the fight in America — you had to pay the foundation a lot of money. Stallone took us over there — we did it for $350,000 instead of $2 million, five days, in and out ― and we got all the shots done. He was great to us.”


Wepner did sue Stallone in 2003 for frequently referencing him as the living counterpart of the fictional Rocky Balboa, saying Stallone usurped his “right of publicity.” But they settled the suit for undisclosed terms in 2006. 


“I’ve been a fan of Sylvester Stallone for years,” Wepner continued. “Even though we went to court and I sued him, that was just business. And big deal — he’s got insurance companies and everything else. I think he’s still got a few bucks!” 


“If you’re Chuck, it’s hard to not see ‘Rocky 2’ [and think it’s about you],” Schreiber said. “Rocky’s sparring partner is ‘Ching Weber’ and his name is Chuck Wepner. And then Rocky fights a professional wrestler, Hulk Hogan, and Chuck fought Andre the Giant. If you’re Chuck, it’s hard to not go, ‘Wait a minute?’” 


If you’re interested to know more about Wepner’s side of the story, “Chuck” hits theaters in limited release Friday.  

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College Students Clamor To Get Into A Weekly 7-Hour Class On Despair

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Grab a book, settle into your seat, and try not to check your phone or get up until you’ve read the work cover to cover.


That’s the invitation University of Pennsylvania professor Justin McDaniel will be offering his students in a seven-hour class entitled “Existential Despair” next semester that will run from 5 p.m. to midnight every Tuesday.


McDaniel, the chair of UPenn’s religious studies department and a former Buddhist monk, said the primary goal of the unconventional class is to return to students a love of learning for learning’s sake.


“There’s an affective, an emotional and a physical side to learning, which religious traditions have taught us, whether it’s scholars of the Torah or monks reading in a monastery,” McDaniel told HuffPost. “For a moment once a week we will be in an almost monastic learning setting.”


Students will enter the classroom, place their cell phones in a box and receive a copy of the week’s reading to sink their teeth into. The first four and a half hours of class will be spent reading in silence, the professor said. Students may get up to go to the bathroom, but they won’t be able to chat, check their phones or even take notes.


“Most people don’t know how to just sit and read a book for five hours,” McDaniel said. “We could do it at 8, 9, 10 years old, but you start to lose it when reading becomes an assignment or a competition.”


After hours of reading in silence, the class will launch into a discussion about the work, followed by writing exercises and small group activities. Class will end at midnight, and campus escorts will be on hand to walk students safely home.


McDaniel won’t assign any homework, but he assures that the class will be “intensive.”



The physical experience of reading a book, sticking with your emotions and sitting with boredom is worth the struggle.”



This might sound like torture to some, but McDaniel is no tyrant. Thoughtful and friendly in conversation, the professor is known for teaching unorthodox courses that are so popular they require interviews for admittance.


For his high-demand class “Living Deliberately: Monks, Saints, and the Contemplative Life,” students spend a month of the semester in silence, refraining from any electronic communications and limiting their spending to $50 a week.


As one former student of McDaniel’s described the class: “It was a good way to take a step back from life and just view it from the outside and get a clarity that you don’t get when you’re actively involved with everything all the time.”


McDaniel’s intensions for “Existential Despair” are similar to those operating in the monk class. Like the challenge of maintaining silence or celibacy, McDaniel said “the physical experience of reading a book, sticking with your emotions and sitting with boredom is worth the struggle.” 


What’s more, the professor says, students are hungry for this kind of engagement. The idea for the class came to McDaniel through conversations with students who lamented that they had so little time to just read and learn for the sake of it.


On top of that, their knowledge of classic works of literature was ― by McDaniel’s standards ― pitiful.


“I would mention things in lectures, like of course we’ve all read this or that classic ― really well-known, common books ― and I was shocked,” he said. “It would just be blank faces. And these are bright, Ivy League students, and they had not even heard of many books I just assumed were common.”


McDaniel started recommending books to students outside of class, encouraging them to try the exercise of sitting and reading a book without distractions until they finished it.


“I found students loved it,” he said. “They loved just being told to read something for pleasure.”


When McDaniel decided to pursue teaching a one-unit, elective course with this model, he took stock of the books he’d been recommending to students within his field of religious and Buddhist studies. “The books students were responding well to were generally on the subject of existential despair, trauma or the dark night of the soul,” he said.


The books assigned in his class will deal issues like religious struggle, the nature of faith, moral crises, illness, the end of life, the end of relationships, and struggles with identity. They’ll represent authors from a wide range of religious and spiritual traditions.



These books help show people that if they’re feeling lost or isolated, they’re not alone.”



“Part of the pedagogical project is that they don’t know what they’re reading until they get there,” McDaniel explained. The professor doesn’t want students reading ahead, perusing SparkNotes or otherwise seeking out an advantage over their peers.


“I don’t think reading should be a competition or an endurance test,” he said. Everyone should feel that “they have a ground to participate on.”


Like his monk class, the seven-hour, reading-intensive course garnered such high demand that students had to apply to sign up. More than 200 students inquired about taking the course, McDaniel said. One hundred and fifty students requested interviews, and 26 made the final cut.


“I’ve clearly hit a nerve with students on campus,” he said.


The professor said he was looking for a number of things in the small group interviews, including strong concentration and reading comprehension skills. One of his main goals was to bring together students from disparate backgrounds and disciplines. The resulting group includes students studying things like nursing, engineering and biology, as well as those majoring in the humanities.


McDaniel will pair the students up at the beginning of the semester, and each person will buy or prepare a meal for their partner to eat during the long evening class. In the true monastic fashion, the professor explained, “monks read together, and they eat together.” 


Their partner will also be someone they can talk to about the difficult and at times “depressing” themes discussed in the books. Given the nature of the course, McDaniel added, counseling services will be available throughout the semester to, understandably, help the students manage any existential crises that might arise.


But the professor said he hopes the works will ultimately be “uplifting” and help the students navigate their lives in the years to come.


He affirmed: “These books help show people that if they’re feeling lost or isolated, they’re not alone.”


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Chris Gethard's 'Career Suicide' Blurs The Line That Separates Tragedy And Comedy

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For its relative ubiquity — the National Institute of Mental Health estimates that 16.1 million American adults experienced a major depressive episode in 2015 —writing about depression feels, at times, like dancing about architecture. For all of our words, finding the right combination to convey that particular, pervasive sense of despair is surprisingly tricky. You cycle through synonyms (sad, miserable, gloomy, despondent) and metaphors (dark clouds, dark caves, dark insides, general darkness) and yet still feel stuck on an algebraic curve that merely approaches the feeling while never quite arriving there.


Watching Chris Gethard’s one-man show titled “Career Suicide,” which arrives on HBO May 6 after an off-Broadway run late last year, comes pretty close. Over 80 minutes, the comedian details his extensive struggle with depression, suicidal thinking and alcoholism. It may not sound like light fare to the average entertainment seeker, but Gethard’s brand of humor — sprinkled with ample Smiths references, North Jersey accents and an interlude about very pitiful ejaculations — allows the tougher medicine to go down smooth.


Gethard isn’t the first comedian to tackle serious mental health issues amid laughter. One can also point to peers like Maria Bamford or Aparna Nancherla, who incorporate living with bipolar disorder and anxiety, respectively, into their acts. The existence of sadness and mirth on two sides of the same coin is a staple of the profession; the old saying, after all, goes that comedy is simply tragedy plus time. 


“Before I tell you anything else, I want you to know: I see a shrink, we’re good,” Gethard begins the show. For the comedian, an easy entry-point into the often absurd world of depression is through his therapist, Barb, who Skypes Gethard for his sessions from her house in Mexico and seems to lack any notion of professional boundaries. (A fun fact: In a Saturday panel during the Tribeca Film Festival, Gethard revealed that he tried to sub in “Deb” for Barb’s name in his act, but the name simply lacked the same comedic heft. Barb told him that there were enough therapists in the tri-state area with her name that he could safely use it and protect her privacy.)







Simply by giving voice to some of his less rational thoughts, Gethard can transform them into punchlines. After introducing the audience to Barb, he mentions his wife’s “one flaw” — she neglects to close cabinet doors after opening them.


“In my head, I’m going, who cares, let it go, there are no negative repercussions to a cabinet door being open right now,” he says. “And then I think to myself, You can’t make that promise.”


Along with the jokes, there are poignant moments throughout, appearing via Gethard’s small, carefully wrought revelations. In one scene, he tells the story of being somewhat strong-armed by an ex into telling his mother he’s suicidal. He explains how he goes up to her room in the middle of the night in order to wake her up, extending one hand waist-high out in front of him, as if to rouse an invisible body. Gethard pauses there, hand outstretched, telling the audience what was running through his mind: that it would be the final moments of his mother’s life when she had a perfectly OK son, and that he was about to shatter that maternal image, simply by virtue of his faulty brain. It’s gut-wrenchingly specific, and still relatable, regardless of one’s mental health history. Anyone can understand wanting to protect their loved ones from difficult truths.


Fortunately, Gethard never lets his sentiments edge on saccharine; for every damp-eyed moment, the comedian offers up several rapid-fire jokes in counter. The effect is uplifting but levelheaded. In telling his experiences, Gethard acknowledges that things get better, that help can be found, but never pretends that his troubles are entirely behind him. Depression, like so much of adult life, rarely feels like a problem that is solved once and forgotten. Instead, it is more of a process, a give and take, a managing of feelings and reactions that one can only anticipate so far ahead. It’s clear, from Gethard’s show, that he understands the untidiness inherent in mental health issues, embracing the chaos in order to arrive at something like understanding.


Through comedy, Gethard humanizes depression, reducing stigma by the minute precisely because he holds nothing back. By the end, he’s dispelled the myth that seeking help for feeling sad is weak or that taking medication will kill your creativity — “I’m significantly fucking funnier on medication,” he tells us.


Perhaps it’s corny to conclude that having this special on a widely available platform like HBO feels like hope. Here’s one thing that tells us you can be depressed and not have it end your life, metaphorically or otherwise; here’s something that makes it feel like we can talk — and laugh — about our most devastating feelings instead of shrouding them in shame or only deigning to consider them in the aftermath of national tragedy. But even if nothing changes on a larger scale, there is some comfort in knowing Chris Gethard, and his growing contingent of fans, can understand what you’re going through.





”Career Suicide” arrives on HBO and its streaming platforms May 6.


You can be highbrow. You can be lowbrow. But can you ever just be brow? Welcome to Middlebrow, a weekly examination of pop culture. Read more here.


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‘Star Wars’ Characters Singing Smash Mouth Is An 'All Star' Mashup

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We needed this a long time ago in a galaxy not so far, far away.


Thankfully, in honor of May the 4th Be With You, “The Tonight Show” has gifted us with a mashup of “Star Wars” characters singing “All Star” by Smash Mouth. 


You don’t need to be the sharpest tool in the shed to see this is a perfect union. One’s called “Star Wars”; the other is called “All Star.” It practically writes itself! 


Plus, with the mashup style, it’s like everyone gets a “Solo.” (Not just you, Han.)







Even if you think this whole thing is kind of dumb, it’d never have a finger and a thumb in the shape of an L on its forehead. How can it when Yoda is singing songs from the ‘90s?


It’s like a welcome change to fuel you through the week. 


Yep. What a concept. We could use a little fuel ourselves and we could all use a little channnnggggeeeee!!!! 







Hey now, it’s “Star Wars,” get the vid on, press play.


 

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Finn Wolfhard Says Duffer Brothers 'Nailed' 'Stranger Things' Season 2

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There aren’t many stranger things than a person born in the 2000s being the face of the 1980s, but that’s what happened to Finn Wolfhard.


“It’s cool to think that I made a mark in 1983 even though it didn’t really happen until 2016,” the actor told HuffPost.


Wolfhard embodied the ‘80s with his breakthrough role as Mike Wheeler in “Stranger Things,” and now he’s keeping the retro theme going by hosting Sweet Relief Musicians Fund’s upcoming inaugural benefit concert “Strange 80s,” taking place on Sunday, May 14, at the Fonda Theater.


Through email, the actor talked about the concert and teased the upcoming season of “Stranger Things,” even revealing which ‘80s movies we should watch to prepare for the new episodes. 


Could these movies hint at where the season will go? Only time will tell, but for fans reading way too into this, yes, yes they will.







What should fans expect from Season 2 of “Stranger Things”?


Season 2 will be just as good as Season 1, and maybe even better. The Duffers have nailed it, and there are some new people who have added to the trip in a way that no one will be disappointed when they see it. And what I want to see happen in Season 2 is the same as everyone else ― I JUST WANT SEASON 2 TO HAPPEN!!! But like everybody else I have to wait until October. And it’s going to be worth it.


What ‘80s movies should we watch to prepare for it?


I would say watch the films that our new cast members were in. Sean Astin was in “The Goonies,” and you gotta see that if you haven’t. And Paul Reiser was in James Cameron’s “Aliens,” which is a masterpiece. You should also see “Ghostbusters,” because it’s very funny and has a tasty villain, which the Demogorgon is not (or at least I don’t think, because I have never tasted, but I’m pretty sure the Demogorgon is not made of any marshmallow).


Knowing what you do about Season 2, what’s it like reading theories now?


I don’t read theories.


Thoughts on the theory that Jean-Ralphio from “Parks and Rec” is Steve Harrington’s son? Or that Eleven grew up to be Leslie Knope?


OK, I lied about not reading theories, but I cannot speculate because I am under a legal obligation not to (which might be true (?) but, either way, I’m not giving anything up other than to say that Pawnee and Hawkins are both definitely in Indiana).


We saw you in Ghostbuster uniforms in the teaser, how much do we have to worry about the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man now? What’d you think about the teaser?


Our crew is really awesome and our amazing scriptie had a bunch of us over for the Super Bowl. It looked like a blow out for the Falcons and even though I am a Seahawks fan, I am also Canadian, and by birth I am not allowed to be rude. So I am cheering for Atlanta and we were in a good mood already, and then when the teaser came on ... Well, I think Caleb [McLaughlin] and Millie [Bobby Brown] were elsewhere, but even though it was short, I just remember that it was really great to be in the room with Gaten [Matarazzo] and Noah [Schnapp] and for us to experience that moment together. It was just really cool to think that, of all the great shows on the air, ours was one that was supported by Netflix with a Super Bowl commercial. Just very, very cool. And as for the Stay Puft Man, he is the most delicious villain in movie history, but probably not much of a threat unless you are allergic to marshmallow.







How’d you get involved in “Strange ‘80s”? 


I auctioned a guitar for them last year to help raise funds and then we started talking about a show like they had in the very beginning, and it just went from there. They are an important source of funds for musicians who are injured or ill, and, as a Canadian with access to free or low cost healthcare wherever I go, I never have to worry if I get sick or hurt. It’s so hard to get covered in the U.S. and so expensive for everything that musicians can get wiped out if something bad happens. Sweet Relief provides really important support for musicians in need and I’m really proud that I can help out. We all need music, and we all need musicians to be healthy.


The concert is going to have some big celebs. Which ones are you looking forward to seeing the most? 


I have been a huge Jack Black and Tenacious D fan [for] forever. “Nacho Libre” is a movie that we quote all the time, and it is one that we watched as a family ― me, my bro, parents, grandparents ― we all loved it, and we love [Jack Black]. (We left my grandparents out of the “Pick of Destiny,” but we loved that, too.) Also Ms. [Sarah] Silverman, huge fans of her comedy and the parts she’s done in film and TV. And then there are musicians who’ve been or are in some amazing bands, and I look forward to meeting everybody.


What’s a celebrity encounter that turned your world “upside down”?


Celebrity encounter-wise, we were really fortunate to be at a lot of award shows in the season and Shawn Levy introduced me to some really amazing people. One night, I met Damien Chazelle and we talked filmmaking, and then a few minutes later he won for “La La Land,” which I think I saw four times, and we hugged it out. It was so cool. A few minutes later, Shawn introduced me to J.J. Abrams. I talked music with him, and then Shawn asked me, “Do you know why I introduced you to those guys?” And I assumed because I want to direct (and just raised money to direct a music video in June) that it was because they are great directors. But Shawn said, “It’s not because they are great directors, which they are ― but I introduced you to them because they are great people.” He said, “I want you to know that you can get to the top of this industry and not be an *%$#@!! So it was really Shawn that turned it “upside down”: you can work at that level and still be a nice person. I mean, why wouldn’t you be?


In “Stranger Things,” a lot of crazy stuff happens in Hawkins, Indiana. What do neighboring towns think?


I’ve met people from Indiana and they are all really proud to say where their homes are. I think they know that Hawkins is fictional but I am pretty sure that I have also met people from Hawkins itself. Something definitely happened there, but no one from the other towns around there will talk about it.  


In the finale, you ask Eleven to go to the Snow Ball before she disappears. Did Mike Wheeler still go to the Snow Ball?


OMG LMAO XD EPIC. WHAAAAAAAAAAAT???







”Stranger Things” returns on Halloween 2017. 

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'Veep' Is So Funny It Sent An Australian Politician To The Hospital

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Veep” is so hilarious you could just faint. Or at least that’s what happened to an Australian politician. He was in stitches, which quickly required stitches. 


Graham Perrett, a member of the land Down Under’s House of Representatives, was munching on sushi Sunday while watching the HBO political satire. He laughed, choked on a bit of rice, fell, knocked himself unconscious and incurred a black eye that required three stitches, according to The Australian


Like any good lead star would, Julia Louis-Dreyfus tweeted her incredulity on Wednesday night. And like any good “Veep” fan would, Perrett dutifully responded. 














Perrett told BuzzFeed the inciting moment came while watching the Season 6 premiere, specifically the scene where Jonah gets caught shaving his head so people will think he has cancer. 


“Some of the rice went down the wrong way,” he said. “I started choking and I kind of stumbled forward and knocked my head on the corner of the kitchen cabinet. My wife walked in to find me knocked unconscious on the ground, with blood everywhere.” 


Timothy Simons, who plays Jonah, got a kick out of the situation, too, as evidenced by his Twitter interaction with BuzzFeed reporter Kate Aurthur.






















The whole incident is stranger than fiction, in the eyes of “Veep” showrunner David Mandel. “It really does seem like something in the show, so I guess I’ll have to wait a year now to use it,” he told BuzzFeed.


As they say, dying is easy, comedy is hard.

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New Musical Shines Light On 'Paris Is Burning' Star And The Mummified Man Found In Her Closet

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For over a year before it premiered this past weekend at the Rep Stage regional theatre outside Baltimore, the musical “Dorian’s Closet” was sparking buzz in the media, from Out magazine and the LGBT press to the Baltimore Sun and theater journals. Playwright Richard Mailman, who wrote the book and lyrics, fielded interviews while the show was in rehearsals over those long months, awaiting its debut.


The intense interest isn’t at all surprising. With music by Ryan Hasse and directed by Joseph W. Ritsch, “Dorian’s Closet” is based on the life of Dorian Corey, a prominent subject of Jennie Livingston’s groundbreaking 1990 documentary film, “Paris Is Burning,” about the remarkable Harlem drag balls of the 1980s and the powerfully-bonded community of black and Latino gay and trans people who created them. “Dorian’s Closet” has all of the glamour and the sequin ball gowns and the show-stopping numbers one would expect, relaying the story of a legendary figure on the Harlem ball scene who became internationally famous as a star in the beloved documentary. 


Corey, who used female pronouns and was the “mother” of the House of Corey, succumbed to AIDS in 1993. Soon after, her notoriety shot even higher, when police found a mummy in the closet of her Harlem apartment ― a dead, preserved body of a man who was killed by a gunshot wound, likely 15 years earlier. “Dorian’s Closet,” via musical numbers performed by a grippingly talented cast, follows that story, taking us first back to Corey’s early years in Manhattan. Mailman, who’s worked on many stage and television productions ― but for whom this is his first musical ― discussed the show, the storyline and and where it’s all going, in an interview with me on SiriusXM Progress. This is an edited version of that conversation.


Michelangelo Signorile:  Looking at Dorian Corey’s story, what made you decide, ‘This would be a great musical’? 
Richard Mailman: Why wouldn’t a mummy in the closet make the best musical ever? [Laughter] You know, all those years ago when I saw “Paris is Burning,” it screamed out to be a musical. Obviously this isn’t a musical version of “Paris is Burning.” But just the whole world ― the balls, the drag queens, their performing, that’s definitely ripe for a musical. But I was always a fan of theatrical backstage stories. There’s totally that element of Dorian’s career ― how she ended up in New York, working at [the drag bar] Sal’s in Times Square, and in the Harlem balls. But throw in what they found in the closet after she left it there and, you know, that’s a fabulous number! When I first saw the movie, I was totally intrigued by her.


 



She was the mother of the House of Corey. These were [queer] families [of choice], these houses [which competed in runway walking and voguing against one another at the balls].
There’s all of those elements as well [in “Dorian’s Closet”]. The stories of all of those children ― a lot of them tragic ― that were part of those houses and hers... just what was going on in New York at that time and around that community. I really think that right now, especially with what’s going on politically in the world right now, particularly in this country ― obviously we’ve taken a real slide backward. But I think in a way the story now becomes even more important ― for people to remember what we went through and the struggle we went through. And do we really want to go back there? There’s a lot of that in there too.


For over a year before it premiered, the show was getting this incredible buzz and it just keeps increasing and increasing right up to today. You’ve been doing interviews for about a year.
A lot of that has to do with the fact that people know “Paris Is Burning.” I think we’ve forgotten about how much of an impact that movie had. For a small documentary, how many people remember it. And it still holds up well. It’s still relevant. People remember Dorian. About a year ago when Rep Stage announced their season, and we were included in that, word got out and it just exploded. When people heard about it, they went crazy about it. It made me nervous at first. But it really made me feel good. I started getting so many emails from people who remember Dorian and really, really wanted to see her story told. I should preface the whole thing by saying it is somewhat a fictional account of her life because there’s a lot we don’t know.


There’s a lot we don’t know about the man she purportedly killed and mummified and put in the closet. Was it a boyfriend? Was it a robber? Was it both ― a scammer? There are so many different theories that are out there about what transpired. You had to take [one] narrative and run with it.
The scary part was not knowing the truth. But there was a moment when I realized that the story we really wanted to tell was not so much who he was and how it happened. But how someone could keep a body in their closet for over 15 years and what would make a person do that. By the time you get to the end of the story you understand what these people were going through and what they were faced with.


 



Stephen Scott Wormley, who plays Dorian Corey is spectacular and James Thomas Frisbee, who plays Jesse Torres, another drag performer, is also amazing.
Doing a musical is not easy. Getting even just a small production out there is very difficult and takes a long time and there are a lot of elements involved. This show rests really on Dorian’s shoulders. During almost the entire show she’s onstage. So you’ve got to have a performer not only who can carry that vocally but also who can create this character that people can fall in love with. And I have to say, this [past] weekend [audiences] took to him ― it was amazing. He does a beautiful job with [Dorian].


It has already received some great reviews after the premiere. That’s got to feel good.
It feels really, really good. You kind of lose perspective. You’re locked in a theater, trying to bring it together. You don’t know how it will fly with people. But it was kind of amazing [opening night]. All of a sudden it hit me ― they’re really, really getting it. The thing that I’m just so thrilled about more than anything is that people are walking out, feeling really [good.] This is not a happy story ―


No, but it is kind of uplifting at the end.
When I first saw Dorian, there was something about her ― to quote a song in the show. She does have this optimistic outlook in life. 


Where does the show [performed at Rep Stage in Maryland until May 14] go from here? 
From everything that everyone’s been saying to us, they really feel there’s a way bigger life for this show. It could happen any number of ways. I’m ready for whatever anyone what’s to do with it. I’m ready.

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The Gallery Trying To Get Women Artists Paid

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“Women artists have always been sidelined,” Bianca Chu, deputy director at Sotheby’s S|2 Gallery, told HuffPost.


Her opinion is hardly unfounded. Over the years, there have been widespread efforts by feminist activists to address the ongoing gender imbalance in the museum and gallery worlds, imploring individuals and institutions to learn more women artists’ names, put more women’s work in galleries and museums, and document more women’s contributions to art on Wikipedia and in history books


Chu and the team at London’s S|2 Gallery are working to address one imbalance in particular: market value. The gallery, a space adjacent to Sotheby’s auction house in London, is launching a series of exhibitions featuring the work of female artists who are historically influential, yet remain undervalued for a variety of reasons. 



For the first show in this vein, S|2 is showing the work of Renate Bertlmann and Maria Lassnig, two postwar artists from Austria whose reputations and market costs don’t add up.


Bertlmann, born in Vienna in 1943, is an avant-garde feminist artist whose work incorporated dildos, pacifiers and condoms to defuse what she referred to as the “phallocracy.” In one series, Bertlmann paints phalluses as pastel-colored cartoons donning corsets and garter belts. Throughout her career, Bertlmann depicted penises in many forms over and over again, each time chipping away at the unspoken patriarchal power possessed within them. 


Pornographic jokes have always been a male domain, made at the exclusive expense of women,” Bertlmann said in an interview with the Tate museum in London. “I consider my series of objects an accomplished example of an obscene female joke. This joke has hit home; it targets the deadly serious, male sexual arrogance.”


When Bertlmann began exhibiting her work in the 1970s, she was criticized by other feminist artists for her obsession with phallic imagery. “People thought that because she was using phalluses in such a direct way she was empowering them,” Chu said. “But really, by using them so bluntly, she was trying to overcome them.”



In another iconic work, Bertlmann covers a mask with the tips of baby pacifiers, which bear resemblance to nipples and condoms, both of which were, again, frequent materials in her work. In a series of staged photos, Bertlmann wears the mask atop her face, covering her fingers with condoms. The monstrous image visualizes woman as baby-making machine, her physical features buried beneath the responsibilities of sexually accommodation and reproduction. 


The other artist on view is Maria Lassnig, who was born in 1919 in Kappel am Krappfeld, a small town in southern Austria. For 70 years, Lassnig painted only herself, assuming a variety of disguises including a baby, a cheese grater, a monster and a dumpling. 


The artist described her gripping self-portraits as “body-awareness paintings” ― in that they reflected as much as possible how she was feeling at the moment of their creation. She never painted from photographs, always from life. “I need the real body, real air,” she is quoted as saying in The Guardian. “When I paint I want everything to be as direct as possible.”



Lassnig’s depictions range from figurative to abstract, naturalistic to teetering on the edge of reality, her flesh shifting from salmon pink to electric green ― all dependent on the artist’s inner state at the time of the images’ creation. 


In her most well-known work, 2005’s “You or Me,” Lassnig paints her unclothed, 85-year-old body, the flesh yellowy and loose. Her face appears vacant yet alarmed. With one hand, Lassnig holds a gun to her head; she points another gun at the viewer with the other. The portrait is painful to look at yet impossible to look away from, as if warning the viewer that if she breaks eye contact Lassnig will shoot. 


She has been active since the 1950s,” Chu explained, “but it’s only in the last decade or so that she’s had major museum retrospectives outside of her own country.” Lassnig was awarded the Golden Lion lifetime achievement award at the Venice Biennale in 2013 and died the next year, at 94 years old.


Despite the critical recognition she’s received, her work is still priced in an entirely different bracket than, say, Francis Bacon’s, with whom she exhibited (and held her own) in 2016. While Bacon’s work has sold for up to $142 million, Lassnig’s record, according to Chu, hovers around $600,000. 



The first round of S|2 Gallery’s programming focuses on women artists, but future shows will explore work that is undervalued for a variety of reasons. Chu stressed that the exhibitions will place more emphasis on the artist’s work as opposed to the explanations behind their exclusion.


“Certain artists have been marginalized because of gender or race, but we are more interested in their rediscovery,” Chu said. “There are always a variety of factors, but we’re focusing on the art they are making.”


The time is ripe for serious attention to be paid to artists as groundbreaking as Bertlmann and Lassnig. And if those auction prices go up as a result, all the better. 



Renate Bertlmann’s work is on view now in S|2 Gallery’s lower gallery, and Maria Lassnig’s in the upper gallery. The London show is on view until June 1

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‘Dear White People’ Cast Shares Exclusive Details From Episode 5's Gripping Scene

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Since it’s April 28 Netflix release, ‘Dear White People’ has received near-universal praise for the ways it tackles the complex but important topic of race. 


The show was adapted from the 2014 film of the same name directed by Justin Simien, who also directed the series. Both explore blackness from the perspective of several students who attend the fictional school of Winchester University.


Throughout the 10 episodes of its first season, the characters in “Dear White People” unpack their own unique relationships with race as well as those of people around them who perceive it in different, and sometimes damaging, ways. Their stories are a part of what makes the show most striking, the experiences each character faces reflect some aspect of life black people can encounter ― from colorism to interracial dating. 


Perhaps nowhere in the season is the portrayal of the reality of racial experiences more profound than in the show’s fifth episode. Now, an exclusive video shared by Netlfix with HuffPost features cast members from “Dear White People” who detail exactly how and why the episode’s striking ending scene was so important to include. 


(Spoiler alert: Details from the episode will be dished below.)





Each episode shifts its focus to a new character and episode 5, which was directed by the Oscar-winning moviemaker Barry Jenkins, spotlighted Reggie, a smart, suave and socially-aware student determined to rev up the revolution and wake the campus up to the plight of black Americans.


Reggie is both admired and disliked by many ― praised by those who appreciate his honest take on racism and pushed aside by critics, mostly white students, who simply don’t seem to understand.


When a campus party was blasted for having white students show up in blackface, Reggie was the among the first to help shut it down. And when two armed white campus police officers were called to a party late one night, Reggie was the only man in front of the gun.


Because after all, while Reggie’s blackness makes him feel unapologetically proud, it also paints him as a mischief to those who practice racial bias and subscribe to such limiting stereotypes surrounding people of color, like many among the police. 



“When I read episode 105, I cried and I cried every time after that thinking about certain scenes,” says actor Marque Richardson, who plays Reggie, in the video given to HuffPost. 


The last part of episode 5 is set at a party thrown by Reggie’s white friend Addison, played by Nolan Gerard Funk. Reggie’s friends eventually encourage him to go out and enjoy his Saturday night, because after all “sometimes being carefree and black is an act of revolution,” he’s reminded.


“Reggie is all about the movement and he is sort of relentlessly, relentlessly trying to figure out a way to get people on campus to be involved and to care about the issues without coming off across like an angry black guy, which he has every right to be,” Simien says in the video.


Reggie reluctantly gives in and ends up at the party where he is greeted with a sea of white faces ― but that doesn’t stop him from becoming the life of the party. He socializes, dances and ultimately shows off his skills as he effortlessly defeats his opponents at trivia and is praised for being the champ of the game. But the fun soon stops after Addison, dances beside him to a rap song from Future while freely repeating the word “niggas.”


“Just don’t say ‘nigga,’” Reggie tells him. Addison asks what’s so wrong if he does and tries to explain why he doesn’t think simply repeating the word makes him racist.   


Reggie attempts to paint the problem clear but the conversation quickly escalates as the room goes silent and turns their attention on the two. In those moments, someone calls the campus police and within minutes, two officers arrive at the party to confront Reggie and Addison ― except Reggie is the only one questioned. He tells them he is a student of the campus but the officer insists he must see Reggie’s ID to confirm that fact.


“Why do you need to see my ID?” Reggie asks after other students, including Addison, try to explain to the cops that he is in fact a student.


The cop raises his voice as he demands identification to which a frustrated Reggie responds: “Fuck these pigs, man.” Within seconds, the officer removes his weapon and points his gun directly at Reggie as he stands in fear for his life.



“I was glad Marque took so much weight on his shoulders,” says actor Brandon T. Bell who plays Troy Fairbanks, a black student running for campus president, in the show. “You just get really emotional... you try to figure out why you have so many questions but I think it’s good that we tackle them.”


Bell isn’t the only cast member who believes that “Dear White People” does an excellent job at depicting how blackness can be treated in America through this episode. “You realize how real the show is in that moment,” says John Patrick Amedorie, who plays Gabe. “It was insane to think that this could happen at any point in time in any of these kid’s lives.”


However, the emotions each character displayed came from a very real place. The cast taped the first season last year, which was filled with constant news of police killing black lives around the country, and they were forced to deal with the reality of those deaths while also doing a show that spoke to the core of why such killings are so painful for so many.



We’re all sort of trying to figure out this thing called civil rights in the 21st century.”
Justin Simien


“I remember when Philando Castile was killed, we came into work that next day and everybody was devastated,” says Stephanie Allain, an executive producer for the show. “We were literally sick over it. We had to incorporate that feeling into the show.”


For Richardson, seeing black death so publicly displayed in the news left him feeling fear and shame, he says in the video. He references his young nephew and the worry he has for how he may be treated as a black kid in America.


“This is my reality at this time but my nephew who is 2 years old this will be his reality as well,” he says in the video, “and that just broke my heart.”


However, Simien says Reggie is one of the show’s most relatable characters. He believes Reggie carries the internal conflict so many people these days can feel in trying to figure out productive ways to tackle racism and all cases of injustice.


“What does it mean to be an activist in this modern era? How do you actually rally people? How do you do more than get just angry?” Simien says in the video.


“I think in a lot of ways, we’re all Reggie too. We’re all sort of trying to figure out this thing called civil rights in the 21st century.”  

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Woman Gives Birth To Her New (Book) Baby In Hilarious Photoshoot

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Erin Chack just welcomed a new baby, err book, into the world. 


On Tuesday, the Senior Writer at BuzzFeed tweeted out four photos of her giving birth to her upcoming YA novel This Is Really HappeningChack had all the essentials: a hospital bed, flowers, balloons and, of course, a doctor to “deliver” her baby. 


“Can’t believe my little book baby was born one week ago today. 1 lb. 4 oz., 234 healthy pages!” Chack wrote in the caption. “Mama loves you.”






Chack told HuffPost she came up with the idea for the photoshoot with her best friend Alijah. 


“We had been talking on the phone about how we couldn’t wait for the book to be out and how it was like waiting for a baby to be born,” she said. “At the same time we sort of blurted ‘WE SHOULD DO A BIRTHING SHOOT’ because we have the exact same brain.”


Before Chack knew it, she and Alijah were producing a full-blown book-baby birthing photoshoot in her New York City apartment right before the book launch.


The duo swiped a surgical mask from Alijah’s doctor, grabbed a pair of latex gloves from a restaurant and ― voilà ― Chack was ready to deliver!


“We set up my futon like a hospital bed, pinned an old duvet to the wall, and rearranged the flowers people had sent me. It looked pretty good!” Chack told HuffPost. “At one point I literally cried because I was laughing so hard from the sheer joy of having the book out and being with my best friend in the world doing weird things, which is our favorite thing to do! I’m also super relieved my neighbors were away for the weekend, because we were making a lot of noise.” 


Swipe through Chack’s Instagram post below that shows even more joyful moments from the big delivery. 



Can't believe my little book baby was born one week ago today. 1 lb 4 oz, 234 pages! Mama loves you. ‍

A post shared by Erin Chack (@erin.chack) on




Chack said writing a book was really hard and lonely, but ― similar to the herculean task of having a baby ― so, so worth it. 


“It’s kind of lonely, just hammering away at something you know won’t be fully formed for so many months,” Chack explained. “And then suddenly it has a name, and then it has a face, and then finally it’s a REAL PHYSICAL BOOK. And you hold it in your arms and cry a little because you can’t believe how much work it took for such a tiny, simple object.”


Check out more photos below. 







The one big difference Chack noted between a book and a baby (besides the whole caring for a tiny human for the rest of your life) is that “you can drink as much red wine as you want.” 


Head over to BuzzFeed to read an excerpt from Chack’s new novel “This Is Really Happening.” 


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The One Way Jessica Biel Doesn't Want Her Son To Take After Justin Timberlake

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Jessica Biel hopes her son, Silas, takes after his dad, Justin Timberlake, in many ways. There is one quality, though, she hopes her 2-year-old avoids in the future. 


In an interview with news.com.au, the actress said she wants Silas to inherit Timberlake’s “charm and his sense of humor.” However, when it comes to his career, she doesn’t want him to take after dad.


“I really don’t want him to be a musician,” she said.


Biel clarified that she meant it “sort of as a joke” and “of course” Silas can be whatever he desires. She simply doesn’t want her son to become discouraged or feel rejected in the tough music industry.


“I already have this image of him as a struggling musician and that’s like, ‘Oh, my God!’” she told news.com.au. “As a mom, you think 30 years into the future and you’re like, ‘How do I fix this for him?’ I just want him to be like an engineer or a doctor, something like that.”


The star of “The Sinner” told news.com.au that she’s seen what Timberlake has gone through and how he’s worked years and years to be able to work with any producer he wants and have his songs on the radio. She also noted how much she loves seeing Timberlake play with their son. 



FLEXIN' on Fathers Day... #HappyFathersDay to ALL of the Dads out there from the newest member of the Daddy Fraternity!! --JT

A post shared by Justin Timberlake (@justintimberlake) on




“I am in awe of him and how he interacts with that little dude,” she said.


Since Silas’ arrival in 2015, Biel has given fans a glimpse at her life as a mother. In September, she posted a photo on Instagram of a fork and empty plate in the shower with her, and explained to Jimmy Fallon later that making time to eat by bringing food in the shower sums up “mom life.”



Yes. I eat in the shower. I admit it. Chicken apple sausage and espresso. Try it. I dare you. #ShowerEats

A post shared by Jessica Biel (@jessicabiel) on




“I don’t know if anybody else does this,” she said. “I do not have time for anything. I’m feeding [Silas] in the morning, trying to get ready and I realize I haven’t eaten. I just take it into the shower.”


She also told news.com.au that being a mother has taught her how to be more patient and compassionate.  


“Being a mother has changed everything,” she said.

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Alanis Morissette's Ex-Manager Gets Six Years In Prison For Stealing Millions

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After admitting in January that he had embezzled millions of dollars from celebrity clients, including Alanis Morissette, Jonathan Todd Schwartz is headed to jail.


The former entertainment and sports manager was sentenced Wednesday to six years in prison, CNN reported, the conclusion to a suit first leveled by Morissette in 2016. He stole around $5 million from the Canadian singer during a time period between 2010-2014 to support a lavish lifestyle, according to court documents. Schwartz worked under the firm GSO Business Management in Los Angeles.


“Mr. Schwartz used his clients’ funds as a personal ATM machine,” Deirdre Fike, assistant director for the FBI’s Los Angeles Field Office, told CNN. Schwartz owes approximately $2 million in unpaid taxes.


According to The Associated Press, Morissette appeared at the sentencing and said Schwartz had misled her about his net worth while secretly taking money from accounts she had left in his trust. 


“He did this in a long, systematic, drawn-out and sinister manner,” the singer said. Schwartz attributed an addiction to gambling as the reason for the thefts. He detailed his “double life” in an April guest column for The Hollywood Reporter.


Morissette’s new money manager had discovered the embezzlement, which Schwartz would conceal by reporting withdrawals as “sundry/personal expenses,” according to CNN. When GSO was contacted about the missing funds, Schwartz falsely claimed it was used to invest in the medical marijuana business.


While in court, Schwartz expressed that he alone was “responsible for this devastation,” saying, “I will spend the rest of my life asking for forgiveness.” Court papers list Schwartz’s salary as $1.2 million.


Though prosecutors were seeking a sentence of five years in prison, U.S. District Court Judge Dolly Gee sentenced Schwartz to six, citing the “sheer audaciousness of this conduct” as the reason for additional time. Gee also ordered that Schwartz pay $8.6 million in restitution. E! reports that Morissette and Schwartz’s other clients were reimbursed by the firm or through insurance.

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Solid Gold, Life-Size Darth Vader Mask On Sale For $1.4 Million

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The WTF is strong with this one.


A jeweler in Tokyo, Japan, is selling a life-size Darth Vader mask made of 24-karat gold for the bargain price of $1.4 million (154 million yen), The Associated Press reported.


On Tuesday, jeweler Ginza Tanaka unveiled the glitzy helmet and announced it would go on sale on May 4 to celebrate the 40th anniversary of “Star Wars: A New Hope.”


It took a total of 10 goldsmiths three months to craft and assemble the ultimate “Star Wars” trophy, per the outlet.


The helmet is 10.4 inches wide, 11.8 inches tall and weighs 33 pounds. Unfortunately, due to its weight, the mask is too heavy to wear.




And if you don’t have the money for this gilded paperweight piece of memorabilia, the jeweler has also made commemorative “Star Wars” coins that are a tad more affordable.


The coins come in sets of three that sell for about $11,000 a pop, The New York Times reported.


If you’re interested in these coins, you have to act fast. Ginza Tanaka has only 77 sets, a number that the jeweler says is an homage to 1977, the year that “A New Hope” was released.


We guess it’s time to bust open that change jar-Jar.


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Diane Keaton, Jane Fonda And Candice Bergen Will Play 'Fifty Shades Of Grey' Obsessives

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Good news is hard to find these days, but here’s some: Diane Keaton, Jane Fonda, Candice Bergen and a fourth actress yet to be announced will play book-clubbers who are awakened after reading Fifty Shades of Grey


Yep, that’s right: Three of your favorite septuagenarians are about to be very horny.


The California-set movie is called “Book Club,” and Deadline reported Thursday that distribution rights for the comedy will be sold at this month’s Cannes Film Festival. It marks the directorial debut of Bill Holderman, who co-wrote and produced 2015’s “A Walk in the Woods,” starring fellow septuagenarians Robert Redford (who has since turned 80) and Nick Nolte. 


Keaton, Fonda and Bergen will play lifelong friends whose lives are “changed forever” after reading E.L. James’ best-seller. The character descriptions, according to Deadline, are too delicious for us to wait for this movie to materialize:



Keaton will play Diane, who is recently widowed after 40 years of marriage, while Fonda will also play her namesake, Jane, a woman who enjoys her men with no strings attached. Bergen plays Sharon, who is still working through a decades-old divorce, while Carol (yet to be cast), a woman whose 35-year-old marriage is in a slump, rounds out the foursome.



Fonda may need to borrow some of the sex toys from “Grace and Frankie.”





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Mysterious Gold Toilets Are Popping Up So People Can 'Take A Trump'

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Since Donald Trump’s approval rating is really in the toilet ― a lowly 42.4 percent ― maybe it’s not a surprise that he’s the subject of a potty-themed protest.


A series of gold toilets with the words, “Take A Trump,” started popping up in cities all over the U.S. on the 100th day of his presidency.


A lift of the lid shows a picture of a pig wearing a crown.




As you might expect, the toilets are causing a “commode-tion” wherever they are placed. 


Reggie Lyons got flushed with excitement when he saw the Trump toilets on the Ball State University campus in Muncie.


“We saw it Saturday night as we were on our way home from dinner,” Lyons told the Indianapolis Star. “It caught my eye and I did a double take. And as I got closer and could read it, my wife and I immediately burst into laughter.”




The Trump toilets are the brainchild of an art collective known as the “Art Finksters.”


About 50 to 60 artists have committed to spray painting toilets with gold and placing them in public spots, according to the group’s official spokesperson, known only as “Art.”


“This project is just to make people aware,” Art told HuffPost. “To let the people in charge know that what they’re doing is being watched and dissected very carefully.”




So far, Trump toilets have been seen in Austin, Texas, Portland, Oregon, Miami, Chicago, Los Angeles, Las Vegas and Denver.


“There are still more to come,” Art promised. “Anticipation.” 




Art said the Trump Toilet movement is not just a U.S. thing.


“Every city deserves a toilet,” Art said. “It’s a great conversation starter. I’ve gotten word that a few have been taken to homes to be used for their actual toilets, so people are loving them.”  






And that slams the lid on this story.

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'Harry Potter and the Cursed Child' Is Officially Coming To Broadway Next Spring

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Harry Potter and the Cursed Child,” the next chapter of our Hogwarts friends’ stories, opened as a play in London last summer. As the first full Potter-related story since 2007’s Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows, fans eagerly awaited the production’s debut, which was met by positive reviews from British theater critics.


And now, the award-winning production is coming to Broadway.


Earlier today, Harry Potter Theatrical Productions announced that the play will be performed stateside beginning in April 2018 at New York City’s Lyric Theatre. Tickets will go on sale this fall, but the total wait time to see Harry and co. on stage will be almost a year. Sorry, Potterheads.


The play’s story is set 19 years after Rowling’s seventh book in the “Potter” series, in which Harry and the Order of the Phoenix triumph over Voldemort’s army. Now, Harry, Ron, Hermione and Ginny have children of their own, and those children are readying themselves to set off for Hogwarts.



The original cast included Jamie Parker as Harry Potter, Noma Dumezweni as Hermione Granger-Weasley, and Cherrelle Skeete as Rose Granger-Weasley. The decision to cast actresses of color in the roles of Hermione and Rose drew criticism with fans, citing adherence to canon as their objection. But, as HuffPost reporter Claire Fallon pointed out last summer, these outcries were primarily about race, not accuracy to the original stories


According to the “Cursed Child” press release, casting for the U.S. production of the play “will be announced in the coming months.” (Auditions for the Broadway play were held last February.)


The good news is, if you’d like to brush up on the story ― which was released in book format, but not as a novelization, by Scholastic last summer ― you have plenty of time.


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4 'Game Of Thrones' Spinoffs Are Reportedly Coming

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All men and women must freak out.


HBO is planning not one, not two, not three, not four — OK, just four — ”Game of Thrones” spinoffs. The news comes from Entertainment Weekly, who reports that details are scant, but the new shows, if greenlit, would explore “different time periods of George R.R. Martin’s vast and rich universe.”


According to EW:



We’re told a variety of different combinations and options are on the table depending on how the scripts look upon completion. But the end goal is to find at least one title that can successfully carry the flame of the “GoT” franchise.







Yup, at least one show will sit on the Iron Throne, but there could be room for more.


Current showrunners David Benioff and Dan Weiss would stay on as executive producers for the new projects, along with Martin.


In fact, Martin will have his hand in idea creation, too. Writers for potential new projects include Max Borenstein (”Kong: Skull Island,” Fox’s “Minority Report”); Jane Goldman (”Kingsman: The Secret Service.” “X-Men: First Class”), who will work along with Martin; Brian Helgeland (”A Knight’s Tale,” “L.A. Confidential”); and Carly Wray (”Mad Men”), also working with Martin.


There’s no word yet on if any of the current cast members will be involved in future shows, but when our own Leigh Blickley asked Nikolaj Coster-Waldau (Jaime Lannister) about his potential participation in a prequel, he didn’t seem too optimistic.


“’Yeah, of course I could do that! I could play 20! 16? Yeah, I could play a 16-year-old! I’ve got range!’” he joked, adding with a smile, “I don’t think so.” 


According to HBO, there is no “set timetable” for the projects, but the news ensures “Game of Thrones” spinoffs and/or prequels are coming.





What is “Game of Thrones” shall never die.


“Game of Thrones” Season 7 premieres July 16.

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This Gay Singer's Sexy Video Aims To Show Fantasies 'Can Never Be Wrong'

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Model-turned-songstress Keeana Kee got a head start on summer with the steamy video for her debut single, “Coconut Rum and Coke,” and HuffPost has an exclusive first look. 


In the clip, which can be viewed above, Latvian-born Kee canoodles up to a love interest on a sun-drenched beach and around a bonfire. The lyrics of the reggae-inspired tune include a number of tongue-and-cheek nods to the tropics, too. “If I could, I would drink you all night long, like coconut rum and coke,” Kee sings. “`I want to make your palm trees boom.”


The song also features a rap by Latin pop icon and producer Maffio, who has collaborated with the likes of Maroon 5, Elvis Crespo and Pitbull.


The Los Angeles-based singer, who is openly gay, told HuffPost that her video was inspired in part by homophobia she experienced during her years in the fashion industry. “I went through some discrimination in my life working as a fashion model, so I really hope to make a difference by encouraging people to be themselves no matter what, and to stand up for themselves, even if it seems impossible,” she said.


Citing Sia and Beyoncé as influences, Kee said she had no qualms about featuring a same-sex love interest in her debut video. “I’m very confident with my sexuality, so I was comfortable to be myself in the video,” she said. “I want to show the world that there is nothing wrong with being gay.”


Still, she hopes audiences will see her “Coconut Rum and Coke” as “romantic, sexy and slightly cheeky” rather than anything overtly political. “I hope that this video reminds people that they can go wild in their fantasies,” she said, “and it can never be wrong!”


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

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