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Chris Cornell's Cause Of Death Ruled A Suicide

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A medical examiner in Wayne County, Michigan, determined Thursday that singer Chris Cornell’s death was a “suicide by hanging,” the county announced on its Facebook page.





The Soundgarden singer, 52, was found unresponsive on the bathroom floor of a hotel room at the MGM Grand Casino in Detroit early Thursday. He was reportedly pronounced dead at the scene, according to The New York Times. 


“When the units arrived they were met by a gentleman who indicated that Chris Cornell had been found in his room,” police spokesman Michael Woody told the AP Thursday morning. “When officers went to the room they found Chris Cornell laying [sic] in his bathroom, unresponsive and he had passed away.”



Woody said there were “basic things observed at the scene” that led police to conduct an investigation.


“We are at the beginning stages of the investigation and we can’t say anything about the scene,” Woody said.


Cornell’s wife had called a friend and asked that he check on Cornell after he performed at the Fox Theatre earlier in the night. The friend proceeded to force open the door and find the singer in the bathroom, leading to an anonymous call to 911 for help.






In a statement on Thursday, a representative for Cornell said that his family would appreciate if the public respect their privacy.


“His wife Vicky and family were shocked to learn of his sudden and unexpected passing, and they will be working closely with the medical examiner to determine the cause. They would like to thank his fans for their continuous love and loyalty and ask that their privacy be respected at this time,” the rep said.


This post has been updated throughout include information about Chris Cornell’s death. The headline has also been altered to reflect new information.


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.

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Johnny Depp Would Replace Alec Baldwin As Trump On 'SNL'

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The future of the Donald Trump impression on “Saturday Night Live” is in capable tiny hands.


With Alec Baldwin mulling a possible exit from playing Trump on “SNL,” Ellen DeGeneres asked Johnny Depp on her show Thursday if he’d replace him.


Captain Jack Sparrow is into the idea.


“Sure,” he replied. “Basically, Alec’s done all the work. I can just copy him.” 


The actor wouldn’t need to worry about copying anyone else’s interpretation (which is good because apparently he’s never even seen Baldwin play Trump). Depp already impersonated Trump for Funny or Die’s 50-minute biopic, “The Art of the Deal: The Movie” ― and broke out his impression after DeGeneres complimented him on the on-screen performance.


At an ACLU event in March, Baldwin told HuffPost that he’d stay in the Trump role for this season, but the future really depends on his schedule. Whether or not Depp would be called on as a replacement remains to be seen. 


The president might be into it. It’d be good for ratings, and who cares if someone makes fun of him as long as they get good ratings, right? 






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Get Ready For A Movie About Michael Jackson's Beloved Pet Chimpanzee

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Because we will never satiate our collective appetite for Michael Jackson’s sordid personal life, Netflix is reportedly closing a deal to acquire a movie told from the perspective of the singer’s chimpanzee. 


Maybe you remember Bubbles? Here’s a refresher course.


Jackson adopted the young chimp in 1983. By the late ‘80s, Bubbles was wearing diapers, traveling with Jackson on tours, sitting in on recording sessions and sleeping in a crib at Neverland Ranch. It was once rumored that Bubbles would serve as ring bearer at Elizabeth Taylor’s 1991 wedding, held at Jackson’s home, but Taylor’s spokeswoman denied it. Contributing to Jackson’s media mockery, the chimp’s presence helped to cement the singer’s lingering Peter Pan persona. In the early 2000s, Bubbles had become an aggressive adult, as apes are wont to do, and he was relocated to an animal sanctuary


Now, back to the news: The movie is a stop-motion coming-of-age story called, well, “Bubbles.” The script, written by Isaac Adamson, topped the 2015 Black List, an annual ranking of admired screenplays up for grabs. In a bidding war with Hollywood studios, Netflix bought the rights for a hefty sum nearing $20 million, according to Deadline. (HuffPost asked a Netflix rep to confirm that figure, but we didn’t immediately receive a reply.)


Taika Waititi, best known for “Thor: Ragnarok” and “Hunt for the Wilderpeople”, and Mark Gufaston, who supervised the animation on “Fantastic Mr. Fox,” will co-direct “Bubbles.” Waititi and Gufaston’s clout lends the project a credibility that, say, Lifetime’s seemingly exploitative Jackson biopic cannot claim. 


The stop-motion aspect of “Bubbles” is another mark in its favor, primarily because the project can avoid the controversy that’s inevitable when selecting an actor to portray Jackson. Things didn’t go well earlier this year when footage showed Joseph Fiennes playing the singer in the British comedy series “Urban Myths.” The European network Sky yanked the episode after Jackson’s family called Fiennes’ casting “shameful.” 


“It’s an idea that fascinates me and one I want to develop further,” Waititi reportedly said in February, upon first signing on to direct the movie. “Most people know I’m a huge Michael Jackson fan, so the main thing for me is to make sure it’s respectful of him and his legacy. I’m not interested in making a biopic; I want to focus on telling a story that blends fact and fantasy, about an animal trying to make sense of the world.”


No release date has been announced.


――― 


UPDATE: A Netflix rep responded to say the news is “not confirmed at this time,” which implies it will be confirmed in the near future.

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'Despacito' Is The First Spanish-Language Song To Be No. 1 In The U.S. Since The 'Macarena'

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There’s nothing slow about how Luis Fonsi’s “Despacito” has taken over the music charts worldwide. 


The “Despacito” remix featuring Justin Bieber officially hit No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot 100 on Monday, making it the first mostly Spanish-language song to claim the spot since the “Macarena” in 1996. The only other song to achieve this in history was “La Bamba,” according to Forbes.


The original single, which has over a billion views on YouTube, was released in January and quickly climbed the charts in Latin America and Europe. But in the United States, it wasn’t until Bieber remixed the song in April that it began making its way to the top.


When the remix was first released on YouTube, it raked in approximately 20 million views in the first 24 hours and became the biggest debut of a music video on the site in 2017 so far, according to Billboard. 


Fonsi spoke about the single’s success on AOL’s Build on Wednesday.


“We’re taking over ‘Macarena,’ baby,” he said. “It’s amazing. It’s a blessing. It’s been such an amazing ride ever since we released the song with Daddy Yankee first thing this year. It just started connecting with people.”


The Puerto Rican star also discussed the importance of the Bieber remix.  


“He wanted to join the movement and he asked us to be a part of the song, which I think is great for Latin music to have such a huge superstar to want to sing a song in Spanish,” Fonsi said.


Watch Fonsi describe the night he got a call about Bieber’s interest in the remix above. And watch the full interview with AOL’s Build below. 

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New Coming-Of-Age Film Tackles Homophobia In A Heartfelt Way

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Queer cinema fans are already buzzing about the new coming-of-age comedy, “Handsome Devil,” and HuffPost has a sneak peek at an exclusive clip from the film.  


Directed by John Butler, “Handsome Devil” follows Ned (Fionn O’Shea), an artistically minded, outcast teen who is sent to an all-boys boarding school in Ireland by his widowed father (Ardal O’Hanlon). As seen in the clip above, Ned is bullied relentlessly by his sports-loving classmates, but eventually, he strikes up an unlikely friendship with his rugby jock roommate, Conor (Nicholas Galitzine). 


Butler, who also wrote the “Handsome Devil” screenplay, told HuffPost that he based the film on his own experience attending an all-boys boarding school as a teen. Unlike Ned, however, the openly gay writer-director is also a big sports fan, and said he struggled with what he felt were “two incompatible aspects” of his personality growing up. 


“It’s a story that sprang from that difficulty, but it’s very much set in the here and now, and just as relevant in 2017,” he said, pointing to the fact that very few professional athletes have come out as LGBTQ. 


So far, the critics seem to agree. The Irish Film Review applauded “Handsome Devil” for “delivering a far more satisfying examination of masculinity than before,” while Vanity Fair called it “perky and entertaining” after its 2016 Toronto International Film Festival debut. The Guardian compared it favorably to “Moonlight,” which won the Oscar for Best Picture in February. 


Despite tackling teen bullying, homophobia and other serious themes, “Handsome Devil” concludes on an upbeat note for both Ned and Conor ― a fact of which Butler is particularly proud. “We shouldn’t classify happy endings in our community as being out of reach or belonging in the realms of fantasy in any way,” he said. “For too long, our narratives have been framed dramatically with desperately sad endings. It’s time to think differently, and to use different lenses to tell our stories.”


Butler hopes that all-inclusive message resounds beyond the LGBTQ community, too. “This is a film about identity, and the struggles of youth. Hopefully everyone can relate to that,” he said. 


“Handsome Devil” hits theaters and On Demand June 2. 


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

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Get Ready For A 'Golden Girls' Version Of The Classic Game Clue

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It’s hard to believe that 25 years have passed since “The Golden Girls” concluded its award-winning seven-season run. 


The NBC series, of course, has amassed a cult following in its years of syndication. Since the show wrapped in 1992, fans eager for more “Golden Girls” have found solace in drag parodies, a podcast, a coloring book, a long-running puppet show and even a restaurant


Soon you’ll be able to enjoy Dorothy, Blanche, Sophia and Rose in your living room once again ― albeit not on your television screen. The fab foursome will star in a new incarnation of the classic board game Clue, which hits stores in June, Nerdist reported Tuesday



Clue: The Golden Girls” swaps the original’s New England mansion setting for the girls’ iconic Miami home. The object of this version of the game may be even more exasperating than solving a murder for “Golden Girls” fans: figuring out who ate the last piece of cheesecake. 



“There is little in this life that is as endearing to people as ‘The Golden Girls,’ but seeing the ruthless side of those salty octogenarians in this high-energy game is the best part,” representatives from USAopoly Inc., which is producing the game under license from Hasbro and ABC, said in a press release. “Trust us when we tell you that you’ll solve the crime, but getting there is half (or all!) the fun ... and as anyone who loves cheesecake knows, there’s no stopping until this heinous atrocity gets the justice it deserves.” 



In addition to the four women, the suspects include Dorothy’s ex-husband, Stan, and Rose’s longtime beau, Miles, both of whom were series regulars. A feathered slipper, a bathrobe, a tube of lipstick and even Sophia’s purse are among the “weapons” that the suspects may have used to consume said cheesecake.  


Clue has gotten a colorful makeover before. Other special editions of the game have featured characters from “The Big Bang Theory,” “Game of Thrones” and Disney’s Haunted Mansion ride.


Still, if “Clue: The Golden Girls” doesn’t give you incentive to get your holiday shopping started early, we don’t know what will. 







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

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Praise Be, Netflix Is Releasing Its Own Margaret Atwood Adaptation

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Longtime Margaret Atwood followers are having a great year.


First, Hulu’s adaptation of The Handmaid’s Tale arrived to rave reviews, seemingly providing America with the timely dystopian cautionary tale it needed. Now, Netflix is hopping on the Atwood train with its own miniseries based on the author’s book Alias Grace


Published in 1996, the work of historical fiction centers on the very real deaths of Thomas Kinnear and his pregnant mistress/housekeeper Nancy Montgomery, allegedly murdered by two of Kinnear’s servants, Grace Marks and James McDermott in Upper Canada, a region that is now Ontario. Both were convicted, although the guilt of Marks ― often described as an attractive young woman ― has been feverishly questioned, so much so that she was exonerated after 30 years in prison.










Atwood fictionalizes the 1843 murders in a 468-page story that addresses big, familiar themes like female villainy and how class stratification affects criminal justice. A 1996 review from The New York Times describes the weighty nature of the book well:



“Alias Grace” has the physical heft and weighty authority of a 19th-century novel. In its scope, its moral seriousness, its paradoxically ponderous and engrossing narrative, the book evokes the high Victorian mode, spiced with the spooky plot twists and playfully devious teases of the equally high Gothic ― the literary styles of the period in which the book is set.



According to Entertainment Weekly, “True Blood” favorite Anna Paquin will take on the role of Montgomery, while Sarah Gadon (who was recently in Hulu’s “11.22.63”) will play Marks. Ker Logan and Paul Gross will play the men ― McDermott and Kinnear, respectively. Edward Holcroft will play the fictional doctor added into the story by Atwood.


The miniseries, written and produced by Sarah Polley and directed by “American Psycho” veteran Mary Harron, is set to debut this fall.


This sort of makes up for the fact that HBO dropped Darren Aronofsky’s already-written adaptation of Atwood’s “MaddAdam” trilogy. Can someone jump on that, please?



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CORRECTION: A previous version of this article mistakenly described “11.22.63” as a Netflix show. It is a Hulu project.

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23 Times Tina Fey Hilariously Summed Up Parenting

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Tina Fey seems to know the highs and lows of parenting all too well. 


The famous funny mom has two daughters, 11-year-old Alice and 5-year-old Penelope. Throughout her time as a parent, Fey has been very candid about her experience ― from the relatable motherhood passages in her best-selling book Bossypants to her countless hilarious interviews.


In honor of her 47th birthday, we’ve rounded up her funniest and most spot-on quotes about parenting. Enjoy!


1. “Kids are definitely the boss of you. Anyone who will barge into the room while you are on the commode is the boss of you. And when you explain to them that you’re on the commode and that they should leave but they don’t? That’s a high-level boss.”


2. “I never get to go to movies, because I’m a mom.”





3. “You’re just like a human napkin for kids, like, they just wipe their face on you and stuff.”


4. “It’s so funny because they’re not strong enough to kill you. And they want to kill you so bad! They can’t kill you. Not yet. Try again in a couple years.”


5. “Ah, babies! They’re more than just adorable little creatures on whom you can blame your farts.”





6. “It is less dangerous to draw a cartoon of Allah French-kissing Uncle Sam — which, let me make it very clear, I have not done — than it is to speak honestly about [working moms].”


7. “I had to get back to work. NBC has me under contract. The baby and I only have a verbal agreement.”


8. “Whatever you do breastfeeding-wise — great. Great. Whatever.” 





9. “I think every working mom probably feels the same thing: You go through big chunks of time where you’re just thinking, ‘This is impossible — oh, this is impossible.’ And then you just keep going and keep going, and you sort of do the impossible.”


10. “And when she one day turns on me and calls me a bitch in front of Hollister, Give me the strength, Lord, to yank her directly into a cab in front of her friends, For I will not have that shit. I will not have it.”





11. “My older one is sweet and really easy going and my little one is rough. She is smart. That’s the problem, too. When she is mad at you, she will just take you apart.”


12. “I struggle because I worry she will be on the naughty list. There are times where I feel she should be on the naughty list, but then if that happens then there will sort of be hell to pay for mommy. I don’t want to be the one there on Christmas morning, be like, ‘Guess what happened? Coal. You got nothing.’” 





13. “I was putting makeup on the other day, and [my daughter] was like ‘I want some makeup,’ and I said ‘OK, you can have a little.’ So I’m giving her a little makeup ... and she goes ... ‘Mommy, I look prettier than you.’ I’m like, ‘All right, you’re 3, I’m 44, I get it.’”


14. “’My mother did this for me once,’ she will realize as she cleans feces off her baby’s neck. ‘My mother did this for me.’ And the delayed gratitude will wash over her as it does each generation and she will make a mental note to call me. And she will forget. But I’ll know.”


15. “[Liz Lemon] is used to sacrificing her dignity for others, which is parenting in a nutshell.” 





16. “‘How do you juggle it all?’ people constantly ask me, with an accusatory look in their eyes. ‘You’re screwing it all up, aren’t you?’ their eyes say. My standard answer is that I have the same struggle as any working parent but with the good fortune to be working at my dream job. Or sometimes I just hand them a juicy red apple I’ve poisoned in my working-mother witch cauldron and fly away.”


17. “I think this is ingenious marketing, but that princess thing sets off an alarm bell for me. [I’m afraid] all that might creep back into our culture. That a girl would aspire to be the Little Mermaid, a beautiful redhead with no legs who waits for her prince! Who literally gives up her voice! What are we doing? What is going on?”





18. “My daughter was playing the other day and almost knocked an Emmy … on her head. I was like, ‘Oh, that would have been terrible.’ Can you imagine having to fill out an accident report at the hospital? ‘An Emmy fell on my kid’s head.’”


19. “All over Manhattan, large families have become a status symbol. Four beautiful children named after kings and pieces of fruit are a way of saying, ‘I can afford a four-bedroom apartment and a hundred and fifty thousand dollars in elementary-school tuition fees each year. How you livin’?”





20. “When my daughter says, ‘I wish I had a baby sister,’ I am stricken with guilt and panic. When she says, ‘Mommy, I need Aqua Sand’ or ‘I only want to eat gum!’ or ‘Wipe my butt!,’ I am less affected.


21. “[Alice] has a pretend hair-and-nail shop, and I was doing her hair and make-up. I said, ‘Hello ma’am. What’s your name? What do you do?’ And she said, ‘I get paid to dance at parties.’ And I said, ‘Oh, no. That’s a terrible, terrible answer.’”


22. “When I read fairy tales to my daughter, I always change the word ‘blond’ to ‘yellow,’ because I don’t want her to think that blond hair is somehow better.”


23. “Being a mom has made me so tired. And so happy.”

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Here's Nicole Kidman As A Punk-Rock Alien In 'How To Talk To Girls At Parties'

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All anyone should need to know about “How to Talk to Girls at Parties” is that Nicole Kidman plays a punk-rock alien. Done. Logline perfected. Coming soon to a theater near you. 


If you’d like more info, watch the teasers that Elle Fanning, Neil Gaiman and John Cameron Mitchell debuted on Instagram ahead of the movie’s Cannes Film Festival premiere. Fanning plays one of Kidman’s fellow Sex Pistols-inflicted aliens, with whom a shy 1970s London teenager (Alex Sharp) falls in love.


Directed and co-written by Mitchell, “How to Talk to Girls at Parties” is based on Gaimain’s short story of the same name. It opens later this year. 







Holy punking fuck! Take a leak at your first peek of HOW TO TALK TO GIRLS AT PARTIES

A post shared by John Cameron Mitchell (@johncameronmitchell) on



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These Profound Photos Masterfully Turn Racial Stereotypes On Their Head

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“Let’s Talk About Race” is a powerful photo essay published in the latest issue of O, The Oprah Magazine that challenges the ways we view race in a masterful way. 


The magazine’s editor-in-chief Lucy Kaylin, who oversaw all production of the publication’s “Race Issue,” commissioned photographer Chris Buck to help bring Oprah’s vision for the feature to life. Each of the three photos in the essay shows women or girls of color in a role reversal from the ways in which they are stereotypically seen ― or not seen ― compared to white women or girls.


One image shows several East Asian women at a nail salon being pampered by white female beauticians. Another shows a young white girl at a toy store standing before a row of shelves stocked only with black dolls, and the last image shows a posh Hispanic woman on the phone as her white maid tends to her. 


“The story grew out of a big ideas meeting we had with Oprah; it was a topic on all of our minds and she was eager for us to tackle it,” Kaylin said in a statement to HuffPost. “The main thing we wanted to do was deal with the elephant in the room — that race is a thorny issue in our culture, and tensions are on the rise. So let’s do our part to get an honest, compassionate conversation going, in which people feel heard and we all learn something — especially how we can all do better and move forward. Boldly, with open hearts and minds.” 


Take a look at the images below: 





The pictures are indeed eye-opening, and force us to reexamine damaging stereotypes and explore how race, class and power can intersect. (The terms “Hispanic” and “Latino” refer to ethnicity, and those of Latin American heritage can belong to any race.) The opposing realities captured in the images also call into question the ways in which women of color are often portrayed. 


Buck, who has worked with Kaylin and her team before, said producing the photos for the magazine felt entirely fitting because he sees Oprah as one of the best people to explore and talk about race ― and to prompt others to do the same. 


“The fact that they’re coming from O, The Oprah Magazine was part of the real allure for me,” he told HuffPost. “Oprah is someone who both white women and black women connect and relate to and she’s in a unique place to talk about race in this country because she has a strong and loyal audience among all demographics of women.”


“I knew that there was a vision to raise questions [about race] without being heavy-handed or mean-spirited,” he added. “That’s the way in which I approached the execution and helped them to create the images.” 


However, Buck, who is a white man, acknowledged that producing the photos led him to interrogate his own relationship with race, and that the images can mean many things to many people. But he says the photos, at their core, serve as means to help spark a healthy discussion around race and the ways we perceive it.


“For white people like me, we need to understand just because we’re talking about race doesn’t mean fingers are being pointed at us,” he said. “To me what’s great is that it’s made conversation. I want people of color and white people to be able to have a dialogue. I don’t want white people to feel like they’re being talked at or black people to feel like they’re being shut down either.” 


“All parties need to feel welcome at the table in this discussion,” he added, “that’s how we move forward and to me, at their best, that’s what these pictures can do.”


Jessica Prois contributed to this piece. 

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Nick Kroll And John Mulaney's 'Oh, Hello' Is The Perfect Netflix Special

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Netflix is home to a lot of comedy specials: Ali Wong, Aziz Ansari, Tracy Morgan, Maria Bamford, Jim Gaffigan, Louis C.K. ― they’ve all got one.


But, making their special extra special, comedians Nick Kroll and John Mulaney are bringing a different kind of routine to the streaming service this summer. That’s right, “Oh, Hello,” their sold-out Broadway play based on “Kroll Show” characters Gil Faizon and George St. Geegland, is headed for a screen near you.






If you’re unfamiliar with Gil and George’s schtick, just imagine the elderly muppets Statler and Waldorf come to life with a mission to prank (or, “prahnk”) people into eating enormous tuna sandwiches. They do so while hosting a public-access show, wearing a lot of turtlenecks and suffering from bagel-induced cholesterol.


If you’re versed in the improv-heavy antics of the “Oh, Hello” men, then you’re probably aware of how difficult it was to get your hands on a ticket to their comedy act on Broadway, which closed earlier this year after more than 100 performances. Kroll and Mulaney (who has a Netflix comedy special of his own) have actually been honing the characters since the early 2000s, long before the “Kroll Show” premiered on Comedy Central. But the duo has become particularly popular in recent years, as the comedians took their act to late-night show couches.


On Broadway, Kroll and Mulaney welcomed a slew of famous guests to their stage, including Will Ferrell, Tina Fey, Whoopi Goldberg, Jerry Seinfeld and Amy Schumer. According to Playbill, the performances streaming on Netflix on June 13 will likely include footage from two taped performances that occurred on Jan. 19 and 20. If you know who the guests were, let us know!






R.I.P. “Kroll Show,” how we miss thee.


 





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The RompHim Isn't Just Lame Wordplay, It's A Sign Of Male Fragility

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Candles, yogurt, rosé, and now rompers: Our capitalistic marketplace overflows with desirable, fun products that suffer from their association with women. Fortunately, businesses have found a way to market their goods to both women and men: bro branding. (”Bronding”?)


We’ve had mandles, brogurt, brosé, and now the latest example, the RompHim™, a short jumpsuit for men. The RompHim launched via Kickstarter this week and quickly drew derision from Twitter wits. Men in rompers! Imagine!


The summer romper, a cute number that typically looks like a sundress with shorts instead of a skirt, has firmly established itself in the past few years as a popular option for women. Though nearly impossible in bathroom contexts (nothing like hovering naked over a public toilet with one’s entire outfit pooled around one’s ankles to induce skepticism of the trend), it’s otherwise quite convenient. Women can have all the flirty style of a short sundress without the fear of stiff winds, bicycling and sitting cross-legged. 


Both men and women have rocked jumpsuits before this latest romper bubble, but the sudden popularity of ruffled, floral jumpsuits for women seems to have tainted the style’s gender-neutral reputation. Many of the recent Twitter jibes directed at the garment centered around the absurdity of a man dressing like a woman ― showing up to a date wearing the same romper as his female counterpart, preening himself over his cute new look, etc. 


There’s a genuine merit to the RompHim™ approach: Rompers are convenient (probably even more so for men, who will be able to pee in a romper without disrobing), and they’ve become ubiquitous in women’s fashion but not men’s. But it’s infuriating that advertisers have come to rely on artificial layers of masculinization to convince men to buy products that should be gender-neutral. 


Pink wine? That’s girl stuff. Brosé, though, that’s something for bros. Yogurt is something ladies in grey hoodies eat to maintain their svelte figures in between mothering and wifing, but brogurt is powerful, protein-packed nourishment for men. Scented candles are chick tchotchkes, but a mandle redolent of freshly mown football fields is perfect for your man cave. The products are marketed directly at men who actually want scented candles, rompers and rosé, but who fear their very masculinity will come into question if they indulge.


Even as feminists chip away at the socially constructed gender roles that men and women have long felt obligated to perform, male anxiety seems more pervasive than ever. While women feel empowered to lean in to male roles ― and styles ― men battle internal and external pressure to protect a male-only space that distinguishes them from the “weaker” sex. Women today wear pants, Oxford shoes and shirts, and menswear-inspired everything; it’s still rare to see a man in a skirt, and many even find men in shorts to be laughable. Our conception of what men can wear remains as narrow as it was 50 years ago, if not more so. 






In the past, activists have mocked the pinkification of products to appeal to women ― perhaps most hilariously, Bic for Her ballpoint pens ― but apparently when women buy basic, mainstream products, men become embarrassed to consume the same things. It’s not too hard to get women to buy gender-neutral items (or even male-coded ones: think of the popularity of “boyfriend” jeans). After all, liking and using things men like and use can result in higher status for women. Drink whiskey, watch football, down a plateful of wings ― as long as you’re hot, you’re the perfect woman, and even if you’re not a solid nine, your choices will at least be deemed respectable.


It’s men who nurture the more acute anxiety about gender neutrality. (This makes sense; in a world divided neatly into men and women, men have almost uniformly gleaned the advantages from this demarcation.) A man watching “Real Housewives” with a glass of zinfandel in a romper is flouting gender norms, but by adopting the lesser-respected female-coded habits. His wine and outfit need to be placed in a separate, more macho category than the identical versions consumed by women. “Don’t worry,” says a carton emblazoned with the name Powerful Yogurt, “just because you’re eating yogurt like a lady doesn’t mean you’re effeminate! You’re still the man here.”


A 2016 follow-up on brogurt noted that brands like Powerful Yogurt were going “gender-neutral”: “[Excluding women] was a risk,” said one executive of their male-focused advertising. Was it, though? Women have always been OK buying products coded as male ― even as men run screaming from anything pink or cute. RompHim suggests their men’s cut rompers as a good option for women who prefer a unisex silhouette; the reverse of that two-birds-one-stone approach would never work out. 


The veritable rash of bro-ified terms for non-gendered products shows how deep male fragility runs: A man’s manhood requires constant signaling and buttressing to remain secure. Men who step out of line are derided as emasculated and sexually confused. For men to reap the benefits of a gender-neutral world, we rely on verbal tricks that only reinforce the gender-normative stereotypes that keep men boxed in. The real progress will be made when men can drink rosé in a romper without a single batted eyelash or “bro” prefix.


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This Choreoplay Draws A Connection Between Sexual Violence And Racial Injustice

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Trigger warning: The following material contains graphic references to rape and sexual assault.


There was something about the imprisonment and subsequent death of Sandra Bland that choreographer Jinah Parker felt compelled to address. So she worked Bland’s short life into “SHE,” her choreoplay on sexual violence. 


Parker said that although Bland wasn’t subjected to sexual violence during her arrest, she was being victimized by an abuse of power. 


“Rape is an abuse of power and that is what happened with Sandra Bland: this police officer abused his power, he threw her down, stripped her of her being,” Parker told HuffPost last week. “In that form, it is a rape. So that’s how I connected the two.” 


SHE” premiered at the HERE Arts Center in Manhattan on May 5. Parker began laying the groundwork for the choreoplay ― which combines elements of a play and dance performance ― in December 2015. A Buffalo, New York, native, Parker received her master’s degree in dance education from New York University in 2010. She now runs a nonprofit arts organization that aims to motivate youth through dance. 


While she originally planned to execute “SHE” as a modern dance concert, she eventually decided to evolve it into something more. So Parker recruited four actresses, all of whom have personally experienced sexual violence, to perform alongside the dancers, including herself.



She further amplified the narrative by interweaving the play’s first half, which was dedicated to Bland, with its other half on rape and sexual abuse. Originally, they were different segments of the play. 


“[I] found creative ways to tie it in so we could shed light to both topics that need so much light shed on them,” she said. “And also show how those topics are intersecting.”


At one point in the show, the audience watches as video footage of Bland getting pulled over is played. 


“I think of it as a metaphorical rape in the sense that while she wasn’t ― that we know of ― physically raped in terms of him putting an actual penis inside of her, everything else that happened, happens in a rape,” she said. “The stripping down of oneself and one’s being ... it’s an abuse of power and that’s what rape is ― an abuse of power.”


The play also intersperses pictures of other black women like Rekia Boyd and Aiyana Stanley-Jones, who died as a result of systemic racism, police violence or both.


Parker, who served as the principal dancer in the choreoplay, channeled Bland as she stepped into an orange jumpsuit after the footage played. 


“I felt like I was not only embodying her, but it was symbolic of all the women who have gone through this,” she said. 


She later puts a noose around her neck not only as a reenactment of Bland’s death, but in acknowledgement of America’s history of lynchings. 


“She was found hanging in jail with a garbage bag but use of [the noose] is to symbolize all the other people that have been hung and killed in the past,” Parker continued. “Whether it was with a noose or whether it was with a gun ... [police] shootings are just modern-day lynchings.”


Parker plans to continue to broaden the reach of the play and invite other producers to contribute their perspective. She said she wants the play to serve as a “tool for change.” 


“SHE” will be playing at HERE in Manhattan until May 21. 


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

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3 Filipina-American Journalists Discuss 'My Family's Slave' And Who Gets To Judge It

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This week, it seemed the entire internet had something to say about The Atlantic’s latest cover story, written by the late Filipino-American journalist Alex Tizon.


Tizon’s personal essay, which detailed his life with a woman he first knew as Lola and eventually identified as his family’s slave, quickly went viral.


People reacted emotionally. People acted with outrage. People criticized Tizon for participating in modern-day slavery. People criticized him for telling Lola’s story ― Eudocia Tomas Pulido’s story ― in the first place.


Then, Filipinos began speaking up for themselves in an attempt to explain a culture that many felt the rest of the world simply could not understand. 


Filipinos and Filipino-Americans wondered out loud: How could the rest of the world, especially wealthier countries, expect to solve the Philippines’ social issues without experiencing their painful history and cultural complexities first-hand?


And, more pointedly, who gets to tell Filipinos how their stories should be told? 


Once the story saturated the internet, three Filipina-American journalists at HuffPost found ourselves grappling with our own identities and wondered how Tizon and Pulido’s stories could be viewed from a more open perspective ― one that considers privilege, race, culture and class.


So we took our conversation to Slack, a group chat app used in many workplaces. Before you fully dive into the chats, here is a bit on our respective backgrounds: 


Carla Herreria, a HuffPost Trends reporter based in Hawaii, has had relatives who have both hired and have been hired as maids. Her parents emigrated from the Philippines to California, where they became citizens and started a family.


Dzana Ashworth, a HuffPost video producer based in New York, was adopted by Jewish parents and born and raised in the U.S. Her parents hired a Filipina caretaker, who is now Ashworth’s godmother.


Danielle Datu, a HuffPost social editor based in Los Angeles, was born to parents who emigrated from the Philippines to the U.S. to become citizens. Both her parents had hired maids while growing up in the Philippines.


Read snippets below of our conversation, which took place over the course of three days.





I appreciated that the author was trying to sort out growing up in due cultures and, eventually, reckoning with his guilt over the normalcy of having a ‘slave.’
Carla




Many Filipinos don’t have much, so I wouldn’t be surprised if some took people in as help… feels like a way for them to take care of each other.
Danielle




I'm not sure if it's up to non-national Filipinos to decide for a country that has larger problems than we could know.
Carla




For me, it felt like a very familiar scenario just by virtue of growing up in a Filipino family.
Danielle





She should've been treated better. Not that it's an excuse, but being an immigrant in America has incredible hardships and things are said or done — even within the family — that one might regret later.
Danielle




Many of us (non-Asian, or non-Filipinx, or even non-nationals) don't have answers. And that's okay even if it's also unsettling.
Dzana




I think it's a conversation that Filipino nationals have to have. They're the ones who understand the complexities of their own country... they're the ones who are hiring or being hired to escape poverty.
Carla





More should be done to ensure that hired domestic helpers have rights and are not treated this way. This is 2017 and it should not be happening.
Danielle




Read all of The Atlantic’s story, “My Slave’s Family,” by Alex Tizon here.


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Basquiat Painting Sells for Historic $110.5 Million At Sotheby's Auction

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A painting by Jean-Michel Basquiat just sold for the highest price ever paid at auction for a work by an American artist: a whopping $110.5 million.


The 72-by-68-inch acrylic and oil stick “Untitled” painting of a skull by the late one-time graffiti artist was the subject of 10 minutes of intense bidding at a New York Sotheby’s auction Thursday night. The opening bid of $57 million drew gasps from the audience, Bloomberg reported. Sotheby’s had estimated it would sell for at least $60 million.


It was the sixth highest amount ever paid at auction for any work of art, putting Basquiat in the rarified company of Pablo Picasso. Only ten works have sold for more than $100 million.


It was purchased by Japanese e-commerce billionaire and art collector Yusaku Maezawa. He announced in an Instagram post standing next to the work that he had “just won this masterpiece.”


“When I first encountered this painting, I was struck with so much excitement and gratitude for my love of art,” he added. “I want to share that experience with as many people as possible.”




The painting was purchased in 1984 for $19,000 by collectors Jerry and Emily Spiegel when Basquiat was virtually unknown and was never publicly exhibited. Basquiat died of a heroin overdose in 1988 at the age of 27 after painting for just seven years. He created the skull in 1982. It’s considered one of his most important works still in private hands.


Maezawa plans to loan the work to institutions around the world before making it one of the centerpieces of a museum he has created in his hometown of Chiba, Japan.


Maezawa last year bought another 1982 Basquiat painting of a devil at a Christie’s auction for $57.3 million, which was then the most ever paid for a work by the artist.


The Basquiat was part of a Sothby’s Contemporary Art Evening Auction of American post war paintings that also featured works by Roy Lichtenstein, Andy Warhol and Robert Rauschenberg, among other artists.


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Kesha Says 'Taking The Time To Work On Yourself Requires Bravery'

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Kesha has been through quite a bit: She says she was “sexually, physically, verbally and emotionally” abused by her producer Dr. Luke for years, and she was subsequently caught in an ugly and public court battle. All the while she struggled with a debilitating eating disorder.


In a recent essay for Teen Vogue, Kesha wrote about self-care, happiness and how she overcame that eating disorder ― and it’s so powerful. 


The singer-songwriter discussed how the bullying she experienced as a kid is nowhere near the body-shaming and slut-shaming young girls face today with the internet so readily available. 


“I know from personal experience how comments can mess up somebody’s self-confidence and sense of self-worth,” Kesha wrote. “I have felt so unlovable after reading cruel words written by strangers who don’t know a thing about me.”



Remember that beauty comes in all shapes and sizes. And that no one can take the magic you make.



She added that when she compared herself to others and saw herself in tabloids, it became a vicious cycle that would feed her anxiety and depression. 


“Seeing paparazzi photos of myself and the accompanying catty commentary fueled my eating disorder,” Kesha wrote. “The sick irony was that when I was at some of the lowest points in my life, I kept hearing how much better I looked. I knew I was destroying my body with my eating disorder, but the message I was getting was that I was doing great.”


The last couple of years, however, Kesha’s learned a lot about the importance of self-care. “I’ve realized that once you take the step to help yourself, you’re going to be so happy you did,” she wrote. “Taking the time to work on yourself requires bravery.” 


The takeaway? Don’t be ashamed of your struggle. 


“With this essay, I want to pass along the message to anyone who struggles with an eating disorder, or depression, or anxiety, or anything else, that if you have physical or emotional scars, don’t be ashamed of them, because they are part of you,” Kesha wrote. “Remember that beauty comes in all shapes and sizes. And that no one can take the magic you make.”


Head over to Teen Vogue to read Kesha’s full essay. 


If you’re struggling with an eating disorder, call the National Eating Disorder Association hotline at 1-800-931-2237.

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An Anti-Trump Pothole Installation May Be The Perfect Protest Art

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A pothole near Trump Tower in Chicago has been fixed, but not by the city: Jim Bachor, an artist known for his pothole installations of whimsical mosaic designs, recently installed a new piece that pointedly reads, “LIAR.”


The street art was his small but durable protest against the current president, Bachor told The Chicago Tribune on Wednesday. The artist, a stay-at-home father to 11-year-old twin boys, told HuffPost via email, “If [my sons] asked if I did anything to protest those dark Trump months he was in office ― I didn’t want my answer to be ‘nothing.’”


The red, white and blue striped mosaic is bordered by real gold tiles, bringing together America’s flag with President Donald Trump’s magpie-like obsession with precious metal. Bachor also pointed out that the piece was installed “near a drain (for that swamp)” and, thanks to being ensconced in the road itself, will be difficult to remove quickly.


“I call it a semipermanent ‘visual scream’ that can state what I think 24 hours a day,” he told HuffPost. Plus, it does an undeniable social good: filling in a pothole that had thus far gone unfixed by the government.



Bachor actually finished the mosaic in January, around the time of the inauguration, but he was finally able to get it in the street this month; he needs the temperature to be above 60 degrees to set his pothole installations properly. As it turns out, the weather provided impeccable timing, as the stream of concerning news out of the White House has recently escalated to a torrent.


Most of Bachor’s past pothole mosaics have been apolitical, featuring stylized popsicles, ice cream cones and other innocent images. This might not be his last protest work, however. He told HuffPost he has “a couple more ready to go,” but said, “I’m gonna probably let this cool down a bit before doing another political piece.”




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An Ode To Michael Fassbender Seducing Michael Fassbender In 'Alien: Covenant'

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This post contains mild “Alien: Covenant” spoilers.


Alien: Covenant” has two Michael Fassbenders. Both are androids. They engage in existential disputes on a remote planet. They debate the poetry of Percy Bysshe Shelley. One teaches the other to play a flute. More importantly, they kiss. 


These two Michael Fassbenders form the hallmark of “Alien: Covenant,” the sixth installment in the 38-year-old “Alien” franchise. One Fassbender is the prototype David, returning from “Covenant” processor “Prometheus.” David’s devilish God-like tendencies have annexed the planet where the titular colony ship is investigating a rogue radio transmission. For his next trick, Fassbender plays Walter, a new-and-improved humanoid that takes care of the Covenant and strains to protect his crewmates from the extraterrestrial beasts David has cultivated. 


Set 10 years after the events of “Prometheus,” “Alien: Covenant” remains engaging even when it drowns in self-serious philosophizing and the foolish actions of its hollow characters. It is a Ridley Scott movie, after all. But any virtues are crumbs compared to Fassbender’s double billing, which takes all kind of bizarre and wonderful turns. 


In typical fashion, Fassbender commands both roles like a demigod reigning over his creations. Pitted against each other, the characters present a duality. Walter, short-haired and American-accented, is the dutiful good to David’s vainglorious evil. One telltale sign: David has a menacing British timbre. Another: He’s staging science experiments using remnants of the failed Prometheus mission. Soon enough, a fresh tribe of aliens are running amok, obliterating the Covenant’s inhabitants. In between sparring matches with his malevolent twin, can Walter rescue his friends?








You’ll find out the answer for yourself. Really, who cares when we can focus on David and Walter’s cozy spats about the origins of species and the nature of existence? Fassbender gives David an elfin camp just shy of cliché ― it’s perfect for the type of android (you know the one) that cites the Romantic poem “Ozymandias.” And even more perfect for an android that essentially seduces his robot doppelgänger.


Deep inside a dim lair in David’s temple, as the movie builds toward its chaotic fever pitch, David baits Walter with a touch of intimacy. He pauses to teach Walter to play a recorder. Imagine that romantic-comedy trope where the dude perfects his girlfriend’s golf swing, except it’s two lookalikes blowing on a flute. “Watch me ― I’ll do the fingering,” David says as Walter toots the mouthpiece. If the audience at your theater doesn’t hoot and holler in response, demand a refund. Or, rather, give it a few more seconds, because David says “You have symphonies in you, brother” and plants a peck on Walter’s lips. For one brief, shining moment, it’s touching, watching David admire someone (something?) who was also born that way.


Alas, a romantic comedy this is not. David’s smooch is a segue for his battle royale with Walter and the other Covenant crew members who haven’t already been executed. We just happen to get an outré display of delicious android queer-baiting along the way.


Through it all, Fassbender is so on top of his game that “Alien: Covenant” can stand up against his finest screen performances (”Hunger,” “Shame,” “Jane Eyre,” “12 Years a Slave,” “Slow West”). The way his stilted cyborg cadence changes from the humanistic Walter to the devious David creates a metaphysical tug-of-war, as though the pair represent two halves of one conflicted soul. Their interplay embodies some of Scott’s most masterful wizardry. From a logistical vantage, that flute scene is a true “wow” moment, unfolding with seamless titillation, as if two different actors are sharing the exchange. 


By the end, the horror-movie elements and the philosophical world-building in “Alien: Covenant” don’t cohere. But it almost doesn’t matter, partly because Scott has such a technical mastery and partly because Fassbender’s dueling energies are such a delight. Where else will we see an actor known for menacing villains and connection-hungry drifters play both in the same fling? Nobody does it like Mikey. 


“Alien: Covenant” is now playing in theaters.

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How One Sandy Hook Mom Found Peace After The Most Unthinkable Loss

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Friday, May 12 would’ve been Emilie Parker’s 11th birthday. The little girl loved art, reading and cheering people up when they were sad. On December 14, 2012, she and 19 other children were killed in the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting. 


More than four years after the horrific tragedy, Emilie’s mother, Alissa Parker, released An Unseen Angel: A Mother’s Story of Healing and Hope After Sandy Hook, a powerful book about finding joy and compassion in unexpected places.


On the eve of Emilie’s birthday, Parker spoke with HuffPost about the book, her family’s journey and the way her outlook changed after she lived through every parent’s worst nightmare. 



An Unseen Angel is dedicated to Parker’s two younger daughters, 8-year-old Samantha and 9-year-old Madeline. The author told HuffPost she initially started writing the book just for the two girls.  


“They were very young when Emilie died, and I knew they wouldn’t remember very much,” she said. “I wanted to preserve this story for them so that as years passed, they would be able to go back and see what happened.”


As she wrote about the outpouring of compassion and support from family, friends and strangers after the unspeakable tragedy, Parker realized her story might be able to inspire others. 


“There’s so much negativity and darkness surrounding what happened at Sandy Hook, and this was a whole different perspective,” she explained. “It’s the lighter side, the side that shows how good humanity is. And I just wanted to share that with people.”



The title of the book stems from Parker’s belief that her daughter Emilie is an “unseen angel,” always with her as she goes through life and witnesses the beauty of the world and humanity. This message ties in with the book’s theme of healing through faith.


Though Parker grew up in a Christian household and always considered her religion to be an integral part of her life, she said she didn’t feel comfortable expressing it with others until the aftermath of Emilie’s death. Spending time with the parents of other kids who died in the Sandy Hook shooting helped her open up.


“I was with a large group of people who were all grieving from the same exact moment,” she recalled. “We had all different faiths, all different experiences, and we yearned to learn from each other and hear what the other one had experienced, what worked for them, what they believed, and all those barriers just broke down.”


She added, “I realized how much there was to learn from other people, other faiths and how important it was for me to be able to share my belief system with others because there’s so much we can learn from each other.”



A little more than a year after the shooting, Parker and her family moved back to the Pacific Northwest, where they had lived for a short time when the girls were younger.


She and her husband, Robbie, worked to move forward with their lives, focusing their energy on raising Madeline and Samantha. Still, there are certain times of year that can be particularly challenging. 


Emilie was born on the Friday before Mother’s Day in 2006, and the Parkers brought their first baby home on the actual holiday.


“I remember just being so overwhelmed with the idea that on my first Mother’s Day, I got to bring my child home with me,” the mom recalled. “And so I had this kind of special connection to the holiday because it always fell kind of around the time that I became a mother, when Emilie was born.”


In the months after the tragedy at Sandy Hook, Parker noticed that Emilie’s birthday would fall on Mother’s Day that year. In that moment of realization, she felt a pain in the pit of her stomach.


“It had always been so special to me, and I didn’t want that tainted,” the mom said. “I felt like so much had been taken away from me, and I didn’t want that joy that I felt to be taken away from me.” 



Getting through the double whammy of Mother’s Day and Emilie’s birthday at the same time was incredibly tough and emotional, but Parker said she worked hard to focus on the blessings of being a mom and the time she had with Emilie, rather than the horror of what happened to her.


“I’ve had to train my brain to not wander and think about the past and future and be overwhelmed with the emotions that those thoughts always bring me,” she said. “I try to be present in the moment, to focus what is happening right now and what joy I’m seeing.”


The Parkers tend to go away as a family around Mother’s Day. On Emilie’s birthday, they try to do something she enjoyed, like going to the beach, and the mom usually gives each of her girls something that belonged to their big sister.


“Because they were so young when she died, I put away a lot of her toys and things she had into these little boxes for the girls. So when it’s her birthday, I pull something out that she would’ve wanted them to have, that’s age appropriate for the season in their lives.”



The birthday tradition is just one of the ways the Parkers keep Emilie’s memory alive for her sisters. “We try to be really natural about the way we talk about Emilie with them. I never wanted them to feel like anything was either forced, or on the other hand, taboo,” the mom told HuffPost. 


“I didn’t want them to feel competitive with her memory, so I was really conscious of making sure we only brought her up when it was appropriate and not force stories,” she added. “But I also didn’t want them to feel like they couldn’t bring her up whenever they felt it was appropriate either.”


For the most part, keeping this balance has been effortless, Parker noted. The parents also created a memory box for their daughters. Whenever they think of a memory or story about their big sister, they write it down and put it in the memory box. 



“It’s been fun for them to have a place to put it,” the mom said. “It’s almost like there’s this anxiety ― you feel like you’re going to lose the story, so when they had a place to put it, it was a release for them.” The girls have filled the memory box a couple of times, so their parents took the papers out and a made a little book for them. 


Madeline and Samantha were also among the first people to get a copy of An Unseen Angel, though they haven’t read the entire book yet. 


“We’ve made it clear to them from the very beginning that we’ll tell them whatever information they want to know about Emilie,” Parker explained. “They ask the questions, which we answer, but there are certain things that they have made clear to us that they’re not ready to know about.”



Specifically, the girls don’t yet want to know the details of how their sister was killed that day. So when they received the book, their mother told them which sections to skip to avoid those details. “I told them that when the day comes that they want to read that and want to know a little bit more, we could sit down and have a conversation and read it together,” Parker said. “They’re comfortable with those parameters for now.”


The horrific events at Sandy Hook Elementary School are mired in an extra layer of torment. Though many public tragedies spawn conspiracy talk, the conspiracy theory movement around Sandy Hook has been particularly insidious, having reached a wider audience in part thanks to Infowars founder and notorious President Trump ally, Alex Jones.


Many so-called “Sandy Hook truthers” have targeted the Parker family specifically ― using photos of Emilie’s younger sisters as evidence that she’s still alive, accusing her parents of being “crisis actors” and referring to the young victim as EmiLIE. 



Emilie’s mother said they refuse to let this vile phenomenon affect them.


“We’ve really tried to focus on our truth,” Parker told HuffPost. “I’ve never done anything with the idea that I’m trying to convince them of anything. I’m just living my truth. And I realize that we live in a country where freedom of speech is very valuable, so I have to accept that that’s the consequence of living here. And that’s OK. I just have to let it go and realize they don’t have power over me.”


To say Alissa Parker has demonstrated incredible strength would be an understatement. One of the more striking parts of An Unseen Angel is her account of meeting Adam Lanza’s father and finding the courage to forgive the man who killed her daughter. 


“I think the thing that I hadn’t expected in talking to [Peter Lanza] about his son that I gained from it was my viewpoint and how I saw the shooter,” Parker recalled. “Up to that point, he was the monster who did the most horrendous thing I could ever imagine, and that was it. That was all. And I was comfortable with that.”


“After speaking to his father, this entire picture of his life unfolded before me. He no longer was just that monster. He was a person who struggled with really intense difficult things throughout his whole life, where the system failed him, he failed himself, his parents failed him, over and over again,” she added.


Though this realization didn’t take away Lanza’s accountability in Parker’s eyes, it brought her to a place of empathy and eventual forgiveness. 



“It showed me to have more compassion for his entire life and to understand that he was the sum of all of these experiences, not just a monster that day,” she explained.


“In some ways it made me think about other people who might struggle with similar things and how we tend to vilify people who are capable of doing these things,” Parker continued. “I didn’t want to take that attitude toward those who have struggled. I wanted to have a positive, loving, compassionate attitude ― to say, ‘I want to be there to help you. I want to be there to be a solution to your struggles, not make you feel more isolated or more alone.’”


Ultimately, An Unseen Angel tells a powerful story of anguish, loss and healing that most parents would never want to imagine having to endure.


Beyond sharing her personal journey, Parker hopes her book can inspire readers with its message of resilience. “Whether it be losing a loved one and grieving or going through a difficulties like losing a job, there are so many ways that we all can take these experiences and see how we can adopt these lessons in the challenging times in our lives,” she told HuffPost. 


“When we go through difficult, dark times, that there’s always hope, and there’s always light around us,” she added. “It’s just choosing to let it in that’s not always easy.”

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'Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt' Isn't Mad At Us Anymore

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Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt” is back, and it’s ready to make friends.


After the first two seasons of the Netflix original series were marred by unforced errors in its portrayals of race and social issues, Season 3 is distinguished by a more cautious, thoughtful approach. Though certain narrative choices from earlier seasons continue to cause trouble, the new season opens with several episodes that at least try to steer the renegade plot lines into calmer waters. 


The show, created by Tina Fey and starring Ellie Kemper, drew praise after its first season dropped for its daffy, surreal comedy and dark premise; but many reviews singled out two characters (Dong, a Vietnamese immigrant who hewed to several Asian stereotypes, and Jacqueline Voorhees, a wealthy blonde socialite played by Jane Krakowski, who is revealed to be Native American) for critique. In the second season, released in 2016, the show not only doubled down on its problematic Native American plot line, it openly lashed out at critics in an episode that viciously satirized online social justice crusaders. Once again, “Kimmy Schmidt” faced criticism for its willful hostility toward viewers of color and its ungracious response to critique.


The first six episodes of Season 3 avoid veiled barbs at critics and even sneak in some on-point commentary about white privilege and cultural appropriation. Mostly, it stays safely in the realm of goofy, cartoonish comedy ― at which it excels. As the season opens, Kimmy tries to get a divorce from her now-imprisoned abductor, the Reverend Richard Wayne Gary Wayne (Jon Hamm) and looks at colleges (Famous Ray’s Original College, Roy Cohn Community College). Titus (Tituss Burgess) has washed up on the beach several months before he was expected back from his tour as an entertainer on a cruise ship, and he definitely did not eat any beloved celebrity performers while at sea. Once back, his relationship with his construction-worker boyfriend, Mikey (Mike Carlsen), immediately looks rocky. Lillian (Carol Kane) ditches her creepy boyfriend Robert Durst (Fred Armisen) and runs for city council in hopes of preventing any improvements in her neighborhood. Jacqueline and her new boyfriend Russ Snyder (David Cross), a human rights lawyer who unhappily belongs to the Snyder family that owns the Washington Redskins, continue their secret plan to oust the mascot in favor of one that isn’t wildly offensive to Native Americans.


Having returned home from a less-than-triumphant cruise tour, Titus initially balks at telling his supportive boyfriend that he’s returned home no more successful than when he left. When he finally goes to reconnect with Mikey, he becomes first suspicious, then infuriated, upon seeing that his boyfriend has invited another man over. Sound like a good opportunity to have Titus spoof “Lemonade”? Fear not, the show takes full advantage ― and while the move feels a little forced and, at this point, dated, it’s delightfully executed.



More importantly, the conflict gives Titus and Mikey space to examine whether the relationship is really right for them, while honoring what Titus, who was Mikey’s first boyfriend, has done for him by encouraging him to get in touch with his sexuality.


Kimmy’s thread, as she waffles over granting a divorce to the man who stole her freedom, explores the psychological costs of trauma with surprising nuance. Should she withhold the divorce to punish her kidnapper and cult leader, who wants to end their (apparently legal) marriage in order to wed a professor he met in prison, or should she sign the papers to finally sever ties with him? Both outcomes are tempting, but she can’t quite figure out which will be healthier for her. When his fiancée Wendy (Laura Dern) shows up with divorce papers, Kimmy faces another impossible choice: Let this naive, lonely woman have what she wants, or protect her from it by refusing, again, to sign.


The show has played up Kimmy’s outsider status by having her connect romantically with men of color ― first Dong, and now a fellow student named Perry (Daveed Diggs). Her optimism and ongoing lack of familiarity with popular culture and social issues actually makes her a great comedic foil for these dynamics; she’s so little versed in college admissions that an offer from a prestigious school barely fazes her, even though she’s clearly not qualified. She’s a cartoonish yet recognizable version of the standard white person blissfully unaware of her own privilege because she doesn’t know what it’s like to lack it. To people of color she encounters, the lucky breaks she’s given in preference to them are infuriating but ultimately just another in a long line of disappointments. Like Dong and Perry, she feels alienated from the dominant culture; unlike them, she’s eagerly embraced by the white power structure. The college setting provides grist for an anti-outrage culture plot, but the show mostly acknowledges the real injustices that lie beneath social justice activism while tweaking the smug but well-meaning foibles of white, middle-class students whose wokeness is mostly performed.



Tina Fey’s shows have always had a conservative streak when it comes to money and gentrification ― think of Carrie Fisher’s “30 Rock” cameo as an aging comedy writer, Rosemary, who lives in a neighborhood so rough it’s deemed “Little Chechnya.” Fey’s Liz Lemon is so frightened by the prospect of such a home that she begs Jack (Alec Baldwin) to hire her again. Lillian, the counterculturalist landlady, is the Rosemary of “Kimmy Schmidt.” She relishes the crime and urban blight of their neighborhood, East Dogmouth, because it’s authentic ― and affordable ― even though the water is so brown it’s hard to believe anyone could be alive after drinking a glass of it. “I’m tired of you rich pricks coming in here, telling us what we need!” she castigates a local businessman. He scoffs: “I’m just trying to turn a condemned chicken slaughterhouse into a grocery store.” Lillian’s populism has been given a Trumpian makeover this season, peppered with references to “deplorables” and vague anti-governmentalism, but she also represents the tangible grievances of marginalized groups displaced by gentrification as cities invest in sprucing up rundown areas. This has been largely played as ridiculous, but if Lillian’s campaign continues through the season, one might hope that show teases out the complicated reality of gentrification.


The most nettlesome plotline remains Jacqueline’s quest to reclaim her Lakota heritage. The first six episodes feature her plot, with Russ, to undermine his family and gain the power to change the Redskins name. At a family event, he accuses his family of not accepting her because they’ve discovered she’s Sioux. It turns out to be a fatal miscalculation: They’re thrilled to have a white, blond woman in their midst who can provide moral cover for their use of “Redskins” as a mascot. Jacqueline finds herself used as a prop by the Snyders, when all she’d hoped to do was ruin them. The twist is a neat commentary on the actual strategy of the team, which relies on tenuously identified Native American supporters to counter waves of outrage from Native activists.


One still might wonder, though, where those activists are. The counter-movement of Russ, a white savior, and Jacqueline, a white-appearing savior, doesn’t link up with any of the well-established activist groups working to take down the Redskins. After last season, Native writer Cutcha Risling Baldy told HuffPost she wished that this plot would incorporate Native actors, or even real Native activists, into Jacqueline’s social circle and the fight against the Washington football team, giving ownership of the narrative to Native Americans rather than a fairly limited cast of white writers and actors. So far, at least, that hasn’t happened.


Still, “Kimmy Schmidt” finally appears to be listening to its critics, with a will for improvement rather than anger. That shift may bode well for the series to come.

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