A Virginia woman’s xenophobic rant against a Latino man was caught on camera. 

The video was shared by activist and New York Daily News writer Shaun King via Facebook on Monday. In the video, the unidentified woman is on the phone telling someone who is presumably a Sprint store representative that she is in Manassas, Virginia, which she describes as “the ghetto.” 

“You have probably five stores in Manassas, and none of them wanted to do anything,” she says to the person on the phone. “I’ve already been to two of them.” 

A Latino man who is in the store then interjects, saying, “They have one in Fairfax.”   

The woman immediately snaps back, “I wasn’t talking to you. And don’t listen to my conversation. Well, you better watch who the f**k you’re talking to ’cause I’m not the one.”

The man responds saying his name is “Juan,” possibly in jest because the name sounds like “one.”   

“I don’t give a f**k what your name is,” the woman responds, pointing to her husband and suggesting that he’d fight the man. Later, as she bites her nails, she adds that she’d fight him herself. 

The camera cuts away for a moment and the woman is then heard saying: “I ain’t scared of no f**king sp*c. This is my f**king country.”

After the man leaves the store, she says under her breath that he “needs to take his f**king ass back to Mexico.” 

Manassas is overwhelmingly white, with a demographic report by the city showing that 72 percent of the population identified as white and only 33 percent as Latino in 2015. 

The video had over 4.5 million views on King’s Facebook as of Tuesday. Last week, a similar viral video showed a man at a Reno, Nevada, airport calling a Puerto Rican man a “sp*c” and a “piece of sh*t” after overhearing him talking to his mother on the phone in Spanish. 

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Roger Moore will forever be known as James Bond. But, in the wake of the actor’s death, we must memorialize one of his finest career hallmarks: “Spice World.”

British popular culture peaked in 1997 when the U.K.’s defining luminaries ― 007 and the Spice Girls ― collided. Moore played The Chief, the outlandish record executive who demanded the band work to the brink of exhaustion and delivered prattling monologues while stroking a cat, preparing a martini or feeding a bottle to his pet piglet. 

After playing Bond in seven films, Moore’s “Spice World” role put a spin on the franchise’s debonair villain tropes. He channeled Ernst Stavro Blofeld, the criminal eyeing world domination with the help of a placid white feline stationed on his lap. From his sterile office, The Chief hissed cryptic commands to the Spice Girls’ manager (Richard E. Grant) via telephone, instilling fear even as his words grew more and more nonsensical. 

“When the rabbit of chaos is pursued by the ferret of disorder through the fields of anarchy, it is time to hang your pants on the hook of darkness, whether they are clean or not,” Moore said in his ultimate “Spice World” riddle. 

Moore was 70 when he made “Spice World” ― it was one of his final movies, and a perfect cap on a life spent in the shoes of Britain’s most iconic hero. 

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President Donald Trump breezed through a visit to Israel’s national Holocaust memorial center in Jerusalem on Tuesday, summing up the half-hour experience in the museum’s guest book as “SO AMAZING.”

Although initial reports in Israeli and Jewish media suggested the president planned to spend just 15 minutes at the center, Trump’s team ended up setting aside 30 minutes for the visit, the AP reports. 

Before he left, Trump briefly signed the memorial’s guest book. True to form, Trump’s note was blunt and appeared a bit rushed.

 Times of Israel correspondent Raoul Wootliff tweeted out an image of the note. 

“It is a great honor to be here with all of my friends - So amazing and will NEVER FORGET!” the president wrote.

In response to the strangely curt note, an image of the message former President Barack Obama left in the guestbook started circulating on social media on Tuesday. Obama’s note, written while he was still a senator in 2008, demonstrated the striking differences in personality between Trump and his predecessor.

“Let our children come here, and know this history, so that they can add their voices to proclaim ‘never again,’” Obama wrote. “And may we remember those who perished, not only as victims, but also as individuals who hoped and loved and dreamed like us, and who have become symbols of the human spirit.”

Avner Shalev, the chairman of Yad Vashem, told ABC that he didn’t think Trump’s guestbook message was insensitive, especially because of the strong statements the president made during a speech at the center that remembered the victims as human beings and reminded people of the importance of speaking up in the face of evil.

Shalev told ABC that the remarks were “very meaningful” and that the president “touched all the essential elements that should be touched.”

Most foreign dignitaries who visit Israel make it a point to stop at Yad Vashem. Visits to the center, which preserves the memories of the six million Jewish people who were systematically murdered by Nazis during World War II, usually take about and hour and a half.

Obama spent about an hour touring the museum during another trip in 2013, visiting a children’s memorial, the Hall of Names, and the center’s Museum of Holocaust Art before spending several minutes writing in the museum’s guest book. President George Bush spent a longer amount of time at the museum during a visit in 2008. 

Trump didn’t tour the museum during his brief visit on Tuesday, citing his busy schedule during his first foreign trip as president. He did, however, attend a prayer ceremony inside Yad Vashem’s Hall of Remembrance, along with his wife, Melania Trump, and his daughter Ivanka Trump and her husband Jared Kushner.

The president lit the memorial’s eternal flame and laid a wreath, and spoke out against the atrocities committed during the Holocaust, calling it “the most savage crime against God and his children.”

“Millions of innocent and wonderful and beautiful lives, women and children, were extinguished as part of a systematic attempt to eliminate the Jewish people,” he said during a speech at Yad Vashem.

He also expressed firm support for Israel.

“The State of Israel is a strong and soaring monument to the solemn pledge we repeat and affirm: Never again,” he said. 

Before he left Yad Vashem, Trump was given a replica of a diary that belonged to Ester Goldstein, a German-Jewish teen who was murdered during the Holocaust.

Trump has been criticized in the past over how his administration addressed the Holocaust.  In January, his team released a statement about Holocaust Remembrance Day that neglected to mention Jewish victims. And earlier this year, his press secretary Sean Spicer made the strange claim that Adolf Hitler never used chemical weapons, when in fact, the Nazis gassed millions of Jews in concentration camps.

Trump has tried to make amends since those incidents, forcefully speaking out against anti-Semitism during an annual Holocaust remembrance ceremony in late April.

Steven Goldstein, Executive Director, Anne Frank Center for Mutual Respect, told HuffPost in an email that the president’s 30 minutes at the center was “better” than the originally reported 15 minutes. “

“But it was nowhere close to the 90 minutes or more recommended length of a visit to Yad Vashem that would have allowed for a significant learning and reflection experience - the kind of deeper experience that would have countered the President’s odd signing of the guest book as ‘SO AMAZING.’ (Caps his.)”

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Ben Platt, who you might remember as scene-stealing Benji in the “Pitch Perfect” movies, stopped by “The Late Show” on Monday to perform a song from his Tony-nominated musical “Dear Evan Hansen.” And like the utter Broadway professional that he is, he managed to pull a standing ovation out of the studio crowd.

In fact, following Platt’s faultless rendition of “For Forever,” host Stephen Colbert reemerged onstage with an appropriately stunned smile, appearing like he was about to burst into tears. (According to the Late Show’s YouTube account, he did cry.) Shaking his head, his disbelieving response represents only a fraction of the emotional fallout theater audiences have encountered after seeing Platt sing it live on Broadway.

“Dear Evan Hansen” is far away the favorite to nab the Tony for Best Musical this year, just as Platt is the frontrunner for a Best Actor statue. The show centers on the eponymous high school senior with social anxiety disorder who becomes mistakenly bound to a fellow student who committed suicide. The New York Times described it as “a nightly display of almost unbearable anguish.” 

Tickets to the musical are hard to come by, but we’ll all get a sneak preview of the “Hansen” cast on June 11, when the Tony Awards ceremony airs on CBS. In the meantime, check out “For Forever” above.

Check out the other plays and musicals nominated for Tonys here.

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Pete Souza FTW. 

Just a day after President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump had a hand-holding incident that turned into the swat heard ‘round the world, the former White House photographer decided to remind everyone what a couple holding hands should actually look like.

So he shared a photo of former President Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama from 2015. 

The image shows the Obamas holding hands during an event at the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, marking the 50th Anniversary of the Selma to Montgomery civil rights marches. 

Souza previously explained what is was like to capture the tender and personal moment between the two. 

“I was moving around trying to capture different scenes away from the stage during the event to commemorate the 50th Anniversary of Bloody Sunday and the Selma to Montgomery civil rights marches,” Souza said. “When I glanced back towards the stage, I noticed the president and first lady holding hands as they listened to the remarks of Rep. John Lewis. I managed to squeeze off a couple of frames before they began to applaud, and the moment was gone.”

Twitter was loving it. Obviously. 

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Nasty Gal founder Sophia Amoruso’s 2014 autobiography #Girlboss was a huge success, so much so that “Pitch Perfect” writer Kay Cannon created a Netflix series “loosely” based on Amoruso’s story. But despite the book’s appeal, after the show’s April premiere, TV critics weren’t jazzed about the “unlikable” fictional Sophia (Britt Robertson), and wondered why the character wasn’t given more to work with. 

According to many outlets, including The New York Times and The Guardian, the on-screen Sophia “isn’t particularly interesting” and “a walking selfie, whining about having to work for a living.”

“’Girlboss’ aggressively wants you to like it,” Vulture’s Jen Chaney wrote. “Actually, to be more accurate, this Netflix series aggressively wants you to like its main character, precisely because she’s the kind of rebel who does not care if you like her.”

The show’s supporting star Ellie Reed ― who pretty much steals every scene she’s in as Sophia’s best friend, Annie ― doesn’t understand the criticism, considering it basically implies that a flawed woman can’t entertain as much as, say, a flawed man. 

“I was a little surprised when people reacted as harshly as they did just because, in my experience, there have been so many unlikable male characters on tons of TV shows,” Reed told HuffPost during a Build Series interview. “So, perhaps naively, I never thought it would be such a big deal to watch a woman ― a girl ― come up and make mistakes, and treat people like crap, and do all the things these male characters do ― these adult male characters. I just never thought it would be that big of a deal. I thought, ‘Oh, yeah, I know girls like this. Everybody does. Everybody’s behaved like that at some point.’”

Reed believes the reviews say a little bit more about the culture we live in rather than “Girlboss” itself. Can audiences not handle watching a woman who has “some issues,” as Reed explains it?

“If they can’t handle that then that’s pretty sad,” she asserted, “and it doesn’t leave a lot of room for girls who are trying to do something like Sophia ― trying to make their mark on the world and be really original. It doesn’t feel like they get any room to make mistakes, and I think that’s sad.” 

To see more of what Ellie Reed had to say about “Girlboss,” watch the full Build Series interview below. The show is now streaming on Netflix. 

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The woman who narrates Weike Wang’s debut novel has stumbled into a quarter-life crisis. A Chinese-American chemistry Ph.D. student, she has always expected (as have her parents) that she would progress from triumph to academic triumph. A top student in high school, she was admitted to a prestigious university and excelled at chemistry.

Now, the time has arrived for her to complete her dissertation research and claim her graduate degree. But that isn’t happening.

She labors in the lab for hours, hovering over her experiments like an anxious mother, but the results don’t come. Without results, she can’t complete her research; but she can’t force the results to come. Though maybe she could spend a little more time in the lab, right? Holidays? Weekends? Nights? Would more investment of time help her to perfect her flawed hypotheses? Would a little patience allow her to come naturally to her “eureka” moment?

Her live-in boyfriend, redheaded wunderkind Eric, is a year ahead of her and already fielding job offers from his preferred academic institutions. The creative side of chemistry comes naturally to him. Maybe, he suggests to her, that life just isn’t for her. Maybe she topped out at speedily and proficiently replicating known reactions: She’s a technician. “Who does chemistry think he is, God?” she yells in response. “If I want it to be my thing, it will be my thing.”

It’s not the only question she’s avoiding. Eric has proposed to her. “Ask me again tomorrow,” she replies. “That’s not how it works,” he responds. For a while, though, that is how it works ― she goes to the lab, walks their dog, cuddles with him at night, and he waits for her to say yes. She and Eric met in graduate school, and when he eventually told her he loved her, she shut down: “I don’t know what to say. I don’t say anything he wants to hear.” She can only be vulnerable obliquely, by spending time with him, touching him, and, eventually, giving him a burrito with the right words written on the wrapper. Now, with marriage on the table, she is again balking at openly acknowledging the depth of their entanglement.

Nor can she acknowledge that, when it comes to her research, she’s hit an unyielding wall. Instead, one day, she calmly smashes a set of beakers on the floor. She takes a leave from the program. When her parents ask about her progress with her Ph.D., she lies.

In Chemistry, the beleaguered narrator finds herself replaying her relationship with her parents over and over ― with Eric, whose proffered love and commitment make her happy yet uneasy, and with the discipline of chemistry itself, which constantly withholds satisfaction and accolades in a way she finds familiar yet miserable. Her father, who overcame a poor rural background in China to become a successful engineer in America, expects nothing from her but success as a chemist; her mother was often miserable in the marriage, but finds common cause with her husband in relentlessly pushing their daughter to scientific stardom.

This narrator manifests a statistically significant problem. Like many young Asian-American women, she’s crushed beneath the weight of parental expectations. Recent studies have shown that Asian-American women have higher rates of suicidal ideation and attempts, depressed by, among other factors, the overwhelming pressure to succeed. It’s not that simple, though: Chemistry’s protagonist has suffered because of her parents, but also because of what her parents have suffered, her identification with the difficulties they have faced to make a life in America. When Eric insinuates that her mother should speak English with him, though he has been learning Chinese, she’s furious. Her mother might have hurt her, but she is protective, too, of the woman who has walked such an unwelcoming path. She’s caught in between, unable to fully identify with her mother, or with her loving, oblivious boyfriend.

Life, and even chemistry, have proven messier than the narrator allowed for as the book progresses. Her best friend, married and expecting a child, might seem to embody the right answer to her Eric dilemma, but that friend’s marriage and baby don’t provide a simple happy ending. Letting go of him doesn’t offer a simple, neat conclusion either. No matter how hard and determinedly she works, the chemistry Ph.D. may not be in the cards for her. There’s no straight line from hard work and potential to perfect success, which means she’s not equipped with the tools she needs for adulthood after all. Wang’s novel depicts a smart woman confronting an unplanned roadblock in her carefully engineered path, then feeling her way toward a terrifying unknown.

The tight first-person can feel somewhat claustrophobic and familiar ― a cerebral depressive slowly unraveling in front of herself ― and much like the protagonist’s Ph.D. project, Chemistry doesn’t astound with its originality of concept or virtuosic language. But the work has its quiet, unassuming power, as the narrator’s clinical approach and outsider eye infuses the story of her mental breakdown with both wry humor and pathos. 

The Bottom Line:

Weike Wang explores a young chemist’s reckoning with her own limits and possibilities in this capably crafted, thoughtful novel.

What other reviewers think:

Kirkus: “Though essentially unhinged, the narrator is thoughtful and funny, her scramble understandable. It is her voice—distinctive and appealing—that makes this novel at once moving and amusing, never predictable.”

Publishers Weekly: “A clipped, funny, painfully honest narrative voice lights up Wang’s debut novel about a Chinese-American graduate student who finds the scientific method inadequate for understanding her parents, her boyfriend, or herself.”

Who wrote it?

Chemistry is Weike Wang’s first novel. She has published short fiction in journals such as Redivider and Alaska Quarterly Review. Wang graduated with a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Harvard, where she also received a Ph.D. in public health. She holds an MFA from Boston University.

Who will read it?

Readers who enjoy deep first-person psychological portraits, and fictional examinations of mental health struggles and the travails of academia. 

Opening lines:

“The boy asks the girl a question. It is a question of marriage. Ask me again tomorrow, she says, and he says, That’s not how this works.

“Diamond is no longer the hardest mineral known to man. New Scientist reports that lonsdaleite is. Lonsdaleite is 58 percent harder than diamond and forms only when meteorites smash themselves into earth.”

Notable passage:

“The PhD advisor visits my desk, sits down, brings his hands together, and asks, Where do you see your project going in five years?

“Five years? I say in disbelief. I would hope to be graduated by then and in the real world with a job.

“I see, he says. Perhaps then it is time to start a new project, one that is more within your capabilities.

“He leaves me to it.

“The desire to throw something at his head never goes away. Depending on what he says, it is either the computer or the desk.

“I sketch out possible projects. Alchemy, for one. If I could achieve that today, I could graduate tomorrow.”

Chemistry
By Weike Wang
Knopf, $24.95
Publishes May 23, 2017  

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

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A Manchester poet on Tuesday reminded his city and the world after a terrorist attack on a pop concert killed 22 and injured 59 that the people of his city won’t ever back down from adversity.

At a vigil less than 24 hours after a suicide bomber’s deadly explosion erupted outside Manchester Arena following an Ariana Grande concert, mourners paid their respects. Poet Tony Walsh ― affectionately referred to as Longfella ― read his poem “This Is The Place.” Though written in 2013, the poem’s descriptions of the resilient nature of Mancunians, as city residents are known, holds strong.

Walsh’s poem discusses the highs and lows of the city he so loves.

“And this is the place with appliance of science, we’re on it, atomic, we struck with defiance,” Walsh bellowed to the crowd. “And in the face of a challenge, we always stand tall, Mancunians, in union, delivered it all.

“Such as housing and libraries and health, education. And unions and co-opts and the first railway stations,” Walsh continued. “So we’re sorry, bear with us, we invented commuters. But we hope you forgive us, we invented computers.”

The Islamic State militant group has claimed responsibility for the attack. Officials identified the bomber as 22-year-old Salman Abedi, who was killed in the blast.

The five-minute reading spoke of the people of Manchester’s ability to “thrive and survive and to work and to build,” and how the spirit of Manchester can never dissolve, even in its worst times:

“Because this is a place that has been through some hard times: oppressions, recessions, depressions, and dark times.

But we keep fighting back with greater Manchester spirit. Northern grit, northern wit, and greater Manchester’s lyrics.

And these hard times again, in these streets of our city, but we won’t take defeat and we don’t want your pity.

Because this is a place where we stand strong together, with a smile on our face, greater Manchester forever.”

Thousands gathered for the vigil at Albert Square, according to The Guardian.

Walsh ended his poem with a reminder of what makes his city great.

“Because this is the place in our hearts, in our homes.

Because this is the place that’s a part of our bones.

Because greater Manchester gives us such strength from the fact that this is the place, we should give something back.

Always remember, never forget, forever Manchester.”

“Choose love, Manchester,” Walsh finished. “Thank you.”

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For more on “The Bachelorette,” check out HuffPost’s Here To Make Friends podcast below: 

Do people love “The Bachelor,” “The Bachelorette” and “Bachelor in Paradise,” or do they love to hate these shows? It’s unclear. But here at “Here to Make Friends,” we both love and love to hate them — and we love to snarkily dissect each episode in vivid detail. Podcast edited by Nick Offenberg.

Want more “Bachelor” stories in your life? Sign up for HuffPost’s Entertainment email for extra hot goss about The Bachelor, his 30 bachelorettes, and the most dramatic rose ceremonies ever. The newsletter will also serve you up some juicy celeb news, hilarious late-night bits, awards coverage and more. Sign up for the newsletter here.

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For 30 years, Anne Geddes has taken iconic photos of babies and expectant mothers. Now, the beloved photographer is revisiting some of those images for her new book and is catching up with many of the babies she’s photographed over the years.

For her “Baby, Look at You Now” series on Instagram, Geddes posts stories about people whom she photographed as babies, sharing the professional photos she took of them years ago as well as recent photos of them.

Geddes told HuffPost she always joked with her family that when she turned 60, she would set out to learn what the babies she photographed were up to. Last year, the Australian photographer launched the series asking for those babies to reach out to her with updates on their lives.

“Some of them competed at the Rio Olympics. They’re going through college and getting their degrees or they’re off traveling,” she said. “And some of them are parents as well. It’s just a really nice thing and I love hearing from them.”

Geddes has also just released a book, Small World, which features photos her fans have not previously seen as well as some of her classics. She told HuffPost the book weighs just under six pounds, calling it a coincidence that its weight is similar to that of some newborn babies.

“It had a very long gestation period,” she joked, adding that it took most of last year to sort through the archives of her 30-year career. 

The book, which was a joint effort between her and TASCHEN publishers, is separated into four chapters that focus on pregnancy, newborns, babies who are 6 to 7 months old and finally portraits, which Geddes shot during the earliest part of her career.

“It was really gratifying to go back and revisit a lot of these early portraits and see how they’ve stood the test of time which is what I was really trying to do when I photographed the babies all those years ago,” she told HuffPost. “I was really wanting to create a classic portrait that would be relevant in 20, 30, 40 years.”

When reflecting on which photos would make it into the book, Geddes said she knew she wanted to include the photo of a premature baby named Maneesha who was born at 28 weeks.

“I’ve had so many people come up to me over the years to tell me their stories of having premature babies and how that image gave them a sense of encouragement and hope that their little baby would survive as well,” she said.

Maneesha, now in her 20s, is a photographer who has interned for Geddes.

Geddes said she hopes her book brings happiness to readers, especially given how pervasive terror and hate have become.

“I think these days more than ever we all need to concentrate on the goodness around new life and everything that babies represent,” she said. “And to me, babies represent our eternal chance at new beginnings and anyone who has become a parent would know the feeling that as soon as you have a child, you really have this innate need to make the world a better place.”

The HuffPost Parents newsletter, So You Want To Raise A Feminist, offers the latest stories and news in progressive parenting.   

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In Manchester on Monday, what should have been a joyful evening of music and dancing at Ariana Grande’s “Dangerous Woman” concert turned into horrific tragedy. Just as fans were filing out of the arena, many with pink balloons in hand, a young man standing in the ticket area detonated a bomb.

The terror attack claimed at least 22 lives, and left nearly 60 injured. It was the deadliest attack in the U.K. since 2005. 

We don’t yet know what the proclaimed motivations of the attacker who terrorized Manchester Arena were ― the 22-year-old man who carried out the attack died in the blast ― but what we do know is that the majority of Ariana Grande’s fans are young women and girls. By all reports, the arena was filled with children, mothers and daughters, teen and tween girls who had traveled to the show in pairs or packs.

Teen girls learn how to express passion and love with abandon in a world that largely devalues, objectifies and mocks them.

Pop concerts like Grande’s provide a space where fandoms thrive. And Grande’s fandom, known affectionately as Arianators, is comprised largely of teen girls and LGBTQ youth. (“SO EXCITED TO SEE U TOMORROW,” 18-year-old Georgina Callendar, the Manchester bombing’s first-identified victim, tweeted at Grande on Sunday.) One can surmise that Monday’s concert-goers, ranging in age by decades, many wearing their idol’s signature cat ears and high pony, went out for a night into a space they believed would bring them (or their children) joy and a chance for unencumbered self-expression. For a few hours, the fans in attendance could sing along, losing themselves in the music and soaking up a bit of Grande’s subtle, transgressive sexuality.

Any terror attack flips the switch from assumed safety to fear, from light to darkness, evoking mourning from around the world. But there is something especially hideous about the targeting, whether intentional or not, of young people ― especially young people leaving a space that was supposed to belong to them, at least for a night.

As the New York Times’ Ceylan Yeginsu, Rory Smith and Stephen Castle wrote of the attack:

The violence is intended to stoke fear and to deliver a message. And it was the message of the Manchester blast that was so chilling: the slaughter of teenagers, the anxiety of parents who had been waiting to take their children home, the frantic search for loved ones amid chaos and sirens.

Teen girls are magical beings. I don’t consider this a political statement, more a statement of fact. And, no, Twitter trolls, this does not mean I believe teens are physically immune to the ravages of a terror attack. It means that teen girls learn how to express passion and love with abandon in a world that largely devalues, objectifies and mocks them. It was depressing but unsurprising that in the hours just after the Manchester bombing, at least one male journalist found it an appropriate moment to show disdain for Grande’s music and her largely girlish fan base on Twitter. (The tweets have since been deleted.) 

Teen girls can find joy in drugstore glitter, as well as deeply intimate friendship. They can be smart as hell. They can read up about politics and racial inequality and gender-based violence with just as much enthusiasm as they do about their favorite bands and YouTube stars. And, as Harry Styles articulated in a widely-shared Rolling Stone interview last month, when they find meaning in a musician and their songs, they show up for that artist, again and again and again: “Teenage-girl fans ― they don’t lie. If they like you, they’re there.” That artist becomes the recipient of their unbound love.  

You see this same love manifesting between teen girls (and boys and adults of all genders) in the wake of the Manchester bombing. In the hours following the attack, there was an outpouring of collective grief and support for victims, their loved ones and Grande herself ― both online and from within Manchester. 

Members of other fandoms, from Justin Bieber’s Beliebers to Demi Lovato’s Lovatics to One Direction’s Directioners, each community named after their chosen idol, vowed they’d be there for Arianators.

Twitter, which sometimes feels like nothing more than a cruel cesspool, showed up for Georgina Callendar’s best friend Sophie after she posted a beautiful remembrance of her on Twitter.

“To my beautiful best friend I hope you rest in peace my darling. I love you so much and will always miss you,” she tweeted.

The messages began pouring in.

“I’m so sorry for your loss. I do not know you but I am sending you all my thoughts and endless amounts of my love,” one young woman wrote. 

“i know saying sorry won’t help but i really am. u have so many people that are here for u in this time,” tweeted another. 

(Strangers tweet their condolences to Callendar’s BFF, below.)

And in Manchester, the community is rallying, as flowers fill the streets near the arena, and blood banks are overwhelmed with donations.

Teen Vogue writer Lauren Duca received an email from a 23-year-old who lives in Manchester, which she posted on Twitter just after midnight on Tuesday. 

“We in this city have not reacted to this terror attack with vitriol; or with fear,” the author of the email wrote. “Our first reaction has been to take to the streets with water, with supplies, to open our homes to those who are stranded and also, sadly, to guide the families who have lost their children through to the centre of a city they don’t know. If you do choose to write about us, please know that [we] reacted with kindness, empathy and love. Not with hate.” 

Nothing can fix the senseless violence and loss of life that occurred in Manchester. There is no making it better, and there is no undoing the trauma and violation that those directly touched by the terror attack ― and those impacted by any terror attack around the world ― experienced.

But what we can do is remember that, like the young women who fill concert halls to dance and laugh and bond, choosing unfettered love and joy whenever possible is the only way forward. 

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How could one brand have all that J.D. Power?

That’s essentially the question Chevrolet has been asking America for quite some time now, with their ubiquitous commercial series that features “Real People. Not Actors.” The recurring conceit of these ads involves a Chevy spokesman, Potsch Boyd, bragging to normal people (just like you) about how many J.D. Power awards Chevy has won.

The very regular “not actors” then jump and scream and laugh and express how cool the Chevy brand is these days. It’s very uncomfortable to watch.

You’ve seen these ads. You’ve hated these ads. You’ve wished these ads would go away.

But you’ve probably also wondered how “real” these “not actors” are, especially since their emotions and reactions often seem highly strange and unbelievable.

Thankfully, one of the “real people” just broke their NDA and spoke to The A.V. Club about the whole experience. The person did the interview on the condition of anonymity, but The A.V. Club claimed they did a “a thorough background check.”

The whole Q&A is worth a read, as there are many funny moments that came out of creating this commercial, but here’s the basic rundown.

Everyone was just really confused. I felt nervous. It was weird.
A Chevy "Real Person"

A nondescript agency recruited this man on the street and asked if he was interested in participating in paid market research. He agreed, and for a promised $200 went to the Los Angeles Convention Center having no idea he was about to be in a Chevy commercial. The same day as filming, a porn awards show was taking place at the center and so he thought that’s what he was going to be a part of when he arrived.

He then waited around in a big, dark room with the other future “real people,” still having no idea what his task was. With all the confusion, he had the thought, “Oh, I might get murdered.”

Eventually, doors opened to reveal the brightly lit room seen in the commercial. Spokesman Boyd was already there, just silently smiling. Apparently, he didn’t really ever stop smiling.

Here’s the person’s explanation of the first few moments:

[The spokesperson] just said, “Hey, guys!” as we walked in, and it was another long walk to get over to where he was standing in complete silence. Everyone was just really confused. I felt nervous. It was weird.

Then, a cameraperson showed up and it was evident that this was for a commercial. Later, the “real people” would realize there were many other hidden cameras on set. In any case, once the NDA-breaker’s group realized they were going to be on TV, a magical spell seemed to be cast over them.

Here’s a hilarious explanation of the effect:

It was weird because, once we got in there, he didn’t tell us where to stand or anything. He didn’t point at anything. We just magically got in that line of four people horizontally right in front of him. It was like they had this weird power.

When I was talking to people in the lobby, no one seemed that enthusiastic about anything. The second we got in there, it was like magically everyone was the world’s biggest Chevrolet fan. I can’t stress enough that I’m a real person and not an actor. None of these people were actors, because I asked them what they all did for a living. They suddenly became these perfect spokespeople when this guy started asking questions, like, “What’s the first word that comes to your mind when you think about Chevy?” Literally, the guy next to me was like, “Freedom.” [Laughs.] He was suddenly so patriotic. He was like, “American-made cars. Quality.” All of these people were spewing out these buzzwords.

The whole thing took about two hours. Chevy ended up paying the person $150 in Visa gift cards and promised to mail $50 later. (This was a baffling payment method to him, as well.) The “real people” that ended up having speaking roles in the commercial would eventually get more money, something that may also explain why everyone is so eager to be enthusiastic.

As The News Wheel reported in 2015, some of the “real people” were actors by profession, a fact explained away by a GM representative who claimed this was just because they scouted for people in LA. Struggling actors who know that faking enthusiasm could yield a better paycheck could explain this. 

It’s a popular opinion that these commercials are pretty painful to watch, so much so that just one of the many people parodying the ads has earned millions of views. All at Chevy’s expense.

Here’s one of those parodies:

After being a part of the commercial, the NDA-breaker still doesn’t understand what the J.D. Power award is supposed to mean. He told The A.V. Club:

I’m still not really sure what a J.D. Power And Associates Award is, and they explained it to us. I didn’t retain it at all. But I am genuinely surprised to hear that Chevy has won more unimportant awards than any other car manufacturer.

No matter how long these inane commercials continue (and like cockroaches, they will probably outlive us all), the world may never know who or what J.D. Power is or represents.

Maybe ― speculating widely here ― J.D. Power is the pseudonym of famously reclusive author J.D. Salinger, who actually cheated death and spends his days writing the next great American car reviews, like, “A Perfect Day for Bananafish ... and Chevy Products.” Nothing makes sense in this world. Especially these commercials, though. 

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Douglas Ridloff started composing poetry in American Sign Language when he was a teenager, after a well-known ASL poet named Peter Cook visited his high school. Fast forward 10 years, and he hadn’t done much in the way of slam poetry apart from a little dabbling. But then a friend of his invited him to an informal gathering of college students, where ASL was used to respond to challenges and prompts.

“I wasn’t interested in the first place,” Ridloff said in an interview with HuffPost. “At that time I only did ASL poetry and storytelling for fun at parties and backyard gatherings. The host who was also my friend dragged me to go to ASL Slam for the first few times, and I was sitting in the back at the bar chatting with other people and watching some performances and attempts on stage.”

Over time, he began joining in when there were gaps in performances. Gradually, he started paying more attention to the host’s approach to the craft, and began incorporating it into his own routine.

“Boom,” Ridloff said. “I found a home.”

That was in 2005, when a now-monthly gathering called ASL Slam was first founded. The show was co-hosted by ASL poets Bob Arnold and Jason Norman at the Bowery Poetry Club in New York City, where it still takes place today. Only now, Ridloff is the host. 

Ridloff says ASL Slam is mostly composed of performers from the deaf community, including native deaf individuals like himself. This marks a significant change from the program’s early years, when ASL students and others who use sign, but who are not deaf, made up a majority of the participants. 

Attendees are also likely to be people who sign, as Ridloff prefers not to have his work translated into English.

“The beauty is lost,” he said. “Think of music. If a song had its lyrics removed but the melody remains, the mood is still there, but something is lost. Or if the melody is removed but the lyrics remain, sometimes the song no longer makes sense.”

The show has gone on tour to Michigan and Austin, and overseas to France. Earlier this year, ASL Slam visited Cuba, to work closely with members of the deaf community there who are interested in creative expression.

“It was amazing to see how fast they got it and created something fresh for the audience,” Ridloff said. “They are about 50 years behind in sign language literacy. Just like the cars.”

Meanwhile, Ridloff is now performing regularly in New York City, in a medium that he says has benefits and nuances that spoken word poetry does not.

“ASL poets can create a complete poem or story by using one handshape to represent a multitude of concepts,” he said. In ASL, Ridloff explained, a single handshape can mean a different word depending on its placement of movement. The handshape for “rooster,” for example, is the same as the handshape for “car.”

“Maybe you could compare rhyming or alliteration to that concept, but that’s just something not experienced in spoken English,” Ridloff said.

People who sign ― including ASL poets like Ridloff ― also use facial expressions and other “non-manual markers” to communicate the equivalent of volume or inflection. A head tilt, nod or shake will provide tonal context for the words that are signed, marking the difference between a declarative statement and an inquiry. Raised eyebrows indicate questions; lip movements indicate superlatives. 

This, he says, contributes to the “spherical” or nonlinear nature of ASL poetry. “Spoken English can be non-linear too, but what it cannot do is exemplify three, four things at the same time,” Ridoff said.

So, for him, what began as a passing hobby has evolved into its own unique art form.

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Former “King of Queens” star Leah Remini is one of the most outspoken critics of the Church of Scientology, and she has no plans of stopping.

The actress, whose A&E exposé series “Scientology and the Aftermath” was recently renewed for a second season, went on Netflix’s “Chelsea” Sunday to chat with Chelsea Handler about her mission to reveal the organization’s dark side and support individuals affected by it. Remini herself had been in the organization since she was 9 years old; she officially left in 2013.

“I’ve been friends with you for a long time. I was friends with you when you were in Scientology, still,” Handler began. “Did you ever try to talk to me about becoming a Scientologist, do you recall?”

“No, because you were a drug-taker,” Remini responded. “So, that wasn’t good.”

“I never felt comfortable in that role,” the actress later continued. “Although it is demanded of the Church of Scientology celebrities to get other members in, so a lot of our friendships always had that kind of, in the background, like, ‘Why are you not getting your friends in? Work on Chelsea.’”

Remini then recalled a story in which members of Scientology had her call Handler after the comedian began joking about the group in her act.

“I was asked by the Church of Scientology to call you and ask you not to do that,” Remini said.

“Which you did, I remember that,” Handler said.

“You did, and you told me to go fuck myself,” Remini finished.

It’s easy to laugh now, but Remini is serious about spreading information on the harm she says the organization can cause its members, including requiring excessive fees for its services and breaking up loved ones.

The actress will have another opportunity to share her and others’ stories: a two-hour special edition of her A&E show is set to air May 29, outlets reported Tuesday. During the episode, former Scientology members will candidly detail their experiences within the church.

Previously, Remini has said the group’s key celebrity members, like Tom Cruise, could “singlehandedly” end Scientology were they to leave. 

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In a twist that once seemed improbable, the 2-year-old “Late Show with Stephen Colbert” will end the television season as the highest-rated late-night program. 

With three nights left in the standard September-to-May interval, “The Late Show” has edged out “The Tonight Show” by 22,000 viewers, according to a CBS press release. “The Late Show” is now averaging an audience of 3.195 million, whereas “The Tonight Show” has 3.173 million.

With the exception of Conan O’Brien’s brief turn at the helm, “The Tonight Show” had retained the No. 1 spot since the 1994–95 season, when Jay Leno surpassed David Letterman in the ratings. Jimmy Fallon’s takeover in 2014 proved successful, but Colbert began encroaching on Fallon’s lead at the start of 2017. In the wake of Donald Trump’s election, Colbert’s pointed political comedy has attracted an audience that is less compelled by Fallon’s safe, middle-of-the-road humor. Fallon is still living down last September’s infamous Trump interview in which he asked softball questions and ruffled the candidate’s hair.

Granted, the stats aren’t entirely pro-Colbert. Fallon still reigns in the 18-to-49 age demographic, which is the most coveted among advertisers. But “The Late Show,” which last year averaged fewer than 3 million viewers, was the only late-night series to grow in year-to-year ratings. As the country’s political news continues to boil, Colbert’s lead seems likely to expand. 

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The day after President Donald Trump’s inauguration, after millions of women marched in Washington, D.C., and beyond, Aziz Ansari stood up on “Saturday Night Live” to deliver the show’s opening monologue.

It was a hit. The comedian behind Netflix’s woke study of modern life, “Master of None,” came out swinging against Trump and his supporters, at one point blaming Islamophobia in America in large part on “that scary ass music from ‘Homeland.’” That theme of anti- anti-immigrant sentiment paralleled an essay he wrote for The New York Times months before titled “Why Trump Makes Me Scared For My Family,” who are Muslims from India. 

With that track record, Ansari isn’t blind to American politics, but he’s tired of it. 

“I just have Trump fatigue,” he said at New York’s Vulture Festival on Saturday.

The comedian was asked whether he had anything more to say about politics, after his most recent appearance, starring as Dev in “Master of None,” circumvented any direct mention of Trump or American nationalism. 

“I don’t read the news anymore. I can’t deal with it. I know that’s not the most exciting answer, but I can’t deal with the whole cycle!” he replied, giving a joking example of a news item featuring Trump: “‘He said something crazy. He still hasn’t apologized for saying the crazy thing. Other people have denounced the crazy thing. All right, he kind of apologized,’” and after a pause, “’He just said another crazy thing!’ It’s just this loop. And I don’t think it’s making me more aware of what’s going on in the world. It’s like reading soap opera rumors about wrestling or something, it just doesn’t seem real.”

“I just don’t like seeing the name, or talking about it or thinking about it or anything. Trump fatigue,” Ansari said.

Preparation for his “SNL” gig back in January, though, certainly involved heavy immersion in the news. The comedian explained how he took advice from Louis C.K. and Chris Rock, perfecting his set at New York’s Comedy Cellar over the holidays by performing six to nine shows per night instead of going on vacation.

Ansari came up with material that was topical ― even if some of it wasn’t a right fit for the audience’s mood that day. He recalled the gist of one joke that was cut after rehearsal: “People are really motivated. They’re ready to do something. You’ve never seen people this energized! They’re ready to get out there ― to an extent.”

He continued, “You know, because everybody, you see people sitting around at brunch saying, ‘What can we do?’ And someone goes, ‘Well, we could get involved with the state and local government. We could work with organizations like Planned Parenthood and the NRDC.’ And then people are like, ‘Oh, I don’t want to do any of that!’” 

Maybe his outlook will change with time, especially if he and series co-creator Alan Yang gather up enough material for a Season 3 of “Master of None.” But for now, Ansari is taking a big step back from the headlines.

“Things were changing every day,” he said of the period surrounding Trump’s inauguration.

“And it still is. Every day there’s something new and insane that’s happening.”

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John Legend’s new music video for “Surefire” is an ode to the power of love in the face of xenophobia.

The video, directed by Cole Wiley, premiered on Monday via YouTube and tells the story of a young Muslim woman and a Mexican immigrant’s fight to be together. The couple faces prejudice, family disapproval and even deportation. 

In a statement to Rolling Stone, Wiley said that the characters ― named Roberto and Jamila ― and their story are a response to the anti-immigrant rhetoric and hatred that’s become more open in the United States this year. 

“Human civilization is experiencing an extraordinary moment in time,” he told the magazine. “We are more capable of doing more good than ever before, but we are still mired by a myriad of systemic failures that continue to arise because of our continuing lack of empathy towards others.”

“That is why Jamila and Roberto, the star-crossed lovers featured in the ‘Surefire’ music video, face a number of obstacles that are heavily rooted in the current state of America,” he continued. “Fear of immigration, religious bigotry and many other forms of prejudice are contaminating our cultural landscape on a daily basis.” 

In the video we see that one of the biggest obstacles for the two lovers is Jamila’s disapproving father, who eventually attempts to separate them by calling Immigration and Customs Enforcement and having Roberto deported back to Mexico.

Islamophobia is also an overarching theme in the video, which has a scene showing how Jamila is attacked on the street and has her hijab torn off her head.

The emotional scenes of how both Roberto and Jamila face adversity and ultimately triumph are paired with lyrics from the song that echo its themes: “Make this our kingdom, somewhere where good love conquers and not divides/ I may not know a lot of things, but I know that we’re surefire.”

Watch the “Surefire” music video and the lovers’ story play out above. 

H/T We are mitú

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Give it up for Alicia Keys, because girl just beat out reigning champion Blake Shelton on “The Voice.” 

The singer’s contestant Chris Blue was crowned the winner of Season 12 of the hit NBC singing competition show on Tuesday night, beating out Shelton’s finalists Lauren Duski and Aliyah Moulden and Team Adam Levine’s Jesse Larson.

This is Keys’ first win and second season as a mentor on the show. After Blue’s name was announced, she rightfully freaked out, as did the winner and his family.

Blue, a soulful singer from Knoxville, filled the final spot of the auditions earlier in the season, and now, well, he’s the champ! Not only did he beat out the other contestants, but Blue’s original song, “Money on You,” hit the No. 3 overall spot on the iTunes Top 200 Singles Chart and the No. 1 ranking for R&B Soul songs. 

Duski came in second place while Moulden landed in third and Larson earned the fourth spot. 

Next season, Shelton and Levine will remain coaches as Miley Cyrus returns with newcomer Jennifer Hudson. 

Until the fall...

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Warning: Some spoilers ahead.

There are three leading men at helm of “The Handmaid’s Tale,” a show that centers more frequently on the horrific experiences women endure in a theocratic dictatorship known as Gilead.

Each male character probably consider himself a “good” man: The commander (Joseph Fiennes) would argue that any his so-called faults ― and there are many ― pale in comparison to his devotion to a greater future, which he is engineering for all of humanity. Nick (Max Minghella) would claim powerlessness, for he is, after all, just a driver, incapable of truly saving the woman he’s falling in love with. He might be a spy for the men who’ve made this hellish existence reality, but he chooses not to inform on Offred (Elisabeth Moss), or June as she was once known.

And then there’s Luke.

Luke, played by British actor O.T. Fagbenle, has escaped the dystopia that’s ensnared his wife June and turned her into a sexual slave for fearful misogynists. He reluctantly crossed the U.S. border into Canada, nearly dying in the process, eventually finding his way to a settlement known as Little America. By Episode 7 of the series, he’s lost his partner, his daughter, and ― unable to be the savior he’d probably imagined he could be; escape was his only means of reuniting with his family ― he’s stuck in limbo. In Canada, he’s begging officials to update him on the status of June, to help him locate her and their daughter, rescue them, bring them to safety. 

In Margaret Atwood’s book, the source material for Hulu’s series, Luke is but a figment of Offred’s memories. The Luke of the TV adaptation, however, has been given a heftier storyline, a little bit more agency in this stomach-churning universe that’s made life an existential nightmare for nearly everyone involved. Still, showrunner Bruce Miller and the series’ writers held back ― they didn’t turn Luke into a hero. In fact, even in Offred’s memories, he’s the imperfect feminist ally. He, like so many others, turned a blind eye to the creeping acts of sexism and violence around them. He wasn’t painted as a key member of the resistance; instead, when the world was falling apart, he attempted to quell June’s fears with the standard motto of masculinity: “I’ll take care of you.” These murmurs of imperfection are hardly indictments. “Good” men can be patronizing, the series makes clear. “Good” men can be fail to be heroes. 

Ahead of Episode 7, which was released on Wednesday, HuffPost spoke to Fagbenle about his character’s evolution. Check out our conversation about male feminists, Little America and populism below.

What was it about the character of Luke that drew you to the show?

To be honest, my first draw to it was the source material and the script that’s so profound, so important, so beautiful. And then to work with Elisabeth Moss, Bruce Miller, Reed Morano. I was like, I’m a fool not to be a part of this journey. But Luke is the one guy you meet outside of Gilead, and represents the counterbalance to the men who’ve bought into that system. I was really intrigued by that.

We experience Luke in two ways throughout the series ― first, through Offred’s memories, which seem dream-ified, maybe a little bit idealized; second, through the scenes that show Luke’s perspective on what happened during and after he and June are separated. As an actor, did you approach these scenes differently?

I think I had to approach each moment as if I was there and responding to everything, because there’s no real way of me playing someone else’s dreams, that you don’t know about. I just have to play my truth in that moment and hope that reads. For me it was more of a continuum.

Having read Margaret Atwood’s book, were you happy about the ways Bruce Miller adapted Luke’s character for the show? Were you excited about anything in particular?

You know, I’m an actual fan of the book. I can’t recommend enough to your readers to actually go and read the book. Don’t worry about spoilers, just go and read the book, because it’s amazing. It’s nourishment for the soul. So as a fan of the book, I’m very protective of it as well. What’s amazing about what Bruce and his extraordinary imagination has done is it’s taken the book and I think in ways fulfilled it visually. In terms of Luke, he’s taken scant lines, little whispers of Luke from the book, and helped create something ― along with Lynn [Renee Maxcy, who wrote Episode 7] ― and expand on Luke and the world in such a satisfying way. That’s one of the things I enjoyed so much about reading the script, because I have so many questions about this world and I’m so excited about this world. I’ve still got more questions I want answered and luckily we live in an age where there is a medium that can help fulfill my infatuation with the novel.

Episode 7 is such an intense episode for your character. How did you conceive of the emotions Luke’s going through at the time of his and June’s separation, when he’s forced to cross the border into safety himself, leaving his family behind?

I think the two main tools actors have are the imagination of what other people have gone through, to connect with and through research, and there’s one’s own experience. I think what was challenging about Episode 7 was trying to draw on everything I could to try and navigate my way through each scene. Fundamentally, that’s when you’ve got a great script and a great director and a great crew and actors opposite you.

Did Bruce Miller or any of the directors/producers prep you and the rest of the Episode 7 cast on what this “Little America” represented to the story? In terms of what morale would be like there, what quality of life looked like, what the goal of the establishment was?

There were discussions about that. Luckily, Floria [Sigismondi], our wonderful visionary director, her and I would sit in this cute vegan diner in Toronto and hash over our ideas about what Little America was and how long Luke had been there and what he’d been doing ― why he was there ― and kind of emotionally fulfilling what that place is. Ultimately, I think for Luke and others like him, it turns out to be a very well-funded and resourceful place for refugees. And unfortunately, a lot of the refugees in our world don’t get such a haven.

A lot of Americans today are drawing pretty frightening parallels between the show and what’s happening in politics today ― as a Brit, do you see parallels between the show and real life beyond America?

There are so many things to take from the show. I think there’s questions of populism and charismatic leaders, and what happens when we abandon logic and empiricism about fundamental principles about creating a society, and instead, attach ourselves to fear and xenophobia and non-rational principles. And we can see consequences of that in lots of societies around the world. We can see the consequences of that inside families. I think there’s lots to be see in terms of the dynamics between the powerful and the powerless ― how structures can maintain those and normalize those, to the extent that we actually think those imbalances and inequalities in our society are inherent in them, when actually they’re not. They’re created by powerful people to maintain their power. It’s important for all of us to recognize and fight against those forces.

Another one of the interesting aspects of “The Handmaid’s Tale” show I wanted to talk to you about is how the show is able to explore this idea of “good” men as “bad” feminists. There are a few scenes that stick in my mind: For example, when June and her college friend Moira are panicking after they’ve been fired from their jobs and lost access to their bank accounts, Luke says to June, something along the lines of “Don’t worry, I’ll take care of you.” He doesn’t mean in it a malicious way at all, but it is, in a way that Moira points out, dismissive of what’s really happening. Later on, when Luke asks June if she and Moira ever fooled around in college, it’s posed as an innocent question, but certainly a problematic one ― and you can tell that’s the case by June’s incredulous and amused response. Ultimately, the show allows Luke to be this imperfect character. So I’m wondering, when you were preparing for the role, was this something you thought about? About how a lot of “good” men would potentially fail to become heroes when a regime like Gilead first took control?

Right. We all fail and we all have weaknesses. I think that’s what helps us relate to characters we see on TV or read in books, is that we recognize our frailties within them and maybe don’t feel so alone. We get learn from their mistakes. Talking about that scene, when he says “Don’t worry, I’ll look after you,” I really love that scene as well, because it’s tough sometimes for men to know how to talk about feminism. It’s also sometimes hard for people to talk about the prejudices against minorities ― any number of things that you’re not necessarily experiencing yourself. But that doesn’t mean the conversation can’t take place. I find that very interesting, because we see how difficult it is [in the show] and also how incumbent it is on men ― and all of us, really ― to become more aware of the historical and present social context of what you say. The context of Luke saying, “Don’t worry, I’ll take care of you,” is insensitive and betrays a lack of understanding about what real women around him are going through. It’s so exciting to be able to explore those things and share them with people who I’m sure can relate.

Hulu has renewed “The Handmaid’s Tale” for a second season. What are you most eager to see as the series moves beyond Atwood’s book?

There are so many questions raised in the book. I want to know ― and this is personally, I don’t know if this will be in the second series ― I want to know about the colonies. I want to know more about the outside world. I want to know more about Canada and the world outside of Gilead. And, of course, just give me more Elisabeth Moss, please. Because I could watch her for weeks, months.

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The Grateful Dead’s legacy is rich enough to merit a four-hour documentary that includes an appearance from Al Franken, the former “Saturday Night Live” performer and current United States senator who didn’t “get” the druggy cult surrounding the band. HuffPost has an exclusive clip from “Long Strange Trip: The Untold Story of the Grateful Dead” in which Franken recalls dirty scenes at Grateful Dead shows with all the charm of a primo dad. 

“Long Strange Trip” opens May 26 in New York and Los Angeles, and premieres June 2 on Amazon Prime. 

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