Like many film and theater fans, writer-performer Justin Sayre was left brokenhearted after learning that legendary actress Debbie Reynolds died late last year. 

In his latest video for HuffPost Queer Voices, Sayre opens up about his “real weird connection” with Reynolds, recalling an interview in which the star offered a frank assessment of plastic surgery in Hollywood. Of course, his fandom didn’t stop there. “The woman could do anything,” Sayre said. “Seriously, have you ever gone online and seen Debbie Reynolds’s tambourine routine? Treat yourself.” 

You can catch Sayre’s signature wit for yourself this weekend for the Feb. 19 installment of his variety show, “The Meeting,” which hits Joe’s Pub at the Public Theater in New York. Sayre’s “International Order of Sodomites” (I.O.S.) gathers once a month for “The Meeting,” a variety show honoring an artist or a cultural work that is iconic to the LGBTQ community. The February installment is dedicated to Broadway director-choreographer Michael Bennett of “A Chorus Line” and “Dreamgirls” fame. 

You can check out Sayre’s comedy album, “The Gay Agenda,” here. Meanwhile, the latest episode of “Sparkle & Circulate with Justin Sayre,” the official I.O.S. podcast, was released this month, featuring an interview with Intimacy Idiot author Isaac Oliver. 

You can also view some previous performances from “The Meeting” on Sayre’s official YouTube page. For more Sayre, head to Facebook and Twitter. 

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

At first glance, the “Song to Song” trailer is surprisingly happy for a Terrence Malick movie. Rooney Mara and Ryan Gosling play smiley lovers floating through the Austin music scene, and that’s about all we know about the drama, which opens March 17. Yet Mara and Gosling’s flirtations are scored by Del Shannon’s “Runaway,” with lyrics like, “I wonder what went wrong with our love.” It looks like Michael Fassbender is on hand to shake up their picturesque romance, at least when he isn’t pouring olive oil into Natalie Portman’s mouth. Whatever is happening here, we’re in.

“Song to Song” marks Malick’s third feature in as many years, following “Knight of Cups” and the IMAX evolution documentary “Voyage of Time.” Before that, Malick made “To the Wonder,” “The Tree of Life,” “The New World” and a bunch of cinematic classics that you should revisit.

Watch the “Song to Song” trailer above.

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

President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton were in Harlem, New York on Thursday to honor the legendary Dr. Maya Angelou days before the release of a new documentary on the late poet’s life and legacy.

The Clintons spoke onstage at The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, which was recently designated a national historic museum, at an event celebrating release of the documentary, “American Masters ― Maya Angelou: And Still I Rise.” The film, which debuts on PBS on Tuesday, delivers a remarkable inside look at who Angelou was as well as her impact and influence prior to and long after her May 2014 passing.  Watch their remarks below: 

The Clintons have been friends of Angelou’s for decades and are featured in the documentary. They were recognized at the event on Thursday by Colin Johnson, Angelou’s grandson, who praised the Clintons for their support and love for her over the years.

Johnson also presented the Clintons with a plaque of Angelou’s iconic poem, “On The Pulse of Morning,” which she presented at Bill Clinton’s presidential inauguration in 1993 upon his request she deliver remarks at the ceremony. Angelou made history in that moment, becoming the first black and the first female poet to share their work on the inaugural stage.

“[Maya Angelou] was a gift to all of us who knew her,” President Clinton said as he accepted the honor. “Her friendship more precious than any medal or jewel and she was a true friend to Hillary in sunshine and storm. In ways large and small, public and intensely private. I treasure every encounter either one of us ever had. We are all in her debt.”

Bill Clinton spoke about the impact Angelou’s historic book “I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings” and said the book “riveted” him because much of it was set in Stamps, Arkansas which is where Angelou spent much of her childhood and just 24 miles from where he was born. Both he and Hillary revisited unforgettable memories like these in the documentary and praised Angelou for the incredible legacy she left behind.

“Maya Angelou lived enough lives for five people so she spent the second half of her life writing books about the first half,” Bill Clinton joked onstage at the event. “I thank you for this documentary and for giving us a chance to be a part of it.”

He then ceded the microphone to secretary Clinton, who discussed how Angelou has empowered her over the years and some of the unforgettable moments they shared together.

“I was so personally grateful for her advice and support to me for a number of years and experiences,” Hillary said onstage as she stood beside Bill. “She and I had a wonderful time at Wake Forest in 2008. We did more laughing than talking, which I think conveyed to the students something about the resilience and enthusiasm for life that she wanted them to understand.”

She the closed her remarks by reciting a few “timely” quotes, as she described them, from Angelou’s inaugural poem.

“Lift up your hearts. Each new hour holds new chances. For new beginnings.Do not be wedded forever. To fear, yoked eternally to brutishness,” she recited before pausing for a moment and moving to another line. “‘The horizon leans forward, offering you space to place new steps of change.’”

“And then it ends: ‘Here on the pulse of this new day, you may have the grace to look up and out and into your sister’s eyes, into your brother’s face, your country and say simply, very simply, with hope, good morning,” Clinton added. “Thank you Dr. Angelou.”

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

It’s easy to write off belief systems that may seem strange or foreign. But perhaps there’s something even the most devout among us can learn from exploring the unknown.

That’s the premise of author and scholar Reza Aslan’s new CNN show, “Believer,” which explores some of the world’s most misunderstood religious sects.

“My intention with everything I’ve ever done in my career has been to find ways to break through the walls that separate us, whether that’s religion, nationality or what have you,” Aslan said in a recent interview with The Huffington Post.

And that’s the primary aim of “Believer,” Aslan said, which premieres on Sunday, March 5. “Our hope is to introduce people to world views and faith communities that may seem a little strange and foreign and even frightening, but after watching me go through the experience of becoming part of these communities they may seem more relatable.”

Shot in 2015, the series is broken into six, hour-long segments that show Aslan’s immersive journey into a different faith community. He spent seven to 10 days with each group, exploring Ultra-Orthodox Judaism in Israel, Scientology in the U.S., Hindu asceticism in India, Vodou in Haiti, Santa Muerte in Mexico, and an apocalyptic doomsday cult in Hawaii.

Aslan has made a career of challenging stereotypes and misconceptions people hold toward different religions, but he admitted there were times he was forced to confront his own bias while filming the show.

“A lot of times I was thrown into a situation and told to follow everyone else. And I was often confused, often scared, anxious, occasionally disgusted. Those are just real emotions,” he said. “But in accepting that, I was able to have a real, authentic spiritual experience in almost every episode.”

In one scene with the Aghori, a Hindu sect in India that rejects common notions of purity and pollution, Aslan found himself sitting on a beach, covered in cremated ashes, and listening to a guru threaten to kill him if he asked any more questions.

Aslan gently called the director over and said, “I feel like this may have been a mistake.” It would have been a moment of comic relief, except that the sentiment was entirely sincere.

“When I called the director over I think he thought I wasn’t being serious,” Aslan told HuffPost. “But I was like, ‘No really, let’s distract him and I’ll make a run for it.’”

That desire to literally run away from something foreign and even frightening may be relatable for viewers, Aslan said. It’s what drives people to reject beliefs and traditions they don’t understand. But it can also obscure whatever commonalities we may share with the very group we’re rejecting. 

“The Aghori have a foundational notion that there’s no purity and pollution. Nothing you do, eat or wear can separate you from God. And I actually one hundred percent agree with that ― intellectually, spiritually and emotionally,” Aslan said.

Viewers may find themselves similarly relating to faith groups that previously seemed foreign or bizarre, he said. And in times of heightened polarization such as these, that’s an important realization to have.

“My hope is a show like this could go a long way toward giving people a close look at other communities and other ways of being and maybe even addressing some of the fear and xenophobia that has gripped large parts of this country in the wake of the election,” Aslan said.

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

If you’ve had it up to here with nightmare Tinder dates, ghosting and all of the other annoyances that come with modern dating, you’re probably in need of some comic relief.

Enter Cartoons By Hilary. On her Instagram page, 26-year-old cartoonist Hilary Fitzgerald Campbell shares doodles chronicling the highs and lows (but mostly lows) of looking for love in 2017.

Really, who hasn’t had an almost-relationship end like this?

Or rolled their eyes at the “options” out there?

In an interview with The Huffington Post, Fitzgerald Campbell said she draws inspiration from her own experiences with frustrating first dates and relationship false starts.

“Whenever something starts, I feel deep down it’s going to end, so it becomes a game of ‘how will I be disappointed this time?’” the Brooklyn-based illustrator said. “I’m starting to sound like a pessimist but I’m actually full of an absurd amount of hope, in life and in relationships.”

For more of Fitzgerald Campbelll’s witty illustrations, scroll down or check out her illustrated book Breaking Up is Hard To Do... But You Could’ve Done Better.

The HuffPost Lifestyle newsletter will make you happier and healthier, one email at a time. Sign up here.

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

The ladies of Twitter never fail to brighten our days with their brilliant ― but succinct ― wisdom. Each week, HuffPost Women rounds up hilarious 140-character musings. For this week’s great tweets from women, scroll through the list below. Then visit our Funniest Tweets From Women page for our past collections.

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

This Black History Month, HuffPost Black Voices is declaring “We, Too, Are America” and we held an event in Harlem on Monday to acknowledge and celebrate this theme. 

While black history is something we acknowledge all the time on HuffPost Black Voices, February is a time for us to double down on this mission and further amplify the experiences of black men and women who have helped to make America what it is.

This month, we’ve adopted and adapted the last line in Langston Hughes’ iconic poem “I, Too” to declare #WeTooAreAmerica. With it, we aim to reinforce a message that all black people ― including those who identify as Muslim, immigrant and queer ― are who help to define the identity of this country. 

On Monday, we partnered with The Creative Collective NYC, a New-York based networking group for millennials of color who work in creative industries, to co-host an event in Harlem titled “ACTivism.” The event included a discussion moderated by myself with featured guests Bryan Terrell Clark ― an actor who currently stars in “Hamilton” on Broadway ― and Jennifer Epps-Addison ― an activist and the newly-named president for the national non-profit organization Center for Popular Democracy.

“Our guest speakers were two individuals who are black history in the making and between the wisdom they shared throughout the night to the undeniable positive vibes found in a room overflowing with melanin, it was truly an empowering experience,” Imani Ellis, the founder of The Creative Collective NYC, which prefers to be identified as theCCnyc, told The Huffington Post. “We wanted to curate a safe space for creatives of color to love on each other and build with each other—not just for black history month, but beyond.” 

The event, which kicked off with a performance from poet and playwright Cyrus Aaron, included more than 80 millennials of color who work across various creative industries. Following the discussion, Black Voices invited attendees to participate in an activity in honor of Hughes’ and our campaign.

In printed copies of the last few lines of Hughes’ poem ― which reads “Besides, They’ll see how beautiful I am/ And be ashamed— I, too, am America,” we omitted the word “beautiful” and then asked attendees to fill in the blank with a word or phrase they believe best describes them.

Our goal with this initiative was to highlight how these young men and women of color each have qualities that make them beautiful and unique. Photographer ChiChi Agbim took images of 21 different New-York based millennials at the event, so we’re posting the pictures below to celebrate these influencers and have them serve as a source of inspiration for others: 

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

Broadway babies and Harry Potter super-fans, listen here: “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child” auditions are happening. In New York. Next week. 

That’s right, according to a listing on Backstage, tryouts for J.K. Rowling’s play picking up where the final book’s epilogue left off, will be held from Feb. 20 until Feb. 22, 2017. Those who make the cut will probably come as close to receiving a Hogwarts acceptance letter as a muggle could possibly dream of. 

The memo itemizes all the roles under consideration, along with short descriptions of the characters. Luckily, most of us already know the parts quite intimately. Harry Potter, for example, is described as “Father of James, Albus and Lily. Married to Ginny. Head of Magical Law Enforcement at the Ministry of Magic.” The actor who takes on the role should be no taller than 5’10” and between the ages of 37 and 40.

The casting call notes, as well, that every role, all ethnicities are welcome. 

Those familiar with the London run of play might recall that Hermione Granger was played by black actress, Noma Dumezweni. Despite the fact that Rowling described Granger in the books as having brown eyes and bushy brown hair, with no mention of her being white, the casting decision was met by some with outrage, outrage Rowling dutifully called out as straight-up racist. 

Thus, it’s exciting to see that Rowling and the “Cursed Child” team have continued the tradition of colorblind casting. Given the author’s glorious skewering of the bigoted Twitter trolls in her mentions, it’s not too surprising that she is using her platform to spread a message of diversity and inclusion. 

Head to the listing itself to see if you have what it takes to play Harry, Ginny, Moaning Myrtle or Professor McGonagall. The pay, if you’re curious, is $1,974 a week. If you have talent, or a lightning-shaped scar on your forehead, please apply. 

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

In our dreams, Adam Lambert and Sam Smith would make an adorable couple, but alas, there’s no romance heating up between the two pop stars for now.

On Thursday’s installment of “Watch What Happens Live,” Lambert told host Andy Cohen that although he and Smith have done “a lot of bonding” over the past year, there was no truth in any of the media speculation that the two are more than just friends. 

“I love that rumor, actually. The minute I heard it, I texted him,” Lambert, 35, said, responding to a fan’s inquiry. After shrugging off the romantic suggestion, he praised Smith, noting, “He’s such a nice guy. He’s so funny.”

The two stars have, in fact, spent quality time together in the past. In March 2016, the guys were spotted together at the New York nightclub No. 8. DJ Dawson posted a photograph of himself posing with Lambert and Smith on Instagram.  

Lambert elaborated further about his friendship with the “Stay With Me” singer in the “Watch What Happens Live” interview Thursday. “We did ride a rickshaw in London from one club to another, wasted, at like 3 in the morning,” he said. “And I ran into him in Mykonos this summer.” 

Fortunately for us, Lambert documented both of those encounters with Smith for posterity on Instagram. 

Though Smith, 24, has spent much of the past year out of the limelight, Lambert is gearing up to the road once more. In June, he’ll kick off a North American tour with Queen, playing 25 cities across the country.

Sizzle or not, Lambert and Smith no doubt have a lot to talk about as two of the pop world’s most out-and-proud performers. And there’s no reason the two can’t make some sweet music in the studio. C’mon, boys ― gift us with some ear candy!

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

Back in September, Disney announced plans to create a remake of its animated classic “The Lion King.” This time around, director Jon Favreau will likely use CGI animation to create a circle of life that looks much more realistic than it did in the 1994 version.

Disney is currently rebooting many of the music-filled movies that dominated previous generations’ childhoods ― including “Beauty and the Beast,” “Cinderella,” “Pete’s Dragon” and “The Jungle Book,” which Favreau also directed.

In very 2016 fashion, Favreau used emojis to reveal his involvement in the new movie on Twitter:

Last night, Favreau tweeted more details about the project, finally revealing that Donald Glover will play Simba and James Earl Jones will reclaim the role of the patriarch, Mufasa.

Glover is becoming reboot royalty. He just landed the role of Lando Calrissian in the upcoming Han Solo “Star Wars” movie. Of course, Disney now owns the rights to that franchise as well.

Glover’s two Golden Globe wins earlier this year, for the creation and lead acting role in his new show, “Atlanta,” are contributing to the young actor’s rise.

Jones, meanwhile, has voiced Mufasa multiple times since he first lent his talents to the original Disney movie. His voice appears in a “Lion King” video game, short side clips, and the sequels “The Lion King 2: Simba’s Pride” and “The Lion Guard: Return of the Roar.”

The actor also recently reprised his speaking role as the villainous Darth Vader in Disney’s “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.”

Hopefully Jones and Glover can pull off a father-son dynamic in “The Lion King” that has less of an underlying dark side than the one in “Star Wars.”

It remains unclear when the new version of “The Lion King” will finally debut.

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

Warning: This article contains paintings of vulvae. Beautiful paintings of vulvae. 

Initially, artist Jacqueline Secor didn’t intend to show her series “The Diversity of Nature” to a public audience. Rather, she created her unapologetic paintings of vaginas (or, if you prefer the anatomically accurate term, vulvae) as a personal coping mechanism, part of her ongoing fight with body dysmorphic disorder.

After relocating from North California to Salt Lake City, Utah, Secor says she felt overcome with insecurity and shame, especially with regards to her physical appearance. “Living in Utah, there is still a widespread unspoken rule that women should conform to this really narrow little definition of ‘perfection,’” the artist, a former member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, told The Huffington Post. “There is a really dark undercurrent to all those picture perfect Mormon mommy blogs and Instagram accounts,” she added.

Five years ago, Secor removed herself from the Church, but the impact the religious experience left on the artist was not so easily displaced. She began to channel the overwhelming mix of emotions ― pain, powerlessness and possessiveness ― into artworks that celebrated female beauty removed from any one idea of perfection. 

Secor, simply speaking, paints vaginas, adorning the body parts with vines, flowers, butterfly wings and other natural forms to portray their elemental power. The artist spends approximately 25 to 35 hours on each painting, which features acrylic paint, watercolor, ink and pastels. Each artwork is made from collaged layers of sketches, giving it a subtle, sculptural depth. In person, viewers are invited to touch the works, whose layers and folds mirror the real things. 

The works, which Secor said are partially inspired by cave paintings, depict in no uncertain terms how no two vaginas are quite alike. Each subject boasts an entirely different shape, all comparably beautiful, proving the impossibility of a “perfect” body ― or, yes, a “perfect” vagina. 

After Secor shared some of her first paintings with friends and family, she was surprised when they responded by sending back photos of their own bodies to serve as her subject matter. It was their enthusiasm that encouraged Secor to share her work with a wider audience. “They said that seeing their most intimate body parts represented on canvas helped them deal with their own secret insecurities.”

For Secor, the act of illustrating and exhibiting a body part that mainstream culture deems illicit, grotesque or shameful is a mode of revolution in itself. As she put it: “Painting vulvae, focusing on details of women’s bodies, even the parts that are ‘supposed’ to be hidden, does sometimes feel like a small act of resistance ― a way of saying that women don’t need to hide, that we deserve a place, not just in the art world, but in every sector.”

In 2015, the artist showed the series publicly in Utah and, although some viewers were surprised by the content, the response was overwhelmingly positive. Secor hopes that her all-natural portraits inspire women to appreciate the beauty of their bodies, no matter the shape they take. “Even today ― despite the prevalence of female nudes in art museums, despite the accessibility to pornography ― there is still tremendous pressure on women to hide themselves, to be ashamed of whatever doesn’t conform to societal standards of beauty and propriety,” she said.

Secor believes this pressure is part of the contradictory ideals women are expected to embody. “It’s part of this strange dichotomy that culture has created for women: reveal and conceal,” she said. “On one hand, we’re always supposed to reveal enough of ourselves to be sexually attractive, but simultaneously we’re expected to conceal our bodies, our opinions, and, ultimately, I believe, our power.”

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

In artist David Shrobe’s multimedia work “Guerrilla Tactics,” the edge of a gold picture frame knocks up against a curved slice of mosaic nestled near an emerald-colored plastic crate. A triangular slab of shopping cart hovers atop them. They’re materials you might find piled high in your attic or garage, and pay them little heed.

Through Shrobe’s practice, however, the domestic materials are chopped up, rearranged and reincarnated, forming an unlikely canvas. A ghostly figure hovers atop the amassed materials, his or her invisible face demarcated by a frilly collar and decadent cape. The image of old fashioned nobility is shoved up against the stuff of modern-day detritus, forming a hybrid image that’s hard to place, but harder to shake.

“I’ve been collecting objects from in and around my family’s home in Harlem for many years,” Shrobe, a fourth-generation Harlem resident, wrote in an email to The Huffington Post. “Sometimes they make it into a work, sometimes they sit in the studio for months or years before I find their purpose. I’m often drawn to things that speak to a sense of home, things that are commonplace in our communities. They say a lot about us, from social status to the things we consume and the environments we live in.” 

In his exhibition “Homegrown,” which recently closed at Thierry Goldberg Gallery, Shrobe fuses his found materials into portraits that feel over-crowded and otherworldly. The artists responds to the elitist and exclusive tradition of classical portraiture with a visual display of texture, heterogeneity and abundance, offering an alternative to portraiture’s elitist roots and singular perspective. 

With the show’s title, Shrobe hopes to address the current political climate, raising the question of who is deemed a “true American” and why. “It came from questioning ideas about our nationalism and what it means to belong to one’s country or home, and the ways I see that being challenged, both now and throughout history,” he said. “It also speaks to ideas about consumption and domesticity and having a connection to the materials I find.”

Shrobe invites these materials, including clocks and mirrors and doorknobs and ceiling tins, to speak for themselves, allowing viewers to connect to and identify with them as they please. Through literally slicing up traditions of portraiture and rebuilding them anew, he makes space for a new kind of identity, which embraces multiplicity down to its core. 

“As a painter, I am always pushing my affinity for painting and interested in what painting can be and how it can function in this contemporary moment,” Shrobe said. “Collapsing divisions between past, present and future gives birth to fragmented portraits, mythological beings and hybridized forms who are not oriented to a specific time or place, but rather floating in a space of disquieting coexistence.”

Shrobe’s work, reminiscent of contemporary artist Titus Kaphar, offers a new model for representation, one that acknowledges the complexity and brokenness of its subjects. The images are especially resonant in this day and age, when complex and composite identities are under threat. 

“For me,” Shrobe said, “it’s about asking questions through the materials I use and creating new meaning from the histories that are inherent in the images and objects I reposition and the art historical canon from which I borrow and bring into a new context ― that of my own. To create spaces within which new forms and mixtures become indigenized; figures imbued with a sense of heroism and who embrace their humanity, while challenging what it means to be an American in these turbulent times.”

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

The final stage of global robot takeover is here: There’s a sex toy that simulates oral sex for women. OK, so maybe robots aren’t taking over the world, but this piece of technology sure seems life-changing.

The award-winning ORA 2 is one of the standout sex toys created by luxury pleasure brand LELO. The round, inconspicuous toy looks nothing like your go-to sex toy, but that’s because it does something most others don’t: It simulates the sensations that women experience when receiving oral sex. 

The original line of ORA products launched in 2009, but the ORA 2 wasn’t released until two years ago. While the product is not brand new, the HuffPost Women team was so curious about what the creation process was like and (let’s be real) how it works. So, we spoke with CMO of LELO Steve Thomson to find out more about this pleasure plaything. 

We decided to create an oral sex simulator that feels incredible, and wouldn’t look out of place on your mantelpiece. An oral sex toy for the masses.
Steve Thomson, CMO of LELO

As Thomson explained, LELO wanted to make an “oral sex toy for the masses”; one that looks so pretty you could put it on your mantelpiece. And that’s exactly what the luxury sex toy company did.

Can you explain how the ORA 2 works?

The most important part of ORA™ is the vibrating nub, which we’ve come to call the “tongue.” At a certain point on the front surface of ORA™, there’s a bulging panel that rotates, swirls and vibrates beneath the surface of the silicone. As it moves underneath, the silicone on the surface bulges and moves with it, massaging the user like a tongue. This makes the sensations very soft and fleshy, so that with a little bit of water-based lube, ORA™ feels very much like a real tongue but doesn’t look anything like one, so it retains its trademark LELO elegance.

The vibrating motor is positioned right under the tongue, so the vibrations and transmitted perfectly to the user’s body. Like all the best designs, it’s a simple concept that’s very hard to explain but absolutely intuitive to use.

ORA™ is not a substitute or a replacement for sex, but rather an addition to it. That means that it’s not the kind of sex toy that will do all the hard work for you. Instead, it’s the kind of sex toy that works with you. It includes a unique technology that we invented for this product, called SenseTouch™. This means that ORA™ senses how hard or aggressively you’re using it and responds accordingly. The firmer you press it against your body, the more powerfully the tongue swirls and rotates.

What inspired LELO to create an oral sex simulator?

At LELO, the inspiration for a new pleasure product can come from anywhere: personal experiences, market trends, customer feedback, you name it. ORA™ exists because nothing like it existed at the time.

There have long been male masturbators for men. Big, ugly things with 1980s porn stars on the box, promising sensations that are better than real oral sex. Men have a huge selection of oral sex simulators, but there were none for women that you would be proud to own.

Oral sex simulators for women had been attempted in the past. No joke: they literally looked like a tongue on a stick. They looked like jokes. There is perhaps a market for hideous disembodied jelly tongues, but it’s a bit niche even by our standards. So we decided to create one that feels incredible, and wouldn’t look out of place on your mantelpiece. An oral sex toy for the masses. That’s a tough brief, but we did it.

Is this the first-ever sex toy that simulates oral sex for women?

If you spend long enough in the sex toy world, you learn that everything you can possibly imagine has been made and tried by some brave soul at somewhere. People are amazingly innovative when it comes to sex. There is, for example, a sex museum in South Korea in which one of the exhibits is an old bicycle that was converted to have dozens of leather ‘tongues’ instead of a tire, and the user would sit astride it and pedal, turning the wheel ― and therefore the tongues ― against herself.

History is full of those examples, they’re hugely fun. So it’s not really possible to say ORA™ was the first oral sex simulator. But it is the first you can walk into a shop and buy. And it is definitely the first you can carry through customs without embarrassment.

What has the feedback been like from women who have used the toy?

Personal pleasure is a very subjective thing, and not every woman enjoys oral sex. So people who dislike those sensations won’t get the best from ORA™ 2. However, women who love oral sex really love ORA™ 2, and the feedback has been overwhelmingly positive. It’s a great way to learn, control and explore your own pleasure and sensations.

Head over to LELO to learn more about the ORA 2. 

To read more from Alanna Vagianos follow her on Facebook. 

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

Even if you’re not actively aware of it, you use emojis to tell stories every day. But can you identify stories using those same emojis? On Sunday, Hollywood honors 2016’s best on-screen stories. Can you guess the Oscar-nominated films from the past year using only the given emojis as plot clues?  

Tap/click the image below to play!

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

Katy Perry’s video for “Chained To The Rhythm” is here and it’s a pastel-hued dystopia. 

In the four-minute video, Perry portrays a woman named Rose who journeys through the brightly colored Oblivia, a theme park with a spacey 1950s vibe where the smiling visitors are glued to their tablets as they ride the Great American Dream Drop. Alas, the roses have thorns and validation doesn’t come easily for everyone. Luckily, Skip Marley is there to enlighten those willing to listen. 

The video, directed by Matthew Cullen, was filmed at California’s Six Flags Magic Mountain last month, according to Billboard.

It comes weeks after the single’s release, complete with lyrics like “So put your rose-colored glasses on / And party on / Turn it up, it’s your favorite song / Dance, dance, dance to the distortion / Come on, turn it up, keep it on repeat / Stumbling around like a wasted zombie.”

View the whole video here: 

After Hillary Clinton’s loss in the 2016 presidential election, Perry wrote about how campaigning on Clinton’s behalf and then facing a stark new reality helped her find her voice. 

From the outside it probably looks as though I’ve always had a “voice.” Truth is, I have never had one like I have found in the past year. I have a found a new voice, a more determined voice. I grew up sheltered, suppressed and kept silent for fear of giving the wrong answer. I would reveal my poor education. Or I was just scared. Hillary helped me see that we’re all in this together, no matter where we come from, what color we are, or what status and education we have or don’t have. Hillary lit a fire inside of me that burns brighter and brighter every day, and that fire will NEVER be put out. Feelings of despair still comes in waves, but now more than ever I am MOTIVATED to fight against social injustice and to promote equality and kindness as best I know how, through my art and influence.

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

The cast of the Han Solo prequel has boarded the Millennium Falcon. 

Principal photography on the standalone “Star Wars” film began Monday at London’s Pinewood Studios, where “The Force Awakens” and “Rogue One” were also shot. The events in the untitled movie take place before those of “A New Hope.”

Disney, which owns Lucasfilm, included the first cast photo in a press release on Tuesday. Directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller are seen aboard the Falcon with Alden Ehrenreich, who plays Han Solo, and co-stars Woody Harrelson, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Emilia Clarke and Donald Glover, who plays Lando Calrissian. Chewbacca, played by Joonas Suotamo instead of Peter Mayhew, lords over the group. The press release also confirms Thandie Newton has a role in the movie.

The exact plot has net yet been revealed, but Disney describes the project as “the adventure-filled past of the iconic scoundrel and everyone’s favorite Wookiee ... including their early encounters with that other card-playing rogue from a galaxy far, far away, Lando Calrissian.”

Marking the second standalone “Star Wars” installment after last year’s “Rogue One,” the Solo film is slated to open May 25, 2018, five months after “Episode VIII — The Last Jedi.” It’s written by Lawrence Kasdan, who scripted “The Empire Strikes Back,” “Return of the Jedi” and “The Force Awakens,” and his son, Jon Kasdan, who wrote episodes of “Dawson’s Creek” and “Freaks and Geeks.”

Despite Disney calling Monday the official start of production, Chris Miller tweeted a photo referencing the who-shot-first debate on Jan. 30. The slate in Miller’s hand called the movie “Star Wars: Red Cup.”

One more reason to get excited: Bradford Young, the Oscar-nominated cinematographer of “Arrival” and “Selma,” is listed as the director of photography. 

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

Hell hath no fury like those scorned by a crappy couch.

West Elm removed a couch from its website after a piece titled “Why Does This One Couch From West Elm Suck So Much?” was published last week at The Awl, generating a lot of buzz.

The “Peggy Couch” is a tufted mid-century modern-style sofa with cloth-covered buttons that reportedly pop off after mild use. 

The comments reviewing the couch on a photo West Elm posted a year ago, below, are egregiously bad. One says “This is the absolute WORST piece of furniture I’ve ever purchased!!! DO NOT WASTE YOUR MONEY OR TIME!” while another calls it the “worst purchase ever.”

In her story for The Awl, writer Anna Hezel said she paid $1,200 for the couch, which shortly “began to disintegrate.” West Elm’s customer service sent her a shoddy button-repair kit to fix the couch, she said, and employees assured her that the shelf life of West Elm couches like the Peggy is between “one and three years... with light use.”

Her story ends when a couch leg snaps off during a party and the whole sofa collapses. 

The tale served as a rallying cry: Twitter users who own or owned a Peggy began speaking out, saying Hezel’s piece is an accurate representation of life with the couch.

The Peggy is now missing from Westelm.com, with no landing page to even indicate it ever existed.

BuzzFeed spoke to employees at various stores around the country. One store in New York indicated that the couch is “out of stock,” while another in Alabama said there is a “quality issue” with the couches and that staffers were not told when the couch would become available again.

The Huffington Post reached out to Williams-Sonoma, the parent company of West Elm, and to West Elm’s public relations team and West Elm’s customer service.

One West Elm customer service representative told us over the phone that she “wasn’t sure that [the Peggy] will come back” and that she couldn’t find it anywhere in the company’s system. Another representative said via email that the Peggy is “temporarily out of stock” and we should check back mid-March to “verify if anymore Peggy sofas are available.” 

We’ll keep our eyes peeled for the Peggy’s reappearance, but perhaps this just is what happens when you name a couch “Peggy.” 

RIP, Peggy.

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

When Milo Yiannopoulos posted on Facebook Monday night that his book deal with Simon & Schuster had been canceled, his tone wasn’t concerned, but matter-of-fact.

“They canceled my book,” he wrote in a post that got over 6,000 shares. In another post, which got over 8,000 responses as of writing this piece, he wrote, “I’ve gone through worse. This will not defeat me.”

He’s probably right.

It took a lot ― too much, many argued ― for Simon & Schuster to cut its losses with Dangerous, which was slated to come out in March, but was later pushed back to a June release date. Prior to the $250,000 deal, Yiannopoulos had been banned from Twitter and widely condemned for his inflammatory, trollish comments about women, people of color, transgender individuals and Muslims. After the deal was announced, fellow publishers aired their concern, and Roxane Gay, whose book How to Be Heard was set to come out with Simon & Schuster, withdrew her contract.

Simon & Schuster originally stood by its decision to publish Yiannopoulos, a move that was bolstered by the National Coalition Against Censorship, which wrote in a statement last month, “the suppression of noxious ideas does not defeat them; only vigorous disagreement can counter toxic speech effectively.”

It’s a just concept in theory, but in practice, one person’s voice is capable of undermining or outright silencing countless others’, on social media and beyond. And, while hateful language aimed at disenfranchised groups can’t be policed by the government, it can be removed of its platform. Which is what happened yesterday after Yiannopoulos made a comment condoning pedophilia, an act apparently beyond the boundaries of alt-right acceptability. He was subsequently uninvited to next week’s Conservative Political Action Conference; a publicist at Simon & Schuster announced the deal decision shortly after. Right now, no comment has been issued about whether Yiannopoulos will hold onto his advance. 

Still, Yiannopoulos is right that an axed memoir deal doesn’t mean he’s done telling his story.

There isn’t much precedent for book contracts canceled due to public backlash, but the best-known case points to the possibility of a new deal being struck. In 2006, O.J. Simpson’s ghostwritten book If I Did It, which detailed how he would have hypothetically committed the murders of his ex-wife and her friend, was yanked from HarperCollins’ list after criticism. The rights to the title were then bought by the family of Ronald Goldman, whose theoretical murder was described in its pages. The book was eventually published by Beaufort Books, with commentary contextualizing its original content.

While hateful language aimed at disenfranchised groups can’t be policed by the government, it can be removed of its platform.

In a more likely scenario, Yiannopoulos could self-publish Dangerous, a move that could at least bring him success in terms of units sold, with his committed fan base and recent uptick in notoriety. A Google trends search for his name shows a big spike since his book deal and the subsequent controversies. And, he’s not a stranger to the publishing model; before this deal, he self-published two books of poetry, which both have high star ratings on Amazon.

Still, the end goal ― or at least the end result ― for many self-published hits is a contract with a publisher. Both Fifty Shades of Grey and The Martian started out that way, later securing deals with Penguin Random House imprints.

Reverting to the grassroots method of story promotion after securing a publishing contract could be considered a step backwards in terms of legitimacy ― and legitimacy, plus a more mainstream platform, seem to be what Yiannopoulos craves. (Comparisons to Trump are ripe for picking.)

As a Simon & Schuster author, Yiannopoulos’ name could have been grouped with Bob Woodward’s, Hillary Clinton’s and Stephen King’s. Make no mistake: its ultimate removal from that list is the result of protest, not conscientiousness on the publisher’s part. But now, no matter how his story is disseminated, it is, for the time being, on the fringe of public consumption.

So, contrary to the NCAC’s statement, voicing concern doesn’t have to be the only ethical, constitutional method for combating hate speech. Publishers have the right ― and arguably the responsibility ― to determine what’s a bigger impediment to free speech: fostering authors with oppressive views or refusing to publish them. 

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

For more on “The Bachelor,” 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.

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

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