If you’ve been a student in any capacity since the advent of the internet, you’re probably aware of the stigma around citing online sources in research papers and other academic pursuits.

Teachers and librarians have had to reconcile student interest in online sources ― and the relevancy those sources have to their lives ― with the fact that in the past, sites haven’t been as rigorously fact-checked as published books.

To help students take a clear-eyed approach to internet research, librarians like American Library Association (ALA) president Julie Todaro use a resource called the CRAAP test, created by Meriam Library at CSU at Chico.

A widely used information evaluation system, CRAAP stands for currency, relevance, authority, accuracy and purpose. According to the CRAAP test, a 20-year-old article written by a PR firm, for example, would be less valid than a three-year-old statement made by an American president in a published memoir.

But now, due to President Donald Trump’s Twitter comments dismissing legitimate sources of information, including multiple attacks on The New York Times, the ALA is making some changes to the test’s criteria.

“We have standards for assessing news, and we had to go back in and change those,” Todaro told The Huffington Post in a phone interview. “We’re looking at having to flip what we’re talking about, taking a look at how many people said this, where they said it, what the statement was.”

Todaro and her team have worked to develop an update to the CRAAP test, where the “authority” component is more closely considered. “We have to talk about authority today and we have to have them not make the authority decision without the set of other facts like accuracy and currency,” she told Texas Standard.

“We talk differently about authority [now],” Todaro reiterated to HuffPost. “And we talk about credentials in a different way. We talk about going beyond a title that someone has.”

The CRAAP test is often applied to scientific or historical information, Todaro said, citing erroneous claims about the nonexistence of global warming or the Holocaust as examples of CRAAP-tested statements.

Tweaking the CRAAP test is just one way librarians are pivoting to meet the needs of citizens under Trump’s administration. In addition to helping readers access books, librarians are flexing their roles as community organizers and distributors of accurate information on immigration, trans rights and other issues, which Todaro describes as civil rights issues.

“Libraries aren’t partisan organizations. So it doesn’t matter how you voted, it doesn’t matter where you’re from. We can provide resources and services for everyone,” Todaro said. “We’re having to, sadly, take another look at the standard credibility that you and I, and children and adults everywhere, have taken for granted for years. That’s no longer there.”

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ShondaLand’s “The Catch” returns to TGIT this week, replacing “How to Get Away with Murder” in the 10 p.m. time slot on ABC. The Peter Krause–Mireille Enos vehicle debuted last year to modest but respectable reviews, so this season’s showrunner Allan Heinberg decided to switch it up a bit and play around with the show’s tone. 

“I’m really excited about Season 2 because I feel like the show has found its stride, where it wants to live,” Enos told The Huffington Post on Wednesday during a Build Series interview. “It’s funny this year ― it runs right up, borderline farce at some points. And big love stories. It’s sweet. Technically it’s still a drama, but we’re a rom-com.” 

Season 1 ended with Ben (Krause) proposing to Alice (Enos) in front of the Kensington firm before he took the fall for her after she was arrested for stealing a Maria Kreyn painting. But with Ben behind bars this season, will their romance even last?

“It’ll feel very different,” Enos said. “The first season we had the obligation of this betrayal, right? So that brought in a lot of the drama, but at the end of Season 1, Ben makes the ultimate sacrifice. Season 2 we come back, they’re in love, they’re together, so a lot of that drama we got to take off of our plate and it gave us room to lean into the comedy, to lean into the love story.” 

The conniving Margot (Sonya Walger) really messed things up last year and, according to Enos, she’ll be doing the same in Season 2. Plus, she’ll have some company in “Grey’s Anatomy” alum T.R. Knight, who is returning to ShondaLand to play Alice’s wayward sibling Tommy.

“There’s a new character that T.R. Knight plays of Alice’s brother and he brings a world of trouble with him,” she insisted. 

We have a feeling this new romantic-comedy version of “The Catch” might be just what the doctor ordered. 

“The Catch” Season 2 premieres Thursday at 10 p.m. ET on ABC. Watch the full Build Series interview with Mireille Enos below. 

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Dan Rather has just announced that he’ll be writing a book of essays on “what patriotism looks like.” It’ll be called What Unites Us.

The book will be published by Algonquin and is slated for release this November.

The venerated television journalist ― who is currently 85 years old ― has only grown in popularity in recent years, particularly with his recent commentary on President Donald Trump.

Rather took to Facebook on Thursday to share his thoughts on the essay collection and what he wants it to tell the American people. 

“We live in turbulent and disorienting times,” Rather writes.

He says he’s been writing the book in conjunction with the “daily (or even minute by minute) news cycle” and has “tried to step back for a wider perspective.”

“I want to share my sense of the basic tenets that I see as the foundation of the country I hold so dear. It is patriotism, as I define it, not as a divisive cudgel but a common purpose. It is also a patriotism that will not ignore the sins of our nation, but challenge them honestly and head on. So in the book, I will be exploring themes that I see as fundamental to holding together this great experiment in democracy. It is ‘What Unites Us,’ the title I [sic] given to the book.”

Most intriguingly, Rather says he hopes that “some of the spirit we have created here on Facebook” can continue on in his essays. He simply has to finish writing them.

You can read his whole message on Facebook below:

What Unites Us is currently available for pre-order and will be available wherever books are sold on Nov. 7.

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In an act as inscrutable as Kim Kardashian’s initial rise to fame, a 74-year-old man was arrested after allegedly destroying several of the celebrity’s books, BuzzFeed News reports.

Six copies of Selfish, Kardashian’s art book released by Rizzoli and recently updated with further selfies, were tarnished with a red liquid. According to the Glastonbury Police Department, the scene was accompanied by a note from the man, “explaining his dislike of Ms. Kardashian and people like her.”

Kardashian’s book was not only a commercial success, but a critical one, too. Art critic Jerry Saltz compared the author’s mass-produced work to Andy Warhol’s, describing her as “a first adapter and partial inventor of a genre” ― that genre being selfies.

The book’s publisher echoes this sentiment, writing on its site, “Kim has mastered the art of taking flattering and highly personal photos of oneself.”

Selfish is priced at $19.99; the book’s alleged destroyer was released on a $2,500 non-surety bond, after being charged with Criminal Mischief. 

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Long before the word “franchise” dominated Hollywood, King Kong stormed the Empire State Building and spawned a century of refurbishings. The gargantuan ape, who debuted in 1933, has been the subject of three American reboots, numerous sequels and spinoffs, an animated television series, multiple novelizations, video games, theme-park rides, an ABBA jam, a “Sunset Boulevard” joke and a “Rocky Horror Picture Show” lyric. This weekend, he will invade multiplexes once again.

King Kong is a preeminent emblem of our nostalgic popular culture, which tends to recycle the same stories with increasing regularity. Wowing audiences through pioneering visual effects, the original ― the first film to play two of New York’s largest-capacity theaters at once ― was so beloved that Time magazine christened its 1952 re-release the “movie of the year” over such titles as “Singin’ in the Rain,” “The Greatest Show on Earth” and “High Noon.”

Audiences have flocked in droves every time Kong headlines marquees. When adjusted for inflation, the 1976 remake starring Jessica Lange and Jeff Bridges made about $225 million, the seventh-highest-grossing movie of its year. Peter Jackson’s update, a technical marvel that cost a record-breaking $207 million to make, collected $685 million worldwide, the fifth-largest sum of 2005. This latest version, the bloated “Kong: Skull Island,” arrives as part of Warner Bros.’ Marvel-esque blueprint for a shared universe that will pit the primate against Godzilla, the giant lizard with whom he first appeared in 1962’s “King Kong vs. Godzilla.” (The billing is inverted this time around. “Godzilla vs. Kong,” a tie-in with 2014’s lucrative “Godzilla” redo, is slated for 2020.) 

This Kong stands taller and bulkier than his predecessors, though the film’s budget is about $17 million less than that of Jackson’s adaptation, which swapped puppetry and animatronics for CGI. More ape for more economy. It’s the ultimate encapsulation of Hollywood’s franchise mania. 

In fact, the template for big-screen sequelization can be traced to “King Kong” and the 1930s’ other monster flicks, which together shaped the stencil for the horror genre. 1931’s “Dracula” was based on the popular Bram Stoker novel, which had already inspired “Nosferatu” and a stage play. The same year, “Frankenstein” modified a play that was itself an adaptation of Mary Shelley’s Gothic prose.

Count Dracula and Frankenstein’s monster both appeared in numerous sequels, spinoffs and parodies. If today’s cinematic universes (superhero and otherwise) are tentpoles for Hollywood’s intellectual property, blame it on Universal Monsters, the horror series that lasted through the 1950s and united many of the studio’s creatures. But Kong, like the mummy Imhotep before him and The Wolf Man after him, was something Dracula and Frankenstein’s monster weren’t: an original character. Reboots are equal-opportunity affairs. All of these boogeymen still routinely appear, digitalized and far noisier.

An interesting fixture of “King Kong” is the degree to which different films project different political and social concerns while retaining the original story’s roots. The 1933 prototype can be read as a metaphor for the chaos of the Great Depression, or at least an escape from it for the era’s moviegoers.

The 1976 remake, which arrived during the decade’s energy crisis, revolves around an oil executive hungry to deplete an uncharted island’s untapped natural resources. In 2005, Jackson eschewed most overt politics, preferring to romanticize the olden days of show business.

“Kong: Skull Island,” in which a government-endorsed squadron hunts for monsters in the South Pacific, takes place against the backdrop of the Vietnam War. It pays homage to “Apocalypse Now,” Francis Ford Coppola’s 1979 Vietnam epic influenced by Joseph Conrad’s imperialistic Heart of Darkness. There’s even a slideshow of the real-life bloodshed. Samuel L. Jackson plays an Army warmonger convinced his fleet can vanquish any danger, including an oversized simian and the other life-threatening creatures roaming the island’s jungles. 

Until now, King Kong movies had failed to improve upon critical theories concerning the story’s possible racial allegory. From the moment the first “Kong” hit theaters, its narrative about a savage black beast who falls in love with a white damsel in distress (played by Fay Wray) while townsfolk panic was seen as an offensive metaphor about African-Americans.

In his 1973 novel Gravity’s Rainbow, Thomas Pynchon outlined the concept as evidence of the country’s racial paranoia about white women dating black men. Substituting Jessica Lange and Naomi Watts for Wray, the next two remakes did little to rectify this thesis. “Kong: Skull Island,” however, bypasses the human-beast romance. Brie Larson plays the only significant female character, a self-sufficient “anti-war photographer” whose affection for Kong doesn’t result in some feral courtship. 

Between the technological advances and the shapeshifting political undertones, “King Kong” has become one of Hollywood’s most symbolic properties. The times change, the people evolve, the effects balloon, but the gorilla is still there, waiting to be conquered by herds invading his homeland. He’s not so bad when you get to know him. (Plus, John C. Reilly is on hand to steal the show this time.)

As more movies become TV series and more TV series become Netflix reboots, maybe it’s comforting to know King Kong is out there for our re-digestion. But how many scripts for fresh stories died so Kong could rise again? For money-hungry studios, it’s of no concern: Moviegoers will pound their chests in excitement every time.

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If you’re as obsessed with Scientology gossip as we are, you’re going to want to see “My Scientology Movie.”

The above clip ― exclusive to The Huffington Post and its parent company, AOL ― perfectly encapsulates the documentary, in which journalist Louis Theroux wades into the church’s aggressive waters. After re-creating scenes from Scientology abuses, Theroux winds up in a battle with the organization’s officials, who stalk him. 

“My Scientology Movie” opens in theaters and premieres on VOD platforms March 10.

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Twenty years since the untimely death of The Notorious B.I.G., Voletta Wallace is still hurt that the rapper’s murder remains unsolved.

Wallace spoke with the New York Post this week about the anniversary of her son’s death. Biggie was killed in a drive-by shooting on March 9, 1997, in Los Angeles. He was 24. 

“It still hurts that nothing has been done,” she said. “His death is not something I want to celebrate. But I am grateful to everyone who remembers him.”

Since Biggie’s tragic death, Wallace has been active keeping the rapper’s legacy alive through different projects and events, including an upcoming documentary and a celebration of her son during this Sunday’s Brooklyn Nets game. 

The 64-year-old told the Post that if her son were still alive, he would either “be in jail or he might be a multimillionaire roaming the Earth and vacationing in Bora Bora.”

“Whatever the world sees him as, I just see him as my son,” she added. “He may not be here, but his memory is etched in me for life.”

Long live B.I.G.

Read Wallace’s entire interview at the New York Post. 

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On the night of Nov. 9, 2016, and into the morning of Nov. 10, Twitter was inundated with parents wondering how they would explain President Donald Trump’s unpredicted win to their children when they woke up.

Dan Kois wrote on Slate that morning, “I want to hide our ashen faces and give them the long historical view and say: It’s going to be OK. That would be hard, if still easier than being honest.” Kois, and the many others who wrote on the topic, seemed torn between his instinct to protect and his desire to be frank.

But for some parents ― particularly, those alarmed by police brutality against unarmed black teens ― protection and frankness don’t feel so opposed.

Which is why a book geared toward young adults that address state violence directly ― The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas ― is an important and timely new title. Its story follows 16-year-old Starr, a black girl who witnesses the shooting of her childhood friend by a police officer. Both Starr and her friend Khalil were rashly and wrongly judged to be connected with gang violence; for the remainder of the story, Starr copes with grief and guilt.

Thomas said the YA book is inspired by the Black Lives Matter movement, which began in 2012 as a response to the murder of Trayvon Martin. Today, New York Times Book Review editor Pamela Paul shared that The Hate U Give is the top title on the paper’s bestseller list for Young Adult Hardcovers.  

The novel’s success isn’t only commercial; reviewers are praising its story and its relevancy. Erin Keane wrote for Salon that the “sensational debut novel should be required reading for clueless white people.” On NPR, Weekend Edition host Lourdes Garcia-Navarro discussed the author’s exploration of activism today.

Acclaim ― both critical and commercial ― comes in for The Hate U Give in a time when diversity is still lacking in the literary world. In its 2015 survey of diversity in publishing, Lee & Low Books revealed that 79 percent of the industry identifies as white; at the executive level, that number is even higher. In its own 2015 survey of author representation in the media, VIDA revealed more of the same: of the women authors covered in publications such as The New York Review of Books, a startling number were white.

So, The Hate U Give’s ranking on the YA bestseller list is a heartening sign that parents of young readers are looking to educate their children about racism and activism. But don’t let the triumph spur inaction; other stories like this are still in grave need of a wider readership. 

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Casey Affleck received a standing ovation from the majority of the audience in the Dolby Theatre when he won the Oscar for Best Actor last month. But Brie Larson, who handed Affleck the award, seemed less than thrilled. 

Larson, who kept up the tradition of the previous year’s Best Actress recipient announcing the Best Actor category, briefly hugged Affleck before she moved to the side of the stage, where her hands rested at her sides for the duration of the actor’s speech. She never once clapped for him. 

Larson’s reaction to Affleck ― whose awards season success is viewed by many as controversial amid renewed attention surrounding the 2010 sexual harassment allegations made against the actor by two women who worked on the hoax Joaquin Phoenix documentary, “I’m Still Here,” which Affleck directed ― was indeed intentional, the actress confirmed to Vanity Fair on Wednesday. 

“I think that whatever it was that I did onstage kind of spoke for itself. I’ve said all that I need to say about that topic,” she told the magazine while at the premiere of “Kong: Skull Island.” 

Larson won Best Actress in 2016 for portraying a survivor of sexual assault in “Room” ― a role she threw herself into by shutting the world out for a month and meeting with psychologists to better understand the trauma her character would have experienced. The role seemed to have a great impact on her, judging by the fact that the actress hugged each one of the sexual assault survivors departing the 2016 Oscar stage after appearing alongside Lady Gaga as she sang “Till It Happens To You.”

Larson had been faced with with handing Affleck many trophies throughout awards season. She kept her distance when she awarded him the Golden Globe and refrained from clapping while he made a speech that seemingly addressed the allegations against him. It had also been rumored that she would advocate for sexual assault survivors at the Screen Actors Guild Awards. Fortunately for Larson, the SAG Awards were one of the few award shows that did not honor Affleck for his role in “Manchester by the Sea.” Denzel Washington took home the SAG for his performance in “Fences.” 

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There was once a time when “This is Sparta” was arguably one of the more boring phrases in the English language ― reviewed on a projector that’s lightbulb always seemed to be dying during high school history class. If you went to high school in the late 2000s, you likely witnessed the tidal wave moment when the phrase rose from seemingly nothing to a generational obsession.

The movie “300” debuted 10 years ago on March 9, 2007. It went on to gross nearly half a billion dollars worldwide, but its true accomplishment was domination over the American teen lexicon. The movie was intentionally ridiculous and bombastic, which led to it being, for a time, infinitely quotable. 

The most memorable scene came when the protagonist, King Leonidas of Sparta (Gerard Butler), declines peace with the Persians by kicking their messenger into a giant man-made hole while screaming ― you guessed it ― “This is Sparta!”

A whole industry sprouted up, parodying and referencing the movie.

The horribly reviewed “Meet the Spartans” was a 2008 movie in the vain of the satirical “Scary Movie.” Despite getting a 2-percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes, it earned nearly $85 million in the box office as “300” held onto culture.

“South Park” devoted an entire episode to an homage of “300.” The MTV Movie Awards gave a short film spoof of “300 and “United 93” ― “United 300” ― an award in 2007. You can still buy countless variations of “300” shirts online.

But looking back, the most interesting side project to come out of the film’s success was started by a couple of high schoolers with no budget.

The tale of these two young New Yorkers is arguably the cornerstone of the current media landscape we now live within ― where viral social posts can conquer the world. Much like the actual story of “300” that focuses on a small army accomplishing more than could be expected, the rise of the potential for any high schooler to create an influential viral meme is now inarguably possible. Just last year, a few teens created the “Mannequin Challenge” meme ― a challenge even then presidential candidate Hillary Clinton participated in.

On April 29, 2008, less than two years after Facebook allowed anyone at the age of 13 or over with a valid email address to join the service, Kevin Xu and Jake Bryant started a Facebook group. “Groups” were also a relatively new feature on Facebook and few already saw the service as a platform with the potential for organically connecting a large mass of people.

This new group encouraged fellow high school students to troll their upcoming AP exams ― an end of the year exam that can count as college credit. Specifically Xu and Bryant wanted people to write “This is Sparta!” in the essay section of the test and then cross it out. This would exploit a rule saying graders are not allowed to take anything crossed out into account while scoring the test.

The idea spread like wildfire. As a high schooler in Virginia at the time, I can personally attest that it appeared everyone was talking about the prank and teachers had to address it.

These two had conquered the American zeitgeist ― or at least the imaginations of other college-bound high schoolers. 

Xu spoke with The Huffington Post about the origins of the group and how it affected his life. Teachers laughed at it. It may have helped him get into Stanford. Things turned out pretty well.

But perhaps most telling about the power of memes at that time and now is Xu’s answer to whether he actually enjoyed “300,” since he was so inspired by the phrase “This is Sparta!”

“Actually it’s pretty funny, I still haven’t watched the movie.”

Below is Xu’s response to a few questions sent over Facebook. His answers have been lightly condensed and edited.

The initial origin of the idea:

Kevin Xu: The idea spawned from this stupid rule that the proctor would always mention in the beginning of every AP test. The proctor would drone on and on with these arcane rules and one of them was, “Don’t scribble words out ― cross them out with a single line.”

I believe what happened was, I mentioned how I hated that stupid rule ― that graders could still see what I originally wrote. Then Jake mentioned I should write “This is Sparta!” and cross it out instead. I created a Facebook group to spread the idea afterward.

I also remember it spreading through my high school pretty fast, but then plateaued. It wasn’t until I invited a friend from a different high school, and he invited his high school, that the group’s membership started exploding.

The goal for the Facebook group and Kevin’s expectations:

KX: The goal was to get as many students to do this as possible to have a nice innocent laugh and to give the teachers a little chuckle during the summer as they graded the tests. My expectation was maybe a few hundred might do it, but never thought it would spread across the country (and the world!). 

Kevin’s reaction to the success of the group and whether he was worried it might affect his own AP scores:

KX: It felt awesome and was one of the first times I felt the true meaning of “virality.” This was still the early days of social media and having something go from no one knowing to thousands knowing showed me the power of making something and it actually impacting people’s lives thanks to the internet. Perhaps even kickstarted my career in building software on the internet.

Nah, was never worried about this affecting my AP scores.

Whether there were any positive or negative consequences to Kevin’s life:

KX: Many positives!

I wrote about it in one of my college application essays for Stanford and I like to believe that’s one of the reasons I got accepted

It definitely came up a lot in those freshman year introduction ice breakers so I made a bunch of friends through that. http://imgur.com/a/V10wW

Did Kevin and Jake actually follow through and write/cross-out “This is Sparta!” on any of their AP exams?  

KX: Yep, all of them.

Other stories:

KX: Scrolling back through the comments has been kind of funny. I’ve found four friends I met way later in life who commented back in 2008! The world is indeed very small. I decided to like their old posts to bring it back up in their notifications for a fun nostalgic surprise.

Hit Backspace for a regular dose of pop culture nostalgia.

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NFL player Michael Bennett said he was so inspired by Chance the Rapper’s $1 million donation Monday to Chicago Public Schools that he decided to make a difference in his own way.

Bennett, who plays defensive end for the Seattle Seahawks, released a statement Thursday that credits Chance for the work he is doing to uplift others. It also announces Bennett’s own pledge to support inner cities and help provide a better future for boys and girls across the country. 

“I was inspired by Chance the Rapper to ‘think bigger’ when he pledged one million dollars to Chicago kids and their school system,” Bennett said in a statement, according to ESPN. “So, I’ll be joining him by investing in the future of our youth. The system is failing our kids, and it will be up to the community and our leaders to help keep the hope alive by focusing on improving our education system and the future of our kids.”

“Any company that decides to invest in me, just know that you’ll be investing in opportunities and providing inspiration for these families ― many who feel unnoticed or go unmentioned,” he added.

Bennett, who also wrote an essay in support of the women’s strike on Wednesday, said he will be donating 50 percent of the proceeds from his jersey sales this year to programs and initiatives that promote healthy living in underserved communities. He also encouraged other athletes to join the cause. 

“I’m asking all professional athletes to join me by donating a portion of your endorsements this year to a cause of your choice,” Bennett said. “We can make a difference. It’s up to us to help plant seeds of hope and help fuel the future. Power to the people.”

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This post contains major plot spoilers for the film “Get Out.”

Allison Williams, while making the rounds for Jordan Peele’s psychological thriller “Get Out,” has been as tight-lipped about the film’s twists as one might expect. Williams plays Rose, the white girlfriend of main character Chris (Daniel Kaluuya) who invites him home to meet her family, where events take a dark turn.

But she hasn’t just been hiding the dramatic plot of the movie from the public.

“I’ve also been completely lying to my friends and family about the premise of the movie ― for almost two years now,” she told The Huffington Post during an appearance on the “Here to Make Friends” podcast. “When my friends asked me what it was about ― this is how I said it in press, too; I basically did press as Rose, which doesn’t help the suspicion that I might just actually be a psychopath in real life ― I basically said, I bring my black boyfriend home to meet my parents, I assume they’re going to be totally cool with it, and then when he gets there, things start to go weird, and then it quickly becomes us against the world, and I have to choose between my family and my boyfriend.”

“Literally people I’ve known for my entire life, I was like, this is the premise of the movie... and then they’d get out of the movie, and they’re like: ‘I have to talk to you for two reasons. One, our friendship is over. Two, I loved the movie.’”

As those who’ve seen “Get Out” realize, Williams’s spoiler-free summary leaves out a major turning point in the film: when Chris, and the audience, realize that Rose is in on her family’s malevolent scheme to lure young black men to their home, hypnotize and entrap them, and transplant white clients’ brains into their victims’ bodies. Her charming, “woke” persona has all been a pitch-perfect performance, carefully geared to specifically appeal to her thoughtful, artistic boyfriend’s needs. 

Williams told HuffPost that she’d already been sold on the script by the time Rose appeared on-screen for the first time. The opening scene follows LaKeith Stanfield as a young black man walking alone in a white suburb, a scene Williams pointed out is reminiscent of the shocking killing of Trayvon Martin in 2012. “After I read that scene, I was like, ‘I don’t really care who Rose is, I definitely want to be in this movie,’” she said. 

She, like many in the audience, was caught by surprise when she first encountered her character’s psychotic turn. “I was reading the script, and I was like, ‘Rose seems great! She seems totally fine,’” she admitted, laughing. “Then I got to the end and I was like, ‘Now I have to play her. This bitch is crazy.’”

“A lot of white people don’t see it coming,” Williams told HuffPost. “And then they try to talk themselves out of it. ‘Maybe she’s been hypnotized too.’”

Check out Allison Williams’ full interview with Here to Make Friends on the podcast ― the discussion of “Get Out,” which is spoiler-heavy, starts at about the 40-minute mark:

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Surprise, surprise: Many of President Donald Trump’s comments about women pair quite well with sexist vintage advertisements. 

A new project by Syrian artist Saint Hoax reimagines some of Trump’s thoughts about women as slogans on old print advertisements. The series, titled “Make America Misogynistic Again,” highlights how easy it would be to confuse the president’s thoughts about women with sexist commentary from more than half a century ago. 

Saint Hoax said he was initially doing research for a different project, when he stumbled upon vintage sexist advertisements and was inspired to create “Make America Misogynistic Again.” 

“I decided to match the visuals with sexist Trump quotes and show them to my friends without actually telling them where I got the quotes from,” he told The Huffington Post. “I told them that these were the actual advertisements that were published in the 1950s and ‘60s and they believed it. When I revealed the truth, they were in complete shock.” 

There should be a stark contrast between sexist ads from 70 ago and our current president’s comments, but there isn’t. Trump’s now-infamous remarks about grabbing women “by the pussy,” and how “you have to treat [women] like shit” pair alarmingly well with ads that depict a husband spanking his wife, or a woman as an actual rug with a man standing on top of her. 

“The way women are represented in the media has shifted drastically since these advertisements were initially published,” Saint Hoax said. “Sadly, Donald Trump is trying to take America back to the ‘Mad Men’ era. I’m hoping that these posters would make people realize that Trump’s ‘locker room talk’ is extremely dangerous.”  

Scroll below to see all of the prints from Saint Hoax’s “Make America Misogynistic Again.” 

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On Thursday, a group of anonymous artists and activists dressed as MTA maintenance workers made some subtle yet powerful adjustments to the “If You See Something, Say Something” advertisements in New York subways. 

New Yorkers will immediately recognize the MTA’s iconic, orange campaign posters, which feature photos of “regular New Yorkers” like Gregg T., Jo M. and Officer Chin alongside testimonials that recount their supposed paths to becoming everyday heroes by reporting suspicious behavior from fellow passengers. 

The new campaign posters appear almost identical to the originals, but look closer and the testimonials have been changed to reflect the pressing fears stoked by our current political climate. 

“I felt like a hero reporting what I saw,” Melissa C.’s quote reads. “But what scares me more than an unattended package is an unattended politician. We have to keep an eye on how our representatives vote and hold them accountable.”

“I’m glad I was reminded to report that suspicious bag,” Jo says in her snippet. “But I wonder, when my own president uses a willing media to perpetuate a constant state of fear, who are the real terrorists and who profits off my panic?” 

The five replacement ads also feature the hashtag #Resist, and a phone number connecting to the MTA safety line. 

“I have no problem with the [original] MTA campaign,” an anonymous artist behind the subway ad remix explained in an interview with Hyperallergic. “It’s smart and it’s responsible — it was a backpack that was involved in the Boston bombing, so we should be on the lookout for suspicious bags, and I didn’t want to take that away from the ads. But to me, a campaign that’s telling you to be vigilant, but just say something when the problem’s already in front of you, is kind of useless. Let’s try to get a little bit more upstream from the problem. Where is the root of this problem?”

An artist also told Gothamist that the public intervention was inspired by President Donald Trump’s November victory. In the past few months, minorities in New York have been subject to violence and intimidation, from racist graffiti to bomb threats to fatal shootings. “I’m just more sensitive to every kind of message around me now that’s coming from a government agency,” the artist said.

Because the fake ads are technically illegal, the artists involved have elected to remain anonymous, a Gothamist reporter told The Huffington Post. And, in an effort to keep the posters circulating as long as possible, they ask the public not to disclose which subway lines they are on. 

New Yorkers, on your next Subway commute, be vigilant. Both in terms of the safety of your fellow commuters and the potential for compelling activist art. 

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Allison Williams is a self-identifying “Bachelor” superfan. The “Get Out” and “Girls” star has followed the franchise for years, her entire family is on a “Bachelor”-related group text, and she even flew herself out to LA on short notice to appear on the official “Bachelor” after show last year.

But even the most dedicated of fans have their grievances with the show. So when Williams joined HuffPost’s Here To Make Friends podcast this week, she made her concerns known. 

Williams is distressed that there seems to be a lack of two items in “The Bachelor” mansion ― and perhaps the entire “Bachelor” world: water and tissues. 

“Is there no water anywhere in this house? Because it’s all anyone needs ― water,” said Williams. “Secondly, what is with the lack of tissues? I brought this up with Chris Harrison, [and] it thudded to the floor. He wouldn’t address it. I’ve had a suspicion for years that there are no tissues offered to [the contestants] ever, especially in the limos after they get cut.” 

Fair questions, especially because anyone who has watched “The Bachelor” knows that when contestants leave the show, they cry ― often a whole lot. And even the most delicate and restrained criers probably want a tissue eventually.

“Viola Davis is the only person alive who can elegantly cry all the tears while speaking without a tissue,” said Williams. “No one else can do that. They’re not actresses, they’re not professionals. They’re just people crying... If I were on that show, I’d use the bottom of my fuckin’ dress.” 

Chris Harrison et. al., are you taking note?

For more from Allison Williams and about “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.

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Actor Michael Ian Black once botched his order at a Subway restaurant by asking for a shade too much mustard. On Wednesday’s broadcast of the “Late Show With Stephen Colbert,” he used the clearly still painful experience story to explain why Donald Trump won the 2016 presidential election.

He makes a valid point.

Check out the full segment above.

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This speech to Congress was all good baby baby.

Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) used the House floor to pay tribute to New York rapper The Notorious B.I.G. on the 20th anniversary of his death Thursday.

The congressman began by reciting lyrics from his 1994 hit “Juicy,” before declaring how the words of the star, born Christopher Wallace and also known as Biggie Smalls, would “live on forever.”

“I’ve got the privilege of representing the district where Biggie Smalls was raised,” Jeffries said. “We know he went from negative to positive and emerged as one of the world’s most important hip hop stars.”

He described the rapper’s “rags-to-riches life story” as “the classic embodiment of the American dream.”

“Biggie Smalls is gone but he will never be forgotten,” Jeffries added. “Rest in peace, Notorious B.I.G. Where Brooklyn at?”

Wallace was just 24 years old when he was gunned down and killed in a drive-by shooting in Los Angeles on Mar. 9, 1997. The murder remains unsolved.

Watch Jeffries’ full speech in the clip above and see the music video for “Juicy” below:

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While we wait for the inevitable live-action “Little Mermaid” remake from Disney ― hopefully starring Lindsay Lohan ― several mermaid flicks set for release over the next couple of years will have to tide us over.

First up is an indie film led by Shirley MacLaine, Poppy Drayton (”Downton Abbey”) and William Moseley (”The Chronicles of Narnia”), which dropped a trailer this week. According to Deadline, it’s set for release this year.

Confusingly, it shares a title, “The Little Mermaid,” with the animated classic. But this version offers a twist on both the Disney fairy tale and its Hans Christian Andersen source material: A reporter (Moseley) and his little sister travel to a small Mississippi town to find the real “little mermaid,” who seems to have secured a gig in a circus act. 

Extra confusingly, it’s not the only “The Little Mermaid” film in the works. Universal studios has its own version, with a “Stranger Things” director, Rebecca Thomas, at the helm. That project is evidently still nailing down stars ― Chloë Grace Moretz dropped out last year ― and has no release date set.

There’s also “The Lure,” a horror-musical adaption of the fairy tale set in Poland (and with English subtitles), already out in a limited release. And finally ― or so we think ― Channing Tatum will take on the mermaid role played by Daryl Hannah in 1984’s “Splash” for the upcoming remake planned by Disney.

Oh, you like mermaids? Hollywood is going to give you some mermaids.

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A brunette Buffy Summers walks the halls of Berryman High School on her first day, befriends a very different Willow, and still kicks ass, if only for 25 minutes. Into every generation a slayer is born, but before we knew her as our chosen one ― or as a member of the Scooby Gang, for that matter ― there was another version of the slayer running around staking bad guys in between classes and nights out at The Bronze.

Friday marks the 20th anniversary of the “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” premiere. As fans celebrate the series’ lasting cultural impact — a slew of official anniversary merchandise was released last week ― let us revisit the show’s humble and admittedly cheesy beginnings. In order to understand why Buffy captivated a generation and transformed teen storytelling on TV as we know it, it’s time to reclaim the series’ own origin story as an essential part of its legacy. Brace yourselves, “Buffy” purists. We’re talking about the unaired and much-derided pilot, because if you can’t love Buffy at her worst, you certainly don’t deserve her at her best. 

Before “Buffy” came into being, creator Joss Whedon and company shopped the series around to networks in hopes that a vampire slayer might feel more at home on television than she did in the movies. A film version starring Kristy Swanson as the titular cheerleader-turned-demon-hunter hit theaters in 1992 and promptly left with little fanfare. Years later, Gail Berman, who owned the rights to the feature, made it her mission to breathe new life into the concept with the help of Whedon by pitching the project as a TV show. After NBC and Fox passed, the motley crew of writers and producers arrived at the fledging WB network, which ordered a pilot presentation then and there. And so, the unaired pilot was born. 

It’s not unusual for a series to put together a presentation before filming a pilot ― all it takes is a Google search to find unaired episodes of “The Big Bang Theory” and “30 Rock”  ― but rarely is one bootlegged and circulated so heavily in fan communities. A quick glance at comments on the many copies that found a second life on YouTube reveals just how strongly Whedonites feel about “Buffy” 1.0. In between those bowled over by the gloriously ‘90s fashions, you’ll find just as many people criticizing the production value, casting choices and everyone’s early acting abilities. Most express a sheer disbelief that the presentation ever convinced a network to make a full series order. 

Even the patron saint of Buffydom himself legitimized the narrative that this early iteration was to be considered more ugly cousin than canon. In a 2003 interview with IGN, Whedon declared that the pilot would never see the light of day “while there is strength in these bones” and insisted that despite the archival and historical value, it still “sucks on ass.” 

Rough around the edges? Yes. But the unaired presentation is hardly deserving of the fan vitriol or complete denouncement by its creator. Running about half as long as the pilot, “Welcome to the Hellmouth,” the presentation opens in an almost identical fashion, with Whedon’s trademark subversion of the pretty blonde as the instant victim. Dressed in a schoolgirl outfit, Darla (Julie Benz), a 400-year-old vampire who would go on to appear throughout the series, lures an unsuspecting boy into the high school at night to feast. 

What follows is a condensed and slightly more cutesy version of the series’ first entry that still manages to capture what made “Buffy” great, albeit with some noticeable changes. The first wrinkle in this alternate universe is the name of the iconic Hellmouth-covering Sunnydale High, which goes by Berryman High. Not-long-for-this-world Principal Flutie, played by Stephen Tobolowsky in this version, is the next. He briefs Buffy (Sarah Michelle Gellar) — or “Bunny,” as he calls her — on school rules, like not hanging from the cafeteria rafters screaming “Meat is murder” on Sloppy Joe Day. The scene was one of a handful that never made it to air. 

Due to the shortened runtime, the unaired pilot also has no mention of The Master, the ancient vampire who served as the season’s big bad, or Angel, Buffy’s doomed love interest throughout the series. Locations like the library, which is much more spacious than the one in the series, are also changed, as is the setting of the final fight scene, which is switched from the school’s auditorium to the graveyard at night. 

A name change here and the recasting of a minor character there were easy enough to swallow for most diehards, but fans drew the line at another actress besides Alyson Hannigan playing Willow Rosenberg. In the unaired pilot, actress Riff Regan is the geek girl destined to become an all-powerful witch until she was recast for reasons Whedon has never revealed. Admittedly, Regan’s appearance is jarring at first, as Hannigan was the lifeblood of the series as it aged, at points becoming more popular among fans than Buffy herself. Here, Regan fails where Hannigan succeeds at immediately capturing the character’s quirkiness and supreme intelligence, although criticism of her performance is overblown. 

There’s no argument to be made that the final product is superior. However, there’s something to be said about the strength in the unaired pilot’s bones. Despite the production value and the low-budget vampire “dusting” effects, the potential for greatness is just as clear as it was in the original pilot. Whedon’s dialogue, no matter how self-indulgent or unpolished in its early stages, is still distinctively his own. Buffy is the sarcastic heroine we know and love, striving to be a normal teenager in a supernatural world. Xander (Nicholas Brendon), whose character across the two pilots is perhaps the most consistent, remains perpetually friend-zoned and just as relatable. And as for Cordelia (Charisma Carpenter)? Well, she still steals every scene with deliciously bitchy lines like, “I see you’ve found the softer side of Sears.”

After seven seasons of ass-kicking, looking back at the 25-minute dress rehearsal reminds us why “Buffy” is so special after all of these years: it still stood for something. Even at its most elemental level, the show succeeds as a commentary on the horrors of high school, using its supernatural elements to explore the shared fears over rejection and being accepted. Had it not been for the experimentation in the unaired pilot, these ideas might have never been finessed in later episodes, as the series found its footing toward the end of the first season. 

Genre television shows tend to get better with time, as opening episodes are overburdened with character exposition and world building. Even the “Buffy” pilot that made it to air is a far cry from the series strongest entries in the second and third seasons. For a fandom that prides itself on embracing expansions of the “Buffy” universe in the form of comic books, video games and even spinoffs, bringing the unaired pilot back into the fold as #BuffySlays20 is long overdue. So as you celebrate the series’ 20th anniversary watch the unaired pilot, laugh at the goofy special effects, praise the gods and goddesses for recasting Willow, but remember why you fell in love with Buffy in the first place. 

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Thomas Tulak was just 6 years old when he started working as one of Neverland’s Lost Boys in “Hook,” Steven Spielberg’s 1991 adventure flick starring Robin Williams as Peter Pan and Julia Roberts as Tinkerbell. It’s not like the job was dull. 

The now 32-year-old filmmaker recalled filming in an Ask Me Anything Q&A on Reddit Thursday ― including one instance where Williams pulled a prank on Spielberg in front of a large audience of kids and extras. It all went down during the pirate ship battle scene, as the director attempted to catch everyone’s attention through a loudspeaker.

“He’s just about got every one calmed down and starts to give instructions, when Robin climbs to the top of the pirate ship, behind Steven, and moons everyone!” Tulak wrote, adding, “Needless to say, Steven lost control of the situation.”

Being a similar age to Williams’ son Zachary Pym, Tulak said the actor liked hanging out with him quite a bit off-set. He came to see Williams as a father figure.

“He would regularly come knock on my trailer door, and ask my mother if I could come out to play,” Tulak said, “and we would hang out and run around and play ball or whatever ... just hanging out with him off-set was the greatest.”

Tulak, who is currently working on a web series and may make an appearance in the planned Rufio origin film, shared some other tidbits from the set.

Apparently, the food fight scene was great fun ― but took three days and lots of cold-water showers to film. (”I don’t know how many times I waited in line, covered in Never Food, to take a cold shower, and come out squeaky clean.”) The food itself was mostly colored whipped cream. And although most of the kids’ weaponry was, understandably, made of rubber, Rufio’s sword was real.

Tulak said news of the actor’s death in 2014 was difficult, remembering him as “a big kid” with “not a shred of ego.” Williams died after a reported struggle with Lewy body dementia, a brain disease.

”Robin was dedicated to making every one around him happy. And he did so in spectacular fashion,” Tulak wrote. “He gave and gave of himself.”

Hit Backspace for a regular dose of pop culture nostalgia.

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