Donald Trump
learned that even he isn’t above copyright issues as Nickelback slapped a
complaint on his using one of their music videos as a hit on former vice
president Joe Biden. Both Twitter and YouTube have now removed the edited music
video clip.
Both a Twitter post and a YouTube upload were blocked because of copyright complaints. The video featured a doctored version of the band’s 2005 music video “Photograph,” showing singer Chad Kroeger holding a photo of Biden, his son, a Ukrainian gas executive, and another man.
Donald Trump, Chad Kroeger, Joe Biden
Trump’s tweet came as the
president has repeatedly criticized Democrats for launching an impeachment
inquiry into his July telephone call with Ukraine’s president in which Trump
pressed for an investigation of his Democratic rival Biden and his son.
A Twitter spokeswoman said
Thursday the company responded “to valid copyright complaints sent to us by a
copyright owner or their authorized representatives.”
After Twitter acted, the
White House uploaded the same video to YouTube on Thursday morning, suggesting
it had produced the digital attack on Biden. By Thursday afternoon the YouTube
post was blocked.
Nickelback representatives
have not returned messages seeking comment.
WWE is ready to lace up
its boots for a prime-time move from USA Network to Fox, where the sports
entertainment behemoth will nestle in a loaded lineup that includes the NFL,
Major League Baseball and NASCAR.
Wrestlers, start your
smackdowns!
“The Man” Becky Lynch,
Roman Reigns, Kevin Owens and some of WWE’s former greats will be in the ring
when ” Friday Night Smackdown ”
debuts Friday night. It marks the start of a billion-dollar,
five-year deal on Fox for the wrestling company’s first live,
weekly show on a big four broadcast TV network since Buddy Rogers was crowned
the first champ in 1963. The rights money and ratings expectations raise the
pressure to produce a hit show for chairman Vince McMahon’s global wrestling
company.
Unlike the action in the
ring, WWE isn’t pulling any punches to launch the show in an A-list way: Dwayne
“The Rock” Johnson is set to step away from the movie set and step back into
WWE for an unspecified role on the debut.
“FINALLY…I come back
home to my (at)WWE universe,” Johnson tweeted .
“This FRIDAY NIGHT, I’ll return for our debut of SMACKDOWN! LIVE on (at)FOXTV.
There’s no greater title than (hash)thepeopleschamp.”
Johnson sparked the show’s
title nearly 20 years ago when he was still a wrestler and vowed to “lay the
smack down” on anyone who got in his way. The WWE had already had success with
“Raw” for six years on the USA Network when “Smackdown” made its debut in
August 1999 on UPN.
The show has bounced
around nights, cable networks (yes, even a stint on the SyFy channel) and
modified its name several times over the last 20 years. It spent the last three
years as “Smackdown Live” on the USA Network. Fox has blown out its new
acquisition and placed WWE stars all
over the network to promote the show.
“It has the potential to
rejuvenate Friday nights,” Fox Sports President Eric Shanks said.
“Smackdown” airs live from
Staples Center and the company is set to welcome back some of the biggest names
in wrestling history. Hulk Hogan, Ric Flair, Goldberg and Sting will be in the
house. Brock Lesnar will wrestle on “Smackdown” for the first time since he
returned from his UFC stint in 2012. He takes on WWE champion Kofi Kingston in
a rematch of their “Beast
in the East” bout from 2015. Lesnar needed just 2 minutes, 36
seconds to top Kingston.
“I think the opportunity
to go to a broadcast platform with partners like Fox that not only want to take
what you do and embrace it, but help you to make it something more, increases
the value,” WWE executive and performer Paul “Triple H” Levesque. “You’ll see
changes right away.”
The big change includes
getting its own weekly studio show ,
“WWE Backstage.” The show is hosted by Renee Young and Booker T and premieres
Nov. 5.
WWE was once a ratings machine,
churning out millions ( and millions!) of
viewers each episode and the stars and their catchphrases became part of the
trash-talking lexicon. While live TV and hours of content each week make the
company attractive to TV networks, WWE struggled to produce a new wave of big
stars and exciting storylines of late, which saw ratings dip seemingly by the
week.
When the Sept. 27, 2010,
edition of “Raw” drew 3.8 million viewers, the wrestling website PWInsider.com
asked, ” is it time for Vince to
panic yet ?” But when Monday’s show hit 2.57
million viewers , that number needed the star power returns of
Hogan and Flair to captain teams for an upcoming WWE Network event to even hit
that seven-week high.
“I think any show that has
been on the air as long as ‘Raw’ and ‘Smackdown’ have, you’re going to have
moments in time where things ebb and flow,” Levesque said. “When you look back
over it, you hope that as you look back 10 years from now, you go, ‘oh, there
was a little dip there but it wasn’t for long and they corrected course and got
right.’”
“Smackdown” should receive
a natural ratings jump from moving to network TV and a potential shift in the
way Nielsen counts viewers. Fox has publicly been nonplussed about the
shrinking viewership (“Raw” remains on USA ).
“They haven’t had the
programming and awareness that they will have on Fox,” Shanks said. “We’re
hoping it will grow after the anniversary show.”
WWE has leaned on past
greats such as Hogan and “Stone Cold” Steve Austin much more lately, perhaps to
get the lapsed fan. “Raw” and “Smackdown” are expected to have their own
distinct rosters.
“You want to put on
something for everybody,” Levesque said. “You want to put out stars that people
remember, that people are engaged with right now. You want to put something of,
this guy’s going to be a star in a year or two.”
WWE moved its NXT brand
off its own streaming network to USA Network on Wednesday where it goes
head-to-head with upstart promotion All Elite Wrestling’s new “Dynamite” show. WWE still
has three hours of “Raw,” two hours of NXT and two hours of “Smackdown” each
week to go with the 24/7 content of WWE Network and a monthly Sunday PPV that
stretches three or four hours. The time commitment can wear out even the most
diehard fan’s attention span.
“Nobody does live events
and sports spectacles like Fox does,” Levesque said, “with the exception maybe
of WWE. It’s the perfect partnership. This is a great time for us.”
Having James Franco’s associated with an acting school was enough to drive many women there with the hope of honing their skills, possibly furthering their careers while also being trained by the film and tv star. Their dreams quickly soured as the women stated that Franco and his business partners allegedly subjected them into sexually exploitative auditions and film shoots. They were also promised roles in movies that never came to fruition or were ever released.
Two of these
hopeful actresses sued James Franco and the acting and film school he founded
Thursday. They allege the famous actor intimidated his students into gratuitous
and exploitative sexual situations far beyond those acceptable on Hollywood
film sets. The program is now defunct.
Sarah Tither-Kaplan and
Toni Gaal, former students at the actor’s now-closed Studio 4, said in the
lawsuit filed in Los Angeles Superior Court that Franco pushed his students
into performing in increasingly explicit sex scenes on camera in an “orgy type
setting.”
Franco “sought to create a
pipeline of young women who were subjected to his personal and professional
sexual exploitation in the name of education,” the suit alleges.
The women say students
were led to believe roles in Franco’s films would be available to those who
went along.
The situations described
in the suit arose during a master class in sex scenes that Franco taught at the
school, which he opened in 2014 and closed in 2017.
In 2014, Mr. Franco, a star of the
HBO series “The Deuce” and films including “127 Hours” and “The Disaster
Artist,” opened a film and acting school called Studio 4. He owned the school,
which had branches in Los Angeles and New York, with a business partner, Vince
Jolivette. Mr. Franco and Mr. Jolivette are named as defendants in the lawsuit,
as is their Rabbit Bandini production company and its general manager, Jay
Davis.
The lawsuit, which also
names Franco’s production company Rabbit Bandini and his partners as
defendants, includes allegations Tither-Kaplan made publicly last year after
Franco won a Golden Globe Award for “The Disaster Artist.”
Gaal is speaking out for
the first time.
Ms. Tither-Kaplan and Ms. Gaal joined the Los Angeles branch of the Studio 4 school in 2014, where they each paid monthly tuitions of about $300. They said they and other students were promised opportunities to audition for independent films that Franco directed and produced — auditions that were supposed to be exclusive to Studio 4 students, but which they said were open to other actors as well. The women said the school also offered additional masterclasses, which could cost as much as $2,000 each, including a $750 master class for sex scenes. According to the lawsuit, prospective students for the sex scenes class had to audition on videotape — so that Franco could later review the material, they were told — and sign away their rights to these recordings.
In auditions and classes, the women said they were
encouraged to push beyond their comfort zones while they were denied the
protections of nudity riders and other film-industry guidelines that govern how
actors can be portrayed and treated in nude scenes. Their lawsuit says the class
preyed upon “often young and inexperienced females” who “were routinely
pressured to engage in simulated sex acts that went far beyond the standards in
the industry.”
Ms. Gaal said she recorded an audition for the sex
scenes master class and participated in a callback, but was ultimately not
accepted into the class after she voiced her unease about how it was being run.
Ms. Tither-Kaplan said she went on to take the class,
which provided a stepping stone to roles in Mr. Franco’s independent
films, some of which remain unreleased. In these roles, Ms. Tither-Kaplan said,
she was often asked to appear in nude scenes or sex scenes. During the making
of an orgy scene for one of his films, Mr. Franco removed plastic guards that
covered other actresses’ vaginas while he simulated oral sex on them,
according to the lawsuit.
The
Studio 4 school was closed in the fall of 2017. The lawsuit
seeks monetary damages and the return or destruction of any video
recordings of former Studio 4 class members, as well as class-action status so
other women who may have similar experiences can join.Mr.
Franco has previously faced questions about his treatment of women in his work and in his personal
life. In 2014, messages that he had exchanged over Instagram
with a 17-year-old girl were shared online, and Mr. Franco acknowledged
that he had tried to pick up the girl.
In 2018, The Los Angeles Times published a report in which
several women, including Ms. Tither-Kaplan, detailed what they said was Mr.
Franco’s pattern of inappropriate and abusive sexual behavior.
That year, at the awards ceremony for the Golden
Globes, Mr. Franco wore a pin expressing his support for Time’s Up, a movement
started by prominent figures in the entertainment industry to combat sexual
misconduct. At the time, he was roundly criticized on social media by Ms. Tither-Kaplan and other viewers who noticed
this.
In other appearances at awards shows and on talk shows, Mr. Franco said that he supported the rights of women to call attention to acts of sexual misconduct while contending that his own accusers had made inaccurate claims about him.
In an
interview on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” last year, Franco called the
sexual misconduct stories about him inaccurate, but said, “If I’ve done
something wrong, I will fix it. I have to.”
A publicist and an
attorney for the 41-year-old actor did not immediately respond to emails
seeking comment Thursday.
The lawsuit alleges that
to take Franco’s master class, students had to audition by simulating sex acts
on film, which he watched to choose candidates.
It says the class began
with “encouraging female student actors to appear topless, then perform in sex
scenes, then orgies and gratuitous full nudity,” without the careful guidelines
and closed sets that are the industry standard for shooting sex scenes.
The suit alleges that Gaal
was kept out of the master class for questioning its exploitative nature.
Tither-Kaplan took the
class and was subsequently cast in Rabbit Bandini films, “which she now
recognizes was a direct result of her willingness to accept Franco’s
exploitative behavior without complaint.”
The lawsuit seeks damages
to be determined at trial, an apology from Franco and his partners, and the
handover or destruction of video of the plaintiffs.
Attorneys for the women
are looking for more plaintiffs to join, and for it to become a class action.
Tither-Kaplan previously
recounted her experiences with Franco and the school as one of five women who
talked to the Los Angeles Times about him early in 2018.
She was also among the
women who spoke out against Franco on Twitter when he won his Golden Globe in
January 2018 at a time when the #MeToo movement was surging.
Tither-Kaplan later told
the LA Times that the Time’s Up anti-sexual harassment lapel pin Franco wore to
the ceremony felt like “a slap in my face.”
The organization behind
the pin, Time’s Up Now, said in a statement Thursday that “If these allegations
are true, we hope the survivors, and all impacted by this behavior, receive
some measure of justice.”
Ms. Tither-Kaplan said in an interview that she has not been in contact with Franco for nearly two years, and she felt she had seen no effort from the actor to live up to these promises.“I can’t sleep at night knowing that my coming forward, originally, did not do the work that I wanted it to do yet,” she said. “There still has been no action, publicly, that shows me that these people know what they did is wrong and harmful and can’t be repeated.”
Ms. Gaal, who did not know Ms. Tither-Kaplan during
her time at Studio 4, said her own experiences had left her with a
wariness about the entertainment industry.
“You
have faith in these people, in their credibility and you trust that won’t be
taken advantage of,” she said in an interview. “It’s alarming that you
definitely can get manipulated because you’re vulnerable.”
Since the allegations first emerged, Franco has made very few public appearances, but work has not seemed to slow down for him on the big or small screen.
The HBO series “The
Deuce,” which he executive produces and stars in, began its third and final
season on Sept. 9.
Franco also appeared last
year in the Coen brothers’ acclaimed Western anthology “The Ballad of Buster
Scruggs,” which was nominated for three Oscars.
And this weekend he will
have two films that he directed and stars in playing in theaters: “Zeroville,”
an adaptation of Steve Erickson’s 2007 novel that was filmed in 2014 but faced
delays in distribution, as well as “Pretenders,” with Brian Cox and Dennis
Quaid.
“Zeroville,” which co-stars Seth Rogen, Megan Fox, and Will Ferrell, is already a box office bomb and critical dud. This past weekend it played on 80 screens and made an average of $111 per screen. And “Pretenders,” which opens in limited release Friday, is not faring much better with critics.
A federal appeals court made it so that state and local governments can bar internet providers from favoring some services over others. That same court also affirmed the Federal Communications Commission’s right to dump national rules.
What exactly does this mean?
The court basically said that the FCC overstepped by not allowing state and local governments to write their own rules regarding net neutrality. It’s a mixed ruling that will keep the debate going on, especially in state capitals.
The agency voted to throw out the
rules in a 3-to-2 party-line vote in 2017, reversing a decision made during the
Obama administration. The rules had prohibited broadband internet providers
like Comcast and AT&T from blocking websites or charging for higher-quality
service or certain content.
The appeals court upheld the
F.C.C.’s decision to no longer regulate high-speed internet delivery as if it
were a utility, or a “common carrier,” like phone service.
Tuesday’s appeals court ruling is the latest development to shine a light on states’ lead on tech policy. California has enacted a strict data privacy law to protect users on services run by Facebook, Google, and Amazon, for example, while Congress is still debating a national privacy law.
And it’s California that passed the strongest net
neutrality law in the wake of the FCC’s 2017 repeal of federal rules approved
during the Obama administration.
While the appeals court
ruling handed Trump-appointed regulators a partial victory in affirming the FCC
repeal, consumer advocates and other groups viewed the ruling as a victory for
states and local governments seeking to put in their own net neutrality rules.
The California law had
been put on hold until Tuesday’s decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the
District of Columbia Circuit.
“The pathway has been
cleared,” said Ryan Singel, a fellow at the Center for Internet and Society at
Stanford Law School. “They can still be challenged, but that challenge just
became easier for them to win.”
But it’s not a slam-dunk,
said Daniel Lyons, a professor at Boston College Law School. State laws will
now be taken up on a case-by-case basis to see if they conflict with federal
policy. Lyons said he anticipates most of the state efforts will fail.
Net neutrality has evolved
from a technical concept to a politically charged issue, the focus of street and
online protests and a campaign issue lobbed against Republicans and the Trump
administration.
The FCC’s 2015 net neutrality rules had barred internet
providers such as AT&T, Comcast and Verizon from blocking, slowing down or
charging internet companies to favor some sites or apps over others.
After the FCC repealed the rules, phone and cable
companies were permitted to slow down or block services they don’t like or
happen to compete with. Companies could also charge rivals higher fees and make
them pay for higher transmission speeds. All companies had to do was disclose
such practices.
Meddling with internet
traffic has happened before. In 2007, for example, media outlets found that
Comcast was blocking or slowing down some file-sharing. And AT& T blocked
Skype and other internet calling services on the iPhone until 2009.
Tech companies and 22 states challenged the FCC repeal in court. They included Mozilla, developer of the Firefox web browser, and Vimeo, a video-sharing site. Aligned with the government were big internet providers including AT&T, Verizon, and Comcast.
The court
decision could also complicate the suit challenging the legitimacy of the
repeal.
Amy Keating, the chief legal officer at the internet company Mozilla, a central player in the suit, said in a statement that her company was “considering our next steps in the litigation.”In its lawsuit, Mozilla argued that the F.C.C. had violated the law and acted rashly in upending its 2015 rules. Some tech industry groups, including those representing companies like Google, Facebook, and Amazon, supported Mozilla’s suit.
The other issue the appeal court raised
with the F.C.C. is how the agency handled subsidies for broadband to low-income
consumers. The court said the F.C.C. must reassess how its repeal changed the
government’s ability to offer those subsidies through a program called Lifeline.
The agency expanded the program to cover internet service in
addition to phone connections during the Obama administration.
“Today’s decision is a
victory for consumers, broadband deployment, and the free and open internet,”
FCC Chairman Ajit Pai said in a statement. He maintained that speeds for
consumers have increased by 40% since the agency’s 2017 repeal “and millions
more Americans have gained access to the internet.”
The federal court directed
the FCC to rework its order to include the impact of its repeal on public
safety, utility pole access and Lifeline, a program that provides internet
access to low-income consumers.
Last year, Verizon was
criticized for slowing down firefighters’ internet service while they battled
what became the largest wildfire on record in California. Verizon responded by
promising to lift restrictions on public safety customers and provide full
network access when other disasters arise.
Pai said the agency will
address the “narrow issues” cited by the court.
The FCC has long mulled
over how to enforce net neutrality. The agency had twice lost in court over net
neutrality standards before a Democrat-led commission in 2015 made internet
service a utility, bringing phone and cable companies under stricter oversight.
An appeals court sanctioned the 2015 rules.
After the 2016 election,
net neutrality became one of President Donald Trump’s first targets as part of
broader government deregulation. Pai, the more industry-friendly FCC chairman
he appointed, made rolling back net neutrality a top priority. He repealed the
rules in 2017, saying they had undermined investment in broadband networks.
Local SEO can be challenging to rank for, especially as more and more people begin to rely on voice search. With Google Home smart speakers as well as Alexa, the tone of the content is becoming more conversational. With this in mind, you can begin to target local keywords in a way that benefits you and your business when it comes to an increase in ranking position as well as footfall to your store. Here at Absolute Digital Media, we will be giving you insight into everything you need to know about ranking well for local SEO.
Optimize Google My Business
When looking to rank for local SEO it is crucial that you create a Google My Business Profile and optimize it. This allows for a fully optimized SEO strategy allowing for people in the local area to reach your offline store through Google Maps. With a number of images as well as a phone number, customer reviews and opening times, you can direct traffic to your website as well as social media profiles.
Create A Mobile-Friendly Website
In
addition to a Google My Business Profile, it is important to create a mobile-friendly
website for users to make the most of. By creating an interface that is
accessible as well as easy to use on a mobile or tablet, this will help you to
rank for local SEO as you will appear higher in the “near me “search
terms. This is crucial to the success of
local SEO as this search is mostly conducted on mobile devices as it overtook
desktop search in 2016. A mobile site should be as reliable as the desktop site
with the same information to provide users with the perfect experience.
Optimize For Local Key Words
Local keywords, otherwise known as “near me” keywords are important when looking to rank for local SEO. It is important to target keywords such as this as it will help you to appear on Google Maps when looking for a specific shop or restaurant. This will help to direct traffic online as well as increase the footfall to your business. Having these keywords featured in titles, as well as in content will help to fully optimize your website and boost the ranking of your website in Google SERP results to be above competitors.
Collect Online Reviews
Collecting reviews on a Google My Business or Yelp review page will help to boost your Google SERP ranking as engagement is a key factor. This will help to rank you above your competitors as you begin to work towards a five-star rating. The more optimized the content is and the better the reviews the higher your business will rank. It is important to be responsive to online queries as well as be on top of any negative reviews as this can affect your ranking in the long term. By resolving these and being responsive as a business owner, you can prevent your business from suffering.
With
this in mind, there are a number of ways that your business can rank for local
SEO terms with just a few simple changes. This is crucial to the success of
your business as this can not only increase footfall to your physical store,
but it can lead to your business ranking above its competitors helping to drive
brand awareness over the course of the campaign.
Most
recently, she became the first Canadian woman to win the Canadian Open Singles
since Faye Urban did it way back in 1969.
Since then she’s beaten Wozniacki, Townsend, Mertens, Bencic, and Serena Williams. She’s currently the 2019 WTA Prize Money leader, and guess what, she’s just getting started.
Bianca Andreescu is a massive -500 favorite in here round of 64 match against Aliaksandra Sasnovich at top sportsbooks around the world. The Belarussian had some success at the US Open, getting three match victories in the doubles tournament with her partner, Viktoria Kuzmova. That said, she has yet to make a name for herself in the singles category but will have the opportunity to do so if she could pull off a win over the No. 5 Bianca Andreescu on Monday.
The winner on Monday will face the victor of the Petra Martic vs, Elise Mertens. Petra Martic opened as a slight favorite, -125 but the odds have since slipped to evens at -110 a piece. The Yugoslavian is ranked No. 22, while the Belgian (Mertens) is No. 24. Momentum is key here. Petra has won three of her last 4 matches but is coming off a loss to Ashleigh Barty at the Wuhan Tennis Open. Meanwhile, Elise has split her last four, 2-2 and is also coming off a loss, but to Sofia Kenin.
Elise Mertens
Elise
Mertens faced Bianca back on September 4th and managed to steal the first set.
But ended up losing 6-2 & 6-3 in the following two to lose the match. Petra
has never faced Bianca Andreescu, so it will be an interesting match to watch.
Petra
does have much more experience than Bianca with 12 years on tour compared to
Bianca’s 3. And I have a feeling that it will be this match that we see. Petra
has taken some tough losses but keeps finding herself in high-stakes positions,
such as the Zhenzhou Finals against the World No. 2, Pliskova.
Karolina Pliskova
Karolina
Pliskova had lost four out of five of her previous matches with Petra Martic,
so Petra is not unaccustomed to playing – and beating– top-ranked foes. Once Bianca gets through
either Petra Martic or Elise Mertens, She’ll have to face the bracket winners
between Jennifer Brady vs. Amanda Anisimova and Madison Keys (World No. 11) and
Karolina Muchova.
Madison Keys
Madison
Keys has been a perennial power in the top-25 so it is likely that she’ll meet
Bianca in the next bracket. The two North Americans have never met on the court
in singles play, and it should provide for an intense set of games.
Those
are the next steps for Bianca Andreescu. But how far can she go? Pliskova is
already out of the way, losing in her round of 64 match, but Bianca has to get
past Keys. Elina Svitolina is still in action and so is Kiki Bertens, No.3,
Ashleigh Barty, No. 1, Belinda Bencic, No. 9, Simona Halep, No. 6, Naomi Osaka,
No. 4, and Angelique Kerber, No. 10. So there is a lot of tough competition in
China. Andreescu will have to take it one round and one step at a time.
Since the US Supreme Court chose to make sports betting legal in May 2018, it is something that many US players have got involved with. With more and more states deciding to make it legal, lots of US sports fans can legally place a wager now. The Bet MGM online casino in New Jersey is a case in point – if you do decide to play here, remember to get the best BetMGM bonus code to use beforehand.
When it comes to betting on sports, data and analysis is king. Being able to access the latest stats and player data is crucial to confidently predict the outcome of any game or market you bet on. This will not only see you win more bets over time but also see you win more money!
Of course,
in our modern age, smartphone apps play a key role here. The problem for busy
gamblers though is that there are so many to choose from! If you need a quick
rundown of the best sports analysis apps to use, then the below should help.
ESPN
Available
for free on iOS and Android, the ESPN app is definitely worth having. The major
benefit here is that it is constantly being updated, so all the news and stats
on it are current. It also has analysis and news for a huge range of sports,
which is great if you are betting outside of the big four. With breaking team
news and professional analysis given by experts on any given sport, it is a
real treasure trove of information for bettors. When you put all this together,
it makes for a valuable analysis app that any sports bettor should have.
CBS Sports
Another free analysis app from a huge name in the US is this one from CBS. Available on both Android and iOS, it offers in-depth news and comment on a vast range of sports. From golf to football, basketball and beyond, you are sure to find the information you need to formulate bets with here. A neat touch with this app is the live streaming of certain big events in sports. This allows you to engage with in-play betting by watching what is happening before putting your money down. There is also the CBS Sports Radio channel to listen to for even more comment, expert analysis and news.
The Score
When it
comes to free sports apps that give you all the stats needed for betting, this
is one worth getting. It offers a great level of detail and is one for those
who love to really dig into the numbers before placing their bet on sports such
as baseball. An innovative touch with
this app is the social feature that enables you to share key data or stories
with friends. The games reports are pleasingly detailed, while the handy
calendar feature makes it easy to keep up with the schedule in your chosen
sport. For those who like to bet on individual players in games, there is also
the option to follow certain players and receive updates every time a new story
or piece of gossip comes out about them.
Bleacher Report
As with all
the other apps here, this one is totally free and works on both iOS and
Android. This sports app stands out as it takes a much more focused approach
than the others. Rather than offering general news and analysis in a range of
sports, it allows you to laser in on certain teams in certain sports to really
get to know them. This is great for successful betting as it gives you much
more knowledge of the team when betting on them. Easy to use and full of cool
analysis, it is an app that offers something different.
Check out the coolest sports analysis apps today
If you are interested in sports betting and making some money off the teams you follow, then you would not be alone. This is not only massively popular globally but is also becoming a big sector within the US now. Before you start to put any money down though, make sure that you check out some of the above sports analysis apps. They could not only help make your betting more profitable but will also cost you nothing to download either.
Sunday night’s 2019 Emmys on Fox might have been its lowest-rated ever, but that didn’t stop the memorable moments from happening. Trying to follow in the Oscars stead of going hostless, the awards show decline continues with a 5.7 rating and a 10 share in the overnight market ratings. This brings it down 23 percent from last year’s Monday night show on NBC and 30 percent lower than the 2017 Sunday night edition on CBS.
Some of the
biggest snubs landed for Julia Louis-Dreyfuss’ “Veep,” Ava DuVernay, “Schitt’s
Creek” while surprises came for “Killing Eve’s” Jodie Comer (who beat her
co-star Sandra Oh), “Fleabag’s” Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Jharrel Jerome, Julia
Garner, Jason Bateman and “Succession’s” Jesse Armstrong.
“Game of
Thrones” Iron Throne rose again to dominate Sunday’s Emmy ceremony, ruling as
top drama on a night of surprises in which “Pose” star Billy Porter made
history and the comedy series “Fleabag” led a British invasion that overturned
expectations.
“This all started in the
demented mind of George R.R. Martin,” said “Game of Thrones” producer David
Benioff, thanking the author whose novels were the basis of HBO’s fantasy saga.
Porter, who stars in the
FX drama set in the LGBTQ ball scene of the late 20th century, became
the first openly gay man to win a best drama series acting Emmy.
“God bless you all. The
category is love, you all, love. I’m so overjoyed and so overwhelmed to have
lived to see this day,” said an exuberant Porter, resplendent in a sparkling
suit and swooping hat.
Amazon’s
“Fleabag,” a dark comedy about a dysfunctional woman, was honored as best
comedy and earned writing and top acting honors for its British creator and
star, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, as well as a best director trophy.
“This is getting
ridiculous,” Waller-Bridge said in her third trip to the stage to collect the
top trophy.
Her acting
win blocked “Veep” star Julia Louis-Dreyfus from setting a record as the
most-honored performer in Emmy history. “Fleabag’s” showing denied a fond
farewell for its final season.
“Nooooo!” a
shocked-looking Waller-Bridge said as Louis-Dreyfus smiled for the cameras.
“Oh, my God, no. Thank you. I find acting really hard and really painful. But
it’s all about this,” she said, her acting trophy firmly in hand.
In accepting the writing
award earlier, she called the Emmy recognition proof that “a dirty, pervy,
messed-up woman can make it to the Emmys.”
Porter, a Tony and Grammy
Award winning performer, relished his groundbreaking moment. Quoting the late
writer James Baldwin, he said it took him many years to believe he has the
right to exist.
“I have the right, you
have the right, we all have the right,” he said.
English actress Jodie
Comer was honored as best drama actress for “Killing Eve.” She competed with
co-star Sandra Oh, who received a Golden Globe for her role and would have been
the first actress of Asian descent to win an Emmy in the category.
“My mum and dad are in
Liverpool (England) and I didn’t invite them because I didn’t think this was
going to be my time. One, I’m sorry, two I love you,” Comer said after saluting
Oh.
Bill Hader won his second
consecutive best comedy actor award for the hit man comedy “Barry.”
Peter
Dinklage, named best supporting actor for “Game of Thrones,” set a record for
most wins for the same role, four, breaking a tie with Aaron Paul of “Breaking
Bad.”
“I count myself so
fortunate to be a member of a community that is about nothing but tolerance and
diversity, because in no other place I could be standing on a stage like this,”
said Dinklage, who is a dwarf.
“Ozark” star Julia Garner
won the best supporting drama actress trophy against a field including four
actresses from “Game of Thrones.”
The
auditorium erupted in cheers when Jharrel Jerome of “When
They See Us,” about the Central Park Five case, won the best actor award for a limited series movie.
“Most important, this is
for the men that we know as the Exonerated Five,” said Jerome, naming the five
wrongly convicted men who were in the audience. They stood and saluted the
actor as the crowd applauded them.
It was the only honor for
the acclaimed Netflix series of the evening; “Chernobyl” won the best limited
series honor.
The ceremony was brisk
but, without a host, was overly reliant on the hit-and-miss jokes of
presenters. It was ultimately the surprising wins such as Comer’s and the
meaningful selections of Porter and Jerome that made the show.
HBO retained
its durable front-runner status with the help of “Game of Thrones’”
record-tying 12 wins. The channel had a total of 34 awards from Sunday and last
weekend’s creative arts ceremony.
But streaming hit new Emmy
heights, powered by Amazon Prime winners “Fleabag,” ″The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel”
and “A Very English Scandal,” and Netflix’s “Bandersnatch (Black Mirror),”
honored as best movie. Netflix collected 27 awards and Amazon nabbed 15.
Michelle Williams, honored
as best actress for her portrayal of dancer Gwen Verdon in FX’s limited series
“Fosse/Verdon,” issued a call to arms for gender and ethnic
equality.
She thanked the network
and studio behind the project for “paying me equally because they understood
… when you put value into a person, it empowers that person to get in touch
with their own inherent value. And where do they put that value, they put it
into their work.
“And so the next time a
woman and, especially a woman of color, because she stands to make 52 cents on
the dollar compared to her white male counterpart, tells you what she needs in
order to do her job, listen to her,” Williams said.
Patricia Arquette won the
trophy best supporting limited-series or movie actress for “The Act.” She paid emotional
tribute to her late trans sister, Alexis Arquette, and called for an end to prejudice against trans
people, including in the workplace.
Ben Whishaw took the
category’s supporting actor trophy for “A Very English Scandal,” admitting in
charming British fashion to a hangover.
Alex Borstein and Tony
Shalhoub of “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” won best comedy supporting acting
awards.
“I want to dedicate this
to the strength of a woman, to (series creator) Amy Sherman-Palladino, to every
woman on the ‘Maisel’ cast and crew,” Borstein said, and to her mother and
grandmother. Her grandmother survived because she was courageous enough to step
out of a line that, Borstein intimated, would have led to her death at the
hands of Nazi Germany.
“She stepped out of line.
And for that, I am here and my children are here, so step out of line, ladies.
Step out of line,” said Borstein, who also won the award last year.
Shalhoub added to his
three Emmys which he earned for his signature role in “Monk.”
The awards opened without
a host as promised, with an early exchange pitting Ben Stiller against Bob
Newhart.
“I’m still alive,” Newhart
told Stiller, who introduced him as part of a wax museum comedy hall of fame
that included Lucille Ball and George Burns.
Kim
Kardashian West and Kendall Jenner drew some mocking laughter in the audience when
they presented the reality competition award after Kardashian West said their
family “knows firsthand how truly compelling television comes from real people
just being themselves.”
An animated Homer Simpson
made a brief appearance on stage until he was abruptly crushed, with Anderson
of “black-ish” rushing in to, as he vowed, rescue the evening. He called
“Breaking Bad” star Bryan Cranston on stage to tout the power of television
from its beginning to the current golden age.
“Television has never been
bigger. Television has never mattered more. And television has never been this
damn good,” Cranston said.
Top 2019 Emmy Moments
Emmy night
is always a chaotic mix of the humorous, the emotional and the inspirational,
mixed with some major sequins and glitter. And on this Emmy night, all those
elements came together in one glorious moment: Billy Porter’s win as best actor
in a drama for “Pose,” the first openly gay actor to win the award.
But Porter’s speech wasn’t
the only knock-your-socks-off moment. Michelle Williams gave the audience an
eloquent and impassioned lesson on the importance of equal pay for women,
especially women of color.
And Patricia Arquette paid
tearful tribute to her late transgender sister, issuing a rousing call for
better treatment of transgender people.
Top Moments From Emmys
2019:
PHOEBE RULES
If you didn’t know Phoebe
Waller-Bridge before, well, you certainly do now.
First, the British
writer-actress of “Fleabag” won for writing on a comedy series, telling the
crowd that she found writing “really hard and painful” — but that she did it
for the awards. She got to repeat the joke when she won best actress in a
comedy, a huge upset over prohibitive favorite Julia Louis-Dreyfus for the last
season of “Veep.”
And then
Waller-Bridge, 34, made it up to the stage yet again when her show won for
outstanding comedy series, again besting “Veep.”
“This is getting
ridiculous!” she exulted. In true Britspeak, she called her show’s journey to
success “absolutely mental.” She was pretty entertaining when she presented an
award with funnyman Bill Hader, too — all in all, a massive night, as the Brits
would say.
A MEMORY BOTH POWERFUL AND EMPOWERING
Alex Borstein, winning her
second consecutive Emmy for “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,” started out in
predictably humorous mode, making a racy underwear joke.
Then she made a dramatic
pivot to a poignant and harrowing memory about her grandmother, a Holocaust
survivor, who during the war had been in line “to be shot into a pit.”
She said her grandmother
had asked a guard, “What happens if I step out of line?” and the guard had
replied that he didn’t have the heart to shoot her, “but somebody will.”
She did — and they didn’t.
“And for that, I am here,” Borstein said. “And for that, my children are here.”
“So step out of line,
ladies!” she told the crowd, to cheers.
FAR FROM THE BRONX
When Jharrel Jerome won
his Emmy for “When They See Us,” he said he felt like he “should just be back
home in the Bronx right now chilling, waiting for my mom’s cooking or
something.” But, said the 21-year-old, “I’m here in front of my inspirations.”
He thanked, of course,
director Ava DuVernay, and his “beautiful mother,” who actively cheered him on
from the audience. But he saved his most important thanks “for the men we know
as the Exonerated Five.” And all five stood up and cheered from their seats:
Antron McCray, Kevin Richardson, Yusef Salaam, Raymond Santana, and Korey Wise,
the man Jerome played onscreen.
The four-part Netflix
series tells story of the Central Park Five, black and Latino teenagers from
Harlem who were coerced into confessing to a rape they didn’t commit.
A SISTER REMEMBERED
When
Patricia Arquette won an Oscar in 2015, she made a plea for pay equality. On
this Emmy night, rights for transgender people was on her mind, and for a very
personal reason.
Accepting her award for
“The Act,” Arquette said she was still in mourning over the death of her
sister, Alexis Arquette, who died at age of 47 in 2016.
Alexis, who was
transgender, died from a heart attack and battled HIV for 29 years, according
to her death certificate.
“I’m so sad that I lost my
sister Alexis, and that trans people are still being persecuted,” she said.
“Let’s get rid of this bias that we have everywhere. They’re human beings and
let’s give them jobs.”
In the audience,
transgender actress and activist Laverne Cox stood and cheered. Cox was
carrying a purse that bore a message: “Oct. 8, Title VII, Supreme Court,” it
said, referring to an upcoming court decision on workplace discrimination and
LGBTQ rights.
PASSIONATE ABOUT EQUAL PAY
It was
actress Michelle Williams who raised the flag for equal pay, with an eloquent
speech that was one of the most effective of the night.
Accepting the award for
“Fosse/Verdon,” she called the honor “an acknowledgment of what is possible
when a woman is trusted to discern her own needs, feel safe enough to voice
them, and respected enough that they’ll be heard.”
She explained that when
she’d needed anything to help her better play dancer Gwen Verdon — more dance
classes, more voice lessons, a different wig — she heard “yes,” not “no,” even
though they cost money.
She also thanked the FX
network and Fox 21 studios “for paying me equally, because they understood that
when you put value into a person it empowers that person to get in touch with
their own inherent value.”
“And then where do they
put that value? They put it into their work,” she continued, pointing out that
a woman of color makes 52 cents on the dollar compared to her white, male counterpart.
So when that woman “tells
you what she needs in order to do her job, listen to her, believe her,”
Williams said. “Because one day she might stand in front of you and say thank
you for allowing her to succeed because of her workplace environment and not in
spite of it.”
The remarks won cheers not
only in the room, but on social media. “Michelle Williams just took us to the
church of women’s equality,” wrote actress Kerry Washington on Twitter.
LOVE, Y’ALL!
It was
obvious that it was Billy Porter’s night the moment he sauntered into the Emmy
Awards in a huge, lopsided black cowboy hat, a sparkling striped
black-and-silver suit, and platform shoes.
Porter has emerged as a
huge red carpet star of late. But this time, the “Pose” actor matched his
carpet prowess with a huge Emmy victory, becoming the first openly gay actor to
win best actor in a drama.
“The category is love,
y’all!” he crowed to the audience upon arriving onstage.
He then met the historical
moment by quoting James Baldwin. “It took many years of vomiting up the filth I
was taught about myself and halfway believed before I could walk around this
Earth like I had a right to be here,” went the powerful quote. “I have the
right. You have the right. We all have the right!”
As he did years ago when
his won his Tony, Porter paid tribute to his mother, Clorinda, saying “there’s
no stronger, more resilient woman who has graced this earth.”
He also thanked his show’s
co-creator, Ryan Murphy: “Ryan Murphy, you saw me! You believed in us.”
He added that “We as artists
are the people that get to change the molecular structure of the hearts and
minds of the people who live on this planet. Please don’t ever stop doing
that.”
Fleabag rules the 2019 Emmy Awards pushing Veep Julia Louis-Dreyfuss to the side.
“Barry” (HBO) “Fleabag” (Amazon
Prime) (WINNER)
“The Good Place” (NBC)
“The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” (Amazon Prime)
“Russian Doll” (Netflix)
“Schitt’s Creek” (Pop)
“Veep” (HBO)
Limited Series
“Chernobyl” (HBO)
(WINNER)
“Escape at Dannemora” (Showtime)
“Fosse/Verdon” (FX)
“Sharp Objects” (HBO)
“When They See Us” (Netflix)
Television Movie
“Black Mirror:
Bandersnatch” (Netflix) (WINNER)
“Brexit” (HBO)
“Deadwood: The Movie” (HBO)
“King Lear” (Amazon Prime)
“My Dinner with Hervé” (HBO)
Lead Actor in a
Drama Series
Jason Bateman (“Ozark”)
Sterling K. Brown (“This Is Us”)
Kit Harington (“Game of Thrones”)
Bob Odenkirk (“Better Call Saul”) Billy Porter
(“Pose”) (WINNER)
Milo Ventimiglia (“This Is Us”)
Lead Actress in a
Drama Series
Emilia Clarke (“Game of
Thrones”) Jodie Comer
(“Killing Eve”) (WINNER)
Viola Davis (“How to Get Away With Murder”)
Laura Linney (“Ozark”)
Mandy Moore (“This Is Us”)
Sandra Oh (“Killing Eve”)
Robin Wright (“House of Cards”)
Lead Actor in a
Comedy Series
Anthony Anderson
(“Black-ish”)
Don Cheadle (“Black Monday”)
Ted Danson (“The Good Place”)
Michael Douglas (“The Kominsky Method”) Bill Hader
(“Barry”) (WINNER)
Eugene Levy (“Schitt’s Creek”)
Lead Actress in a
Comedy Series
Christina Applegate (“Dead
to Me”)
Rachel Brosnahan (“The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel”)
Julia Louis-Dreyfus (“Veep”)
Natasha Lyonne (“Russian Doll”)
Catherine O’Hara (“Schitt’s Creek”) Phoebe
Waller-Bridge (“Fleabag”) (WINNER)
Lead Actor in a
Limited Series or Movie
Jharrel Jerome
(“When They See Us”) (WINNER)
Mahershala Ali (“True Detective”)
Benicio Del Toro (“Escape at Dannemora”)
Hugh Grant (“A Very English Scandal”)
Jared Harris (“Chernobyl”)
Sam Rockwell (“Fosse/Verdon”)
Lead Actress in a
Limited Series or Movie
Amy Adams (“Sharp Objects”)
Patricia Arquette (“Escape at Dannemora”)
Aunjanue Ellis (“When They See Us”)
Joey King (“The Act”)
Niecy Nash (“When They See Us”) Michelle Williams
(“Fosse/Verdon”) (WINNER)
“At Home With Amy Sedaris”
(truTV)
“Documentary Now!” (IFC)
“Drunk History” (Comedy Central)
“I Love You, America, With Sarah Silverman” (Hulu) “Saturday Night
Live” (NBC) (WINNER)
“Who Is America?” (Showtime)
Variety Talk
Series
“The Daily Show With
Trevor Noah” (Comedy Central)
“Full Frontal With Samantha Bee” (TBS)
“Jimmy Kimmel Live” (ABC) “Last Week Tonight
With John Oliver” (HBO) (WINNER)
“The Late Late Show With James Corden” (CBS)
“The Late Show With Stephen Colbert” (CBS)
Supporting Actress
in a Drama Series
Gwendoline Christie (“Game
of Thrones”) Julia Garner
(“Ozark”) (WINNER)
Lena Headey (“Game of Thrones”)
Fiona Shaw (“Killing Eve”)
Sophie Turner (“Game of Thrones”)
Maisie Williams (“Game of Thrones”)
Supporting Actor
in a Drama Series
Alfie Allen (“Game of Thrones”) Jonathan Banks (“Better Call Saul”) Nikolaj Coster-Waldeau (“Game of Thrones”) Peter Dinklage (“Game of Thrones”) (WINNER) Giancarlo Esposito (“Better Call Saul”) Michael Kelly (“House of Cards”) Chris Sullivan (“This Is Us”)
Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series
Alex Borstein (“The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel”) (WINNER) Anna Chlumsky (“Veep”) Sian Clifford (“Fleabag”) Olivia Colman (“Fleabag”) Betty Gilpin (“GLOW”) Sarah Goldberg (“Barry”) Marin Hinkle (“The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel”) Kate McKinnon (“Saturday Night Live”)
Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series
Alan Arkin (“The Kominsky
Method”)
Anthony Carrigan (“Barry”)
Tony Hale (“Veep”)
Stephen Root (“Barry”) Tony Shalhoub
(“The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel”) (WINNER)
Henry Winkler (“Barry”)
Supporting Actress
in a Limited Series or Movie
Patricia Arquette
(“The Act”) (WINNER)
Marsha Stephanie Blake (“When They See Us”)
Patricia Clarkson (“Sharp Objects”)
Vera Farmiga (“When They See Us”)
Margaret Qualley (“Fosse/Verdon”)
Emily Watson (“Chernobyl”)
Supporting Actor
in a Limited Series or Movie
Ben Whishaw (“A
Very English Scandal”) (WINNER)
Asante Blackk (“When They See Us”)
Paul Dano (“Escape at Dannemora”)
John Leguizamo (“When They See Us”)
Stellan Skarsgård (“Chernobyl”)
Michael K. Williams (“When They See Us”)
Directing for a
Comedy Series
“Barry,” “The Audition,”
HBO (Alec Berg)
“Barry,” “ronny/lily,” HBO (Alec Berg) “Fleabag,”
“Episode 1,” Prime Video (Harry Bradbeer) (WINNER)
“The Big Bang Theory,” “Stockholm Syndrome,” CBS (Mark Cendrowski)
“The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,” “We’re Going to the Catskills!” Prime Video (Dan
Palladino)
“The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,” “All Alone,” Prime Video (Amy Sherman-Palladino)
Directing for a
Drama Series
“Game of Thrones,” “The
Iron Throne,” HBO (David Benioff, D.B. Weiss)
“Game of Thrones,” “The Last of the Starks,” HBO (David Nutter)
“Game of Thrones,” “The Long Night,” HBO (Miguel Sapochnik)
“The Handmaid’s Tale,” “Holly,” Hulu (Daina Reid)
“Killing Eve,” “Desperate Times,” BBC America (Lisa Bruhlmann) “Ozark,”
“Reparations,” Netflix (Jason Bateman) (WINNER)
Directing for a
Limited Series or TV Movie
“A Very English Scandal,”
Prime Video (Stephen Frears) “Chernobyl,” HBO
(Johan Renck) (WINNER)
“Escape at Dannemora,” Showtime (Ben Stiller)
“Fosse/Verdon,” “Glory,” FX Networks (Jessica Yu)
“Fosse/Version,” “Who’s Got the Pain,” FX Networks (Thomas Kail)
“When They See Us,” Netflix (Ava DuVernay)
Directing for a
Variety Series
“Documentary Now!”
“Waiting for the Artist,” IFC (Alex Buono, Rhys Thomas)
“Drunk History,” “Are You Afraid of the Drunk?” Comedy Central (Derek Waters)
“Last Week Tonight With John Oliver,” “Psychics,” HBO (Paul Pennolino) “Saturday Night
Live,” “Host: Adam Sandler,” NBC (Don Roy King) (WINNER)
“The Late Show With Stephen Colbert,” “Live Midterm Election Show,” Jim
Hoskinson
“Who Is America?” “Episode 102,” Showtime (Sacha Baron Cohen, Nathan Fielder,
Daniel Gray Longino, Dan Mazer)
Writing for a
Comedy Series
“Barry,” “ronny/lily,” HBO
(Alec Berg, Bill Hader) “Fleabag,”
“Episode 1,” Prime Video (Phoebe Waller-Bridge) (WINNER)
“PEN15,” “Anna Ishii-Peters,” Hulu (Maya Erskine, Anna Konkle)
“Russian Doll,” “Nothing in This World Is Easy,” Netflix (Leslye Headland,
Natasha Lyonne, Amy Poehler)
“Russian Doll,” “A Warm Body,” Netflix (Allison Silverman)
“The Good Place,” “Janet(s),” NBC (Josh Siegal, Dylan Morgan)
“Veep,” “Veep,” HBO (David Mandel)
Writing for a
Drama Series
“Better Call Saul,”
“Winner,” AMC (Peter Gould, Thomas Schnauz)
“Bodyguard,” “Episode 1,” Netflix (Jed Mercurio)
“Game of Thrones,” “The Iron Throne,” HBO (David Benioff, D.B. Weiss)
“Killing Eve,” “Nice And Neat,” BBC America (Emerald Fennell) “Succession,”
“Nobody Is Ever Missing,” HBO (Jesse Armstrong) (WINNER)
“The Handmaid’s Tale,” “Holly,” Hulu (Bruce Miller, Kira Snyder)
Writing for a
Limited Series or TV Movie
“Chernobyl,” HBO
(Craig Mazin) (WINNER)
“A Very English Scandal,” Prime Video (Russell T. Davies)
“Escape at Dannemora,” “Episode 6,” Showtime (Brett Johnson, Michael Tolkin)
“Fosse/Verdon,” “Providence,” FX Networks (Steven Levenson, Joel Fields)
“When They See Us,” “Part Four,” Netflix (Ava DuVernay, Michael Starrbury)
Writing for a
Variety Series
“Documentary Now!,” IFC
“Full Frontal With Samantha Bee,” TBS “Last Week Tonight
With John Oliver,” HBO (WINNER)
“Late Night With Seth Meyers,” NBC
“Saturday Night Live,” NBC
“The Late Show With Stephen Colbert,” CBS
“Friends” isn’t just getting older, but its fans have now gotten even younger. The 90’s phenomenon television show is also heading to the big screen. We’ve also added our favorite, funniest most iconic fifteen episodes below so you can see if you agree or have your own to comment on.
As the sitcom about six
twentysomethings marked its 25th anniversary on Sunday, it has spawned a
devoted youthful viewership, especially among tween and teen girls who weren’t
yet born when it went off the air in 2004.
Youthful Embracement
In an era when everyone
assumed they would move on to YouTube and Instagram video, young girls have
embraced the series and its old-fashioned, studio-audience, sitcom format,
bingeing its 10 seasons on Netflix through their tablets and phones, wearing
T-shirts with the show’s logo and constantly quoting catch-phrases.
“It is old but you can’t
tell that much when you’re watching,” said 15-year-old Sammy Joyce of Long
Beach, California. “It’s too funny to care about how old it is.”
Some first hear about the
show from Generation X parents who watched the initial NBC run, but the show
has caught on mostly via word-of-mouth between friends.
“My friends all really
liked it. They were all really into it and they would always be quoting it so I
decided to give it a try,” said 15-year-old Adelaide Driver of Taos, New
Mexico. “I kind of immediately was super into it.”
Lucia Mozingo, 10, of Long
Beach says she’s been spreading her love for the show “like a disease” among
her grade-school classmates.
She and
Sammy, who watches her after school, can mimic their way through entire
episodes, sing every word to Phoebe’s song “Smelly Cat” and can do impressions
of every major character and many minor ones.
Rites of Passage
The show has become almost
a rite of passage in some circles, where their “Friends” phase is almost a
coming of age.
For girls like Lucia,
understanding the show’s adult-but-not-too-adult subject matter can feel like a
step into sophistication.
“My parents showed me the
show ‘Friends’ when I was 8, and I didn’t really get it, so I wasn’t really
into it.”
Then, trying it again at
10, it all clicked, and she understood why Ross and Rachel got together, and
why they broke up, and why they got back together again.
“I just got it,” she
said.”
Future Fantasizing
“Friends,” some fans said,
is a piece of the past that allows them to fantasize about their future. They
swoon at the notion of living in a big-city apartment with their best friend
the way Courteney Cox’s Monica and Jennifer Aniston’s Rachel do, with two more
friends across the hall like Matthew Perry’s Chandler and Matt LeBlanc’s Joey.
“I would love to live
across the hall from my best friends,” said 12-year-old Imogen Schwartz of
Glendale, California. “When you watch it you wish you had a Rachel and a
Chandler and a Joey and everyone else.”
The characters also have
fledgling careers that the girls can see themselves aspiring to.
“My favorite moments are
whenever they’re talking about their jobs: actor, musician, masseuse, fashion-person,”
said 13-year-old Esme Goldman of Pasadena, California. “I think jobs are
interesting.”
New York Idealized
And they live and work in
an idealized New York, a dream of some young fans.
“I want to live in New
York. I want to pursue my dreams in New York,” Esme said, “even though their
version of New York is completely unrealistic. I’m not going to have an
apartment like that.”
Marta
Kauffman, who along with David Crane created the show that premiered on Sept.
22, 1994, agreed that its aspirational qualities are a huge part of its appeal
for younger viewers.
“For the characters
themselves, this is that kind of time in their lives when their friends are
their family, I think that’s incredibly aspirational,” Kauffman told media
outlets. “Teenagers who imagine it are imagining that kind of life when they’re
with their friends.”
Everyone Loves Phoebe
Lisa Kudrow’s Phoebe, and
her proudly eccentric persona, has special standing among young-girl fans, who
overwhelmingly name her as their favorite character.
“She’s different but she
doesn’t really care,” Lucia said. “Like, she’s always trying to cleanse your
aura, and like, she’ll make her own shoes with candy on them.”
“She’s kind of a little
crazy,” Adelaide said. “She’s like a lot of the people here in Taos.”
Phoebe’s personality, with
her strange folkie songs and odd observations, would make her a social-media
star.
“Phoebe would be a very
popular YouTuber,” Imogen said.
Social Media Rebirth
Most young fans also
immerse themselves in “Friends” on social media. Its archetypal characters
including David Schwimmer’s Ross and catch-phrases make it incredibly
meme-worthy, and many say they first decided to watch it after being prompted
on Instagram or Snapchat.
Netflix, which paid a
reported $100 million to stream “Friends” through 2019, rarely releases streaming
figures, and declined a request for them for this story, making it difficult to
know how broad the trend truly is. There’s an abundance of anecdotal evidence —
the number of T-shirts at malls and school campuses alone — that suggests it’s
vast.
Other sitcoms, such as
“The Office,” also have masses of surprisingly young viewers, but few are as
old, or as traditional in format, as “Friends.”
Age Is An Asset
Yet its age could also be
an asset. While a current show might only offer a few short seasons to plow
through, “Friends” has a decade’s worth, 236 episodes to binge on and return to
repeatedly. That’s more time than some young girls have spent with most of
their real-life friends. They feel like they really know the characters.
“You got to watch Chandler
and Joey and Monica and Rachel and Phoebe and Ross all, like, throughout a
decade go through ups and downs and everything between,” Imogen said.
And some may not even
realize it’s old at first.
“When my daughter’s
friends discovered ‘Friends’ they thought it was a period piece,” Kauffman
said. “They thought it was a contemporary show set in the 90s.”
The days of “Friends” on
Netflix are now numbered. WarnerMedia is moving the series to its own streaming
platform, HBO Max, next year.
That has some young fans
scrambling to gorge on episodes, unsure if their parents will spring for the
new channel.
“Since they’re taking it
off Netflix,” Imogen said, “I want to get in as much time watching ‘Friends’ as
possible.”
Top 15 Funniest and Iconic “Friends” Episodes
Having 236
episodes to peruse through over and over, there are so many episodes that could
have been on this list, but we wanted to put the ones we found the funniest and
why. I’m sure someone will ask “Why didn’t you put this on?” Well, put it in
the comments and why that episode was so great and iconic for you.
The One With the Blackout (Season 1, Episode 7)
The Plot: A city-wide blackout strands
Monica (Courteney Cox), Rachel (Jennifer Aniston), Phoebe (Lisa Kudrow), Joey
(Matt LeBlanc), and Ross (David Schwimmer) at the girls’ apartment and traps
Chandler (Matthew Perry) in — say it with me — “An ATM vestibule with
Jill Goodacre” (who plays herself).
Why We Love It: While the gang in the apartment
delivers great comedic moments — Joey’s menorah, the cat attacking Ross, Mr.
Heckles (Larry Hankin) trying to steal the cat, which he calls Bob Buttons —
this episode is a showcase for Chandler as he chokes (literally and figuratively)
while trying to play it cool around the Victoria’s Secret model.
Best Line: “You know, on second
thought, gum would be perfection.” —Chandler
The One With Two Parts: Part 2 (Season 1 Episode 17)
The Plot: Ross frets over impending
fatherhood while Joey is dating Phoebe’s twin sister, Ursula, much to Phoebe’s
chagrin. After Rachel injures her ankle, Monica rushes her to the hospital,
where they meet two cute doctors (George Clooney and Noah Wyle, who were
starring on E.R. at the time, but
play different characters here). The rub is that Rachel doesn’t have health
insurance so she pretends to be Monica, which wreaks havoc on their subsequent
double date.
Why We Love It: The double-crossing double date
is one of the most hilarious bits of comedy the show has ever done. As the
girls’ frustrations with one another take over, Monica (as Rachel) and Rachel
(as Monica) begin to talk shit about one another to the doctors, who could not
be more confused by what they’ve walked in to.
Best Line: “[hysterical laughing] Oh
God, I’m so spoiled.” —Monica as Rachel
The One After the Superbowl (Season 2, Episodes 12 & 13)
The Plot: These two episodes, which aired
as one-hour installments (and why it counts as a single entry on this list),
feature Jean-Claude Van Damme, Julia Roberts, Chris Isaak, and Brooke Shields
in a performance so uproarious that NBC basically gave her a sitcom afterward (Suddenly Susan, which aired from 1996 to 2000).
Why We Love It: Phoebe becomes a hit with kids
by singing truthful songs about death; Phoebe turns Monica and Rachel into her
“bitches” as they fight about dating Van Damme; Ross goes on a day
date with Marcel; and Chandler gets played by Susie Moss (Roberts), his fourth
grade classmate hellbent on getting revenge for a childhood humiliation.
Best Quote: “Eat me. I’m done.”
—Chandler
The One With the Prom Video (Season 2, Episode 14)
The Plot: A newly employed Joey thanks
Chandler for years of fronting rent and coffee bills with a gaudy gold bracelet
(it reads: Best Buds), while Monica attempts to get a new job, and Rachel draws
a line in the sand when it comes to dating Ross.
Why We Love It: This episode is overflowing
with laughs, as Chandler accidentally mocks the bracelet in front of Joey
(“I pity the fool!”) and then has to replace it to save face, but the
installment hinges on the titular VHS tape that chronicles Monica and Rachel’s
very ’80s prom night. As the gang gawks at the big noses, bigger hair, and
tacky dresses, we’re introduced to Fat Monica and some killer one-liners are
dropped before hearts melt at the episode-ending revelation.
Best Line: “See! He’s her
lobster.” —Phoebe
The One Where No One’s Ready (Season 3, Episode 2)
The Plot: Ross has less than 30 minutes to
get everyone dressed and out the door to attend a museum benefit.
Why We Love It: This bottle episode (all the
action takes place in a single room) is so inspired, even a tired trope —
Rachel can’t decide what to wear — feels fresh here. There are wonderful asides
(Why does Donald Duck wrap a towel
around his waist after getting out of the shower if he doesn’t wear pants?),
great throughlines (drink the fat), and a series-defining fight between
Chandler and Joey over ownership of the apartment’s comfiest chair.
Best Line: “Look at me, I’m Chandler!
Could I be wearin’ any more
clothes?” —Joey
The One With the Dollhouse (Season 3, Episode 20)
The Plot: Monica inherits a dollhouse
from her dead aunt, but doesn’t play well with others, causing Phoebe to build
her own dream dollhouse. Chandler goes on a terrible date with Rachel’s boss,
but can’t bring himself to dump her.
Why We Love It: Monica’s face during Phoebe’s
dinosaur attack on the dollhouse; Phoebe screaming “the foster
puppets” when Ross reveals who made it out of her burned dollhouse; Joanna’s
(Alison La Placa) uncontrollable disdain for Sophie (Laura Dean); and
Chandler’s inability to end a date without saying, “We should do it again
sometime.”
Best Quote: “Checkin’ out the
Chan-Chan man!” —Chandler
The One With the Embryos (Season 4, Episode 12)
The Plot: While Phoebe is at the fertility
clinic attempting to be artificially inseminated, Joey, Chandler, Monica, and
Rachel are squaring off in a Ross-created trivia game to see which gender knows
more about the other — and the girls’ apartment is at stake.
Why It’s So Funny: The information revealed
throughout the game (Miss Chanandler Bong, sandwiches, big fat goalie) is
hilarious, but what makes this episode such a standout is how brilliantly
LeBlanc, Perry, Aniston, and Cox deliver every excited exclamation.
Best Line: “That’s not even a
word!!!!” —Monica
The One With All the Thanksgivings (Season 5, Episode 8)
The Plot: After a particularly filling
meal, everyone sits around reminiscing about their worst Thanksgivings.
Why We Love It: Because we’re given more
hideous flashback hair (mostly thanks to Chandler), a ridiculous aside about
Phoebe’s past life as a French battlefield nurse, and two people wear turkeys
on their heads.
Best Quote: “It wouldn’t be
Thanksgiving without Chandler bumming us out.” —Joey
The One With All the Resolutions (Season 5, Episode 11)
The Plot: Everyone tries, with varying
degrees of success, to uphold their New Year’s resolutions.
Why We Love It: Phoebe (pilot a jet), Joey
(learn to play guitar), and Monica (take more photos) aside, the resolutions
made by Chandler (stop making fun of his friends), Rachel (gossip less), and
Ross (try something new every day) provide the spine for this episode and yield
the highest comedy. “The One With All the Resolutions” also offers
Schwimmer a worthy platform for his excellent physical comedy skills, which
typically go uncelebrated.
Best Quote: “If the paste matches the
pants, you can make yourself a pair of paste pants and she won’t know the
difference.” —Joey
The One Where Everybody Finds Out (Season 5, Episode 14)
The Plot: After Phoebe discovers what
Rachel and Joey have known for weeks — that Monica and Chandler are dating
— the girls start messing with the couple, which clues in Monica and
Chandler, so they retaliate. This back-and-forth culminates in an epic game of
chicken.
Why We Love It: From Ross’ amazing apartment
spazz-attack to the introduction of Hugsey, Joey’s bedtime penguin pal, there’s
a lot to love in this episode. But it truly belongs to the prolonged sexual
showdown between Phoebe and Chandler — it starts with bicep squeezing and ends
with an adorable declaration of love.
Best Quote: “They don’t know that we
know they know we know.” —Phoebe
The One Where Ross Got High (Season 6, Episode 9)
The Plot: Monica and Chandler are hosting
Thanksgiving, but it turns out that Jack and Judy Geller (Elliott Gould and
Christina Pickles) hate Chandler. Ross and Joey want to bail so they can go to
a party with supermodels, and Rachel screws up the dessert.
Why We Love It: While some sitcoms struggle to
deliver compelling A- and B- plots, Friends was
often able to successfully execute a half-dozen concurrent storylines and this
episode is a prime example of the writers’ ability to keep all of the plots in
the air at once. Here, Monica is keeping her relationship with Chandler a
secret from her parents because they dislike him, and it turns out that their
grudge is decades-old as Ross blamed Chandler for the pot smell in his room
during sophomore year spring break. Meanwhile, as Rachel is making dessert, she
accidentally creates half an English trifle and half a shepherd’s pie, which
Joey and Ross convince everyone to eat so dinner will end and they can leave.
And Phoebe is harboring sexual feelings toward Jack following a naughty dream.
All of these threads culminate in a hilarious tidal wave of revelations that,
to quote Judy, is “a lot of information to get in 30 seconds.”
Best Quote: “Hurricane Gloria didn’t
break the porch swing, Monica did.” —Ross
The One
With Unagi (Season 6, Episode 17)
The Plot: While Joey is trying to dupe
his way into a science experiment for twins, Monica and Chandler have each
forgotten to make the other a Valentine’s Day gift, and Ross tries to test
Rachel and Phoebe’s self-defense skills.
Why We Love It: Because Ross’ ridiculous
series-long obsession with “kara-tay” (his snooty pronunciation)
basically gets a stand-alone episode as he squares off with Rachel and Phoebe
in a series of scares designed to test their Unagi (perhaps a state of total
awareness, definitely a type of sushi). Because Joey’s ridiculous series-long
obsession with twins starts here as he tries — and fails — to convince the
scientific world that Carl (Louis Mandylor) is his identical twin. Because
Chandler’s ridiculous past obsession with Janice (Maggie Wheeler) rears its
ugly head once more as he gives Monica a romantic mixtape that was actually
made for him by Janice, unaware it includes nasally mid-song interjections that
will eventually blow up his spot.
Best Line: “Damn it, Carl.”
—Joey
The One With Joey’s New Brain (Season 7, Episode 15)
The Plot: Joey’s character on Days of Our Lives comes out of his coma
and gets a new brain from soap opera icon Cecilia Monroe (Susan Sarandon),
while Ross learns to play the bagpipes for Monica and Chandler’s wedding, and
Phoebe fights with Rachel over a lost phone belonging to — they presume —
a handsome man.
Why We Love It: Few things in Friends history are funnier than watching
Ross play bagpipes (or the actors trying to keep straight faces
during the scene) — but Sarandon’s divinely self-involved
performance and Monica’s obsession with getting slapped in the face by Cecilia
come mighty close.
Best Quote: Whatever words constitute
Phoebe trying to “sing along” as Ross plays the bagpipes.
The One In Massapequa (Season 8, Episode 18)
The Plot: Everyone goes to Jack and Judy
Geller’s anniversary party, where Monica tries to make her parents cry with a
touching speech and Phoebe brings her vivacious new boyfriend, Parker (Alec
Baldwin), whose enthusiasm for life irritates her friends.
Why We Love It: Because Alec Baldwin is a damn
delight in this role. To Parker, everything is awesome and Baldwin delivers
each line with the unbridled adoration of someone who just polished off a
top-notch eight ball.
Best Quote: “Massapequa, it sounds
like a magical place!” —Parker
The One with Phoebe’s Birthday Dinner (Season 9, Episode 5)
The Plot: While Phoebe and Joey are
waiting for everyone to arrive at Phoebe’s birthday dinner, Rachel and Ross
have accidentally locked Emma in the apartment and Monica is furious with
Chandler for smoking.
Why We Love It: Each character gets great
moments of humor in their separate storylines (particularly Ross, who mocks
Rachel with a theoretical tale about the apartment filling with water as Emma
fights a bird on fire). But the true star is, rightfully, Phoebe, whose
frustrations with her tardy friends boil over in an amazing moment when she
screams across the room at Ross’ mom, who is babysitting Emma, to pick up the child’s
fallen sock.
Best Quote: “I’m so glad I changed; I
almost wore my threadbare robe that can’t contain my breasts.” —Phoebe
Movies aren’t
just for the younger set as “Downton Abbey” topping both “Ad Astra” and “Rambo:
Last Blood” at the box office. All three films catered to an older demographic
and accounted for nearly $70 million of domestic ticket sales together. 60 percent
of “Downton Abbey” buyers were over the age of 35 with nearly half being the 55
and older crowd. 64 percent of “Ad Astra’s” buyers were over 25, and 66 percent
of “Rambo: Last Blood’s” was also over 25 years old.
With over 60 of moviegoers for last week’s number two film, “Hustlers,” studio heads might want to pay attention. As studios continuing crying ‘woe is us,’ at yearly numbers, giving people what they want will still bring them out to the theater.
“It’s a clear message to studios to
not forget there’s a big audience out there that feels underserved,” said Paul
Dergarabedian, a senior media analyst at Comscore. “It’s a real wakeup call to
say it’s not just about superhero movies aimed at younger moviegoers.”
“Downton
Abbey” benefitted from being part of a widely beloved property and arrived
three years after the TV series wrapped, leaving just enough time for
anticipation to grow before audiences no longer were curious to watch the
latest adventures of the Crawley family. Meanwhile, “Rambo: Last Blood,” the
fifth and final chapter in Sylvester Stallone’s action franchise, served as a
nostalgic throwback to a character first introduced in the 1980s. And “Ad
Astra” benefitted from buzzy reviews out of Venice as well as the creative team
of star Brad Pitt and director James Gray.
“The message is loud and
clear: if you make quality movies, people will go to theaters to see them,”
says Lisa Bunnell, Focus Features’ president of distribution. “For older
moviegoers, quality makes a difference.”
A strong September at the
box office could bode well for the rest of fall, a time of year that’s become
de rigueur for studios to release smaller indies and dramas. It would be
especially welcome since the year-to-date box office is down over 5% from 2018,
according to Comscore. Recent successes are helping to narrow that gap, but a
number of titles over the next few months will have to resonate in a big way to
close that deficit.
So, raise those
tea cups! The big-screen encore of “Downton Abbey” handily (but very politely)
thumped both Brad Pitt’s “Ad Astra” and Sylvester Stallone’s “Rambo: Last
Blood” in theaters over the weekend in one of the more unlikely box-office
upsets.
“Downton Abbey” debuted
with $31 million in ticket sales, according to studio estimates Sunday, royally
trumping the $19.2 million-opening for “Ad Astra” and the $19 million debut for
“Rambo: Last Blood.” Neither the draw of Pitt in space nor a bandanna-wearing
Stallone could match the appeal a tea party with old friends.
While the stout
performance of “Downton Abbey” had come to be expected in the lead-up to
release, it was still striking. The debut marked the best first weekend ever
for Focus Features in its 17-year history. It ranks as the best opening for any
specialty studio in a decade.
“We always knew that there
was a tremendous amount of love for ‘Downton Abbey,‘” said Lisa Bunnell, Focus’
distribution chief. “But as we started on working with promotions and special
events for the movie, we realized that the love for ‘Downton Abbey’ goes way
beyond what we even thought it was going to be.”
Coming four years since
the series finale, “Downton Abbey” returns most of the original cast and was
penned by its creator, Julian Fellowes. To drum up excitement, Focus hosted
dress-ups and “Downton” parties. While the film drew a healthy amount of
younger moviegoers (31% under 35), its audience was predictably largely female
(74 and older (32% over 55) — a seldom-catered-to demographic.
Critics greeted the film
warmly (85% fresh on
Rotten Tomatoes) but audiences were even more
enthusiastic, giving it an A CinemaScore. Having already played for a week
in some international territories, “Downton Abby” has already brought in $61.8
million worldwide.
Reviews were similarly
strong for James Grey’s “Ad Astra,” which premiered earlier in the month at the
Venice Film Festival. It sits at 83% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes and comes on the
heels of plaudits for Pitt in Quentin Tarantino’s “Once Upon a Time … In
Hollywood” (which has grossed $344.6 million worldwide thus far).
“Ad Astra,” the latest from the director
James Gray, stars Pitt as an astronaut sent into deep space to establish
contact with his father (a missing veteran astronaut played by Tommy Lee
Jones). The movie comes during a period of renewed excitement around Pitt,
whose acclaimed performance in Quentin Tarantino’s “Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood” had left him
with a strong shot at an Academy Award nomination. “Ad Astra” received generally good reviews, with an 83 percent fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
But the film didn’t come cheap. Actually, it was a rather pricey one — especially for an artfully made drama predicated more on father-son psychology than sci-fi spectacle. The production cost around $100 million for 20th Century Fox, which was earlier this year acquired by the Walt Disney Co.
Disney postponed the
release of “Ad Astra” from May to September. The result for “Ad Astra” follows
disappointing returns for a handful of Fox films released under Disney,
including “Dark Phoenix” and “Stuber.” ″Ad Astra,” which added $26 million
overseas, will hope good reviews give the film some legs in the weeks ahead.
“It’s been a very rough go
for many of the Fox releases,” said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst
for data firm Comscore. “I think this is a solid debut. It’s certainly an
expensive movie. Anytime you swing for the fences with an outer space film, you
have to spend quite a bit of money.”
Lionsgate’s “Rambo: Last
Blood” is the fifth “Rambo” movie going back to the 1982 original, “First
Blood.” Fashioned as the franchise’s final installment (Stallone is now 73
years old), it did about the same as the previous 2008 reboot, which opened
with $18 million before ultimately grossing $113 million worldwide. “Last
Blood” got especially terrible reviews, though; it’s only 31% fresh on Rotten
Tomatoes.
That trio of new releases
outperformed a pair of strong holdovers. After two weeks at the No. 1 spot,
Warner Bros.′ “It Chapter Two” slid to fourth with $17.2 million. The STX’s
stripper tale “Hustlers,” starring Jennifer Lopez, earned $17 million in its
second weekend. The two holdovers
rounded out the box office top five. Warner Bros.’s “It Chapter Two” picked up
an estimated $17.2 million in its third weekend according to Comscore,
which compiles box office data. STX Films’ “Hustlers” saw about $17 million in
ticket sales during what was its second weekend.
Those very divergent
options in theaters added up to a lot of choice for moviegoers. The weekend was
up 30% from the same frame last year, according to Comscore.
Downton Abbey, Ad Astra, Rambo: Last Blood
North American Box Office
Estimated ticket sales for
Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Comscore.
Where available, the latest international numbers for Friday through Sunday are
also included.
1. “Downton Abbey,” $31
million ($10 million international).
2. “Ad Astra,” $19.2 million
($26 million international).
3. “Rambo: Last Blood,”
$19 million ($9.1 million international).
4. “It Chapter Two,” $17.2
million ($21.3 million international).
5. “Hustlers,” $17 million
($3 million international).
This year’s Comic-Con in San Diego was notable for being the last visit for many long-running television shows and film franchises. Fans are understandably struggling with the things they love coming to an end, or with the endings that have already happened that left fans less than satisfied (“Game of Thrones,” I’m looking at you…)
In an effort to give fans some ways to cope with the whole idea of endings, the podcasters at Fansplaining (@Fansplaining on twitter) put together a panel of creatives and fandom journalists, and I was excited to be one of them. There’s really nothing like doing a panel at the biggest fan convention in the country – and yes, I save my name card every single time. This panel, for me, was also personal – my own beloved favorite show, “Supernatural”, is going into its fifteenth and final season. So, let’s just say I needed the panel for myself too! (As does the entire “Supernatural” fandom)
I was joined by Craig Titley, a writer on another show coming to an end, “Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD;” Justin Bolger, who has handled social media for the “Star Wars” franchise; Joelle Monique, film critic and passionate “Game of Thrones” fan; Delilah Dawson, author of tie-in novels from some fan-favorite series; and Elizabeth Minkel, co-host of Fansplaining. Our moderator was Fansplaining’s other cohost, Flourish Klink (who did an amazing job wrangling all of us).
Flourish
kicked off the panel by asking what fans can do in response to the news that a favorite
show is ending. Do fan petitions help? Save the show campaigns? Lots of
tweeting?
Craig: Well, in this case, Agents of SHIELD
ended it on their own terms and ended it where they wanted to, so the show
wasn’t going to be coming back.
Craig
encouraged fans to show their support for follow-up projects, though, such as a
proposed comic book based on the series and the characters.
Craig: It sounds crass to say “buy it,” but
that’s how The Powers That Be see support. You can also write letters and be
active on social media to say “we miss Agents of SHIELD, what can be done to
keep the stories and the characters alive?”
So, for those keeping score, coping strategy No. 1:
Consume and communicate and encourage TPTB to keep the characters you love alive in some form.
Justin Bolger, who handled social media for “Star Wars,” commented on what was helpful and not helpful in terms of getting more of that thing you want so badly.
Justin: Social media is a microcosm of the
world around us, but people behave differently [because online interaction is
anonymous]. It’s suddenly real when you come to a convention and see people
face to face. When you interact in person it changes the dynamic, but I try to
be that same person on social media.
That was a
pretty good recommendation, I thought, for all social media interaction.
Justin: Be yourself, but don’t make it seem
like you’re the only person who matters when you interact on social media. If you hate Captain America, and someone is
cosplaying as Captain America, why would you call them out online and say you
hate something that someone else is getting joy from?
We all
agreed with him – let other fans love what they love.
Justin: Star Trek has a saying that I love –
IDIC. Infinite diversity in infinite combinations. I think that’s a great rule
to live by, in real life and online.
Coping strategy No. 2:
Positivity works better than negativity when you’re interacting with both fans and creators.
Flourish
asked the panel whether a fan petition that is very negative make it less
likely that the things fans are demanding will actually happen.
Justin: It sounds crass to say buy it, but
always keep in mind that it’s a business. If you have that perspective, you can
go in open hearted but clear eyed. The best way to support it is, because it’s
a business – with your money. Don’t be taken advantage of, but you can support
the project and then people will see the value in it.
Flourish
then asked me about that kind of negativity in fandom, noting that it’s
unfortunately fairly common in my own fandom for “Supernatural”.
Lynn: Unfortunately, you can’t have
passion in a positive direction and expect not to have passion that sometimes
goes in a negative direction. This is an emotional experience for fans, because
what you’re a fan of is important. If you’re a fan, that’s part of your identity.
You relate to the characters you fan and that’s part of how you figure out who
you are, either by identifying with the stories or the characters, or by
writing fanfiction or cosplaying or whatever. And the community aspect is also
really important – back in the day, in an evolutionary sense, nothing more
terrifying than the threat of the group we belonged to being taken away. So
when we’re faced with the ending of something important to us, it’s a loss, and
we humans don’t do very well with those, especially disenfranchised losses. A
disenfranchised loss is one that’s hard to work through because it’s not
recognized by the people around you. So you can say to your partner or family
or coworkers “OMG I’m so depressed that “Supernatural” is ending” and they
might come back and say “Hey get a grip, it’s just a television show”. But it’s
more than that to fans, and it is important.
Coping strategy No. 3:
Allow yourself to grieve, and find a community of people who won’t dismiss that grief or disenfranchise your legitimate loss. It’s okay to be sad.
Flourish: Joelle, so many people were upset by
the ending of Game of Thrones – how do you deal with something you love so much
coming to an end?
Joelle: A lot of people wanted to lash out
at the creators. As a film critic, I don’t think that’s appropriate. I tend to
treat everything by remembering that they intended to make something that was
really great, I don’t think anyone goes “I hate these fans, let’s burn them.” {When that doesn’t work}, my outlet has been
fanfic.
Everyone
on the panel and in the room: (cheers for fanfic)
Joelle: Fanfic is a self gratifying way of
engaging in the content that you want, and you can key search the outcomes that
you want and the relationships that you want. Maybe you hated Season 4 but
Season 2 was your bread and butter, so you can go in and relive just those
parts. My head canon for Harley Quinn could not be further from what’s on the
page, because my introduction was from fanfic. Fans won’t always get what they
want from the shows we love, but we can turn to one another and get really
great stories that become perhaps even more important than the original.
So, coping strategy No. 4:
Fanfic! Write more of that content you so desperately want or read what other fans are writing to keep that world alive.
Delilah: I’m an 80s kid, so I got to watch lots of the
things I loved go dormant and then like a cicada rise 17 years later.
Everyone: That’s so true.
Delilah: Labyrynth, My Little Pony, Dark Crystal, it’s amazing. What I do is official canon in these worlds, so I don’t get to say what I write as much. When Firefly comes to me, they don’t say what do you want to do, they say do this. Or Star Wars. Things not to do? Reach out in ways that don’t harm up and coming creators. They might be doing what they’re told to do also. In general, [people who are creating canon] respect the fans and want them to be happy.
That’s coping strategy No. 2 again.
Flourish: Is there a difference between
getting canonical extensions of things we love versus getting fanfic
extensions?
Elizabeth:
There is. The world of transformative works and fanfiction is vast and
can focus on different stuff. For example, there are people still bringing
people into Inception fandom with their creative works and there’s probably
never going to be another Inception. [If you’re a big Inception fan, so sorry}.
On Fansplaining, we just surveyed people about shipping and got close to 17,000
responses, and more than half said they shipped things that they weren’t even
familiar with the source material for! Sometimes the canon material doesn’t really
matter that much, fans are doing their own thing.
Coping strategy reiterated:
Read and write more fanfic!
Flourish
asked if Craig sees much of the fan-to-fan communication and creative work from
the creative side.
Craig: I don’t really see the fan to fan
communication. Our fans are generally nice and go with where we take them. But
I try to stay away [from things like reading fanfic and fan conversation]
because I feel like I serve the fans best if I just do what I’ve been doing and
writing the characters and not getting anything else in our heads. People like
our characters for a reason and will continue to if we continue to honor that.
So it’s not a disrespect for fans, it’s the opposite.
Talk then
turned to the relationship between fans and the creative/production side, and
the tensions that are sometimes there.
Flourish: Is there a tension between fans
saying show your support and tweet at the creators and the way that, say “Supernatural”
has courted fan conversation and maybe used that to justify staying on the air?
Is there a tension there?
Lynn: There is. Like Elizabeth, I came
into fandom through the transformative works door, through fanfiction, so I
fell in love with the show and the fanfic and the community at the same time.
In the beginning there was a real dividing line between the fan works and the
canon and that made for a different sort of interaction between fans and
creators. Canon was canon and nobody expected it to be influenced by what fans
were writing or imagining, so that kept a lot of tension out of it. Now there’s
more perception of reciprocity but there’s also sometimes a misconception on
the part of fans thinking that what you’re tweeting to a writer or showrunner
is gonna turn the show around. I think Eric Kripke said to me once that making
a change to a show like “Supernatural” is like turning around the Titanic. You
can’t just say oh fans didn’t like that, next week we’ll do something
completely different.
Joelle: I love “Supernatural” fandom,
speaking of that tension between fans and creators. I love that the creators
have been like, “well y’all wanna ship the brothers, okay, we’re just gonna
comment on it in the show then!” That episode of “Supernatural” was life
changing for me as a fan to be like oh, there is a way that we can engage the
creators and the creators can engage with that by teasing it, and nobody
expected it to happen in canon. With the advent of social media, there are ways
to communicate that don’t disrupt the show and aren’t necessarily negative but
acknowledge the two parties.
Justin: Something that has also increased
the tension is how easy fans can make it look [to make some of these films and
shows], by making a film or a fan video with good production values, and they
can market it as being equal to what others are spending millions on to make.
So fans are like “why can’t you do it for that amount?” All of them are labors
of love but they have different purposes. J. Michael Straczynski, I think it
was him, once said that all stories exist for a reason but they don’t all exist
for the same reason. A fan uses their own money to make that for love, the company
makes it to make money. But it causes
fans to be like, why can’t you just make it in the way I like?
Joelle: It’s not the place of a fan to
direct the show, especially because you have so many places you can [direct the
story]. You can write your own stories.
Flourish: If something has been off the air
for a long time, people do want more stories that are canonical. Like with Firefly.
What do you think about the process of asking for that, like a petition –
what’s useful? Or when should creators just say go make your own thing?
Craig: When a series ends and there’s no
plan to continue, make fanfiction. And then someone on the corporate side might
say oh hey maybe we should start making comics or books because it seems like
people still really like this. I still
don’t understand why there hasn’t been more Firefly because fans love it. There
was a mob scene a few years ago when the cast got back together.
Delilah: I think of canon as history so I
haven’t delved into fanfiction. What was made is what was given and gifted to
us, as I see it. I know there’s a secret and amazing world of what people are
doing out there but I have trouble going there because, history. Sometimes I
know that what I’d ask for isn’t always what I want to receive too.
Joelle: I think sometimes we need to be surprised too. If we were always given what we wanted, we’d quickly become disappointed. What’s great about going into a new Star Wars film is like, what’s gonna happen? There’s also an opportunity when a show has ended for fans to then go into the themes that were restricted elsewhere [in canon]. Like Avatar The Last Airbender had LGBTQ themes but it was on Nickelodeon and they didn’t want a million moms calling and complaining.
Another vote for coping through fanfiction and other fan works.
Justin: The other opportunity when a show
ends is to go back in and watch it again and look at it differently and to
repeat that process as many times as you can depending on how much you love the
show. I love Kings, it has only 13 episodes, and I can’t tell you how many
times I’ve watched those 13 episodes. If you love a story that much, it follows
you through your life.
Everyone: {Nodding in agreement}
Justin: And we bring our entire lives with
us when we go to see a movie. The cool part about that is you see that movie at
15, then when you go back in you see it through completely different eyes.
There’s a wealth of content that made you fall in love in the first place and
you can go back in and mine it in a completely different way. To refer back to
the title of this panel, just because it ends doesn’t mean it’s over.
Coping strategy No. 5:
Do a rewatch! Or multiple rewatches.
Lynn: It’s interesting that you say that
about rewatching giving you a different perspective, because this summer a
bunch of us are doing a rewatch of the entire series since “Supernatural” is
ending.
Everyone: THE ENTIRE FOURTEEN SEASONS??
Lynn: I’m very tired… (laughing). It’s a
lot, but what I wasn’t expecting is that my life was really different 14 years
ago, I was a different person. So I’m seeing all these episodes that I loved
the first time but I’m seeing them really differently now. So I think you’re
right, you can go back and rewatch and keep pulling different things out of it,
and that’s a great way to hang onto those characters you love. But I also think
there is a real longing in fans for having more of the canon, more of the
story. You don’t want to let the characters go. I don’t want to only know what
Sam Winchester was like at 37. I want to know what he’s like at 50 too, and I’m
probably not gonna get that but there’s a longing for that. I think it’s two
separate things.
Justin: I agree.
Elizabeth: I don’t agree at all.
Flourish: Oooh, Fight fight!
Elizabeth: That sort of presupposes that fans
want one thing out of “canon”. People often write fanfiction because they want
an emotional reboot or some sort of continuation and more canon may not give
you that because they didn’t give you that in the first place. And a reboot may
not give you that community that you want either, people move on and move to
different fandoms. So I think there’s more to it than wanting more content from
the gods on high. And some people just
want validation of their own ideas. Like Good Omens fandom tweeting their head
canons to Neil Gaiman and he just says yeah, you’re all right.
Lynn: We’re not gonna fight because I
don’t disagree.
Elizabeth: I wasn’t disagreeing with you!
Joelle: I think it’s about engagement. For
me all fandom centers on culture, on community. Seeing people come into
themselves or maybe come out in fandom. Harry Potter was really all about
chosen family, these themes keep repeating no matter who you’re shipping and
link all of us back into fandom.
Flourish
asked about the idea of migratory fandoms, and how that could be a coping
strategy too – you get into something and then everyone decamps and gets into
the next thing.
Lynn: Nope.
Flourish: Oh right, Lynn you’re like no, it’s “Supernatural”
for the rest of my life!
Lynn: Yep.
Flourish:
But does that play a
role in coping, taking that fandom community with you to the next thing?
Joelle: For my Game of Thrones fandom, there
will be a small core group post GoT that will be like where are we getting our
fix next? I don’t think we’ll get that same kind of juice from a streaming
show, though, like a watch it every Sunday and then go online and talk about it
thing. I don’t know if we’ll ever have that again, but I want it, that would be
sad if we didn’t. I want another show that we can get together on Sunday night,
another show that is that rich, because those are vital moments for those of us
who are loners and weirdos — proudly — who love our fandom community. What
makes fandom exciting is because there are people living the stories. It’s
crazy that there can be part of you that’s still living through something that
no longer exists. It’s like Frankenstein.
Coping strategy No. 6:
Take your fan community with you to the next thing and hope that it provides the same satisfaction (Unless you’re like Lynn and just want to love “Supernatural” forever).
The panel
then took a few questions from the audience of gathered fans.
Fan: Thinking about what Lynn said about
disenfranchised grief and what Elizabeth said about using fandom to process
your grief after a show ends, what would it look like for TPTB to coach a
fandom through the ending? Would that be helpful?
Elizabeth: But is there a way to do that when
the studios and content creators are already moving on to the next project?
Hashtag capitalism. Do corporations actually care what fans think? There’s no more
money to be made out of it for them at that point.
Everyone was
fairly skeptical about that, but I have to say (though I didn’t get a chance to
share this on the panel) that I think the cast of “Supernatural” and even the
studio are doing their best to ease the transition for fans as get ready to say
goodbye. Jared Padalecki, Jensen Ackles and Misha Collins insisted on telling
fans right after they told their long-time crew, recording an emotional video
so there wouldn’t be any misunderstandings or rumors flying. They’ve talked
about the show’s ending at conventions and in interviews, and directly on
social media. This September 13, the fourteenth anniversary of the airing of
the show’s pilot, cast members past and present went online to express their
gratitude. The studio started a hashtag, #SPNFamilyForever, that trended on
Twitter.
They also
released the promotional poster for the final season on that day, with the
words “As it is written, so it shall end” hovering forebodingly above and both
hell and a stairway to heaven depicted along with the Winchester’s beloved
“Baby”.
The actors
have even written a book about what being on the Show and the fandom have meant
to them (Family Don’t End With Blood). They understand how much these
characters have meant to fans and don’t take that lightly, and I think knowing
that they too are grieving makes the upcoming end a little easier to take. The
acknowledgement, by the actors and the studio, that this ending is important
feels validating to the fans who will be enduring that loss.
Justin: My marketing philosophy is about
what Joelle said — an experience, a sense of community built over time for a
show. Not to be cynical but people don’t buy the object, they buy the feeling.
So could TPTB ever find a way to care enough to want to provide that? I think
the community exists and is hungry to continue having that feeling, so the
merchandise will continue to sell long after the show is over. There may be
spinoffs. Every property is a gold mine that you can go back to in order to
make more money but a lot of corporations don’t understand that there’s a more
modern mindset, that helping that community enhance that feeling, you could
make a lot of money while still helping fans.
Fan: Why do
they mess things up? I mean, Sonic the Hedgehog, I don’t know how they messed
it up but they did, and fans took it into their own hands and called out
something – I mean, they had a reference.
Joelle: [And they changed it]. I have a lot of feelings about that. It feels like a cash grab, not something that came out of the fandom. But I think we as fans have to take a step back from this feeling of this isn’t what I expected or wanted to see. That’s 6000 animators having to go back and make changes, they already don’t get paid that well. It’s a huge overhaul for a film I don’t think we’re gonna like that much anyway. We need to be responsible because we can talk to these people directly. If we can engage the people not at the top and thank them for their work and be understanding, that helps all of us.
Fan: Sometimes fans need to rescue the
content from creators that don’t get it. If they make something the fans don’t
buy, they have to retool. What do you do as a fandom when a property goes off
the cliff? We have a say now.
Joelle: Batman was key to my early childhood
development. They put a gun in his hand and I wanted to light my hair on fire,
it did not make sense, I hate the new Batman. That being said, it really works
for a different segment of the fandom. I don’t think it’s my responsibility to
tell those fans that they’re wrong for enjoying something I don’t enjoy. I do
remain vocal about the principles that were put into Batman but I don’t think
we can control what creators make. What’s amazing is you can get multiple stories
from the same character. We’re always projecting part of ourselves onto these
characters and that’s important. I’ll never tell them that what they’re doing
is wrong — but I might tell them I don’t like it.
On that
note, the panel ended. There were some concrete suggestions and some good
conversation about the increasingly complex relationship between fans and
creators in the age of social media. I don’t know about you, but I’m going to
try to remember some of these strategies next spring when Sam and Dean
Winchester drive off into the sunset.
The “Supernatural” production offices include a quote on their production whiteboard for every day of filming and Jason Fischer tweets it out to fans. Season 15 includes the Impala driving in the direction of what a sign warns is “The End”, with the notes of the song “The Final Countdown” drawn beneath, but many of the quotes are an expression of how much “Supernatural” has meant to so many people, and an acknowledgement that none of us regret our choice to take this wild ride.
As Rafael Nadal prepared for the U.S. Open final, and a chance to win a 19th Grand Slam, he was asked if he wanted more. “I would love to be the one to have more, yes,” answered Nadal, “but you cannot be all day frustrated or all day thinking about what your neighbor has better than you.” Well, he did add a 19th Grand Slam to his career total. That is a lot of major wins and plenty of high-pressure finals. It then got us thinking: Which of Nadal’s Grand Slam finals are the greatest? Here are our picks:
Credit: Pinterest
2019 U.S. Open
Last year, ESPN made a case that Nadal is the greatest of all time. He has now added to his legacy this season.A post by bwin Tennis’ Tony Kelshaw refers to this year as one of Nadal’s strongest as he reached three Grand Slam finals, including the recently concluded U.S. Open. Naturally, he was expected to dominate young Daniil Medvedev, who was playing in his first major final. But Nadal was pushed to the limit, before edging a thrilling 7-5, 6-3, 5-7, 4-6, 6-4 win. This victory showcased everything great about Nadal, from his trademark intensity to his unmatched resiliency and shot-making. More important perhaps, it puts Nadal at 19 Grand Slams, or just 1 shy of the record 20 won by rival Roger Federer.
2007 Wimbledon
Match 2 of the so-called Fedal Trilogy is considered among the greatest tennis matches ever played. Unfortunately for Nadal, he came out on the losing end, 7–6(9–7), 4–6, 7–6(7–3), 2–6, 6–2. Despite the loss Nadal proved he was the real deal, as he frustrated the usually unflappable Federer numerous times in the match. This was the first time the two rivals fought out an epic five-setter; and as this list will show, it was only just a foreshadowing of things to come.
2008 Wimbledon
Twice denied Wimbledon glory by Federer, Nadal finally got his victory in 2008. Rafa got his title in style, outlasting his Swiss counterpart, 6-4, 6-4, 6-7, 6-7, 9-7, in what many consider the greatest final ever. Even tennis greats John McEnroe and Björn Borg have praised the match. McEnroe, who commentated on the match, called it “The greatest match I’ve ever seen.” Borg, on the other hand, was as effusive in his praise, describing the final as “the best tennis match I’ve ever seen in my life.”
2005 French Open
In 2005, Nadal won 24 consecutive singles matches during the clay court season. He was on a roll but was without a Grand Slam just yet. That changed after the French Open. Nadal came to Roland Garros fully expecting to win. “I was coming from winning in Monte Carlo, Acapulco, Barcelona, and Rome,” said Nadal, looking back. “So the expectation was to win.” And win he did, as he beat Argentina’s Mariano Puerta, 6-7 (6), 6-3, 6-1, 7-5, in the final. This victory was doubly sweet as it was Nadal’s first Grand Slam title, and he did so at his first time at Roland Garros.
2012 French Open
From 2011 to 2012 Novak Djokovic was steamrolling the competition. Nadal, on the other hand, suffered a myriad of injuries and looked vulnerable. As if on script Djokovic and Nadal met in the 2012 French Open final. The Serbian was looking to complete the Djoker Slam (his fourth straight major), while the Spaniard was playing for an 8th French Open title. The stakes were high, and the match delivered on the hype. It was very dramatic, with Nadal overcoming Djokovic, 6-4, 6-3, 2-6, 7-5. That final not only denied Djokovic a fourth straight Grand Slam, it also underscored Nadal’s status as the King of Clay.
“Hustlers,”
a comedy about strippers robbing Wall Street men came close to knocking that
killer clown, Pennywise, from the top box office spot, but “It: Chapter Two”
held on for a second consecutive week. The Jennifer Lopez film outpaced
expectations with a very aggressive marketing campaign.
It wasn’t
quite enough to take down Pennywise the clown, but Jennifer Lopez and the
scheming strippers of “Hustlers” topped even the high expectations they brought
to the weekend box office.
“It: Chapter Two” brought
in $40.7 million in the U.S. and Canada to keep the top spot in its
second week and has earned a total of $153.8 million, according to studio
estimates Sunday. The original, the biggest September release ever, had earned
more than $200 million at the same point two years ago.
“Hustlers,” riding stellar reviews,
film-festival buzz and Oscar talk for Lopez, earned $33.2 million, a record for
a film from STX Entertainment, which was launched less than five years ago.
The film, budgeted at just
$20 million, became the rare recent hit that was neither a sequel nor a reboot
nor part of a series. It was also the biggest opening ever for a live-action
Lopez film, and had numbers comparable to co-star Constance Wu’s hit “Crazy
Rich Asians,” whose long-term box office success could be a model for
“Hustlers.”
“This is exactly the kind
of movie that every studio dreams of producing, because it’s going to be
profitable, prestigious and a long-term performer,” said Paul Dergarabedian,
senior media analyst for Comscore. “A lot of original type movies that are
non-franchise non-sequels, many of them have had a rough go this year. This is
a nice counter-balance to that.”
Based on a New York
magazine piece, “Hustlers,” written and directed by Lorene Scafaria, tells the
true story of a group of New York City strippers who, put out by the
recession’s effects on their Wall Street patrons, start a side con that
involves drugging their wealthy marks and running up exorbitant credit card
bills that they get a cut of.
“We didn’t look at it as a
stripper movie,” said STX Motion Picture Group Chairman Adam Fogelson. “We
looked at it as a crime movie, not unlike something like ‘Wolf of Wall
Street.’”
Even with its buzz,
industry projections had the film making about $25 million over the weekend,
but it appealed to an even wider audience than expected.
“It definitely skewed
female as we always expected, but it was very diverse as far as ethnic groups,
and it brought in a broad range of ages for an R-rated film,” Fogelson said.
And with its strong
word-of-mouth and the forthcoming season of awards and end-of-year top 10
lists, it could keep bringing in the dollar bills for months.
“This is a movie that everyone
is talking about,” Fogelson said.
“Angel Has Fallen,”
starring Gerard Butler, was a distant third with $4.4 million, and has brought
in $60.4 million in its four weeks of release.
The success softens the fact that Warner Bros. was
also behind this weekend’s biggest box-office stumble: “The Goldfinch,” which
opened to about $2.6 million according to Comscore, which compiles box office data. It is a paltry amount given
the movie’s considerable assets: It is an adaptation of a Pulitzer
Prize-winning best seller by Donna Tartt; it is the director John Crowley’s
follow up to his critically acclaimed “Brooklyn”; and it stars Nicole Kidman and Ansel Elgort.
“It: Chapter Two” was hardly a slouch, despite underperforming compared to the
2017 original. Bringing in more than $150 million in two weeks during usually dead
September is a rare achievement.
“The Goldfinch” and “Hustlers” were
also the only major newcomers this weekend, which should have left “The
Goldfinch” with some room to spread its wings. But it seems that the movie,
with a current Rotten Tomatoes rating of 24 percent, wasn’t able to
overcome poor reviews.
“It’s a massive number,”
said Dergarabedian. “The ‘It’ franchise has now done over a billion dollars
worldwide. That first film was really lightning in a bottle.”
North American Box Office
Estimated ticket sales for
Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Comscore.
Where available, the latest international numbers for Friday through Sunday are
also included. Final domestic figures will be released Monday.
1. “It: Chapter Two,”
$40.7 million ($47 million international).
2. “Hustlers,” $33.2
million ($4.5 million international).
3. “Angel Has Fallen,”
$4.4 million ($4.9 million international).
4. “Good Boys,” $4.3
million ($1.8 million international).
5. “The Lion King,” $3.6
million ($6.9 million international).
6. “Fast & Furious
Presents: Hobbs & Shaw,” $2.8 million ($8.1 million international).
7. “Overcomer,” $2.7
million.
8. “The Goldfinch,” $2.6
million ($985,000 international).
9. “The Peanut Butter
Falcon,” $1.9 million.
10. “Dora and the Lost
City of Gold,” $1.85 million ($4.4 million international).
Worldwide Box Office
Estimated ticket sales for
Friday through Sunday at international theaters (excluding the U.S. and
Canada), according to Comscore:
1. “It: Chapter Two,” $47
million.
2. “Detective Conan: The
Fist of Blue Sapphire,” $25.4 million.
3. “Bad Guys: Reign of
Chaos,” $19 million.
4. “The Last Wish,” $18.7
million.
5. “The Legend of Hei,”
$14.5 million.
6. “Downton Abbey,” $11.7
million.
7. “Tazza: One-Eyed
Jacks,” $11 million.
8. “Ne Zha,” $9.9 million.
9. “Once Upon a Time …
in Hollywood,” $8.4 million.
