Miley Cyrus
received plenty of support from her friends and fans after splitting from
husband Liam Hemsworth after just seven months. Of course, they’ve been on
again, off again for a decade now, but Cyrus took to Twitter to answer all
those ‘cheating’ rumors that surfaced. Friends loudly supporting her include,
Madonna, Shailene Woodley, Lily Aldridge along with Juicy J.
The singer quickly denied rumors Thursday that she cheated on her soon-to-be ex-husband, Liam Hemsworth.
In a stream-of-consciousness mode, the pop star concluded : “You can say I am a twerking, pot smoking, foul mouthed hillbilly but I am not a liar.”
It was in a
series of 11 tweets along with quite the memo on Instagram Thursday, in which
Cyrus unveiled that she’s now choosing to leave behind a “previous life” of bad
behavior. This included cheating and some career lows in her wake.
Hemsworth,
29, and Cyrus, 26, were on again, off again for 10 years but were married just
seven months ago. He filed for divorce on Wednesday, citing
irreconcilable differences.
Cyrus and
Kaitlynn Carter, the estranged partner of Brody Jenner, were seen kissing in
photos that surfaced earlier this month. Cyrus didn’t mention Carter by name on
Twitter but admitted to cheating in relationships when she was younger.
“There are
NO secrets to uncover here,” Cyrus tweeted. “I’ve learned from every experience
in my life. I’m not perfect, I don’t want to be, it’s boring. I’ve grown up in
front of you, but the bottom line is, I HAVE GROWN UP.”
Cyrus said
she was faithful once she and Hemsworth reconciled, adding:
“I can admit
to a lot of things but I refuse to admit that my marriage ended because of
cheating. Liam and I have been together for a decade. I’ve said it before &
it remains true, I love Liam and always will.”
“Thank GOD!! You are human! A woman
who has lived. No need to apologize!!” Madonna wrote in the comments section of
Cyrus’ Instagram post.
Actress
Shailene Woodley and model Lily Aldridge were among those who left red heart
emojis, and Cyrus’ sister Brandi wrote, “Proud of you sissy!”
Rapper Juicy
J also commented, “We love you Miley stay strong,” and Bella Thorne wrote, “I
love this. So much from the heart. Takes a lot to say. I love every version of
u. Perfection is imperfect and that’s a fact.”
Cyrus’
message contained many revelations from her early years including a history of
infidelity in past relationships. “I f—ed up and cheated in relationships when
I was young,” she wrote.
In addition,
she recalled moments in her personal life that greatly affected her career. “I
lost a massive Walmart deal at 17 for ripping a bong,” Cyrus tweeted, referring
to her canceled clothing line with the retailer.
“I got kicked off Hotel Transylvania for
buying Liam a penis cake for his birthday and licking it,” she said of a
role in the animated film series starring Selena
Gomez and Adam Sandler.
“I swung on
a wrecking ball naked,” she said of the music video for her song “Wrecking
Ball.”
Lastly,
Cyrus added, “There are probably more nudes of me on the internet than maybe
any woman in history.”
Cyrus and
Hemsworth signed a prenuptial agreement before they were married so this should
be a rather easy divorce, but a ‘source’ close to Cyrus said she was surprised
by Liam going for a divorce so quickly, but she will survive and move on with her
new healthier life.
Cyrus and Hemsworth’s split happened on Aug. 10 when her rep said in a statement:
“Ever-evolving, changing as partners and individuals, they have decided this is
what’s best while they both focus on themselves and careers. They still remain
dedicated parents to all of their animals they share while lovingly taking this
time apart. Please respect their process and privacy.”
The two met in 2009 on the film “The
Last Song,” and had quite the rocky on and off relationship for many years
before he proposed to her in 2012. The relationship ended a year later while
Cyrus took time to separate herself from her Hannah Montana Disney self, and
they got back together in 2015. The married on December 2018 at a small
ceremony in Franklin, Tennessee.
Hemsworth has kept a rather low
profile in Australia (basically being photographed in his skin tight surfer
suit) while Cyrus has been spotted kissing Kaitlynn Carter several times in Los
Angeles and during their intimate Italian getaway.
Liam Hemsworth Steps Up On Why He’s Divorcing Miley Cyrus
People were both
shocked and not so shocked when Liam Hemsworth filed for divorce from wife
Miley Cyrus on Wednesday after just seven months of marriage. He put out the
usual Instagram post stating he wishes nothing but the best for Cyrus and want
to deal with this situation in private.
Of course,
sources ‘close to the actor’ always say that things are far more complicated
than a social media posting can convey. According to this ‘source,’ Hemsworth
felt it was time for both he and Cyrus to end things and move on with their
lives.
“Liam’s decision to file for
divorce is sad, but in the end, it was never going to work,” the source
said. “They are too different. Liam never wanted to share Miley with
anyone. He loves her and he is far too traditional. He finally realized he just
wants to start fresh.”
Hemsworth finally came to terms that
it was “time to move,” and family members, including brother Chris Hemsworth,
have been very supportive. In face, the two have been seen surfing together in Australia.
The family has been praying for this day to come and are relieved it has finally
come.
“At first, Liam wanted to just
give it time but he finally felt like things were getting nasty and he didn’t
want to drag it out publicly,” adds the insider. “He decided it was
all too much.”
It definitely has gotten
intense: In addition to people speculating over the song Cyrus released that seems to be about their breakup,
“Slide Away,” there have been rumors about infidelity,
partying, and fighting being reasons the two of them drifted apart. The gossip
has only grown since Cyrus was seen kissing her longtime friend Kaitlynn Carter, Brody Jenner’s ex,
in Italy. Cyrus took to Twitter on Thursday, August 22, to shut down rumors there was
cheating on her end.
Ironically, Miley’s
father and godmother, Dolly Parton, were always concerned about Liam Hemsworth’s
smoking so much pot around her after she had stopped. Seems that both families
are getting what they want now.
Kodak Black Pleads Guilty To Weapons Charges
Rapper Kodak
Black pleaded guilty on Thursday to federal weapons charges stemming from his
arrest just before a scheduled concert performance in May.
Black
entered the change of plea in a Miami federal court. Prosecutors charged him
with crimes including falsifying information on federal forms to buy four
firearms from a Miami-area gun shop on two separate occasions.
Black, 22,
was able to obtain three of the weapons: a 9 mm handgun, a .380-caliber handgun
and a semi-automatic Mini Draco weapon. Authorities said one of the guns was
found at the scene of a March shooting in Pompano Beach.
Black also
faces drug, weapons and sexual assault charges in other states.
When U.S.
District Judge Federico Moreno asked Black why he needed so many weapons, he
shrugged and said he needed them for “protection.” In a previous hearing, his
attorney, Bradford Cohen, said the rapper faced threats from gangs and other
rivals.
Black is a
Florida native who was born to Haitian American parents as Dieuson Octave and
who now goes by the legal name of Bill Kapri.
He has been
in federal custody since he was arrested during a Miami-area hip-hop festival
in May that was marred by several violent incidents. Authorities are still
investigating three unrelated shootings in the Miami area with possible
connections to the festival, one of which involved a property owned by
President Donald Trump.
Moreno
previously denied Black’s request for bond, ruling that he was a danger to the
community.
The rapper,
known for the singles “ZeZe” and “Roll in Peace,” could face up to 20 years in
prison and a $500,000 fine.
He is
scheduled to be sentenced on Nov. 13.
Sarah Sanders Goes To Fox News
Former White
House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders, who once sparred with journalists, has
decided to join them.
Fox News
said Thursday that Sanders has been hired to provide political commentary and
analysis across all its properties, including Fox News Channel, Fox Business
Network and the radio and podcast division.
Sanders was
press secretary for President Donald Trump from July 2017 through June 2019,
quarreling with reporters who aggressively questioned her about any number of
controversies involving the president.
In a
statement, Sanders says she is “beyond proud” to join Fox. She will make her
debut on “Fox & Friends” on Sept. 6.
Keira Knightley Sleep Training For “Official Secrets”
Keira
Knightley’s edginess while playing a real-life Iraq War whistle-blower in the
political thriller “Official Secrets” wasn’t all an act. The decision to sleep
train her 3-year-old daughter during filming meant she wasn’t faking it when it
came to the emotional side of the role.
“I felt very
on edge, but for different reasons. So I used it all,” Knightley joked during a
recent interview.
It’s not a
method she’d recommend to her fellow thespians.
“Any
actresses out there, do not move the child from the cot to the bed when you’re
just about to play a lead role in a film that has a lot of words in it because
remembering them is quite tricky,” Knightley said.
The actress
had a lot of important lines playing Katharine Gun, a translator at the British
government’s communications headquarters in the early 2000s. While there, Gun
leaked a confidential United States National Security Agency email exposing
illegal activities to a British newspaper.
The memo
proved that the U.K. and U.S. governments were in collusion over spying on
countries that were wavering in their support for the war. After the
information hit the front pages of newspapers, Gun confessed and was
subsequently arrested and charged under the Official Secrets Act.
Knightley
admits that despite being a politically engaged 18-year-old at the time of the
Iraq War, she had no memory of Gun’s extraordinary story.
“I was sort of
fascinated that either I’d forgotten, or I’d never known about Katharine Gun
and I’d never known about this memo. So I felt like, you know, just as far as
kind of a historical piece in sort of shedding light on that, the lead up to
that conflict, I thought it was a very important story to tell.”
The film
traces Gun’s arrest and landmark criminal trial and Knightley said she was most
concerned with accurately depicting Gun’s actions.
“When you
meet Katharine, her point of view is absolutely clear and you know my job in
this was telling this story from her point of view completely,” Knightley said.
This was an
immense challenge: Gun still can’t speak freely about what happened.
“It was the
first time I’ve ever met somebody, and I was asking questions and I thought,
‘Oh they actually legally cannot answer the question,’ because of course she is
still bound by the Official Secrets Act. So I can’t say that you know I got
anything that isn’t in the public domain but she is a fascinating,
extraordinary woman.”
The film’s
supporting cast includes Matt Smith as newspaper journalist Martin Bright,
Matthew Goode as fellow journalist Peter Beaumont and Ralph Fiennes as defense
lawyer Ben Emmerson. “Official Secrets” opens in the United States on Aug. 30
and in the U.K. in October.
Quentin Tarantino Goes Daddy Route
Quentin
Tarantino is going to be telling a whole new brand of “Once upon a time” tale —
the bedtime-story kind.
The “Once
Upon a Time… In Hollywood” director is about to become a father.
His
representative Katherine Rowe says Tarantino and his wife, Israeli model and
singer Daniella Pick, are expecting a baby. No further details were released.
The couple
met in 2009 and married last November just after Tarantino finished shooting
“Once Upon a Time … In Hollywood,” the film starring Leonardo DiCaprio and
Brad Pitt that became a summer hit.
It’s the
first child for the 56-year-old Tarantino, who also directed “Pulp Fiction” and
“Reservoir Dogs,” and the 35-year-old Pick, who is the daughter of
singer-songwriter Svika Pick.
After getting blacklisted as part of the China sanctions, Huawei quickly remedied the situation by creating their own HarmonyOS in August. Now, the United States is ready to give them a pardon as Donald Trump is realizing that tariffs are not so “fun” after all.
President Donald Trumps administration has extended a limited reprieve on U.S. technology sales to Huawei, even as questions remain over how much of an effect broader sanctions are having on the Chinese technology giant.
Huawei has become enmeshed in the trade war between Washington and Beijing, with President Donald Trump showing a willingness to use the sanctions as a bargaining chip. The U.S. government blacklisted Huawei in May, deeming it a national security risk, meaning U.S. firms aren’t allowed to sell the company technology without government approval.
At the time,
the U.S. exempted a narrow list of products and services. That exemption would
have expired Monday, but the Commerce Department extended it for another 90
days, as expected.
Commerce
Secretary Wilbur Ross said the main aim of Monday’s announcement is to give
smaller U.S. internet and wireless companies that rely on Huawei more time to
transition away from reliance on its products.
“Some of the
rural companies are dependent on Huawei, so we’re giving them a little more
time to wean themselves off,” Ross said in an interview with Fox Business
Network.
Other
exports to Huawei officially remain restricted, though it’s not clear how much
is in practice. Those sanctions, for instance, don’t bar U.S. telecom companies
from buying Huawei equipment. And U.S. semiconductor companies that supply
Huawei have determined that the export sanctions don’t apply to a significant
portion of their sales.
“Most of the
ongoing shipments of U.S. semiconductors to China are not covered,” said Paul
Triolo, an analyst with the Eurasia Group global risk assessment firm.
The greater
effect appears to be on Google’s Android mobile operating system, which Huawei
can no longer use in its smartphones. Huawei has developed
its own operating system as a replacement, though executives
say they still hope to be able to keep using Android.
Huawei
released a statement saying Monday’s extension “does not change the fact that Huawei
has been treated unjustly.” The company said the extension “won’t have a
substantial impact on Huawei’s business either way.”
Huawei is
China’s biggest phone maker, and sales to the company account for a significant
portion of revenues for some U.S. suppliers.
The extended
limited reprieve applies to technology sales and transfers necessary for “the
continued operations of existing networks and to support existing mobile
services, including cybersecurity research,” Commerce said in an updated order
Monday.
Shares of
U.S. computer chipmakers Intel, Qualcomm and Micron — all of which sell to
Huawei — rose after Monday’s announcement.
While U.S.
companies are allowed to request approval to sell technology beyond what’s
covered in the limited reprieve, Ross said the government has yet to grant any
such licenses.
The Commerce Department is also adding 46 Huawei affiliates to the list of 69 already affected by sanctions. Huawei called that decision “politically motivated” and in violation of “basic principles of free-market competition.” Half of the newly listed affiliates are based outside China.
Adam Segal,
director of cyberspace policy at the Council on Foreign Relations, said that
probably reflected additional research to identify the full scope of Huawei
purchasing globally.
Triolo said
the sanctions have had only limited effect mostly because there is no consensus
in the Trump administration on Huawei policy.
Its China
hawks want Huawei banned not just from U.S. government networks but from all
U.S. telecommunications and have been trying to persuade U.S. allies to impose
blanket bans. But others in the administration seem inclined to use Huawei
sanctions as a lever in ongoing trade negotiations.
Trump
himself has sent mixed signals. The extension was announced a day after he told
reporters the U.S. shouldn’t be doing business with Huawei. In May, Trump
issued an executive order in May under which the Federal Communications
Commission is studying whether to institute a ban on Huawei equipment in U.S.
telecom networks.
Segal said
“mixed messaging and inconsistencies” on Huawei by Trump administration
officials are apt to reinforce concerns in Beijing about the credibility of any
trade deal that might be reached with Washington.
Triolo said
the one thing is sure in all the confusion generated by the White House:
“Huawei is doubling down on finding alternative suppliers, and U.S. companies
going forward will be viewed as unreliable partners by greater numbers of
Chinese firms.”
Just a few
weeks ago, Hollywood was crying that a straight up comedy was dead
at the box office, but as usual, they were wrong as the R-rated comedy, “Good
Boys,” was able to push Dwayne Johnson and Jason Statham’s “Hobbs & Shaw”
down to second place. It took three foul-mouthed 12-year-olds to knock the “Fast
and Furious” franchise down a spot.
“This is a franchise-level opening,”
David A. Gross, a movie consultant, wrote in a Saturday report that noted the movie’s modest
budget and strong scores from audiences and critics. “Good Boys” cost about $20
million to make.
The R-rated
comedy, left for dead by some Hollywood studios, again reached No.1 at the box
office over the weekend thanks to the raunchy coming-of-age tale “Good Boys,”
about a trio of 12-year-olds on a crude misadventure. Even rival studios
breathed a sigh of relief. Moviegoers in North America have given a cold shoulder to one comedy after another in recent
months: “Stuber,” “Late Night,” “Long Shot,” “Booksmart,” “Poms,” “The Hustle,”
“Shaft.” The carnage has prompted speculation that streaming services have made
it easy for audiences looking for laughs to skip theaters.
“Good Boys”
surpassed expectations to debut with $21 million, according to studio estimates
Sunday, dethroning
the “Fast & Furious” spinoff “Hobbs & Shaw,” which slid to second with
$14.1 million in its third weekend. Not since Melissa McCarthy’s “The Boss”
came in No. 1 all the way back in April 2016 has an R-rated comedy topped the
North American box office.
“This is
like a unicorn sighting,” said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst for
data firm Comscore.
In recent
years, R-rated horror has largely taken the place of R-rated comedy at the box
office, as Hollywood has increasingly ceded the genre to TV and streaming
services. But Universal Pictures, which released “Good Boys,” has kept the
flame. The studio was behind “The Boss” as well as the intervening years’
highest grossing domestic comedies: 2017′s “Girls Trip” and 2018′s “Night
School.”
“Good Boys”
broke out of a crowded late-summer field of new releases. The weekend’s other
new widely released films — the animated sequel “The Angry Birds Movie 2,” the
shark attack sequel “47 Meters Down: Uncaged,” the Bruce Springsteen-inspired
drama “Blinded by the Light” and Richard Linklater’s Cate Blanchett-led
“Where’d You Go Bernadette” — all fizzled.
“Good Boys”
rode a buzzy premiere at South By Southwest, good reviews (80% fresh on Rotten
Tomatoes) and the imprimatur of producers Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg (“Good
Boys” is much like a tween version of “Superbad”) to notch the best opening for
an original comedy this year. Second place is Universal’s body-switch comedy
“Little.”
Directed by
Gene Stupnitsky (who co-wrote the script with Lee Eisenberg), “Good Boys” stars
Jacob Tremblay, Keith L. Williams and Brady Noon as sixth graders trying to
make it to their first kissing party. The movie’s much-watched
red-band trailer traded on its ironies. As Rogen says,
Tremblay, Williams and Noon are all too young to see their own movie alone.
Jim Orr,
distribution chief for Universal, credited Rogen and Goldberg’s Point Grey
Pictures and the film’s clever marketing for the film’s performance.
“This is a
genre that is very difficult to do and we’re having great success as a studio
with a very diverse slate,” Orr said. “One of the common denominators there is
our marketing department. They just over-deliver constantly with a broad range
of films.”
The
challenge of “Good Boys” was to turn out moviegoers older than the movie’s
pipsqueak protagonists, and it did. Only 7% of the audience was under age 18,
according to Universal, though 41% was under 25. Crowds split evenly between
the sexes: 52% male, 48% female.
The bar does seem to be higher.
“Good Boys” was more than a well-crafted film backed
by a very aggressive marketing campaign; it got noticed because it pushed taste
boundaries. An R-rated movie about sixth-graders? One of the only other
original comedies that has found an audience this year, “Yesterday,” released
by Universal in June, used an over-the-top premise and Beatles music to up the
ante.
The release
strategies behind some of the weekend’s other new films were harder to discern.
Sony’s “The
Angry Birds Movie 2,” on a budget of $65 million, opened with a paltry $10.5
million domestically, though it added $19.4 million internationally. Hoping to
snarl kids before school starts, Sony released the film on Tuesday. But it
didn’t come close to the $38.2 million domestic debut of the first installment
in 2016 despite notably better reviews (76% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes).
Sony had another good weekend with
Quentin Tarantino’s “Once Upon a Time … In Hollywood,” which collected $53.7
million in its initial rollout overseas. Ticket sales were particularly strong
in Britain and Australia. “Once Upon a Time” took in $7.6 million in North
America from Friday to Sunday, for a four-week domestic total of $114.3 million. “47 Meters Down: Uncaged,” from
Entertainment Studios, also showed little bite. It debuted with $9 million, a
slight downtick from the $11.2 million the first one opened with in 2017.
A pair of
films that might have been platform released to build word-of-mouth instead
opened wide in bids to stand out in the traditional dumping-ground of late
summer. But the results were mixed.
“Blinded by
the Light,” which Warner Bros. plunked down $15 million for at the Sundance
Film Festival, took in $4.5 million from 2,307 locations. The film, which has
been warmly reviewed, is about a British-Pakistani teen growing up in 1980s
England whose life is transformed after he discovers Springsteen.
Bruce Springsteen’s songbook did not help “Blinded by the
Light” (Warner Bros.), which went down in flames over the weekend. Despite mostly strong
reviews, “Blinded by the Light” took in
about $4.5 million, for a ninth-place start. It probably struck ticket buyers
as too similar to “Yesterday,” box-office analysts said.
Two other new movies also
fizzled. “Where’d You Go, Bernadette” (United Artists) collected $3.5 million,
while “47 Meters Down: Uncaged” (Entertainment Studios) took in roughly $9
million, about 20 percent less than its series predecessor managed during its
first weekend in 2017.
United
Artists’ “Where’d You Go Bernadette” grossed $3.5 million from 2,404 locations.
Based on Maria Semple’s 2012 comic novel, Linklater’s film earned lukewarm
reviews for its tale of a missing mother (Blanchett).
The “Good
Boys” debut gave Universal, also behind “Hobbs & Shaw” its third straight
weekend at No. 1 and 10th this year — second only to Disney.
With two
weeks to go, the overall summer movie season is running 1.9% behind the pace of
last summer, according to Comscore.
North America 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. “Good
Boys,” $21 million ($2.1 million international).
2. “Hobbs
& Shaw,” $14.1 million ($45.7 million international).
3. “The Lion
King,” $11.9 million ($33.8 million international).
4. “The
Angry Birds Movie 2,” $10.5 million ($19.4 million international).
5. “Scary
Stories to Tell in the Dark,” $10.1 million ($4.4 million international).
6. “47
Meters Down: Uncaged,” $9 million.
7. “Dora and
the Lost City of Gold,” $8.5 million ($6.6 million international).
8. “Once
Upon a Time in Hollywood,” $7.6 million ($53.7 million international).
9. “Blinded
by the Light,” $4.5 million.
10. “Art of
Racing in the Rain,” $4.4 million.
Worldwide Box Office
Estimated
ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at international theaters (excluding the
U.S. and Canada), according to Comscore.
1. “Once
Upon a Time … in Hollywood,” $53.7 million.
2. “Hobbs
& Shaw,” $45.7 million.
3. “Ne Zha,”
$39.5 million.
4. “The Lion
King,” $33.8 million.
5. “The
Angry Birds Movie 2,” $19.4 million.
6. “Bodies at
Rest,” $18.9 million.
7. “The
Bravest,” $15.9 million.
8. “The
Secret Life of Pets 2,” $9.7 million.
9. “The
King’s Avatar: For the Glory,” $9.7 million.
There is nothing quite like sports for creating magical moments, whether that is the underdog overcoming the established champion as we saw in “Rocky” or a team rebuilding against the odds as in “Friday Night Lights.”
We’ve looked through the 00s to pick out three classics which are worth watching again, even if you have seen them before.
Million Dollar Baby
“Rocky” was in a league of its own in the 80s and ever since then, there have been far too many boxing films to remember, many of which have been disappointing. “Million Dollar Baby” does not fall into that category.
Unlike the vast majority of previous boxing films, “Million Dollar Baby” follows the path of a female boxer in a sport.
The popularity of women’s boxing is showing consistent growth. Katie Taylor is a fine example of that. The Irish boxer, who won the WBO light-welterweight title last year, is one of the biggest names in the sport and is headlining arenas.
In “Million Dollar Baby,” aspiring boxer Maggie Fitzgerald gets the help of Frankie Dunn (played by Clint Eastwood) to help her break into the sport. The relationship and bond the pair build with their shared vision is really heart-warming. Naturally, there are a few bumps along the way as most athletes find.
It’s an excellent watch and a film you definitely won’t feel has tried to replicate what Rocky did in the 80s.
Wimbledon
As you could probably guess, “Wimbledon” is a film which is based on a tennis player who is preparing to win the famous Grand Slam tournament in London. There does need to be a full disclaimer here, that if romcoms are not your thing, this is probably not for you.
The main character in this film has been losing his way in the sport, dropping from 11th in the world rankings to 119th. He eventually bumps into a rising female star who helps him recapture his form on the court.
The story is quite believable as we have seen so many magical moments at Wimbledon. Just three years ago, Roger Federer prevailed on the grass for a record eighth time at the age of 35, despite being written off by many pundits. The Swiss should return to SW19 again next year, where he is 9/1 in the latest tennis odds to lift the trophy for the ninth time. More success from the greatest the game has seen should not be ruled out.
You don’t need to be a big tennis fan to enjoy this movie so this is one to stick on next time you are looking for a film to enjoy with your partner.
The Wrestler
“The Wrestler” is not just one of the best sports films of the 2000s; you can make a strong argument for it being an all-time classic.
In the film, we follow a faded professional wrestler, Randy ‘The Ram’ Robinson, in his struggles inside and outside the ring. It is impossible not to have sympathy for The Ram as the film exposes how difficult it can be for ageing athletes in combat sports.
Comebacks are very common inside the ring. Just this year, Mike Tyson announced he is returning to boxing. Although in most cases it is ill-advised to step back between the ropes at that age, Randy shows why former sports stars miss the adrenaline rush they used to get from competing.
You are likely to laugh, cry and watch certain scenes from between your fingers in this excellent storytelling drama which did very well at the box office.
Enjoy all three of the above films. It will be no surprise if you become so engrossed in the stories, you will forget they are fictional at times.
After last weeks Immigration and Customs Enforcement ICE sweep, Google employees have stepped up their demand to be out of the government contract business. Virgin Galactic shows off how space tourism can be a stylish affair while Amazon continues to have false positives with their Rekognition program for police.
Hundreds of
Google employees are calling on the company to pledge it won’t work with U.S.
Customs and Border Protection or Immigration and Customs Enforcement. It’s the
latest in a year full of political and social pushback from the tech giant’s
workforce.
A group of
employees called Googlers for Human Rights posted a public petition urging the
company not to bid on a cloud computing contract for CBP, the federal agency
that oversees law enforcement for the country’s borders. Bids for the contract
were due Aug. 1. It is not clear if Google expressed interest. The company did
not return a request for comment.
More than
900 Google employees had signed the petition by Friday afternoon. Citing a
“system of abuse” and “malign neglect” by the agencies, the petition demands
that Google not provide any technical services to CBP, ICE or the Office of
Refugee Resettlement (ORR), which provides services for refugees, until the
agencies “stop engaging in human rights abuses.”
“In working
with CBP, ICE, or ORR, Google would be trading its integrity for a bit of
profit, and joining a shameful lineage,” the organizers wrote. They cited
federal actions that have separated
migrant children from parents and set up detention centers
with poor conditions.
Google
employees have led a growing trend in which some tech-company employees have
taken public stances against their employers’ policies. Thousands of Google
employees walked out last fall to protest the company’s handling of sexual
misconduct claims. Employees also protested a Pentagon contract last year over
work that used artificial intelligence technology to analyze drone footage.
The protests
have chalked up some victories. After the walkout, Google announced new sexual
misconduct guidelines, although some employees say they don’t go far enough.
And the company did not renew the
Pentagon contract after significant pushback.
Responding
to some employee pressures has added fuel to claims from Republican pundits and
lawmakers that the company is building its products to be biased against
conservatives — an unfounded claim that has spawned multiple congressional
hearings, although none that have produced evidence of bias.
Google was
hit with criticism by President Donald Trump last week when the president
tweeted he was “watching Google very closely” after a former employee claimed
on Fox News — without evidence — that the company would try to influence the
2020 election against Trump.
Google has
denied claims of political bias in its popular search service and other
products.
Virgin Galactic Unveil Inside
Spaceport
America is no longer just a shiny shell of hope that space tourism would one
day launch from this remote spot in the New Mexico desert.
The
once-empty hangar that anchors the taxpayer-financed launch and landing
facility has been transformed into a custom-tailored headquarters where Virgin
Galactic will run its commercial flight operations.
The interior
spaces unveiled Thursday aim to connect paying customers with every aspect of
the operation, providing views of the hangar and the space vehicles as well as
the banks of monitors inside mission control.
Two levels
within the spaceport include mission control, a preparation area for pilots and
a lounge for customers and their friends and families, with each element of the
fit and finish paying homage to either the desert landscape that surrounds the
futuristic outpost or the promise of traveling to the edge of space.
From hotel
rooms to aircraft cabins, the Virgin brand touts its designs for their focus on
the customer experience. Spaceport is no different.
A social hub
includes an interactive digital walkway and a coffee bar made of Italian
marble. On the upper deck, shades of white and gray speak to Virgin Galactic’s
more lofty mission.
Company
officials say the space is meant to create “an unparalleled experience” as
customers prepare for what Virgin Galactic describes as the journey of a
lifetime.
Just how
soon customers will file into Virgin Galactic’s newly outfitted digs for the
first commercial flights to space has yet to be determined. A small number of
test flights are still needed.
“We were the
first company to fly a commercial space ship to space with somebody in the back
who was not a pilot — first time that somebody like that has been able to get
out of their seats and float around the cabin,” Virgin Galactic CEO George
Whitesides said. “So it’s happening. We have a bit more work to do before we
get to commercial service.”
Billionaire
Richard Branson, who is behind Virgin Galactic, and former New Mexico Gov. Bill
Richardson, a Democrat, first pitched the plan for the spaceport nearly 15 years
ago.
There were
construction delays and cost overruns. Virgin Galactic’s spaceship development
took far longer than expected and had a major setback when its first
experimental craft broke apart during a 2014 test flight, killing the co-pilot.
Critics
suggested the project was a boondoggle, but supporters argued that there were
bound to be hard and sometimes costly lessons.
Democratic
state Sen. George Munoz has enduring concerns about the business model for
commercial, low-orbit travel for passengers.
“You can
have all the money in the world and come back and say, ‘Was my 30 seconds of
fame worth that risk?’” he said.
Munoz says
New Mexico’s anticipated return on investment in terms of jobs and visitors is
still overdue, with more than $200 million in public funds spent on Spaceport
America in cooperation with Virgin Galactic as the anchor tenant.
At the
facility Thursday, the carrier plane for Virgin’s rocket-powered passenger ship
made a few passes and touch-and-goes over a runway.
Behind the
spaceport’s signature wall of curved glass, mission control sits on the second
floor with an unobstructed view of the runway and beyond.
There’s also
space behind two massive sliding doors to accommodate two of Virgin Galactic’s
carrier planes and a fleet of six-passenger rocket ships.
Virgin
Galactic posted on social media earlier this week that its main operating base
was now at the spaceport. And Branson said the wing of Virgin’s next rocket
ship has been completed.
Chief Pilot
Dave Mackay said the crew in the coming days will fly simulated launch missions
to ensure in-flight communications and airspace coordination work as planned.
The pilots also will be familiarizing themselves with New Mexico’s airspace and
landmarks.
“New Mexico
is on track to become one of the very few places on this beautiful planet which
regularly launches humans to space,” Mackay said.
Whitesides
said that once the test flights are complete, commercial operations can begin.
He envisions a fundamental shift in humanity’s relationship with space, noting
that fewer than 600 people ever have ventured beyond the Earth’s atmosphere.
“We’re going
to be able to send way more than that to space from this facility here,” he
said. “In another 15 years, I really hope that we’ve had thousands of people
go.”
About 600
people have reserved a seat, according to the company, at a cost of $250,000 a
ticket.
That buys
them a ride on the winged rocket ship, which is dropped in flight from the
carrier airplane. Once free, it fires its rocket motor to hurtle toward the
boundary of space before gliding back down.
The latest
test flight reached an altitude of 56 miles (90 kilometers) while traveling at
three times the speed of sound.
Amazon Face Recognition False Returns For ACLU
Amazon has
announced its facial recognition program used by one Washington state police
agency can now detect emotion, generating concerns from privacy advocates.
KING-TV reported Thursday that Amazon announced
its Rekognition tool has been enhanced to detect basic emotions, including
fear.
Officials
say the American Civil Liberties Union is seeking a delay on police use of the
product without regulation until the implications are discussed.
Amazon says
Rekognition could be used to monitor unsafe online content and find missing persons
on social media.
The ACLU
says it tested the tool by comparing Congress members to a database of mug
shots and found 28 false matches were returned.
Amazon says
the ACLU did not use the tool correctly.
Amazon says
the Washington County Sheriff’s Office is the only agency using it.
After an intense week which put the gun violence issue back on the radar, President Donald Trump presented two sides of himself. One was Teleprompter Trump, who said all the right things, but that quickly changed.
Playing defense, Trump made up facts in the aftermath of two mass shootings and as U.S. businesses braced for a potentially devastating trade war with China.
On trade,
Trump repeatedly exaggerated the benefits of tariffs and sought unfairly to
fault the Federal Reserve — not his own policies — for any weakness in the U.S.
economy. Trump says he will impose new taxes on hundreds of billions of dollars
of Chinese imports on Sept. 1 that are almost certain to inflict pain on
American consumers.
Meanwhile,
former Vice President Joe Biden claimed Trump did nothing on gun control, but
in fact Trump banned bump stocks, a gun attachment deemed legal during the
Obama-Biden administration.
A closer look at the facts:
TRADE
TRUMP: “China wants to make a deal so
badly. Thousands of companies are leaving because of the Tariffs, they must
stem the flow.” — tweet Saturday.
TRUMP: “China is losing so many — they’re
losing — thousands and thousands of companies are leaving China now because of
the tariffs.” — remarks to reporters Wednesday.
THE
FACTS: Not so fast.
It’s true that many companies are rethinking their supply chains in an effort
to dodge Trump’s tariffs on goods from China. Some are moving production to
other countries such as Vietnam and Mexico. But there’s no evidence of a mass
exodus. For one thing, relocating factories takes time — often 12 to 18 months.
For another, it will be hard for multinationals to duplicate what they have in
China — long-standing relationships with Chinese contractors and access to a
vast array of specialized suppliers who can quickly deliver niche components.
Trump is
seeking to intensify
pressure on China to reach a trade deal by saying he will
impose 10% tariffs on the remaining $300 billion in Chinese imports he hasn’t
already taxed.
CHINA MANIPULATION
TRUMP: “China dropped the price of their
currency to an almost a historic low. It’s called ‘currency manipulation.’ Are
you listening Federal Reserve? This is a major violation which will greatly
weaken China over time!” — tweet on Aug. 5.
TRUMP: “China is intent on continuing to
receive the hundreds of Billions of Dollars they have been taking from the U.S.
with unfair trade practices and currency manipulation. So one-sided, it should
have been stopped many years ago!” — tweet on Aug. 5.
THE
FACTS: He’s misrepresenting
the facts.
Trump is
correct to be worried that China may decide to use its currency as a weapon in
its ongoing trade war with the United States. But it is Trump’s own Treasury
Department that had failed to cite China as a currency manipulator in five
reports it had issued since Trump took office in January 2017, even though
Trump promised in the 2016 campaign to do so right away. Treasury’s
surprise move to formally label China a currency manipulator last
Monday came after China allowed its currency, the yuan, to fall below the seven
yuan-to-$1 level for the first time in 11 years. In the following days, China
continued to lower the trading range for the yuan, showing the potential to use
its currency as a weapon in the trade war with the United States.
A weaker
yuan would make Chinese goods less expensive in the United States, potentially
offsetting some of the impact of the tariffs Trump has already imposed on $250
billion in Chinese goods and is threatening to widen to an additional $300
billion in goods next month. Those U.S. tariffs drive up the cost of Chinese
imports to American consumers.
Trump
appeared to blame the Federal Reserve for not taking action against China in the
currency area. In reality, the Treasury’s previous reports had repeatedly said
that China did not meet the requirements established in U.S. law to be branded
a currency manipulator. Under U.S. law, the Federal Reserve plays no role in
deciding whether countries are unfairly manipulating their currencies.
In its
announcement, the Treasury Department contended that the real purpose of
“China’s currency devaluation is to gain unfair competitive advantage in
international trade.” It was the first time Treasury put China on the currency
blacklist since 1994.
The
administration’s surprise announcement raised
questions about what exactly had changed from the Treasury’s last
report issued in May that said China did not meet the criteria to be labeled a
currency manipulator.
FEDERAL RESERVE
TRUMP: “As your President, one would think
that I would be thrilled with our very strong dollar. I am not!” — tweet
Thursday.
TRUMP: “The Fed’s high interest rate level,
in comparison to other countries, is keeping the dollar high, making it more
difficult for our great manufacturers like Caterpillar, Boeing …. John Deere,
our car companies, & others, to compete on a level playing field. With
substantial Fed Cuts (there is no inflation) and no quantitative tightening,
the dollar will make it possible for our companies to win against competition.”
— tweet Thursday.
THE
FACTS: The president
is oversimplifying the Fed’s role in determining the dollar’s value and failing
to take into account possible threats to the country from a weaker dollar.
Trump is
correct that U.S. interest rates play a role in determining the value of the
dollar against other currencies. Higher U.S. rates tend to attract foreign
investors who want to earn higher rates of return on dollar-denominated
investments and this does push the dollar’s value higher.
The Fed cut
its key short-term rate by a quarter-point last week, its first reduction in
more than a decade. But the Fed’s action in setting its short-term rate is only
one factor influencing the dollar’s value.
U.S.
economic growth also plays a major role. Investors have pushed up the value of
the dollar because they are attracted to U.S. assets since America’s economy is
growing faster than most other major economies.
And Trump’s
drumbeat for a lower dollar ignores the threats that could be posed if the
dollar were to weaken significantly. That could spark higher inflation in this
country and push interest rates up as foreign buyers of Treasury bonds to fund
the government’s $22 trillion debt demand a higher return to guard against the
devaluation of the dollar.
GUN VIOLENCE
TRUMP: “We must stop the glorification of
violence in our society. This includes the gruesome and grisly video games that
are now commonplace. It is too easy today for troubled youth to surround
themselves with a culture that celebrates violence.” — remarks on Aug. 5.
THE
FACTS: There is no
scientific link between video games and mass violence.
Some studies
show a short-term increase in aggressive thoughts and feelings after playing
video games, but nothing that rises to the level of violence.
In 2006, a
small study by Indiana University researchers found that teenagers who played
violent video games showed higher levels of emotional arousal but less activity
in the parts of the brain associated with the ability to plan, control and
direct thoughts and behavior.
“Plenty of
gamers and get upset when they lose or feel the game was ‘cheating,’ but it
doesn’t lead to violent outputs,” said Benjamin Burroughs, a professor of
emerging media at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.
Patrick
Markey, a psychology professor at Villanova University who focuses on video
games, found in his research that men who commit severe acts of violence
actually play violent video games less than the average male. About 20% were
interested in violent video games, compared with 70% of the general population,
he said.
Another
study by Markey and his colleagues showed that violence tends to dip when a new
violent movie or video game comes out, possibly because people are at home
playing the game or in theaters watching the movie.
Trump’s
recent statements assigning blame to the video game industry were more reserved
compared with his last brush with the subject in 2018, when he called video
games “vicious” and summoned game-industry executives to meet at the White
House, to little lasting effect.
GUN LEGISLATION
TRUMP, on prospects for gun control
legislation: “There’s a great appetite — and I mean a very strong appetite —
for background checks. And I think we can bring up background checks like we’ve
never had before. I think both Republican and Democrat are getting close to a
bill on — they’re doing something on background checks.” — remarks to reporters
Wednesday before departing for Dayton, Ohio, and El Paso, Texas.
THE
FACTS: He’s
overstating the level of political will for gun control measures.
Passage of a
background checks bill in the Senate remains far from certain. Support for a
bipartisan background checks measure co-sponsored by Republican Sen. Pat Toomey
of Pennsylvania and Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia reached a high
point with a 2013 vote after the Sandy Hook shooting, but it fell short of the
60 votes needed to advance.
Senate
Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, under pressure to call senators back to
Washington from their summer recess to work on gun measures, said Thursday that
he hopes to consider legislation to expand federal background checks when
Congress returns in the fall. He said he wants to spend the August recess
talking with senators to see what’s possible.
Two other
gun bills have passed the House this year but languished in the
Republican-controlled Senate. One of them would require federal background
checks for all firearms sales and transfers, including those online or at gun
shows. The second bill allows an expanded 10-day review for gun purchases.
With gun
control legislation stalled, some senators have pushed for a bipartisan
proposal to create a federal grant program to encourage states to adopt “red
flag” laws to take guns away from people believed to be a danger to themselves
or others. But it remains to be seen if such a law could pass Congress.
BIDEN ON TRUMP GUN
BIDEN, Democratic presidential candidate:
Trump is “doing nothing — nothing about the endemic and epidemic of guns that
is fueling a literal carnage in America.” — remarkED
Wednesday in Burlington, Iowa.
THE
FACTS: He’s wrong
that Trump did absolutely nothing on gun control
A nationwide
ban took effect in March on bump stocks, the attachment used by the gunman in
the 2017 Las Vegas massacre to make his weapons fire rapidly like machine guns.
The Bureau
of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives outlawed the attachments at
Trump’s direction after the shootings killed more than 50 people in the
deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history. It is the only major gun
restriction imposed by the federal government in the past few years.
The Trump
administration’s move was an about-face for the bureau. In 2010, under the
Obama-Biden administration, it found that the devices were legal. But under the
Trump administration, officials revisited that determination and found it
incorrect.
After the
Las Vegas shootings, the National Rifle Association initially said “devices
designed to allow semi-automatic rifles to function like fully-automatic rifles
should be subject to additional regulations.” After the bureau’s ruling banning
the devices, however, the gun lobby called it “disappointing” and said it
should have provided amnesty for gun owners who already have bump stocks.
The
government estimates that more than 500,000 bump stocks were sold after they
were legalized in 2010.
GUN RESTRICTIONS
TRUMP, on gun restrictions: “We have done
much more than most administrations. …We’ve done, actually, a lot.” — remarks
on Aug. 4 to reporters.
THE
FACTS: Trump’s
record on gun control is not groundbreaking.
Congress has
proved unable to pass substantial gun violence legislation, despite the
frequency of mass shootings, in large part because of resistance from
Republicans, particularly in the GOP-controlled Senate. That political dynamic
seems difficult to change.
It’s true
that after other mass shootings Trump called for strengthening the federal
background check system, and in 2018, he signed legislation to increase federal
agency data sharing. In December 2018, the Trump administration also banned
bump stocks.
But he has
rolled back restrictions, reneged on pledges and resisted Democratic calls to
toughen other gun control laws.
Within weeks
of taking office, Trump scrapped a federal rule imposed by Obama that could
have made it harder for some mentally ill people to own guns. Under the rule,
the Social Security Administration was supposed to provide information to the
gun-buying background check system on recipients with a mental disorder so
severe they cannot work or handle their own benefit checks. The rule didn’t
make certain people ineligible to buy a firearm but was designed to ensure the
background check system was comprehensive.
In February,
the House approved bipartisan legislation to require federal background checks
for all gun sales and transfers and approved legislation to allow a review
period of up to 10 days for background checks on firearms purchases. The White
House threatened a presidential veto if those measures passed Congress.
At a
February meeting with survivors and family members of the 2018 Parkland,
Florida, school shooting in which 17 people died, Trump promised to be “very
strong on background checks.” Trump claimed he would stand up to the gun lobby
and finally get results in quelling gun violence. But he later retreated,
expressing support for modest changes to the federal background check system
and for arming teachers.
Some
Democrats have called for stronger measures such as renewing a federal ban on
assault weapons, which was put in place during the Clinton administration
before it expired under President George W. Bush. Trump has shown no interest
in embracing that issue.
MENTAL HEALTH
TRUMP: “We must reform our mental health
laws to better identify mentally disturbed individuals who may commit acts of
violence and make sure those people not only get treatment, but, when
necessary, involuntary confinement.” — remarks on Aug. 5.
THE
FACTS: His words
don’t match his past actions.
Trump’s
budgets would have slashed the federal-state Medicaid program, which provides
health insurance for more than 70 million low-income and disabled people and is
also the major source of public funds for mental health treatment.
Such
proposals failed to advance in Congress, even when both chambers were under
Republican control.
The
president’s 2020 budget does call for some spending increases on smaller mental
health programs, including an increase of $15 million, for a total of $107
million, to expand school-based programs. The Parkland shootings last year at a
Florida high school heightened sensitivity to the mental health needs of
students.
But such
increases for specific programs pale in comparison with the impact of Medicaid
cuts. This year Trump again proposed to turn the program over to the states,
limiting future federal financing. That would have led to a cut of about $1.4
trillion over 10 years from currently projected levels of federal spending.
The
administration says that’s not really a cut, since spending would have
continued to grow, just more slowly. But limits on federal financing would have
forced states to confront hard choices over competing priorities like mental
health or addiction treatment, nursing home costs or prenatal care for low-income
women.
As a
candidate, Trump had originally promised that he would not cut Medicaid.
JOBS
TRUMP: “I am the least racist person. Black
… Unemployment is the lowest (BEST) in the history of the United States!” —
tweet Tuesday.
THE
FACTS: Trump is
seeking credit he doesn’t deserve for black job growth.
It’s true
that black unemployment did reach a record low during the Trump administration:
5.9% in May 2018. It currently stands at 6%.
But many
economists view the continued economic growth since the middle of 2009, when
Obama was in office, as the primary explanation for hiring. More important,
there are multiple signs that the racial wealth gap is now worsening and the
administration appears to have done little, if anything, to specifically address
this challenge.
The most
dramatic drop in black unemployment came under Obama, when it fell from a
recession high of 16.8% in March 2010 to 7.8% in January 2017.
Dwayne
Johnson and Jason Statham topped the box office charts for a second week with “Hobbs
& Shaw,” but the Guillermo del Toro produced horror film “Scary Stories to
Tell in the Dark,” was the big winner of the weekend. It came as a surprise to
many as “The Lion King” or “Dora and the Lost City of Gold” were expected to give
the franchise film some serious competition, but a horrifying scarecrow took over
exceeding studio expectations. It appeared on 1,200 less screens than “Hobbs
& Shaw,” but that didn’t stop it from chomping at their heels.
Audiences
helped the “Fast & Furious” spinoff “Hobbs & Shaw” take another lap at
No. 1 even with an onslaught of four new major releases this weekend. From
family films to R-rated adult fare, moviegoers had their pick as studios tried
to capitalize on the waning days of summer. But although August can be a great
opportunity for non-superhero films, it’s not a sure thing. And this weekend
some, such as “Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark,” fared better than others,
like the Melissa McCarthy and Tiffany Haddish mob thriller “The Kitchen.”
“There are
always going to be casualties when there are this many openers,” said Paul
Dergarabedian, the senior media analyst for box office tracker Comscore. “They
cannot always be lined up in the top four rankings.”
“Hobbs &
Shaw” managed to hold on to first place again. According to estimates from
Universal Pictures Sunday, the Dwayne Johnson and Jason Statham action flick
fell 58% from its first weekend but added $25.2 million from North American
theaters. It’s now grossed
$108.4 million domestically and $331.7 million worldwide.
Second place
went to the PG-13 film “Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark,” from CBS Films and
eOne Entertainment, which cut through the clutter with a better than expected
$20.9 million. Lionsgate distributed the Guillermo del Toro-produced horror
which had been tracking to open in the mid-teens. With a production budget of
under $30 million, it’s easily on track to be a modest summer hit.
Directed by André Ovredal, “Scary
Stories to Tell in the Dark” weaves Schwartz’s tales into a narrative set in
1968, with Vietnam and Richard Nixon framing the story of a set of young
characters (played by Zoe Colletti, Gabriel Rush, Austin Zajur and Michael
Garza) who steal a book from a haunted house and set off many a horrific
occurrence. Some of the illustrations by Stephen Gammell that peppered the
original books have been brought to life in the movie, through characters like
a grotesque scarecrow.
“The
filmmakers and the team at CBS Films are thrilled that moviegoers are embracing
the world of ‘Scary Stories,’” del Toro said in a statement Sunday. “It’s particularly
satisfying to see families experiencing the fun of the movie together.”
Good
reviews helped raise its profile, although audiences were more underwhelmed
after the fact, slapping it with a C CinemaScore.
Dergarabedian
noted that, even with a PG-13 rating, horror movies once again prove to be, “a
consistent draw at the box office.”
Close
behind in third was “The Lion King” with $20.2 million in its fifth weekend
in theaters. With $1.3 billion globally, it’s now surpassed “Beauty and the
Beast” as Disney’s highest-grossing “live-action” release.
Newcomer “Dora and the Lost City of Gold,” from Paramount Pictures, found a healthy audience too, earning $17.4 million for a fourth-place start. Starring Isabela Moner, “Dora,” based on the popular television series, also got good reviews from critics and audiences, who gave it an A CinemaScore. With fairly strong reviews (81 percent on Rotten Tomatoes) and the name recognition of a successful Nickelodeon series, the movie looked like it had a shot at dethroning “The Lion King” for biggest family movie going into the weekend. But it instead landed in fourth place.
And in fifth
place, Quentin Tarantino’s star-vehicle “Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood” added
$11.6 million and crossed the $100 million mark.
But not all
the newcomers were so lucky. The dog owner tearjerker “The Art of Racing in the
Rain,” with Milo Ventimiglia, opened in sixth place with $8.1 million. The Fox
2000 property was inherited by Disney in the takeover.
And the
’70s-set McCarthy and Haddish crime thriller “The Kitchen” flopped in seventh
with only $5.5 million. Based on an obscure Vertigo comic, the film from first
time director Andrea Berloff (an Oscar-nominated screenwriter) features both
McCarthy and Haddish in more dramatic roles. But critics were not impressed:
The film currently has a dismal 20% on Rotten Tomatoes and audiences also
largely stayed away.
Warner Bros.
distribution head Jeff Goldstein said that they were “very disappointed” with
the results.
“I think
that the filmmakers took a very bold approach to their choice with the movie
and I think it just didn’t resonate with the viewers,” Goldstein said. “The
good news is the movie was a fairly low-budgeted film.”
Audiences
also had a slew of new limited releases to choose between: The BTS concert film
“Bring the Soul: The Movie,” which earned $2.3 million from only 873 locations;
“Brian Banks,” based on the real story of a false accusation that upends a
promising football star’s life which debuted in 1,240 locations and earned $2.1
million; “The Peanut Butter Falcon,” with Shia LaBeouf and Dakota Johnson,
which earned $205,236 from 17 locations; and “After the Wedding,” with Michelle
Williams and Julianne Moore ($57,124 from five locations).
Still, the weekend is down 10.2% and the year continues to lag 6.3% too.
“Audiences
are confounded by the number of newcomers,” Dergarabedian said. “There was so
much overlap with all of these titles.”
But the
marketplace is already looking ahead to the fall and the release of “It Chapter
Two.”
“It’s going
to feel like summer in September when ‘It’ opens,” Dergarabedian said.
Dora and the Lost City of Gold, The Art of Racing in the Rain, Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, The Kitchen
North America Box Office
Actual
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. “Fast
& Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw,” $25.3 million ($60.8 million
international).
2. “Scary
Stories to Tell in the Dark,” $20.9 million ($2.5 million international).
3. “The Lion
King,” $20.2 million ($51.4 million international).
4. “Dora and
the Lost City of Gold,” $17.4 million ($2.5 million international).
5. “Once
Upon a Time…in Hollywood,” $11.7 million ($7.7 million international).
6. “The Art
of Racing in the Rain,” $8.1 million ($1.1 million international).
7. “The
Kitchen,” $5.5 million.
8. “Spider-Man:
Far From Home,” $5.3 million ($5.3 million international).
9. “Toy
Story 4,” $4.5 million ($9.7 million international).
10. “Bring
the Soul: The Movie,” $2.4 million ($5.9 million international).
Worldwide Box Office
Actual
ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at international theaters (excluding the
U.S. and Canada), according to Comscore:
Mozilla Firefox is a powerful web browser. Many users choose this browser for its smooth performance. However, specific problems may arise due to the cache. In this article, you will learn how to clear the cache in Mozilla Firefox browser. Clearing cache should be done regularly to speed up your browsing experience. As soon as you download mozilla firefox and start surfing online, your browser will contain the cache, which is saved copies the new web pages. It happens so that when you visit the web page the next time, Mozilla Firefox will load it directly from the saved copy. It makes loading much faster. However, it may happen that Firefox does not update caches. If some of the caches files are corrupted, the browsing experience may be slow.
How to clear cache files?
You should follow
our instructions to clear the cache from the Mozilla Firefox browser. It’s a
fast and straightforward process that you will complete a minute. Note that the
process of removing temporary files is safe, and no data will be removed from
your computer.
Start with opening the Mozilla Firefox web browser.
Press the “Menu” button and then click on “Options.”
3. If you do not see “Options” in the Firefox menu, you must press “Customize” and drag “Options” from the “Additional Tools and Features” list. Alternatively, you can use the menu bar, press “Tools,” and then “Options.”
4. Press “Privacy & Security.’
5. Find the “History” section and press the “Clear History” button.
6. Users who do not see the link should use the “Remember history” option. Once you are done, you can come back to the custom settings.
7. Set the command “Time range to clear: to Everything in the Clear Recent History.” Now, you have just deleted all the cached files from your Firefox browsing history. When needed, you can delete other stored data, for example, Firefox browsing history. You just need to check the boxes. If you do not see where you can check the boxes, press the arrow which you will find next to “Details” and press the “Clear Now” button.
Clear All History
After following
these steps, you will see the “Clear All History” window disappears. This means
that you have removed all of the cached files from the internet browsing
activities in the Firefox browser. Pay attention to the size of your internet
cache. If it is quite big, Firefox may get hanged during this process. Let the
system to finish the job and restart the browser.
Useful
recommendations on removing the Cache from Firefox browser
If you are an
experienced PC and internet user, you can save time removing the cache files
using advanced methods and shortcuts.
We recommend you to
update your Mozilla Firefox browser regularly. However, all the older versions
of Firefox have more or less the same processes for removing the cached files.
To remove the
cache, you can use the “Ctrl+Shift+Delete” combination on your PC keyboard.
In case you are not
going to remove absolutely all the cache files which are stored by Firefox, you
should choose a different time range. It is possible to select either “Last
Hour”/”Last Two Hours”/”Last Four Hours”/”Today.” Mozilla Firefox will remove the
cache within the desired time frame.
Last week, Fortnite
superstar Tyler “Ninja” Blevins made headlines around the world when he
announced he was leaving Twitch taking his video game live streams to
Microsoft’s Mixer platform, a stunning switch that could have wide-ranging
consequences for the rapidly growing industry.
Mixer wisely offered a free subscription which helped the Ninja shatter all subscriber records. Mixer, like Twitch, enables viewers to watch for free (the platform calls these types of viewers ‘followers’), and also enables fans to subscribe to channels for a $6 monthly fee (the subscription fee on Twitch is typically $5 per month). As with Twitch, Mixer’s subscribers receive special perks, like custom emoticons to be used in the chat window and ad-free viewing.
Now, Ninja has
accumulated 815,000 followers and over 1 million subscribers — clocking the
records six days after his announcement, and after just five days of streaming,
(three of which took place at Red Bull-sponsored setup at famed music festival Lollapalooza). The subscriber count isn’t a
public-facing stat, but one Blevins confirmed on Twitter. “I haven’t felt this good in a long time,” he
wrote of the achievement.
Impressive though it
may seem, the number is at least in part due to the fact that Mixer is giving
away free one-month Ninja subscriptions in order to herald Blevins’ arrival.
Before he had even gone live on the platform, he had already amassed 250,000
subscribers, Dexerto reports,
though it remains to be seen whether Blevins’ subscriber count will drop off in
a month’s time, when subscribers will actually have to furnish payment.
Dexerto notes that 47 cents from each subscription cover
transaction fees from Paypal and Stripe, meaning that Blevins has driven roughly $5.5 million in
subscription revenues to date. It is unclear how much of these earnings he
shares with Mixer.
While these
are impressive numbers, it still remains to be seen how they can be sustained over
the long haul. It will be interesting to see if and how he sustains a healthy
rate of growth over the next several months and what his cross-posting strategy
to other platforms looks like as the initial fanfare and PR push wears off.
At least
one outlet speculates Ninja’s contract with Mixer comes in at
around $6 to $8 million per year for three years (which make sense considering
he was pulling
in at least $500,000 a month from Twitch subscribers in early 2018.)
If so, it’s a savvy move considering Ninja’s brand appeal and the fact his
numbers are still crazy high, but down from the peaks he enjoyed at the height
of his popularity.
As the
excitement and demand for Fortnite is lessoning, his 350 million cross-platform
views in July 2019, while impressive, has been in a slow decline. From it’s
peak of 9 billion cross-platform views in September 2018, Fortnite videos have dropped
to around 6.3 billion views in June 2019.
Blevins announced his move last week, ending a
hugely profitable partnership with Twitch, a live streaming giant owned by
Amazon.
“I’m
incredibly grateful for the opportunities Twitch has provided me,” Blevins told
media outlets. “But as I looked at the next step in my career, I wanted to be
somewhere that empowered me to push the boundaries of gaming and achieve bigger
goals within the industry. Mixer provides me with more ways to connect with my
community.”
Blevins has
earned millions broadcasting himself playing Fortnite and other video games on
Twitch and YouTube. He has over 14 million followers on Twitch, and the
platform has hosted many of his pioneering esports moments, including a
Fortnite event in March 2018 featuring rappers Drake and Travis Scott and
football player JuJu Smith-Schuster that propelled the game into a full-blown
cultural phenomenon. He also has over 22 million subscribers
on YouTube, 14 million on Instagram and 4.4 million on Twitter.
Blevins even
broke a Twitch record last year by attracting over 600,000 concurrent viewers
Those
followers are worth a lot of money for Blevins. In September, his manager and
wife, Jess Blevins, told CNBC Make It he was making nearly $1
million per month, and on Monday, Blevins told CNN that he earned almost $10
million in 2018 by streaming himself playing “Fortnite” on Twitch and posting
videos YouTube. The two sites account for roughly 70 percent of his income,
Blevins told CNN.
The rest of
his earnings come from a growing list of sponsors that includes
Samsung, Red Bull and Uber Eats.
Epic Games’
“Fortnite” exploded onto the scene at the end of 2017, and Blevins was one of
the game’s best players and most active streamers from the jump. Essentially,
he became one of the most recognizable faces associated with “Fortnite,” which
itself has grown into a multibillion-dollar
behemoth.
Blevins hosted
his first Mixer live stream last Friday from Lollapalooza, the four-day music
festival in Chicago. The 28-year-old publicly invited Kyle “Bugha” Giersdorf —
the 16-year-old who earned $3 million Sunday for winning the inaugural Fortnite
World Cup — to join him. Blevins said he will not actively recruit other gamers
to leave their current platform, but if more streamers follow him to Mixer, it
could become a legitimate competitor in a market dominated by Twitch. This
clocked over 610,000 views on Facebook alone.
“I want my
friends to make their own decisions for what platforms they choose to play on,”
Blevins said. “With that being said, I will welcome anyone with open arms who
wants to join me.”
In a
statement to media outlets, Twitch said, “We’ve loved watching Ninja on Twitch
over the years and are proud of all that he’s accomplished for himself and his
family, and the gaming community. We wish him the best of luck in his future
endeavors.”
Mixer
launched in 2016 but hasn’t nearly matched Twitch’s popularity — Microsoft
reported 10 million monthly users last year, compared to well over 100 million
for Twitch, which launched in 2011. Mixer has been praised for its interface
and its management of toxic players, though, and Blevins said he expects to
connect to fans with “more interactivity and variety than before” because of
Mixer’s technological abilities — for example, streamers can share their controller
with fans, and the chat function has a greater array of features. Blevins also
anticipates the deal with Mixer will free him up to do more live events and
other non-streaming content.
“I love what
I do and will still be actively streaming and continuing to interact with my
fans,” he said. “With Mixer, I get to further engage with the tools on the
platform, which I am excited about.”
Within 40
minutes of the announcement, Mixer was the top trending topic on Twitter in the
United States, and Ninja’s Mixer page had over 28,000 subscribers.
Blevins
first emerged in the streaming community eight years ago while playing Halo.
After some competitive success with battle royale games H1Z1 and
PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, he broke into the mainstream as the face of
Fortnite last year. He’s the most followed gamer on Twitch, although his
popularity has slowed. He ranked fourth in hours watched on the platform in
June, about 6 million hours behind Turner “Tfue” Tenney, according to
StreamElements.
Blevins
routinely broadcasts with other pro gamers, including friends Ben “DrLupo”
Lupo, Jack “CouRage” Dunlop and Tim “TimtheTatman” Betar. He’s been criticized
for not inviting more female players into his streams, and that intensified
when he told Polygon last year that his concern was “if there’s a hint of
flirting, that is going to be taken and going to be put on every single video
and be clickbait forever.” Blevins married in 2017.
Blevins said
that at Mixer, “I will do my part to ensure I am helping to create a fun and
welcoming community,” and that includes playing with female gamers.
“I will play
with any gamer who loves gaming as much as I do,” he said.
Blevins has
famously had his wife, Jessica, manage his business during his gaming career,
but he’s expanded the operation by adding Loaded management group and law firm
Loeb & Loeb. That team is banking that Blevins’ immense fan base will
follow him to a new platform. Mixer streams online and also via Microsoft’s
Xbox consoles, and Fortnite is popular on the Xbox, which should help. Loaded
CEO Brandon Freytag believes Blevins’ clout will bring fans to Mixer, calling
him “the Michael Jordan of gaming.”
“We are
working toward Tyler being synonymous in every household, so if you know
gaming, you know Tyler,” Freytag said.
The move to
Mixer is one of a few changes for Blevins this year. He’s also attempting to
branch beyond the digital space, starting by authoring three books that will be
published later this year, including a how-to on streaming video games and a
graphic novel.
“It is the
ability to achieve bigger goals in gaming and further expand my own personal
brand within the industry,” Blevins said.
There is
still plenty of interest around Fortnite, but gaming attention spans drift, so
figuring out what the next big thing is high on the list for both Mixer and the
Ninja.
Many powerful men in the world may be exhaling a little as news broke that Jeffrey Epstein has committed suicide in prison before being able to go trial and face his accusers. You can be sure conspiracy theorists will be jumping on this for decades.
If we were living in a paranoid fantasy universe, I would be very suspicious about the Epstein suicide, even about whether it was really suicide. And you know what? The Epstein case itself shows that we *are* kind of living in a paranoid fantasy universe
Epstein, the financier who was long dogged by accusations of sexual abuse of girls and who was able to cultivate a stream of high-profile friends despite his lurid lifestyle, killed himself in his Manhattan jail cell, two law enforcement officials said on Saturday.
Mr. Epstein hanged
himself, the officials said. He was found at roughly 6:30 a.m. Saturday at the
Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan and was taken to a hospital,
where he was pronounced dead, the federal Bureau of Prisons said in a
statement.
Last month, a week after
being denied bail on federal sex trafficking charges, Mr. Epstein was found unconscious in his cell at the
jail with marks on his neck. Prison officials had been investigating that
incident as a possible suicide attempt.
Mr. Epstein
was housed in a special unit with extra security, the Bureau of Prisons said,
but it was not immediately clear whether he had been under suicide watch or
whether the authorities had put in additional safeguards after the earlier
incident.The
Federal Bureau of Investigation will examine Mr. Epstein’s death, the Bureau of
Prisons said.
Atty. Gen.
William Barr said he was “appalled” by Epstein’s death.
“Mr. Epstein’s death
raises serious questions that must be answered,” Barr said. “In
addition to the FBI’s investigation, I have consulted with the Inspector
General who is opening an investigation into the circumstances of Mr. Epstein’s
death.”
Manhattan federal prosecutors last month charged
Mr. Epstein, 66, with
sex trafficking of girls as young as 14. The indictment renewed attention
toward how Mr. Epstein — who had opulent homes, a private jet and access
to elite circles —
had escaped severe punishment in an earlier investigation into his abuse of
girls more than a decade ago in Florida.
He had avoided federal criminal charges in 2008 after
prosecutors brokered a widely criticized deal that allowed him to plead
guilty to state charges of solicitation of prostitution from a minor and serve
13 months in jail. Even while in custody, Mr. Epstein was allowed to leave the
jail for 12 hours a day, six days a week, to work at his office in Florida.
The new federal
indictment also focused scrutiny on an array of luminaries in government,
politics, business, academia, science and fashion with whom Mr. Epstein had
associated over the years, including Donald J. Trump, Bill Clinton, Prince Andrew of Britain and the
retail billionaire Leslie Wexner.
Mr. Epstein’s defense team
— the lawyers Reid Weingarten, Marty Weinberg and Michael Miller — declined to
comment on his cause of death. “We are enormously sorry to learn of today’s
news. No one should die in jail,” they said in a statement.
Mr. Epstein’s death brought an
abrupt end to a prosecution that his accusers had hoped would finally shed
light on how he had been allowed to commit what they said was a string of
depraved crimes for so many years — and what role his wealth, privilege and
connections played.
“We have to live with the scars of his actions for the
rest of our lives, while he will never face the consequences of the crimes he
committed — the pain and trauma he caused so many people,” Ms. Araoz said. She
said she hoped investigators would pursue charges against people who aided and
protected Mr. Epstein.
A cache of previously sealed legal documents, released
on Friday by a federal appeals court, had provided new, disturbing details about what was going
on inside Mr. Epstein’s homes and how his associates recruited young women and
girls, including from a Florida high school.
The documents — among the most expansive sets of
materials publicly disclosed in the 13 years since Mr. Epstein was first
charged with sex crimes — include depositions, police incident reports,
photographs, receipts, flight logs and even a memoir written by Virginia
Giuffre, who said she was a sex trafficking victim of Mr. Epstein and his
acquaintances.
Prosecutors said in their indictment that he and his
employees engaged in a scheme to bring girls as young as 14 to both his Upper
East Side mansion and his palatial waterfront home in Palm Beach, Fla., between
2002 and 2005.
He pleaded not guilty to the charges. If convicted, he
would have faced up to 45 years in prison.
Mr.
Epstein had initially sought home detention at his Upper East Side mansion
while he awaited trial. His lawyers had proposed allowing Mr. Epstein to post a substantial bond and stay in his luxurious
seven-story townhouse, watched by 24-hour security guards, at his expense.
But a federal judge denied the request, concluding that Mr. Epstein was a flight risk, citing his
“vast wealth,” which prosecutors have placed at more than $500 million.
Mr. Epstein,
a former money manager with Wall Street experience, depicted himself as a
wealthy financier with stellar investment savvy.
In addition to his homes in Florida and New York, he
also owned a private island in the United States Virgin Islands, a massive
ranch in New Mexico and a residence in Paris. He had numerous high-end vehicles
and access to private planes and helicopters.
Mr. Epstein’s younger brother, Mark, was his “only
living immediate family member,” according to a memo filed in federal court
last month by Mr. Epstein’s lawyers. The memo described the pair as close.
Even after he served time in a Florida jail a decade
ago and became a registered sex offender, Mr. Epstein successfully maintained
a reputation as a
billionaire investor, philanthropist and sophist.
Still,
in the time since Mr. Epstein’s arrest last month, evidence has suggested that
the former money manager’s business acumen was more
myth than fact. His client
list was not as extensive as
believed, and the services he offered were less remarkable than once portrayed.Earlier
this week, perhaps Mr. Epstein’s most notable client, Mr.
Wexner, the executive
behind Victoria’s Secret and Bath & Body Works, accused Mr. Epstein of
misappropriating “vast sums of money” from him and his family.
Mr. Epstein’s recent arrest prompted renewed scrutiny
of his longstanding connections to prominent executives on Wall Street, in the
corporate world and even the scientific community.
Some Wall Street titans found themselves forced to
answer questions as to why they either continued to socialize or do business
with Mr. Epstein after his 2008 conviction. They included the private equity
billionaire Leon Black, the longtime banking executive Jes
Staley and the hedge fund manager Glenn Dubin.
The executives all said they had no idea he had
engaged in sex trafficking and had sought to minimize their contacts with Mr.
Epstein in recent years.
Also drawing attention were a number of big
universities — Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
— that had accepted large contributions from foundations established by Mr.
Epstein, even after his 2008 conviction, which required him to register as a
sex offender.
The contributions to the universities and scientists
at those schools were part of a campaign by Mr. Epstein to polish his image
and get himself back into the good graces of the academic and corporate elite.
But
even as Mr. Epstein was going about trying to rebrand himself, he continued to
peddle in ideas that should have given some reason to pause.A
number of scientists said he showed an interest in biogenetic engineering and
discussed a plan to seed the human race with his DNA by having young women impregnated at his Zorro
Ranch in New Mexico.
There is no indication that Mr. Epstein ever took any
steps toward carrying out those plans, but some in the scientific world
continued to meet with him and take his money.
Much of the wealth Mr. Epstein did amass can be
attributed to his work for one man: Mr. Wexner, the billionaire real
estate magnate, whose L Brands company developed iconic brands like Victoria’s
Secret and the Limited.
Mr. Wexner, 81 was Mr. Epstein’s biggest client. And in
1991, Mr. Wexner gave Mr. Epstein vast and unfettered authority to manage his
personal fortune for roughly 16 years.
Managing Mr. Wexner’s fortune enabled Mr. Epstein to
become hugely wealthy himself and gave him the Wall Street bona fides he needed
to seek business from other corporate executives.
Along the way, Mr. Epstein would acquire a mansion on
Manhattan’s Upper East Side that had once belonged to Mr. Wexner. He would also
obtain a Boeing 727 jet from Mr. Wexner.
The
money he made working for Mr. Wexner enabled Mr. Epstein to buy his own island
in the United States Virgin Islands — where he relocated much of his financial
advisory business in 1999.Mr.
Wexner has said he severed all ties to Mr. Epstein in late 2007. Just this
week, he said in a letter to his charitable foundation that he learned in 2007
that Mr. Epstein had misappropriated vast sums from him.
But Mr. Wexner apparently never notified authorities
of the suspected misappropriation — even though Mr. Epstein was at the time
being investigated in Florida for engaging in sex with underage girls.
Mr. Wexner has said he was horrified to learn of the
new charges against his longtime financial adviser. But the real estate magnate
has not fully explained why he gave Mr. Epstein such wide-ranging discretion to
manage his financial affairs.
Casino gaming is a longstanding tradition that will never get old. It will, however, change with the times as it has in the past. Let’s take a short look at the evolution of casino games, from their analog past to their digital future.
Where Did the Casino Game Come From?
It is difficult to put a real date on the concept of gaming, as people have been gambling on the outcome of events since before recorded history. According to some researchers, the earliest forms of gambling may have been established around 2300 BC.
The first modern casino, some researchers agree, showed up in Venice around 1638. This European gambling house was known as the Ridotto. However, it was not specifically known as a casino. It did serve the same general purpose and was officially established by the Great Council of Venice to control the outlandish gambling that happened during the wild Carnival season.
What are the Oldest Casino Games?
Although modern casinos have a plethora of games that change quite often, there are a few games that have definitely stood the test of time. The following are the five oldest casino games as researched by many gaming experts:
Craps
Craps – Sir William of Tyre invented the oldest known casino game circa 1125 A.D. during the Crusades. After coming across a castle called Hazarth, he and his troops would play a game called Hazard, named specifically after the castle. However, other researchers think that the game actually originated from an Arabic dice game that made its way to Europe through traveling merchants.
Slots
Slots – Who could imagine a real-life or Casumo online casino without slots? The time was 1891, the place was Brooklyn, New York, and the people were Sittman and Pitt. These two enterprising gentlemen based their game on poker and created an early version of the slot machine with five drums and 50 cards. The machine allowed people to insert a nickel and pull a lever. If the machine showed a good poker hand, the player won drinks and cigarettes, not money.
Blackjack
Blackjack – This game centers around 21 because it actually derives from another game that was officially known as Twenty One (or Ventiuna). Miguel de Cervantes was the First European to mention the game, and he actually used it in some of his stories. Historians found that people have been playing the game since the beginning of the 17th century.
Roulette
Roulette – Roulette comes from ancient Roman culture, from soldiers who spun their chariot wheels and betting on them in a way that is similar to the way the roulette wheel is spun today. However, the modern version of the game started in France with the famous mathematician Blaise Pascal.
Poker
Poker – Poker is closely aligned with the
development of commercial gambling and dates back to the English actor Joseph
Crowell and 1829. He was in New Orleans when he saw a game similar to modern
poker being played by four players around the table with a deck of 20 cards.
The Digital Casino
As gaming spread across Europe and other
locations, gaming halls began popping up to accommodate the demand. This trend
made its way to the Internet as people began to play text poker and other games
of chance on message boards. The first official digital casino was created in
1994, and now digital casinos comprise about half of the entire gaming market’s
revenues. Bingo and poker followed suit, with the first website for both those
games being created in 1998.
By 2024, the global market for online gaming
is expected to reach in excess of $94 billion. This is a full doubling of the
industry since 2017. The expansion of the industry is built on higher
proliferation of the Internet in rural areas around the world and higher
saturation of digital tools within markets that are already well-established.
You really can’t say that you love something until you know its history. Now that you have learned the evolution of casino games from festival card tables to online hubs, you can go into your next gambling session with a sense of pride in the industry that you are helping to grow!
I was introduced to the new Amazon Prime show “The Boys” at San Diego Comic-Con this year and was immediately intrigued. I went to the “activation experience,” which took you inside the first episode of the show and let you help some of “the boys” solve a superhero-related crime. That’s right, the superheroes in this show aren’t exactly the good guys. In fact, they’re a bunch of assholes. Most of them anyway.
Propped up by big corporate money and power, the “Supes” are essentially the worst kind of fabricated and manufactured celebrities, their personas carefully constructed to appeal to the unsuspecting masses as the only hope for an increasingly frightened and powerless humanity. If that sounds a little too close to real life right now, that’s exactly the point.
That’s the premise
of the comic on which “The Boys” is based, and the premise of the Amazon series
as well. The show has something to say about who holds power in our current
culture and how they wield it, including the role of social media and
propaganda in shaping people’s views and keeping them in a perpetual state of
fear – which makes a superhero who swoops in to save the day and claims to be
able to keep everyone safe very appealing indeed. It’s a dark, gritty, cynical
world that “The Boys” inhabit, but it reflects the fear-mongering and online
manipulation that is all too real, that make people long for “saviors” and turn
the other way when those saviors turn out to be the actual monsters.
All that
hits a little too close to home, and if that’s all the show was about, the
darkness would be too much to take on top of the overwhelming dose of darkness
I get every day through every type of media. What makes “The Boys” instead as
hopeful as the traditional superhero tropes it subverts were intended to be is
the existence of a resistance. In the tradition of “Supernatural’s” Sam and
Dean, the resistance comes in the form of a bunch of just plain humans, who
nevertheless are willing to go against the odds and try to do what’s right.
Instead of taking out demons and wendigos, the Boys are going after the Supes.
Outgunned in terms of powers and definitely the underdogs, nevertheless the
Boys are every bit as invested in the “always keep fighting” mantra that has
made “Supernatural” such an inspiring show. I’ve only watched one episode so
far, and I’m already rooting for them.
For a show whose first episode begins with an ultraviolent occurrence and includes a decadent sex-fueled club scene and some full-frontal (equal opportunity) nudity, “The Boys” tackles complex and relevant themes with a surprisingly deft hand. Main character Hughie, whose quest for revenge is instigated by one of the Supes callously running through his girlfriend at super speed and exploding her, has his trauma examined instead of just tossed out there as an explanation for what happens next. And while everyone on the show seems to live somewhere in the morally ambiguous grey area that I love seeing characters struggle through, that goes for the Supes too – or at least one of them.
The premiere
episode also takes the time to examine new Supe Starlight’s recruitment into
the elite “Seven”. Presented as young and naïve and fully buying into the cult
of celebrity that she thinks she craves, but Starlight soon finds that the
Supes are not who she thought they were when she had that poster of The Deep on
her wall. It’s a pointed commentary that was fascinating to me as a
psychologist who’s studied celebrity and fandom for the past decade plus. What
makes it even more interesting is that there’s significant sexual assault-based
trauma for Starlight that happens with that realization, and it too is not
glossed over but explored realistically. That story line pulled on my
heartstrings more than anything else in the first episode, and anchored the
show in a feminist slant while critiquing the misogyny and power dynamics
inherent in that world – and our own.
At the Comic-Con
press room, Erin Moriarty (who plays Starlight) said she loved the fact that
you initially believe that Starlight is going to fit into the familiar stereotype,
but it turns out she’s a lot more than that. So far, one episode in, she feels
like the moral compass of the show, along with Hughie, who she just so happens
to meet on a park bench as they struggle to come to terms with their respective
traumas and how those traumas have changed how they view themselves.
“The Boys”
is executive produced by Seth Rogen and Eric Kripke, based on the comic series
by Garth Ennis. It stars Karl Urban (Billy Butcher) as leader of the Boys,
along with recently traumatized Hughie (Jack Quaid). The rest of ‘the boys’ are
Karen Fukuhara (The Female), Laz Alonso (Mother’s Milk), and Tomer Kapon
(Frenchie). The Supes include Anthony Starr (Homelander), Dominique McElligott
(Queen Maeve), Jesse T. Usher (A Train), Chace Crawford (The Deep), Nathan
Mitchell (Black Noir) and Erin Moriarty (Starlight). Elisabeth Shue plays
Madelyn Stillwell, the corporate PR person who pulls the strings with a
chilling smile.
As a
passionate “Supernatural” fan, I was interested in “The Boys” because it’s produced
by Eric Kripke, who created the characters I love so much on “Supernatural.” I
asked him a question at the press room for The Boys at Comic-Con, but couldn’t
wait to talk with him some more about his new show and its similarities to his
first ‘baby’, “Supernatural.” We’ve stayed a little bit in touch over the past
decade but having a chance to actually chat was a treat.
Eric
Kripke: Hey Lynn,
how are you?
Lynn: It’s been like ten years since we’ve
had an actual conversation!
E: It probably has been, but I follow you
on twitter and we’ve had some twitter conversations and emails and you seem
like you’re doing great, so I know what you’ve been up to. And thank you so
much for all the support over the years.
L: Pretty sure I should be thanking you
– I’ve written six books about your show (“Supernatural”) that helped me get
tenure and promotion to professor. Thank you for that!
E: Well, you’re welcome!
It really
had been a while. I first chatted with Eric Kripke way back in 2008 when I
began researching and writing books about fandom and celebrity, mostly focused
on the show he created that I had fallen head over heels in love with, “Supernatural.”
We did a few phone interviews and met up at Comic-Con that year to chat some
more. We talked a lot about fandom and of course about fannish creativity and
fanfiction.
Eric’s
first question: Am I
ever in it?
Me: Umm, I guess? I may have run across
a few…
Kripke: Oooh, is it porn? You have to send
me that!
Fast forward
to 2019 and Eric’s Reddit AMA when someone asked him if he’d read any “Supernatural”
erotica…
L: I had to laugh when I saw you
mention that fic with you and Jared from back in the day (laughing). I mean,
what you said is true, you were
assertive in it…
E: Exactly!
L: I had forgotten what it was actually
about and was like OMG that’s right…
E: Yeah (laughing) I’ve never forgotten
it, it made a major impact that’s for sure.
L: Well, either you’re welcome or… I’m
sorry?
E: (still laughing) Yeah right, I think
a little of both.
Side note:
Eric has always been fine with fans “playing in his sandbox” and understands
transformative works as a sign of affection for his characters and his worlds.
There’s a whole chapter on our early conversations about “Supernatural” in
Fangasm “Supernatural” Fangirls if you’re curious.
L: Anyway, “The Boys!” I’ve watched the
first episode, I’m a bit old school in that I like to watch one at a time and
space it out and sort of digest it. I LOVED the first episode and I think other
“Supernatural” fans will really love the show too. There are some similarities to
“Supernatural” for sure.
E: Mm hmm
L: For one thing, the protagonist is
sent on a hunt for revenge because the love of his life is violently killed –
Mary burning on the ceiling is an iconic image for “Supernatural”, and so is
Robin being decimated and Hughie standing there still holding her bloody hands!
E: Hmm. That one, I mean yes, now that
you’ve pointed it out, there are similarities to that. Robin dying in The Boys is taken almost frame for frame
from the comic book so it’s funny, that hadn’t really occurred to me about that
connection, because in The Boys the
instigating incident is so infamous for anyone who’s a fan of the books. It was
my job to capture it as faithfully as possible and that’s mostly where my head
was, but yeah. Also, I think where they’re similar is there are a lot of tonal
and thematic similarities. In a lot of ways, The Boys is a hard R “Supernatural.”
L: (silently) A hard R “Supernatural”….ohgod
yes please…
E: And it’s funny because you don’t
even realize these things until it’s hindsight. I don’t set out to say oh I’m
gonna make something for “Supernatural” fans, I just make stuff – the only
person I really try to please is me. But because I love “Supernatural” and
those are the kind of things that I love, I guess it stands to reason that if
left to my own devices to make another show that I put all my love into, it
will have some similarities.
L: That makes sense
E: What The Boys is really ultimately about
is these kind of very down to earth middle class blue collar people taking on
these arrogant ultra powerful forces that are overwhelming and all powerful. In
“Supernatural” it’s angels and demons and (laughing) God…
L: lol
E: And in The Boys, it’s the sort of
pantheon of superheroes. The incredibly big guy with magical powers basically
is something that I’m clearly interested in. I think I really like the idea of
blue collar no bullshit guys taking on and puncturing these huge myths and kind
of having to bring them down to earth just through their own wits, because
they’re outmatched…
L: Yeah, and that’s all they have,
their own smarts.
E: And that says something to me, I
think, about the world. Like we’re always up against these seemingly
insurmountable forces, but there are things we can do to get some equality. You
just have to – it’s not easy and it’s not fair – but you just have to keep
banging away at it.
L: I think that message, that “Always
Keep Fighting” mantra, is one of the things that made “Supernatural” really
strike a chord with people. When it premiered, the world was changing. The
internet, social media, the ability to manipulate in frightening ways through
technology – that was all happening. So I think that everyman theme resonated
with people. But maybe even more now. And I think this show really tackles all
of that. I mean, I’ve only watched one episode and it’s already taken on capitalism,
Hollywood, fame, social media manipulation, sexism, misogyny, homophobia – and
that’s only the first episode!
E: Right. Yeah, and it only gets worse
from there (laughing). When I started “Supernatural”, I was a kid, I was 30
years old – I mean that seems like a kid now.
L: Oh yes, that’s a kid…
E: And I didn’t spend an incredible
amount of time thinking about politics or the world that my children will grow
up in, because I didn’t have any yet. I was just trying to make a scary show
and put into it stuff that I emotionally felt was right. And I think now I
spend a lot more time worrying about the world we’re in and how – look, whether
you’re left or right wing or conservative or liberal – we’re in a world in
which we’re completely inundated by social media and corporations, massive
frankly God-like corporations, using those mediums to manipulate us to work against
our own best interests.
L: Scarily true.
E: Instead of coming together. So to
me, what “Supernatural” kind of ended up being about and what The Boys is
really about is real people taking on that machinery because that machinery is
manipulating us and turning us against each other and making us scared and
angry. Instead of what we should be, which is a community of people trying to
help each other muddle through all this bullshit.
L: It works so well on that level. I think
you found the right balance – and maybe the comic does too – hitting it in a
way that it comes through clearly and persuasively but not like you’re being
hit over the head with it.
E: I wish I could take credit for that.
I think the comic tees up the metaphor in a way that made it easy for us to
look smart. Just the core notion of superheroes as celebrities and as highly
profitable commodities, you know, and the timing of all that with everything
that’s going on in the world. Not just in superhero culture or pop culture, but
in the world, it really lines up.
L: Frighteningly
E: The best episodes of “Supernatural,”
the monsters and the creatures they’re up against were always metaphors for
something. We started with, what are Sam and Dean going through, and now how
can we come up with a creature that personifies that?
L: YES. So much yes.
E: Similarly, in this show, the
superhero metaphor really works for this kind of really glib slick surface
appearance-oriented world we live in. Everything is just about how you project
to the crowds versus what’s really happening behind the scenes. When you’re a
superhero show, you can say oh, that’s a story about masks. It all just lines
up.
L: It does
E: It was one of those things. At
first, I just took on “The Boys” because I thought it would be fun to take on
the superhero genre, but the more we dug into it, the more we realized it was
just a perfect metaphor to describe the world we’re living in right now. The
other thing is, I think what “Supernatural” fans will really recognize is that
the theme is the same. The theme of “Supernatural” and the theme of “The Boys”
is the thing that I most value, which is family and loyalty to your friends and
pulling together in tough situations and showing your humanity and
vulnerability and just sticking together. That’s the closest thing I’ve got to
a world view.
L: Yes, that comes through in all your
shows.
E: We were very careful to balance the
universe of the show so that it’s not just a completely nihilistic universe,
but it’s one that’s guided by moral law so that it doesn’t just feel like a
grim death trip. I wanted it to feel like there’s hope in there if you make the
right choice, and the right choice in the show is always whoever chooses
loyalty to the group and the family, however you define your family. Those are the
ones who tend to be on the right path in the show, and those who turn against
that or betray that tend to get punished. So I think people will see that
theme, and the balance of the tone, even though it’s a much more R rated
version. There’s a lot of laughs, and there’s a lot of horror (laughing)
L: Oh god yes there is!
E: And there’s a lot of emotion. It’s
funny reading online how dark everyone thinks the show is. And I think “Supernatural”
fans will see this, because I see this, I’m like huh, I actually think it’s a
really sweet show…
L: (laughing) I mean, people say that
about “Supernatural” too. I wrote this book with the actors, Family Don’t End
With Blood, about how inspiring the show is to both the fans and the actors on
the show, and if you don’t know what the show is really about underneath, it’s
like, inspiring? Touching? It’s a horror show! But it’s so much more. And it’s that
combination that makes it compelling.
E: Yeah, there’s no question that “The
Boys” is ultra-violent, but to me the violence reads on the same level of like
a Sam Raimi movie. I don’t look at violence as horrific, I look at it like a
guy who’s a horror fan, like’s that’s cool or funny. So my take, when I watch
the episodes, is sometimes oh that’s so sweet, like I really love the
relationships between those characters. Hughie and Annie are so sweet, they really
care about each other. What I tend to take away is, this is a hopeful show with
a lot of heart. And I think “Supernatural” fans will see that, whereas I think
the sort of non “Supernatural” civilians (both laughing) in the world see more
the darkness and the violence, we see the family and the heart of it.
L: I think you can see that even in the
first episode. I found Annie’s (Starlight) story very powerful. She’s smacked
in the face with reality and endures a serious trauma, and it makes her
question whether she’s the strong person she thought she was. That’s what
trauma does to people, and I found that story line so relatable, as a woman or
as anyone who has experienced trauma. It does that, it messes with your sense
of self, your identity.
E: Thanks. That story line is in the
books, but I have to say, the books are a product of their time, written in
2006-7, and I think the books did that story line for shock value.
L: Oh, it didn’t seem that way in the
episode.
E: No, exactly. We felt like if we’re gonna
take that on informed by the #MeToo movement and how more aware everyone is, we
felt we have to play it really seriously and responsibly and really like the
horror movie that it is. One adjustment we made from the books is, I think we
really muscled up Starlight as a character. We made her a lot stronger, gave
her a lot more agency, because it’s important to me that just because you’re
hopeful doesn’t mean you’re naïve, and you can still be really strong and good.
It was important to me that we demonstrate that at least one superhero has that
notion and holds fast to it even though she’s tested. And you’ll see in future
episodes, even though she’s challenged on every level, she never loses her
faith in God or her faith in people. I’m catching a lot of shit because we’re
taking some shots at Christianity and similar to what “Supernatural” did,
taking some shots at angels and God, and I’m like, I don’t take shots at
religion, religion is great. You believe in a higher power and you have an
organized universal view, that’s terrific. I have no problem with religion, I
have a problem with organized religion.
L: And what it’s manipulated into?
E: It can be another con that people
use to manipulate other people and squeeze money out of them, and that’s
hypocritical. That’s the organized religion that’s depicted in the show. But
importantly, Starlight never says fuck that whole thing, she says I love God
and all this is bullshit!
L: And I think that changed, like you
said, the balance of the episode, the tone of the episode, and I thought it
worked well.
E: Yeah, thanks.
L: As a psychologist who studies fandom
and celebrity for a living, thanks for providing me with another psychologically
complex feast.
E: We’re definitely trying for “The
Boys” to be – there’s a lot of iceberg under the water, we’re working hard to
put that there.
In addition
to that deeper story flowing beneath the surface of adventure and irreverence
and just plain fun, there are other similarities to “Supernatural”. Billy
Butcher drives his own version of a sweet ride, a classic Cadillac which is
just as much of a ‘boat’ as the impala. Music is also important to “The Boys,”
just as it is in “Supernatural”, only this time it tends toward punk instead of
classic rock. Similar to “Supernatural”, the music plays an integral part in
setting the scene and the tone of the show. Chris Lennertz, long time composer
on “Supernatural”, is doing the music for “The Boys.” I chatted with him at
Comic-Con
Chris
Lennertz: There are
things that are universal in the way Eric tells stories and the way that we
tell stories together, and that is on the surface for example “Supernatural” is
about fighting demons, but really it’s about brotherhood and family. And “The
Boys” is a show that’s super violent and super offensive and crazy but at the
end of it, there’s this team of ‘the boys’ who are trying to take down the bad
guys and they become a family trying to take care of each other.
He also said
that both shows engage in social commentary – with “The Boys,” like maybe I
should rethink how I take in social media or think about heroes, there’s a lot
of subtext in both shows. (You can watch the full conversation with Chris at
the video link below)
L: Will there be any little “Supernatural”
Easter eggs or shout outs in The Boys? I noticed in the pilot, there’s a moment
when one of the characters who’s like a brother to the other yanks him into an
open doorway backwards by his collar, and I immediately thought of that scene
where Sam yanks Dean into the open hotel room door the exact same way.
E: (laughing) Right.
L: Is that like a shout out?
E: Yeah yeah yeah. It’s more like – and
you’ll see, there’s a shot in the beginning of episode two that “Supernatural”
fans will really notice — which is, it’ll be down through a trunk shot and
Butcher and Hughie are at the trunk and they shut the trunk.
L: Oh, I love it I love it!
E: I mean, look, I’m on the show, Phil
Sgriccia (long time “Supernatural” producer/director) is a producer and
director and there the whole time, so it’s kind of inevitable that stuff works
its way in there. I don’t think we sit down to say like hey let’s for sure make
sure there are these nods in the show, because we’re stressed and it’s late and
we’re working 17 hours and just trying to get our day shot. But when there’s a
moment when we know that Butcher needs to pull Hughie into this club and the
blocking’s there and it has to be in that world anyway, we klnda wink at each
other and do these things. The best “Supernatural” reference for me – and I think
there are a bunch in there — I have to admit probably half of them are just
kind of on the verge of being subconscious because it’s just things I like!
L: That makes sense and I guess at this
point, those are just things I like too.
E: A lot of it is just because of my
taste, so when people are recognizing things from “Supernatural” they’re
probably recognizing like oh that’s just Eric – but I will say, you’ll see in
Episode 8, the one I was directing, it was kinda important to me that we needed
this kind of high powered government official to go toe to toe with Elisabeth
Shue, so we brought in Jim Beaver.
L: Oh yay!
E: To play the secretary of defense…
Robert Singer.
L: (laughing)
E: Yeah so Jim came in for me and we
had a little name plate that said ‘Robert Singer’, and we’re actually gonna
bring him back in Season 2 — so Bobby Singer lives!
L: I love that. My daughter was
watching “The Boys” with me and she said you know, that’s the way Sam and Dean
would act and talk in real life, they really need to put them on that show so they
can act like Sam and Dean would really talk and act.
E: Right, exactly. We have to do a
rated R “Supernatural” for sure.
L: Um yeah Eric, pretty sure there’d be
a lot of people standing in line for that!
E: (laughing)
L: Or just bring them over to “The
Boys!”
E: I mean, we’ll see what they’re
doing, but I’ve chatted with Jensen a little bit over the last couple months
and he’s like, how’s “The Boys” doing? And I said it’s so cool, it’s so fun and
so filthy and like when you get done with that other short term show you’re on,
come on over and play with us…
L: (laughing) You know they would love
it!
E: My guess is they’ll wanna sleep for
a year, but I’d be happy – no, I’d be proud
– to bring Jared and Jensen into “The Boys” if they wanted to do it.
L: Fingers crossed. So, last question,
and this one’s more about “Supernatural.” Jensen Ackles said that he struggled
a bit with the ending of “Supernatural” and you were really able to help him
see it differently. What stuck out to you in that ending that made you feel
okay with it, as the creator of these characters and this world?
E: It was interesting because, the
truth is, the ending that I probably originally had in mind when I was starting
the show – we’ve pretty much spent it one way or another in story. It was
probably not viable from Season 7 on. I think I kinda made peace with that,
that we’ll never be able to do it because we’ve done versions of it here and
there over the seasons just because inevitably a show goes on that long, you
use every possible story.
L: That makes sense.
E: So when he pitched me the ending I
was like – it was new to me, the first time I’d heard it – so I said give me a
day to really think about it and get back to you. And I thought about it and I
thought about it – (laughing) I’m sure much to Andrew and Bob’s [showrunners]
chagrin because they’re doing all the work – but I sat down and really thought
about it because, you know, I love the show. And I thought okay, at this stage,
if I were to come up with an ending, what would my ending for the show be? And
I went through all of these different thoughts and angles and I ended up
calling back Jensen and saying, we’ve got the perfect ending, man. I really
went through some others – I tried to top it and I couldn’t – and I think for
one main reason. So I give those guys a lot of credit because I think they
really landed on the right ending for the show. And what I would say is – what
I said to Jensen is, without spoiling everything – is like, I think after
everything they’ve gone through, the thing that Sam and Dean deserve more than
anything is peace.
L: (nodding because I suddenly couldn’t
see my questions written down in front of me anymore…)
E: And without spoiling anything, I can
say that this ending gives them peace. Their lives and their adventures are so
painful and angsty…and like, just the idea that they get an ending that they
have peace and some sense of resolution, I think it’s the thing they deserve. And
the thing the fans deserve most of all.
L: (a few tissues later) Thank you so much for taking the time to chat, I enjoyed it every bit as much as I’ve enjoyed all of our chats. I’ll send you that copy of ‘Family Don’t End With Blood’ I promised you.
E: Don’t watch it with your kids, but I
hope “Supernatural” fans give The Boys a shot, because I think they’ll see a
lot there that’s familiar to them.
L: Absolutely.
Full Interview with Christopher Lennertz at Comic-Con
