These days, a simple online debate can have the power to change minds all over the world. Or, it can make millions of people gang up on you for having the wrong opinion. That’s just the way it is now. The latest watercooler conversation to hit Twitter (X, if you’re new to this Earth) involves the confusing but ultimately wonderful establishment known as The Cheesecake Factory.
A woman recently went viral after getting mad at her date for taking her to The Cheesecake Factory and then filming it (error #1) which caused some online backlash against popular restaurant chains (error #2). This caused quite a stir amongst the part of the population that enjoys mountainous desserts and pretty top-notch spinach dip! Even The Viewhost Sunny Hostin was pissed when they brought it up on the show. “I want to stand up for The Cheesecake Factory ‘cause I go there every week,” Hostin admitted, saying that they have the “best dirty martini” which is exactly what you want from a fine eatery that is decorated like a scorched Middle Earth mixed with European countryside chic.
Meanwhile, Joy Behar, a woman of the people, says that it doesn’t matter where you go, you could always have a bad date. “A very nice date where they take you to the ritziest restaurant and they could be a serial killer.” Surely no serial killer would want to try The Factory’s world-famous spring rolls.
It was then revealed that the woman on the date was actually an hour late, which is why they didn’t go to a “nicer” restaurant– because they missed their reservation. So…there is no clear winner in this debate. But in times of trouble, you know what will always be there for you? A nice hearty slice of cheesecake the size of a brick.
The NBA has instituted a new rule that allows officials to hand out technical fouls for flops this season, and we’ve already seen a few handed out in the first two nights of the season.
The goal of the flopping technicals is to provide something more punitive than the warnings and fine system that clearly did not have the intended effect when put into place a few years ago. The problem is, because they are penalties that can genuinely impact the games, the impact of a wrong call is much greater and will have players, teams, and fans very upset. We got one such instance on Wednesday when Jalen Brunson was hit with a flopping T in the fourth quarter after falling to the ground after a three-point attempt where he pretty clearly landed on Jayson Tatum’s foot.
On Thursday, the NBA’s official referee account retweeted the video and admitted they got the call wrong, but not before making clear there can be a flop and a foul on the same play — making for a bit of a non-apology apology.
We missed the foot to foot contact which should have resulted in a personal foul and reviewed for flagrant. Had no foot to foot contact existed, this type of secondary and theatrical movement by Brunson would meet the criteria for a non-unsportsmanlike technical foul for… https://t.co/aPZJiARfiS
Given a flagrant on Tatum for being in Brunson’s landing area would’ve resulted in three free throws and the ball rather than the technical free throw Tatum made, that could’ve been a massively different swing in that moment. It very possibly could’ve been a four-point difference on the scoreboard, which given it was a two-point game at the time and the final score was 108-104 is a pretty big deal. It’ll be interesting to see how the flopping T’s end up being handed out as the season goes on, because if there are enough that end up being wrongly given, refs might look to only penalize the most egregious of them to avoid this kind of situation. If that’s the case, then the rule probably will end up about as successful in curbing flopping as the fine system was.
Most of us have heard of déjà vu—that strange sensation that you have already experienced something as it’s happening in the present moment. A large portion of the population, 97% according to one study, can attest that they have felt a sense of déjà vu in their lifetime.
However, we can also have the exact opposite sensation, though very few people know the name for it.
Jamais vu—which in French means “never seen,” again opposite to déjà vu meaning “already seen”—occurs when something familiar suddenly feels completely, utterly unfamiliar.
“It is the feeling that something is unreal or unusual, whilst at the same time knowing it is something you are very familiar with,” Dr. Chris Moulin, a jamais vu researcher, told “Medical News Today.”
Think about when a word you regularly use abruptly has you wondering whether or not it’s spelled correctly. Or you see a co-worker you’ve known for years that, without notice, now feels like someone you’ve never met. That uncanny “recall without recognition” sensation, when pathways in the brain become unsynced and can’t make sense between what’s new and what’s familiar, is jamais vu.
While more rare than déjà vu, jamais vu holds a lot of similarities with its more famous counterpart.
For one thing, like déjà vu, the exact causes for jamais vu are unknown. There are, however, a few theories. Some experts attribute it to chronic stress or lack of sleep, others believe it happens as the mind’s way of protecting itself from trauma, or when a person becomes distracted while trying to process information.
While more rare than déjà vu, jamais vu holds a lot of similarities with its more famous counterpart.
For one thing, like déjà vu, the exact causes for jamais vu are unknown. There are, however, a few theories. Some experts attribute it to chronic stress or lack of sleep, others believe it happens as the mind’s way of protecting itself from trauma, or when a person becomes distracted while trying to process information.
For those of us who were spared of this disciplinary action in our formative years, the concept is well reflected in a small study from 2021, where six participants were given words to stare at for three minutes. After only one minute, the participants began noticing that certain letters looked “peculiar.” By the time the three minutes was up, they noted that the word stopped being a word at all, only “a collection of letters.”
Lastly, both déjà vu and jamais vu can happen at any time, but only last for a couple of minutes. This last part is important to note, as jamais vu can often be mistaken for dissociation or delusions. Some psychiatrists even hypothesize that there may be an overlap between the three, especially when it comes to disorienting out-of-body experiences caused by psychedelics.
But overall, jamais vu is typically a brief, temporary moment that simply washes over us and then we go about our day. If this is an everyday occurrence, however, it’s best to get a doctor’s evaluation. Otherwise, it might leave you wondering if the Matrix is real after all, but nothing more harmful than that.
Tatiana von Furstenberg laid out more than 4,000 works of art on the floor of her apartment and was immediately struck by what she saw.
The pieces of artwork were submitted from various prisons across the country in hopes of being featured in “On the Inside,” an exhibition of artwork by currently incarcerated LGBTQ inmates, curated by von Furstenberg and Black and Pink, a nonprofit organization that supports the LGBTQ community behind bars. The exhibit was held at the Abrons Arts Center in Manhattan toward the end of 2016.
“I put all the submissions on the floor and I saw that there were all these loving ones, these signs of affection, all of these two-spirit expressions of gender identity, and fairies and mermaids,” von Furstenberg said.
She noticed the recurring topics throughout the works of different artists — eye contact, desire, fighting back, alienation, and longing — and these shared struggles became the themes of the art exhibition.
“These artists feel really forgotten. They really did not think that anybody cared for them. And so for them to have a show in New York and to hear what the responses have been is huge, it’s very uplifting,” she said.
Plenty of people turn to art as a means of escape. But for the artists involved in On the Inside, the act of making art also put them at risk.
Gay, lesbian, and bisexual people are incarcerated at twice the rate of heterosexuals, and trans people are three times as likely to end up behind bars than cisgender people. During incarceration, they’re also much more vulnerable than non-LGBTQ inmates to violence, sexual assault, and unusual punishments such as solitary confinement.
Not every prison makes art supplies readily available, either, which means that some of the artists who submitted to “On the Inside” had to find ways to make their work from contraband materials, such as envelopes and ink tubes. And of course, by drawing provocative images about their identities, they also risked being outed and threatened by other inmates around them.
But sometimes, the act of self-expression is worth that risk. Here are some of the remarkable examples of that from the exhibition.
(Content warning: some of the images include nudity.)
1.”A Self Portrait” by B. Tony.
2. “Rihanna” by Gabriel S.
“Rihanna is who I got the most pictures of,” von Furstenburg said. “I think it’s because she is relatable in both her strength and her vulnerability. She’s real.”
3. “Acceptance” by Stevie S.
“This series is sexy and loving and domestic,” von Furstenberg said about these two portraits by Stevie S. “A different look at family values/family portrait.”
4. “Michael Jackson” by Jeremy M.
This was another one of von Furstenberg’s favorites, because of the way it depicts a struggle with identity. “[MJ] was different, he was such a unique being that struggled so much with his identity and his body image the way a lot of our artists, especially our trans artists, are struggling behind bars,” she said.
5. “Unknown” by Tiffany W.
6. “Genotype” and “Life Study,” by J.S.
“This is the Michelangelo of the group,” von Furstenberg said. “To be able to draw this with pencil and basic prison lighting is astounding. One of the best drawings I’ve ever seen in my life.”
When the exhibition opened to the public on Nov. 4, 2016, visitors even had the chance to share their thoughts with the artists.
The exhibit included an interactive feature that allowed people to text their comments and responses to the artist, which von Furstenberg then converted to physical paper and mailed to inmates.
Some of the messages included:
“I have had many long looks in the mirror like in your piece the beauty within us. I’m glad you can see your beautiful self smiling out. I see her too. Thank you.”
“I am so wowed by your talent. You used paper, kool aid and an inhaler to draw a masterpiece. I feel lucky to have been able to see your work, and I know that other New Yorkers will feel the same. Keep creating.”
“I’ve dreamed the same dreams. The barriers in your way are wrong. We will tear them down some day. Stay strong Dear.”
Many people were also surprised at how good the artwork was — but they shouldn’t have been.
Just because someone’s spent time in prison doesn’t mean they can’t be a good person — or a talented artist. They’re also being compensated for their artwork. While business transactions with incarcerated people are technically illegal, $50 donations have been made to each artist’s commissary accounts to help them purchase food and other supplies.
“We’re led to believe that people behind bars are dangerous, that we’re safer without them, but it’s not true,” von Furstenberg said. “The fact that anybody would assume that [the art] would be anything less than phenomenal shows that there’s this hierarchy: The artist is up on this pedestal, and other people marginalized people are looked down upon.”
Art has always been about connecting people. And for these incarcerated LGBTQ artists, that human connection is more important than ever.
Perhaps the only thing harder than being in prison is trying to integrate back into society — something that most LGBTQ people struggle with anyway. These are people who have already had difficulty expressing who they are on the inside and who are now hidden away from the world behind walls.
On the Inside’s art show provided them a unique opportunity to have their voices heard — and hopefully, their individual messages are loud enough to resonate when they’re on the outside too.
Have you ever wondered why people don’t seem to say “you’re welcome” anymore?
The phenomenon has really caught on lately but it’s roots go a back further back. Back in 2015, author and professor Tom Nichols tweeted out an angry response after receiving what he thought was poor customer service:
“Dear Every Cashier in America: the proper response to ‘thank you’ is ‘you’re welcome,’ not ‘no problem.’ And *you’re* supposed to thank *me*”The angry tweet elicited a number of mocking responses from people on social media.
— (@)
But eventually one person chimed in with a detailed and thoughtful response that just might give you pause the next time you or someone you know says, “no problem.”
u201cDear Every Cashier in America: the proper response to “thank you” is “you’re welcome,” not “no problem.” And *you’re* supposed to thank *me*u201d
Actually the “you’re welcome/no problem” issue is simply a linguistics misunderstanding. Older ppl tend to say “you’re welcome,” younger ppl tend to say “no problem.” This is because for older people the act of helping or assisting someone is seen as a task that is not expected of them, but is them doing extra, so it’s them saying, “I accept your thanks because I know I deserve it.”
“No problem,” however, is used because younger people feel not only that helping or assisting someone is a given and expected but also that it should be stressed that you’re need for help was no burden to them (even if it was).
Basically, older people think help is a gift you give, younger people think help is an expectation required of them.
Nichols took a lot of flack for his comment. But the insightful response reveals something important about gratitude.
The thoughtful response from “lucasnoahs” doesn’t apply to everyone. After all, there are certainly a lot of people of any age group for whom acts of kindness and gestures of gratitude are “no problem.”
Still, his message conveys an important idea that doing well for others does not have to be a grand gesture. It can be a simple act — and the additional act of letting someone know that it’s really no problem helps relieve any potential sense of debt or guilt the person receiving the gesture might otherwise take on.
Most of the time, doing the right thing is indeed no problem. In fact, it might be the solution to a lot of the daily problems we grapple with.
A teacher’s message has gone viral after he let his student sleep in class — for the kindest reason.
Teachers spend time preparing lesson plans and trying to engage students in learning. The least a kid can do is stay awake in class, right?
But high school English teacher Monte Syrie sees things differently. In a Twitter thread, he explained why he didn’t take it personally when his student Meg fell asleep — and why he didn’t wake her up.
Screenshots via MonteSyrie/Twitter.
Meg’s nap meant she missed an in-class essay, but she turned it in that night. “I didn’t beat her up about it. Didn’t have to,” he wrote. “In a different room, Meg may have been written up for sleeping in class and given a zero for missing and essay, but she wasn’t in a different room; she was in my room.”
Syrie pointed out that sometimes we have to “trust our instincts, even if it goes against the grain.”
Meg is a good student with a lot on her plate. She takes a zero-hour class before the normal school day and does farm chores before that. She runs track. And she’s a teenager, with all of the social, academic, and life pressures that go along with it.
Syrie teaches sophomore English in Cheney, Washington. Photo via Monte Syrie.
And she’s not alone. During the school year, teens report higher levels of stress than adults, and many students report feeling exhausted trying to keep up with it all.
“I think too often the biggest thing that people forget about high school students is that they are kids,” Syrie says. “They’re kids — kids who are having to grow up way too fast and are having way too much pressure put on them, in and out of school … even for our best and brightest, that pressure gets to be too much.”
Syrie’s compassionate story resonated with people because we’ve all been in a position of needing a little grace.
Syrie’s tweets continued, exemplifying how teachers can show kindness and understanding to students. He pointed out, “I can’t offer Meg a math class later in the day. I cannot feed her horses … I cannot run 6 race-pace 300s for her. I cannot spirit away her teen trouble. But I can give her a break.”
Syrie says he tries to be that responsive to all of his students. “Because I firmly believe that one size fits all is madness, I adjust to each student, trusting my instincts, trusting what I know,” he says. “Regardless of our responsibilities, life is hard, and we all need some grace now and then.”
Syrie says he’s had a few negative comments, but overwhelmingly the response has been positive from both students and teachers.
[rebelmouse-image 19397573 dam=”1″ original_size=”665×141″ caption=”Screenshot via Alexa Shaw/Twitter.” expand=1]Screenshot via Alexa Shaw/Twitter.
[rebelmouse-image 19397575 dam=”1″ original_size=”661×119″ caption=”Screenshot via Mrs. Chow/Twitter.” expand=1]Screenshot via Mrs. Chow/Twitter.
Syrie has words for those who say that allowing a student to sleep in class doesn’t prepare them for the “real world.”
Some may question whether letting a student sleep in class without consequence is a good idea. Syrie has a response:
“We are not working in factories, stamping out standardized products,” he says. “We are helping young humans — unique individuals — learn about themselves and their worlds. As such, when our young humans face the inevitable pressures of growing up, we need to respond with empathy.”
“And if that does not prepare them for the ‘real world’ as some may suggest, then maybe the world needs to change. I want to live in a world where there’s empathy. That’s the world I want to live in.”
You can read more about the way Syrie is rethinking education on his website.
Taylor Swift is just a few hours away from dropping 1989 (Taylor’s Version) as her next rerecording. For those who are still looking for what songs are going to be on this version of her album, she is adding five previously unreleased songs to it.
“The 1989 album changed my life in countless ways, and it fills me with such excitement to announce that my version of it will be out October 27th,” Swift previously shared. “To be perfectly honest, this is my most FAVORITE re-record I’ve ever done because the 5 From The Vault tracks are so insane. I can’t believe they were ever left behind.”
Continue scrolling for the complete tracklist, including what Swift’s “From The Vault” songs are.
Original Songs
1. “Welcome To New York (Taylor’s Version)”
2. “Blank Space (Taylor’s Version)”
3. “Style (Taylor’s Version)”
4. “Out Of The Woods (Taylor’s Version)”
5. “All You Had To Do Was Stay (Taylor’s Version)”
6. “Shake It Off (Taylor’s Version)”
7. “I Wish You Would (Taylor’s Version)”
8. “Bad Blood (Taylor’s Version)”
9. “Wildest Dreams (Taylor’s Version)”
10. “How You Get The Girl (Taylor’s Version)”
11. “This Love (Taylor’s Version)”
12. “I Know Places (Taylor’s Version)”
13. “Clean (Taylor’s Version)”
14. “Wonderland (Taylor’s Version)”
15. “You Are In Love (Taylor’s Version)”
16. “New Romantics (Taylor’s Version)”
Vault Songs
17. “‘Slut!’ Taylor’s Version) [From The Vault]”
18. “Say Don’t Go (Taylor’s Version) [From The Vault]”
19. “Now That We Don’t Talk (Taylor’s Version) [From The Vault]”
20. “Suburban Legends (Taylor’s Version) [From The Vault]”
21. “Is It Over Now? (Taylor’s Version) [From The Vault]”
Each week our staff of film and TV experts surveys the entertainment landscape to select the ten best new/newish shows available for you to stream at home. We put a lot of thought into our selections, and our debates on what to include and what not to include can sometimes get a little heated and feelings may get hurt, but so be it, this is an important service for you, our readers. With that said, here are our selections for this week.
What we have on our hands here is a Bachelor spinoff about an older gentleman looking for love from a group of similarly aged ladies. Which is… honestly kind of adorable. Good for them. And good for us, too, especially if one of the episodes features a date where they eat dinner at a diner at 4:45 and then go watch an episode of Columbo in matching recliners. This was written as a joke but honestly sounds kind of wonderful. That’s true love right there, people.
Some comics want to watch the world burn, others are so in their own heads that it makes us feel like we’re sitting in on a therapy session. And that’s okay. There are many roads to Giggletown. But for Pete Holmes, the path to funny weaves through a world filled with fun weirdos and micro-annoyances. So if you’re looking to avoid the dreaded discourse for an hour, mentally touch some grass, and play with an amiable giant who favors quirky interactions with cashiers and knows that the pathway to oblivion is sprinkled with Dorito dust, then Holmes’ Netflix special might be for you.
Is The Morning Show the best drama on TV in a world absent Better Call Saul and Succession? Well, no, but it’s definitely the dramaest drama on TV, leaning on its star power to cut through moments that might be eye-roll-inducing if you weren’t so captivated by the screen presence of Jennifer Aniston, Reese Witherspoon, Billy Crudup, and Jon Hamm, who joins this season as a handsome version of Elon Musk. Backstabbing, front-stabbing, walk and talks, politics, high tension, and ripped-from-the-headlines storylines all come together, yet again, with our news and media power players moving more fully toward the game of mergers, acquisitions, and boardroom battles where the real prizes can be found.
The only “solo” spinoff of AMC’s post-apocalyptic world is upon us. Daryl is most entertaining character to send to France, and he’s also the least religious of the bunch, which makes it awfully funny to see him hanging with a bunch of nuns after waking up in France like “WTF?” Most of all, though, Daryl earns his “Big Ass Kicker” nickname and we also get a lovely character study of the most loyal and industrious survivor of Rick’s old bunch. The action also delivers, so get ready for crossbows and total chaos at Parisian landmarks. Pssst, we also chose the most essential to watch before this spinoff.
Welcome to the third season of Upload, a fun little science fiction-y comedy from the creator of The Office, Greg Daniels, that is set in 2033 in a world where humans can — you guessed it — upload themselves into a virtual afterlife when they die. The show follows Nathan, a guy who dies young under potentially mysterious circumstances and tries to sort things through from a very fancy new virtual community. It sounds strange. We promise it’s pretty fun.
This 2023 movie goes back to the 1973 short story by Stephen King as the perfect streaming lead-in to nightmares about Halloween season. This is not a true tale, but perhaps thinking of it that way can increase the terror. The story explores the enduring Boogeyman/Bogeyman folklore that has persisted around the globe for centuries. We’ve got a distracted father not paying enough attention to a pair of sisters, who begin to experience horrors that could trigger any lingering fears you’ve ever had about monsters lurking in your bedroom closet. The cast includes Sophie Thatcher, David Dastmalchian, and Chris Messina.
RL Stine’s Goosebumps series was the catalyst for plenty of children’s nightmares in the 90s and Disney+ is hoping to continue that reign of terror with their latest reboot. The kids have aged up – they’re high schoolers with hormonal angst seeping from their pores now. And the mystery isn’t anthologized, instead spread out over the course of 10 episodes. But you can still feel Stine’s evil genius working as murder investigations and suspicious parents and cursed artifacts open up a bigger world of supernatural secrets.
Brie Larson has never shied away from speaking out for feminist causes, and in this series, she stars in the adaptation of Bonnie Garmus’ bestselling novel, Lessons In Chemistry. Garmus became an overnight “a literary rock star” at age 66 for this impressive debut novel that is all the rage in book clubs everywhere. That will give the show a built-in audience as Larson portrays a brilliant chemist who is fired for a sexist double standard. This leads to an unexpected career change as a cooking show host. This high-profile new platform allows her to sandwich in other nuggets of wisdom for housewives as well as demonstrating how to bake yummy cookies.
Kristen Stewart’s gay ghost hunting show has everything: slayances, spook-kikis, haunted strip clubs, and comedian Roz Hernandez snacking on donuts while she yells at homophobic poltergeists. The group – a hodgepodge of paranormal experts that includes a psychic, a witch, and a tarot card reader – road trips across the country in this docuseries produced by the Queer Eye creators, chatting it up with demonic entities and benevolent spooks to get to the root of some very real, very human problems. If there’s a better way to spend your weekend than watching a group of well-dressed Queer spiritualists commune with the dead while cracking jokes and busting stereotypes, we don’t want to know about it.
This is kind of like if Planet Earth had been executive producer by Steven Spielberg, who does executive produce this
The official description is as follows: “The story of life’s epic, 4 billion-year journey on Earth, told through its ruling dynasties, its underdogs and the cataclysmic events that reshaped it”
This sucker is narrated by Morgan Freeman
Settle deeeeep into your couch and turn off the lights and enjoy.
Come for the dong jokes, and stay for the dong jokes. Much like The Boys, this spinoff does not skim on the raunch, and it also gives us a whole new roster of Supes who might feel differently about Vought International’s motives. This series seemingly pulls off the impossible by managing to be as appealing as the flagship series without the presence of its most shining and degraded beacon, Homelander. This franchise shows no sign of wearing out or fatiguing its audience as both the MCU and DCU have managed to do, which might be the most heroic feat of all in the present entertainment realm.
A rom-com in space? Sure, why not? There’s likely no better way to kill some time on a doomed ship that will never make its way back to Earth than to, you know, consider the “if you were the last person…” scenario that comes to life. Actually, damn, this is dark stuff! It’s a good thing that Anthony Mackie is over there making flirty eyes at Zoe Chao. Very distracting.
Have you ever been convinced that the animatronics at Chuck E. Cheese are freaking evil? Welcome to Five Nights At Freddy’s. In this adaptation of the wildly popular video game, Josh Hutcherson stars as Mike Schmidt, a security guard who’s about to seriously regret his new job. Tasked with keeping an eye on Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza joint, Mike quickly learns that the night shift is a terrifying hell ride as the pizzeria’s animatronic creatures come to life with a task of their own: Kill. Like the game, Mike will have to do everything in his power to survive the night and elude the dead-eyed mechanical monsters hunting him down.
When we last left Loki, the title character (Tom Hiddleston) had traveled to an alternate version of the Time Variance Authority where no one remembers him and there are statues of Kang (Jonathan Majors) everywhere. This second season picks up where we left off, only Loki soon discovers he’s being thrust back and forth not to an alternate timeline, but the past and present of his current timeline. Seeking the help of the present-day Mobius (Owen Wilson, the past’s version doesn’t know Loki) the two seek out Ke Huy Quan’ Ouroboros (or OB for short), a fellow who has been around a long time and seems to know how to do everything, to stop Loki from doing these involuntary jumps back and forth through time.
Also, Loki and Mobius are charged with finding one of Kang’s variants, for reasons that are too complicated to explain here. So the pair travel to 19th-century Chicago to find an inventor and con man named Victor Timely. The problem is other people with the ability to jump through time are also after Timely and his fate has repercussions on multiple timelines.
This show is a lot, which is by design, but it’s still a lot. The first season played as good fun, and this second season is also fun, though maybe just a little less so (at least through four episodes), but while watching it’s hard to forget the real world where one of the main cast members is on trial for assault.
Rick and Morty used to take notoriously long breaks between seasons, but not this time. Season seven of the animated sci-fi comedy series returns less than a year after the season six finale. There have been big changes behind the scenes, however: co-creator Justin Roiland, who also voiced the title characters, was fired from the show. Tricky line to straddle going forward, but the show has rarely let us down before.
Emily Blunt portrays a down-on-her-luck single mom who launches a new career alongside Chris Evans’ pharmaceutical sales rep. Not a great idea, ultimately, given that she becomes involved in a racketeering scheme. And of course, she begins to realize that this company’s success is coming at a ghastly price for humanity. This is a dramatized version of the rise and fall of Insys Therapeutics, which no longer exists, and yeah, you will definitely find out why.
Hey, here’s a fun one. We’ve got Rhys Darby and Taika Waititi and everyone is a pirate and most of them are gay. This show has been an unexpected blast for a while now and it’s always nice when those are in our lives. Treat yourself. Have some fun. Watch some gay pirates on the high seas. You deserve it.
The seventh season of Big Mouth ties Orange is the New Black and Grace and Frankie as Netflix’s longest-running scripted series (it will break the record in its eighth and final season). Not bad for an animated show about horny teenagers and hormone monsters. Guest stars this season include Megan Thee Stallion, Lupita Nyong’o, and Pulitzer Prize winner Lin-Manuel Miranda as a pubic hair. Good show.
Mike Flanagan fans, get ready. The Haunting of Hill House and Midnight Mass showrunner is back along with Carla Gugino, who will spook your soul right out of your bod and deliver a “consequential” evening to “a collection of stunted hearts” that is the Usher family. Yikes. Do not expect a literal adaptation of the Edgar Allen Poe short story. The story focuses here on the hell created by ruthless siblings Roderick and Madeline Usher, who built Fortunato Pharmaceuticals into an empire of wealth, privilege, and power. Horrible secrets shall surface when the heirs to the Usher dynasty start dying at the hands of a mysterious woman, portrayed with glee by Gugino.
No Hard Feelings is more than just the scene of Oscar-winning actress Jennifer Lawrence beating up teenagers while naked. I mean, it’s that, but it’s also a breezy R-rated comedy with some genuine moments of heart. Lawrence and co-star Andrew Barth Feldman have strong chemistry, and Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Natalie Morales, and Kyle Mooney show up in funny supporting roles. If every movie is going to be based on an existing property, forget comic books — make more Craigslist ad comedies.*
Last year, Candace Cameron Bure kicked off her first holiday season as the Chief Creative Officer for Great American Family by stirring up a massive controversy with her remarks on how the network will “keep traditional marriage at the core.” The situation got so bad that even Bure’s Full House co-star Jodie Sweetin spoke out against the anti-LGBTQ stance.
With the backlash seemingly in the rearview, Great American Family CEO Bill Abbott made some odd and weirdly late remarks about the controversy. Notably, he attempted to distance the network and Bure’s comments despite the fact that she was speaking as the CCO of the company.
We’re proud to have her here, and she works so well with the team alongside me, and we have a really talented and dedicated team that’s committed to high-quality faith and family content. In terms of her personal views, it’s like the disclaimer you see at the end of a movie or a series that says, “The views reflected here are not necessarily those of the company.” Candace has such a high profile that when she speaks, she’ll speak on a lot of topics, and she has a wonderful podcast that is fantastic. But when she speaks on that, she’s not speaking on behalf of Great American Media.
Naturally, Variety was confused by this stance because, again, Bure is the CCO of Great American Family. Abbott’s follow-up response didn’t help.
“Candace speaks for her own brand when she is talking to the world at large,” he said. “For me, all I do — all I live, breathe and sleep — is Great American Media. So when I talk about something, it’s very different, because I’m representing the company and only the company. When Candace talks about something, obviously she has a lot of other audiences and platforms.”
At this point, you might be thinking that Great American Family must have a different view than Bure and is open to including LGBTQ characters if her views are entirely her own. Guess again!
“Certainly, it will be something to think about,” Abbott said after being asked if the network would feature same-sex couples. “I think right now, we’re just so focused on profitability, being successful, doing the right thing for our shareholders, making sure we’re integrating PureFlix within our family. We have so many things on our agenda that we need to stay focused on the core part of the business right now and then down the road, as our world grows and changes and becomes different, then we’ll see.”
Taylor Swift is going to release her re-recorded 1989 (Taylor’s Version) at midnight EST tonight. However, fans are committed to a new theory that it might be a double album release. The idea started around when Swift unveiled her “From The Vault” tracks that would be added to her version.
Compared to her past re-recordings, there were no collaborations on this one, which has raised questions of why. The original 1989 era was also known for Swift’s socialness, including how she brought out a ton of surprise guests during the album’s world tour.
Yet, if there were a double album of entirely unreleased tracks, that might be where the collaborations are.
Swift also might have been dropping clues for it earlier than people initially thought. In her music video for “The Man” from her Lover era, her album 1989 is written on the wall of her records twice. (No other album is.) It’s worth noting that one is in light handwriting, the other dark.
Throughout this week, Swift has been channeling the original era by releasing early lyrics from the new songs. She raised eyebrows though for one, where she wrote the lyric, “Aquamarine / Moonlight swimming pool / What if / All I need is you.”
While these very well could be ones, fans took notice of several things. Each line is written separately, alternating between light blue and dark black, and different fonts. These could also easily double as song titles, given that Swift’s other handwritten lyrics this week were not formatted this way.
Finally, it’s worth noting that her public appearances have followed a similar outfit pattern between the same colors.
Guess Swifties will just have to see if the theory is true, or if it’s simply just clowning again.
This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish. Cookie settingsACCEPT
Privacy & Cookies Policy
Privacy Overview
This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may have an effect on your browsing experience.
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
(@IQfor3) 
Screenshots via MonteSyrie/Twitter.
Syrie teaches sophomore English in Cheney, Washington. Photo via Monte Syrie.
