A screenplay about the Roger Ailes sexual harassment scandal at Fox News by the Oscar-winning writer of The Big Short has passed a key hurdle on its path to production.
According to TheHill.com, the prospective film has signed a production deal with Los Angeles-based Annapurna Pictures and is now in search of a director.
Author Charles Randolph reportedly based the screenplay around the allegations of former Fox News anchor Gretchen Carlson -- who sued Fox News and Ailes personally last July alleging that Ailes made inappropriate advances and then put her career on ice when she rebuffed him -- as well as Megyn Kelly and other women on the Fox staff.
Last July, Carlson dropped a bombshell on the cable news world when she resigned from Fox News and announced her lawsuit. The allegations opened the door for a stream of women who say that Fox News is a kind of "frat house" environment where sexual harassment, bullying and intimidation are the norm and the Human Resources department devotes itself to protecting higher-ups and maintaining the status quo.
A miniseries based on the reporting of New York magazine writer Gabriel Sherman is also reportedly in the works, but the project has yet to find a network home.
One of the more unexpected consequences of Brexit was the closure of a small museum in south London dedicated to the life of Natsume Soseki. As one of Japan’s most revered writers, the centenary of Soseki’s death this year is being marked by numerous events in his home country, not least a resurrection in robotic form. But in the English-speaking world he remains comparatively unknown. This is surprising, given the key role that English culture played in his life, and the fact that he spent two formative years living in London.
Soseki came to the UK in 1900. At the time, Japan was going through a period of rapid modernisation after two centuries of self-imposed political isolation. In the country’s only two universities, classes were all being taught in English by Western professors.
Soseki was sent abroad as part of a government scheme to train Japanese scholars so they could take over these teaching duties on their return. Arriving in England, he studied briefly at UCL, was tutored by the Shakespearean scholar William James Craig, and witnessed the funeral of Queen Victoria. He wrote in his diary:
All the town is in mourning. I, a foreign subject, also wear a black-necktie to show my respectful sympathy. “The new century has opened rather inauspiciously,” said the shopman of whom I bought a pair of black gloves this morning.
Natsume Soseki.
For the most part, his time in England wasn’t a happy one. “The two years I spent in London were the most unpleasant … of my life,” he later wrote. “Among English gentlemen I lived in misery, like a shaggy dog in a pack of wolves.” He suffered from depression, from isolation, and spent most of his time hidden away in his room, reading.
Yet, it was while living in London that he formulated the ideas for his seminal Theory of Literature (1909), which takes a scientific approach to the study of literature, aiming to find universal values by which to evaluate literary works and so “challenge the superiority of the Western canon”. Damian Flanagan writes that the “alienation that Soseki initially experienced in London allowed him to view both himself and Japanese society in general with fresh eyes” – and that he channelled this into his later creative work.
On his return to Japan, he became professor of English literature at Tokyo Imperial University. He also began writing novels. In 1905, he published his celebrated I Am a Cat, and two years later resigned from his teaching post to dedicate himself full-time to his writing.
For over 30 years, Soseki’s time in the UK was commemorated in a small museum in south London. Run by Ikuo Tsunematsu, a professor from the southern city of Kumamoto, it was an unobtrusive little place in a suburban street in Clapham. If you weren’t aware of its existence, you could walk straight by without noticing it. The only clue to its presence was a tiny sign indicating which doorbell to press. Upstairs, sandwiched between two other flats, a couple of rooms were crammed with paraphernalia about Soseki’s life in the UK.
Due to financial uncertainties following the Brexit vote, however, Tsunematsu decided to shut the museum this summer. Its closure is a great loss to the city. It was one of those small curiosities – along with places like the Sewing Machine Museum, the Anaesthesia Museum, and the Museum of Brands, Packaging and Advertising – that give London its particular character. But more importantly, it was also a fascinating memorial to the cultural relationship between Japan and the UK.
Next year, in Tokyo, a new museum to Soseki is due to open. Throughout this year, there have been a string of events to celebrate his life and work. The most eye-catching of these is his return as an android. A collaboration between Soseki’s old university and the robotics expert Hiroshi Ishiguro, with a voice supplied by Soseki’s grandson, the idea is that the android will teach classes and give readings from his work. In an era of digital humanities, Ishiguro sees in this the possibility of a whole “new research method [for] literature” opening up.
Soseki’s development as a writer began as a consequence of his country’s embrace of the international community; his centenary happens at a time when many countries are moving in the opposite direction. What his story illustrates are the striking benefits of dialogue between cultures, even if at times these are born of a sense of anxiety and disquiet. In his centenary year, it seems as important as ever to celebrate this.
Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin offered her help with the problem of Russian hackers interfering with the U.S. electoral system.
TheHill.com said that on Sunday evening, Palin wrote on Twitter, "Russia's getting out of hand? So says the defeated. Not to worry... remember I can keep an eye on them from here."
The tweet echoed her widely-ridiculed 2008 remark that Russia is Alaska's neighbor and therefore Palin had the foreign policy chops necessary to be effective in dealing with Vladimir Putin and other potentially hostile regimes.
During her run as vice presidential nominee in 2008, Palin told ABC News, "They’re our next-door neighbors. And you can actually see Russia, from land, here in Alaska, from an island in Alaska.”
Saturday Night Live writer and cast member Tina Fey joked in a famous sketch where she played Sarah Palin, "I can see Russia from my house!"
That quip became more famous than Palin's actual statement and ultimately many people ended up attributing it to Palin herself.
A former child star who appeared on the late 60's "Brady Bunch" television show has been fired from her Los Angeles radio gig after hopping on Facebook to write several vicious homophobic attacks on a listener who complained about her support for President-elect Donald Trump.
According to Towleroad, writer/producer Leon Acord-Whiting complained about ‘Two Chicks Talkin’ Politics' host Susan Olson, who once portrayed Cindy Brady on the popular sit-com. On LA Talk Radio's Facebook page, Acord-Whiting wrote, "It is wildly irresponsible for LA Talk Radio to allow a Trump fanatic to co-host one of their programs, where she can spew her idiotic lies unchecked."
Acord-Whting, added, "I think LA Talk Radio needs to give “Cindy Brady” her walking papers. I will not listen to or appear on any shows there from this point forward until she’s gone. This isn’t just disagreeing on, say, tax plans or foreign policy. Susan Olsen spreads outrageous misinformation & it is dangerous and unprofessional.”
Proving his point about being "unprofessional," Olson returned fire by first calling the producer a "little piece of human waste," before encouraging her followers to track him down.
She then private messaged Acord-Whiting with a homophobic screed which he in turn provided to her bosses.
"Hey there little p*ssy, let me get my big boy pants on and Reallly (sic) take you on!!! What a snake in the grass you are you lying piece of sh*t too cowardly to confront me in real life so you do it on Facebook," she wrote. "You are the biggest f*ggot ass in the world the biggest p*ssy! My Dick is bigger than yours Which ain’t sayin much! What a true piece of sh*t you are! Lying f*ggot! I hope you meet your karma SLOWLY AND PAINFULLY”
Olsen later followed with a second message, telling Acord-Whiting, "I sincerely hope you reap all that you deserve Karma wise. What a pathetic little c*nt you are. Hell is waiting for you. ENJOY!"
In a statement posted on Facebook Saturday morning, La Talk Radio said they have fired Olsen, writing: "LA Talk Radio takes pride in its close and collaborative relationship with the LGBT community, and will continue to provide a home for those who have hopeful and positive messages of togetherness and tolerance to share with our listeners. We will not tolerate hateful speech by anyone associated with our radio station and have severed our ties with a host that veered off the direction in which we are going."
On Friday, CNN reported that former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani has not only withdrawn his name from consideration for Secretary of State, he has also asked that he not be considered for any cabinet position in the new administration whatsoever.
CNN's Jake Tapper called the decision "curious."
"Rudy Giuliani said he only wanted Secretary of State," said Susan Page of the Washington Post. "It's clear that he meant it."
Trump's and Giuliani's statements on Friday gave him some means to "save face," she said.
Tapper said that he had heard that Giuliani might have difficulty getting confirmed because of his "business entanglements all over the world"
RealClearPolitics.com editor Amy Stoddard pointed out that these conflicts of interest are "the same kind of things that Donald Trump criticized Hillary Clinton for during the campaign. It would have been a very difficult thicket for him."
But why, she asked, if he's been out of the running since Nov. 29, why have Trump's surrogates continued to float his name?
Zito pointed out that the last time Rudy made any public appearances was around Nov. 29 and since then he's been "radio silent."
Page noted that it would be ironic for Trump's biggest campaign defender, Giuliani, to get beaten out for the Secretary of State appointment by Trump's biggest campaign critic, Mitt Romney.
In a scathing editorial published Friday, The Truth About Trump author Michael D'Antonio said that critics who think President-elect Donald Trump will behave with more maturity and gravitas when he takes office are missing the point.
"The President-elect probably cannot control himself," D'Antonio wrote in the New York Daily News. "I interviewed him for six hours when writing a biography, and I mean that literally."
Trump's habit of teeing off on average Americans on Twitter, D'Antonio said, is symptomatic of his bottomless desire for approval and attention and his inability to moderate his feelings when he feels that he is under attack.
"Long an advocate of responding '10 times harder' when his feelings are hurt -- and they are very easily hurt -- Trump has a tendency to strike with massive force without much concern for the size or vulnerability of the person in his sights," D'Antonio said. "I suspect this is because the pain he feels when criticized doesn't depend on the source. No matter who speaks out, he cannot bear disapproval."
"Unseemly and irresponsible in a candidate, Trump's overreactions are downright dangerous when they come from someone with the power he now possesses. Besides the obvious danger that arises when a president or President-elect paints a rhetorical target on a citizen's back, we have to consider the civic damage done when people are made afraid to speak their mind about a political leader," D'Antonio said.
But like fellow Trump biographer Tony Schwartz -- who ghost wrote Trump's bestselling The Art of the Deal -- D'Antonio said that Trump has no attention span for anything that does not directly pertain to his own greatness.
Schwartz called Trump "a living black hole" with the attention span of a "kindergartner."
“It’s impossible to keep him focused on any topic, other than his own self-aggrandizement, for more than a few minutes," Schwartz said.
D'Antonio likened Trump to a junkie whose drug is attention and the instant rush he gets from Twitter is too powerful a high for him to give up or even control his need for.
"Trump, who has long been addicted to attention, had found a new, super-potent form of it in social media. This hit was not only powerful; it was available in an endless supply that he could access at will," he wrote.
He finished with a disturbing image of Trump as a mindless animal in a behavioral experiment.
"He no longer had to manipulate journalists and wait for them to act. He could tap out a few words and get what he wanted immediately. It reminded me of psychologist B.F. Skinner's experiments with chickens that learned to push a button with their beaks for the reward of a food pellet. Once they had trained themselves, the birds couldn't stop pecking even when the pellets no longer came and they injured themselves," he said.
"Like Skinner's animal subjects," he concluded. "Trump has learned to get what he wants. No matter who criticizes him, no matter the consequences, he will keep doing it. Those who ask if he will stop scouring the press for evidence of enemies and using his power in an indiscriminate ways should stop thinking of him as a conventional politician and start looking at him as a chicken."
A 19-year-old Indiana State University student was arrested Thursday and charged with exploitation of a minor after she posted inappropriate videos of an underage girl on Twitter.
Terre Haute's WTHI-TV reported Friday that LeAnn Tran was taken into custody and charged with two counts of child exploitation after she posted a photo and video online of a then-underage girl with whom she was arguing.
ISU police said they opened an investigation of the matter when they receive notice of images posted online of an underage child. As part of her conflict with the younger girl, Tran posted a photo of the girl when she was 15 and a video taken when she was 17, both depicting lewd acts.
Tran was taken to Vigo County Jail and is being held without Bond. She will go before a judge to answer for two counts of child exploitation and one charge related to child pornography.
HBO has ordered an arts-and-crafts website to take down a 13-year-old girl's digital painting because it uses the trademark Game of Thrones phrase "Winter is coming."
The Register reports that HBO's lawyers issued the order after the girl's painting was discovered posted on the arts-and-crafts website RedBubble. Jonathan Wilcox, the girl's father, tells The Register that his daughter wasn't going to make any money from putting her artwork on the internet.
"My daughter, who happens to be autistic, was doing an art challenge... which consisted of doing a piece of art based on a different color as you worked your way round a color wheel," he explains. "For this particular piece, she decided to title it 'Winter is Coming.' I do not believe she uploaded the picture to RedBubble to make any particular financial gain, she just thought it a sensible place to put it."
Nonetheless, HBO's copyright cops seem to think the painting was a significant danger to its intellectual property rights, which is why they've apparently been sending these orders around to all kinds of websites who are posting Game of Thrones-themed artwork.
"On further investigation, it appears HBO are doing this all over the place regarding this phrase," Wilcox tells The Register. "It seems to have upset a lot of people on Etsy and elsewhere who have had the same or similar letter."
A discussion on French internet show Niveau Zéro (Zero Level) about Arab immigrants turned violent on Tuesday when "left nationalist" essayist Alain Soral attacked ethno-nationalist Daniel Conversano, punching and kicking him as cameras rolled.
Conversano -- a notoriously anti-Islam, anti-immigrant far-right pundit -- left the studio with bruises and a split lip after he said that everyone in France is sick of Arabs, which is why the far-right National Front party is polling at 30 percent.
The debate was organized by anti-Semitic comedian Dieudonné M'Bala M'Bala, who struggled to keep his composure as the discussion between Soral and Conversano erupted into blows.
Soral is the founder of France's nationalist Association for Equality and Reconciliation, but is also an instructor for the French national boxing society. He lost his cool when Conversano -- who is known for his racist views and advocacy of war crimes against Muslims -- said that reconciliation between longtime French citizens and Arab immigrants is impossible.
"They're not French," said Conversano.
"They're not white, you mean," replied Soral. "By what right do you dare to say that?"
"Because it's the truth and everyone realizes it," Conversano insisted.
"Who is 'everyone,' you little sh*t?" demanded Soral.
To which Conversano replied that it's the people who have put the National Front at 30 percent in the polls because the French have "had it up to their a**holes" with Arabs.
Soral then strode across the soundstage and landed a kick and several punches to Conversano's face and upper body as production personnel struggled to separate them. Conversano was left with a split lip and grounds for assault charges.
Comedian Tina Fey sarcastically dangled the bait at the army of Internet trolls who inhabit Breitbart.com on Wednesday during a speech to a group honoring women working in the entertainment field.
"I promised myself I wouldn't get up here today and talk about the election," Fey quipped before alluding to the controversy earlier this year over the all-female reboot of Ghostbusters by saying, "because when I get written up in Breitbart I wanted it to be because they're mad that I'm making an all-female Hitler biopic."
Breitbart.com's vehemently antifeminist writers and fans were outraged when Warner Brothers announced it was producing the distaff Ghostbusters reboot. Tech editor Milo Yiannopoulos and his followers waged a campaign of harassment against black SNL and Ghostbusters star Leslie Jones, driving the comic off Twitter for a time.
Fey -- a former Saturday Night Live writer and Weekend Update host -- was appearing at the Hollywood Reporter's annual Women in Entertainment Breakfast.
In her speech, Fey also lampooned the impossible beauty standards Hollywood sets for women and saying that she's grateful for her own experience, which, on the whole has been "pretty positive and solid for someone who is PBS pretty and not shootable from behind."
Despite this, Noah has decided that he wants to maintain a cordial relationship with her, and he even sent her cupcakes to thank her for being on the show.
This has upset some voices on the left, who insist that Noah is helping to legitimize a racial arsonist who has made a name for herself by hurling incendiary invective at groups such as Black Lives Matter and activists such as 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick.
Writing at The Root, Yesha Callahan accused Noah of helping to "amplify" Lahren's voice simply because he found her attractive.
"So what does being a pretty racist get you?" she writes. "It gets you amplified. It gets you black men like radio host Charlamagne and The Daily Show’s Trevor Noah caping for you and trying to get you to change your mind about racism."
Aimée Lutkin, meanwhile, teed off on The Breakfast Club's Charlamagne for saying that he wished that more black or Latino activists were willing to work social media platforms like Lahren is to get their voices heard. Among other things, she said that such an approach wouldn't get nearly the results that Lahren gets because there's just a bigger market for people who want to hear negative things about minorities than there is for people who speak up for minorities.
"Lahren is popular because racism is popular," she writes. "We just elected Donald Trump as president of the United States! If people loves to hear about how America needs to change and become more diverse and accepting and end police brutality, we’d have solved a lot of issues by now."
Interestingly enough, Noah appeared on Charlamagne's show on Wednesday to talk about the backlash he's received for sending Lahren cupcakes after their contentious interview.
First, it's important to note that Noah has told TMZ that he didn't personally send Lahren cupcakes -- rather, it was members of his team.
But beyond that, Noah said he wanted to treat Lahren graciously because he knows it's hard coming onto another person's show where you face a hostile audience. He also said that it's simply important to have conversations with other people who don't agree with you, just to break out of ideological bubbles.
"It doesn't mean you have to agree, but at least you're in the world where you are hearing the opposing view," he said.
Noah also said that simply coming into contact with people of different races and having cordial interactions with them is one of the best ways to change someone's mind.
"These things take time," he said. "And one thing I've learned consistently... is racism does not stand up well to contact. And that is one thing I've noticed continuously -- anecdotally in my life, and in stories I've read. When people are in contact with someone of another race... you find that racism doesn't hold up."
Check out the whole video of Noah on Charlamagne's show below.
A Florida woman who believes that the 2012 mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School was an event staged by the government has been indicted for making threats against the father of one of the children killed in the massacre.
CBS Miami reported that 57-year-old Lucy Richards was indicted on four felony counts of transmitting threats in interstate commerce, according to a statement released by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Florida.
"If convicted, each count carries a maximum term of five years’ imprisonment," the statement explained. "Richards was arrested on December 5, 2016 and made her initial appearance before United States Magistrate Judge Mark Pizzo in the Middle District of Florida. Richards is scheduled for an initial appearance in Fort Lauderdale on December 19, 2016."
“We are comforted to know that the system is working to protect the victims of violent crime from re-victimization by potentially violent hoaxers,” said Len Pozner in a statement. Pozner was the father of 6-year-old Noah Pozner, who was killed at Sandy Hook by gunman Adam Lanza.
"According to the court record in this case, including allegations made at the initial hearing, on or about January 10, 2016," the U.S. Attorney's office continued, "Richards made a series of death threats to a parent of a child killed in the Sandy Hook School shooting. The parent resides in South Florida. Richards believed that the school shooting was a hoax and never happened allegedly motivated her to make the charged threats."
Richards is a "truther," i.e., a person who believes that the federal government stages acts of horrific violence in order to frighten the population into surrendering their weapons. The victims and their families, truthers believe, are so-called "crisis actors," people hired by the government to pretend to be bereaved.
Like most right-wing, paranoid conspiracy theories, Sandy Hook truther-ism is encouraged and reinforced by Alex Jones and his followers at InfoWars.com.
Jones said as recently as last month that the murder of 20 children and six adults at Sandy Hook was "synthetic, completely fake, with actors, in my view manufactured."
Richards reportedly called Pozner over and over and said things like, "You gonna die, death is coming to you real soon" and "Death is coming to you real soon and there’s nothing you can do about it.”
A group of black employees are filing a class action suit against Atlanta-based broadcaster CNN, Turner Broadcasting and its parent company Time Warner alleging a pattern of racial discrimination in the workplace.
According to the Rodney Ho of the Atlanta Journal Constitution, lead plaintiff DeWayne Walker and other black employees of the media giant are suing in hopes of breaking a pattern of racial discrimination and retaliation against employees of color who speak out.
Attorney Daniel Meachum sent out a press release Wednesday morning announcing a 10:30 a.m. press conference. Copies of the lawsuit and a list of plaintiffs will be available then.
"As a result of the current discrimination lawsuit filed on behalf of DeWayne Walker vs. CNN, Time Warner & Turner, we have uncovered stories involving abuse of power, nepotism, revenge, retaliation and discrimination," Meachum said in the release.
Walker sued CNN for the first time in January in a $50 million suit that said during his 13 years of employment with the company, he has been consistently passed over for promotions in favor of white coworkers. When he complained to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, he said, he was targeted by higher-ups for retaliation.
