Joy Saha, Salon

The Duke of Sussex's ghostwritten memoir "Spare" specifically details Harry's rifts with his family — namely with his father King Charles and his older brother Prince William — Harry's prior controversies, his decision to leave his senior royal role and his decision to part ways with the royal family alongside wife Meghan Markle, the Duchess of Sussex. Prior to its Jan. 10 release, "Spare" was the talk of the year as several outlets leaked a few of its most damning bits.

"Thank you for wanting to know my story in my words," Harry writes in the acknowledgments, per USA Today.

From Harry's heavy drug usage to his infamous Nazi uniform, here are the 13 biggest bombshells from Harry's memoir:

The alleged assault took place at Harry's London home — Nottingham Cottage — in 2019, where William confronted him about "the whole rolling catastrophe" of their relationship and rifts with the press. The brothers' squabble soon grew violent when William complained about Meghan, specifically calling her "difficult," "rude" and "abrasive."

"He set down the water, called me another name, then came at me. It all happened so fast. So very fast," Harry wrote, per The Guardian. "He grabbed me by the collar, ripping my necklace, and he knocked me to the floor. I landed on the dog's bowl, which cracked under my back, the pieces cutting into me. I lay there for a moment, dazed, then got to my feet and told him to get out."

Harry said that William urged him to hit back but when he refused, William left then returned "looking regretful, and apologized." William also insisted that Harry not tell Meghan about the attack, which he didn't immediately. Instead, he called his therapist.

Elsewhere in the book, Harry also referred to William as both his "beloved brother" and his "archnemesis."

In the Netflix docuseries "Harry & Meghan," Harry called his infamous get-up "one of the biggest mistakes of my life."

Harry recounted the 2005 incident once again in "Spare," saying it was William and his wife Kate, Princess of Wales who told him to wear a Nazi soldier costume instead of a pilot costume.

"I phoned Willy and Kate, asked what they thought. 'Nazi uniform,' they said," Harry wrote. When he wore the costume, Harry said, "They [William and Kate] both howled. Worse than Willy's leotard outfit! Way more ridiculous! Which, again, was the point."

Naturally, the British tabloid newspaper The Sun published a front-page photo of a 20-year-old Harry wearing the costume, which also featured a red armband emblazoned with a big swastika.

"When I saw those photos, I recognized immediately that my brain had been shut off, that perhaps it had been shut off for some time," Harry wrote about the aftermath of the public reveal. "I wanted to go around Britain knocking on doors, explaining to people: I wasn't thinking. I meant no harm. But it wouldn't have made any difference. Judgment was swift, harsh. I was either a crypto Nazi or else a mental defective."

Harry added that his father, now King Charles III, "didn't gloss over the facts" when he saw his son's costume:

"Darling boy, how could you be so foolish? My cheeks burned. I know, I know. But he quickly went on to say that it was the foolishness of youth, that he remembered being publicly vilified for youthful sins, and it wasn't fair, because youth is the time when you're, by definition, unfinished. You're still growing, still becoming, still learning, he said.

"I'd long understood that the photo of me in a Nazi uniform had been the result of various failures — failure of thinking, failure of character," Harry also wrote. "But it had also been a failure of education. Not just school education, but self-education."

When news of Diana's death broke on Aug. 31, 1997, Harry recalled Charles waking him up in the middle of the night, wearing a white dressing gown, to share what had happened:

"Darling boy, Mummy's been in a car crash," Charles told Harry, who was 12 at the time.

"I remember waiting patiently for Pa to confirm that indeed Mummy was all right. And I remember him not doing that," Harry wrote in "Spare," per USA Today. Harry then demanded that Diana be treated at the hospital immediately.

"They tried, darling boy. I'm afraid she didn't make it," Charles said. Harry also wrote that Charles "wasn't great at showing emotions under normal circumstances," but he did try to reassure his son that everything was "going to be OK."

"That's why when the question came, Willy and I promised our father that we would welcome Camilla to the family. The only thing we asked for in return was that he didn't marry her," Harry wrote, explaining that the conversation took place once Camilla Parker-Bowles became more involved in Charles' life following Princess Diana's death. "'You don't need to get married again,' we asked him."

Charles and Camilla eventually married on April 9, 2005. Before the grand wedding, Harry also said he wondered if Camilla would "be mean to me. If she'd be like all the wicked stepmothers in storybooks. But she wasn't."

"Afghanistan was a war of mistakes, a war of enormous collateral damage – thousands of innocents killed and maimed, and that always haunted us," Harry wrote. "So my goal from the day I arrived was to never go to bed doubting that I'd done the right thing, that my targets had been correct, that I was firing on Taliban and only Taliban, no civilians nearby."

He continued: "While in the heat and fog of combat, I didn't think of those 25 as people. You can't kill people if you think of them as people. You can't harm people if you think of them as people. They were chess pieces removed from the board, Bads taken away before they could kill Goods. I'd been trained to 'other-ize' them, trained well. On some level I recognized this learned detachment as problematic. But I also saw it as an unavoidable part of soldiering."

Following his military service, Harry said he experienced panic attacks and intense anxiety. The trauma he suffered from while in battle was reminiscent of the trauma he suffered after his mother's death.

Harry later sought help from a general practitioner, who prescribed Harry pills that he didn't want to take. He also spoke to a few therapists and later began meditating, which helped him immensely.

"It quieted my racing mind, brought a degree of calm," Harry said. "I wasn't one to pray, Nature was still my God, but in my worst moments I'd shut my eyes and be still. Sometimes I'd also ask for help, though I was never sure whom I was asking."

During his teen and young adult years, Harry said he drank, smoked marijuana (he once "smoked an entire shopping bag of weed," per USA Today), snorted cocaine, smoked cigarettes and experimented with psychedelics, which all led to his party-boy image.

"It wasn't much fun, and it didn't make me particularly happy, as it seemed to make everyone around me, but it did make me feel different, and that was the main goal. Feel. Different," Harry wrote about the first time he was given a line of cocaine. "I was a deeply unhappy 17-year-old boy willing to try almost anything that would alter the status quo."

The unnamed woman, Harry describes, also "liked horses, quite a lot, and treated me not unlike a young stallion."

Harry said losing his virginity was a "humiliating moment" and an "inglorious episode."

"I mounted her quickly, after which she spanked my ass and held me back . . . one of my mistakes was letting it happen in a field, just behind a busy pub," he wrote. "No doubt someone had seen us.

When he began dating Meghan, Harry said he made "the mistake of Googling and watching some of her love scenes online."

"I'd witnessed her and a castmate mauling each other in some sort of office or conference room . . . It would take electric-shock therapy to get those images out of my head. I didn't need to see such things live."

He added that Buckingham Palace tried to edit Meghan's scripts after the pair's relationship went public: "The show writers were frustrated, because they were often advised by the Palace comms team to change lines of dialogue, what her character would do, how she would act."

Prior to Harry and Meghan's wedding, Meghan reportedly told Kate that she "must have baby brain because of her hormones," which greatly offended Kate.

During a 2018 meeting with William and Kate at the Duke and Duchess of Sussex's residence, Kate allegedly told Meghan, "We're not close enough for you to talk about my hormones!" and demanded an apology from her. Harry also wrote that William called Meghan "rude" and pointed his finger, saying, "It's not what's done here in Britain."

"Meg said she'd never intentionally do anything to hurt Kate, and if she ever did, she asked Kate to please just let her know so it wouldn't happen again," Harry wrote.

"We all hugged. Kind of."

"I didn't relish losing a second parent, and I had complex feelings about gaining a stepparent, who I thought had recently sacrificed me on her personal PR altar," Harry wrote in "Spare."

He then accused his stepmother of leaking stories about him, saying, "Stories began to appear everywhere in all the papers about her private conversation with Willy, stories that contained pinpoint accurate details, none of which had come from Willy, of course. They could only have been leaked by the other one other person present."

Kate's full first name is Catherine, and that simply would not do. As Harry tells it, Charles and Camilla "wanted Kate to change the spelling of her name, because there were already two royal cyphers with a C and a crown above: Charles and Camilla." The pair suggested that Kate ditch her birth name "Catherine" and instead spell it as "Katherine."

"I wondered now what came of that suggestion," Harry added.

The incident took place one evening during dinner at home, when Harry said he felt "touchy," "angry" and "over-sensitive" over his conversation with Meghan.

"I snapped at her, spoke to her harshly – cruelly," he recalled. "As the words left my mouth, I could feel everything in the room come to a stop."

Harry wrote that Meghan then left the room and sat in her bedroom for 15 minutes. She told him she "wasn't going to tolerate that kind of partner," to which Harry said that he had tried therapy but it hadn't worked for him.

"'No,' she said softly. 'Try again.'"

"In my life I've felt totally helpless only four times," Harry writes. "In the back of the car while Mummy and Willy and I were being chased by paps. In the Apache above Afghanistan, unable to get clearance to do my duty. At (Nottingham Cottage) when my pregnant wife was planning to take her life. And now," he says referring to the time when Meghan lost "so much blood" after she miscarried.

Trevor Noah criticized Elon Musk's takeover of Twitter, including his "ridiculous" plan to charge users $8 per month to be verified with a blue checkmark, during the opening monologue of Tuesday's edition of "The Daily Show."

"For months now, Musk has said that he wanted to own Twitter. The reason he wanted to own Twitter is because he wanted to make sure that it became a haven for free speech," Noah said. ". . . Because let's be honest, up until now, people have really held back on Twitter."

Noah noted that use of the N-word had increased 500% in the first 12 hours following Musk's acquisition, adding that such trolls don't "want free speech, [they] just wanna hate on people."

"So, here's my question: If you're trying to create equality on Twitter, why charge anyone to be verified? Just give everyone a blue checkmark then," Noah continued. "Why are you charging people? . . . It doesn't make sense to offer it as 'equality,' and then put a price on it. Do you get what I'm saying? Can you imagine if MLK was out there like, 'I have a dream. I have a dream, and I'll tell you all about it for $8.99 a month.' It wouldn't be the same thing."

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Musk reportedly had initial plans to increase the price of the Twitter Blue subscription plan from $4.99 to $19.99, which prompted online backlash and a since-viral reaction from Stephen King. On Tuesday, Musk took to Twitter to announce the new price, writing, "Twitter's current lords & peasants system for who has or doesn't have a blue checkmark is bullshit. Power to the people! Blue for $8/month."

In his monologue, Noah ridiculed the decision, saying "with $8 a month, you can subscribe to Netflix, you can get Paramount+, you can get Hulu . . . or you can pay so that people verify that they're actually sh*tting on you."

"It's all about 'equality.' No, you're trying to make money. I get it," he added. "I think this $8 a month thing is ridiculous. If you ask me, if Elon Musk wants to make money from Twitter, what he should do [is], don't charge people for blue checkmarks. Charge white people to say the N-word. Twitter will be the most profitable company in history. Racists will be taking out loans."

Whoopi Goldberg is glad that her former co-host, Meghan McCain, is no longer on "The View."

In a Saturday interview with Page Six, Goldberg opened up about the new — and enjoyable — sense of peace on the show's set following McCain's departure, saying, "It's calmer because nobody wants to be that tired every day."

This article first appeared on Salon.

McCain, the daughter of late Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), joined "The View" in October 2017 as a full-time co-host and retired from her gig in August 2021 after four seasons. The outspoken conservative television personality often quarreled with her more liberal panelists, particularly Goldberg and fellow co-host Joy Behar. In her most recent book, "Bad Republican: A Memoir," she explained that her tension with Behar was what motivated her to leave the show for good.

"I finally went back to the show, and the day I went back to the show, Joy Behar said on air, 'Nobody missed you, we didn't miss you, you shouldn't have come back,'" McCain recounted. Following the exchange, McCain told an ABC producer, "If you guys didn't want me to come back, I wouldn't have come back!"

McCain also made jabs at Goldberg in her memoir, stating, "The thing about Whoopi, though, is that she yields so much power in culture and television, and once she turns on you, it can create unfathomable tension at the table." She added that she initially felt safe around Goldberg, but that sentiment wore off after the latter allegedly began to make her contempt felt.

"I found her open disdain for me more and more difficult to manage as the years went on, and it became more frequent. Occasionally, if the show's political discourse veered into territory that she found disagreeable, Whoopi would cut me off, sometimes harshly."

Unsurprisingly, Goldberg also expressed her dislike of McCain during Saturday's interview.

"We've always had disagreements and stuff, but this one was a little bit different," Goldberg said. "I think [the show], it's better. I feel it's better, but I'm still tired!"

Despite the onscreen drama, Goldberg claimed that there were no backstage fights with McCain.

"People felt like they wanted to go home," she continued. "There was no point in fighting. You do what you do and you go home and do what you love to do. And hopefully, everybody is now happier."

Armie Hammer had a promising career ahead of him. In 2010, he attracted attention for his portrayal of the Winklevoss twins in David Fincher's "The Social Network" and in 2012, he won over young hearts as Prince Andrew Alcott in the fantasy Snow White retelling "Mirror Mirror." A few years later — following a string of forgettable roles and box-office bombs — he reclaimed his princely crown with Luca Guadagnino's acclaimed drama "Call Me By Your Name."

But all that fame came crashing down in 2021, when Hammer faced numerous allegations of rape, abuse, violence and even a lurid interest in cannibalism. An investigation led by the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) ensued and subsequently, Hammer was dropped from multiple upcoming projects. For the time being, Hollywood's ex-Golden Boy is living a private life, working as a timeshare salesman in the Cayman Islands.

The troubling allegations are revisited in "House of Hammer," the latest true-crime installation from Discovery+. The three-part series spotlights the victims who came forward to tell their stories along with Casey Hammer — Hammer's estranged aunt — who exposes the generations of abusers within the prominent Hammer dynasty.

"I grew up with very abusive, multi-generational men in the Hammer family," Casey told Salon in a recent Zoom interview. "And I just felt such an admiration for these women about how brave they were and I wanted to help them somehow. 'House of Hammer' shines a light on victims and abuse and holding people accountable — especially people, power, money, influence and fame. That's not easy to go up against."

From a Hammer-crested "sex throne" to the actor's perverse sexual fantasies, here are eight gut-wrenching revelations from the series:

"I have a fantasy about having someone prove their love and devotion and tying them up in a public place at night and making their body free use and seeing if they will f**k strangers for me," read a DM that Julia Morrison received from Hammer.

The pair began chatting a week before the start of quarantine in 2020, after Hammer followed Morrison on Instagram and expressed interest in a photo series she had modeled for. The series, called "For Arabella," showcases the plights of breaking out of a toxic relationship via a collection of emotional and provocative photos. When asked which photo he liked the most, Hammer pointed out the one in which Morrison was being choked. It didn't take long for their conversation to become far more graphic.

"Once the sexual nature of the DMs started, it was all that he ever wanted to talk about," Morrison recounted in the documentary. "He says to me, 'Fine, let's be open and honest. I've wanted to tie you up since I saw those goddamn pictures and messaged you about it. Shibari is how it's spelled. It's the Japanese art of rope bondage."

She continued, "And then he was saying to me about how if I were to submit to him, at the level where he could call me and say one word and get me to come on demand, like Pavlovian dog-style. Kind of getting you into this submissive space where he's the dominant. These are messages that are being sent literally within seconds of each other. You know, very heavy, very frequent."

As the conversation progressed, Hammer's DMs grew more violent and disturbing. Another DM read, "You don't think or worry about anything except being a good little pet. My own personal little slave. In return you will be worshipped, fed and f**ked."

Similar DMs were also sent to Armie's ex-girlfriend Courtney Vucekovich. She recalled receiving a note from him that simply said, "I'm going to bite the f**k out of you."

Another woman, going by the pseudonym "Effie," who first spoke out against Hammer, posted screenshots of the DMs she received from the actor on an Instagram account called House of Effie. One such DM read, "I don't know, you were the most intense and extreme version of that I've ever had. Raping you on your floor with a knife against you. Everything else seemed boring."

The pattern that emerged was that Hammer would use the language of BDSM without fully understanding that BDSM requires consent and for all parties to feel safe. In contrast, the actor's partners allege that he consistently crossed the lines of consent, carrying out violent acts against their will.

In addition to the DMs, Hammer oftentimes bit his victims and left behind dark bruises & marks throughout their bodies. (Although the documentary included a picture of a mark implying that it was one such bite impression Hammer had made, Variety reported that it was revealed to be a tattoo that the film has now since removed.)

"He bites really hard . . . and he tells you to wear them like a badge of honor," ex-girlfriend Courtney Vucekovich, who admits to falling under the actor's control, said. "Almost like he convinced me that I'm lucky to have it. As f**ked up as that sounds, at that time, I was interpreting that as love. Looking at it now makes me sick."

Courtney Vucekovich explained that Hammer subdued his victims by pushing their boundaries "a little bit at a time." She recalled that while on vacation with Hammer, he brought a brown bag filled with ropes to their hotel room. Hammer allegedly told Vucekovich that he had only tied up mannequins before, never humans, and wanted to try out this fantasy with her. When she declined, he grew angry and later, took advantage of Vucekovich while he was inebriated.

"The ropes were around your neck, your wrists, your ankles, behind your back. I mean, I had bruises . . . I hated it. I understand that if this is your fantasy, more power to you but I didn't like it and it didn't feel safe," Vucekovich said tearfully.

"I didn't feel loved . . . and you're completely immobilized. There's something about trauma while you're immobilized and can't move. There's that fight or flight, you can't do either, you're just stuck there. And I'm just closing my eyes until it ended and he just went to sleep like it was nothing."

"Effie" – from the House of Effie Instagram account that posted the incriminating screenshots of her texts with Hammer – took her revelations one step further. She decided to show her face and released a video statement alongside her attorney, Gloria Allred, in response to Hammer's lawyers.

"I met Armie Hammer on Facebook in 2016 when I was 20 years old. The relationship progressed rapidly and the emotions from both sides became really intense," Effie said in her opening. "He would often test my devotion to him by removing and crossing my boundaries as he became increasingly more violent. He abused me mentally, emotionally and sexually.

"On April 24th, 2017, Armie Hammer violently raped me for over four hours in Los Angeles during which he repeatedly slapped my head against a wall bruising my face. During those four hours, I tried to get away but he wouldn't let me."

Armie Hammer's aunt, Casey Hammer, revealed numerous instances of horrifying, scandalous and criminal behavior in her family in order to show that the actor was not the first to abuse power. In fact, her own father was one such man.

It turns out that in 1955, her father Julian Hammer (and Armie's grandfather) was arrested for manslaughter after he murdered his close friend Bruce. During a birthday celebration in Los Angeles, Bruce reminded Julian that he owed him $400. Julian then grew upset and shot Bruce two times, killing him on the spot.

"The story that he told us was self-defense, but my mom was very quick to tell me, 'No, your father just murdered someone in cold blood,'" said Casey in the documentary.

Following the murder, Julian's father, business leader Armand Hammer, paid his lawyer $50,000 to absolve his son of all the charges. Per Edward Epstein, the author of "Dossier: The Secret History of Armand Hammer," the money was to protect Armand's high-profile reputation rather than to help his son. Julian was then given a position at Occidental Petroleum — the chemical industry company founded by Armand — per Armand's request. There, Julian carried out illegal operations, such as secretly recording phone conversations, and became a "spy" for his father.

Courtney Vucekovich revealed that Armie Hammer frequently carried safety pins, Shibari ropes, knives, a paddle and other BDSM-like tools when they traveled together.

"He said he wanted to find a doctor in Los Angeles to remove both my ribs. He wanted to eat my ribs," she said. "He wanted to smoke them. He was obsessed with meat."

Vucekovich explained that Hammer frequently organized "high protocol nights," which consisted of strict rules that were established by Hammer and built around inflicting pain on Vucekovich.

"On one of these high protocol nights, I was tied up, and he basically looked over my body and said to me, 'Where should I put my initials on you?'" Vucekovich recalled. "And then he just started to carve his initials into me. And I just didn't say anything. It was bleeding and he was licking it, drinking blood."

According to Lauren Skae — also known as TikToker The Zen Blonde, who delved into the Hammer family's dark history — Armie Hammer's father Michael (and Casey's brother) had a 7-foot-tall "sex throne" (also called the "naughty chair") which was kept in the Armand Hammer Foundation headquarters. The chair allegedly had a hole in the seat, a cage underneath and a hook — resembling a meat hook.

An old photo of Michael shows him sitting on the throne and holding the head of a blonde woman, who is sitting in the cage and smiling. Despite the photos and descriptions of the throne, Michael's lawyer later claimed the throne was merely a "gag gift."

"It seems like an awfully large 'gag gift' and a very customizable gag gift to give someone," Skae said in the documentary.

Following her parent's divorce, Casey said she rarely saw her father and only visited occasionally. During one visit, she returned to her childhood home and witnessed a sex and drug-fueled house party hosted by her father.

"It was a lot of drinking . . . a lot of smoke-filled rooms, a lot of screaming, a lot of loud music, a lot of drugs," Casey recounted. "He always had 16- or 17-year-old girls around, not much older than I was, five or six years older, and he called them his 'housekeepers.' It was code for his girlfriends . . . It was almost like giant orgies."

Casey also recalled finding polaroid photos of an underage girl at the party performing sexual acts on a man as her father watched in the background.

"When my father and my brother surrounded themselves with young, impressionable women that would basically do anything that they asked . . . that was the mentality I saw," she explained. "Women were disposable in the Hammer family."

When asked how her family's mistreatment of women influenced her perception of herself, Casey told Salon that making sense of her own identity has been hard:

"I speak a lot about it in my book of how I work through a lot of that just to get healed," she said. "That I'm even sitting here right now, it's a testament that for whatever reason, I'm supposed to keep plugging along because you know, I'm here for a reason."

"And I think seeing "House of Hammer," I had a moment where you go, "OK, this is why I'm going to keep moving forward with this purpose and help empower women because I know how great it made me feel." It's like one of those things where everything you need is inside. And the minute you stop and take the moment to just love yourself for who you are, it's OK, it's good enough."

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson officially announced his resignation on Thursday following the recent departures of his government ministers amid a string of political scandals and catastrophes. The news was met with widespread celebration and a goofy soundtrack, courtesy of Hugh Grant.

Earlier that day, the actor, who plays a fictional U.K. prime minister in the 2003 rom-com "Love Actually," asked activist and Anti-Brexit campaigner Steve Bray if he could blast "Yakety Sax" — aka the iconic theme song for the slapstick comedy "The Benny Hill Show" — outside the British Houses of Parliament. The wacky tune, which frequently accompanies the protagonist's ludicrous escapades, is now a stand-in soundtrack for clownery and tomfoolery.

"Morning @snb19692," tweeted Grant. "Glad you have your speakers back. Do you by any chance have the Benny Hill music to hand?"

Lucky for Grant, Bray had the song at his disposal and made sure to play it at full volume for all to hear. The audio can even be heard in the background of a few British news broadcasts, which went viral on social media:

Bestselling author James Patterson, who currently ranks third on the list of richest — and most successful — authors of all time, caught heat after suggesting that white, male writers are struggling to find work during these trying times.

Patterson voiced his concerns during a Sunday interview with The Times, in which he asserted that white men are facing racism within the film, theater, TV and publishing industries.

″[It's] just another form of racism," Patterson said. "What's that all about? Can you get a job? Yes. Is it harder? Yes. It's even harder for older writers. You don't meet many 52-year-old white males."

It didn't take long for the "Alex Cross" author to garner backlash on social media, with critics highlighting his astounding wealth and sheer privilege as a white, male author in the publishing world.

"James Patterson, one of the richest authors in the world, thinks its hard for 52 year old white men to succeed," one commenter tweeted. "Because, as we all know, old white men are so poorly represented as writers in film, tv, theatre, and publishing."

Per a 2020 New York Times op-ed, 89% of books were written by white writers while a 11% were written by authors of color. And within the film industry, a 2022 Hollywood Diversity Report conducted by the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) found that white, male directors continue to be an overwhelming majority throughout the years — in 2019, 85.6% of directors were white while 84.9% were male.

"Amending my previous quote to 'when you're accustomed to insane privilege, even slightly less insane privilege apparently feels like oppression. (It's still not.)," wrote American film executive Franklin Leonard.

"This is why the highest paid writer in the world is a Black woman, right? No? It's still James Patterson?" authors Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck – who collectively go by the pen name James S. A. Corey and are known for "The Expanse" novels – also wrote.

A separate user tweeted, "For anyone who doesn't know, James Patterson launched a children's imprint that published many diverse works, then up and decided one day it would only publish his own work. His whole 'white authors are suffering thing' comes after a 'I want to profit off diversity' thing."

In his interview, Patterson also blasted Hachette Book Group, the initial publisher of Woody Allen's 2020 memoir that backed out of the project in March of that same year after employees staged a walkout and Allen's estranged son, Ronan Farrow, also disapproved of the move. Allen's memoir, titled "Apropos of Nothing," was later published by Arcade Publishing.

"I hated that," Patterson said of the publishing house's decision. "He has the right to tell his own story."

He added: "I'm almost always on the side of free speech."

In addition to being one of the wealthiest authors, Patterson holds the record for the most New York Times best sellers. His most recent publication, "Run, Rose, Run: A Novel," was co-authored with Dolly Parton and tells the tale of a young singer-songwriter who is trying to escape her dark past.

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Netflix's latest documentary feature "Our Father" is an intricate real-life horror tale about fertility fraud that manages to grow more unsettling by the minute.

The harrowing investigation focuses on the misdeeds of disgraced fertility doctor Dr. Donald Cline, who artificially inseminated his own sperm into his female patients, without their knowledge or consent. During the 1980s, Cline was hailed as one of the best fertility doctors in Indianapolis, praised for his medical expertise and his endearing promise to give countless parents the gift of a child. The doctor's motives, however, proved to be more vile in nature after it was revealed that he had fathered 94 children and counting, all of whom are half-siblings.

RELATED: HBO's unflinching "Baby God" corrects pop culture's tendency to treat fertility fraud lightly

One of Cline's children, Jacoba Ballard, uncovered the truth when she grew suspicious of the doctor after taking a 23AndMe DNA test in search of possible half-siblings. At first there were just five siblings, which soon grew to 10, then 15 and finally, over 50 individuals. The documentary features just a handful of Ballard's half-siblings, including Julie Harmon (No. 14), Matt White (No. 17), Heather Woock (No. 22), Lisa Shepherd-Stidham (No. 33), Jason Hyatt (No. 48), Carrie Foster (No. 53) and Alison Kramer (No. 61).

The identities of all 90-plus children still remain a mystery — "Our Father" ends on a solemn note with Fox59 reporter Angela Ganote, who first covered the story, asking women who have consulted Dr. Cline in the past to urge their children to take a DNA test.

From Cline's disturbing insemination process to his possible ties with the Quiverfull movement, here are five horrifying revelations from the documentary:

1 The creepy first meeting between Cline and his "children"

When Ballard realized that her biological father was Cline, she consulted both Doug and Donna — two of the four children Cline had with his wife — to arrange a group meeting with their father and fellow half-siblings.

Ballard recalled the intensity of Cline's footsteps and the sound of his cane hitting the floor, which were menacing and foreboding. She said the doctor showed no visible emotion during the meeting and managed to stay calm and composed in the face of his children. The doctor also carried with him a gun, which Ballard claimed was an intimidation tactic.

She then said that Cline introduced himself and asked his children, who were all seated at a table, to each share their name, age and profession. "It was almost like he was ranking us," Ballard stated. "Like, 'Let me see which one of my offspring made it to the top.' I felt like we were being judged."

Ballard noted that some of her half-siblings suffered from auto-immune disorders, so she asked Cline for his detailed medical history. The doctor, however, dismissed her request and asserted that there was nothing to worry about.

Things quickly became heated when Cline offered Ballard a piece of paper that contained scripture from Jeremiah 1:5 to help her cope with the news. She declined the so-called "gift," angrily telling Cline, "You're not gonna use my God to justify your actions."

When asked why he used his own sperm in his patients, Cline said he was only trying to help desperate mothers and families. He then reassured his children that there were only 15 siblings in total, no more than that.

2 Liz White's story

White, the mother of Ballard's fellow half-sibling Matt White, visited Cline's office frequently when she was trying for a child despite her struggles with infertility. White noted that Cline was always alone in his office, whether it was during the weekend or during the week or during midday or late evening. She would wait in one room, where she undressed and prepared for her appointment in private, while Cline went to his office to gather her donor sperm samples — or so she thought. Years later, White learned that Cline spent that time masturbating and placing his own sperm into a syringe, which was then inserted into White during her procedure.

"When Matt's DNA test came back, my first words were, 'I was raped 15 times and didn't even know it,'" she said tearfully.

3 Cline's alleged threats and secret attacks

As Cline's story garnered increased attention from local news outlets, the doctor grew fearful of losing his marriage and tainting his relationship with the church, thus prompting him to threaten and harass his children over the phone. They also suspected Cline of committing a slew of strange attacks, even though they never caught him in the act.

In one instance, the lug nuts from all four tires of Ballard's car were removed and missing. In another, Harmon's computer was hacked and her files and emails on Cline were erased. And for Woock, the designated 22nd sibling received harassing phone calls from the cemetery, asking her if she wanted to purchase a plot for her to be buried in.

"I think it was to rattle me. To re-traumatize me so that I would be quiet," Woock claimed. "I don't think he wanted any of us to talk publicly if he could help it."

4 Cline's obsession with a higher calling

Cline grew increasingly religious following a brutal car accident, in which he ran over and killed a young girl. According to Ballard, that moment encouraged Cline to change his life and devote himself entirely to God.

"Maybe he thought that this was his way of giving back, that he took a life that really wasn't his fault," said Mark Farber, Cline's former colleague, of the doctor's medical crimes. "Now, he was going to give back. Maybe that was a psychological process going through his mind. But it doesn't really matter because that should not have been a way that he was trying to make amends."

Cline's office was also littered with Christian sayings, such as, "If you want to get to Heaven, you need to be Christian." The doctor also served as an elder of the Church and hosted baptisms at his home swimming pool.

5 Cline's possible ties to the Quiverfull movement

Many of Cline's children also believed he was part of the Quiverfull movement, a fundamentalist subculture of conservative Christians who denounce contraception, abortion and sterilization but laud widespread procreation. The Duggars, of TLC show "19 Kids and Counting" fame, is probably the most well-known family that follows a Quiverfull-like lifestyle.

The children first suspected the doctor's affiliation after Ballard received an email from an unnamed individual with a Quiverfull domain name. They also found that the Quiverfull website heavily quoted Jeremiah 1:5, which says "Before I formed you in your mother's womb, I knew you." The scripture, which is found at the opening of the documentary, was also found in Cline's office and previously given to Ballard when they first met in person.

Additionally, it is believed that the Quiverfull movement advocates for more white children to help uphold white supremacy ideals and preserve the white race over others. In an emotional moment from the documentary, the children acknowledge their glaring Aryan-like similarities — they are all white and have both blonde hair and blue eyes.

"Our Father" is currently streaming on Netflix. Watch a trailer for it below, via YouTube.

Our Father | Official Trailer | Netflixwww.youtube.com

Meghan McCain's familial ties and past experience as a controversial television personality weren't enough to help boost the sales of her recent memoir.

The former "The View" co-host released the hardcover edition of her book "Bad Republican: A Memoir" on April 26 after publishing it as an audiobook on Audible last autumn. But per MSN, the book has so far been a dud, in its opening week selling only . . . 244 total copies. As of Saturday, the book managed to sell a measly average of about 22 copies per day, according to Uproxx.

The book's Amazon listing explains that McCain's latest release tells a personal story "of growing up the daughter of an American icon who shaped her life and details the heartbreaking final moments spent by his side." There are chapters on McCain's dating life in New York and snippets of her love story with now-husband Ben Domenech. We also learn more about her "views on cancel culture and internet trolls as well as life backstage as the sole Republican at America's most-watched daytime talk show — and why she decided to leave."

McCain formally left "The View" on July 1 of last year, later telling Variety that the show's environment was "unhinged and disorganized and rowdy." "For me personally, it felt extremely isolating because of my political ideology. I was the only conservative on the show," she said. "The third year, they ended up hiring a producer for me who was also conservative."

She added that an on-air squabble with co-host Joy Behar also led to her eventual departure. "I didn't know I was going to leave until my second day back from maternity leave when Joy told me that 'Nobody missed me — zero.' That was the day I decided," she stated.

In September 2021, McCain became an opinion columnist for the British tabloid Daily Mail where she writes about everything from American politics to pop culture.

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Republicans aren't even bothering to lie about it anymore They are now coming for birth controlwww.youtube.com

It looks like Stacey Abrams beat Pete Davidson to space. The politician, romance novelist, voting rights activist and yes, Trekkie, makes an unexpected cameo in the season 4 finale of "Star Trek: Discovery" now streaming on Paramount+.

This article originally appeared at Salon.

In the series, United Earth had seceded from the galactic United Federation of Planets following the catastrophic event known as The Burn that spanned the galaxy. But after Capt. Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) and her crew saves the Federation from total obliteration, the president of United Earth makes their way to the Starfleet starbase and requests to rejoin the union.

That president? Abrams, of course.

"We knew, coming into season 3, that bringing the Federation back together again would be a two-season arc," the show's executive producer Michelle Paradise told IndieWire. "And in the third episode of season 3, we go to Earth and we find out that Earth is no longer a member. So we were teeing up that Earth equals the Federation coming back together again. So we knew that, by the end of season 4, we would need to focus on Earth.

"And as we got into season four and got halfway through breaking it, we realized: We need a person to represent Earth," she continued. "And then the question became: who should that person be? I don't remember where the idea came from, honestly. But I texted Alex to say, 'What do you think of Stacey Abrams?' Immediately, [he sent] exclamation points."

Paradise and fellow "Discovery" executive producer Alex Kurtzman then arranged a Zoom meeting with Abrams to discuss her character and explain her significance in the season. When the pair offered Abrams the role, she immediately said yes and travelled to the show's Toronto soundstages to film her scene.

Abrams has been a longtime "Star Trek" fan, which makes her recent appearance all the more special. She previously co-hosted "Trek the Vote to Victory," a themed campaign event for Joe Biden in 2020, alongside Pete Buttigieg and Andrew Yang. The event also featured some of the franchise's most notable stars, including Sir Patrick Stewart, LeVar Burton and George Takei. And in a 2019 interview with The New York Times, the self-described Trekkie revealed she's a huge fan of the "Star Trek: Voyager" episode "Shattered" and its leading lady, Kate Mulgrew's Captain Janeway.

"We never wanted it to be a cameo — it was a proper role," Paradise said about Abrams' performance. "There's just something that made us think, 'Well, of course she can do it.' And she did. She just blew us away."

Other notable "Star Trek" guest stars include Gabrielle Union, Stephen Hawking, Dwayne Johnson and Sarah Silverman. At this time, it's unclear if Abrams will reprise her role or make an appearance in other franchise productions. Her hands are quite full with her political career; Abrams is currently running for governor in Georgia.

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A few weeks after Spotify proclaimed that "canceling voices is a slippery slope" in a statement, the platform is proving its inability to enforce its own rules with another troubling case.

On Thursday, Variety reported that Spotify had removed several episodes of "The Alex Jones Show," a far-right radio show hosted by infamous conspiracy theorist and Infowars founder Alex Jones, after the left-leaning non-profit organization Media Matters for America discovered the uploads with a simple search. Since Feb. 20 of this year, full-length episodes of the podcast had been mysteriously uploaded daily to Spotify, even though his show is no longer allowed on the platform.

Jones had been banned from Spotify in 2018 over community guidelines violations, which included glorifying violence and promoting hate speech.

At this time, it's unclear who uploaded the episodes. According to Spotify, uploading content, whether it's music, audio podcasts or video podcasts, is free to all users but must be reviewed by human moderators before publishing.

The news comes on the heels of Spotify's controversy with Joe Rogan's podcast "The Joe Rogan Experience." The platform pulled 71 episodes of the podcast due to "racially insensitive language" shortly after an edited video compilation showed Rogan using the N-word approximately "two dozen times." Spotify, however, failed to remove a separate episode on COVID-19 vaccines, which garnered criticism from health officials for its promotion of misinformation.

The platform also failed to remove an October 2020 episode that focuses on the pandemic and features Jones as a guest, who used the opportunity to scoff at the use of masks, which he claimed doesn't offer protection against COVID-19 according to "a lot of studies." He also deemed the pandemic a hoax and falsely claimed that an oral vaccine funded by Bill Gates caused polio.

Despite the numerous claims of misinformation, Spotify stood by Rogan, asserting that silencing him was not the ultimate solution. Spotify CEO Daniel Ek proposed adding more diverse voices to the platform in an effort to mask Rogan's harmful rhetoric.

"If we believe in having an open platform as a core value of the company, then we must also believe in elevating all types of creators, including those from underrepresented communities and a diversity of backgrounds," Ek wrote. He also added that the company is "committing to an incremental investment of $100 million for the licensing, development, and marketing of music (artists and songwriters) and audio content from historically marginalized groups" as part of an effort to diversify Spotify's content.

"While some might want us to pursue a different path, I believe that more speech on more issues can be highly effective in improving the status quo and enhancing the conversation altogether," he continued.

Although episodes of "The Alex Jones Show" is no longer available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Facebook and YouTube, the podcast is still up on Google Podcasts.

An anonymous woman filed a lawsuit on Wednesday against rapper Snoop Dogg and an associate of his, asserting that the pair sexually assaulted her back in 2013, TMZ first reported.

The woman, who is described as an actor, model and dancer, said the assault took place after she attended one of Snoop Dogg's show in Anaheim, California, on May 29. She claimed that Bishop Don "Magic" Juan, a former pimp and longtime associate of the rapper, offered her a ride home but instead, drove her to his place. She said that Juan later forced her to perform oral sex on him the following morning.

According to the lawsuit, Juan "discriminated against and harassed [her] because of [her] sex and gender."

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The woman then claimed that Juan took her to Snoop Dogg's studio the next day to see if the rapper would offer her a gig. She alleged that the rapper had also forced her into oral sex while she used his bathroom. The lawsuit claims that Snoop Dogg ultimately denied her a gig because she "refused to willingly and enthusiastically give oral sex."

The latest allegation arrived just a few hours after Snoop Dogg announced that he had acquired Death Row Records, the record label that launched his 1993 debut solo album "Doggystyle" and kickstarted his music career.

"I am thrilled and appreciative of the opportunity to acquire the iconic and culturally significant Death Row Records brand, which has immense untapped future value," the rapper said in a statement per CNN. "It feels good to have ownership of the label I was part of at the beginning of my career and as one of the founding members. This is an extremely meaningful moment for me."

Snoop Dogg is also slated to perform at the Super Bowl Halftime show on Sunday alongside Dr. Dre, Eminem, Kendrick Lamar and Mary J. Blige.

At last, we get the first glimpse of MSNBC's highly anticipated "Four Seasons Total Documentary," in advance of the anniversary of the hallowed fiasco that started it all – when a botched reservation plagued a measly Philadelphia-based landscaping shop and inadvertently transformed it into a media spectacle.

The shop — Four Seasons Total Landscaping — first made headlines just four days after the 2020 presidential election. After a tweet and a series of calls involving Trump's legal team all went awry, the landscaping shop became the unlikely host of an infamous press conference moderated by the former president's attorney Rudy Giuliani. Four Seasons Total Landscaping has since become a sensation on social media and an inspiration for songs, spoofs and artwork.

Famously known for being sandwiched between an adult sex toy shop and a crematorium, the shop also capitalized off of its newfound fame with exclusive merchandise, a summer concert and a Super Bowl commercial.

"We got put into a corner and we used our humor to get us out of it," says a member of the shop in the film's trailer.

We also hear additional snippets of testimonials from the shop's workers and owners. In one instance, a shop worker is seen clearing the company landline phone's voicemail box, which has been flooded with thousands of messages regarding the press conference.

Clips of passionate crowds bearing Trump paraphernalia supplement screenshots of social media posts making a mockery of the event. A sitcom-like tune plays in the background of video footage of Giuliani gleefully commencing the press conference.

"Wow, what a beautiful day thank you," Giuliani says gamely in one scene. Indeed, it was.

"Four Seasons Total Documentary" premieres Sunday, Nov. 7 at 10 p.m. on MSNBC. Watch the trailer for it below via YouTube.

Four Seasons Total Documentary | Official Trailerwww.youtube.com