In a damning audit of state police — which exposed 26,000 likely-fraudulent tickets that were logged into Connecticut’s racial profiling database — one state trooper stood out as a dubious high performer. The audit flagged a lone state policeman who submitted 1,350 “overreported” tickets from 2014 to 2017. (These are …
Read More »The Actors' Strike Is Already Changing TikTok. Here's How
When SAG-AFTRA joined the WGA in striking against the Alliance of Motion Pictures and Television Producers, there was immediate action. The cast of summer blockbuster Oppenheimer immediately left their screening, SAG president Fran Drescher delivered a fervid speech blaming the AMPTP for Hollywood’s halt, and SAG was quick to release …
Read More »Former Anti-Abortion Leader and Aide to Alabama Lt. Gov. Arrested on Child Sex Abuse Charges
As the chair of Alliance for a Pro-Life Alabama in 2018, Cole Wagner helped muscle into the Alabama Constitution a new amendment declaring the state recognized “the sanctity of unborn life and the rights of unborn children.” On Friday, the Alabama Political Reporter broke the news that Wagner had been …
Read More »The Decathlete-Turned-Grifter Who Conned L.A.
N ov. 27, 2007, was a hot and humid Tuesday in Manila, Philippines, and David Bunevacz was getting the shit kicked out of him. He had been invited to the home of one of his partners in a recent cosmetic surgery venture, the Beverly Hills 6750 clinic in Makati City, …
Read More »'Barbenheimer' Asks: Who Ruin the World? Men.
This weekend, legions of movie lovers will descend upon theaters, popcorn in hand and catheter in place, girding themselves for the single most unlikely double feature ever conceived by the internet. When it was announced that Oppenheimer, Christopher Nolan‘s big-budget, bigger-canvas biopic about the man dubbed “the father of the …
Read More »How 'Unplugged' Made Tony Bennett an Unlikely MTV Star
Sad news hit this morning that Tony Bennett has died following a long battle with Alzheimer’s. The legendary crooner had one of the longest careers in the history of popular music. His debut LP, Because of You, landed in 1952, and he worked steadily in the studio and on the …
Read More »We Need to Talk About Those 'Oppenheimer' Sex Scenes
The best-laid plans of mice and men often go awry, and two films explore that abiding Robert Burns proverb this week: Oppenheimer, Christopher Nolan’s IMAX-sized three-hour biopic of the “father of the atomic bomb,” and Barbie, a Mattel-sanctioned deconstruction of the patriarchy from the fertile mind of Greta Gerwig. Only …
Read More »Danny Elfman Settled a Sexual-Harassment Allegation for $830,000
O n July 31, 2018, Danny Elfman, one of the most prolific and celebrated film and television composers of all time, entered into a settlement and nondisclosure agreement with a former friend and fellow composer. The agreement — previously unreported — came after she’d accused him of multiple instances of …
Read More »Nebraska Teen Sent to Jail Over Illegal Abortion
A Nebraska teen who enlisted her mother’s help to obtain abortion pills in violation of state law has been sentenced to 90 days in jail. Celeste Burgess was 17 years old and 24 weeks pregnant when she took Mifepristone and Misoprostol that her mother purchased online. In May, the now …
Read More »A Timeline of Jason Aldean's Controversies: Blackface and Confederate Flags
Jason Aldean‘s debut single, 2005’s “Hicktown,” arrived on country radio like a kick in the teeth, blending hard rock with country music and lyrics that unabashedly celebrated a certain type of rural life: “You can see the neighbor’s butt crack nailing on his shingles/and his woman’s smokin’ Pall Mall’s, watchin’ …
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