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Facebook is about to launch a standalone TV app (FB)

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Mark Zuckerberg

Facebook is coming to your TV.

The world's largest social network will release a standalone app for televisions soon, the company announced on Tuesday.

The new app will let Facebook users watch videos from their friends and their "liked" pages on TV, as well as watching the top live videos. Facebook also said that it will recommend videos based on ones you've already watched. The app's existence was first reported by The Wall Street Journal.

Facebook also announced a few more videos updates on Tuesday:

  • Videos will play with the sound on by default in the News Feed, as long as your phone's sound is on. If your phone is on silent, videos will still be muted until you tap into them. This change comes after Facebook tested videos with the sound on by default in recent months and received "positive feedback."
  • Vertical videos will automatically expand to fill the full screen, like they do on Snapchat. This is change is likely meant to encourage people to shoot and upload videos from their phones.
  • Videos can keep playing in a little thumbnail at the bottom of your screen while you browse the News Feed. Facebook has already tested this feature with a subset of its users, but now it's rolling out to everyone.
  • Facebook's TV app will be available "soon" on the Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, and Samsung Smart TVs, with more devices to follow.

All of these updates enforce Facebook's increased effort to be a destination for people to watch longer and more premium videos. Aside from letting content creators show mid-roll ads in their videos, Facebook is working on funding its own scripted video shows.

Facebook intends for its TV app to be a compliment to watching videos on mobile phones and not a Netflix killer, the company's VP of Partnerships, Dan Rose, said onstage at the Code Media conference Tuesday.

"A lot of people when they’re watching video in News Feed during the day will save it for later, because they don’t have time to watch," he said. "Now it's easy to watch on your TV if you want to do that. We want people to be able to consume content wherever they are – whether it’s on their phone, whether it’s on their computer — and TV is just another screen for that. But we’re a mobile-first company, so the products we build will always be oriented around the experience you have on a mobile device when you're watching video.”

Mark Zuckerberg recently described video as a "mega-trend" similar to how mobile phones contributed to Facebook's early growth. Facebook's thinking is that, if it can get people to watch more videos, it can further tap into the $70 billion brand advertising budgets that are normally reserved for TV shows.

SEE ALSO: Here are the strengths and weaknesses of Facebook's plan to grab TV's ad money

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NOW WATCH: WPP CEO Sir Martin Sorrell on Snapchat becoming the 'third force' to Google and Facebook


Like it or not, Facebook is going to start autoplaying videos with the sound on (FB)

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Mark Zuckerberg on phone

Get ready for the videos you scroll past in your Facebook feed to play with the sound on.

After initially muting videos by default, Facebook announced on Tuesday that videos on its social network will now play with the sound enabled.

Facebook said it's making the change after getting "positive feedback" from users it has already tested the experience with, but the move could potentially anger users that have grown accustomed to only hearing sound when they choose to tap into a playing video.

The main catch is that videos will still be muted by default if your phone is set to silent. Facebook is also letting people disable the behavior entirely by unchecking a new “Videos in News Feed Start With Sound” option in its app's settings.

Facebook enabling sound by default is just one part of its multi-pronged strategy to be more of a destination for watching videos. The company is also releasing a standalone TV app and funding its own original shows.

SEE ALSO: Here are the strengths and weaknesses of Facebook's plan to grab TV's ad money

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NOW WATCH: Here's how to make one of those immersive 360-degree Facebook photos

Watch the first trailer for FX's new show about one of Hollywood's most notorious feuds

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fx feud trailer

FX just released the first trailer for its upcoming new series, "Feud: Bette and Joan."

It chronicles Joan Crawford and Bette Davis' notorious rivalry behind the scenes of their 1962 film, "What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?"

Jessica Lange and Susan Sarandon star as battling Hollywood divas Crawford and Davis, respectively, on the first season of "Feud."

Debuting Sunday, March 5 at 10 p.m., "Feud" is the latest from executive producer Ryan Murphy for FX, after critically acclaimed series "American Horror Story" and "American Crime Story," which followed the murder trial of O.J. Simpson in its first season.

Alfred Molina, Stanley Tucci, Judy Davis, and Dominic Burgess also star on the new series.

Watch the first "Feud" trailer below:

SEE ALSO: RANKED: The 20 best new TV shows right now, according to critics

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Anthony Bourdain says he lives and works according to 'The No A--hole Rule'

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anthony bourdain

Anthony Bourdain struggled through the New York culinary world for most of his adult life, until, at the age of 44, his memoir "Kitchen Confidential" propelled him to stardom and he found himself a celebrity tour guide to the world.

Now 60, Bourdain is the Emmy-winning host of "Parts Unknown" and more successful than ever. In a recent interview with New Yorker editor David Remnick for "The New Yorker Radio Hour" podcast, Bourdain said he has a simple solution to avoiding burnout: "The No A--hole Rule."

That is, he won't tolerate them, regardless of the business opportunity.

"I'm very fortunate," Bourdain told Remnick. "Absolutely everyone I do business with I like. I always ask myself look, there's a lot of money involved here but if the phone rings at 10:00 at night, am I going to go, 'Aw, damn.' I'm not going to do that."

It's one of the reasons he's been so loyal to his partners in the production company Zero Point Zero Production, who have been with him since his first show, "A Cook's Tour," in 2000.

Bourdain said that the last 16 years exploring the world has helped him decide to prioritize quality of life and his happiness. "Life is too short and bad things, as I found on the road in my travels, can happen at any minute," he said, adding that he didn't want to have to be ashamed of any project he pursues.

Last year, Bourdain spoke with Business Insider about his evolution from a renegade misfit early in his career to disillusioned celebrity to where he is now, a late-in-life father who's no longer worried about feeding his ego. "I work really hard to not ever think about my place in the world," he said.

He explained that he's able to appreciate his remarkable career trajectory and, as he told the New Yorker, enjoy it.

"I get to work with people who 10 years ago I wouldn't have dreamed to have been able to work with," he told us. "And that's a big change professionally, and it's something that I think about a lot. How can I creatively have fun, do some interesting stuff, not repeat myself?"

It's "The No A--hole Rule" in action: "Have fun. Play in a creative way. I like making things."

You can listen to the full New Yorker podcast episode wherever you get podcasts, or on WNYC's website.

SEE ALSO: Anthony Bourdain explains why, even after touring 80 countries, his favorite destination will always be Japan

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NOW WATCH: How to cook the perfect steak — according to Anthony Bourdain

Harrison Ford was in a plane incident and narrowly missed an American Airlines jet

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Harrison Ford Ian Gava Getty final

Harrison Ford was involved in an incident on Monday at the John Wayne Airport in Orange County, California. The private, single-engine plane he was piloting narrowly missed a passenger plane when landing.

According to NBC News, the "Star Wars" actor was instructed to land on a specific runway but aimed for a taxiway instead.

His plane passed over the top of an American Airlines 737 that had 110 passengers and a six-person crew on board. Ford, 74, was caught on the air traffic control recordings saying, "Was that airliner meant to be underneath me?"  

The passenger plane departed safely minutes after the incident.

Air traffic controllers informed Ford that he had landed on a taxiway rather than the runway. Landing on a taxiway is a violation of Federal Aviation Administration safety rules.

An FAA spokesperson told Business Insider that air traffic controllers cleared Ford's plane, a single-engine Aviat Husky, "to land on Runway 20L at John Wayne Airport Monday afternoon. The pilot correctly read back the clearance. The pilot then landed on a taxiway that runs parallel to the runway, overflying a Boeing 737 that was holding short of the runway."

The FAA is investigating the incident.

This is not the first incident in the air Ford has experienced. The avid flyer crash-landed a small plane on a golf course near Los Angeles in 2015 and was taken to a hospital with moderate injuries. And in 2000, Ford's six-seater Beechcraft Bonanza had to do an emergency landing at Nebraska's Lincoln Municipal Airport.

A representative for Ford had no comment for this story.

SEE ALSO: 15 movies you should watch before next weekend's Oscars

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The creators of 'Cards Against Humanity' explain the secret of their funny business

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Max Temkin Ben Hantoot Cards Against Humanity

Back in November 2016, just weeks after Donald Trump was elected President of the United States, the creators of the irreverent card game Cards Against Humanity (CAH) raised just over $100,000 to dig a deep hole to nowhere

It wasn't the company's first stunt, either, or its last.

Back in 2014, for instance, CAH sold 30,000 boxes of dried bull excrement at $6 a pop as a Black Friday "deal." Most recently, the company aired its first-ever Super Bowl commercial this year: 30 seconds of a stationary potato, on which the word "Advertisement" had been written in marker

As it turns out, there's a lot of work that goes into these stunts. The "holiday hole," for instance, took almost two years of planning, including finding permits, talking to neighbors, hiring contractors, and arranging for a livestream. And it was all just for one very strange, but undeniably hilarious, joke.

For Max Temkin and Ben Hantoot — two of the eight high school friends who co-created and co-own the game equally — it's a good metaphor for how they run CAH. In comedy, as in business, Temkin says, your audience doesn't care about the details or the hard work behind the scenes, they just care about the end result.

cards against humanity game

And CAH happens to be both: With 30 employees and counting from its Chicago-area office, as well as lucrative retail deals with Amazon and Target, it's gone from Kickstarter sensation to thriving small business.

But it also happens to be one gigantic, ongoing comedy routine, created by people doing hard work behind the scenes to make sure the joke never gets old.

"You don't want to let people see you sweat," says Temkin.

The secret

According to Temkin, the secret to the Cards Against Humanity business model isn't at all complicated: "We sell a game for money, and we spend less than we make." Temkin says that this model has led the company to strong year-over-year growth, despite his constant fears that the "bottom is going to fall out" one of these days.

The other big factor in the success of CAH, says Temkin, is that it's an equal partnership between the eight cofounders, none of whom make the game their full-time gig

The cofounders act as checks on each other, Temkin says, keeping the company focused on its very simple business model. For instance, Hantoot says that there were "factions" among the CAH partners who wanted a deal with a retailer like Target long ago — while others were afraid that such a deal would hurt the game's subversive image.

Cards against humanity hole

Now, just about six years after the release of the game, the partners collectively realized that "we were no longer too cool to be in Target," Hantoot says. And so, Hantoot was given the go-ahead to negotiate the deal, which sees the retailer sell the game from its stores, expanding the game's availability drastically.

"I had to concede that we did not have the punk rock authenticity left," Temkin says. "At some point, we became mainstream." 

But by the same token, the ownership structure means that there's no oversight from investors or a board of directors. It gives the company the latitude to run the business at its own pace, without any pressure. And if they decide that they have the budget to dig a tremendous hole in the earth, they can take that "huge risk," Temkin says.

"We just do it because it's funny," Temkin says.

The voice

As the company matures, Temkin says one thing is constant: "The voice of the game has not changed."

For instance, to celebrate the partnership with Target, CAH made an exclusive pack of cards, only to be sold at the retailer. In true CAH style, the $4 pack came with a gimmick: The promise of an instant $1 rebate that was actually a dollar bill tucked inside the package. 

More notably, though, the cards themselves actually "pretty viciously make fun of Target," Hantoot says. One card says "Gender-neutral toys that make children feel no emotions whatsoever." Another reads "Extracting the maximum amount of money from naive consumers."

cards against humanity potato

Under the terms of the deal, Hantoot says, Target could have no editorial input on Cards Against Humanity, whatsoever, in order to preserve that all-important voice.

New customer service agents and other public-facing employees at Cards Against Humanity are put through a training seminar on how to write with the game's voice. And Hantoot says that they pride themselves on having a culture of radical openness and a flat structure, the better to foster creativity.

What's next

"We're not comedians. We're just a bunch of friends," Hantoot says.

And so, to make sure that the game stays relevant, Cards Against Humanity has reinvested some of its profits in hiring professional comedians in  a proper writer's room for the game. They come up with card ideas that "we would never have thought of in a million years," Temkin says.

A recent example of a potential new game card dreamed up by the writers involves the outrageous description of a cigarette smoking octopus using its many tentacles to perform simultaneous sex acts. But Temkin notes that while it's important the game be funny and edgy, the game should never be too cruel or mean-spirited towards any one group. 

So the Cards Against Humanity writer's room also serves as kind of an early warning system, with comedians from different backgrounds alerting their colleagues if a joke is on the wrong side of that fine line between offensive and funny. And even then, the card is playtested extensively to make sure there's no potential for misuse. 

club getaway cards against a humanity

This writer's room concept is the purest expression of Cards Against Humanity's future, Temkin says. The first CAH expansion set they worked on, The Green Box, came out in November 2016, and Hantoot says it's "so much better than anything we came up with."

Going forward, Temkin says, the writer's room is doing the heavy lifting on making sure that Cards Against Humanity stays current, stays relevant, and most of all, stays funny. The rest, he says, are details.

"That's the lifeblood of [Cards Against Humanity]," Temkin says.

SEE ALSO: Cards Against Humanity wrote 'Advertisement' on a potato and filmed it for its Super Bowl commercial

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NOW WATCH: This guy makes giant, elaborate towers out of playing cards — and then he destroys them

Pokémon Go is getting a huge new update that adds 80 new Pokémon and much more

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pokemon go generation 2

Later this week, Pokémon Go will be getting a huge update that adds 80 new Pokémon and some very welcome new features to the 7-month-old smartphone sensation. 

Without further ado, here's what's coming, according to a blog from Pokémon Go developer Niantic:

  • 80 new Pokémon, taken from the classic Pokémon "Gold" and "Silver" Game Boy Color games. While Niantic hasn't yet shared the full list, it definitely includes fan-favorites Chikorita, Cyndaquil, Totodile, Espeon, Umbreon, Merrill, Bellossom, and Hoppip, as revealed in a promotional image.
  • Collectible "evolution items" that cause certain Pokémon to evolve. In Pokémon "Gold" and "Silver," for instance, the "King's Rock" item can cause Slowbro to evolve into Slowking when traded to another player — Niantic doesn't go into detail, but it seems a similar feature is coming to Pokémon Go.
  • Two new types of berry to use while catching Pokémon: The Nanab Berry, which slows a Pokémon's movements, and the Pinap Berry, which doubles the amount of candy you get if your next catch attempt is successful. 
  • New items to dress up your avatar, plus some premium items that you can purchase from the in-game Pokémon Go shop. You can earn currency for that shop by playing the game, or exchange real-world money. 
  • Not strictly related to the game itself, but Niantic and Nintendo promise that they're replenishing retailer supplies of the hard-to-find Pokémon Go Plus wearable accessory this week. 

The much-anticipated release of new Pokémon into Pokémon Go comes at an opportune time. Since it was released last summer, Pokémon Go has become a cultural phenomenon and generated an estimated $1 billion for Niantic.  

But early server issues, a string of buggy updates, and the delay of promised new features have since caused Pokémon Go to sink on the App Store's charts. Niantic has rekindled some interest in the game with holiday promotions, but a big update to the game itself is likely to draw in lapsed players and attract new ones.

Still, some big and long-promised features — namely, player-versus-player battling and Pokémon trading — are still MIA, even in this new update. Never fear, though: In a recent interview with Vice's Waypoint, Niantic CEO John Hanke promises that those features are "going to be done soon."

Check out the trailer for the new Pokémon Go update below: 

 

 

SEE ALSO: These are the 100 new Pokémon coming to 'Pokémon GO'

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How comedian Pete Holmes used his divorce to create HBO's next big comedy show

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The best way to gauge Hollywood success is to look at what someone has lined up next, and with Judd Apatow’s “Girls” coming to a close on HBO, it’s time for the producer to show what he’s got for an encore. Enter popular stand-up comedian Pete Holmes.

The 37-year-old best known for his comedy specials and Nerdist podcast, "You Made It Weird with Pete Holmes," has a style that couldn’t be further from "Girls" creator/star Lena Dunham, but one thing the two have in common is exploring destructive relationships from their past. With Apatow’s guidance, Holmes looks to be the next to find mainstream fame thanks to opening up his soul.

“Crashing” (premiering Sunday on HBO) is loosely based on Holmes' real divorce from his wife while he was trying to get his career in comedy off the ground in his late 20s. Holmes plays a fictional version of himself, who after learning that his wife (played by Lauren Lapkus) has been cheating on him and wants a divorce, dedicates his life to stand-up. Dealing with all the growing pains of making a mark in the New York City comedy scene, he ends every episode crashing on the couches of the comics he encounters, including major players like Artie Lang and T.J. Miller.   

Business Insider talked to Holmes about getting the attention of Apatow (who along with producing "Crashing" also directed the pilot), how truthfully the show depicts life as a comic, and how he thinks his ex-wife will react to the show.

Jason Guerrasio: It sounds like you planted the seed for "Crashing" when Judd came on your old TBS talk show, right?

Pete Holmes: Yeah. It's a very surreal thing. Judd a couple years ago did a sketch on my talk show "The Pete Holmes Show" where I pitched him bad movies. But I knew we would probably improvise too, because when you do stuff with Judd Apatow that's what you do. So we were doing it and half way through we started improvising and he asked me what my actual movie idea is and I swear to you he did it to put me on my heels. But he was like, "Really, what is your story?" and I was like, "Well, I grew up religious, I married the first girl I ever dated, she left me when I was 28, and I just fell face-first into the New York comedy scene because I had nowhere else to go." And he said, "That's too sad, nobody wants to watch that."

But I don't think Judd or I consider that the actual real pitch. It might have planted the seed. Six months later my talk show was canceled and I had the idea for this show. I love doing silly things, but I thought what is the story I can tell better than anybody and I realized it was my story. I called my manager, who knows Judd, and I tried to see if he had any free time to meet me and they said Judd had 15 minutes on Friday morning, in New York. I was in LA. So I flew the next day to New York, got a hotel, woke up at like five in the morning the next day, I didn't want to miss it. I went to the set of “Trainwreck” and we talked for 10 minutes and for the last five minutes I told him about the show. But the major thing that I changed was in every episode I would be staying with a different comedian. There's this troubadour lifestyle of a comedian. In real life, T.J. Miller is one of my best friends and I'll maybe see him for two or three days in a row and then I won't see him for four months. That's just how our lives are. So I'm excited at the possibility of representing that kind of vibe and also showing comedy in a new way.

Crashing Arties Lang Mary Cybulski HBOGuerrasio: That was the big question I had after watching the first few episodes: Are more established comics as giving of their time to young comics as you portray them to be on this show?

Holmes: Yes. But a key point here is this is through my experience. I think there are social climbers or back-stabbers or just people who put themselves before everyone else, there are those out there. But it all comes down to which scene you're in and who you end up befriending. People like Bill Burr and Jim Gaffigan and Zach Galifianakis and Sarah Silverman, they were all amazing and helpful to me. I remember writing Bill Burr an email and I was just like, "Hey man, I'm moving to New York, we met this one time, and if you have any advice let me know." He wrote me, if you printed it out, like a three-page reply of what I should do. So I try when people write me on Facebook to pay that forward. So when Artie Lang in the pilot says, "Hey, I'll buy you a slice of pizza," that straight-up happens. When my wife left me, in real life, T.J. Miller was like, "I'm shooting a movie in Pittsburgh, I'll fly you out and get you a hotel room," and I spent a week with him. We would go out and do shows together at night. All that time I would have been moping and listening to Radiohead, he was like, "Let's do this." And this was a guy who was working, it wasn't like he was on vacation. Now I'm sure there's someone out there writing a show about how nobody helps anybody, but who wants to watch that? [Laughs]

Guerrasio: But you show the other side of the coin, too. In the pilot your character goes to a club and he's told to go onstage since another comic is a no-show. But then the comic shows up afterward and isn't happy that you took his spot.  

Holmes: I mean, this goes against what I was saying, but there would be guys when I was coming up who would be mean to people, and this is a quote, "Because if you quit there's one less person in my way." It's very rare, but they existed. But going on because someone didn't show, I've had that happen. That was another thing I was really excited to show in this. When a comedian is at a club and what, say, your father thinks is a big opportunity — someone isn't there and they need you to go on — but the truth is you don't want to go on. [Laughs] And it's not because your wife just left you, it's because you know you're not good enough yet. And that stuff would happen. There were moments when I would be like, "I'm not ready for this," and you go up and you are awful.

Pete Holmes Judd Apatow Michael Buckner GettyGuerrasio: What's it like going through the process of getting Judd to take your project? Because he's constantly hearing pitches, how do you become the standout?

Holmes: I wish I could tell you names, but to spare anyone who is sensitive about it I'll keep it vague. I remember when we were scouting for the pilot Judd would mention that around the same time I was talking to him some of my comedy heroes were also pitching him. The names were insane. And it was there that it became real that “Holy s---, I did really get the golden ticket.” And golden ticket isn't fame or fortune, it's just the opportunity.

But in getting to know Judd now I've realized it's not the pitch that gets him. The real thing is when he says, "Go write it." The first thing he said to me was "Go write 20 pages about everything you remember from that time in your life. Every embarrassing story, every detail." And I sent it to him the next day. And then he said, "Write the pilot." And I sent it to him two days later. He liked it, but even that didn't convince him. He said, "Write another episode." And I did. I wrote five full episodes and then we pitched it.

Guerrasio: Did you feel at all that you had to notify your ex-wife that you were making this?

Holmes: My ex and I haven't spoken since we split, which was almost 10 years ago. She's off and happy and I'm off and happy. The reaching out, there wasn't really one. But what there is, I've always joked that if this had been a movie that was literally about my divorce, a recreation, you would have been rooting for my wife to get out of the relationship. [Laughs] So “Crashing” is fictional. Lauren Lapkus really informed the character quite a bit and we improvised a lot. I doubt my ex will watch it, I don't know, but if she does I was very, very careful to make her very sympathetic. You see that she needs to get out for reasons that have nothing to do with Pete being a bad person. She's in that interesting conundrum of "This is a good person and I love this person as a friend, but I need something else." So all of the real therapy I've had and what I say on my podcast — which can be like therapy — that had gone into the show and the way that it manifested was trying to write the story from the other person's perspective.

Guerrasio: And I don't want to give anything way, but Lauren as your wife in episode five really shines.

Holmes: And that scene in that episode that you're referring to, I have to say, would be fun for my ex-wife to see. [Laughs] She never said anything that Lauren says, but she would go, "There it is."

Guerrasio: You are not a political comic, but has your comedy changed at all since the election?

Holmes: I have never been political, which for a straight white man that's kind of a byproduct of privilege growing up that I was kind of like, "Who cares who the president is, everything is coming up privilege." [Laughs] But now things are so scary and crazy and I have to say I'm not a fan of Trump at all. I don't agree with him in any way. I did a show in Ohio the day after the election, and I didn't have any Trump jokes, I barely have any right now, but I mentioned that I knew this is a tense time in the country and if it's okay with you I would just like to not think about it. I think about it all day, so for one hour we can just make faces and do silly sounds and just laugh. Don't get me wrong, if George Carlin were alive, how great would it be to go see what he would say? But sometimes pure silliness can be what the doctor ordered. So now I say, "Look, I know what's going on, but let's talk about diarrhea."

 

SEE ALSO: How Kathryn Hahn became a modern Hollywood comedy hero

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The fascinating story behind Laverne Cox's transgender character on CBS's 'Doubt'

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When the news broke that "Orange Is the New Black" actress Laverne Cox, who is transgender, had been cast on CBS's new legal drama "Doubt," some may have seen it as a way to capitalize on the transgender TV trend led by shows like Amazon's "Transparent" and E!'s "I Am Cait," as well as on the ongoing legislative fights surrounding transgender rights across the country.

Even Cox wondered at first if the creators of "Doubt," married couple Joan Rater and Tony Phelan, had originally written the role for a transgender actor.

"I was reading the script and I knew they wanted me," Cox told Business Insider during the Television Critics Association press tour last month.

"I’m used to it be a trans character, being obviously trans," she continued. "But I was reading it and I was like, 'This character doesn’t seem trans.'"

When viewers watch the first episode of "Doubt," which premieres on Wednesday at 10 p.m., they may think the same thing that Cox did.

She plays Cameron Wirth, a competitive attorney and Ivy League graduate at the same boutique law firm as star Katherine Heigl's character, defense attorney Sadie Ellis.

doubt katherine heigl laverne cox cbsOn the premiere episode, there's only a hint of why Cameron is so passionate about defending her clients from injustice.

"There’s one little line in the pilot [episode] where a client sort of makes a comment and we understand that Cameron is trans," Cox said. "But then we move on from it. It doesn’t really come up again. And I love that Joan and Tony wanted to have a trans character on TV. I think it’s because they have someone they very much love in their lives who is trans. Their son, Tom "

So yes, the creators of "Doubt" did originally write the role of Cameron as transgender. They'd tell you they weren't capitalizing on a TV trend or the news. And their son, Tom Phelan, who appeared on Freeform's "The Fosters" for three seasons, had a lot to do with them wanting to portray Cameron as they would any other character.

"It was striking to me that once your son tells you he's transgender, the next day I realize, he's still the same person he was yesterday," Rater told Business Insider.

"He's still a slob. He's funny. He's annoying and delightful and smart. And transgender," she continued. "It's not like there's a different person there. It may sound cliche, but it was sort of revelatory. We wanted to show a transgender person who was a badass lawyer, really smart, and it wasn't about their transgender identity. That's a part of who Laverne is, who Cameron is, but there's a lot of other parts. That was important to us."

Watch a trailer for "Doubt" below:

SEE ALSO: RANKED: The 20 best new TV shows right now, according to critics

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Trump is reportedly 'especially upset' by portrayal of Steve Bannon as the Grim Reaper on 'SNL'

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alec baldwin donald trump 2 5 nbc snl

President Donald Trump has made it clear he thinks "Saturday Night Live" is "really bad television," even though he hosted the show less than two years ago. He has tweeted about it repeatedly as it has lampooned his campaign and his presidency — and now, apparently, he has a new gripe with the sketch show.

Politico previously reported that Melissa McCarthy's impression of press secretary Sean Spicer "rattled" the White House, and The Washington Post now reports that Trump also has a problem with how "SNL" portrays his chief strategist, Steve Bannon — as the Grim Reaper, whom Alec Baldwin's Trump calls "Mr. President." It's one of the less subtle satires of Trump's administration on "SNL," casting Bannon as a dark force ruling over everything.

According to The Post, aides in the administration said Trump was "especially upset by a sketch that cast White House chief strategist Stephen K. Bannon as the Grim Reaper manipulating the president — who was ultimately relegated to a miniature desk, playing dolefully with an expandable toy."

You can watch the sketch below:

The White House Press Office did not immediately respond to Business Insider's request for comment.

SEE ALSO: John Oliver argues why 'Trump is Oprah's fault'

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NOW WATCH: How to use Meitu — the Chinese selfie-enhancing app that the Internet is obsessed with

Jake Tapper rips Trump for 'lies': 'We want presidents to tell the truth'

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CNN host Jake Tapper had a scathing review of President Donald Trump and his staff over the early weeks of their administration on TBS's "Conan."

"The president seems to thrive on chaos," Tapper told host Conan O' Brien on Tuesday's episode. "It was like that during the campaign. That obviously worked. And it’s like that now. He seems to like different competing groups of power competing against each other... Obviously,’The Apprentice’ was like that as well."

The "Conan" appearance follows a string of controversial measures by the president, including a travel ban that temporarily blocked immigration from seven predominantly Muslim countries and blocked Syrian refugees indefinitely. It was effectively shut down for now by federal circuit judges last week.

And earlier this week, Trump's national security advisor, Michael Flynn, resigned after reportedly misleading Vice President Mike Pence about his discussions with Russian officials before Trump was inaugurated.

"I think we can all agree that we’re not used to this level of confusion and chaos and different messages coming from the White House, from the president," Tapper said. "I like news. This is exhausting, though."

Tapper recently went head-to-head with White House counselor Kellyanne Conway after Trump made the false statement that the murder rate is the highest it has been in more than four decades and asserted that the media doesn't cover acts of terrorism.

"Facts and truths are not partisan," Tapper said. "Republicans and Democrats and independents, there are just empirical facts. And we want presidents to tell the truth."

He then added, "There’s just empirical lies that the president was telling."

In Conway's skillful way, she conceded that Trump has made false statements, but countered that the media doesn't pay attention to his true statements.

"First of all, I’ve never heard anyone in the administration admit that he had been saying all these things that aren’t true... Yes, she had conceded it," Tapper said. "But also, it’s such a bizarre formulation. What about all the lies that Nixon didn’t tell? What? What are you talking about?"

Watch the interview below:

SEE ALSO: Arnold Schwarzenegger's 'Celebrity Apprentice' finale ratings are nowhere near Trump's numbers

DON'T MISS: John Oliver argues why 'Trump is Oprah's fault'

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NOW WATCH: 'It's a lie': Jake Tapper calls out Trump during a fiery interview with Kellyanne Conway

The 20 biggest Oscar upsets of all time, ranked

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Regardless of if you love watching the Oscars or love to hate-watch it, the highlight is always when there's an upset winner.

With months of being told why a person or film is going to win, there's nothing like watching the genuine surprise and spontaneous, authentic reaction when someone seems to steal away Hollywood's biggest prize. That can range from Roberto Benigni standing on his seat after winning best actor in 1999 to Adrien Brody planting a big kiss on presenter Halle Berry when he won the award in 2003.

Here are the 20 biggest upsets in Oscar history ranked:

SEE ALSO: RANKED: The 10 worst movies to win the best picture Oscar — and what should have won

20. Marcia Gay Harden wins best supporting actress for "Pollock" (2001)

A big indicator of who will win on Oscar night comes from the nominations and wins before that night, which is what makes Harden's win so shocking. Her performance as Lee Krasner did not get recognized at the Golden Globes, SAG Awards, or BAFTAs. But her name was called on the biggest night.



19. Anna Paquin wins best supporting actress for "The Piano" (1994)

Rarely does the Academy award children, but at 11 years old Paquin took the award, beating out Emma Thompson ("In the Name of the Father"), Winona Ryder ("The Age of Innocence"), Rosie Perez ("Fearless"), and Holly Hunter ("The Firm"), who was also nominated in the best actress category for playing opposite Paquin in "The Piano." She would win in that category.



18. "The King’s Speech" wins best picture (2011)

What was thought to be a film that would showcase Colin Firth's talents to earn him an Oscar (and it did), the movie shocked the likes of nominees "The Social Network," "The Fighter," and "127 Hours" to win the top prize.



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Pokémon GO announced its biggest update yet — including 80 new Pokémon

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This is the moment Pokémon GO fans have been waiting for since Summer 2016. Niantic has finally announced the release of Gen 2 Pokémon into the wild. Along with the new Pokémon are a number of enhancements to the app and new items that will affect how you play. Here's everything you need to know.

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Seth Meyers 'highlights' Michael Flynn's short career as Trump's national security advisor in a five-second clip

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Seth Meyers decided to send off President Donald Trump's departing national security advisor, Michael Flynn, with a highlight reel, albeit a very short one. 

Flynn served in the post for just 24 days, a record for the job. The average time in which past national security advisors served in the role is about 2.6 years, according to The Washington Post.

"I use disposable razors longer than that," NBC's "Late Night" host joked on Tuesday's episode. "He didn’t even last as long as a David Blaine stunt."

Earlier this week, Flynn resigned after reportedly misleading Vice President Mike Pence about his discussions with Russian officials before Trump was inaugurated. 

“Now that Michael Flynn’s historic tenure is over, I think it’s only appropriate that we take a few minutes to look back on his many highlights as America’s national security adviser,” Meyers said.

The highlight reel lasted about five seconds and only showed Flynn saying, "Good afternoon, everyone."

Meyers found the reason for Flynn's resignation "ironic," because he famously berated Hillary Clinton at the Republican National Convention in July of last year for using a private email server while serving as secretary of state. He even called for her to withdraw from the presidential election and joined the audience in chanting "lock her up."

"I guess that’s why Michael Flynn’s letter was just the phrase ‘Lock me up!’ written ’Shining’-style on a typewriter," Meyers said.

Watch the video below:

SEE ALSO: Jake Tapper rips Trump for 'lies': 'We want presidents to tell the truth'

DON'T MISS: Arnold Schwarzenegger's 'Celebrity Apprentice' finale ratings are nowhere near Trump's numbers

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NOW WATCH: Watch the ad John Oliver paid to run on cable networks so Trump would see it


Actress Emily Ratajkowski calls out a reporter for 'slut-shaming' Melania Trump

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Actress and model Emily Ratajkowski called out a New York Times reporter for what she believes was “slut-shaming” of First Lady Melania Trump. 

At a New York Fashion Week event on Sunday night, according to Ratajkowski, a Times reporter told her that the First Lady is a “hooker.” 

On Monday, Ratajkowski (best known from "Gone Girl" and the "Blurred Lines" music video) took to Twitter to express her opinion about the incident.

Ratajkowski said it's "crucial" to point out this kind of behavior, "whatever your politics."

"I don't care about her nudes or sexual history and no one should," she said of Melania Trump.

 

Just a few hours later, Melania Trump herself acknowledged Ratajkowski’s support. 

According to Politico, the reporter was reprimanded by the New York Times for making a comment about what the Times referred to as an “unfounded rumor” about Melania Trump.

On Tuesday, the reporter's identity came out as Jacob Bernstein, a features reporter. He apologized on Twitter for his actions in another series of tweets. 

 

 

 

Ratajkowski frequently speaks out about society’s double standards for women. Last February, she published an essay in Lena Dunham's Leny Letter called "Baby Woman" that discussed being sexualized at a very young age.

SEE ALSO: Hollywood stars who rejected their Oscars

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NOW WATCH: Everything you need to know about 'American Gods' — a TV show that could be bigger than 'Game of Thrones'

'We were the last line of defense': Watch Ashton Kutcher give an emotional testimony on modern slavery

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Ashton Kutcher gave an emotional speech on modern slavery to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee at a hearing that took place on Shine a Light on Slavery Day. 

Full transcript

"I've met victims that've been trafficked from Mexico, victims in New York, and New Jersey, and all across our country. I've been on FBI raids, where I've seen things that no person should ever see. I've seen video content of a child that's the same age as mine being raped by an American man that was a sex tourist in Cambodia. And this child was so conditioned by her environment, that she thought she was engaging in play.

I've been on the other end of a phone call from my team asking for my help, because we had received a call from the Department of Homeland Security telling us that a seven-year-old girl was being sexually abused and that content was being spread around the dark web and she'd been being abused and they'd watched her for three years and they could not find the perpetrator. Asking us for help. 

We were the last line of defense, an actor and his foundation were the potential last line of defense."

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Here are all the iconic musical movie references in 'La La Land' you need to know

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Critics have described this year's Oscar frontrunner for best picture as a step back in time — and for good reason.

"La La Land," written and directed by Damien Chazelle ("Whiplash"), pays homage to classic movies and the greats that came long before Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone were stars. In fact, both actors have admitted to studying the classic film musicals while preparing for their own roles in the award-winning movie. 

From “Funny Face” to “Singin' in the Rain,” here are all the references to classic movies in “La La Land” you need to know:

Fred Astaire and Eleanor Powell danced across a starry stage in “Broadway Melody of 1940” (1940) ...



... and Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone waltz through a romantic, star-filled room and successfully mirror some of Astaire's most famous dance moves.



Paula Kelly, Shirley MacLaine, and Chita Rivera twirl in monochromatic dresses in 1969’s “Sweet Charity,” in which MacLaine plays a dancer who doesn’t give up on her dreams ...



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How Trump has opened up a whole new avenue for this $650 million teen video powerhouse

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President Trump has turned teens into voracious consumers of politics, according to Brian Robbins, the CEO of $650 million video powerhouse AwesomenessTV.

At the Code Media conference earlier this week, Robbins said that he wants to open AwesomenessTV up to political coverage, since that's what his Generation Z audience has a new appetite for.

“I’ve kind of been urging our company to really move this way for the last year, and it’s mostly because — obviously I care about what’s going on and am very impacted by it personally — but in my house, my 18 and 17 year old ... until this past year, all we talked about was basketball. We've grown up talking about sports and stuff, and all of a sudden, all of our conversations with my two boys is politics, and it’s about what's going on," Robbins said.

Robbins' children are very concerned about the current political climate, and Robbins said he knows "if my kids want to talks about it so much, my audience wants to talk about it too."

AwesomenessTV already does some news content, but of the "fluffy, horrible entertainment news" variety, Robbins said. "We do really fluffy Hollywood, like what’s Justin Bieber drinking kind of news."

That is set to change. The reason: "An audience that really wasn't that interested is now really interested," he summed it up.

But what would that look like?

At its heart, AwesomenessTV is an entertainment company, not a news one, he said. So while some of it could be straight news or documentaries, it could also be scripted shows.

Robbins gave an example of a "crazy idea" for a scripted show. 

"I actually wanted to do a show in a high school in a small town, two years from now, where the entire climate has changed — all of mine and your biggest fears have started to come true," he said. The town is divided, people have been locked up, and there might be things like internment camps, he explained. "I think our audience would be really interested in that."

And AwesomenessTV should know. The company has snagged 4.7 million subscribers on YouTube alone, and done deals to get its shows in places like YouTube Red and Verizon's Go90. Robbins said the company produces about 40 shows a week.

AwesomenessTV

SEE ALSO: Verizon just bought a big stake in a $650 million video company popular with teens

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NOW WATCH: 'I like the one that both parties like': Trump won't commit to a one or two-state solution between Israel and Palestine

Valve CEO: 'We're comfortable with the idea that VR will turn out to be a complete failure'

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When you're worth over $4 billion like Valve CEO Gabe Newell, you can do whatever you want.

Gabe Newell, 2013

We're not just talking about flights of fancy, but business decisions as well. Take Newell's company by way of example: Valve is notorious for making bets that seem risky — even strange — at first, but then pay off in the long-term.

Such is the case with Steam, the world's largest video game service. When Valve launched Steam back in 2003, it was a risky lark: create a digital storefront to sell and maintain Valve's own games, like "Half-Life" and "Counter-Strike."

Nearly 15 years later, Steam is a juggernaut in the world of gaming with somewhere in the realm of 150 million users.

Steam

Initiatives like Steam aren't solely from Newell, of course, but he's the driving force at Valve and the only employee with a hierarchical status. The company otherwise has a "flat" structure — except for Newell, who's on top. And Newell's latest big risk has yet to pay off.

"We think VR is going great. It's going in a way that's consistent with our expectations," Newell told a group of reporters in a recent roundtable interview, as reported by Polygon.

What he said next was far more striking: "We're also pretty comfortable with the idea that it will turn out to be a complete failure."

That's particularly striking because Valve is a forerunner in the burgeoning virtual reality market: It is one half of the two companies responsible for the HTC Vive headset.

htc vive final consumer version

Valve partnered with HTC to create the $800 Vive, and Steam is the service powering the Vive. The Vive competes directly with the Oculus Rift, from Facebook, which costs $600; both headsets require an expensive, powerful computer to be used.

The Vive is another risky-sounding bet, which Newell readily acknowledges.

"Vive is the most expensive device on the market. It's barely capable of doing a marginally adequate job of delivering a VR experience," Newell said. If that sounds rough, it's because Newell isn't one for parsing words — lest you forget, this is a man who's made billions by doing things his way. Valve isn't a public company, so there aren't shareholders to outrage, or even marketing plans to abide by.

"Some people have got attention by going out and saying there'll be millions of [VR headsets sold]," Newell said, in a not-so-subtle bit of shade-throwing in Facebook's direction, according to Polygon.

mark zuckerberg oculus rift

"We're like, 'Wow, I don't think so.' I can't point to a single piece of content that would cause millions of people to justify changing their home computing," Newell said.

And he's not wrong: Regardless of the high price of virtual reality headsets, there simply isn't enough good stuff to do in VR for people to buy expensive headsets in large quantity. It's a space currently reserved for people who are willing to shell out a ton of money to live on the bleeding edge of technology — a really cool space, but one that's tremendously limited.

Newell could be interpreted as being harsh, but it sounds more like he's the only one being realistic in a still very-nascent market.

SEE ALSO: Meet Gabe Newell, the richest man in the video game business

DON'T MISS: Valve CEO: 'Pissing off the internet costs you a million bucks in just a couple of days'

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NOW WATCH: This virtual reality system is so much better than the Oculus — but is it worth it?

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