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Chrissy Teigen fires away at Fox News: 'Words cannot explain how much I detest you'

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chrissy teigen

Chrissy Teigen made her distaste for Fox News plain on Twitter.

After Fox News tagged the star in a tweet for a story about how she spoke out "against @united for banning girls from boarding their flight because they wore leggings," Teigen fired back at the cable news channel on Monday.

"I respectfully ask you please don't ever tag me in anything, ever," Teigen tweeted at Fox News. "Words cannot explain how much I detest you."

Teigen also retweeted some of the negative responses she got on Twitter, and added in another tweet, "LMAO."

Teigen is not shy about sharing her opinions on Twitter, whether about politics or anything else, and often interacts with her fans and critics alike.

SEE ALSO: Every HBO show ranked from worst to best, according to critics

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NOW WATCH: The Oscars just had its biggest gaffe in history — here’s what happened


Jimmy Fallon mocks Trump's healthcare fail with potential new book titles

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jimmy fallon donald trump healthcare

Jimmy Fallon suggested some future book titles for President Donald Trump — who put his name on the best-selling book "The Art of the Deal" — that the "Tonight Show" host believes reflect the recent failure of his healthcare bill.

The American Health Care Act, also known as "Trumpcare" or "Ryancare" (after its author, House Speaker Paul Ryan), saw much opposition from both Republicans and Democrats. Unable to win over enough votes to pass the bill meant to repeal and replace Obamacare, Trump ordered Ryan to pull it from the House.

"Now, Trump didn't take any responsibility for the healthcare bill being pulled," Fallon said on Monday's "Tonight Show." "But he did announce that he's working on some new books based on his experience. Let's take a look at some of the titles."

Fallon proposed several titles, including "How to Lose Friends and Influence No One" and "The Giving Up Tree."

Find out what other book titles Fallon proposed for Trump in the video below:

SEE ALSO: Seth Meyers: Why we now know Trump's deal-making skills are a 'complete sham'

DON'T MISS: Stephen Colbert tries to cheer up Trump in the middle of his White House turmoil

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NOW WATCH: A reporter asked Spicer if he’s confident that no one in the White House is a foreign agent

10 of the biggest brand feuds in history

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Princess Leia, Star Wars, New Hope

Companies suing each other is a fairly common occurrence, especially when it comes to copyright.

Over the years some of the biggest brands have also taken each other to court.

The outcomes of some of these lawsuits have shaped entire industries. Had Apple's lawsuit against Microsoft in 1998 gone the other way, computers might look entirely different today.

Scroll below for a list of some of the biggest brand lawsuits in history, compiled by Lottoland.

SEE ALSO: The world's top 10 companies, ranked by reputation

10. Dyson vs. Hoover (2000)

Duration: One year

Winner: Dyson

Damages: $4.9 million

Dispute: In its lawsuit, Dyson claimed Hoover had infringed on a patent it owned for its bagless vacuum cleaner, which uses forces similar to a centrifuge to separate dust from the air.

In its Vortex range, Hoover used the same technology, which the court found infringed on James Dyson's invention. Hoover appealed twice but lost both times and Dyson then accepted the settlement offer to avoid further litigation. Hoover was also told to stop selling its Vortex model.



9. Oracle vs. SAP (2007)

Duration: Seven years

Winner: Oracle

Damages: $357 million

Dispute: The lawsuit focused on SAP's TomorrowNow unit, which Oracle alleged had illegally downloaded copyrighted documents and programs from Oracle.

SAP admitted it had infringed on copyright and initially tried to settle out of court, before a jury awarded Oracle $1.3 billion in damages. The amount was later brought down to $357 million, which both companies accepted.



8. 20th Century Fox vs. Universal Studios (1978)

Duration: Two years

Winner: Universal Studios

Damages: Unknown

Dispute: After 20th Century Fox's successful release of the first "Star Wars" film in 1977, Universal Studios decided it needed a space fiction story of its own and launched "Battlestar Galactica".

The lawsuit accused Universal of copyright infringement, highlighting 34 specific things allegedly copied, including: "There is a scene in a cantina (Star Wars) or casino (Battlestar), in which musical entertainment is offered by bizarre, non-human creatures."

The case was settled out of court and ABC, where the TV show aired, canceled the show in 1979.



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Here are all 44 movie sequels and reboots coming out in 2017

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Blade Runner 2049

This year apparently hasn't learned a lesson from 2016.

Despite relatively low box-office turnout for reboots and sequels in 2016 including "Independence Day: Resurgence," "My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2," and "Bad Santa 2," there's a reboot or a sequel coming to theaters pretty much every weekend for the rest of 2017. (Granted, many have been long in development.)

Some are more appealing than others, with highly anticipated movies like "Star Wars: The Last Jedi," "Bladerunner 2049," and "Thor: Rangorak" in the mix. Some are getting more puzzled reactions from people online.

This post has been updated to exclude "World War Z 2", which has been delayed indefinitely. 

Here are all the movie reboots and sequels you can see (or avoid) in 2017:

 

 

SEE ALSO: The most popular HBO show in every state

“Underworld: Blood Wars” — Already released



“xXx: The Return of Xander Cage” — Already released



“Resident Evil: The Final Chapter” — Already released



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Melissa McCarthy remembers her awkward first time acting in a movie: 'I felt like a nobody'

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Now one of the most recognizable stars in Hollywood, Melissa McCarthy remembers very clearly what it was like when no one knew who she was.

Way before "Bridesmaids" and "Spy," McCarthy made her feature-film debut in the 1999 action-comedy "Go," about a drug deal gone awry. McCarthy had a very minor but memorable role in a short scene with "Go" stars Jay Mohr and Scott Wolf.

"It was in the middle of the night downtown and I ran around and did about 672 actions," Melissa McCarthy told Business Insider recently of shooting "Go." "And the script supervisor said, 'Honey, are you able to match that?' And I said, 'What does that mean?' And I realized... I can't."

Matching refers to the ability of an actor to reenact their movements and their eyeline so that different takes of a scene can be matched up in the editing room.

"Well, I felt like a nobody. That was the first time I ever did anything. I didn't know you were supposed to match," McCarthy said.

She may not have known everything about what she was doing, but she pulled off the moment in "Go" well, with some of the same comedic tics she'd become known for around the world soon enough.

She channels that feeling as an executive producer on "Nobodies," the new TV Land comedy series based on the experiences of McCarthy's fellow Groundings alumni — Hugh Davidson, Larry Dorf, and Rachel Ramras — and their attempts to get her to back their movie project. In reality, that movie ended up morphing into the TV show.

It's a family affair all around. McCarthy's husband, actor Ben Falcone, and former "MADtv" star Michael McDonald — both Groundlings alumni as well — also executive produce "Nobodies."

"There's a comfort level there," McCarthy, who makes cameos on the show, said of working with her longtime friends. "We already know how funny they are. And then Hugh, Larry, and Rachel really have been writing together. It's really incredibly, bizarrely autobiographical. They are the butts and topics of their own jokes."

But even if your dream isn't making it in Hollywood, McCarthy believes that you can relate to "Nobodies," which premieres on Wednesday at 10 p.m and has already been renewed by TV Land for a second season.

"I don't think you have to know the ins and outs of the particular business to know the feeling of being a nobody," she told us. "Everybody knows that feeling of like, ugh, I'm not quite there."

Watch a trailer for "Nobodies" below:

SEE ALSO: Melissa McCarthy plays 'calm' White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer on "SNL"

DON'T MISS: The 14 biggest comedy power couples in Hollywood

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NOW WATCH: Reruns on cable are not the same as the originals — check out these differences

The best part of the new 'Legend of Zelda' is that it treats me like an adult and respects my time

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The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

Once not so very long ago, I could afford to stay up until the wee hours of the morning, sinking tens and occasionally hundreds of hours into my favorite video game of the moment.

Now, I'm an adult. With adult responsibilities. 

Also, as I get older, I now actually relish getting more than five hours sleep in a night. And so, I get maybe four or five hours of game time a week.

My newfound lifestyle has found itself incompatible with playing most games to completion: The new blockbuster "Mass Effect: Andromeda," for instance, averages around 30 hours to complete; the stylish role-playing game "Persona 5" looks to take more than twice that long, if it's anything like its predecessors.

So it was with a certain amount of trepidation that I picked up "The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild," Nintendo's newest masterpiece, which takes about 60 hours to complete. I am a 100% ride-or-die "Zelda" fan from small times, but man, I don't have 60 hours.

With great joy, though, I discovered something that "Breath of the Wild" does, and that more games should emulate.

The game's world is breathtakingly large and epic in scope, sure. But it's built in such a way as to totally respect your time. You can make meaningful progress in the game whether you're playing for 15 minutes or 5 hours

The Shrine system

Most games take kind of a mission-based approach. Go here, defeat this many zombies or mutants or goblins or whatever, find the doodad you were sent to retrieve, and go back. Even more open-ended games like "Grand Theft Auto" are broken down into these kinds of discrete missions.

"Breath of the Wild" does a very little of that. But for the most part, you're left to your own devices to traverse the world of Hyrule in the manner you'd like, at the pace you'd like. 

A cornerstone of "Breath of the Wild" are the 120 Shrines you find littered throughout the world. These Shrines are totally optional, but each one gives you a crucial Spirit Orb, which helps you get stronger, plus it unlocks the ability to teleport back to that location at any time.

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

Each Shrine usually contains one big puzzle, or a series of smaller ones, with a few combat-based exceptions. They're pleasantly varied and require different skills. In my experience, most Shrines can be knocked out in under 10 minutes. 

In practice, this gives "Breath of the Wild" the structure of one of those addictive smartphone games: You can open the game for 15 minutes, find and finish a Shrine, and content yourself on both strengthening your character, and opening up the world to you further. Or you can take a 5-hour binge, letting one Shrine after another inevitably lead you to where the game's main storyline picks back up. 

So while I have no doubt that it'll take me a little while to log the 60 hours I'll probably need to finish "Breath of the Wild" to my satisfaction, it's incredibly refreshing to see an epic, top-tier game that's just as suited for quick play as it is for those late-night marathon sessions. Thank you, Nintendo, for respecting my time.

SEE ALSO: 10 need-to-know recipes for surviving in 'The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild'

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NOW WATCH: Nintendo’s ‘The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild’ is amazing — here’s what it’s like

Here's how a self-described 'couch potato' trained to finish the NYC marathon

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Here's how self-described "couch potato" Joel Cohen trained to finish the NYC marathon. He chronicles his training journey and best tips and tricks for regular, non-runners to attempt marathon running in his new book "How to Lose a Marathon"

Following is a transcript of the video.

Before I even started running, most of my fitness regimen was my arm muscles needed to open a bag of chips. But, I then read this book “Born to Run” by Christopher McDougall, and I started thinking about running and then I took the next step which is actually running.

Well, when I first got into running, I — my diet did not change. Actually, running was a great excuse to keep eating what I wanted because I thought,  I’m gonna run it off anyhow. So it was just pure bacon diet. But, I ran — the very first run I did was a 5K, the first organized run I did was a 5K. Just to experience what’s that like to be in a race with other people. And I lost that as well, miserably, setting a pattern of consistency I’ve kept up to this day. 

The one thing I definitely found I relied on immensely was this app called Runkeeper which is a free app, mostly, on your phone. And it literally ... I never consulted a coach or anybody else really to tell me how to prepare for a marathon and it literally took me from never having run all the way to running a marathon just by telling me the schedule of what to run every day. Another important piece of gear is maybe surprising to some people is shoes. You put them on your feet and run in them.

You know, just thinking about running a marathon, I guess I never anticipated that, hey this proves what an idiot I am. There’s a lot of running involved. Like, you know, when I ran the marathon it took almost four and a half hours, but you build up steadily to longer and longer runs to prepare for that. And at some point, you’re running three hours without a break which is — that’s a lot of running.  So I didn’t think about that. I mean, it’s pleasurable in a way, and it’s very peaceful and solitary, but it’s a lot of time devoted to running.

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Seth Meyers: Why Trump is just like The Dude from 'The Big Lebowski'

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seth meyers donald trump wiretapping big lebowski late night nbc

In his latest "A Closer Look" segment, Seth Meyers finds recent events surrounding President Donald Trump's wiretapping allegations and the congressional investigation into his administration's alleged ties with the Russian government very fishy. And he comes to a striking comparison between Trump and The Dude from "The Big Lebowski."

"Every day, there seems to be some new revelation about the Trump team's Russian contacts," the host said on Tuesday's "Late Night." "The Trump administration keeps failing to disclose them and then giving us shifting information as to why it happened."

Last week, the head of the House Intelligence Committee looking into Trump's possible Russian collusion, California Representative Devin Nunes, came forward with information that Trump and his associates were possibly having their communications "incidentally collected" by the intelligence community during the transition period.

Nunes is now under fire for revealing that he read the information while on White House grounds and then shared it first with the president before informing his colleagues on the investigation committee. Many are calling for him to step down from his position on the committee under speculation he's working with Trump.

"Of course, Nunes is supposed to be investigating Trump, not working with him," Meyers said. "What's worse is that Trump took Nunes' stunt as proof that he had been wiretapped by the Obama administration, a claim that has already been debunked repeatedly, including by the FBI director."

Meyers then brought up Trump's statements regarding the wiretapping allegations in an interview with Time, in which he pointed to Nunes' information and promised that more would come:

"Devin Nunes had a news conference, did you hear about this, where they have a lot of information on tapping. Did you hear about that?... Well, he just got this information. This was new information. That was just got. Members, of, let’s see, were under surveillance during the Obama administration following November’s election. Wow. This just came out. So, ah, just came out."

"If you're having trouble following that, here's a condensed version," Meyers said before playing a clip from the 1998 comedy "The Big Lebowski" of the character known as The Dude (Jeff Bridges) insisting, “I’ve got information, man! New s--- has come to light.”

"The Dude and Trump have a lot in common," Meyers said. "They both have bathrobes, both obsessed with their rugs, and they both love White Russians."

Watch Meyers in the latest edition of "A Closer Look" below:

SEE ALSO: Jimmy Fallon mocks Trump's healthcare fail with potential new book titles

DON'T MISS: Seth Meyers: Why we now know Trump's dealmaking skills are a 'complete sham'

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Former State Department official: Evidence of collusion between Trump and Russia would create a 'constitutional crisis'


Michelle Pfeiffer explains why she 'disappeared' from Hollywood

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In the '80s and early '90s, Michelle Pfeiffer was everywhere in Hollywood, thanks to her raw talent and versatility. And it all started with her role opposite Al Pacino in 1983's "Scarface."

Before that, she was a cool rider in the terrible but unforgettable "Grease 2." She then moved on to earn three Oscar nominations, starred opposite Daniel Day-Lewis in Martin Scorsese's "The Age of Innocence," and portayed Catwoman in "Batman Returns" and to this day is probably the best part of that movie.

But after that, she took on fewer roles and in less high-profile movies. Her last IMDb credit before 2017 is 2013's "The Family."

In an interview in Interview magazine with Darren Aronofsky, her director for "Mother!" which also stars Jennifer Lawrence and Javier Bardem, Pfeiffer explains her disappearance from the Hollywood spotlight:

“I’ve never lost my love for acting,” Pfeiffer said. “I’m a more balanced person, honestly, when I’m working. But I was pretty careful about where I shot, how long I was away, whether or not it worked out with the kids’ schedule. And I got so picky that I was unhireable. And then... I don’t know, time just went on... I disappeared, yeah.”

In 2017, Pfieffer is back. Her two children are all grown up and out of the house, so she can focus on her career in a big way. In May, you can see her in HBO's Bernie Madoff movie "The Wizard of Lies" with Robert De Niro and Hank Azaria. Later this year, she'll be in Aronofsky's "Mother!" and Kenneth Branagh's "Murder on the Orient Express" with Johnny Depp, Penelope Cruz, and Daisy Ridley. 

SEE ALSO: The 18 worst new TV shows of the year so far, according to critics

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NOW WATCH: Terry Crews explains how intermittent fasting keeps him in shape

Stephen Colbert tries to get to the bottom of the new drama in the Trump Russia investigation

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Congressman Devin Nunes is in the middle of a firestorm currently, so Stephen Colbert decided to break down how he's connected to President Donald Trump, the investigation into the Trump administration's alleged Russian ties, and the president's wiretapping claims.

Last week, Nunes, the head of the House Intelligence Committee looking into Trump's possible Russian collusion, came forward with information that Trump and his associates were possibly having their communications "incidentally collected" by the intelligence community during the transition period.

"I can't tell if we're going to learn anything from Nunes," Colbert said on Tuesday's "Late Show." "He doesn't seem all that focused on Russia, because he spent a lot of time trying to validate Trump accusing Obama of wiretapping him."

Nunes is now under fire for revealing that he discovered the information while on White House grounds and then shared it first with the president before informing his colleagues on the investigation committee. Many are calling for him to step down from his position on the committee under speculation he's working with Trump.

"Oh, that is brilliant detective work," the host said. "You gather all the evidence you can on the prime suspect, then you share it with him. It's all part of CBS's new show, 'CSI: Washington No Investigation.'"

The whole thing could be pretty confusing, so Colbert pulled out the "Figure-It-Out-a-Tron" (a chalkboard) to diagram just how Nunes and Trump are connected.

Watch the video below:

SEE ALSO: Seth Meyers: Why Trump is just like The Dude from 'The Big Lebowski'

DON'T MISS: Jimmy Fallon mocks Trump's healthcare fail with potential new book titles

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Former State Department official: Evidence of collusion between Trump and Russia would create a 'constitutional crisis'

'The Mindy Project' is getting one final season

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Mindy Project

After the show survived the ax once before, it looks like "The Mindy Project" is finally meeting its end.

Hulu has renewed the romantic comedy from Mindy Kaling for a sixth and final season, according to The Hollywood Reporter. "The Mindy Project" is set to return this fall to wrap its run, but the number of episodes hasn't been decided.

“It has been an honor and a joy to work with Mindy and the entire creative team behind 'The Mindy Project.' This series has been part of Hulu since we launched the service and, thanks to Mindy’s incredibly unique voice and vision, has remained one of our most popular and beloved series over the past five years,” Hulu's Head of Content Craig Erwich told THR in a statement.

“While we can’t wait to see what Mindy has in store for what will undoubtedly be a fantastic sixth and final season, we know 'The Mindy Project' will live on as fans will continue to watch, discover, and re-live all of the best moments from the complete series on Hulu.”

In 2015, Fox canceled "The Mindy Project" after three seasons. Hulu swooped in and picked up the series soon after. At the time, Hulu already streamed episodes of the comedy from previous seasons, which gave the streaming company additional knowledge of how the series would perform for it.

SEE ALSO: Here are the surprising salaries for jobs in TV

DON'T MISS: The best and worst of Amazon's new TV show pilots

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NOW WATCH: The insane Dolce & Gabbana pumps that Mindy Kaling made viral are on sale for $1,677

The director behind 'The Fifth Element' has waited over a decade to make his latest sci-fi epic

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valerian and the city of a thousand planets STX

Director Luc Besson has been responsible for some of the most memorable movies ever made, including “La Femme Nikita,” “Léon: The Professional,” and “The Fifth Element,” but this summer he's out with a movie that’s been on his mind most of his life.

“Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets” is based on the French sci-fi comic series “Valérian and Laureline” that was first published in 1967 and has gone on to become legendary. It follows the adventures of Valérian and his female companion Laureline as they go on adventures across the galaxy.

Besson, 58, was a kid when the comic came out and remembers the excitement of getting a new chapter to the “album” weekly.

“I read it starting at 10 years old,” Besson told Business Insider along with other reporters on Monday in New York City after showing the latest trailer of the movie in 3D, which shows off the movie's insanely stunning visuals. “I would get two pages of the story on a Tuesday and wait a whole week for another two pages. At the end of the year I had the entire album. That was the Christmas present. It was the first time we saw a couple in space, it was very new. And [Laureline’s] kicking ass. She was my first love.”

Valerian_and_Laureline WikipediaAs Besson began to build clout in the filmmaking world he never forgot about “Valérian and Laureline” but also didn’t think it could ever be adapted into a movie. That’s why he made “The Fifth Element” instead in 1997.

“When I did ‘The Fifth Element’ I hired the designer from ‘Valerian’ and I worked with him for six months and he said, 'Why are you doing this stupid "Fifth Element" movie? When are you going to do "Valerian"?' And I said I like it but you can't do it, it's impossible," Besson said.

But 10 years ago he started writing a “Valerian” script, just in case the technology caught up.

“Then 'Avatar' was made and then everything is possible,” Besson said.

Opening on July 21 through STX Entertainment, “Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets” follows Valerian (played by Dane DeHaan) and Laureline (Cara Delevingne) as they go in search of the evil forces that are trying to destroy Alpha, the peaceful home of species from a thousand planets.

The film also stars Rihanna, Ethan Hawke, and Clive Owen.

Watch the trailer below:

 

SEE ALSO: Here are all 44 movie sequels and reboots coming out in 2017

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NOW WATCH: The inside story behind the Marvel movie you were never supposed to see

The 'Silicon Valley' season 4 trailer is here, and the show looks funnier than ever

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"Silicon Valley" is almost back for its fourth season on HBO, and Erlich's facial hair has gotten stranger than ever in the new trailer.

Luckily, the comedy satirizing tech culture also seems to be as sharp and funny as it's ever been, as the central company Pied Paper once again faces uncertainty. Richard announces he wants to quit, but the rest of the team already planned to throw him overboard.

There are also the usual put-downs, failures, and topical humor. In this case, we get a taste of how Erlich explains the concept of "mansplaining" to two women. It doesn't go well.

"Silicon Valley" will be back for season four on April 23.

Watch the season-four "Silicon Valley" trailer below:

 

SEE ALSO: Here are all 44 movie sequels and reboots coming out in 2017

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NOW WATCH: Terry Crews explains why he decided to build his own PC

The company responsible for the massive Oscars screwup will be back at the awards next year

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Oscars best picture 2017 Kevin Winter Getty final

The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences has decided to retain the services of the accounting firm that was responsible for the greatest error in Oscars history. 

Following a six-hour meeting, the Academy's board of governors decided Tuesday night that PricewaterhouseCoopers, which has been working with the Academy for 83 years, will be working next year's Oscars, according to The Hollywood Reporter, despite the envelope flub that led to presenters Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway announcing "La La Land" as best picture instead of the rightful winner, "Moonlight."

But there will be some changes to help make sure a screwup like this never happens again.

According to the trade, new protocols include PwC chairman Tim Ryan taking on a greater oversight role, a third accountant will being seated in the control room to ensure a more immediate response if a mistake were to occur, the accountants taking part in the rehearsals, and all accountants checking their electronic devices before going near the Oscars stage. 

The best-picture error occurred when PwC accountant Brian Cullinan was reportedly busy on his phone tweeting a photo of Oscar winner Emma Stone. Meanwhile, he had handed the wrong envelope to Beatty and Dunaway to award the best-picture Oscar.

Cullinan and the other accountant who worked this year's Oscars, Martha Ruiz, will never work the show again

It turns out Cullinan was specifically told not to use his phone backstage before this year's Oscars. According to THR, Academy CEO Dawn Hudson informed the board that she became aware that Cullinan had used his smartphone and social media while working on past Oscars ceremonies, leading to him being explicitly told not to do so this year. 

Cullinan still has his job at PwC.

SEE ALSO: The director behind "The Fifth Element" has waited over a decade to make his latest sci-fi epic

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: This is what 'Jeopardy!' host Alex Trebek is really like

Disney is reviving a game beloved by 'hundreds of millions' to take on 'Minecraft' and 'Roblox' (DIS, MSFT)

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Back in January, Disney broke a lot of hearts when it announced that it would be shutting down "Club Penguin," its 12-year-old online hangout for kids. And as of Wednesday, "Club Penguin" is no more.

Disney says that over the years, "Club Penguin" amassed "hundreds of millions" of penguin accounts, and even those who hadn't played in many years lamented the loss of a place where they spent many hours as kids. 

"The fan base is absolutely passionate, beyond a level we ever anticipated," says Disney VP of Kids & Casual Games Jim Molinets.

But dry your tears, "Club Penguin" fans, because the game has already been reborn: "Club Penguin Island," a full-fledged sequel, is now available as a free download for iPhone and Android. Like the original, it's free to play, but a $4.99 monthly subscription adds access to extra features and personalization options. 

The reason the original "Club Penguin" had to shut down, says Molinets, was that the browser-based game had been around for over a decade, and the aging infrastructure could no longer support the team's ideas for improvement. Even the game's smartphone apps were lackluster, at best.

With "Club Penguin Island," Disney is in this for the long haul. Revamped for the smartphone era with a graphical overhaul, it preserves much of the original's charm, from snowball lobbing to impromptu dance parties. And under the hood, says Molinets, it lays the technical foundations for the game to "hopefully be around for another decade."

Here's the trailer:

Versus Minecraft and Roblox

Still, in the time since "Club Penguin" launched, the world has changed. Over the last few years, games like Microsoft's "Minecraft" and fellow decade-plus club member "Roblox" have captured tens of millions of smartphone gamers, many, if not most, of whom are the kids that Disney is trying to win over with "Club Penguin Island."

But Liza Wood, executive producer of "Club Penguin Island," says that the game is a "more focused" experience. Where "Minecraft" dumps you in a vast open world to do with as you will, and "Roblox" offers you a wide selection of player-made activities and games, Wood says that "Club Penguin Island" walks a middle path. 

club penguin island

It's a massively multiplayer online game, where you and your fellow penguins are citizens of the titular island. There are quests to undertake, and storylines to follow, but you're equally free to just hang out and interact with your friends in themed areas like a concert stage or a spooky campfire. Plus, Disney characters will make cameos.

And while "Club Penguin Island" is definitely not as open-ended as "Minecraft," there are new options for creating customized clothing, so you can personalize your penguin avatar in new ways. Wood says that beta testers of the game have come up with excellent work. 

"It's been an amazing display of creativity for the children," says Wood.

club penguin island

On a final note, the original "Club Penguin" had a reputation as something of a magnet for online trolls, who would try to outwit and outsmart Disney's content filter. Wood says that those trolls should beware, as Disney now has even more advanced tools for making sure that rulebreakers get out and stay out — key to Disney's vision of "Club Penguin Island" as a safe space for kids.

And now, just for fun, here's Benedict Cumberbatch, the star of Disney/Marvel's "Doctor Strange," completely messing up the word "penguin" in a BBC documentary:

  

SEE ALSO: A video game that has turned players into $50,000-a-month entrepreneurs just raised $92 million to turn them into media moguls

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NOW WATCH: Disney just turned its famous Epcot globe into a real-life Death Star — and it even shot a laser


Verizon insiders describe the fight to save go90, its video service that has burned more than $200 million trying to catch the eye of millennials

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amanda guidance

The anticipation was palpable inside Verizon in the weeks leading up to the big launch.

The forthcoming video service, to be called go90, was a quarter-billion-dollar bet that Verizon could evolve from a staid telecommunications company into a hip, Netflix-like digital native — and everybody wanted a piece of the shiny new toy.

The top brass from Verizon's old guard jockeyed a bit with the executives at Verizon's new AOL internet business for control of go90, but it eventually fell under Verizon veteran Brian Angiolet.

And while some insiders were skeptical that a millennial-focused app trying to bridge the gap between YouTube and Netflix would be commercially viable, many on the team also saw the magnitude of the opportunity.

"What attracted me was the potential reach, turning on the firehose" of Verizon, a former go90 staffer told Business Insider.

But in the first few months after go90's October 2015 debut, it became clear that the video service was not getting the expected traction, and the sentiment inside Verizon shifted from who could get the glory to who would get the blame.

go90 3.0A year and a half after go90's launch and after a series of missteps, Verizon is still trying to figure out the right chemistry to snag a massive audience for go90. The video service, however, is still a big priority for Verizon, which sees it as the foundation for a variety of new video business models that will boost its top line.

But building an internet startup within the giant telecom company is no easy task, and Verizon's struggles are a case study in what can go wrong at the start. Go90's launch was hampered by a lack of focus at a company eager to spend cash but without a clear understanding of its audience, according to more than a dozen current and former members of the go90 team interviewed by Business Insider.

Verizon has taken steps in the last year to try to rectify the situation, including hiring executives with experience in online video, as well as overhauling the guts of go90's technology, the new version of which debuted Wednesday and is intended to fix some of the tech flaws that constrained the app.

That tech reboot came at a price: the firing in January of over 150 staffers, most of whom were the remnants of Verizon's nearly $200 million acquisition of OnCue in 2014. These OnCue staffers never saw their internet-TV product go to market, but they were the force behind the original go90 tech and product.

Verizon is trying to close that chapter.

This, as go90 General Manager Chip Canter puts it, is "go90 3.0," and it's probably the app's last real shot to make it.

Just make it work

A good touchpoint to understand why Verizon stumbled out of the gate with go90 is a team of about a dozen people hired shortly after launch in New York to watch videos and input metadata.

When Verizon debuted go90, it had tens of thousands of videos ready for users to watch — except they weren't exactly ready.

Verizon ran into its first big go90 tech problem immediately. It was nearly impossible for people to sift through videos on the app since they weren't tagged with enough data to make them easy to find. If the video wasn't featured on the front page, it was lost in the swamp. The triage was to hire contractors, most in their early to mid-20s, to solve it mainly with brute force data entry.

That project was supposed to last for only three months but stretched on for over a year before being completed in December.

Beyond the operation's length, its nature was haphazard and confusing, according to members of the team. Partway through the metadata project, all the team's contracts were supposed to end, but it was clear the job wasn't complete. Management asked part of the team to stay on but pretended everyone was getting the ax.

"We all had to act like we were all leaving," one former contractor said. "They asked us not to say anything."

Another former contractor confirmed that the half-dozen people on the metadata team who were staying on were told to lie and act as if the whole team was being let go.

Between having to lie to coworkers and being unsure how long the project would last, these contractors said it was an often baffling and disjointed experience, and it reflected an organization that was not prepared for the task at hand.

'Guns blazing'

Money was never the worry for the go90 team as it scrambled to create an advertising-supported video app designed to appeal broadly to "millennials."

The idea was to serve up a mix of original shows and content licensed from other web and TV outlets. With a big checkbook and little oversight, Verizon spent more than $200 million on programming for the service, according to a former employee with knowledge of the matter.

Multimillion-dollar content deals were made quickly, sometimes for big packages of shows that would run for years, another source explained. Verizon "overpaid a lot," this person said.

According to one former go90 staffer, the large, rushed deals were a product of Verizon's corporate culture. There was a sense that if the budget were not used, that money could be lost.

"They went in guns blazing and spent all the money," a former employee said.

The thesis was that if Verizon shelled out money for quality shows, it would attract people to the platform. But the problem was that Verizon didn't have a thorough understanding of the marketplace at the start, a former staffer said.

Many go90 employees also felt there was a lack of focus on the target audience, which a former staffer said was once represented by a blue balloon and a pink balloon during a meeting.

And the studios initially producing shows for go90 varied in how they viewed the platform. Some cared about viewership and the long-term prospects of the app, while others saw it as an opportunity to churn out one-off shows and grab the cash.

The initial content push was not immediately successful in attracting a lot of viewers, but it produced a few hits, former employees said. The originals "Guidance" and "t@gged," a pair of high-school thrillers by the Verizon investment AwesomenessTV that appealed mainly to teen girls, were touted as examples of what worked. Live sports, especially soccer, also proved popular.

But still, the general consensus on the team about the platform was, "Why would anyone come here?"

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A different point of view

As the months wore on, however, go90's management seemed to get a better handle on how to approach the market, insiders said. This was fueled by key hires of execs like Canter, Ivana Kirkbride, who was to run content acquisition in Los Angeles, and Steve Woolf. They had deep experience with online video at NBCUniversal, YouTube, and AwesomenessTV, respectively.

Canter agreed that, to some extent, the original go90 mandate was too broad. Based on what has worked, go90 is now doing more specific targeting in areas that have shown promise: live sports and original shows around sports; sci-fi and gaming; music; and dramas primarily focused on young women.

It took some experimentation to understand that.

For example, "some of the current-season TV that we thought would do really well" ended up flopping, Canter said.

Go90 is also doing fewer "output deals," which are for an entire slate of shows, looking instead at individual shows or franchises, according to Canter. This more granular view works in tandem with go90 executives' desire to program the service more like an entertainment company, with one show leading to another.

A few isolated hits won't cut it.

Verizon also changed its thinking to not be so maniacally focused on the smartphone.

"I don't think the position we will take over time is mobile-only," Canter said.

Young people are watching a ton of video on their phones, but the freedom to watch on any screen is valuable as well. It's helpful for go90 that Verizon is eyeing a 5G future, where watching TV on wireless data could be more common.

go90 qb1

'3.0'

But apart from the content, one aspect that has plagued go90 since launch is "discovery," or how people navigate the app to find shows.

"The search functionality was very poor early on," one former employee said. "A lot wasn't searchable," another agreed. Go90 had tens of thousands of videos, but people were ignoring 90% of them, partially because of the tech.

Now Verizon hopes it will knock out a bunch of its go90 tech woes in one swoop with a new weapon: Vessel.

In 2014, Verizon bought OnCue from Intel for about $200 million, but it never launched OnCue's internet-TV service. That team in San Jose, California, served as the backbone for go90. But it was cut loose by Verizon when the company laid off 155 people in January.

The reason: Verizon is betting that the tech team of another ill-fated video service, Vessel, will provide the needed spark for go90. It's a pivot for the "small, amazing" Vessel team, Canter said.

Vessel, which was founded by former Hulu CEO Jason Kilar and launched in early 2015, was widely praised for its recommendation and discovery engine. The problem was that it simply failed to find a big enough audience for its $2.99-a-month subscription model built around YouTube stars.

In October, Verizon bought Vessel— which had raised over $130 million from venture capitalists — for an undisclosed amount. Verizon then shut Vessel down.

In the few months since then, the Vessel team has "rebuilt the entire [go90] service," Canter said, and the tech side is now run out of San Francisco instead of San Jose.

On Wednesday, go90 debuted the new tech, which Canter said would not only serve go90, but help fuel an entire suite of video apps Verizon is planning to launch in the future. And while go90 looks different on the surface, many of the changes are features on the back end.

It's a "platform we can build upon," Canter said.

vessel

Time to get going

With "3.0," go90 is at a crucial point in its existence. It has to distinguish itself — soon — as something that has long-term viability, as opposed to something Verizon tried for a few years that didn't work out.

One former go90 staffer described the cynicism of some veteran Verizon content people on the go90 team who felt they had been burned before. They thought that after its initial stumbles, go90 would "slog around for two to three years and then die" when the money ran out, this person said.

"If you try to do everything, you don't really do anything," one former go90 team member said. There's no point in spending hundreds of millions of dollars if people can't watch it or don't develop a love for your brand.

Now Verizon is hoping to shift that vibe back to optimism, clarifying which audience niches it's serving and providing a way for those audiences to easily find shows they'll like. The tech and the content are finally coming together with specificity and personalization, Canter said.

At least, that's the hope.

Go90 had over 2.1 million monthly active users in the US, on iPhone and Android, in February, and it increased in size by a factor of 2.2 year-over-year, according to the app-analytics firm App Annie. (Verizon does not disclose user numbers.) But it will have to get a lot more than that to be considered a success.

This "3.0" reboot could be go90's last chance to get that right.

If you have any more information about what it's like to work on or with go90, tip the author at nmcalone@businessinsider.com.

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Stephen Colbert denounces Congress' vote to end internet privacy rules: 'Something we can all hate together'

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Stephen Colbert got forthright in his takedown of the US Congress' recent vote allowing internet providers to sell consumers' browsing history, gutting Obama-era FCC privacy rules.

"Anybody here use the internet?" Colbert asked his audience to cheers on Wednesday's "Late Show," before adding, "Might want to knock that off."

After telling people that now "might be a good time to clear your browser history," and joking, "I burned my computer this morning," Colbert denounced the congressional decision led by Republicans, which President Donald Trump has signaled he will sign. The host argues it's exactly the type of proposed legislation no one wants.

"This is what's wrong with Washington, DC," he said. "I guarantee you there is not one person, not one voter of any political stripe anywhere in America, who asked for this. No one in America stood up at a town hall and said, 'Sir, I demand you let somebody else make money off my shameful desires. Maybe blackmail me someday.'"

A growing number of Americans are expressing fears about their privacy under Trump, and Colbert warned the move on internet privacy would not be greeted warmly.

"I can't believe they're publicly taking the side of big internet cable companies," Colbert said. "Taking the side of a cable company? The only thing less popular would be if they passed a bill allowing traffic jams to call you during dinner, to give you gonorrhea."

Colbert was more than a little skeptical of the reasoning from Republican Representative Marsha Blackburn, who argued on the House floor that the gutting of the privacy rules will actually lead to "enhanced" consumer privacy.

"I know what's in her search history: 'How to spout bulls---,'" Colbert said.

He also slammed the part of the resolution that would no longer require internet providers to protect "customer information against hackers and thieves," likening it to a hotel that tells its guests, "We don't lock the doors."

And Colbert had a little fun imagining what the guy who's assigned to look through America's search history is going through. It's not optimistic.

Watch Colbert on the congressional vote "we can all hate together" below:

 

 

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'Arrested Development' star compares the Trumps to the Bluths

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Lucille Bluth

In an interview with The Daily Beast, acclaimed "Arrested Development" and "Archer" actress Jessica Walter revealed that she thinks the Trumps and the Bluths, the family at the heart of "Arrested," have a lot in common.

Except she thinks President Donald Trump and his family aren't quite up to the intelligence level of the Bluths.

"They’re both real estate moguls, tycoons, and businesspeople," she told The Daily Beast. "But the Bluths were really smart — well, smarter than the Trumps. Although that’s just my opinion... except for poor Gob!”

She's right about poor Gob, who just can't stop making huge mistakes.

There are actually many theroies with evidencethat the Bluths were based on the Bush family, but at least one plotline in the sitcom involving a plan to build a wall at the US-Mexico border certainly feels fresh under Trump.

Walter plays the martini-drinking matriarch Lucille Bluth on "Arrested" and voices the sharp-tongued and not-so-different Malory Archer on FX's animated spy comedy "Archer." She says she doesn't share much with either character, though she does enjoy a good martini.

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'Ghost in the Shell' is a stunning sci-fi thriller — but it has one massive problem

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Paramount already had an uphill battle on its hands with its live-action adaptation of "Ghost in the Shell." Trying to make a global blockbuster out of a legendary Japanese manga is no easy feat (Steven Spielberg's DreamWorks has had the US rights since 2008), not to mention the 1995 animated movie that's considered a classic.

But then casting Scarlett Johansson as the main character, Major Kusanagi, led to a public-relations nightmare. The movie is now labeled as just the latest example of Hollywood whitewashing.

It's an issue that can't be dismissed. But facing all the spin from the filmmakers — that's it's an "international" story and Johansson's comments that she "would never presume to play another race of a person" — I went into the movie willing to accept that this could work.

More on that later. Let's get to what I did like about the movie.

For fans of the manga or the anime movie, you will be happy to hear that this "Ghost in the Shell," directed by Rupert Sanders ("Snow White and the Huntsman"), very much pays homage to both with dazzling visuals and special effects. You will certainly see a lot of similarities to the "Matrix" franchise, as the Wachowskis pretty much used "Ghost in the Shell" as their guide to make their own heralded sci-fi franchise (all the way down to people having a network portal in the back of their head). And the cityscapes have a distinct "Blade Runner" vibe.

The story follows Major (Johansson) from her creation — the Hanka Robotics company seemingly saved her brain from a body about to perish and placed it into a robot — to joining the anticyberterrorism task force known as Section 9.

Ghost in the ShellThe iconic shot of Major free falling off a skyscraper is here, as is her taking on all comers guns blazing. Johansson plays the part as very robotic, though not as stiff as in her most recent enhanced-human role, in 2014's "Lucy."

Section 9 is led by Chief Daisuke Aramaki, played by legendary Japanese actor Takeshi Kitano, while Danish actor Pilou Asbæk plays Major's second-in-command, Batou.

The team learns of a new criminal who is determined to take down Hanka, and it begins to investigate. It turns out Kuze (Michael Pitt) has built his own network and uses it to jump in and out of bodies to follow through on his task to kill the Hanka scientists who created him. Major realizes through Kuze that even though she was told she was the first of her kind, she's certainly not.

There are many philosophical moments, particularly about the meaning of a person's "ghost" or soul. In an imagined age when machines have not only taken over everything around us but now enhance us, the movie examines the only thing we have ownership of anymore: our own being.

That abstract thinking will be welcome for fans of "Ghost in the Shell," as will shoutouts to various tropes from the Japanese comics and anime movies (like director Mamoru Oshii's love of basset hounds).

But let's get to the part that didn't sit well for me and probably won't for many others.

(Warning: Spoiler coming.)

Major suffers "glitches" in her ghost that turn out to be related to her past life. We come to learn that before she was encased in her robot body, she was a runaway, and Hanka took her and other outcasts from a house and used their brains to create cyborgs. Major was once a Japanese woman named Motoko Kusanagi.

This will most likely infuriate those who were already upset that Major was not played by an Asian actress. Not only did the makers of the movie and Paramount clearly whitewash, but they doubled down by showing in the movie that Major has the brain of a human who was once Japanese but sports the synthetic features of a pretty white woman.

Ghost in the Shell Paramount copyThere's an obvious economic motivation behind Johansson's casting. She's a proven box-office draw, both in the US and abroad. Paramount is looking at dollars over common sense. But when the entire industry is rightfully being hammered about its lack of diversity, the blindness of all involved in "Ghost in the Shell" is remarkable.

And it also points out a big, gaping hole in Hollywood's diversity problem. Though there's an obvious effort to hire more directors who are female and of color, the lack of diversity at the studio-executive level has the potential for its own kind of damage.

It's likely that numerous directors passed on making the new "Ghost in the Shell" because they predicted a public backlash, but if an executive wants to make a movie a certain way, sooner or later, the person will find a director who will take the job.

We applaud when we see a diverse cast and crew, but we need to focus on the people filling the boardrooms.

"Ghost in the Shell" opens in theaters on Friday.

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Trevor Noah has a theory about why Trump won't throw the Nationals' opening pitch

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Trevor Noah Donald Trump first pitch Daily Show Comedy Central

President Donald Trump cited a scheduling conflict in keeping him from throwing the first pitch at the Washington Nationals' opening day, but Trevor Noah believes he knows the real reason.

"Oh no! Wby isn't Donald Trump going to honor this classic presidential tradition?" Comedy Central's "Daily Show" host responded to the news of Trump's decision. "It's throwing a baseball, not releasing your tax returns."

William Howard Taft started the more than 100-year tradition in 1910. Since then, 13 presidents, including President Barack Obama, have thrown the ceremonial first pitch.

"I'm like, yeah, sure," Noah said of Trump's "scheduling conflict." "Donald Trump does not know how to throw a baseball. That's what's going on here. That's what's happening, which is weird because he also doesn't know how to run a country. But he's not embarrassed to try that. I wish he had a scheduling conflict for that."

The host then threw in a jab at the failure of "Trumpcare": "I bet a Trump pitch would get about as far as his healthcare bill. You know, just drop halfway down to the plate. And then he'd blame Paul Ryan."

Donald TrumpTo be fair, Trump has thrown ceremonial first pitches before, such as in 2006 at Boston's Fenway Park. But Noah did poke fun at the awkward photos that resulted from the event.

"He's the only person who looks like he's afraid of being hit by the ball when he's throwing it," Noah joked.

Former President Barack Obama also declined the Nationals' invitation in his first year in office in 2009, doing the pitch instead the next year. So Trump still has time to fulfill the tradition.

Watch Noah's take on Trump refusing the first pitch below:

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