Quantcast
Channel: Business Insider
Viewing all 101983 articles
Browse latest View live

Fabio Viviani describes the insanely tough challenge he had on 'Top Chef' that never made it to TV

0
0

We interviewed "Top Chef" alum Fabio Viviani while he cooked us a meal from his web series "Dinner is Served." He told us about part of a challenge from "Top Chef" Season 5 that never aired. Following is a transcript of the video.

FABIO VIVIANI:The toughest challenge for me on “Top Chef” was to cook a 20-pound turkey into a toaster oven. Literally I had a toaster oven. And it was raining too. It was outdoors, at a Foo Fighters concert, and I have to cook this bird that is time and a half the size of this oven.

VIVIANI: So I got two ovens, I rip the front handle off. I put the turkey in the middle, I put the oven, and I sucked it in. Literally, I suckered the things in. And I fold — and I kind of wrapped it with aluminum. Was very dangerous cause it was raining. There was no door on the oven. So literally there was like two ovens, two like shoe boxes pressed with each other, turned on and it’s pouring raining on these things. It’s like smoke and sizzle everywhere. And the turkey was fantastic. The turkey really turned out good actually.  

JETHRO NEDEDOG: You made it in a toaster oven?

VIVIANI: Yeah, it never made TV though because it was very, very against every logical and commonsense rule of safety. So it couldn’t make it on TV, but it was great.

Join the conversation about this story »


Netflix put out 17 comedy specials this quarter, and Dave Chappelle's was its most-watched of all time (NFLX)

0
0

dave chappelleNetflix is supercharging its investment in stand-up comedy, and Dave Chappelle’s first of three new specials was the streaming giant’s most-viewed comedy special of all time.

Netflix “stepped up” its investment in comedy by releasing a whopping 17 stand-up comedy specials this quarter, including a pair by Chappelle.

Early results are promising,” Netflix wrote in a letter to shareholders Monday. “The triumphant return of a comedy legend in Dave Chappelle: Collection 1 was our most viewed comedy special ever. We are also finding this to be true in international markets as well, with comedian Gad Elmaleh’s Gad Gone Wild, a breakout hit in France last quarter.”

Why is Netflix going after comedy so aggressively?

“There’s always been an interest in stand-up comedy,” Netflix content chief Ted Sarandos said on the earnings call Monday. “It was actually back in our early original content days and the red envelope entertainment, it’s all we did was produce original stand-up comedy and acquired documentaries and foreign language films. Always had good luck with it, just on a very small scale. And the format lends itself really well to what we’re doing … it’s uncensored, it’s commercial free, and that allows for a lot of creative freedom. And the fan base for these folks is very big.”

Chappelle’s return to stand-up was a “big event in the culture,” according to Sarandos. He said that if Netflix picks the right specials and invests in them properly, they can draw “series level and movie level of viewing … So we’re thrilled with this so far.”

In short: Expect many more comedy specials in Netflix’s future.

SEE ALSO: Netflix misses subscriber growth targets, but expects a big Q2

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Theresa May calls for General Election on June 8

Chris Pratt reveals a 'Guardians of the Galaxy 2' secret on 'Jimmy Kimmel Live!'

0
0

Screen Shot 2017 04 18 at 9.46.11 AM

The cast of "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2" joined "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" on Monday night, and the actors confirmed a major casting rumor.

"I don't know exactly what I can say," Jimmy Kimmel said of the Marvel movie. "I know there are reveals and there are secrets, and like, for instance, can I say Sylvester Stallone is in the movie? Is that okay to say?"

"Sly's in the movie?" Kurt Russell said. Russell stars in "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2" as Star-Lord's dad, and starred in "Tango & Cash" alongside Stallone in 1989, forever cementing the image of the two in viewers' minds.

"I think that's safe to say, yeah," Chris Pratt (who plays Star-Lord, aka Peter Quill) told Kimmel.

"Can I say Tango and Cash are in this movie together?" Kimmel said. "Is that all right? Is that allowed?"

"It is now," Pratt said. 

While it has actually already been revealed that Stallone would be in the movie, little has been known about his role. In 2016, director James Gunn told CinemaBlend that his role is small, but very important. If you want to find out more about his rumored role from the internet, you'll probably be spoiled.

You can watch the interview below:

 

 

 

SEE ALSO: Here's the perfect way to see 'The Fate of the Furious'

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: A 'Top Chef' alum explains why you should never put oil in your pasta water

Cockroaches could be hiding in your game console, waiting to pounce — here's why

0
0

What lies at the heart of your PlayStation 4? Processors and memory? Perhaps a Blu-ray copy of "Horizon Zero Dawn"? 

Another possibility: It may also full of cockroaches.

PlayStation 4 Slim

This actually makes a lot of sense — the PlayStation 4 is warm when it's running, and its interior is dark and spooky (roaches love warm, dark, spooky places). When gaming site Kotaku visited a third-party game console repair shop in Manhattan recently, it learned of this disgusting phenomenon in a particularly dark way:

"I heard about the PS4’s roach problem at an independent console repair shop on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. XCubicle is a clean and well-kept business where locals drop off their broken consoles to get diagnosed and repaired. Its co-founder, Patrick Che, was listing the types of repair issues he encounters on a day-to-day basis: coins inside disc drives, 3DS mods gone wrong. That’s when he pointed to the 'roach bags,' black garbage bags heaped up in the corner of the room."

Whoa

Those "roach bags," it turns out, were full because roaches see game consoles as convenient roach motels. The PlayStation 4 is a common accommodation because of its design (larger vents), and because it's the most popular game console currently available. Also, notably, Sony won't repair your bug-infested PlayStation 4:

Indeed! So what does that leave you to do? There's really one option: Contact a third-party repair store like the one above, and then have those folks deal with the nightmarish box full of bugs you've brought them. And, in fairness, most people with broken consoles aren't even aware that roaches were the cause.

"Roaches leave traces,” Matt Zieminski of hardware repair site iFixit told Kotaku. “Their poop color is distinct and has a certain smell to it. We kind of know right off the bat if there are poop stains on the vent of the fan—we assume it’s bug-loaded.”

Well, that's horrifying! 

PlayStation 4 and roaches

Anyway, if you've got a broken game console and don't know the reason, you might have bugs. And if you're looking to avoid this ridiculously gross situation, we'd suggest living in a Howard Hughes-esque germ-less environment. Or just, ya know, keeping your home relatively clean.

SEE ALSO: 4 reasons you'd want to buy a Project Scorpio Xbox when it's released later this year

DON'T MISS: I'm a huge 'Mass Effect' fan — the new game is the worst in the series

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: 5 hidden features only PlayStation 4 power users know about

Pandora's new on-demand service is finally available to everyone — here's what it's like (P)

0
0

General Hero pandora premium

On Monday, Pandora completed the rollout of its new on-demand service, which competes with the likes of Spotify and Apple Music, and is key to the company's future.

Pandora has a massive and loyal audience, and its leadership is betting big that Pandora Premium, the new on-demand service, will be a hit.

"We intend to be profitable this year," Pandora CEO Tim Westergren said last month on CNBC. A chunk of that goal is likely tied to on-demand, where Pandora wants to have 6 to 9 million subscribers by the end of the year.

I spent about a week trying Pandora Premium before it launched, and I have both good news and bad news for Pandora investors.

The good news is that it's a beautiful and intuitive product, and is likely to snag some of Pandora's internet-radio fans, especially with playlist-building features that leverage Pandora's trove of historical data on longtime users. The bad news is that there are a few places where Pandora Premium misses on the chance to be the first service to seamlessly integrate on-demand with the "lean-back" style of listening Pandora is famous for.

Here's what I mean:

SEE ALSO: This app lets you instantly turn your DVD collection into your own personal Netflix for $2 per title

Services like Spotify, Apple Music, and Pandora Premium share much of the same basic DNA, so I won't spend too much time on those elements. They all let you listen to basically any song you want for $10 a month — with a few high-profile exceptions like Taylor Swift — and they all let you save music offline to listen when you don't have reception.

The first things you'll notice about Pandora Premium, however, is that it generally makes those millions of songs a tiny bit easier to navigate than Spotify. I especially appreciated the ease at which I could toggle to just viewing "downloaded" songs, in the event that I wanted to limit my data usage. Spotify makes that process a tad trickier, and it shows that Pandora is really committed to making things dead simple. 



The piece I truly loved about Pandora Premium was how easy it was to make playlists. Pandora has built a nifty feature that lets you "add similar songs" to your playlists, easily turning that 4-song playlist into 20. It's a really nice touch, especially for longtime Pandora users.

And the "My Thumbs Up" playlist Pandora automatically makes of every song you have ever given a thumbs-up to is a useful trip down memory lane. 



But one place Pandora lags behind Spotify is in marquee pre-made playlists.

Spotify has popular curated playlists like "Rap Caviar," as well as updating personalized playlists like "Discover Weekly," meant to turn you onto new tunes. Both of those have developed a cult following, and while Pandora's radio stations can plug some of the "Discover Weekly" gap, blockbuster curated playlists feel like a missing element.

Pandora does have pre-made radio stations that function much like playlists (i.e. you can hop ahead to a different song in the queue). These come in varieties like "Today's Hits" in different genres, decades by genre, moods, activities, and so on. But they just don't have the same flavor as Spotify's.



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

Sienna Miller pushed her director to make her not just 'the wife' in her new movie

0
0

Sienna Miller Getty

One thing actress Sienna Miller has a lot of experience in: playing the grieving wife.

"The Lost City of Z" (opening nationwide on Friday) marks the third time in three years that Miller has played a homemaker who has to deal with extraordinary circumstances. But with "Z," she pushed for her character to have a more substantial role in the film — and it paid off enormously.

In the acclaimed and Oscar-nominated films "Foxcatcher" and "American Sniper," both based on true stories, Miller played the wives of men who tragically died — David Schultz and Chris Kyle, respectively. In both instances, Miller, while unquestionably talented, has blink-and-you'll-miss-it parts that really only serve as emotional triggers when the husbands are murdered.

The same could have happened to Miller in "The Lost City of Z," playing another real woman, Nina Fawcett, wife of British explorer Percy Fawcett, who along with their son disappeared looking for a secret city deep in the jungles of the Amazon in 1925. But writer-director James Gray gave the Nina character a rich inner life that highlights her struggle to support her husband's obsession, which then leads to the eventual torment over never knowing what happened to her love and eldest child after they disappear.

But Gray admits that credit should also be given to Miller, who urged him not to just go through the motions with the Nina character.

"When she arrived in Northern Ireland I remember we had the table read with all the actors and she wrote on the side of the script, 'The wife?!' And I said, 'What do you mean by that?'" Gray recently told Business Insider. "And she said, 'I'm just playing the wife again. Don't you think we can do much better?' And I said, 'Sienna, I'm going to try. I'm going to give you everything I got.'"

lost city of z amazonMiller does not disappoint with the material, delivering one of her best performances in recent memory. It's more than obvious to Gray that she had a chip on her shoulder.

"At one point I said to her, 'I don't understand, if you think you're just the wife, why are you here?' And she said, 'I wanted to work with you, and that's why it has to be better. Better than the average woman left at home,'" Gray said, delivering his best imitation of Miller's English accent.

After filming, Miller told Gray at the premiere that she based a lot of her performance on watching Gray's wife during production. He had had no idea.

"She told me she was copying my wife's gestures and behavior and attitude," Gray said. "I don't know how my wife feels about that."

However, looking back on it, Gray said the Nina character was one of the most important aspects of the story.

"It's Nina's tragedy," Gray said, referring to the loss of her husband and son. "She never heard what happened, no closure. It's the 1950s and she's still alive and people say they have seen him. So I thought if that's the case, the movie can't forget about her."

And what does Miller think of the movie?

"Oh, she loves it," Gray said.

SEE ALSO: How the best movie of the year so far, "The Lost City of Z," almost fell apart

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Sony and Marvel just dropped another 'Spider-Man' trailer — and it looks amazing

Stephen Colbert rips apart Trump over his embarrassing Syria blunder

0
0

Stephen Colbert Trump easter cbs

"The Late Show with Stephen Colbert" had been on hiatus for the last 10 days, so there was a lot to catch up on when the host returned in full force on Monday night.

He tackled not only the festivities at the White House Easter Egg Roll that happened earlier that day, including the First Lady Melania Trump nudging her husband so he would put his hand over his heart during the playing of the National Anthem, and the official White House Snapchat account misspelling "education" in a post showing Education Secretary Betsy DeVos reading to children. He also gave time to Trump's interview last week with Fox Business, in which he talked about what he was doing when he gave the order to bomb Syria, and made an embarrassing and awkward mistake.

"Obviously, when you are bombing another country, that is a decision you take very seriously, so he did it in the Situation Room with all available intel — just kidding," Colbert said.

He then explained that Trump was eating dinner with Chinese President Xi Jinping at Trump's Florida resort Mar-o-Largo. Fox Business anchor Maria Bartiromo asked Trump when he told Jinping about the bombing — before dessert?

"When did you bomb those people, before dessert?" Colbert said. "What's the proper wine pairing with a cruise missile? Is it a Merlot?"

In fact, Trump said, he and Jinping were eating "the most beautiful piece of chocolate cake you've ever seen" when Trump informed the Chinese leader that "we just launched 59 missles heading to Iraq."

At that point, Bartiromo corrected the president, telling him that the missiles were launched at Syria.

"Whoopsie, I got the wrong country!" Colbert said, mocking Trump. "It's adorable."

Watch Colbert look back at the White House Easter Egg Roll and Trump's blunder about Syria below:

 

SEE ALSO: How the best movie of the year so far, "The Lost City of Z," almost fell apart

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Warner Bros. might have to pay $900 million if it can't prove ghosts are real

Netflix will burn $2 billion in 2017, and negative free cash flow will continue 'for many years' (NFLX)

0
0

reed hastings netflix

Netflix said it will cross a whopping 100 million subscribers worldwide this weekend, but there's one major thing Wall Street is still worried about: how much cash the company is burning to get there.

On Monday, Netflix reiterated that it expects to have a negative free cash flow of $2 billion in 2017, versus $1.7 billion in 2016.

"The growth in our original content means we continue to plan to have around $2B in negative FCF this year," Netflix wrote in a letter to shareholders Monday.

Here's how Netflix explained it:

We have a large market opportunity ahead of us and we’re optimizing long-term FCF by growing our original content aggressively. Negative near-term FCF is the result of the big increases in our original content, combined with small but growing operating margins.

Netflix is confident it will make that money back over the long run, but expects negative free cash flow "to accompany our rapid growth for many years." It's that "many years" part that has Wall Street a bit concerned.

"While FCF loss of $422 million in the quarter was better than our estimate of -$516 million, management’s commentary around sustained FCF burn 'for many years' in order to fuel the company’s growth does create some incremental debate and concern for some," Instinet-Nomura analyst Anthony DiClemente wrote in a note to clients Tuesday.

Why do originals cause Netflix to burn so much cash? For a fuller explanation, it's good to go back to Netflix's Q3 letter to shareholders in 2016, where the company lays out the case for the continued escalation of its cash burn.

Here's what Netflix said in its Q3 letter:

The increase in our free cash flow deficit reflects the growth of original content, which we are increasingly producing and owning (rather than licensing). Self-produced shows like Stranger Things require more cash upfront as we incur spending during the creation of each show prior to its completion and release. In comparison, we generally pay on delivery for licensed originals like Orange is the New Black and we pay over the term of the agreement for licensed non-originals (eg, Scandal).

Over the long run, we believe self-producing is less expensive (including cost of capital) than licensing a series or film, as we work directly with the creative community and eliminate additional overhead and fees. In addition, we own the underlying intellectual property, providing us with global rights and more business and creative control. Combined with the success of our portfolio of originals and the positive impact on our member and revenue growth, we believe this is a wise investment that creates long term value. Consequently, we plan on investing more, which will continue to weigh on free cash flow.

In October, Netflix announced it was raising another $800 million in debt, bringing its total long-term debt to over $3 billion. The question is whether Netflix can grow subscribers enough to offset the gargantuan amount of money it's spending on content — $6 billion in 2016.

"It’s another quarter of the same old debate on Netflix stock," DiClemente wrote Tuesday. "Can [subscriber] growth outweigh [free cash flow] concerns?"

SEE ALSO: Netflix put out 17 comedy specials this quarter, and Dave Chappelle's was its most-watched of all time

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Here’s a look at the final bloody trailer for the new 'Wolverine' movie


Here's The Rock's insane workout and diet he uses to get ripped for 'Fast and Furious'

Here's what the 'Game of Thrones' stars look like in real life

0
0

Getty Images emilia clarke game of thrones premere

The "Game of Thrones" stars can look very different when they're not in their elaborate costumes, makeup, and hair for HBO's hit fantasy drama.

The show's cast has been seen hitting the red carpet dressed to the nines for the HBO show's various season premieres, including the season-six event last year in Los Angeles.

Fans got a chance to see Emilia Clarke, Peter Dinklage, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Sophie Turner, and Maisie Williams hitting the town rather than plotting to get power in Westeros.

While sadly we have to wait a little longer for season seven of "Game of Thrones" (it will premiere in July, rather than April), it's always a good time to check in on the talented actors who power its drama.

Here's the "Game of Thrones" cast as they appear in real life:

SEE ALSO: Here's the odd way 'Game of Thrones' actors find out their characters are about to be killed off

DON'T MISS: A former 'Game of Thrones' star has harsh things to say about his time on the show

John Bradley-West plays Samwell Tarly on "Game of Thrones."



And he can get all cleaned up, as he did at the season-six premiere.



Hannah Murray plays Samwell's life partner, Gilly.



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

Disney wants to launch a 'Star Wars' starship luxury resort, and it looks like a fan's dream

0
0

star wars land resort

When the theme park known as Star Wars Land opens its doors at Disney World in 2019, it promises to be an immersive experience that any fan of the beloved saga will go crazy for. 

Over the weekend at Star Wars Celebration, we saw some teases of what will be available in the park, and now it sounds like there could be a resort inside the land that will be a must-stay for "Star Wars" fanatics. 

According to Walt Disney World News Today, Disney has sent out a survey to guests gauging their interest in a possible hotel resort experience inside Disney World, most likely located in Star Wars Land, which would be designed to look like you're staying on a starship.

star wars land

Concept art included in the survey being done by Swagbucks shows that the lobby, guest rooms, and other areas of the resort definitely have the feel of the familiar ships seen in the "Star Wars" movies.

The survey also highlights the unique experience you would get out of the two-night, all-inclusive package that will cost roughly $900 to $1,000 per guest, including a two-day story set in the the "Star Wars" universe, personal interactions with "Star Wars" characters, live performers throughout the starship, plus the ability to engage in the story by doing flight training, ship exploration, lightsaber training, and personalized secret missions (both on the starship and throughout Star Wars Land).

star wars land 3

Your stay also gets you buffet breakfasts, lunches, and evening dining, exclusive park admission to Star Wars Land, and starship amenities including a pool area and water garden, fitness area, onboard cantina, and — wait for it — robotic droid butlers.

It sounds like Disney is just at the idea phase with the resort, but this is just another example of how ambitious Disney World is being in executing Star Wars Land.

SEE ALSO: Here's the perfect way to see "The Fate of the Furious"

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Watch the first trailer for ‘Star Wars: The Last Jedi’

The future of Facebook's VR push is out now: a new way to hang with friends, virtually

0
0

The newest virtual reality application from Facebook is a long time coming: Facebook Spaces, a new application that enables much of Facebook's service within virtual reality.

What does that mean in practice? It means virtual avatars!

Facebook Spaces

You can invite up to three Facebook friends while using Facebook Spaces — those three friends have to own Oculus Rift headsets as well, the VR headset that Facebook makes. If you have the Oculus Touch controllers, you can use them to bring your hands into Spaces. Of note, the VR version of Facebook is only available for the Oculus Rift headset and not the Samsung Gear VR headset, which Facebook's VR software also runs on. 

You can interact with people in Facebook Messenger directly within Spaces — video from Messenger can literally be pumped directly in, as a virtual window, to Spaces. There's a bunch of different stuff you can do in Spaces, but it primarily focuses on interacting with a small group of people. What kind of interactions? This stuff:

-You can take selfies together (featuring both virtual avatars and any Messenger videos).

Facebook Spaces

-You can chat with friends who aren't in VR.

Facebook Spaces

-You can explore 360-degree videos with friends.

Facebook Spaces

Spaces is available today, and you can find it in the early access section of the Oculus Home storefront. Facebook says it's "only just scratched the surface of social VR technology," and calls this a "beta" for Spaces — the app is headed to other VR headsets at some point in the future, though Facebook isn't saying anything more about that just yet.

SEE ALSO: Mark Zuckerberg addresses the 'Facebook killer' tragedy: 'We have a lot more to do here'

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Facebook is copying Snapchat with these new features

Why the 'Girls' finale failed — and reminded us of all the show's problems

0
0

girls hbo finale2

How do you end a show with zero likable characters? Well, that is, except for Elijah, Ray, or Loreen, who are probably the only people ever on HBO's "Girls" to root for. It’s hard to end a show when there isn’t a main character you really, really wanted to find happiness or come up with an iconic Coca-Cola commercial. Hannah’s accomplishments (a Modern Love article, teaching "internet" at an obscure university, and pretty much every other job she ever got) were as frustrating as they were unrealistic, because she always got her way and did whatever she wanted without thinking about how she affected other people, but she all along she did expect others to think about how they affect her. 

Ending the series with a success for Hannah (and with breastfeeding) felt right, but it didn’t feel earned, especially considering Hannah was at her most insufferable in this episode — particularly in that big fight with her mom. Hannah's frustrations with Marnie’s help provided a perfect example of her spoiled, unappreciative nature, along with her theory that her own child hates her guts. But she got over it all too quickly, and that makes the rest of the series suffer because Hannah could have reached her epiphany sooner in the timeline of the show, and given space to other characters.

Not every series finale has to tell us everything. Not everything needs to be wrapped up in a traditional way, or even shown to us at all. Some of the best series finales don’t wrap up storylines or unanswered questions — think “Mad Men“ or “The Sopranos” — because that’s life. But some great series finales do tell us everything (or close enough to it), like “Six Feet Under” or “Breaking Bad.”

"Latching" gave us a little bit of both, but not enough of either. It was unconventional, but not for “Girls.” It showed us that Hannah is mature now. And that Marnie will be mature one day, too, eventually. Maybe. Probably not. And that was a little too much wrapping up. For a show that was about terrible people struggling to grow up, shouldn't it have ended with less of a bow for its main character, who struggled the most with maturity?

Some of the best and most memorable episodes of “Girls” have been character-centric bottle episodes, just like “Latching.” Season five’s “Panic in Central Park” (the one where Marnie reunites with Charlie who has become a heroin addict) is one of the most beautifully written episodes of television. And season two’s “One Man’s Trash” (the one where Hannah plays half-naked ping pong with Patrick Wilson) was defining for the series, and launched a thousand think pieces and misogynist conspiracy theories explaining why someone as good-looking as Patrick Wilson (an actual Hollywood actor!) would ever sleep with someone who looks like Lena Dunham.

And “Latching” wasn’t a bad episode. It was actually a good episode. It just wasn’t in the right place. The time jump to get Grover born by the finale felt rushed, and the season probably would have been more successful if this had been done earlier on in the season — and if this episode weren't the last. Its distance from the rest of the series — and the rest of the season — made it feel tacked on. That may be the point, but save for Hannah’s pregnancy, it rendered the majority of season six relatively pointless. 

We didn’t need to see Jessa or Shoshana or Elijah back in New York City, or even Ray, but it would’ve been more fitting to get a little more screen time from them — even if it were brief, vague, and made us ask more questions than before. Without Elijah in the series finale, his high-profile role in season six felt like a waste of time. Of course the point was that not all friends stick around as promised (except for Marnie, who is everywhere, always!), but we lost time we could've spent with Shosh, Jessa, and Ray because of it.

The worst thing a series finale can do is a montage showing exactly what happened to every single character for the rest of their lives. Except for “Six Feet Under,” which used that cliche to emphasize what the show was always about: life and death. From the start, “Girls” was about Hannah’s journey, but it wasn’t just her journey. What about Shoshana’s journey that we didn’t even get to see? Why did we have to watch Jessa and Adam make a movie together? Does Ray ever leave the coffee shop? None of these plotlines need answers, but with a finale so far away from the season and the series, you can’t help but wonder. 

Loose ends are fine — and fitting for a show about young people. And fitting for a show like “Girls,” which has never wanted to handhold the audience. We don’t need to see a happy (or sad) ending for everyone, but ending the series with a bottle episode doesn’t feel right. Yes, this was Hannah’s story all along, but the show is called “Girls.” And for a show that started off so real to its target demographic, it didn’t end that way.

SEE ALSO: 'Girls' showrunner talks about the finale: 'We're down' for a spin-off

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: This 90-year-old producer found the magic formula for making money in Hollywood

19 movies at the Tribeca Film Festival you need to see

0
0

The_Circle_STX Entertainment

The 2017 Tribeca Film Festival begins on Wednesday night, and this year’s crop is filled with powerful works from movies, TV, and even virtual reality.

But if you’re not able to actually go to the festival, don’t worry: A lot of the titles are coming to theaters and streaming soon.

That includes movies starring Jenny Slate, Cate Blanchett, and Emma Watson, as well as documentaries focused on Roger Stone, Elián González, and Ronald Reagan.  

Here are 19 movies playing at this year’s Tribeca Film Festival you should keep an eye out for:

SEE ALSO: These are the 9 highest grossing Disney films of all time

“Aardvark”

This dark comedy about a guy (Zachary Quinto) dealing with intense hallucinations and his therapist (Jenny Slate) who tries to help him looks to be one of the standout fiction movies at the festival this year. And it also has Jon Hamm playing a famous TV actor... big stretch for him.



“Blame”

In this movie set in a suburban high school, Abigail has been cast in the lead of the school play, a production of “The Crucible,” but quickly feels the wrath of the mean girls who got overlooked. Twentysomething Quinn Shephard doesn’t just play the lead role but is also the film’s director, and it also stars Chris Messina as the shady drama teacher.



“Chuck”

Liev Schreiber plays 1970s heavyweight boxer Chuck Wepner in this biopic. Though he took on the likes of Muhammad Ali and George Forman, he's best known for being the inspiration behind “Rocky.” Set after that movie becomes a sensation, this film follows Wepner coping with new celebrity and old demons.

The movie opens in theaters May 5 through IFC Films.



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

The founder of $5 trillion investing behemoth BlackRock helped launch Maroon 5

0
0

larry fink

You can pretty much thank Larry Fink for Maroon 5.

In an interview with Bloomberg's Erik Schatzker, BlackRock's chairman and CEO touched briefly on his interest in music, as well as his interest in helping others jump start their careers.

Fink said that back in 2000 he met a man by the name of James Diener, then a senior executive at Columbia Records, who showed Fink a business plan for an independent record label.

"It reminded me of BlackRock — young, talented people who wanted to start their own thing," he told Bloomberg.

Fink continued:

"I was intrigued and enthusiastic enough about this person and his business model that we raised money. I was the lead investor in Octone Records. The first artist we signed was a band called Kara’s Flowers. We worked with them and changed their name to Maroon 5. We were the label Maroon 5 used for, I think, their first five albums. We made a lot of money on that record company—in a depression!"

And there you have it.

Check out the full Bloomberg interview with Larry Fink here.

SEE ALSO: 'Asia trades as if North Korea wasn’t a problem': How top bankers think about the Hermit kingdom

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Here's footage of the US military's new helicopter that'll cost as much as an F-35


Watch Don Cheadle rap to Kendrick Lamar in the crazy new video for 'DNA'

0
0

Forget about that new "Star Wars" trailer— the most important thing that happened last week was the release of Kendrick Lamar's newest album, titled "DAMN." 

kendrick lamar damn

If you're not already enjoying it, you're in luck: It's available to stream on everything from Apple Music to Spotify, and you can buy it digitally or physically if you're so inclined. 

But before you do any of that, you should check out the latest video for the song "DNA" — it's from the new album (the second track) and it's a relentless, repetitive song. That's not intended as a slight; the song uses repetition to hammer out line after line of storytelling.

The new video for the song puts Lamar in the position of a prisoner being interrogated by none other than acclaimed actor Don Cheadle:

Kendrick Lamar / Don Cheadle (

Though the video starts with Cheadle in the position of power, the situation soon flips to one where Cheadle is channeling the lyrics to "DNA" directly at Lamar — a bizarre situation for Cheadle, no doubt, as he was tasked with rapidly rhyming Lamar's own song back at him for the filming of the video. 

The two meet in the middle, dueting for a bit before Lamar's escape.

Kendrick Lamar / Don Cheadle (

Check out the full video right here:

And don't miss that full album! It's really good!

SEE ALSO: Kendrick Lamar just released his highly anticipated new album, and you can stream it

DON'T MISS: Kendrick Lamar is an artist everyone should see perform live — here's why

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Nobody had a bigger impact on music this year than Kendrick Lamar

The early reviews of 'Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2' are here, and people love it

0
0

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2 Disney

Fans and critics alike loved the first "Guardians of the Galaxy," and many of them have been impatiently awaiting the sequel.

Following a press screening in Los Angeles on Monday night, early reactions to "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2" are pouring in. And so far, so good.

While journalists can't publish more specific reviews about the movie just yet, the overall consensus on social media is that it's a fun movie that is a great follow-up to the first installment.

The movie will be out in theaters on May 5. 

Here's what people are saying about "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2" right now:

 

 

 

 

 

 But not everybody loved it:

 

 

SEE ALSO: Here's what the 'Game of Thrones' stars look like in real life

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: 'Sesame Street' has been mocking Trump since 1988 — here are some of the best moments

Accusations pile up on Bill O'Reilly, as new accuser claims he called her 'hot chocolate'

0
0

Bill O'Reilly.

Another woman has accused Fox News star Bill O'Reilly of unwanted advances and sexual harassment, The Hollywood Reporter reported on Tuesday.

The woman, an unnamed African-American clerical worker at Fox News, alleges that in 2008, O'Reilly leered at her and called her "hot chocolate," her attorney, Lisa Bloom, told the Reporter. 

Bloom also represents Wendy Walsh, a former Fox News contributor whose claim that O'Reilly reneged on a job offer after she rebuffed his advances in 2013 was detailed in an explosive New York Times investigation earlier this month. The report found that the host and Fox News had paid out $13 million to 5 women who had accused O'Reilly of unwanted advances.

The latest accuser, Bloom said, did not work for O'Reilly while she was harassed, but that his office was near her desk.

"He would never talk to her, not even hello, except to grunt at her like a wild boar," Bloom said. "He would leer at her. He would always do this when no one else was around and she was scared."

Bloom added that her client is not looking for any payment and that "she just wants them to know her story." Addressing the fact that the woman came forward about her experience 9 years after the fact, Bloom said her client was afraid she would be fired "if she told him to knock it off." 

She continued: "Now that she's aware this is all in the news, she's decided to phone in a complaint to the Fox News hotline."

O'Reilly's attorney, Marc E. Kasowitz, disputed the latest accusation against his client in a statement released after the story broke. "It is outrageous that an allegation from an anonymous person about something that purportedly happened almost a decade ago is being treated as fact, especially where there is obviously an orchestrated campaign by activists and lawyers to destroy Mr. O'Reilly and enrich themselves through publicity driven donations," the statement said. 

Bloom and Walsh also separately phoned in Walsh's complaint against O'Reilly to the hotline, after which the network's parent company, 21st Century Fox, announced it was opening an investigation into Walsh's claim. 

The allegations against O'Reilly date back to 2002 and include complaints of verbal abuse, lewd comments, unwanted advances, and phone calls "in which it sounded as if Mr. O'Reilly was masturbating, according to documents and interviews," the Times reported. 

O'Reilly embarked on an abrupt 2-week vacation amidst fallout from the accusations against him and a mass advertiser exodus from his show's time-slot

SEE ALSO: Fox is opening an investigation into accusations of sexual harassment against Bill O'Reilly

DON'T MISS: Fox News and Bill O'Reilly reportedly paid out $13 million to women who accused him of sexual harassment

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: People on Twitter are mocking Trump for pretending to drive a big rig truck

Netflix’s big international conquest is starting to pay off (NFLX)

0
0

Netflix reported its latest quarterly earnings on Thursday, which were mixed. The streaming giant’s stock has taken a slight tumble after reporting lower-than-anticipated subscriber growth across the board, though the company says it expects to rebound big next quarter.

One bright spot for this quarter, however, is its international business. As this chart from Statista shows, Netflix says its international streaming segment turned a profit for the first time this past quarter (excluding a $12 million “impact from currency”). Its prior losses were mainly due to the fact that the company has been investing so much in expansion in the first place, but now those efforts are starting to bring a return.

For now, at least — Netflix says it will continue to invest internationally, to the point where it projects a small loss in the segment next quarter. But at this point, it’s clear that Netflix is a truly global company.

That expansion also helps explain why Netflix plans to burn through cash for the foreseeable future. Instead of being forced to juggle licensing rights for every country, the company is spending big money on original content, which it can send out to everyone without much hassle. How successful that content is will help determine how successful Netflix will be in the long term.

COTD_4.18

SEE ALSO: The rise of music streaming services hasn’t killed music piracy

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Forget the iPhone 7 — here are 13 reasons the next iPhone will blow everyone away

Bill O'Reilly's days at Fox News may be numbered

0
0

Bill O'Reilly

Bill O'Reilly may not be returning to Fox News after his vacation, according to a New York Magazine story published Tuesday.

Three sources cited by the publication said Fox News founder Rupert Murdoch was fighting to keep the controversial commentator on, while Murdoch's sons, James and Lachlan Murdoch appear to be leaning toward booting O'Reilly for good.

James Murdoch serves as the chief executive of 21st Century Fox, the parent company of the network, while Lachlan Murdoch serves as an executive chairman. A board meeting is scheduled to take place on Thursday, a spokeswoman told CNN Money.

The latest report comes after a New York Times story earlier this month that said O'Reilly had paid $13 million over the course of several years to agree "not pursue litigation or speak about their accusations."

The exposé was then followed by a week-long exodus of advertisers from O'Reilly's hit show "The O'Reilly Factor," and street protests outside of Fox News headquarters — all of the events stemming from a sexual harassment scandal that has disrupted not only O'Reilly's brand, but the structure of the show.

Having had the highest-rated first quarter in history with an average of almost four million viewers per show, each episode subsequently suffered a massive pull-out from notable advertisers after the allegations came to light — forcing a dramatic change in the show's structure, including longer on-air segments and fewer commercial breaks.

"It’s worse than Glenn Beck," one source said, referring to another advertiser pull-out from Beck's time slot on Fox News in 2011.

Conservative commentator Matt Drudge also had a foreshadowing tweet on Tuesday afternoon:

Amid the public outcry and allegations against the controversial television personality, more accusations are still coming to light. Another woman accused O'Reilly of sexual harassment, according to a Hollywood Reporter story published Tuesday. The African-American clerical worker from Fox News alleged that the anchor called her "hot chocolate" in 2008.

If the rumors of O'Reilly's departure hold true, it may have been fueled by the Murdochs' $14 billion takeover plans of Sky, a European media company, where a media regulator was assigned to determine whether the Murdochs were "fit and proper" to stake their claim. Having O'Reilly ousted from the network may "appease critics and help close the Sky deal," New York Magazine's Gabriel Sherman wrote.

Additionally, Sherman reported that the social culture at Fox News may have played a factor in determining O'Reilly' future.

"Morale is awful," said a Fox female executive to the magazine. "There’s been no word from management to calm the masses."

In a seperate CNN report, several anonymous sources also came forward to say that talks of O'Reilly's successors were already underway. Fox representatives did not comment to either CNN or New York Magazine as of Tuesday.

SEE ALSO: Accusations pile up on Bill O'Reilly, as new accuser claims he called her 'hot chocolate'

DON'T MISS: Fox News executives are reportedly debating whether Bill O'Reilly should keep his job

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: 'Just a loose hunch': Watch Alec Baldwin impersonate Trump and Bill O'Reilly on 'SNL'

Viewing all 101983 articles
Browse latest View live




Latest Images