Rapper 50 Cent claims Donald Trump offered him $500,000 to help win over black voters during the 2016 presidential election. 

50, whose real name is Curtis Jackson, told New York's Hot 97 radio show "Ebro in the Morning" that Trump's election was an "accident," before relaying his interaction with Trump's campaign. 

Despite being in serious financial trouble, and declaring bankruptcy in 2015, Jackson claims to have turned down Trump's offer last year. 

"Before he got elected, they were having issues with the African-American vote. They wanted to pay me $500,000 as part of the campaign just to make an appearance," Jackson said. "And I was like, 'Nah, that's not good money.'"

"I'm not gonna do that," Jackson continued. "That's not worth it."

Jackson was among the many celebrities who were vocally against Trump's candidacy in 2016. In September 2016,  he posted a since-deleted Instagram prayer against Trump.

Trump would go on to do 7% better with African-Americans voters than Republican candidate Mitt Romney did in the 2012 presidential election. 

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Watch the interview below:

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Broadway has caught up to the Netflix age.

In June 2016, the Roundabout Theatre Company's revival of “She Loves Me” became the first musical ever to be streamed live thanks to BroadwayHD. Then on January 14, the two entities partnered again to stream a newer Roundabout production, "Holiday Inn."

"Up until now, you never have been able to experience live theater [beyond the stage]," Corbin Bleu, star of "Holiday Inn," told Business Insider in a Facebook Live interview. "With Netflix, you can stream right away. Now it’s the same for theater."

For "She Loves Me" and now too "Holiday Inn," BroadwayHD has also partnered with Fathom Events to bring their livestream to movie theaters nationwide. "Holiday Inn" will screen for one night only on November 16.

Bonnie Comley and Stewart Lane founded BroadwayHD a few years ago in order to create an aggregation of digitally captured plays and musicals.

More than a dozen shows — from “The Phantom of the Opera” to “Into the Woods” — have been filmed live onstage and then edited into films available to a wider viewing audience via movie theaters or DVDs.

The stream of "She Loves Me" was revolutionary, however, in that it allowed an audience, outside of its New York City theater, to watch a live, unedited performance of a musical that was currently on Broadway from their homes. (The show has since closed.)

And it came without the Broadway price tag: $14.99 for a monthly BroadwayHD subscription is essentially nothing compared to the hundreds a patron could shell out on Broadway. It seems like only a matter of time before a show as hot as "Hamilton" is as convenient to consume.

Just as importantly, Tony Award winner Laura Benanti, star of “She Loves Me,” said she was particularly excited that the show was being seen as the artists intended — staging, sets, lighting, and all.

“People were already coming in and taking crappy, hidden videos and then posting them on YouTube and that is not the way that theater is meant to be seen or experienced,” she recently told Business Insider. “It gives people an opportunity to see something that they wouldn’t normally see.”

Benanti doesn’t want it to stop there. She hopes a stream will spark viewers' interest to see community theater or touring companies.

“You’re not going to be covered in the itch if you’re never bit by the bug, and I think that this is a great way to get bit by the theater bug,” she said.

BroadwayHD is centered on doing just that by extending the reach of live theater, Comley said. 

"I’d love to see it be the norm," she told Business Insider. Just as most musicals sell a cast album, Comley hopes streams and digital captures will be another marketing tool for shows to use.

Benanti’s costar in the musical, Zachary Levi (of "Chuck" fame), has some interesting ideas as to how Broadway can be taken to the next level in digital.

“How far are we from a camera sitting in the middle of the orchestra section and people at home getting to watch the show as if they’re sitting in that incredible seat and they can look around and there’s people sitting next to them? I mean that’s pretty tremendous,” Levi told Business Insider in a Facebook Live interview. “And then you’ll have Smell-O-Vision and you’ll have little spurts of whatever it smells like in an old theater with some old lady next to you with a gin and tonic and Sour Patch Kids — like that’s gonna really put it over the edge.”

But as much as Levi lets his imagination run, he has a warning.

“We have to be very careful about cannibalizing the art — not permeating it so far out that people are like I don’t have to go anymore, I’ll just sit here and watch it at home,” he said. “It’s a balance.”

For now, Bleu — much like his character in "Holiday Inn" — is taking his moment to be happy.

"It’s a different experience sitting in front of the television and watching it," he said. "But I think we’re still getting a chance to share the magic of what happens in this room with a lot more people so I think it’s a beautiful thing."

BroadwayHD and Fathom Events will bring "Holiday Inn" to movie theaters nationwide for one night only on November 16.

This article has been updated from its original version.

SEE ALSO: Here are the 17 best live musicals you can watch right now

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Hugh Hefner, who passed away Wednesday evening at 91, is survived by his wife Crystal Hefner.

Hugh Hefner has been romantically linked to many women, but he's only had three wives. Crystal is Hugh's third and final wife.

The pair married back in 2012, when Crystal was 26, and Hugh was 86.

Hugh and Crystal were married for five years, and appeared to have had a happy marriage together during that time. However their road to the altar wasn't so smooth.

The pair became engaged in 2010 and were expected to wed in 2011, but Crystal famously pulled out of the wedding five days before.

But despite the rocky start, Crystal and Hugh seemed happy together, and the model could often be spotted in Hugh's Instagram feed. Hugh's son Cooper also mentioned Crystal in his tribute to his father, posted on Twitter Thursday.

You might not be familiar with the woman behind the media mogul, but besides being a model, she's also a singer, travel blogger, and an advocate for Lyme disease awareness.

Here's everything you need to know about Hugh Hefner's widow:

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SEE ALSO: Here's who will likely inherit Hugh Hefner's millions

Crystal lived in England until she was five.

Crystal was born Crystal Harris, April 29, 1986, in Lake Havasu, Arizona.

While Crystal is a US citizen, her parents are from Britain. Crystal ended up living in Britain after she was born until she was five, when her family moved back to the US, settling down in San Diego, California.

Crystal attended San Diego State University for college, majoring in psychology.

Crystal and Hugh began dating in January 2009.

The pair began dating in 2009, the same year Crystal appeared in Playboy as December's Playmate of the Month.

Crystal was 22 and Hugh was 82 when they started dating.

Hugh was still dating the Shannon twins at the beginning of their courtship.

Hefner was still dating Kristina Shannon and Crystal Shannon (known as the Shannon twins) when he and Crystal first began dating in 2009.

The Shannon twins were Hugh's girlfriends and stars of his popular reality television series, "The Girls Next Door." Crystal joined the reality show, alongside the Shannon twins for its last season.

Soon after the series ended, Crystal became Hugh's main girlfriend, and the Shannon twins were no longer a part of the picture.

Roku skyrocketed Thursday in its first day of trading as a public company.

Shares opened for trading at $15.78, about 13% higher than their $14 initial public offering price. They closed the day at $23.26, up about 66.14%.

Roku was seeking $12 to $14 per share in its IPO and landed at the high end of that range. The company valued at $1.3 billion after the IPO.

Roku went public right as the streaming video war heats up. Disney made waves when it announced it would be creating its own ESPN and Disney movie and TV show streaming services. Netflix is the current host of Disney's movie and TV content.

CBS and FX networks recently upped the profiles of their streaming services. CBS promoted its service by premiering the highly anticipated "Star Trek: Discovery" series on cable but placing a majority of the show behind a paywall on its streaming service. FX began offering an additional, on-demand package for traditional cable customers who want to watch FX content ad-free.

Roku makes hardware and software solutions for the rapidly splintering streaming video sector. The company lets its customers add their streaming services to a single device which allows access to many of these services in one place.

The company is trying to diversify though, and move into the higher-margin business of advertising.

The business does not currently turn a profit. The company has faced some criticism of its dual-class share structure that allows the current executives to retain control of 98% of the company, even after the IPO.

Roku trades under the ticker "ROKU" on the Nasdaq exchange.

Click here to watch Roku trade in real time after its IPO...

SEE ALSO: Netflix is plunging as competition in streaming video heats up

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Bunnies have been a staple of the Playboy brand since it opened its first nightclub in 1960.

In the beginning, the bunnies were simply young women who worked as waitstaff in Playboy's clubs.

From 1960 to 1986, the brand ran 40 nightclubs, according to Atlas Obscura, as well as some intermittent casinos in England and the Bahamas. Prospective bunnies had to audition in order to get the job.

Since then, the term has expanded somewhat. It's even been applied to Hugh Hefner's girlfriends, who lived with him in the Playboy Mansion. Hefner ex-girlfriend Holly Madison's tell-all book is called "Down the Rabbit Hole: Curious Adventures and Cautionary Tales of a Former Playboy Bunny." Make no mistake, though — models who appear in Playboy magazine itself are "playmates," not bunnies.

With that in mind, here's a look into the controversial history of the bunnies:

SEE ALSO: Here's who will most likely inherit Hugh Hefner's millions

The name comes from an unexpected source. As a University of Illinois student, Hefner would sometimes dine at Bunny's Tavern in Urbana, Illinois. Apparently, the name stuck with him.

Source: The Sun

Bunnies working at Playboy Clubs had to abide by some strict rules. They could be immediately fired for dating other employees or guests.

Source: Dangerous Minds

There was also a ban on drinking alcoholic beverages and gum chewing on the job.

Source: Dangerous Minds

Roku made its debut on the Nasdaq exchange on Thursday and investors couldn't get enough. The stock, which was priced at the top of its range at $14 a share, surged on its opening day and finished Thursday's regular trading session up nearly 70% at $23.50.

When asked if he thought the IPO was priced too low, Roku CEO Anthony Wood told Business Insider that he is happy with the process. 

"It's a new type of company. It takes a lot of explanation," Wood said on Thursday.

Roku is best know for selling inexpensive boxes that allow consumers to stream Netflix, YouTube and other streaming video services to their televisions. The company also offers its software to other consumers electronics makers that want to use it as the interface for their smart TVs.  

But Wood said that those little black and purple USB sticks are just the surface of Roku's business model.

"A lot people think of us as a hardware company but the only reason we sell hardware is to acquire customers," Wood told Business Insider on Thursday. "Rokus are so popular and so many people have them — even investors watch TV. And they just mostly know about the consumer facing side of our business."

Instead, Wood wants investors to think of Roku as a "content distribution platform." Part of Roku's revenues come from selling advertisements against content in its digital platform. Content providers give Roku their shows for free because it helps the shows reach a larger audience, Wood said. As a distribution fee, Roku adds in commercials, not unlike what viewers experience on traditional TVs. 

Would Roku ever produce its own original video content?

There are no plans to do so, Wood said, though he noted "never say never."

Platforms versus players

Wood's effort to play down Roku's hardware business is understandable given how competitive the hardware market is. Deep-pocketed competitors like Apple, Amazon and Google all offer rival TV streaming products.

In fact, hardware sales have long accounted for the majority of Roku's revenues. In fiscal year 2015, 84% of revenues were from hardware.

But platform revenues — two-thirds of which come from advertising sales — are swiftly growing. The platform accounted for over 40% of Roku's total revenues in the first half of 2017, up from 26.5% for the same period in 2016. 

And Wood says that most of the company's engineers are software engineers.

Despite Thursday's success on Wall Street, Roku still needs to prove that it can turn a profit for investors. The company saw losses of $24.2 million in the first half of 2017.

Wood didn't provide a timeline for when he expects the company to become profitable. 

"We're a fast growing company. We're investing a lot into our software platform and building out features that are going to result in more gross profit," Wood said. "We understand that companies should be profitable but we're still investing in engineers."

SEE ALSO: Roku just priced its IPO at the top of its range, fetching a $1.3 billion market cap before trading on Thursday

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Streaming device company Roku priced its initial public offering at $14 a share yesterday, giving it a valuation of $1.3 billion. By the end of its first day on the market, the stock had surged nearly 70% to close at $23.50.

As we can see in this chart from Statista, the company's active customer base has grown at a steady pace over the past 3.5 years as more and more people "cut the cord." According to a press release, the company had 15 million active monthly accounts as of June 30, 2017, and its users streamed almost 7 billion hours of content in the first half 2017.

Despite its growth and high valuation, Roku lost $24.2 million in the first half of 2017. A majority of its revenues come from sales of its streaming sticks and boxes, but because the hardware business is such a tough market, the company emphasizes the importance of its advertising based platform business. Revenue from the platform accounted for 40% of Roku's total revenues in the first half of 2017, up 26.5% from the same period last year.

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This is a preview of a research report from BI Intelligence, Business Insider's premium research service. To learn more about BI Intelligence, click here.

What is eSports? History & Rise of Video Game Tournaments

Years ago, eSports was a community of video gamers who would gather at conventions to play Counter Strike, Call of Duty, or League of Legends.

These multiplayer video game competitions would determine League of Legends champions, the greatest shooters in Call of Duty, the cream of the crop of Street Fighter players, the elite Dota 2 competitors, and more.

But today, as the history of eSports continue to unfold, media giants such as ESPN and Turner are broadcasting eSports tournaments and competitions. And in 2014, Amazon acquired Twitch, the live streaming video platform that has been and continues to be the leader in online gaming broadcasts. And YouTube also wanted to jump on the live streaming gaming community with the creation of YouTube Gaming.

eSports Market Growth Booming

To put in perspective how big eSports is becoming, a Google search for "lol" does not produce "laughing out loud" as the top result. Instead, it points to League of Legends, one of the most popular competitive games in existence. The game has spawned a worldwide community called the League of Legends Championship Series, more commonly known as LCS or LOL eSports.

What started as friends gathering in each other's homes to host LAN parties and play into the night has become an official network of pro gaming tournaments and leagues with legitimate teams, some of which are even sponsored and have international reach. Organizations such as Denial, AHQ, and MLG have multiple eSports leagues.

And to really understand the scope of all this, consider that the prize pool for the latest Dota 2 tournament was more than $20 million.

Websites even exist for eSports live scores to let people track the competitions in real time if they are unable to watch. There are even fantasy eSports leagues similar to fantasy football, along with the large and growing scene of eSports betting and gambling.

So it's understandable why traditional media companies would want to capitalize on this growing trend just before it floods into the mainstream. Approximately 300 million people worldwide tune in to eSports today, and that number is growing rapidly. By 2020, that number will be closer to 500 million.

eSports Industry Analysis - The Future of the Competitive Gaming Market

Financial institutions are starting to take notice. Goldman Sachs valued eSports at $500 million in 2016 and expects the market will grow at 22% annually compounded over the next three years into a more than $1 billion opportunity.

And industry statistics are already backing this valuation and demonstrating the potential for massive earnings. To illustrate the market value, market growth, and potential earnings for eSports, consider Swedish media company Modern Times Group's $87 million acquisition of Turtle Entertainment, the holding company for ESL. YouTube has made its biggest eSports investment to date by signing a multiyear broadcasting deal with Faceit to stream the latter's Esports Championship Series. And the NBA will launch its own eSports league in 2018.

Of course, as with any growing phenomenon, the question becomes: How do advertisers capitalize? This is especially tricky for eSports because of its audience demographics, which is young, passionate, male-dominated, and digital-first. They live online and on social media, are avid ad-blockers, and don't watch traditional TV or respond to conventional advertising.

So what will the future of eSports look like? How high can it climb? Could it reach the mainstream popularity of baseball or football? How will advertisers be able to reach an audience that does its best to shield itself from advertising?

Robert Elder, research analyst for BI Intelligence, Business Insider's premium research service, has compiled an unparalleled report on the eSports ecosystem that dissects the growing market for competitive gaming. This comprehensive, industry-defining report contains more than 30 charts and figures that forecast audience growth, average revenue per user, and revenue growth.

Companies and organizations mentioned in the report include: NFL, NBA, English Premier League, La Liga, Bundesliga, NHL, Paris Saint-Germain, Ligue 1, Ligue de Football, Twitch, Amazon, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, ESPN, Electronic Arts, EA Sports, Valve, Riot Games, Activision Blizzard, ESL, Turtle Entertainment, Dreamhack, Modern Times Group, Turner Broadcasting, TBS Network, Vivendi, Canal Plus, Dailymotion, Disney, BAMTech, Intel, Coca Cola, Red Bull, HTC, Mikonet

Here are some eSports industry facts and statistics from the report:

• eSports is a still nascent industry filled with commercial opportunity.
• There are a variety of revenue streams that companies can tap into.
• The market is presently undervalued and has significant room to grow.
• The dynamism of this market distinguishes it from traditional sports.
• The audience is high-value and global, and its numbers are rising.
• Brands can prosper in eSports by following the appropriate game plan.
• Game publishers approach their Esport ecosystems in different ways.  
• Successful esport games are comprised of the same basic ingredients.
• Digital streaming platforms are spearheading the popularity of eSports.
• Legacy media are investing into eSports, and seeing encouraging results.
• Traditional sports franchises have a clear opportunity to seize in eSports.
• Virtual and augmented reality firms also stand to benefit from eSports.  

In full, the report illuminates the business of eSports from four angles:

• The gaming nucleus of eSports, including an overview of popular esport genres and games; the influence of game publishers, and the spectrum of strategies they adopt toward their respective esport scenes; the role of eSports event producers and the tournaments they operate.
• The eSports audience profile, its size, global reach, and demographic, psychographic, and behavioral attributes; the underlying factors driving its growth; why they are an attractive target for brands and broadcasters; and the significant audience and commercial crossover with traditional sports.
• eSports media broadcasters, including digital avant-garde like Twitch and YouTube, newer digital entrants like Facebook and traditional media outlets like Turner’s TBS Network, ESPN, and Canal Plus; their strategies and successes in this space; and the virtual reality opportunity.
• eSports market economics, with a market sizing, growth forecasts, and regional analyses; an evaluation of the eSports spectacle and its revenue generators, some of which are idiosyncratic to this industry; strategic planning for brand marketers, with case studies; and an exploration of the infinite dynamism and immense potential of the eSports economy.

Interested in getting the full report? Here are two ways to access it:

1. Subscribe to an All-Access pass to BI Intelligence and gain immediate access to this report and over 100 other expertly researched reports. As an added bonus, you'll also gain access to all future reports and daily newsletters to ensure you stay ahead of the curve and benefit personally and professionally. >> START A MEMBERSHIP
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To find the most alien environments and otherworldly life imaginable, we just need to look at the oceans that cover more than 70% of our planet.

The upcoming BBC Earth documentary series Blue Planet II will likely provide a breathtaking look at that underwater world — and you can watch an introductory video for the series now (the YouTube video is embedded below).

The prequel video features new music by Radiohead and Hans Zimmer, along with footage that won't be available anywhere else — not even on the episodes of the show.

Check it out:

Pretty stunning, right?

The original "Blue Planet" aired in 2001 and is still one of the most fascinating nature documentaries you can find (it's on our list of the best science documentaries available to watch on Netflix).

But as narrator Sir David Attenborough — the famed voice of "Blue Planet," "Life," and "Planet Earth" — says in the video above: "A generation ago, the series 'The Blue Planet' took us beneath the waves. But now we know so much more ... New science and new technology allow us to voyage further and deeper than ever before."

The journey in this short video alone is impressive, with footage of newly hatched turtles clambering towards the sea, dolphins jumping above waves, and deep-water creatures that exist in places sunlight never penetrates.

"The fact that this TV series is coming out at the moment — I hope — rekindles our love of the oceans and our desire to understand really our relationship to them, it's one of like, this is bigger than you, bigger than you," Radiohead singer Thom Yorke says in another video. In that, he discusses the song playing in the prequel, called "(ocean) bloom," a collaboration between Radiohead and Hans Zimmer.

Blue Planet II will be comprised of seven episodes. There's no official premiere date yet, but it'll air on BBC One in the UK later this year and on BBC America in 2018.

SEE ALSO: The 21 best science movies and shows streaming on Netflix that will make you smarter

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After an 11-year absence from Thursday nights on NBC, “Will & Grace" is back, and the same as ever.

And that’s a good thing.

Rather than change the formula and the characters, creators David Kohan and Max Mutchnick stuck to what worked in 1998. By the end of the premiere, the characters are right back to where they started in the pilot.

Anything different would miss the point of the reunion, which is pretty much just 90s nostalgia. The only difference from the original show is the time, the technology, and the culture (it's a little bit easier to be young and gay).  

I was honestly dreading the return of this show, possibly due to NBC's aggressive marketing campaign. In New York City, the ads followed me everywhere for weeks (maybe months). I'm also not a huge fan of revivals and reunions, knowing there are enough people out there who can create great original shows.

But in a time when “Game of Thrones" isn’t airing new episodes, and there’s not a lot of great fall TV to look forward to, I watched the screeners of the first three episodes of as soon as NBC made them available to journalists. The new episodes of "Will & Grace" are a lot better than I expected, and maintain the humor and spirit that audiences fell in love with 19 years ago. 

The first episode, which is loaded with jokes that are critical of President Trump, starts with a game of Heads Up — a 2017 upgrade that is ironically a very 2012 reference — which quickly establishes where these characters are politically, culturally, and romantically.

The next two episodes, which are more traditional "Will & Grace" episodes based in New York City, also prove that the show's characters and sense of humor stand the test of time. Will, Grace, Jack, and Karen might not be well-adjusted adults (and they likely never will be), but the show itself has adjusted well to 2017. 

These are the best moments from the very Trump heavy—and very funny—return of "Will & Grace."

SEE ALSO: The 27 best TV shows of the past 20 years, according to Rotten Tomatoes users

The show gets political right away.

The political jokes start firing within the first 20 seconds, while the gang plays Heads Up.

“We want to love her, but she makes it impossible,“ Will says. And immediately Grace shouts, “Caitlyn Jenner!” Caitlyn Jenner is open about being a conservative, and openly supported Trump during the election. 

Next, Will says, “Rich. Hostage.” And Grace shouts, “Melania!” But she’s wrong — once Will gives the clue “beret,” she realizes it’s Patty Hearst.

Grace is getting a divorce and living with Will, yet again. And Jack still lives across the hallway. And Karen is still, well, Karen.

This takes the show right back to where it started in the pilot, with Grace moving in with Will, although at the beginning of the episode they say it's "temporary." Jack still lives across the hallway in Will's building, and Karen still works as Grace's (terrible) assistant. 

The show subtly comments on elite white liberals when Will and Grace discuss the fact that they're "woke." Or are they?

Will is writing a congressman who's trying to gut the EPA. Will is not a fan, but admits that he's very attractive.

"You are so woke," Grace says. "I used to be woke. Now I use my p---y hat to sneak candy into the movies." 

That smell of teen spirit and Nickelodeon slime isn't just you — the '90s are cool again. Look no further than the adorably angular Super Nintendo console above for confirmation of that fact.

Nintendo isn't going so far as straight-up rereleasing the original SNES console, but has instead created a new device called the Super NES Classic Edition. The console's out now! So we compiled everything we know about it in our Trapper Keeper — then published our findings below.

SEE ALSO: I've been playing the new $80 Super Nintendo Classic Edition for nearly a week, and it's a delight

DON'T MISS: The new $80 Super Nintendo is about to launch — here's how you can get one

As hinted above, the Super NES Classic Edition is smaller than the original Super Nintendo. Here's the original SNES — the console is much larger than the gamepad.

By contrast, the Super NES Classic Edition is minuscule. The gamepad is far larger than the console, which is adorable and hilarious. The console fits in the palm of your hand.

Don't be fooled by the look of it, though. The SNES Classic Edition doesn't function anything like the original SNES. You can't put cartridges in it, nor can you plug original gamepads into the ports on the front.

Controllers plugged into the front ports of the original Super Nintendo console, and game cartridges went into the slot on top. The blue sliders controlled power and resetting the console, and the gray lever in the middle ejected games. It now seems pretty low-tech.

Sorry, "Sex and the City" fans. 

On Thursday, Sarah Jessica Parker confirmed that there won't be another movie, in an interview with Extra.

Last year, rumors spread that another "Sex and the City" movie was in the works. But this week, the rumors changed tone, and said the project wasn't moving forward because of the demands of "Sex and the City" star Kim Cattrall, who is famous for playing Samantha Jones.

When asked about the rumors of the franchise officially being over, Parker told Extra:

"It's over. We're not doing it. I’m disappointed. We had this beautiful, funny, heartbreaking, joyful, very relatable script and story. It’s not just disappointing that we don’t get to tell the story and have that experience, but more so for that audience that has been so vocal in wanting another movie.”

But this might be a good thing for fans who have been burned before. "Sex and the City 2," which came out in 2010, got a 16% rating from critics on Rotten Tomatoes, and a 43% percent audience rating.

Still, it's the end of an era.

If you need a "Sex and the City" fix, you can watch the entire series on HBO Go or HBO Now. And if Sarah Jessica Parker is what you're looking for, you can watch her on season two of HBO's "Divorce" in 2018. 

SEE ALSO: 'Will & Grace' takes aim at Trump in its return to TV after 11 years

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A new $25 accessory fixes the biggest problem with Nintendo's miniature Super Nintendo: It removes the wires!

The "SN30 2.4G Wireless Controller" from 8bitdo is a near-perfect re-creation of the original Super Nintendo gamepad, except it has no wires. That means no wires to trip over, no wires to snag and pull your console (or TV), and no wires for your dog to chew through. It's a nice nod to modernity on a console that's dedicated to re-creating the early-to-mid-'90s.

More than just convenient, having a wireless game pad for the new Super Nintendo makes it something you can easily leave plugged in to your home entertainment center. As it is, having the new Super Nintendo plugged in means having wires strew across your living room. Without a wireless controller, a wire extends from the included Nintendo game pad in your hand to the tiny console; from the console, an HDMI cable and a micro-USB cable stretch to the display and a power outlet. 

But with the wireless Super Nintendo game pad from 8bitdo, there's no need for the console to sit in the middle of the room — you can securely place it near your TV, with all the wires hidden away, and use the game pad from the comfort of your favorite seat.

Even better: By pressing down on the d-pad and the Select button at the same time, you can access the console's Home menu where you can save your game or switch to a new one — the only way to do that on the standard console otherwise is by pushing the Reset button. Convenient!

For $25, you get one wireless game pad and a receiver (which plugs in to the console). And yes, don't worry, you can get the European version above (with colored buttons) for the North American console — either version of game pad works with the Super NES Classic Edition. 

The SN30 2.4G Wireless Controller is available now on Amazon.

SEE ALSO: I've been playing the new $80 Super Nintendo Classic Edition for nearly a week, and it's a delight

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On Thursday night's "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert," the late-night host finished up his opening monologue by having a little fun with an interview that's been making the rounds on the internet. 

1990s action star Steven Seagal did an interview on "Good Morning Britain" Wednesday, from Moscow, to comment on the recent protests by NFL players during the national anthem. 

Seagal called the protests "outrageous" and "disgusting," and said that he respects the American flag, despite voicing these pro-American views while the Kremlin is visible in the background. 

The interview instantly spread across the globe, with many not just commenting on how unusual the interview was, but Seagal's unique look: a black kimono and jet black goatee, which had many commenting on social media that he looked like a Bond villain ... or how he was once portrayed on "South Park."

Decide for yourself. Here's the interview:

But there was one thing Seagal said that really jumped out for Colbert.

"I myself have risked my life countless times for the American flag," Seagal said.

"And sure, none of that was real," said Colbert. "But then again, neither is his hair."

Colbert felt there was more Seagal could have said on the NFL protest issue, so he took it upon himself to channel the action hero and expand on his thoughts.

Colbert went off-camera for a second, and returned sporting a hastily made black goatee, and small glasses over the glasses he was already wearing. The host then got tossed classic Seagal titles and incorporated them in his "Seagal" disapproval of what the NFL players are doing.

Watch the hilarious bit below (starts at the 3:20 mark). NOTE: Seagal did not star in "Mortal Kombat" (you'll get it after you see the clip):

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"Blade Runner 2049," the sequel 35 years in the making, will finally hit theaters October 6. 

According to most critics, Denis Villeneuve's revamped addition to Ridley Scott's "Blade Runner" is a beautiful masterpiece, and worthy of your two hours and forty-four minutes (the length of the film). One critic even said that Villeneuve has elevated "mainstream moviemaking to high art." 

The film has already received an 87% score on Metacritic, and despite a few critics who feel that nothing can compare to the original "Blade Runner," most agree that "2049" is a "visual feast" that you don't want to miss.

Here's what critics are saying about "Blade Runner 2049":

SEE ALSO: The first reviews of 'Blade Runner 2049' are calling it a 'sci-fi masterpiece'

"Blade Runner 2049" offers audiences a "mesmerizing mindbender" of a film.

"For 'Blade Runner' junkies like myself, who've mainlined five different versions of Ridley Scott's now iconic sci-fi film noir – from the release print to the Director's Cut and the Final Cut (the last two minus that voiceover Scott and Ford hated) – every minute of this mesmerizing mindbender is a visual feast to gorge on."

- Rolling Stone, Peter Travers

Villeneuve delivers a "visually breathtaking" film.

"Villeneuve earns every second of that running time, delivering a visually breathtaking, long-fuse action movie whose unconventional thrills could be described as many things — from tantalizing to tedious — but never 'artificially intelligent.'"

- Variety, Peter Debruge

"Blade Runner 2049" is "mind-blowing."

"That cyberpunk vision remains just as alluring 35 years later, and 'Blade Runner 2049' could have merely roamed those streets with the same chiaroscuro imagery and delivered a satisfying taste of the same familiar drug. Instead, director Denis Villeneuve goes beyond the call of duty, with a lush, often mind-blowing refurbishing of the original sci-fi aesthetic that delves into its complex epistemological themes just as much as it resurrects an enduring spectacle."

- IndieWire, Eric Kohn

Having sold over 13 million copies since launching in March — making nearly $400 million — "PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds" is a bona fide blockbuster.

Even more impressive is that the game technically isn't finished — it's available only through Steam, the world's largest digital game store, as an "Early Access" title. That means you can buy it, and play it, as millions have, but it's not considered a finished product.

At any given point in a day, hundreds of thousands of people are playing "Battlegrounds." It's the No. 1 most-played game on the world's largest game service, Steam, with over 1 million concurrent players:

That's a tremendously important metric. Steam is, by far, the largest game platform, with somewhere in the vicinity of 200 million active users.

The top two spots are usually permanently occupied by "Dota 2," which is free, and "Counter-Strike: Global Offensive," which costs $15 ("Battlegrounds" costs $30). Both of those games are created and operated by Valve, the same company that runs Steam.

The creative director for "Battlegrounds," Brendan "PlayerUnknown" Greene, celebrated a previous Steam achievement on Twitter:

As Greene pointed out, "Battlegrounds" snagged the record for "highest peak player count of any non-Valve game" way back in July. Just a few months later and the game is the highest peak player count of any game on the service. This is especially impressive as the game has only been available since March and, of course, is unfinished, yet it bests the likes of "Grand Theft Auto V" and "Fallout 4" and even Valve's own heavy-hitters.

There's a simple explanation for why it's doing so well: It's an unbelievably good game.

More than just a bizarre name, "PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds" boasts a brilliant concept: 100 people on a massive island, armed with their wits and a scattered arsenal, fighting to the death. Whoever survives at the end of the match wins — and there can only be one.

The future of "Battlegrounds" is even brighter.

The game is expected to reach "1.0" by the end of the year, and it should arrive on the Xbox One by then as well. All of which is to say one thing: Expect to hear a lot more about "Battlegrounds" as the year goes on.

SEE ALSO: A game developer made over $100 million in 3 months — here's how he's spending his wealth

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Darrell Hammond was for years the go-to impressionist for "Saturday Night Live." And his specialty was spot-on performances of presidents.

So when Donald Trump was going up against Hillary Clinton for president last year, and with the election coinciding with season 42 of "SNL," everyone thought Hammond, a former cast member, would be the guy to play Trump.

But in a shocking twist, "SNL" head Lorne Michaels brought in Alec Baldwin to play candidate Trump.

Hammond was suddenly forgotten, as Baldwin's explosive impersonation of Trump wowed audiences and led to him earlier this month winning an Emmy for outstanding supporting actor in a comedy series.

But it turns out Hammond didn't take losing the gig well.

In a revealing profile in The Washington Post published Wednesday, Hammond breaks his silence on how his Trump impersonation was passed over going into one of the most insane elections in modern times.

The comic had been a fixture on "SNL" since 1995, doing memorable impressions of not just Trump but Bill Clinton, Al Gore, and Sean Connery. He was also the show's announcer after its legendary voice, Don Pardo, died in 2014. So it came as a shock to Hammond to learn last September that he wasn't going to play Trump in season 42. And rather than give Hammond the news himself, Michaels had a producer, Steve Higgins, do it.

"I just started crying," Hammond told the paper. "In front of everyone. I couldn't believe it. I was in shock, and I stayed in shock for a long time. Everything wiped out. The brand, me, what I do. Corporate appearances canceled. It was a hell of a shock, and all of it was apparent to me in one breath. That ends me."

Hammond tried to distance himself from one of his most iconic impressions. He stopped doing it in his stand-up appearances. He and his girlfriend watched "Game of Thrones" on election night. His doctors prescribed him a beta blocker to calm his nerves and the drug Antabuse to keep him from drinking, according to The Post.

"I couldn't get on an elevator, couldn't walk through a lobby, couldn't turn on a television, couldn't walk down Broadway, couldn't go to my favorite diner, couldn't go anywhere," Hammond said. "People would literally pull up in their cars on the way to Lincoln Tunnel to say: 'What the hell happened? What in the world? Are you OK?' Like, 'Why would you give that job up?'"

Michaels told The Post that the reason for the change was that he "needed another force, on an acting level, to have the power that Trump was embodying then."

"The Darrell Trump ... it wasn't the Trump that had gotten darker," he said. "It was the Trump from 'The Apprentice.'"

Hammond now spends little time in New York City — when The Post caught up with him, he was doing a 45-minute set for $50,000 at a party held by Clinton fundraisers in Utah — though he recently came back to appear in Michael Moore's Broadway show, "The Terms of My Surrender." Yes, he does a little Trump while on stage.

Hammond said he didn't resent Baldwin at all. Baldwin, who addresses his Trump impersonation less and less while doing press these days, did send an email to The Post about the Hammond situation.

"I love and admire Darrell and I'm sorry that he is unhappy about how it all transpired," Baldwin wrote. "PS ... He can have the thing back whenever he likes, as far as I'm concerned."

Here's Hammond as Trump in a 2004 skit that also features the real Trump:

SEE ALSO: Stephen Colbert hilariously spoofs the viral Steven Seagal interview about NFL protests

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Jennifer Bassey applied to be a Playboy bunny the very first week the original Playboy Club opened, in Chicago in 1960.

The Club was an integral part of what would become the Playboy empire, founded by Hugh Hefner, who died Wednesday at 91 years old. A bunny was a waitress or worker in the Club, though eventually the role evolved somewhat.

The hiring process was simple — or impossible, depending on your perspective.

"You put on an outfit and you walk around and then they hire you — if you look good," she told me when we spoke over the phone.

Bassey, now 75, is an actress best known for playing Marian Colby on the soap opera "All My Children" for over 30 years. She spent about two years at the Playboy Club, working in the Penthouse Room, where she would sit on a piano and sing.

Bassey recalled "grueling" hours at the Club — the bunnies would start work around 6 p.m. and wouldn't go home until about 4 a.m. Their feet would bleed through their fishnet stockings.

Perhaps worst of all, customers would drink too much and get out of control.

So the bunnies made a pact, Bassey remembered: If a man tried to grab a bunny, they'd "accidentally" spill a few creme de menthe cocktails on him. It was the only drink you you couldn't get out of clothes, Bassey said: "If you dropped creme de menthe on a man's suit, it was destroyed."

But Bassey said she made a "fortune," estimating that in an average week, she'd make $1,000 — or about $8,400 today. As for salary? Bassey said there was none. In fact, you had to rent your own costume. Bassey put the bulk of her tip money toward her subsequent acting education in London.

Though it's clear that bunnies didn't earn much in wages, there are varying accounts of their compensation. In Gloria Steinem's 1963 expose on the life of a Playboy bunny in New York City, she says that because of minimum-wage laws, "we must get a salary of $50 a week." And an old advertisement for Playboy bunnies, published by BuzzFeed, asserts that "a typical Chicago bunny may, for example, earn an average of $200 a week."

Bassey said that much of her time as a bunny is now a "blur." But she sees the experience as instructive, and at least financially empowering.

She said: "I'm not ashamed of anything I did."

And the job afforded Bassey a surprising amount of leadership opportunity — Bassey said there were no bouncers or official managers in the Penthouse room, so she and the other bunnies were effectively in charge. "It was like the Wild West," she said.

SEE ALSO: A day in the life of a Playboy bunny, and how the controversial job has changed over 60 years

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Oprah Winfrey on Thursday fueled speculation that she could challenge President Donald Trump in the 2020 presidential election, tweeting out a link to a New York Post column that called her "Democrats' best hope for 2020."

"@jpodhoretz Thanks for your VOTE of confidence!" she tweeted.

The column, by conservative writer John Podhoretz, lauded Winfrey for her debut segment as a special correspondent for CBS' "60 Minutes," in which she sat down with a panel of Trump critics and supporters in Michigan.

Winfrey probed the participants on issues like the Trump-Russia investigations, Trump's comments after a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, and the ban Trump recently announced on transgender military service members.

The segment, according to Podhoretz, showed how deftly Winfrey can bridge political and cultural divides, "finding a tone appropriate for the moment without being heavy-handed."

"If any figure in the United States bears watching over the next couple of years as our political culture continues the radical transformation that led to the election of Donald Trump, it's Oprah," Podhoretz wrote. "I believe she's uniquely positioned, should she wish to commit herself, to seek the Democratic nomination for president and challenge Trump in 2020."

It's hardly the first time Oprah's presidential aspirations have prompted speculation — and she has offered up mixed signals.

During an interview with The Hollywood Reporter in June, Winfrey shot down any notion that she would make a White House bid, vowing, "I will never run for public office."

Yet just months earlier, in March, Winfrey conceded in a Bloomberg TV interview that Trump's election had made her think differently about her own prospective chances.

When asked by Bloomberg's David Rubenstein about her plans for 2020, she said, " I never considered the question even a possibility." Yet when Rubenstein noted that "it's clear you don't need government experience to be elected president of the United States," Winfrey agreed.

"That's what I thought," she said. "I thought, 'Oh, gee, I don't have the experience, I don't know enough.' And now I'm thinking, 'Oh.'"

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There was a time when Tom Cruise's new movie, "American Made," was a lot more controversial. 

The satirical look at the life of Barry Seal, who made a lucrative career being a cocaine and gun runner in the 1980s, once featured a scene where Bill Clinton is found in a Arkansas strip club getting a lap dance.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, a scene cut before shooting had Seal, played by Cruise, coming up with an idea to enlist Clinton, then the governor of Arkansas, in a CIA-backed scheme. The scene would have been set in a strip club and featured an actor playing young Clinton getting a lap dance.

Seal's operation of drug running for the Medellín cartel and moving guns and money for the CIA was based in Mena, Arkansas, where he had a large private airfield. During this time, Clinton was governor of the state.

Clinton does not get off scot-free in the movie. There is a scene in which Seal is arrested by numerous law enforcement branches but suddenly is let off the hook when Clinton calls the district attorney's office. But Clinton is not portrayed by an actor, and we never hear the Clinton character on the phone.

A source told THR the Clinton strip club scene was taken out to keep the movie from being political.

Business Insider contacted the production company behind the movie, Cross Creek Pictures, for comment but did not get an immediate response.

Universal opens "American Made" in theaters on Friday. 

SEE ALSO: Darrell Hammond breaks his silence about losing his "SNL" Trump to Alec Baldwin

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