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US prosecutors say 'Game of Thrones' hacker who breached HBO was an Iranian national with ties to the military

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Game of thrones

  • US prosecutors have charged an Iran-based hacker with stealing content from HBO, including unaired episodes of "Game of Thrones," according to an indictment obtained by Reuters.
  • Bezhad Mesri, the hacker known as "Skote Vahshat," has been charged with hacking into and stealing episodes, scripts, and plot summaries from HBO, between May and August of this year. 
  • The indictment describes Mesri as having previously worked on behalf of the Iranian military. 

 

US prosecutors have charged an Iran-based hacker with penetrating the network of cable TV provider HBO and stealing episodes and plot summaries for unaired programs including “Game of Thrones,” and then threatening to release the data unless he was paid $6 million.

The cyber attack surfaced over the summer as HBO was running a new season of “Game of Thrones,” and as the cable network’s parent Time Warner sought regulatory approval to sell itself to AT&T.

A sealed indictment released on Tuesday by the US Attorney’s office in Manhattan charges Behzad Mesri, also known as “Skote Vahshat,” with hacking into HBO from May to August and stealing unaired episodes of programs including “Ballers,” “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” and “The Deuce.”

Mesri also stole scripts and plot summaries for programs including “Game of Thrones,” according to the indictment.

The indictment describes Mesri as a “self-professed expert” in hacking who had worked on behalf of Iran’s military to attack military systems, nuclear software systems, and Israeli infrastructure. It also alleges that he helped an Iranian hacking group, Turk Black Hat Security Team, deface hundreds of websites in the United States and other countries.

Reuters was unable to reach Mesri for comment. A spokesman with the US Attorney’s Office said that Mesri had not been arrested, but declined to comment on the suspect’s whereabouts.

HBO gave the following statement to Business Insider:

“HBO has confirmed in the past that we were working with law enforcement from the early stages of the cyber incident. As far as the criminal case is concerned, we prefer to leave any comments to the US Attorney’s Office.”

SEE ALSO: The HBO hackers stole 'thousands' of internal company documents, and 7 times as much data as the Sony attack

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NOW WATCH: These realistic animations will mess with your mind


Warner Bros. could reportedly lose up to around $100 million on 'Justice League' (TWX)

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Justice League Warner Bros

  • Warner Bros. is looking at a loss on "Justice League" that could near $100 million, according to Forbes.
  • The total cost of the movie was around $600 million — counting production, marketing, and other fees and residual deals.
  • The studio is estimated to only take home an estimated $545 million.


In the wake of negative reviews and a poor opening weekend at the box office, the next sad chapter in the life of “Justice League” is seeing how much Warner Bros. could lose on the mega-blockbuster.

Forbes did a deep dive into the numbers, and it doesn’t look good. The movie could lose in the ballpark of $50 million to $100 million, according to Forbes.

Taking the widely reported cost of the movie ($300 million), plus the $150 million to market it, and adding the fees, talent residuals, and talent participation costs, the movie needs to come around the $600 million global mark to break even.

Forbes estimated the movie’s worldwide theatrical lifetime gross will be around $635 million. That would make it the lowest-grossing movie of the studio's DC films released to date.

That doesn't sound bad on its face, but things get worse when you break it down.

Of that figure, Forbes estimated the studio will get to keep 52% of the domestic tally and 38% of the foreign coin. That comes out to $275 million total. Add global home entertainment, video on demand (VOD), online sales (estimated at $170 million), and global TV deals ($100 million), the movie’s total revenue will be around $545 million going to the studio.

Deduct the $600 million costs and the movie is looking at a $55 million loss.

But it doesn't stop there, since the production and marketing costs have already been spent, and the revenue from home video and TV takes years to recoup. To take this into consideration, Forbes added another $40 million to the loss.

That puts the movie at a total of $95 million in the red for “Justice League."

None of this counts merchandising, which will help, but in no way get the movie out of the red.

Business Insider contacted Warner Bros. for comment but did not get an immediate response.

SEE ALSO: 4 reasons "Justice League" has flopped at the box office

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NOW WATCH: A legal loophole prevents most workplace sexual-harassment cases from seeing the light of day — here's how to close it

Charlie Rose fired from CBS and PBS following sexual-misconduct allegations

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Charlie Rose.

  • CBS News and PBS News fired the prominent journalist and TV host Charlie Rose a day after several women accused Rose of making unwanted sexual advances.
  • CBS called the behavior described in the allegations against Rose "extremely disturbing and intolerable" and said "there is absolutely nothing more important ... than ensuring a safe, professional workplace."
  • PBS said it had terminated its relationship with Rose and would cancel distribution of his programs. 


CBS News and PBS on Tuesday severed ties with the prominent journalist and TV host Charlie Rose, a day after several women accused Rose of making unwanted sexual advances, including groping, explicit phone calls, and displays of nudity.

Eight women who either worked for Rose or interviewed for positions at the "Charlie Rose" show between the late 1990s and 2011 described to The Washington Post instances of Rose engaging in lewd and inappropriate behavior toward them.

CBS, PBS, and Bloomberg all suspended Rose after the publication of The Post's report.

On Tuesday afternoon, CBS announced it had fired Rose, who had been a cohost of the network's morning show, "CBS This Morning," for five years and was a contributing correspondent for "60 Minutes."

In an internal memo sent to staffers, CBS News President David Rhodes called the behavior described in allegations against Rose "extremely disturbing and intolerable."

"Despite Charlie's important journalistic contribution to our news division, there is absolutely nothing more important, in this or any organization, than ensuring a safe, professional workplace," Rhodes said. "We need to be such a place."

Later Tuesday, PBS said it would terminate its relationship with Rose and cancel distribution of his programs.

"PBS expects all the producers we work with to provide a workplace where people feel safe and are treated with dignity and respect," the network said in a statement

Three other women also told Business Insider of their experiences while interning for Rose, or seeking to work for him, in 2005, 2008, and 2010. One said Rose touched her legs inappropriately as he was dropping her off at a dormitory in New York City and then on a separate occasion when she sought career advice invited her to his hotel room late in the evening.

Another says he invited her to dinner to discuss career opportunities, had her meet him at his townhouse, and greeted her at the door in a bathrobe and invited her into his home.

A third woman also says Rose greeted her at the door in a bathrobe and invited her in while she was delivering research to his apartment as an intern. She said she declined.

Rose's "CBS This Morning" cohosts expressed shock and dismay at the allegations during Tuesday's show.

"There is no excuse for this alleged behavior," Norah O'Donnell said. "It is systematic and pervasive, and I've been doing a lot of listening, and I'm going to continue to do that. This I know is true: Women cannot achieve equality in the workplace or in society until there is a reckoning and a taking of responsibility."

Gayle King said she had gotten less than two hours of sleep the night before.

"We are all rocked by this," King said. "I want to echo what Norah said: I really applaud the women that speak up despite the friendship. He doesn't get a pass, because I can't stop thinking about the anguish of these women, what happened to their dignity, what happened to their bodies, what happened maybe to even their careers."

In a statement on Monday, Rose apologized for what he called "inappropriate behavior" and said he had believed all his sexual encounters were consensual.

"I am greatly embarrassed," Rose said. "I have behaved insensitively at times, and I accept responsibility for that, though I do not believe that all of these allegations are accurate. I always felt that I was pursuing shared feelings, even though I now realize I was mistaken."

Rachael Levy contributed to this report.

SEE ALSO: One of Charlie Rose's accusers explains why she decided to be named when so many other women are afraid to come forward

SEE ALSO: Charlie Rose, a TV icon, is accused of improper behavior by former interns

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NOW WATCH: White House photographer Pete Souza tells the story behind one of Obama's most iconic photographs visiting injured veterans

Arby's sent sandwiches and a puppy to its biggest troll, and it shows why its transformation has been so successful

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brendan kelly nihilist arbys

This story was originally published on July 19, 2017.

On January 14, 2015, a Twitter account named Nihilist Arby's was born, and it didn't take long for Arby's corporate office to notice.

With a double beef and cheese as its avatar, the angst-ridden account confronted followers with a negation of everything they held dear in life and offered they fill that void with a sandwich and curly fries.

By mid-February, Nihilist Arby's had 13,000 followers and, as Adweek noted, a significantly better engagement rate than the real Arby's account, which had nearly 400,000 followers.

At the same time, Arby's was receiving praise in the press and on Twitter for acknowledging years of being the butt of "The Daily Show" host Jon Stewart's jokes with a clever joke of its own on the day Stewart announced he would retire from the show that year. A year earlier, an Arby's tweet reacting to the musician Pharrell Williams' Arby's-logo-esque hat worn in a Grammys performance went viral.

Arby's was now a "cool" brand on Twitter. If it overreacted to Nihilist Arby's, no matter how dark or raunchy the tweets got, it would risk becoming just another lame corporate account. The Arby's team let it be.

Then, in August, Adweek revealed that the man behind the account was Brendan Kelly, a longtime punk-band frontman from Chicago with a day job in advertising.

Arby's CEO Paul Brown and his marketing team read the piece.

"We had discussions around what do we do with that? And we said, 'Well, one, even if we wanted to do something, we couldn't,'" Brown told Business Insider. "But we also had a little fun with him, too."

Arby's would soon make peace with its nihilist counterpart, flying an executive out to meet Kelly with a bag of food and a puppy.

The inanity of corporate Twitter

Kelly is well-known in the punk scene for his bands the Lawrence Arms, the Falcon, and the Wandering Birds, and he has been touring since he was a teenager in the '90s.

About six years ago, when crossing the country in a packed van for months at a time lost its appeal, he got into the more stable world of advertising. He would still record and play music, just a bit less frequently. And while working as a copywriter wasn't exactly punk, it was still a creative outlet.

In January 2015, Kelly was working at the ad agency FCB when he found himself in a conference room with a brand executive pitching Twitter strategy to the head of social media.

"It just seemed so impossible and stupid," Kelly told Business Insider.

He imagined a scenario where someone in charge of a brand's Twitter account lacked the executive's naive enthusiasm and instead had a "red pill" experience, a reference to the pill in "The Matrix" that frees people from an artificial world. This social-media employee would be "exposed to how f---ing horrendously tragic life actually is — you know, how meaningless everything is," Kelly said, laughing.

A phrase that popped into his head was "Nihilist Arby's," which had less to do with anything specific about Arby's and more with how goofy it sounded. Kelly decided he would make this hypothetical account real, just to amuse himself.

He was going to give it a cleverer name when he decided to follow advice that helped guide his approach to his job. A mentor of his told him that effective advertising used extremes to grab potential customers' attention.

"It's got to be a little bit stupid," he said this mentor told him.

After nearly five months of running the increasingly popular account, Kelly thought it would be fun to bring even more attention to it. Using his showmanship and marketing skills, he produced a minute-and-a-half video that opened with him saying, "I was born out of an infinite blackness." A couple of his Wandering Birds songs provide the soundtrack.

He sent the video from his Nihilist Arby's Gmail account to David Anthony, the music editor at The AV Club, The Onion's nonsatirical site. (Kelly now works for The Onion's ad team, Onion Labs.) Anthony immediately recognized Kelly in the video and wrote it up, bringing more exposure to Kelly's parody account as well as his bands.

But Anthony didn't conclude whether Kelly was the creator of Nihilist Arby's or had just collaborated on this weird video.

That August, Christopher Heine at Adweek reached out to the same Gmail account that contacted The AV Club. He asked if Kelly was the one behind it and whether he'd like to talk about it.

"So at that point I was like, yeah, I'm ready to tell people, I don't care," Kelly said.

On August 13, Heine published a profile of Kelly that ran across three pages in the print edition of Adweek. It included praise from ad creatives about how Kelly demonstrated genuinely sharp insight into what young people look for on social media. Kelly thought it made him look great.

"I almost got fired for that, actually," he said.

Even though FCB was not mentioned in the article, managers at the agency were afraid Kelly's hijinks could compromise some of their accounts. Kelly said his boss gave him a warning: "You cannot talk about this at all. I don't want to hear the word 'Arby's' in this office."

As his job hung in the balance because of the profile, he began receiving interesting job offers from other agencies for the same reason.

Arby's makes peace

Meanwhile, at Arby's headquarters in Sandy Springs, Georgia, Brown and his leadership team discussed the Adweek profile. Brown said it could be difficult as a CEO to see your company be the subject of harsh jokes, but that the success of playfully sparring with Stewart earlier that year was a teaching moment.

"Do you write a cease-and-desist letter?" Brown said. "The way I look at it is what kind of person do you want to be a friend with? You don't want to be a friend with that kind of a person who's defensive and you can't joke around."

Six days after the Adweek story, Kelly was at FCB's offices in Chicago's John Hancock Center preparing to leave early for a secret job interview he'd landed as a result of that profile. Before he could leave, he got a call around 3:30 from the building's front desk letting him know that a team from Arby's was there to see him.

Kelly said the thought that the team was there to confront him never crossed his mind. But some of his coworkers he told on his way out came down to the lobby with him, "inspired by the promise of free food, the curiosity surrounding my weirdly popular Twitter account, and, finally, because the whole thing had become such a weirdly forbidden topic in the office," Kelly said.

Christopher Fuller, Arby's senior vice president of communications, was there with several members of Arby's marketing team, a bag full of sandwiches, and a black Labrador puppy they had borrowed from a friend. They greeted Kelly and handed him a handwritten note on Arby's stationery: "Cheer up, buddy. You live in a world with puppies ... and sandwiches."

Kelly later posted a photo of the exchange on his personal Twitter account, expressing sincere gratitude at the gesture.

"I don't want to give away the mystique surrounding the man behind the tweets," Fuller told Business Insider "I'll just say his personal demeanor is very different from his online disposition. He seemed like an all-around nice guy."

Kelly got on the ground with the dog and had a pleasant chat with the Arby's team, but he still needed to rush out of there for his job interview disguised as a doctor's appointment.

"It's kind of hard to have regrets about a stupid parody Twitter account about the futility of corporate Twitter, but I do regret that not going a little more smoothly," Kelly said of the meeting with the Arby's team. "But I really would have liked to have hung out a little more with those people and talked to them." He said he wanted to get more insight into how they approach handling their brand and what they thought when they discovered his account.

The bag of sandwiches was a gift to Kelly and his coworkers, but because anything related to Nihilist Arby's was off-limits in the office upstairs, he couldn't even send one of his friends up with the food. He grabbed one of the loaded Italian subs — a sandwich name that could be used to describe him a lot of the time, he said — and left the rest with a coworker who said he'd give the rest to homeless people. ("I don't know if that happened or not, but he seemed pretty motivated, I guess," Kelly said.)

The interview didn't lead to anything, but Kelly can now be open about his Nihilist Arby's account at his job at The Onion, and he even sells Nihilist Arby's merch.

The account now has nearly 300,000 followers, and his tweets get thousands of interactions. Arby's marketing team still keeps an eye on it.

"We've cringed, laughed, and maybe even cried just a little," Fuller said.

Kelly is still an Arby's fan, no matter how caustic his parody account gets.

"I try to mix it up a little bit," he said of his orders. "But I like a good Beef and Cheddar. I like that Loaded Italian. I like the potato cakes quite a bit."

We told him we ate some of the potato cakes the day before.

"That's about where I'm at," he said.

SEE ALSO: The Arby's CEO asked 1,000 US employees the same question before his hugely successful brand turnaround

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NOW WATCH: Michael Lewis on how to deal with bosses and control your own career

The eSports competitive video gaming market continues to grow revenues & attract investors

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eSports Advertising and Sponsorships

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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How a Netflix documentary got inside New York City's intensely insular Hasidic community

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One of Us Netflix

  • "One of Us" is a Netflix documentary that gives a rare look inside New York City's insular Hasidic community.
  • Directors Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady spent three years making it.
  • Two of the three people they spotlight in the movie said they suffered sexual or physical abuse before leaving the community.
  • Since the movie became available on Netflix in late October, young people within the community are watching it, the filmmakers said.


Documentary filmmakers Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady have spent their careers getting access to places most believed were impossible to crack.

For their Oscar-nominated doc “Jesus Camp” (2006), they looked at a summer camp where kids were convinced that they had "prophetic gifts." In "The Boys of Baraka" (2005), they chronicled the journey of 12 boys from Baltimore’s most violent neighborhoods who attended a boarding school in rural Kenya to get a chance at an education they couldn't receive back home.

So when Netflix caught wind that Ewing and Grady were making a movie about people trying to separate from New York City’s insular Hasidic community, it jumped at the chance to be involved.

“We were working under the radar for a year; we didn’t need to be pitching it,” Ewing told Business Insider.

The two had received foundation money to start the movie, which would go on to be titled "One of Us." They were at the very beginning stages of trying to gain trust with people in the community, and Netflix saw the potential and wanted in.

Finding people who didn't want to be found

“We were very reluctant because we felt we hadn’t landed our final subjects,” Ewing said of talking to Netflix. “When they wanted to come on board we told them the people on the footage you saw probably aren’t going to be in the movie, we need a couple of years to make this. They were willing to do it.”

one of us netflix“One of Us” is a striking movie that looks at the lives of three Hasidic Jews who make the tough choice to leave the community. Twenty-something Luzer breaks ties with his entire family to pursue acting; Ari leaves while still suffering the trauma of alleged sexual abuse while in the community (which led to substance abuse); and Etty, the movie’s standout, leaves her children behind after saying she's had enough of the physical abuse from the man she was forced to marry at 19.

Ewing and Grady eventually chose to focus on these subjects after meeting them at the organization Footsteps, a support group for former Hasidic Jews whom the filmmakers found out about.

“The Hasidic community was a topic Heidi and I were both very interested in but never thought there was a point of access because they have their own community and have their own language, literally,” Grady said. “It seemed out of the cards. But then we learned about Footsteps. They had been approached many, many times by many filmmakers, but we managed to persuade them to at least let us meet their membership and let us make our pitch. It’s essentially the same process that we always have had.”

But the get-to-know-you process was longer than anything they had gone through before with a reluctant group. It took the filmmakers six months of talking to the leaders behind Footsteps, but they were finally allowed to come to meetings without cameras three years ago. It then took another six months for them to find their three subjects.

“We really wanted to capture a transition,” Ewing said. “Some people we didn’t go forward with because they were too fragile and couldn’t endure being followed by us. Others were too far out in the world already.”

The three they eventually went with were a mix of both. Etty and Ari were literally a week or two from deciding to leave the community when the filmmakers met them at Footsteps. And Luzer had been out for over a year, so he could show how people adapt when they are more removed.

The sudden change of heart by one of the movie's most compelling characters

But the backbone of the movie is Etty.

At first she refused to have her face shown on camera, which led to a challenge Ewing and Grady had never encountered before, as they had never allowed someone in their films who didn’t agree to be shown. Yet the stories of women being abused within the Hasidic community were coming up more and more as the filmmakers got deeper into making the movie, they said. And they knew they needed to have a woman featured who would speak about it.

Rachel Grady and Heidi Ewing Netflix“We just struggled creatively how we were going to show her,” Grady said. “Animate her? Shoot her from behind? It was a horrible puzzle.”

The filmmakers decided to animate the Etty footage with a chalk-outline look. Tests were done with footage to get it right. But then halfway through filming Etty decided to let Ewing and Grady show her face.

“She became a different person at one point of shooting,” Ewing said. “She shed a skin and someone else was there. As a filmmaker, this is one of those rare moments.”

The drama of the Etty reveal is shown in the movie. Her storyline begins with the viewer only seeing the back of her head, while she describes disturbing moments in her past. Then, halfway through the movie, there’s a moment when Etty turns and shows her face on camera.

It's the movie's most striking moment that shows Etty taking that first step into starting a new life for herself.

Since filming the movie, none of the three main subjects have returned to the community, Ewing and Grady said. Lozer has been acting onstage and in films, Ari has gotten sober after a stint in rehab, and Etty is going to community college and an educational trust fund has been started to get her to a four-year college.

Why Netflix's worldwide reach has mattered for the documentary

Though Ewing and Grady had almost no contact from leaders inside the Hasidic community while making the movie — though after two years, a Rabbi who is friends with Ari agreed to be interviewed on camera — word about the movie has grown since “One of Us” became available on Netflix in late October.

“A lot of young people are watching it on their iPhones in the bathroom,” Ewing said. “I was in a shop the other day and there were a group of Israeli girls there and they showed me their WhatsApp group in Hebrew that they were having with their conservative family members about the movie.”

The filmmakers said being involved with Netflix turned the movie from just another powerful documentary that people hear about (but isn't playing at a nearby theater), to one that can cause change because it’s so easily available to those who need to see it.

“Everywhere there is a Hasidic community there happens to be Netflix available: the United States, England, Canada, and Israel. We passed on a traditional theatrical release to have this movie drop globally on the same day.”

SEE ALSO: 4 reasons "Justice League" has flopped at the box office

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NOW WATCH: Sean Astin describes one thing you probably never knew about 'The Goonies'

Pixar chief John Lasseter confirms leave of absence as accusations break of him inappropriately 'grabbing, kissing'

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John Lasseter Pixar

  • Disney Animation head John Lasseter is taking a leave of absence from Pixar because of "missteps," he wrote in a memo to Disney employees.
  • There are reported allegations of misconduct by Lasseter including "grabbing, kissing, making comments about physical attributes."


Disney Animation head John Lasseter is taking a leave of absence from Disney/Pixar due to "missteps," according to an internal memo that was sent to staff on Tuesday, as allegations of his inappropriate conduct broke.

"It’s never easy to face your missteps, but it’s the only way to learn from them," Lasseter wrote in the memo first obtained by The Hollywood Reporter. Business Insider has since received the memo.

Though Lasseter does not specify the missteps in his memo, THR published another story shortly after news of Lasseter's leave of absence broke on Tuesday. In THR's investigative report, Lasseter is accused of behavior including “grabbing, kissing, making comments about physical attributes." The story also cited sources who said actress Rashida Jones, who co-wrote the upcoming "Toy Story 4," left the project early because Lasseter "made an unwanted advance."

"I’ve been giving a lot of thought to the leader I am today compared to the mentor, advocate and champion I want to be," Lasseter went on to write in the memo. "It’s been brought to my attention that I have made some of you feel disrespected or uncomfortable. That was never my intent. Collectively, you mean the world to me, and I deeply apologize if I have let you down."

Lasseter added in the memo that he's taking a six-month sabbatical in the hopes it will give him "the opportunity to start taking better care of myself, to recharge and be inspired, and ultimately return with the insight and perspective I need to be the leader you deserve."

John Lasseter with Buzz and Woody

Lasseter is best known as a driving force of Pixar, and was the director on "Toy Story" 1 and 2, "Cars" 1 and 2, and "A Bug's Life."

In 2006, after Disney purchased Pixar, Lasseter became chief creative officer at Pixar and Walt Disney Animation Studios. Since then, both animation studios have flourished, releasing such recent Oscar winners as "Inside Out" and "Zootopia."

Pixar is releasing its newest movie "Coco" on Thanksgiving.

"We are committed to maintaining an environment in which all employees are respected and empowered to do their best work," a Disney spokesperson wrote in a statement to Business Insider. "We appreciate John’s candor and sincere apology and fully support his sabbatical."

Here is Lasseter's complete memo:

I have always wanted our animation studios to be places where creators can explore their vision with the support and collaboration of other gifted animators and storytellers. This kind of creative culture takes constant vigilance to maintain. It’s built on trust and respect, and it becomes fragile if any members of the team don’t feel valued. As a leader, it’s my responsibility to ensure that doesn’t happen; and I now believe I have been falling short in this regard.

I’ve recently had a number of difficult conversations that have been very painful for me. It’s never easy to face your missteps, but it’s the only way to learn from them. As a result, I’ve been giving a lot of thought to the leader I am today compared to the mentor, advocate and champion I want to be. It’s been brought to my attention that I have made some of you feel disrespected or uncomfortable. That was never my intent. Collectively, you mean the world to me, and I deeply apologize if I have let you down. I especially want to apologize to anyone who has ever been on the receiving end of an unwanted hug or any other gesture they felt crossed the line in any way, shape, or form. No matter how benign my intent, everyone has the right to set their own boundaries and have them respected.

In my conversations with Disney, we are united in our commitment to always treat any concerns you have with the seriousness they deserve, and to address them in an appropriate manner. We also share a desire to reinforce the vibrant, respectful culture that has been the foundation of our studios’ success since the beginning. And we agree the first step in that direction is for me to take some time away to reflect on how to move forward from here. As hard as it is for me to step away from a job I am so passionate about and a team I hold in the highest regard, not just as artists but as people, I know it’s the best thing for all of us right now. My hope is that a six-month sabbatical will give me the opportunity to start taking better care of myself, to recharge and be inspired, and ultimately return with the insight and perspective I need to be the leader you deserve.

I’m immensely proud of this team, and I know you will continue to wow the world in my absence. I wish you all a wonderful holiday season and look forward to working together again in the new year.

John

SEE ALSO: Warner Bros. could reportedly lose up to $100 million on "Justice League"

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Here's what Melissa Joan Hart — who played Clarissa and Sabrina the Teenage Witch — is doing today

Even if you're a huge 'Star Wars' fan, you probably shouldn't buy the new 'Star Wars' game (EA)

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There's one stand-out feature of "Star Wars: Battlefront II:" It's ridiculously gorgeous.

Star Wars Battlefront 2

The new game, which is available for Microsoft's Xbox One, Sony's PlayStation 4, and Windows PCs, is full of lovingly detailed scenes like the one above. Its visually stunning throughout, from its brief single-player campaign to its large-scale online multiplayer mode. 

Unfortunately, that's about the only good thing about "Battlefront 2."

SEE ALSO: The new 'Star Wars' game is embroiled in controversy, and fans are furious — here's what's going on

WARNING: Spoilers ahead!

This review will include important details about "Star Wars Battlefront II's" story and gameplay. So, if you don't want to see or read any spoilers, turn back!

Review note: I played a review copy of "Battlefront II" provided by game publisher Electronic Arts on a PlayStation 4 Pro in 4K resolution. All images in this review were captured on that device.



"Battlefront II" is a middling first-person shooter game wrapped in expensive clothing.

The first few times I shot a gun in "Battlefront II," it was cool. It made the characteristic "Star Wars" gun noise. The corresponding Storm Trooper or Rebel soldier reacted accordingly. 

The thousands of times after that were far less satisfying.

That's because the act of shooting in "Battlefront II" is terribly boring. There just aren’t a lot of weapons to choose from, and the game doesn’t allow you to customize the ones it does include.

What's more, there's an almost carnival game-like feeling to shooting weapons in "Battlefront II." For one thing, it generally doesn't seem to matter where on their bodies you hit your enemies. For another, those enemies repeatedly tend to come out of obvious "monster closets," areas of the game that open to release bad guys when you when you trip a particular trigger.

Worse than all that, though, is the enemy encounters aren't particularly exciting. The game has only a limited number of different types of enemies, and they aren't very smart. That may be an intentional reflection of how the movies portray Storm Troopers. But even if it is, it's just not very fun.



The single-player story is a mess, even by video game standards.

Compared with the original "Battlefront", "Battlefront II" has one big new feature: a single-player story mode.

The story focuses on Iden Versio, an Imperial Special Forces officer. In its pre-launch marketing of the game, Electronic Arts, "Battlefront II's publisher," has been billing Versio as a loyal member of the Bad Guys. 

Versio's story begins when she sees the second Death Star explode — as depicted in "Star Wars: Episode VI — Return of the Jedi." That sends her on a mission of revenge — or so we're led to believe, anyway. What actually happens is she soon realizes she's fighting for the wrong side and abruptly changes her allegiances.

The problem is that her about-face is literally unbelievable. We're supposed to just swallow the idea that even though Versio is an elite forces commander whose father reported directly to the leaders of the Imperial Army, she didn't realize she was fighting for the Bad Guys until after the fall of the Empire.  

Versio's abrupt switch might have been OK if it had been handled well. But it's not. Instead, her "turning point" moment is so poorly executed it's impossible to believe. One minute she's blindly following orders, and the next minute she's turning on long-time colleagues and murdering dozens of former comrades. 

It's the kind of deus ex machina nonsense that video games are notorious for, but how it's handled in "Battlefront 2" is among the worst cases I've seen.



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

North Korean defector reportedly enjoys watching CBS' CSI and American movies

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  • The North Korean defector who made a dramatic escape under a hail of gunfire is in stable condition.
  • He is reportedly 24-years-old and is identified by his surname: "Oh."
  • Oh is said to enjoy watching American media, including CBS' "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation" and the action movie "The Transporter."


The North Korean soldier whose harrowing escape to South Korea was caught on camera, is reportedly in stable condition and conversed with medical staff at the hospital, several South Korean media outlets reported Tuesday.

"He is fine," lead surgeon Lee Cook-Jung said of the soldier, who was revealed to be 24-years-old and is identified by his surname, "Oh," according to the Korean Herald and Dong-a Ilbo. "The patient is not going to die."

Lee said Oh made light conversation and talked about South Korean music, The Ilbo reported. Oh listened to several versions of a song from Korean pop music group "Girls' Generation," to which he said he was fan of.

To help with Oh's recovery process, doctors reportedly played television and music for Oh; however, fearing watching the news may be excessively stimulating for the recovering patient, they limited his privileges to channels with movies, the Ilbo said.

Oh was also reported to enjoy watching CBS' "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation."

FINAL

Doctors avoided asking pressing questions to Oh, such as asking what his army duties were, and instead, talked about movie scenes from "The Transporter," starring Jason Statham, the Ilbo continued.

Lee said in the report that he briefly watched the movie with Oh, who said that he also drove fast, similar to Statham's character in the movie.

Video footage shows that during his escape Oh attempted to drive to the southern side of the border in a jeep before becoming entrenched in a ditch and forced to complete the escape on foot.

Although Lee said Oh was making progress in his recovery, his initial assessment was grim. Oh was airlifted to the hospital after being shot several times, according to Reuters: "From a medical point of view he was almost dead when he was first brought here," Lee said at the time.

Lee was also diagnosed with tuberculosis and Hepatitis B, according to the Herald, and was discovered to have dozens of parasites in his digestive tract.

SEE ALSO: WATCH: A North Korean defector makes a daring escape under heavy gunfire

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NOW WATCH: A Navy SEAL explains what to do if you're attacked by a dog

The 14 essential Spike Lee movies everyone should see

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Spike Lee has spent the last three decades making some of the most important movies in the modern era of filmmaking.

From the socially conscious “Do The Right Thing” to the powerful “Malcolm X,” Lee has used the medium to shed light on some of the most important (and often ignored) issues of our times.

The two-time Oscar nominee’s latest project is bringing one of his classics to streaming. He’s made his 1986 indie hit “She’s Gotta Have It” into a series for Netflix (starting November 23).

To celebrate his work, here we highlight 14 essential Spike Lee movies:

SEE ALSO: "Mudbound" is the best movie Netflix has released so far — and you can watch it today

1. “4 Little Girls” (1997)

Lee’s Oscar- and Emmy-nominated documentary delves into one of the most horrific moments during the Civil Rights Movement: the murder of four African-American girls when the Baptist church they were in was bombed.



2. “25th Hour” (2002)

Based on the David Benioff novel, Lee sets the story of the last 24 hours of a New York drug dealer (Edward Norton) before he goes to prison. It looks at race, friendship, family, and post 9/11 New York City.



3. “Bamboozled” (2000)

Perhaps Lee’s most underappreciated work — shot on mini DV cameras and featuring an ensemble cast that includes Damon Wayans, tap dance legend Savion Glover, Jada Pinkett Smith, Tommy Davidson, Mos Def, and Michael Rappaport — the director explores the hypocrisy in the entertainment business as we follow an African-American TV writer (Wayans) who in frustration pitches a minstrel show where black people put on black face. The show becomes a sensation. 



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

Rashida Jones says she left 'Toy Story 4' because of a lack of diverse voices, not an unwanted advance from Pixar chief

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  • On Tuesday, The Hollywood Reporter published a report with misconduct allegations against Pixar chief John Lasseter, and he took a six-month leave of absence.
  • The report said that Rashida Jones and writing partner Will McCormack left "Toy Story 4" early because of an unwanted advance by Lasseter to Jones.
  • Jones and McCormack denied this in a statement, and said the real reason they left was because of a lack of diversity at Pixar. 


Rashida Jones says she left "Toy Story 4" early because of creative and philosophical differences, not because of an unwanted advance from Pixar chief John Lasseter (as reported Tuesday by The Hollywood Reporter).

Jones is listed as a co-writer on the screenplay for "Toy Story 4," but left the project because her and writing partner Will McCormack did not feel that women and people of color had an equal voice at Pixar, she said in a statement. 

On Tuesday, Lasseter confirmed he was taking a six-month leave of absence after what he called "missteps," shortly before The Hollywood Reporter published a report with accusations against him including "grabbing, kissing, making comments about physical attributes." The THR story also cited sources who said Jones left the project early because Lasseter "made an unwanted advance."

In a statement Tuesday, Jones and McCormack said they did not leave Pixar because of an unwanted advance from Lasseter, but that they were still "happy to see people speaking out about behavior that made them uncomfortable."

Here is the full statement:

“There is so much talent at Pixar and we remain enormous fans of their films. But it is also a culture where women and people of color do not have an equal creative voice, as is demonstrated by their director demographics: out of the 20 films in the company’s history, only one was co-directed by a woman and only one was directed by a person of color. We encourage Pixar to be leaders in bolstering, hiring, and promoting more diverse and female storytellers and leaders. We hope we can encourage all those who have felt like their voices could not be heard in the past to feel empowered.”

As of 2017, Pixar had released 19 feature films. Only one of them was co-directed by a woman: 2012's "Brave." Brenda Chapman, who started the project and came up with the story with a female protagonist, was replaced by Mark Andrews during production. 

“When Pixar took me off of 'Brave'— a story that came from my heart, inspired by my relationship with my daughter — it was devastating,” she wrote in The New York Times in 2012. 

"Coco," in theaters Wednesday, is the first Pixar movie directed by a person of color: co-director Adrian Molina is of Mexican descent.

SEE ALSO: Pixar chief John Lasseter confirms leave of absence as accusations break of him inappropriately 'grabbing, kissing'

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NOW WATCH: Sean Astin describes one thing you probably never knew about 'The Goonies'

7 new shows and movies you should binge-watch over Thanksgiving weekend on Netflix, Hulu, or HBO

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Future Man

You probably have some free time this holiday weekend (especially if you're traveling), which means you have time to catch up on the latest shows.

So we collected a list of the shows and movies you should binge-watch all Thanksgiving weekend long. 

From Netflix's gritty female-centric western to a Hulu's sci-fi comedy from Seth Rogen, here are all the shows and movies you can stream over the weekend. All shows listed are streaming on Netflix, Hulu, or HBOGo/HBONow. 

Here are all the shows you can binge-watch over Thanksgiving weekend:

SEE ALSO: All 42 of Netflix's notable original movies, ranked from worst to best

"Godless"

Where to watch: Netflix

In this Western from executive producer Steven Soderbergh, a man in hiding from an outlaw in the 1880s American West ends up in a mysterious New Mexico town of only women. It's a gritty, exciting, and well-acted western with memorable performances from Michelle Dockery and Jeff Bridges. "Godless" was made to binge, proving its debut in the middle of Thanksgiving week definitely isn't coincidental. 



"Future Man"

Where to watch: Hulu

This charming and silly action comedy from Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg made its debut on Hulu last week. With thirty minute episodes, you'll probably finish with enough time to move on to something else (that is, depending on how much you want to avoid seeing your family). The series, starring Josh Hutcherson, mixes nostalgic science fiction as seen in "Terminator 2" and "Blade Runner" with Rogen's signature gross-out comedy. 



"Marvel's The Runaways"

Where to watch: Hulu

From the team behind "Gossip Girl" and "The O.C.," "The Runaways" follows Los Angeles teenagers who find out that their parents are evil (they murder people) and have been lying to them their entire lives. They're only teenagers so their lives aren't as long as they think right now, but they team up to stop their evil parents from being evil. It's a fun weekend binge, especially if you're into the Marvel universe and get invested in teen drama easily.  



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

A state politician in Hawaii says the new 'Star Wars' game encourages kids to gamble and he wants to ban sales to anyone under 21 (EA)

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Star Wars Battlefront 2

  • Hawaii House of Representatives member Chris Lee accused EA of "predatory behavior."
  • Lee said that EA's new "Star Wars" game actively encourages kids to engage in gambling.
  • The controversial element in the game is a concept called "loot boxes," which offered randomized items in exchange for real money.


The big new "Star Wars" game is facing continued scrutiny, but this time it's not from players — it's from a Democratic politician in Hawaii. His name is Chris Lee, and he accused the game's makers of "predatory behavior" in an address this week.

"This game is a Star Wars-themed online casino, designed to lure kids into spending money," he said. "It's a trap." 

Lee said that he's looking into legislation in the coming year that could prohibit the sale of some games to people under 21 years of age. He also said he's been "talking with several other States as well" regarding similar legislation elsewhere. 

Chris Lee, Democrat, Hawaii House of Representatives

Specifically, Lee is addressing the "loot box" system that was previously in the game "Star Wars Battlefront 2." 

After purchasing the game for at least $60, an in-game currency called "Crystals" could be purchased additionally which players could use to buy loot boxes. Within those loot boxes are randomized in-game items of varying quality that could make your character stronger. 

The system was turned off before the game officially launched — when some people were able to play an early release of the game, they bristled at having to pay more money for certain features and took to Reddit to warn their fellow gamers. The game's maker, Electronic Arts, issued a response that became the most downvoted Reddit post of all time.

In so many words, you could pay real money to make your character stronger than other players — a practice that is routinely criticized for its "pay to win" effect. It's this aspect of the game that Representative Lee takes issue with, which enables players to pay real money for a randomized chance of getting something they want.

Star Wars Battlefront 2

EA declined to comment on Lee's announcement. 

Here's the full video released by Chris Lee this week:

SEE ALSO: The new 'Star Wars' game is embroiled in controversy, and fans are furious — here's what's going on

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: This animation shows how terrifyingly powerful nuclear weapons have become

No one wants to buy this $18.75 million townhouse owned by a real-life 'Wolf of Wall Street'-er

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Wolf of Wall Street Tribeca Mansion

  • Alan Wilzig is the inspiration for a character in "The Wolf of Wall Street."
  • He's been trying to sell his Tribeca townhouse for years.
  • The home recently had its price chopped by another $1 million.


Alan Wilzig, the real-life inspiration for a character in "The Wolf of Wall Street," is having a hard time getting rid of his New York City home.  

Wilzig's Tribeca mansion has been on the market since 2014, when it listed for $44 million. It was later offered for $24.885 million and is now up for sale again for $18.75 million, down from $19.75 million in its fourth price chop. 

Each time the townhouse gets relisted, its staging gets more and more tame. Many of its more eccentric features have disappeared and it's now more of a typical space in line with the surrounding area.

The 6,500-square-foot townhouse has a 2,200-square-foot roof deck, backyard, three bedrooms, and an attached multipurpose garage.

Wilzig inspired the character who introduced Leonardo DiCaprio's character to his future wife in a pool-party scene in the 2013 film. 

Jane Powers of Douglas Elliman now has the listing.

Megan Willett and April Walloga contributed reporting to an earlier version of this article.

SEE ALSO: These 22 whiskeys just won the highest honor at an international spirits competition

Entrepreneur and semiprofessional race car driver Alan Wilzig is selling his townhouse for $18.75 million.



It's a spacious, 6,500-square-foot mansion with plenty of amenities.



It also has 3,000 square feet of outdoor space.



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

Backstreet Boys singer Nick Carter has been accused of rape, but he says the encounter was consensual

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  • Backstreet Boys singer Nick Carter has been accused of rape by Melissa Schuman, a former pop singer.
  • Schuman wrote a detailed blog post alleging that Carter sexually assaulted her in 2002. 
  • In a statement, Carter said he is "shocked and saddened" by the allegations, and that he believed the interaction was "consensual."

 

Melissa Schuman, a former member of the early 2000s pop group Dream, has accused Backstreet Boys singer Nick Carter of rape. In a statement, Carter said he believed the encounter to be consensual.

In a detailed blog post, Schuman said that the alleged assault occurred in 2002, after she and Carter were cast in the same made-for-TV movie, "The Hollow."

She said that Carter invited her to his Santa Monica apartment and performed oral sex on her, despite Schuman's insistence that she "didn't want go any further" beyond kissing. She said Carter demanded oral sex in return, and that he angrily ignored her protest: "I told him that I was a virgin and I didn't want to have sex," Schuman wrote.

"He was visually and clearly growing very angry and impatient with me. I couldn't leave. It was evident to me, that I couldn't leave. He was stronger and much bigger than me, and there was no way I would be able to open that door or have anyone help me," she continued. "When he placed my hand on his penis my thought was the only way to get out was to get him to finish what he had started."

According to Schuman, at that point, Carter took her into a bedroom, "threw [her] on the bed," and raped her.

"He was heavy, too heavy to get out from under him. Then I felt it," she wrote. "It was done."

"I am shocked and saddened by Ms. Schuman’s accusations," Carter told Business Insider in a statement Wednesday. "Melissa never expressed to me while we were together or at any time since that anything we did was not consensual. We went on to record a song and perform together, and I was always respectful and supportive of Melissa both personally and professionally. This is the first that I am hearing about these accusations, nearly two decades later. It is contrary to my nature and everything I hold dear to intentionally cause someone discomfort or harm."

In her blog post, Schuman went on to write that Carter began calling her repeatedly in weeks following the alleged incident.

"He jammed my phone with calls for weeks, leaving me messages demanding I speak with him,” she wrote. Eventually, she said, he left "one last nasty, angry message."

Schuman said she she had considered pressing charges at the time, but that she feared the effect it may have on her career.

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: A legal loophole prevents most workplace sexual-harassment cases from seeing the light of day — here's how to close it


The director of Denzel Washington’s new movie explains the unconventional collaboration he had with the star

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  • Director Dan Gilroy had only Denzel Washington in mind to star in "Roman J. Israel, Esq." If the actor had declined to be in it, Gilroy wouldn't have made the movie.
  • Gilroy also had an unconventional method of letting Washington be involved in every aspect of making the movie.


There’s always been an understanding on a Hollywood movie set: the director is king.

But that thinking gets a little blurred when a superstar actor is in the mix. Whether it is Tom Cruise or Meryl Streep, the director often has their job only because the star "okay’d" it.

If things go right, director and star work together, tolerate one another, and maybe even enjoy the experience enough to do it all over again on another movie. If things go wrong, a huge power struggle ensues and the studio heads pray every night the press doesn’t catch on.

Dan Gilroy has been around the business — first as a reporter for Variety, then as a screenwriter (“Reel Steel,” “The Bourne Legacy,” the scrapped Tim Burton Superman movie) — long enough to be very aware of all this. But he’s also aware of the trick to keep a project from being tainted by a power hungry star (or studio). And Gilroy pulled it off with “Roman J. Israel, Esq.” (opening in theaters on Wednesday).

The trick is this: You write the script without the studio’s involvement, and you write it with only one actor in mind to do it with.

roman j israel esq sony final copyThe process began when Gilroy got an idea for a movie about a lawyer who, for most of his career, has been fighting the causes of the underdog. However, when his partner (and the face of the firm) is taken ill and may not recover, the lawyer has to come out of the shadows. And then what he faces makes him question what he’s been fighting for his entire career.

So Gilroy had an idea.

But instead of pitching the idea to a studio — many of which had been knocking down Gilroy’s door to work with him after his hit directorial debut “Nightcrawler” — Gilroy took a year and a half and wrote the entire script on spec. Then he presented the completed script to the only actor he wanted for the movie: Denzel Washington.

Convinced only Washington could play the role, Gilroy promised himself that if Washington passed, he would throw the script in a drawer and move on.

Giving Washington a setting where he could comfortably create

“I've never written so specifically for an actor that if they passed on it I wouldn't have done it,” Gilroy told Business Insider. “I always had a list of people I would have followed up with. This one I did not. I felt very strongly that the character is somebody who believes deeply in things, he's someone who believes there's something bigger than him, and Denzel is a guy who in real life believes in something bigger than himself. Him welding to that character was a quality I wouldn't be able to find in another actor. I felt very strongly about that.” 

Gilroy jumped through the usual rings: Getting the script to Washington’s reps, waiting patiently for a response, and shock when he got word several months later that Washington wanted to meet. In that meeting, Gilroy was even more shocked by the outcome.

“We sat down to have lunch and an hour into it he stuck out his hand and said, ‘Let's do this movie together,’” Gilroy said.

Now Gilroy had a finished script and one of the greatest living actors packaged for his movie. Sony won the auction to make and release the movie.

A major reason for this entire journey to make the movie was because Gilroy wanted Washington to be a collaborator with him on “Roman J. Israel, Esq.” And not just in the creation of the title character, but in every facet of production.

roman j israel esq 2sonyThe two broke down every part of the script and tweaked things to Washington’s suggestions. When the two took a break so Washington could go direct and star in “Fences,” Gilroy said Washington returned with an understanding about the character that had gone beyond his own. This included everything from the character’s look on screen to things he would say in the middle of a take.

“There's a scene where he goes through a metal detector and before putting his iPod through it Denzel said the line, ‘I lost the bass range on Gil-Scott Heron's ‘Winter in America’ last time I put this in there.’ That was a line Denzel came up with on the spot,” Gilroy said. “So the choice of song — that's a very heavy song — but also apropos to what the guy is doing. He would do stuff like that in many scenes. I'm not looking for him to give that to me. There’s another scene when he’s looking for a job and he starts to cry. That wasn’t in the scene, but what he’s playing becomes real to him.”

Washington checked his ego at the door

But the collaboration didn’t end when filming stopped. Gilroy wanted Washington in the edit room with him as well.

“I couldn't have really conceived before this of letting an actor come into the cutting room. Most actors are not objective,” Gilroy said. “But I knew I wanted him to come in and look at the character and in the process we started asking each other, do we need this scene? Should we trim this? Egos really got checked at the door.”

Gilroy believes he was so comfortable in welcoming Washington into all the phases of the movie because he’s been married to actress Rene Russo for 25 years. He said watching her prepare and craft parts for years has left him with a comfort with actors that many directors do not have.

However, another reason was he was only going to make “Roman J. Isreal, Esq." with Washington, why wouldn’t he utilize him to the fullest?

“There are quite a few directors who would not welcome this process,” Gilroy said. “They would want to tell the actor their vision. I feel for myself, as much as I trust my instincts, you lose a tremendous asset when you're working with a great actor and you're not listening and rethinking or realizing this can be approved upon. I wanted to create a space that Denzel felt comfortable creating in. That was my biggest thing.” 

SEE ALSO: Pixar wins again with "Coco," which is beautifully told and culturally conscious

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: 13 details you might have missed in 'Stranger Things' season 2

8 celebrity homes that no one wants to buy

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  • A celebrity owner isn't necessarily enough to sell a home. 
  • Some celebrity-owned homes have sat on the market for years.
  • Michael Jordan, for example, has been trying to sell his Highland Park, Illinois mansion since 2012.


While an association with a celebrity seems like it would help a home sell more quickly, that doesn't seem to always be the case. 

According to Redfin, homes owned by celebrities tend to spend 36 more days on the market than other homes, and they typically sell for less than what the seller had originally asked for. 

It could be that these homes have price tags that only a celebrity-sized paycheck could cover — or, it could just be that the draw of a star power is not as strong as it would appear. 

Either way, we've rounded up eight celebrity-owned homes that have languished on the market — some of them for several years at several different price points.

SEE ALSO: No one wants to buy this $18.75 million townhouse owned by a real-life 'Wolf of Wall Street'-er

50 Cent's Connecticut mansion

50 Cent first listed his 50,000-square-foot home in Farmington, Connecticut, for $18.5 million in 2015. In the fall of that year, he lowered the price significantly, to $8.5 million, after he had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. 

He again lowered the price, this time to $5.995 million, in 2016, and the price has remained the same since. 

The home is totally over the top, with "21 bedrooms, 25 bathrooms, an indoor pool and hot tub, a substantial night club, an indoor court, multiple game rooms, a green screen room, a recording studio," among many other opulent features, according to the Douglas Elliman listing.

 



Matt Lauer's Sag Harbor estate

Matt Lauer is having a hard time offloading his home in the Hamptons. Horiginally listed for $17.995 million in July 2016. He cut $1 million from the listing price in September 2016, and now it's asking $14.9 million.

The 8,000-square-foot home sits on top of a 25-acre private lot. The home was built in a stunning traditional style with plenty of space for entertaining guests and a backyard pool to lay out by. 

 



Steve Cohen's mansion in the sky

Billionaire hedge funder Steve Cohen has been seeking a buyer for his Manhattan duplex penthouse since 2013.

It's had a number of different listing prices: $115 million, $98 million, $82 million, $79 million, $72 million, $67.5 million, and now, $57.5 million. 

The 9,000-square-foot space has five bedrooms and six baths. Cohen is an avid art collector, and the home has a dedicated gallery to put his pieces on display.



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

Russell Simmons sexual assault accuser says he apologized to her privately

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  • Former model Keri Claussen Khalighi told "Megyn Kelly Today" that Russell Simmons had "privately" apologized to her after allegedly sexually assaulting her in 1991.
  • Khalighi alleged to the Los Angeles Times on Monday that Simmons forced her to perform oral sex and later intercourse when she was 17.
  • Simmons publicly denied the allegations, telling the Times that the acts occurred with Khalighi's "full consent."

 

Former model Keri Claussen Khalighi told NBC's Megyn Kelly on Wednesday that hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons had "privately" apologized to her after allegedly sexually assaulting her, despite his public insistence that her allegations of sexual assault from 1991 represented a consensual act.

"Russell and I have actually had a face-to-face confrontation around this. We’ve had phone conversations where we've had a conversation about what happened, where there was no dispute of what we were talking about," Khalighi told Kelly in a live interview. "And he actually apologized," she added. 

Brett ratner russell simmonsKhalighi told The Los Angeles Times last week that Simmons sexually assaulted her in his apartment in 1991 when she was 17. She said Simmons forced her to perform oral sex and later intercourse while filmmaker Brett Ratner was present.

In response to Khalighi's allegations, Simmons told the Times, "Everything that occurred between Keri and me occurred with her full consent and participation." He later wrote on his website, "I completely and unequivocally deny the horrendous allegations of nonconsensual sex against me with every fiber of my being."

In the Times story on Monday, Khalighi said Simmons made a "really touching, remorseful apology" to her at the Soho House in West Hollywood last year. 

"He knew what he had done; I knew what he had done,” she said. "That's also why it was so vindicating, because it was there, acknowledged."

Simmons' attorney Brad D. Rose told the Times that Simmons' apology was not in response to his alleged misconduct, but rather in the "context for the embarrassment and upheaval the weekend caused her" related to her "infidelity."

Simmons doubled down on his account in an article for The Hollywood Reporter on Wednesday, linking to three signed statements from witnesses saying that his experiences with Khalighi were "consensual." He wrote, "In our meeting many years later, and subsequent conversations, Keri never accused me of what she has said publicly."

Khalighi, however, has disputed Simmons' account of their subsequent meeting. She elaborated on the apology in her interview with Kelly on Wednesday, saying that Simmons' public statements did not align with the private conversation she had with him regarding the allegations.

"Part of what's so confusing and re-traumatizing is that what he's speaking about privately with me is completely different from what's come out publicly," Khalighi said. "That's the piece that's been, quite honestly, repugnant with hypocrisy, and the lies, and the denial."

Watch the interview below: 

SEE ALSO: Hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons has been accused of sexual misconduct, and the allegations involve Brett Ratner

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HQ Trivia CEO apologizes for 'being a jerk' to a journalist and threatening to fire his star employee

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HQTrivia_twitter

  • The co-founder of Vine and current CEO of HQ Trivia went off at a Daily Beast reporter during a phone call for writing an unauthorized profile about the app's game show host, Scott Rogowsky.
  • HQ Trivia is a hot startup that offers a live trivia game show, where players compete for real money.
  • The CEO, Rus Yusupov, threatened to fire Rogowsky if the Daily Beast ran its profile, which revealed that Rogowsky's favorite salad chain is Sweetgreen.
  • The story ran and included details of Yusupov's reaction. The CEO ultimately apologized on Twitter.

 

The CEO of the mega-popular app HQ Trivia learned a lesson about public relations — and Sweetgreen salads — on Tuesday after going off on a Daily Beast reporter during a phone call.

Rus Yusupov, cofounder of HQ Trivia and the now defunct video streaming app Vine, recently threatened to fire his star employee and game show host, Scott Rogowsky, if the Daily Beast ran a lighthearted profile it had written about Rogowsky.

The full Daily Beast story is worth a read, but in short, Yusupov was upset that the Daily Beast reporter, Taylor Lorenz, interviewed the HQ Trivia host without his permission.

The CEO was particularly upset that Rogowsky said on the record that he was able to go outside and "order his favorite salad from Sweetgreen" without people noticing him. 

HQ TriviaThe Daily Beast reported that Yusupov shouted at Lorenz on the phone, saying, “He cannot say that! We do not have a brand deal with Sweetgreen! Under no circumstances can he say that.”

In the wake of the odd phone call, Lorenz decided to change the focus of her story from Rogowsky's cult following to Yusupov's threat to fire the game show host if the profile was published.

So what happened to cause such a reaction? The heart of the issue appears to be Yusupov's fundamental misunderstanding about how journalism works, and what reporters are and aren't authorized to do when reporting on a subject.

"If you reached out to an Apple engineer and they gave you information about the new iPhone, would you run it? No, because you’d have to go through proper press channels,” Yusupov is reported as having said in the phone call with Lorenz. The Apple example doesn't make much sense, of course, as details about the latest iPhone routinely leak out ahead of the device's unveiling, with many publications including The Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg citing sources within Apple in their reporting.

Journalists also routinely go around corporate communication channels and report on unauthorized information. Business Insider, for example, did not request permission from HQ Trivia or The Daily Beast before writing this story. (We did, however reach out for comment. Neither company immediately responded to request for comment.)

At the end of the day, the Daily Beast got an even more exciting story about HQ Trivia than anticipated, and Yusupov got a crash course in how to handle being on the receiving end of unflattering press.

In the wake of the Daily Beast story going live, Yusupov put out a call on Twitter for "a good PR agent" and ended the day by apologizing to Lorenz through a picture of him and Rogowsky eating together at Sweetgreen. 

"Q: Who's a cliche, stressed out startup founder? A: me," Yusupov tweeted at Lorenz. "Sorry for being a jerk. Lunch some time?" 

(Disclosure: Lorenz has previously worked for Business Insider.)

SEE ALSO: Thousands of people open a trivia app twice a day for the chance to win hundreds of dollars — here's how you play

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A startup is hiring a 'social petworking coach' to help people make their furry friends Instagram stars

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Geordi La Corgi

  • A company in London is hiring a "coach" to help pets become social media stars.
  • One in six pet owners have social media accounts for their pets.
  • A cottage industry of talent agencies and other services has emerged to make your pet go viral.


The bizarre world of social media fame has reached a new level of weirdness.

Petlandia, a London-based company that makes books featuring people's pets as the star, is looking for the world's first "social petworking coach" to help people turn their cat, dog, pig, or other animal friend into a social media star. 

Sound like a joke? It's not. According to Petlandia, one in six pet-owners have social media accounts for their pets (even Mark Zuckerberg's dog Beast has his own Facebook page), and celebrity pets can make enough money from product sponsorships and media appearances to keep their human parents financially afloat.

Job responsibilities for the Petworking coach include creating online webinars for interested humans around the globe, doing private consultations with VIP clients, and mentoring clients on social media best practices and strategies for growing online audiences. 

Knowledge of the "pet influencing" world required

The world of pet influencers has spawned an entire industry of its own. The Dog Agency is a talent agency for pet influencers that was started by Loni Edwards, former owner of the wildly popular Chloe the frenchie.  On its website, The Dog Agnecy says it have gotten clients "media opportunities" in outlets like the The Wall Street Journal and Buzzfeed, and worked with brands like Google, Barneys and Nikon.

In its job posting, Petlandia says that the ultimate goal for the petworking coach is to "lay the foundations for what could become the world's first fame school for pets."

The company's vision might not be too far off, some pets are already achieving "fame" all on their own. According to Quartz, the "general rule of thumb" is that once a social media star has reached 100,000 followers they can get up to $2,000 for product placements and event appearances.

Take Toast, a King Charles rescue who has no teeth, 378,000 followers on Instagram, and a book called "ToastHampton: How to Summer in Style. Her "puppy PR" is done by owner Katie Sturino, who recently scored when eyewear maker Karen Walker hired Toast to be a spokes model for the brand. In January of 2016, Toast was also the bride in a "wedding" to another furry star and, just like a real celebrity, got to wear a custom Marchesa dress and a $139,000 diamond necklace. The whole spectacle was a promotion for a wedding planning and registry site called Zola. 

A post shared by Marty B (@traunches) on

 Petlandia says the pay for the petworking coach is "competitive," and the desired qualifications include knowledge of the online pet influencing world, basic pet welfare skills, and knowledge of how to grow and manage an audience on social media. 

As social media's influence continues to grow, and new platforms appear, it's reasonable to assume that job postings like Petlandia's will become much more common.

SEE ALSO: Robots aren't just taking our jobs, they're creating them – here are 21 weird jobs humans will have in the future

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