• Vice President Mike Pence and former White House chief of staff Reince Priebus reportedly considered a coup to replace then candidate Donald Trump on the GOP presidential ticket following the release of the "Access Hollywood" tape last fall.
• GOP leaders considered drafting former Bush administration Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to be the party's vice presidential nominee, The Atlantic reported.
• Republican donors reportedly considered paying Trump to abandon the race.

Vice President Mike Pence and former White House chief of staff Reince Priebus considered a coup to replace then candidate Donald Trump following the release of the "Access Hollywood" tape just weeks before the 2016 presidential election, The Atlantic reported in a lengthy profile of Pence on Tuesday.

The tape, in which Trump boasted about sexually assaulting women, sent the Republican Party into a panic as party leaders and donors pressured the Republican National Committee to force the former reality-TV star off the ticket.

Just hours after the video's publication by The Washington Post on October 8, Pence told the RNC that he was willing and ready to take Trump's place as the party's presidential nominee, several sources told the Atlantic.

But Priebus told CNN the coup story is "100% false."

"It was never discussed — never contemplated," Priebus said.

In the panicked days that followed the release of the "Access Hollywood" tape, the RNC came under intense pressure to replace Trump, and the organization's lawyers reportedly discussed a little-known legal mechanism by which they could force the nominee to step down.

Meanwhile, a small group of billionaire GOP donors reportedly asked a Trump associate how much money Trump would need to be paid to abandon the race. According to one source, they were told $800 million, but it is unclear if Trump knew about the discussions or if the offer was made.

Priebus, then the chairman of the RNC, told had Trump that he could drop out of the race or lose in the biggest electoral landslide in US history, according to a new memoir written by former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski. Priebus reportedly told Trump that Pence and former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, whom Republican leaders were considering drafting to the ticket, were "ready to step in" to take over the campaign.

On a personal level, Pence and his wife, Karen, who are both devout evangelical Christians who have advocated for conservative "family values" for decades, were shocked and disturbed by the video. Karen was reportedly "disgusted" by Trump's "grab them by the p----" comments — and by Trump himself.

"She finds him reprehensible — just totally vile," a former Trump campaign aide told The Atlantic.

But those close to Pence say the former Indiana governor relied on his faith in God to carry him through the last trying weeks of the campaign.

"If you're Mike Pence, and you believe what he believes, you know God had a plan," Ralph Reed, an evangelical religious and political leader and friend of Pence's, told The Atlantic.

SEE ALSO: Profile of Mike Pence sheds new light on how Trump wrestled over whether to pull his VP nomination at the last second

DON'T MISS: Trump reportedly mocks Mike Pence's ultraconservative views, once joking that he 'wants to hang' all gay people

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• John Oliver confronted Dustin Hoffman over allegations of sexual harassment that have been made against him, during a film screening Q&A on Monday.
• Hoffman has been accused of sexual harassment by two women. 
• Oliver repeatedly took issue with Hoffman's November apology statement to the first allegation and pushed him to respond to it with a deeper "self-reflection."

John Oliver confronted Dustin Hoffman over allegations of sexual harassment during a heated exchange at a film screening Q&A on Monday night, which The Washington Post captured on video.

The host of HBO's "Last Week Tonight" was interviewing Hoffman in a panel for a commemorative screening of Hoffman's 1997 film "Wag the Dog" in New York City.

Around halfway through the hour-long talk, Oliver brought up an allegation made against Hoffman in November that he had groped and sexually harassed a 17-year-old intern, Anna Graham Hunter, on the set of the 1985 movie "Death Of A Salesman."

"This is something we're going to have to talk about because … it's hanging in the air," Oliver said to Hoffman in a video published by The Post. 

"It's hanging in the air?" Hoffman responded. "From a few things you've read you've made an incredible assumption about me." He then added, sarcastically, "You've made the case better than anyone else can. I'm guilty."

After Hunter accused Hoffman in a Hollywood Reporter column in November, Hoffman responded to the allegation with the following statement: "I have the utmost respect for women and feel terrible that anything I might have done could have put her in an uncomfortable situation. I am sorry. It is not reflective of who I am." 

(Hoffman has since been accused by a second woman, Wendy Riss Gatsiounis, who said the actor sexually harassed her in a meeting in 1991.)

Oliver's exchange with Hoffman on Monday became even more heated when the HBO host addressed Hoffman's November apology. "You've made one statement in print. Does that feel like enough to you?" he asked.

"First of all, it didn't happen the way she reported," Hoffman said. "I still don't know who this woman is. I never met her. If I met her, it was in concert with other people," he added, addressing Hunter's specific claims.

Oliver went on to take issue with the fact that Hoffman's statement said the allegation was "not reflective of who I am."

"It's that kind of response to this stuff that pisses me off," Oliver said. "It is reflective of who you were. If it happened and you've given no evidence to show it didn't happen. Then there was a period of time for a while when you were creeping around women. It feels like a cop-out to say, 'Well, this isn't me.'" 

Hoffman told Oliver that he did not grope Hunter, but that his behavior in the alleged incident was simply how people on a film set spoke to each other. "It becomes a family in which I said a stupid thing but I said it in the midst of the crew, and they said their stupid things. But they were sexual in terms of the humor of it. That's 40 years ago."

Oliver added that Hoffman's response to the allegation didn't "feel self-reflective in the way that it seems the incident demands."

"Do you believe this stuff that you're reading?" Hoffman responded. 

"I believe what she wrote, yes," Oliver replied. "Because there's no point in her lying."

“Well, there is a point in her not bringing this up for 40 years," Hoffman said.

“Oh, Dustin. Christ," Oliver said.

Hoffman and Oliver did not immediately respond to a request for further comment. 

Watch a segment of the exchange below, via The Washington Post:

SEE ALSO: Disney is reportedly nearing a deal to buy 21st Century Fox's TV business

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The new 2017 emojis may have just arrived on iPhones, but it's already time to start thinking about next year's emoji candidates. 

Unicode, the consortium responsible for choosing the new emoji across all platforms, announced the beta version of the 2018 emojis on Monday. The new list includes redheads, a bagel, a lacrosse stick, and more. 

These emojis aren't finalized, however. According to Emojipedia's Jeremy Burge, Unicode won't approve the final list of new emojis until January 2018. Before then, new emojis could be added, removed, or changed. The finalized emojis won't be unveiled until the end of Q1, and they likely won't arrive on devices until the second half of 2018. 

Still, it's exciting to get a glimpse of what may come. Take a look:

SEE ALSO: Here are the 10 most-liked Instagram posts of 2017

We may finally be getting redhead emojis!

There may be a curly-haired emoji, too (and he actually looks a lot like Colin Kaepernick).

There are bald people...

There are almost too many games on the PlayStation 4. If you're one of the over 60 million PS4 owners, it's hard to know where to start.

That's why we put together the list below, full of only the greatest bangers worth spending your time and money on.

Of note: The list is not ranked. There is one exception, as "Horizon Zero Dawn" is clearly the best game on the PlayStation 4 — thus, it's in the first spot. Otherwise, these are the 29 best games on the PlayStation 4 (in no particular order).

SEE ALSO: The Nintendo Switch is the hottest game system of the year — here are its 15 best games

29. "Rocket League"

What is "Rocket League?" It's a madman's vision for future soccer. It's soccer with rocket cars, played three vs three or four vs four. Yes!

You can make your car jump, and flip, and you've got rockets that offer a massive speed boost for limited periods of time. It's simple to pick up and play, surprisingly deep to master, and always a tremendous amount of fun. Will you get to the ball fast enough to beat out the competition, and ultimately get the ball away from your goal and toward theirs? This is the basest level question you seek to answer at any given second in "Rocket League." Good luck!

Read our full review of "Rocket League" right here. 

28. "Final Fantasy XV"

If you've never played a massive Japanese role-playing game, this is a good place to start.

"Final Fantasy XV" is a gigantic, gorgeous, sprawling role-playing game set in a futuristic/fantasy world. It's kind of a road story, kind of a hero story, and entirely bizarre. When you're not rolling around in the sweet ride above, you're cavorting around on massive birds (chocobos) and defeating bizarre monsters. 

Read more about "Final Fantasy XV" right here.

27. "Grand Theft Auto V"

"Grand Theft Auto" has never been better than the latest entry: "Grand Theft Auto V". 

In "GTA V" you can play as one of three different main characters, carrying off major heists and doing all manner of other madness. Unless you've been hiding under a rock, you already know what you're getting into with "GTA V." It's a satire of modern American life set in an enormous open-world. 

Spotify has shared the songs and artists that were streamed the most on its service in 2017. 

Ed Sheeran was the most-streamed artist of the year on Spotify with over 6.3 billion streams, the company said in a release. 

Sheeran's single "Shape of You" was also the most-streamed song of the year with over 1.4 billion streams on the service — a total which surpassed Drake's "One Dance" to become the "most popular song ever on Spotify," according to the company. 

Drake, The Weeknd, Kendrick Lamar, and The Chainsmokers (in that order) made up the rest of the top five in Spotify's most-streamed artists list.

Below are the five songs that were streamed the most on Spotify this year:

SEE ALSO: The 5 best new songs you can stream right now — Miguel, J. Cole, and more

5. DJ Khaled — "I'm the One" (feat. Justin Bieber, Quavo, Chance the Rapper, and Lil Wayne)

4. The Chainsmokers & Coldplay — "Something Just Like This"

3. Luis Fonsi — "Despacito" (feat. Daddy Yankee)

Meghan Markle is newly engaged to Prince Harry.

At age 36, Markle is best known for playing the role of Rachel Zane in the series "Suits." But a closer look at her career history reveals some surprising and impressive gigs, from United Nations women's advocate to lifestyle blogger and fashion designer.

Below, we've listed the highlights of Markle's résumé thus far.

SEE ALSO: The incredible life of actress, entrepreneur, activist, and now future princess Meghan Markle

Before playing Rachel Zane on "Suits," Markle appeared in the soap opera "General Hospital" in 2002 and the sci-fi drama "Fringe" in 2009, as well as the comedy "Horrible Bosses" in 2011.

Source: The Independent, IMDB

Markle is a United Nations women's advocate and she gave a speech at UN Women's 2015 conference.

In the speech, she recalled being outraged at age 11 when she saw a soap commercial with the slogan, 'Women all over America are fighting greasy pots and pans.' So she wrote a letter to the soap manufacturer as well as to Hillary Clinton and other powerful figures. The commercial subsequently changed its slogan to, 'People all over America are fighting greasy pots and pans.'

Source: CNBC

• Former NBC host Billy Bush sat down with Stephen Colbert in his first public appearance since being fired over a year ago.
• Bush condemned President Trump for reportedly claiming that the voice on the infamous "Access Hollywood" tape isn't his.

Former NBC host Billy Bush made his first late-night appearance since being fired over a year ago, chatting with Stephen Colbert on "The Late Show" Monday night.

Bush addressed the reports that Trump is denying his voice is in the now-infamous "Access Hollywood" tape that leaked prior to the election last year, which resulted in NBC firing Bush. An anonymous source told The New York Times last week that, in January, Trump mentioned he had doubts about the authenticity of the "Access Hollywood" tape, and reportedly told a Republican senator, "We don’t think that was my voice."

“Last week, for some reason, he came out with 'That’s not my voice on the tape,’" Bush told Colbert. "Like I said, you can’t say that. That is your voice. I was there, you were there, that is your voice on the tape.”

Bush said that when he was filming the "Access Hollywood" segment with Trump back in 2005, he was unaware that there was any truth to what he was saying, and assumed that he was just  putting on a "crass stand-up act" for him and his crew.

“If I had thought there was a man detailing a sexual assault strategy to me, I would have called the F.B.I., not just reported it to my executive producer,” Bush said.

Bush also brought up the women who have accused Trump of sexual assault.

“As I read these I said 20 women don’t get together and say, ‘You know what would be fun? Let’s take down a powerful guy together.’ No, they don’t. [Trump is] opening wounds on them, too. Enough’s enough. Stop playing around with people’s lives,” said Bush.

When Colbert asked what Bush thought of the recent cultural shift and the notion that women need to be believed, Bush agreed, saying that "Women must be believed."

In addition to speaking with Colbert, Bush also wrote an op-ed in The New York Times on Monday, condemning Trump for his reported comments on the authenticity of the "Access Hollywood" tape.

"To these women: I will never know the fear you felt or the frustration of being summarily dismissed and called a liar, but I do know a lot about the anguish of being inexorably linked to Donald Trump," Bush wrote. "You have my respect and admiration. You are culture warriors at the forefront of necessary change."

You can watch the full interview here:

SEE ALSO: NBC has some serious explaining to do

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• 21st Century Fox CEO James Murdoch has reportedly been floated as a potential candidate to succeed Bob Iger as CEO of Disney.
• Disney is reportedly in talks to buy assets from 21st Century Fox valued at more than $60 billion, but excluding news and sports.
• If the deal closes, Murdoch would likely join Disney, which would place him in the midst of speculation around Iger's hotly debated succession plans.

21st Century Fox CEO James Murdoch has been "suggested" as a candidate to succeed Bob Iger as Disney CEO, when the storied executive eventually retires, according to The Financial Times, which cited "people briefed on the talks" in a report published Tuesday.

This news came the same day that a CNBC report said Disney was close to a deal to acquire parts of Fox's studio and television production business, valued at more than $60 billion.

The assets Disney is reportedly interested in buying include Fox's A&E and Star TV networks, movie and TV studios, stakes in Sky and Hulu, and other assets. Significantly, the deal would not include Fox's news and sports assets.

The FT said that if such a deal does close, Murdoch would likely "take a senior executive role with Disney." Such a move would take Murdoch out of the media empire built by his father Rupert, and in which he and his brother Lachlan have ascended to positions of power.

It would also put him in a prime spot to potentially take over from Iger, if the CEO retires as slated in 2019. (Iger has extended his tenure three times before after mulling retirement.)

"No promises have been made,” however, one person briefed on the talks told the FT.

Iger's succession plan has been a matter of hot debate for years. Former Disney COO Thomas Staggs was seen as Iger's heir apparent until he abruptly left his role in early 2016. In November, Bloomberg reported that Disney's Parks boss, Bob Chapek, had emerged as a contender.

Whoever takes over for Iger will likely have to deal with a period of change in the company, as the secular decline of the traditional TV business continues, and Disney begins to take on tech players like Netflix by going direct to consumer.

Additional reporting by Joe Ciolli.

SEE ALSO: Disney is reportedly nearing a deal to buy 21st Century Fox's TV business

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NOW WATCH: 10 things you missed in the 'Avengers: Infinity War' trailer

Gaming classic "Mega Man" is getting its next major entry in 2018. The game is "Mega Man 11," and it looks rad.

"Mega Man 11" is scheduled to arrive in "late 2018" on Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC. Alongside some pretty images, a brand new trailer offers a lot of clues of what to expect in the next major "Mega Man" game.

Here's what we spotted!

SEE ALSO: The Nintendo Switch is the hottest game system of the year — here are its 15 best games

The last major "Mega Man" game came out in 2010 — it was called "Mega Man 10," and it looked more like classic 8-bit games than the new game.

"Mega Man 11" evolves that visual style dramatically.

The game's maker, Japanese game company Capcom, calls it a "2.5D" art style — mixing classic two-dimensional gameplay with 3D artwork.

A good example of what Capcom is talking about can be seen above where the ladder is — it's seemingly set back into the screen. The enemy next to the ladder, hiding under his construction helmet, is another good example. 

It's a subtle difference, but it makes the levels look far more rich than they already did in previous games. 

• Actor Gabriel Byrne told The Sunday Times that production on "The Usual Suspects" was halted for two days after Kevin Spacey was accused of "inappropriate sexual behavior."
• Spacey has been accused of sexual harassment or assault by numerous men.
• Byrne compared Spacey to Harvey Weinstein in the interview, saying they shared "that element of absolute abuse of power."

Production on the film "The Usual Suspects" was shut down for two days in 1995 after Kevin Spacey was accused of "inappropriate sexual behavior," according to actor Gabriel Byrne, who starred with Spacey in the Oscar-winning film.

"I did not know honestly then the extent of his violence," Byrne recently told The Sunday Times. "I mean, he was kind of a joke in that people would say, 'That's Kevin,' but nobody really understood the depth of his predation."

"It was only years later that we began to understand that [filming] was closed down for a particular reason and that was because of inappropriate sexual behavior by Spacey," he continued.

Spacey would go on to win a best supporting actor Oscar for his role as Keyser Söze in the film.

Numerous men have accused Spacey of sexual harassment or assault since late October, after the actor Anthony Rapp accused Spacey of making a sexual advance toward him when he was 14. 

Byrne, 67, went on to compare Spacey to Harvey Weinstein in the Sunday Times interview, saying that the two disgraced Hollywood men shared "that element of absolute abuse of power."

Spacey was fired from the Netflix series "House of Cards" and dropped by his agency and publicist in November, following the wave of allegations made against him.

Representatives for Spacey were not immediately available for comment.

SEE ALSO: All the men who have accused Kevin Spacey of sexual misconduct

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• Terry Crews filed a lawsuit against WME agent Adam Venit for allegedly sexually assaulting him a year ago.
• Crews claimed that Venit groped him and caused psychological trauma.

Actor Terry Crews has filed a lawsuit against WME agent Adam Venit for allegedly groping him at a party a year ago, TMZ first reported and Business Insider confirmed.

According to TMZ, the lawsuit also says that Venit stared at Crews "like a rabid dog, sticking his tongue in and out of his mouth provocatively."

This lawsuit comes after Venit returned to WME last week, following a 30-day suspension prompted by the sexual assault accusation made by Crews. Venit was demoted, and no longer holds his former title as head of the motion picture department at WME, but remains an agent at the company representing A-list clients.

Shortly after the news that Venit was back at WME broke, Crews tweeted, "Someone got a pass."

In early November, Venit was accused by Crews of groping him at a party last year, during an interview with "Good Morning America."

The GMA interview followed a series of tweets Crews wrote detailing an alleged incident in which he was groped by an unnamed Hollywood executive. Crews confirmed in the GMA interview that the person in question was Venit.

Crews told GMA that when the Weinstein sexual misconduct allegations broke, he felt like he had "PTSD," and recognized he had also experienced sexual assault. Crews then decided it was the right time to share his experience.

"I've never felt more emasculated, more objectified. I was horrified," Crews said on GMA.

Crews also filed a report with the LAPD alleging that Venit sexually assaulted him, and has dropped WME as his agency.

Venit did not immediately respond to Business Insider's requests for comment.

SEE ALSO: Netflix has fired 'The Ranch' star Danny Masterson after multiple accusations of sexual assault against him

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NOW WATCH: Legislation is being introduced to close a legal loophole that prevents workplace sexual-harassment stories from going public

• Google is preventing YouTube from working on Amazon products like the FireTV and the Echo Show.
• Google said it took action because Amazon doesn't carry Google hardware or let Google hardware stream Amazon Prime Video.

Google is preventing its YouTube video service from working on Amazon's line of hardware products, raising the stakes in a rivalry between two tech giants as their businesses increasingly overlap. 

On Tuesday, Google notified Amazon Echo Show owners that they will no longer be able to watch YouTube videos on their gadgets, according to media reports. Google also told owners of Amazon's Fire TV, a streaming set top box that connects to televisions, that they will lose access to YouTube on January 1. 

In a statement, a spokesperson for Google said the company blocked YouTube due to failed negotiations with Amazon. 

"We’ve been trying to reach agreement with Amazon to give consumers access to each other’s products and services," the spokesperson said. "But Amazon doesn’t carry Google products like Chromecast and Google Home, doesn’t make Prime Video available for Google Cast users, and last month stopped selling some of Nest’s latest products."

A spokesperson for Amazon told Business Insider that the Echo Show and Fire TV will show a standard web view of YouTube, and point customers directly to its website, rather than using an app. 

"Google is setting a disappointing precedent by selectively blocking customer access to an open website," the spokesperson said. "We hope to resolve this with Google as soon as possible."

Google's move is the latest in a long back and forth between the two tech companies as they battle for dominance across hardware and entertainment products. 

Amazon stopped selling Google Chromecast in 2015, which the company said was because Chromecast didn't' work well with Prime Video. A year later though, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos said that it was really about a lack of "acceptable business terms." 

It's also not the first time Google has blocked YouTube. The same thing happened in September over Google's concerns about how the app looked on Amazon's device. But YouTube was reinstated at the end of November. 

Now, it appears, Amazon has stopped selling Nest, Google's smart thermostat.

SEE ALSO: YouTube is about to go on a hiring binge to keep dicey videos off its platform

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NOW WATCH: Some iPhone users can't type the letter 'i' — here's what's going on and how to fix it

• Lena Dunham and Tina Brown told the New York Times that they warned Hillary Clinton's campaign about Harvey Weinstein's "sleaziness" and said not to work with him.
• The Clintons' relationship with Weinstein goes back decades, and they had been working on a documentary until Weinstein's scandal broke, the Times said.
• The Clinton campaign denies ever being warned.

Actress and writer Lena Dunham and former Vanity Fair editor Tina Brown both say they warned members of Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign against associating with Harvey Weinstein.

In a massive New York Times investigation, titled "Weinstein's Complicity Machine," over 200 interviews weave together the story of how Weinstein managed to live as a high profile Hollywood producer amid swirling rumors of sexual misconduct.

The article demonstrates how Weinstein allegedly used his money, power, and connections to silence anyone who would dare to out him. It also shows how the Clintons were linked to Weinstein's network.

Weinstein gave money to Bill Clinton's 1998 legal defense during his impeachment trial, and had been working on a documentary about Hillary Clinton's 2016 election loss up until his scandal broke, according to the Times.

Though Clinton said she was "shocked and appalled" by the revelations about Weinstein, who she had known for decades, Dunham and Brown both said they told her campaign to distance herself from the producer.

This was strongly denied by the Clinton campaign. "We were shocked when we learned what he’d done. It’s despicable behavior, and the women that have come forward have shown enormous courage. As to claims about a warning, that’s something staff wouldn’t forget," said communications director Nick Merrill.

The Times report included an excerpt from an email Brown sent to a member of "Clinton’s inner circle." It said: "I was hearing that Harvey’s sleaziness with women had escalated since I left Talk in 2002 and she was unwise to be so closely associated with him."

Brown worked with Weinstein on Talk magazine between 1999 and 2002.

Dunham's warning was verbal, the Times reported. "I just want you to let you know that Harvey’s a rapist and this is going to come out at some point," Dunham reportedly told Kristina Schake, the Clinton campaign’s deputy communications director.

"I think it's a really bad idea for him to host fund-raisers and be involved because it’s an open secret in Hollywood that he has a problem with sexual assault," she reportedly added.

Dunham has faced her own backlash in recent weeks after she came to the defense of Murray Miller (a writer and executive producer for her show "Girls") after actress Aurora Perrineau filed a police report alleging that Miller raped her.

In a a statement with her co-creator, Dunham said they believed the allegations were false, and that they stood by Murray. Following instense criticism, Dunham apologized: "We regret this decision with every fiber of our being."

Read the full Times article here »

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NOW WATCH: 'It was bulls---': Megyn Kelly responds to being called Trump's 'chew toy'

• I wanted to really like "The Post," but there were a lot of dull moments that drag on the movie.
• However, Meryl Streep's character evolution through the story is a highlight.

When you think about Steven Spielberg movies, you think excitement, thrills, powerful performances — all done over a wonderful score (often by John Williams).

Sadly, many of the elements that make a Spielberg movie so memorable are missing from “The Post.”

The story focuses on the Pentagon Papers— documents that military analyst Daniel Ellsberg leaked that looked at US involvement in Vietnam spanning four presidents — and how the press, and The Washington Post in particular, brought the information to the American public.

To tell it, Spielberg takes us inside the newsroom of The Washington Post in 1971. The paper, run by editor Ben Bradlee (played by Tom Hanks), is constantly playing catch-up to The New York Times, and that includes with the Pentagon Papers, which The Times breaks first.

But after the Nixon administration obtains a federal court injunction against The Times to force it to stop publishing stories, Bradlee and his editors believe they have an opportunity to get on the story. Reporter Ben Bagdikian (Bob Odenkirk) tracks down Ellsberg (Matthew Rhys) who gives him a portion of the papers, and the race is on to report the findings before the government attempts to stop them from publishing, too.

Meanwhile, behind the scenes, the paper’s publisher Katharine Graham (Meryl Streep) is faced with trying to keep the paper afloat through it all.

This is further complicated by the fact that Graham is close friends with secretary of defense Robert McNamara, who is the one who commissioned the Pentagon Papers as, he said, a record for future administrations to study.

If there’s one thing “The Post” (opening in limited release on December 22 and then wide next year) does well it’s capturing the struggle that comes when personal relationships and hard journalism. At the time, The Washington Post was known for its favorable coverage of President Kennedy, with whom Bradlee was close. “The Post” screenwriters Liz Hannah and Josh Singer capture the struggle both Bradlee and Graham had playing the Washington politics game while being fair and honest.

But there’s a lot the movie can’t pull off. The flow of the story has a lot of false starts, the John Williams score isn’t as powerful as his other legendary pieces for the director, and there are a couple of moments that are probably the lamest I’ve ever seen in a Spielberg movie.

The Spielberg movies that made him famous have popcorn elements like a crazed shark, aliens, or dinosaurs, though a major theme is still often people coping with everyday life. But in recent years he’s veered more into straight-up dramas. The results have been mixed: “The Terminal,” bad; “Lincoln,” good. “The Post” is one of those “very different” Spielberg movies.

At times feeling like a stage play, “The Post” is fueled by the performances of its incredible cast — including Tracy Letts, Carrie Coon, Bradley Whitford, Bruce Greenwood, Alison Brie, and David Cross — but often the scenes drag on too long.

There are numerous scenes when Bradlee barges into Graham’s house and the two go into deep conversation. We get quality Hanks-Streep screen time, but it puts the brakes on everything.

Then there are the scenes when plot points are achingly hand-fed to us, like a scene in which Ellsberg is making copies of the volumes of files that make up the Pentagon Papers (which also drags on a few beats too long). There’s a point when we hear him, in voice-over, reading the names of the four presidents on the cover sheets he’s copying, though we can clearly see the names on screen. This is followed by archival footage of those presidents. These are all great ideas, but don't work when put together.

Then there’s a scene toward the end of the movie when the camera gets in tight on Carrie Coon’s character after she hushes the newsroom and repeats a Supreme Court judge’s summary on their ruling. It’s not just the biggest eye-roll of this movie, but I can’t remember a bigger one in any other Spielberg movie.

But Spielberg finds gold in scenes when Streep’s Graham character becomes firmer in her role as publisher — like when she stands her ground while breaking the news to McNamara that she’s going to run the papers. There's even a bit of a Miranda Priestly from “The Devil Wears Prada” swagger to her when informing the board that The Post is running the papers.

The movie is strongest when nothing is said at all, and DP Janusz Kaminski's work shines. One such scene shows Graham walking up stairs that are surrounded by female secretaries, and we follow her as she goes through opened doors to a room filled with men.

I’m extremely conflicted with “The Post.” There are some very powerful moments. And the movie is timely with what’s going on in the country today (a rarity for narrative studio movies). But the latter might have led to its downfall. The speed to get the movie out the door may have prompted choices that, with more time, would have been thought out better.

“The Post” isn’t a waste of your time, but I was hoping for more — at the very least a little more of that something extra that makes Spielberg movies stand out.

SEE ALSO: All the TV shows that have been canceled in 2017

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NOW WATCH: Megyn Kelly reveals why she left Fox News

• Amazon Prime Video is now available for download on Apple TV.
• Users can stream free shows and movies with an Amazon Prime subscription and also watch movies rented or purchased from Amazon.
• Amazon Prime Video was one of the last big streaming content holdouts on Apple's TV platform. 

The Amazon Prime Video app is finally available for Apple TV, 185 days after Apple CEO Tim Cook announced it at Apple's annual conference in June. 

The Amazon Prime Video app will let users with a Prime subscription stream Amazon shows such as "The Grand Tour." People will also be able to watch videos purchased or rented from Amazon, along with other free films offered through Prime. 

Amazon Prime was one of the last holdouts on Apple TV, which lets outside developers create apps for their streaming service. The lack of access to Amazon's exclusive video content was a drawback and a reason for people to choose other streaming boxes, such as Roku or Amazon's Fire TV.

The launch also marks the end of a sparring match between two tech giants. In 2015, Amazon pulled Apple TVs from its online store. A year later, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos said that the reason why there was no Amazon Prime Video app was because of Apple's lack of "acceptable business terms," which observers took as a reference to Apple's App Store policy of taking a 30% cut of services sold within its apps. 

But the two companies seemingly reconciled and made the announcement earlier this year that the streaming video app would eventually land on Apple TV. Amazon's online store briefly listed Apple TV as a product in September, but Amazon does not currently sell Apple's TV box as of Wednesday morning.

SEE ALSO: Jeff Bezos explains why you can't buy an Apple TV or Chromecast on Amazon

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• Time magazine named its Person of the Year for 2017.
• Time chose the 'Silence Breakers,' the women and men who, in 2017, made moves against powerful men accused of sexual harassment and assault.
• The 'Silence Breakers' include Taylor Swift, Ashley Judd, Rose McGowan, Megyn Kelly, and Terry Crews.
• President Trump claimed in a November tweet that he was offered Person of the Year, but declined. Time denied this ever happened. Trump was named runner-up.

On Wednesday, Time magazine named its "Person of the Year": the "Silence Breakers" who were part of the #MeToo movement. In 2017, these 'Silence Breakers' came forward and took action against sexual harassment and assault that had previously gone unpunished.

The five women who appear on the Time cover are actress Ashley Judd, singer Taylor Swift, Uber engineer Susan Fowler, lobbyist Adama Iwu, and strawberry picker Isabel Pascual.

This year, all five women broke silence and told their stories of sexual assault or harassment.

Judd came forward to The New York Times with an accusation of sexual harassment against film producer Harvey Weinstein, which jump-started the #MeToo movement, and encouraged more women and men to come forward with similar accusations against powerful men including Brett Ratner, Kevin Spacey, and Louis C.K.

Swift went to trial with a DJ who she says groped her in 2013. After Swift came forward, the DJ lost his job and sued her for defamation. Swift sued back, for one dollar. The jury found the DJ guilty.

In February, Fowler wrote an essay in which she accused her manager at Uber of sexual harassment, sparking a wave of change at the company. She also accused upper management at Uber of threatening her after she made the accusation. 

Iwu, a lobbyist for Visa, started a campaign to expose sexual harassment in the California state government in Sacramento.

After the allegations against Harvey Weinstein surfaced, Pascual spoke out at a march in Los Angeles about being stalked and harassed in order to give a voice to women working in agriculture.

"The women and men who have broken their silence span all races, all income classes, all occupations and virtually all corners of the globe," Time wrote. "They might labor in California fields, or behind the front desk at New York City's regal Plaza Hotel, or in the European Parliament. They're part of a movement that has no formal name. But now they have a voice."

Other 'Silence Breakers' featured include Rose McGowan, Selma Blair, Terry Crews, Alyssa Milano, Sara Gelser, Wendy Walsh, and Megyn Kelly.

The lead-up to Time's unveiling of "Person of the Year" featured a bit of drama involving President Trump.

In November, Trump said in a tweet that he "took a pass" when Time called to say he was "probably" going to be its "Person of the Year." Time denied this ever occurred.

"The President is incorrect about how we choose Person of the Year," the magazine tweeted. "Time does not comment on our choice until publication, which is December 6." Trump was named Time's first runner-up.

Time's eventual choice for the highest honor is especially interesting in light of this, as multiple women have accused Trump himself of sexual harassment and assault.

SEE ALSO: 36 powerful men accused of sexual misconduct after Harvey Weinstein

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• Warner Bros. has passed the $5 billion mark at the worldwide box office in 2017.
• This is only the second time the studio has ever hit that milestone.

Despite a year in which Warner Bros. has had to navigate through the Brett Ratner sexual misconduct allegations, and the poor reviews and box office for "Justice League," the studio has some good news to celebrate.

Warner Bros. announced on Tuesday evening that it had surpassed the $5 billion mark at the worldwide box office in 2017.

That is only the second time in its history that the studio has crossed this major milestone. This puts Warner Bros. in second place only to Disney this year, which recently announced it had also crossed the $5 billion mark for the third year in a row.

2017 also marked a Warner Bros. record as five of its releases took in more than $500 million worldwide — "Wonder Woman," "Dunkirk," "Kong: Skull Island," "It," and "Justice League."

There may be more good fortune coming to Warner Bros. as award season heats up. "Wonder Woman" and "Dunkirk" are both strong contenders in both the below-the-line and major categories like best picture and best director.

SEE ALSO: Even a stellar performance by Meryl Streep can't elevate Steven Spielberg's "The Post" past its flaws

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It's time to look back on 2017 and see what happened at the multiplex. And for some titles it wasn't pretty.

Though 2017 found some success stories — like the early-year releases "Get Out" and "Split" from Blumhouse, the fall favorite "It," and presumably "Star Wars: The Last Jedi" when it comes out in mid-December — numerous titles were dead on arrival.

For every "Beauty and the Beast" and "Wonder Woman" in 2017, there was a dud like "CHiPs" and "mother!" that quickly followed.

Here are the 10 worst box-office earners of the year (compare them to our list from the halfway point).

Note: This selection is limited to only those titles released by the six major studios that have played in more than 2,000 screens for at least two weekends. Grosses below are all US earnings from Box Office Mojo.

SEE ALSO: RANKED: The 11 best movies of the year so far

10. "The House" — $25.5 million

Reported budget: $40 million 

(Note: Production budgets are estimates and do not include expenses for marketing and release.)

9. "Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Long Haul" — $20.7 million

Reported budget: $22 million

8. "CHiPs" — $18.6 million

Reported budget: $25 million

In 2017's biggest game, you parachute to an abandoned island with 100 real players. You're unarmed, and so is everyone else, but the island is rife with weaponry to be scavenged and used.

The goal once you land: Survive. 

That's the basic premise of "PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds," the biggest game of 2017: Be the last person standing of 100 in a massive fight to the death. With such a thrilling, Hunger Games-esque premise, it's no surprise that the game has been such a breakaway hit — it's the most-played game on the world's largest game service, Steam.

"PUBG" is only available on PC at the moment, but it's also on the cusp of launching on Xbox One (the game arrives December 12). Though "PUBG" has only featured the one main map since its soft launch back in March, a second map is about to be added — and we just got our first real look at it! Here's what we know about "Miramar," the second playable area in 2017's biggest game:

SEE ALSO: How to play 'PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds' — the most popular game of 2017 — on a Mac

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The first thing to notice about "Miramar" is that it's not an island.

As you can see along the western border, a sheer cliff keeps players from driving off into the distance. On the northern edge, it's not clear what keeps players from running beyond the boundaries — there may be an "invisible wall" gating players in, or something more natural (like a mountain or valley). 

Thematically, it's clear that Miramar is supposed to be in Mexico or Central/South America somewhere. The name "Miramar" means "sea view" (approximately) in Spanish, and the various areas on the map are clearly written in Spanish. ("El Pozo," for instance, is "The Hole.")

Unlike the tree-studded initial map in "PUBG," in Miramar the world is far more stark.

There are desert plants like cactus, but much of the terrain is sand as far as the eye can see. This oil refinery looks like a great place to get shot!

Whereas the game's first map had abandoned schools and such, Miramar has massive facilities like this.

Some of the best moments in "PUBG" are spent sneaking around massive abandoned places, trying to get the jump on players nearby. This massive facility looks like a great opportunity for exactly that kind of terrifying gameplay, where you can clearly hear footsteps nearby but can't tell where they're coming from. Imagine yourself with a sniper rifle, sitting atop one of those towers, capping fools from a safe distance!

In 2016, the former Fox News anchor Gretchen Carlson filed a sexual-harassment suit against Roger Ailes, the founder of Fox News. Carlson won a $20 million settlement and Ailes was eventually fired. But Carlson says most women's workplace sexual-harassment stories are kept secret because of a legal loophole.

Carlson is now introducing legislation that would get rid of arbitration clauses in employment contracts that many victims are forced to accept.  Following is a transcript of the video.

Gretchen Carlson: Now the woman's not working at the company anymore and the harasser can stay and nobody ever knows about it.

In 2016, Gretchen Carlson filed a sexual harassment lawsuit against Fox News founder Roger Ailes. Carlson's allegations led to his resignation and a $20 million settlement.

Carlson: So the Supreme Court ruled on arbitration clauses more than 20 years ago. Making them an accessible vehicle for corporations to put them in the contracts. So I guess the excuse was so that we wouldn't clog the courts with workplace disputes. The problem is that forced arbitration is secret. And so when a woman comes forward with a sexual harassment claim and she has a forced arbitration clause in her contract, nobody ever knows about it. She's basically given up her 7th Amendment right to an open jury process. And so she's sexually harassed, she files a claim, her claim goes to arbitration, the company in most cases picks the arbitrator. Only 20 percent of the time does the woman or the employee win.

There's not the same amount of witness, witnesses that you can call or depositions. And there are no appeals. So the biggest factor is the secrecy element. Now the woman’s not working at the company anymore and the harasser can stay and nobody ever knows about it. So that's inherently wrong to me. It's outrageous that women are being silenced in this way on this specific issue.

So what I've been trying to do on Capitol Hill is take the secrecy out of it. So I've been meeting with senators for the last year to try to make this a bipartisan effort. Nothing gets done on Capitol Hill right now. So I know and understand that we need to have bipartisan support on this for it to ever become a reality. And so on this issue Democrats tend to be on my side. I'm really working hard to get Republicans to at least do baby steps and get rid of the secrecy element. And wouldn't it be wonderful that we would come forward with a bill that would support women and might even wind up on Donald Trump's desk.

This video was originally published on October 24, 2017.

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