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A perfect moment of J.J. Abrams watching the 'Star Wars' trailer for the first time with a group of fans

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Saturday evening I headed over to Newark, New Jersey for, what was described as, a "nerd-off" between Stephen Colbert and "Star Wars" director J.J. Abrams. The event was part of the Montclair Film Festival's annual events.

During the conversation, the latest trailer for "The Force Awakens" was played for a crowd of over 2,000. As the trailer began to roll audience members could see Abrams, not as a director, but as a spectator to the anticipated film.

It's a moment any "Star Wars" fan will appreciate. 

jj abrams star wars

Here's a closer look:

jj abrams star wars

After the trailer played, Colbert turned to Abrams and asked, "Was this the first time you've watched that trailer with an audience of people?"

"It actually is," Abrams said to a stunned and excited crowd.

However, other than that initial moment, as Colbert's eyes were glued to the monitor above him, I was surprised to find Abrams avoided watching the trailer all together. 

Instead, his eyes darted anywhere but back up to the screen playing the trailer. He calmly took out a tiny water bottle and refilled his Stormtrooper mug on the side table next to him. At moments, he looked out toward the crowd, perhaps watching our reactions to the film which he has worked on for much of the past three years.

I wish I had a photo of it to share, but we were explicitly told to refrain from taking photos during the event. 

Later during the talk, Abrams admitted he's partially terrified, though excited, to see how fans react to the new film. But overall, he's ready for the movie to be out in the world already. 

"The truth is, working on this movie for the past nearly three years, it's been like living with the greatest roommate in history for too long," said Abrams. "Meaning, it's time for him to get his own place. It's been the greatest, and I can't tell you how much I want him to get out into the world and meet other people because we know each other really well."

"'Star Wars' is bigger than any of us," he added. "And to get to be involved in this in any way is a true honor and it needs to be out there for the people. Of course, at turns, I'm thrilled beyond words and I'm terrified more than I can say."

"Star Wars: The Force Awakens" is in theaters December 18, 2015.

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Amazon covered New York subway cars with Nazi-like insignia to advertise its new show (AMZN)

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man in the high castle subway ad

Amazon has a new video series coming out about what it would be like if the Axis powers had won World War II and America was under German and Japanese control.

To simulate what that control might be like, Amazon decked out a New York City S train with images of the US flag with a German imperial eagle and iron crosses on one side and Japanese rising-sun flags on the other.

While the Amazon images don't actually feature the Nazi swastika, the version of the eagle and cross is very similar to the eagle emblem used during the Third Reich. 

The marketing campaign definitely conveys the point of  "The Man in the High Castle"— what our life would be like if the US had lost the war — but some commuters are not so happy to be finding themselves surrounded by Nazi-like insignia when getting on the train.

“Half the seats in my car had Nazi insignia inside an American flag, while the other half had the Japanese flag in a style like the World War II design,” one subway rider told The Gothamist. “So I had a choice, and I chose to sit on the Nazi insignia because I really didn’t want to stare at it.”

 The MTA confirmed to the Gothamist that the ads had been approved and were scheduled to run through mid-December. We've reached out to Amazon for comment and will update if we hear back.

SEE ALSO: Chinese woman missing for 10 years is found living in an internet cafe

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NOW WATCH: Maybe working at Amazon is hard for a reason










Google has an amazing hidden 'Star Wars' joke right in the search engine (GOOG, GOOGL)

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Google's "Star Wars" love is in full swing, just weeks ahead of the release of "Star Wars: The Force Awakens."

And beyond the "Light Side/Dark Side" makeovers that Google brought to its apps on Monday, there's one more little Easter egg waiting for you, hidden right inside the search engine.

Just go to Google.com on any of your devices, type in "A long time ago in a galaxy far far away," and enjoy your search results, presented in that signature "Star Wars" opening crawl style. It even plays the theme song.

Check it out:

star wars google

And for comparison, here's the opening to 1977's "Star Wars: A New Hope:"

Disappointingly, it doesn't seem as if you can trick Google into displaying other search results by adding anything after the search terms.

And since I can't think of a good "Star Wars" joke to end on, let's just enjoy the newest "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" TV commercial together, one more time:

Of course, if you'd rather kiss a Wookiee, that can be arranged.

NOW WATCH: There's an awesome easter egg when you Google "a long time ago in a galaxy far far away."

SEE ALSO: Google has given its apps a 'Star Wars' makeover

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The Bill Murray movie 'Rock the Kasbah' is the biggest flop of the year

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rock the kasbahNot even Bill Murray could save this film from tanking.

Forbes named "Rock the Kasbah," which also features Kate Hudson, Bruce Willis, and Zooey Deschanel, the biggest flop of 2015. 

In the film, Murray portrays a washed-up rock-music manager who finds a talented girl in Kabul and attempts to help her win a singing competition similar to "American Idol." The film received mostly negative reviews and only holds an 8% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

The site's consensus reads: "The Shareef don't like 'Rock the Kasbah,' and neither will viewers hoping for a film that manages to make effective use of Bill Murray's knack for playing lovably anarchic losers."

The film brought in $2.9 million and the estimated production budget was $15 million, leaving the film with only a 19% return on its cost. 

The film also holds the No. 5 spot for the worst wide opening (2,000-2,499 theaters) since 1982 on Box Office Mojo

Forbes looked at films' box-office returns and production budgets to determine which of this year's films were the least profitable as of November 18. They also only looked at films that opened in more than 2,000 theaters.  

Other films that made the list include "The Gunman," "Jupiter Ascending," "Aloha," and "Tomorrowland." 

Watch the trailer for "Rock the Kasbah" below:

SEE ALSO: Bill Murray parties with George Clooney and Miley Cyrus in new Netflix Christmas special trailer

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'Game of Thrones' author George R.R. Martin said Donald Trump is 'wrong' about the Syrian Refugees

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RTR3Y1EJ

“Game of Thrones” series writer George R.R. Martin took time off finishing his latest novel “Words of Winter” to write a post on his LiveJournal in favor of letting in Syrian refugees to the United States.

“Donald Trump and thirty-one governors have it wrong, wrong, wrong,” Martin writes in his post, which now has nearly 300 comments. “The Syrian refugees are as much victims of ISIS as the dead in France.”

The post comes after leaders from Texas, South Carolina, Michigan, Indiana, and others demanded the Obama administration suspend plans to resettle Syrian refugees in their states, with some going as far as to say they would independently block the resettlement.

In his post, Martin prominently references the poem “The New Colossus” by Emma Lazarus that’s printed on the base of the Statue of Liberty. He said the statue, which was given to the United States by France, is an important symbol, especially given the recent terrorist attacks in France.

Here’s the poem in full, originally created to support the initial fundraising to get the statue erected:

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,

With conquering limbs astride from land to land;

Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand

A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame

Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name

Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand

Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command

The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.

"Keep ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she

With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,

I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

Statue of Liberty

Martin called out specifically the line “her beacon hand, glows world-wide welcome” and wondered if the governors and congressmen speaking out against taking in the refugees had read what’s at the base of the statue.

“For me, Lady Liberty and the words on her base represent the best of what this nation of immigrants is all about,” Martin wrote. “One has to wonder if all the governors (including our own governor here in New Mexico, I am ashamed to say) and congressmen voting to keep out the Syrian refugees have ever visited the Statue, or read the words on her base. If so, they surely failed to understand them.”

While many people on Twitter are congratulating Martin for his views, some of his LiveJournal commenters are less than thrilled.

“The words on the Statue of Liberty were written before we had a welfare state,” one commenter wrote. “If you want them so much, why don't you let them stay at your house and you can pay for their medical bills. I'm sure you can afford it."

“Surprised that a writer so good at teasing out the moral complexity of complicated situations in his books has such a simplistic view of a real world issue, where real lives are at steak [sic],” another person said. “Surprised and disappointed.”

Martin responded to some of these comments, arguing, “Real lives are at stake. The lives of hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees driven from their homes by war. Many of them women and children. That's the whole point. There's a moral imperative here.”

Jon Snow

In his novels, Martin has also written about immigrants in the form of the wildlings or free folk who live beyond the Wall in the North. When they come south fleeing a group of terrifying creatures called the White Walkers, Martin's character Jon Snow strikes a deal to let them into Westeros as refugees. Snow argues the free folk will help fight the White Walkers as well as assimilate to the Seven Kingdoms' culture.

And though his Sworn Brothers of the Night's Watch disagree, it seems Martin has a similar world view to his character.

History has demonstrated many times that immigrants revitalize a society, and create much more than they take,” Martin wrote about the Syrian refugees. “The sort of ‘they are just a bunch of lazy leeches’ sentiment [people] are expressing here was also directed at the Irish, the Italians, the Germans, the Polish, the Chinese, and many other immigrant groups in the past, all of whom over time have vastly enriched the culture of America. I have no doubt that the same will prove true of the Syrians.”

You can read the whole LiveJournal post here.

h/t Mashable

SEE ALSO: Stephen Colbert rips apart GOP’s anti-refugee stance by quoting Bible

MORE: HBO just released a 'Game of Thrones' season 6 poster and it's driving Jon Snow fans crazy

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NOW WATCH: Here's what 'Game of Thrones' superfans think happened to Jon Snow










Justin Bieber just broke a record set by the Beatles and Drake

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Bieber

Justin Bieber's comeback-album rollout is off to a very, very promising start.

After the singer's latest, "Purpose," debuted at No. 1 on Billboard's album chart, he has just broken a record previously held by the Beatles and Drake.

That's because on the current Hot 100 song chart, Bieber has an impressive 17 songs — the most of any artist ever in a single week, as Billboard reports.

The Beatles held the record for most singles in a week on the Hot 100 for over 50 years. They had 14 titles on the chart at the height of Beatlemania, in 1964. Drake equaled that achievement this year.

But they're no match, apparently, for Bieber, who was helped by the fact that he released a music video for each of the songs on his album (the chart now takes into account streaming numbers).

Bieber's current top single, "Sorry," is No. 2 on the Hot 100. (He still has to play second fiddle to Adele, after all.)

SEE ALSO: Justin Bieber is having a major comeback — how he went from getting arrested to back on top in one year

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'Star Wars: The Force Awakens' actors reveal how they kept spoilers secret

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force awakens

Keeping facts about "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" under wraps has been an intense process, one that didn't even allow cast members to take scripts home.

Director J.J. Abrams and cast members John Boyega, Adam Driver, Daisy Ridley, and Carrie Fisher appeared on "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" Monday night and gave some behind-the-scenes insights.

Boyega, who plays Finn, said he was nervous about losing the script but wasn't allowed to take it home during the audition process. "We had to go to Pinewood [studio] and learn our lines and then go home," he said. "I felt like I was living a double life like Batman." 

Abrams added that Boyega had to audition eight or nine different times, so it was a long ordeal.

Kimmel asked the cast if they were signed on for the other films. Boyega responded simply, "I don't know what you're talking about." So Kimmel turned to Fisher (General Leia) for information about the ending. After jokingly whispering in his ear, she said aloud, "It involves nudity."  

During the interview, Abrams revealed the first spoken word in "The Force Awakens": "This." Abrams also introduced a clip of the Finn and Rey running through the desert planet of Jakku. 

Watch the cast talk behind-the-scenes stories below: 

Watch Fisher whisper about the ending:  

Watch Abrams talk about the first spoken word in the film:

SEE ALSO: Google has an amazing hidden 'Star Wars' joke right in the search engine

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Here's what everyone gets wrong about the WWE being fake










Why it took 8 years for Amazon's 'Man in the High Castle' to make it to the screen

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MITHC_102_00300 Rufus Sewell

"The Man in the High Castle" is one of the most acclaimed new shows of the moment, but its road to Amazon took eight long years.

The 1962 Philip K. Dick novel certainly had interested parties who considered producing it, but they all seemed to fall out. In depicting a world in which the Nazis won World War II, the TV series would be both expensive to produce and full of symbols (like swastikas) that may not be easy for an audience to swallow (as the ads for the Amazon show are already proving).

At one point, it looked like a series would never happen.

"It was just a really impossible sell," Philip K. Dick's daughter Isa Hackett recently told Business Insider. "We were so sad because our team had always been so devoted to this idea of doing this particular adaptation in this form. We sort of acknowledged that we’re all going to have to go on our way, and it was sad."

About a month later, all that would change.

Here's the eight-year path "The Man in the High Castle" took from book to TV show:

SEE ALSO: Amazon's 'Man in the High Castle' TV series has made Philip K. Dick's original book a bestseller

MORE: Here's why Amazon didn't save NBC's 'Hannibal'

2006: "Blade Runner" director Ridley Scott signs on as executive producer

Ridley Scott directed 1982's "Blade Runner," starring Harrison Ford. He had since created the production company Scott Free Productions. Hackett believed Scott could really make "The Man in the High Castle" TV series great.

“'Blade Runner' was Ridley, which was of course probably the most important cinematic adaptation of my dad’s work. It's an acknowledged classic," she said. "So I thought that would be the place to start with, right? To go and see whether they were interested in doing this for television."

And indeed they were: Scott Free Productions is responsible for the Amazon series all these years later.



2010: BBC comes aboard

In 2010, the public would first hear of a TV series adaptation of "The Man in the High Castle." BBC ordered a miniseries take on the book.

"The idea was to adapt the full novel in four hours," Hackett remembered. She then said "a lot happened along the way."

That included the death of their first writer, Frank Deasy. "It was so sad and tragic," Hackett said.

Howard Brenton, a playwright and writer on TV series "MI5," then came on to the project and wrote the first two hours.

But BBC passed on the series and the team had to look for a new home for the series.



2013: Syfy starts from scratch

It would take a few years, but "The Man in the High Castle" would find its next home across the pond at science-fiction channel Syfy. But it wanted to tear the show down and build again from the ground up.

But it would also help to bring in a key team member, writer and producer Frank Spotnitz, who was a major voice on "The X-Files."

"They wanted to bring in a US writer, and that’s when we brought Frank in," Hackett said. "So he adapted the first two hours. We started from scratch."

In the end, though, Syfy would ultimately pass on the project.

"So we were sort of at the end there with having gone out to literally every network and cabler that existed at that point in time and tried to set it up and nobody wanted it," she continued.

"Let me back up. It’s not that they didn’t want it, it’s that they felt that they couldn’t do it, and it was really about a combination of things, which was the cost of it — because you can imagine the cost of creating these worlds, and really three distinct worlds within the story — and the subject matter, which is very dark."

 



See the rest of the story at Business Insider









Meet the 12 most powerful women on the planet

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Angela Merkel

Business Insider recently released a ranking of the 50 most powerful people in the world— the men and women who command the most influence and authority right now.

We looked at more than 100 of the top leaders in business, politics, entertainment, and tech. We evaluated their influence based on metrics in four major areas: economic power, command, newsworthiness, and impact — a subjective measure that captures how important they are in their respective spheres (see our full methodology here).

To spotlight the women who are breaking barriers and transforming industries, countries, and companies, we broke out a separate list of the world's most powerful women, including the nine women who made our top 50 as well as several near misses.

While more women than ever have ascended to the top echelons of power — Park Geun-hye and Dilma Rousseff are the first female presidents of South Korea and Brazil, respectively — gender equality is still a long way off. Less than 5% of S&P 500 companies are led by female CEOs, and according to the World Economic Forum, it could take another 118 years to erase the global gender pay gap. 

Considering the systemic obstacles working against them, the accomplishments of these women — who are role models simply by dint of their positions — warrant special mention.

Scroll down to meet the 12 most powerful women on the planet.

Editing by Alex Morrell; additional research by Andy Kiersz.

SEE ALSO: The 50 most powerful people in the world

12. Isabel Dos Santos

Title: Businesswoman and investor

Country: Angola

Age: 42

Not only is Isabel Dos Santos the daughter of the president of Angola, she's also Africa's first female billionaire, amassing a net worth of at least $3.4 billion at a time when the average Angolan lives on just $2 a day.

Her wealth stems primarily from investments in Angolan and Portuguese conglomerates, including Unitel, one of Angola's largest telecom companies, and Portugal's Banco BPI. In June, she bought a 65% stake in Portuguese power components manufacturer Efacec Power Solutions for more than $220 million. 

Thanks to her savvy business moves and considerable wealth, Dos Santos' words can move markets: In March she reportedly suggested a merger between Banco BPI and Millennium BCP, another bank in Portugal, causing the share prices of both banks to surge to their highest levels since the end of 2014.



11. Meg Whitman

Title: CEO of Hewlett Packard Enterprise, chair of HP Inc.

Country: US

Age: 59

After taking the helm of IT company Hewlett Packard in 2011 amid internal corporate scandals, Meg Whitman set out to overhaul the company and revive its declining profits and revenues. She wrote off fruitless acquisitions, implemented thousands of layoffs, and ultimately split HP into two separate Fortune 500 companies, a change that took effect November 1. Whitman now serves as CEO of new brand Hewlett Packard Enterprises, which will focus on software and tech services, and is the chairman of HP Inc., which will center on personal computers and printers.

Previously the longtime CEO of e-commerce site eBay, Whitman’s personal net worth sits at a sizable $2.1 billion. When she took the position at eBay, the company only had 30 employees and $4 million in revenue, but by the time she left 10 years later, eBay was generating $8 billion in annual revenue and employed more than 15,000 people.

Whitman’s no stranger to politics either. Back in 2010, she unsuccessfully ran for governor of California, famously spending more of her own money on the campaign — at least $119 million — than any other self-funded politician in history.



10. Hillary Clinton

Title: Former US Secretary of State, 2016 presidential candidate

Country: US

Age: 68

Hillary Clinton has come a long way since her stint as first lady, and she could find herself back in the White House if she wins the 2016 presidential election. The Democratic front-runner has support from an impressive 56% of her party, according to a November 13 poll by Reuters. This comes even after the "emailgate" scandal that revealed she had been using a personal email account instead of a government email while she served as secretary of state, showing that even despite her mistakes, her experience and popularity could still land her in office.

Clinton was the first female senator in New York and the first and so far only first lady to run for president herself. In addition to several high-profile endorsements from school unions, Clinton recently earned the support of the SEIU, a labor union two million members strong. As her list of backers continues to swell and her electoral chances improve, so does her sway and influence in American politics. 



See the rest of the story at Business Insider








'Don't do this': Bill O'Reilly lectures Donald Trump over racial retweet

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bill o'reilly donald trump

Fox News host Bill O'Reilly confronted real-estate mogul Donald Trump on Monday for a controversial tweet Trump shared last weekend.

Trump retweeted an image purporting to give crime statistics broken down by race.

But as O'Reilly noted, the numbers were wildly inaccurate. The source was the Crime Statistics Bureau, an entity that doesn't exist, according to PolitiFact.

"This bothered me, I got to tell you," O'Reilly told Trump. "You tweeted out that whites [are] killed by blacks … at a rate of 81%. And that's totally wrong. [The percentage of] whites killed by blacks is 15%."

Trump quickly distanced himself from the Sunday tweet, which he has yet to delete from his account.

"Bill, I didn't tweet. I retweeted somebody that was supposedly an expert," he said. "Am I going to check every statistic? I get millions and millions of people."

The two proceeded to talk over each other.

"You're a presidential contender, you've got to check," O'Reilly told Trump of his tweets.

"You know what? Fine," Trump replied. "But this came out of radio shows and everything else. All it was was a retweet."

"Oh come on. Radio shows?" O'Reilly asked.

"Excuse me," Trump interjected. "All it was is a retweet, it wasn't from me, and it did: It came out of a radio show and other places."

O'Reilly ended that back-and-forth by lecturing Trump on what he should do to avoid giving ammunition to his rivals. Trump has had multiple other retweets that generated controversy, including one that featured Nazi imagery.

"You know I'm looking out for you, right? You know that?" O'Reilly said. "I look out for every honest politician, I don't care what party they're in. Don't do this. Don't put your name on stuff like this. Because it makes the other side — it gives them stuff to tell the ill-informed voter that you're a racist. I mean, you just handed them a platter!"

"This was a retweet," Trump repeated. "This was a retweet. This was a retweet. And it came from sources that are very credible."

"You shouldn't be tweeting! Don't tweet! Give it up for Lent," O'Reilly told him.

Earlier in their conversation, Trump also said, "I'm probably the least racist person on Earth."

Watch below:

SEE ALSO: Bill O'Reilly confronts Donald Trump after Fox News boycott: 'You have to be kind of presidential'

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Adele had no idea how live 'Saturday Night Live' was going to get

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adele jimmy fallon snl.JPG

Adele admitted on Monday's "Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon" that she was surprised just how live NBC's "Saturday Night Live" really is.

"I was so nervous. That show is so live," the British singer said. "It's really, actually live."

Fallon, an "SNL" alum, of course knew what she was talking about. "It's really live, yeah. Like actually, actually live."

The singer appeared on the sketch-comedy show last Saturday to perform two songs from her latest album, "25." Matthew McConaughey hosted and as if the pressure wasn't already high, the show did a fun Thanksgiving parody about how universally loved her music is.

What was Adele afraid of? "You just think something is going to go wrong," she explained.

There was one moment, though, that the singer didn't intend to be broadcast to millions of people: her look of relief after a flawless performance of her single, "Hello."

adele snl hello face

"I had no idea I was still being filmed," the 27-year-old said.

Watch the interview below:

SEE ALSO: 'Saturday Night Live' perfectly parodied how much everyone loves Adele

MORE: Adele's '25' sold 2.3 million copies in just 3 days, on track to beat all-time record

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NOW WATCH: Here's why Adele is the most popular musician on the planet










Wall Street is not going to like the 'Big Short' movie

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The Big Short Jaap Buitendijk Paramount

"The Big Short" debuted at the Ziegfeld Theater in Midtown Manhattan on Monday evening, and Wall Street is not going to like it.

It's not because the movie makes Goldman Sachs bankers look super obnoxious, or that the whole narrative of the film is, "Blame the banks!"

Wall Street won't like it because ultimately the movie is a poorly executed explainer of the 2007-2008 financial crisis.

I had high expectations going in that the film would be one of my favorite Wall Street-themed movies to date, given that it's based on Michael Lewis' best-selling book by the same title, one of the best books about the crisis.

The trailer is awesome. The cast is made up of some of the best actors in Hollywood, including Academy Award winner Christian Bale, Steve Carell, Ryan Gosling, and Brad Pitt. And the acting is stellar.

"The Big Short" is a remarkable, mostly true story that chronicles a group of Wall Street outsiders who saw what no one else saw coming — the housing crash. This group made millions betting against subprime housing by buying up credit-default swaps on mortgage bonds.

But what ruined the experience for me was when the movie would cut to bizarre, comedic monologues in which a random celebrity would attempt to explain a piece of financial jargon.

One featured "Wolf of Wall Street" star Margot Robbie in a bubble bath explaining what it means to "short" something.

Another featured celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain cutting up three-day-old fish for a seafood stew while explaining how banks repackaged crappy mortgages into bonds. Even pop singer and actress Selena Gomez made an appearance — alongside economist Richard Thaler — going over how a collateralized debt obligation works while playing blackjack in Las Vegas.

Of course, reading about credit-default swaps and collateralized debt obligations is difficult enough, and even Lewis seemed surprised that someone wanted to make a movie about the book.

"One problem I distinctly did NOT worry about when I wrote The Big Short was how to write it so that it would become a movie. Who'd make a movie about credit-default swaps? Who for that matter would make a movie of any book of mine?" Lewis recently wrote in Vanity Fair.

But these scenes took away from the story, and while you need to find a fun way to explain something that seems incredibly complicated to the masses, this tactic missed the mark for me.

It was still a great night, and except for Bale, all the stars were there.

We've included some photo highlights of the evening below.

From left, actor Finn Wittrock, author Michael Lewis, actors Jeremy Strong and Steve Carell, director Adam McKay, actor Ryan Gosling, chairman and CEO of Paramount Pictures Brad Grey, and actors Brad Pitt and John Magaro.



Carell played FrontPoint Partners hedge fund manager Mark Baum, a character based on the real-life Steve Eisman.



Gosling played Deutsche Bank trader Jared Vennett, based on the real-life Greg Lippmann.



See the rest of the story at Business Insider








Sarah Palin says Louis C.K. is 'lovely' for apologizing for foul tweets about her

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sarah palin louis ck seth meyers nbc

Louis C.K. can sleep well now that he knows all is good between him and Sarah Palin.

In 2010, the comedian and TV star went on a drunken Twitter tirade about the former vice presidential candidate while flying to LA for "The Tonight Show." The tweets used strong and sexual language about Palin.

In April, C.K. revealed that he apologized to Palin during the "Saturday Night Live" 40th-anniversary special in February, because "something came over me emotionally."

Well, Palin had her chance to comment on the apology during Tuesday's "Late Night with Seth Meyers."

"I hadn't even known he had said something crude. Get in line. Who hasn't?" Palin joked. 

She went on to explain how touched she was by the gesture.

"Of all the celebrities who, yeah, had said some things, weren't always the nicest things in the world, he's the only one that has ever apologized like that. It was lovely."

Watch the interview below:

SEE ALSO: Palin: Immigrants in US should 'speak American'

MORE: Louis C.K. is completely unrecognizable in this poster for the new Bryan Cranston movie

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Here's The Hilarious 'Between Two Ferns' Video With Brad Pitt And Louis C.K.










Here's how to experience the next generation of media for just $20 — and where to find the best immersive content for free

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Google Cardboard

Samsung has just released its Gear VR, the first real consumer headset for virtual reality, and the reviews are stellar. But if you don't have one of the few smartphones that it supports (Galaxy S6, Note 5, etc.), or the money to spend, the Gear VR hype can just be frustrating. 

But luckily there is a way to get set up with a basic virtual reality experience for only $20: Google Cardboard.

Google Cardboard headsets are basic virtual reality goggles made out of cardboard — and they actually work. All you have to do is velcro your smartphone in place, and you're ready to go (it works with both iPhone and Android). You can then look and move around while inside spherical 3D videos or games.

And if you've never experienced that, it can be jaw-dropping.

While the quality on Google Cardboard will not be as good as on something like the Gear VR — which features highly accurate head-tracking sensors powered by the team behind the Oculus Rift — the platform will certainly give you a novel experience, and has some prominent supporters. In fact, The New York Times recently sent all its Sunday print edition subscribers a pair. The Times wants people to be able to watch all its new virtual reality content.

google cardboardBut if you're not a Times subscriber, you can snag a Google Cardboard for only around $20 from several manufacturers. I Am Cardboard is a reliable one ($19.99), but there are many most listed here.

Once you have the Cardboard, it's time to find virtual reality videos and games. 

We've selected the best ones for you. Here are 10 free Google Cardboard apps that will give you an eye-opening introduction to virtual reality. 

 

Polar Sea 360 is 10-part series that drops you into the breathtaking Arctic to see the lives of sailors, scientists, and the others that brave the wilderness.

Download for iOS or Android.



War of Words VR puts you in the middle of the war that inspired Siegfried Sassoon's poem, "The Kiss," while reading it to you.

Download for iOS or Android.



VRSE gives you polished virtual reality videos from the likes of Vice, NBC, The New York Times, and prominent filmmakers.

Download for iOS or Android.



See the rest of the story at Business Insider








Amazon pulls Nazi-like 'Man in the High Castle' ads from New York subways

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The Man in the High Castle

As a result of uproar over its "Man in the Castle" ads on New York subway cars, Amazon is set to pull the promotion.

“Amazon has just decided to pull the ads,” Kevin Ortiz, a spokesman for New York City Transit and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, told Variety on Tuesday.

Business Insider reached out to representatives for "Man in the High Castle" for comment.

As BI previously reportedAmazon wrapped some subway cars on New York City's Shuttle line between Times Square and Grand Central with images of the US flag with a German imperial eagle and iron crosses on one side and Japanese rising-sun flags on the other.

While the imagery doesn't actually feature the Nazi swastika, the version of the eagle and cross is very similar to the eagle emblem used by the Third Reich. 

The marketing campaign does reflect the series, which depicts what the world would be like if the Allies lost World War II. In the alternate world of "Man in the High Castle," Germany occupied the Eastern United States while Japan had the West.

SEE ALSO: Why it took 8 years for Amazon's 'Man in the High Castle' to make it to the screen

MORE: Amazon's 'Man in the High Castle' TV series has made Philip K. Dick's original book a bestseller

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This tech recruiter owns the most hipster cat on Instagram

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Hamilton

For all the interviews Jay Stowe does as a tech recruiter in San Francisco, he'll always have one good icebreaker line: He owns the most famous hipster cat on Instagram. 

As the head of talent at Luxe, an on-demand parking service, Stowe juggles life in the startup world with a second life surrounded by cats on Instagram.

Meet Hamilton, the hipster cat.

During the mustache hysteria over the past few years, Hamilton's fame soared, before Stowe did something drastic: He gave it all away to charity. 

Meet the most famous hipster cat and his owner who has worked to give it all back to the shelter that gave him his best friend. 

SEE ALSO: Political heavyweights are exiting DC to find a new home in Silicon Valley

Stowe had cats growing up, but was looking to get one in his own life. At the shelter, there were only two male kittens. One was the super quintessential playful cuddly kitten and then there was Hamilton, who was curled up in the corner of his cage. Any time you went near him he would hiss at you, Stowe says. A volunteer at the Humane Society of Silicon Valley picked him up and put him in Stowe's hands and he immediately fell asleep. "I couldn't leave without him," Stowe says.



Hamilton, though, is a feral cat, meaning he was born and raised without contact from humans. When Stowe brought him home, he lived in the bathroom for the first month, never leaving his box. At 3 a.m. one night, Stowe heard him meowing loudly so he let him out — only to have Hamilton relocate to living in his closet.



It took another month until Hamilton started cuddling with Stowe. That's when he started taking photos and created an Instagram for his cat. "I think his first picture got 100 likes in 10 minutes. My friends knew he was taking off and I was like 'Oh, that's cool,'" Stowe says. "It didn't really dawn on me that he was going to become internet famous at the time. It was just a fun thing for me to post and see all the comments and see how much people were enjoying it."



See the rest of the story at Business Insider








'Creed' is the perfect 'Rocky' sequel, because it's totally different

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Creed

The best sequels consist of two things: You never asked for them, and they don't feel like a sequel in the slightest.

You can call "Creed," the latest installment of the eternal "Rocky" franchise, whatever you want. It's a sequel; it's a spinoff; it's a reboot. It's also undeniably one of the most masterful blockbusters of the year.

The "Rocky" universe is a small place, mostly set in Philadelphia with the occasional trip to Siberia. "Creed" adds a lot of new characters within a mostly familiar setting. Adonis Johnson Creed (Michael B. Jordan) is the son of the late Apollo Creed, the legendary boxer who took on Rocky Balboa several times in the previous films. 

Adonis never met his father, but takes after him in many ways. Adonis lives a pampered Los Angeles lifestyle and is about to get a big promotion, but he has the instinct to fight — which, in the end, is what wins out. He abandons all his possessions and moves to Philadelphia where he asks Rocky Balboa (Sylvester Stallone) to train him.

Creed Warner Bros

For die-hard movie fans, "Creed" is full of payoffs (and training montages). It plays predictability perfectly to its favor. It also succeeds at the smart self-awareness that "Jurassic World" attempted this past summer.

In "Creed," characters grapple with the idea of legacy and trying to create something new when people expect something old from you. This is the story of a man who denies his lineage so much that he won't even go by his real last name.

"Creed" clearly wants to take the 39-year-old franchise in a new direction.

It is the first film not written by Stallone and also not containing the word "Rocky" in the title. Yet it's a paradise of references. It lingers on one shot of a turtle, and then another of eggs, but they come with a wink. The beauty of "Creed" is that you can walk into it with little knowledge of the Italian Stallion and still leave with tears in your eyes.

Creed Movie

Director and co-writer Ryan Coogler gives "Creed" the fresh pair of eyes it needed. This is only Coogler's second feature following "Fruitvale Station."

Unlike many other young directors, Coogler doesn't surrender control in the leap from indie to a studio feature. In fact, he has the confidence of a pro. The scenes out on the street and in the gym are shot with grit, but the film contains so much humor and humanity. Meanwhile, all of the boxing scenes are shot like an HBO fight. If this is a re-launch of an Adonis Creed-led franchise (and I believe it will be), then Coogler has flawlessly given it a voice.

Creed Movie

"Creed" grapples with its legacy and predecessors in such a fascinating way. Adonis only knows his father through YouTube clips of his fights with Rocky. This might also be the way that a lot of people are familiar with the original films. The references aren't just there for cheap nostalgia; they show how "Rocky" has become part of the cultural consciousness. In "Creed," Balboa's best days are now folklore. The original "Rocky" feels that way, too. "Creed" is here to prove that the movies can still bring force (pun intended).

Stallone gives a heartfelt and passionate performance as a man trying to make the best of his circumstances. Meanwhile, Michael B. Jordan gives the second-generation Creed so many layers. He is tough yet vulnerable enough to show how hurt he is deep down.

"Creed" is a perfect sequel because it doesn't feel like one. Between the training montages and the return of some very well-known music, "Creed" is great for "Rocky" fans. But it's even better for people who are about to become "Rocky" fans.

"Creed" is in theaters on November 25.

SEE ALSO: 'Mockingjay — Part 2' gives Jennifer Lawrence a triumphant end to the 'Hunger Games' movies

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Here's everything leaving Netflix in December that you need to watch

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batman begins 2005 62 g

The holiday season is a time to spread love to all, but sadly, in December, you'll have to do it without the help of these movies.

The latest batch leaving Netflix includes “Batman Begins,” “The Great Escape,” “Labyrinth,” and "Silence of the Lambs."

Below are the rest. We’ve bolded some we think you should watch one more time.

Leaving 12/1/15

“All About Eve”
“Batman Begins”
“Beverly Hills Cop III”
“Brian's Song” (1971)
“Brian's Song” (2001)
“The Brothers Grimm” (2005)
“The Burbs”
“Cop Land”
“Damien: Omen II”
“The Dark Crystal”
“Employee of the Month”
“Forces of Nature”
“Get Low”
“The Great Escape”
“The High and the Mighty”
“The Hustler”
“Insomnia”
“Juice”
“K-19: The Widowmaker”
“Labyrinth”

labyrinth“Last Night”
“Left Behind II: Tribulation Force”
“Modern Problems”
“My Best Friend's Wedding”
“Necessary Roughness”
“The Omen”
“Omen III: The Final Conflict”
“The Paw Project”
“The Pink Panther 2”
“R.L. Stine's Mostly Ghostly”
“R.L. Stine's The Haunting Hour: Don't Think About It”
“Shrink”
“Silence of the Lambs”
“Soapdish”
“Trek Nation”
“Two Can Play That Game”

Leaving 12/4/15

“Mickey Mouse Clubhouse: Road Rally”

Leaving 12/6/15

“360”
“The Oogieloves in the Big Balloon Adventure”

Leaving 12/9/15

“C.O.G.”

Leaving 12/10/15

“Ultimate Spider-Man: Season 2”

Leaving 12/11/15

“The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes: Season 2”
“Rescue Me” (Seasons 1-7)

Leaving 12/12/15

“Why Did I Get Married?”

Leaving 12/13/15

“How to Build a Better Boy”)
“Thor & Loki: Blood Brothers”

Leaving 12/15/15

“Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason”

Leaving 12/17/15

“Underclassman”

Leaving 12/21/15

“Red Hook Summer”

Leaving 12/24/15

“Una Noche”

Leaving 12/30/15

“Bronies: The Extremely Unexpected Adult Fans of My Little Pony”

SEE ALSO: 27 gifts for the "Harry Potter" fan in your life

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The most famous people at every moment over the past decade

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beyonce smile

Where Britney Spears' popularity peaked between 2007 and 2008, Beyonce has seen a stable increase since 2004 according to a "Timeline of Fame" infographic.

The graphic was created by Martin Vargic, 17, a Slovakian artist, graphic designer, and creator of Halcyon Maps. The "Timeline of Fame" uses information from Google Trends to determine a celebrity's popularity level over several years. 

Vargic told Business Insider in an email that the timeline starts with January 2004 because that's when Google Trends began, and examines data every three months.

"I tried to include as much of the most iconic famous people, mostly from the fields of art and politics, in the chart as possible, though because of limited space, I had to limit it to a few dozen of the most iconic figures of the last decade," Vargic said.

He added, "It was surprising to see, for example, how much more famous Britney Spears and Paris Hilton were in their heyday compared with many celebrities nowadays, such as Kim Kardashian, and how long exactly many of the present-day celebrities have been in the public eye."

Looking at the chart, Taylor Swift began to emerge in 2007 following the release of her debut album, "Taylor Swift," in 2006. She has continuously increased in popularity, peaking in years when she was on tour promoting her albums. 

Few artists, such as Beyonce, Shakira, and Michael Jackson, have managed to stay around since 2004. 

You can examine the infographic below: 

timeline of fame

SEE ALSO: Adele's '25' sells more copies in first week than any other album ever

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'Guardians of the Galaxy 2' director slams people trying to divulge spoilers

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chris pratt guardians of the galaxy

Earlier today Heroic Hollywood posted a video in which its founder Umberto Gonzales (who is notorious for scoring scoops in the fanboy world — he was the first to report "Jurassic World" director Colin Trevorrow would helm "Star Wars: Episode IX") seemed to break some huge "Guardians of the Galaxy" news. Gonzales claimed to reveal the identity of Peter Quill's father, a question raised in "Guardians" that could be a major plot point in the sequel, "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2."

That has now been countered by a Facebook post by the franchise's director James Gunn.

"The rumors surrounding Quill’s parentage at the present moment are completely false, and aren’t even close to the truth," Gunn wrote.

Gunn also said in the post that he's going to "stop commenting on any rumors surrounding Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2" until the movie opens in May 2017.

In the past, Gunn has taken to social media to debunk rumors that hit the internet. But it looks like this is the last straw.

"I got in this business because I love movies, and I think most film journalists are the same way. And spoiling plot details doesn’t add to the enjoyment of the film-going experience," Gunn wrote.

Read his complete post below.

 

SEE ALSO: "Guardians of the Galaxy" director pleads with Joss Whedon's internet trolls in an epic Facebook post

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