In the summer of 1997, Lynne Spears brought her then-15-year-old daughter Britney to New York City in order to audition for three record labels in hopes of becoming "the next big thing."

"She came in, warbled 'I Will Always Love You,' and I couldn't wait for it to end," said Michael Caplan, Epic Records vice president of A&R, according to author John Seabrook's "The Song Machine," which explains the process that has created some of the biggest hit songs.

"Her complexion wasn't great, her voice wasn't great ... so we passed," Caplan said.

A team at Mercury Records also passed on Spears, which just left Jive Records, where only a handful of execs liked her demo tape.

"It was in the wrong key," Steve Lunt, an A&R executive for Jive, told Seabrook.

Yet there was one thing that immediately hit the exec and told him to take Spears seriously.

"Britney was trying to sing like Toni Braxton, which was way too low for her. It sounded pretty awful in places," he said. "But when her voice went up high, you could hear the girlish quality, and there was something really appealing about that." 

According to Lunt, Spears' demo was accompanied with photos showing a "cute all-American teen in pigtails, sitting on a ramshackle wooden porch in Kentwood [Louisiana], and playing with her dog on the lawn.

"I said, 'This is something we should look at seriously," Lunt recalled.

Spears, wearing a mid-thigh sundress, sang two Whitney Houston songs a cappella for the entire Jive A&R department and Clive Calder, who had recently expanded Jive's success by signing teen-pop boy bands Backstreet Boys and NSYNC.

"Her eyes were rolling back in her head as she was singing and I remember thinking to myself, 'That is really weird but it's going to look great on video,'" Lunt said.

"It was old-school church meets modern-day sex."

As Seabrook notes, Spears' sexy eye roll was simply due to the fact that she was insanely nervous during her audition.

Spears, who was eager and inexpensive to sign, scored a Jive contract that came with a "get-out" clause, meaning the record label could drop her within 90 days.

Spears was immediately relocated to New York City, housed in a Jive penthouse, and groomed to become the American version of Robyn (the Swedish teen-pop queen, who has since redefined herself as a more adult pop singer).

In order to give Spears some direction, Lunt showed her Robyn's music videos, to which Spears responded, "The record is really good, but the video is all wrong. It's in boring black-and-white and no one is dancing.

"If it were me I'd be wearing a miniskirt and I'd be dancing," Spears continued.

As it turns out, Robyn would turn down the opportunity to sing Swedish music producer and songwriter Max Martin's "Hit Me Baby," which was later tweaked to "...Baby One More Time," Spears' debut single that made her an instant superstar.

By the time Martin's demo reached Jive, everyone thought, "Holy shit, this is perfect."

As Seabrook notes:

"Hit Me Baby (One More Time)" is a song about obsession, and it takes all of two seconds to hook you, not once but twice, first with the swung triplet "Da Nah Nah" and then with that alluring growl-purr Britney emits with her first line, "Oh baby bay-bee."

And yet the vocal hook, irresistible as it was, sounded odd. You weren't sure if it was OK to sing it out loud. It's hard to imagine that anyone for whom English is a first language would write the phrase "Hit me baby" without intending it as an allusion to domestic violence or S&M. 

That was the furthest thing from the mind of the gentle Swedes, who were only trying to use up-to-the-minute lingo for "Call me."

Spears took initiative in conceiving the video for what would become her big breakout.

According to Seabrook, Spears told veteran video director Nigel Dick, "Let's do a video where I'm a girl in school looking at lots of hot boys."

One of the "hot boys" played Spears' love interest in the video and was actually her cousin and then-Abercrombie & Fitch model Chad Spears.

Britney would also suggest that the girls in the video should wear Catholic-schoolgirl uniforms.

"The outfits looked kind of dorky," Spears remarked. "Let's tie up our shirts and be cute."

The video was shot in LA's Venice High School, the same location used for the 1978 film "Grease."

Spears' debut single sold 500,000 copies on November 3, 1998 — the day it was released.

The song spent 32 weeks on the Hot 100 chart and still remains Spears' longest-charting single, according to Billboard.

In 2011, Spears' high school-set music video was voted by Billboard readers the best of the 1990s and was honored in the final episode of "TRL" as the most-requested video of all time.

Here's the song that launched Spears' famed career:

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NOW WATCH: Taylor Swift on being a boss: 'You actually lose power when you scream at people.'

Cuba Gooding, Jr. thinks he knows exactly why film's biggest creative geniuses are flocking to television nowadays, because he's done it himself.

Gooding, Jr. stars in one of the most talked-about series of the moment, the Ryan Murphy-produced "The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story" on FX. And he plays the accused himself, Simpson.

The Oscar winner for "Jerry Maguire" says the opportunity to really build a character in a way that's unique to TV versus films (save something like "Boyhood") can be seen as the true-crime series progresses to its end.

"When we started shooting, we only had the first episode. So I could be 160-some-odd pounds, I’m tan, I’m O.J. as you knew him," Gooding, Jr. recently told Business Insider. "And when you get to the 10th episode, I went on that mental journey for six months — I’ve gained 20-some-odd pounds. You see that transformation."

Over the past year, the actor has added to his TV resume, appearing on Fox's "Empire," BET's "The Book of Negroes," ABC's "Forever," and Comedy Central's "Big Time in Hollywood, FL."

But to do the small screen at this point in his career probably wouldn't have made sense to a younger Gooding, Jr., who was appearing on shows like "Hill Street Blues" and "MacGyver." 

"When I started in the business, you did television and then when you got lucky you got a prestige project of a film," he said of getting to work with directors "who were all about attention to detail."

But then the movie business became swamped by event movies and comic-book adaptations, which he believes shortened the public's attention span for storytelling.

"People’s patience to sit through the narrative of character development waned," Gooding, Jr. explained. "They want to see an explosion, or they want to see something fantastical if they’re going to pay all that money to sit in that theater.

"So, you had the next Scorseses and the next Coppolas, who still had things to say and do. They write these scripts and go to the festivals... You had the big sale, $11 million at Sundance, and it’d come to the theater and eight people would see those movies. And the filmmakers said, ‘F--k, well I still need to keep telling my stories.’"

As Gooding tells it, that's when TV entered the picture and offered filmmakers, along with actors, a pretty good alternative.

"Starting with the HBOs, starting with the cable networks, they said to those filmmakers, ‘Listen, I like your story. Tell it here and take your time. Develop those characters not over two hours, but I’ll give you 10,’" the actor said.

Then the movie stars followed. Gone were the mandatory long seasons. TV started making shows that last just one season ("American Crime Story" is an anthology, tackling a new true-crime story every season). And it was making seasons shorter to accommodate actors who still wanted to fit in movies.

"And we as actors said, ‘Wait, I don’t have to do 22 episodes. I can jump in and jump out in 10, or eight? What?’ And they would get the same filmmaking team, like ‘The Knick’ with Steven Soderbergh, and the first season of ‘True Detective,’ directed by Cary Fukunaga."

In addition to directors and actors, writers are moving to TV, from "The Butler's" Lee Daniels ("Empire"), and "12 Years a Slave's" John Ridley ("American Crime").

"People v. O.J. Simpson" is a great example of the talent TV can now pull together. Gooding, Jr. stars alongside an impressive group: John Travolta, Connie Britton, Sarah Paulson, and Nathan Lane, among many others. Plus, John Singleton, who directed a young Gooding, Jr. in "Boyz N the Hood," helmed one of the episodes.

"The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story" premieres Tuesday, February 2, at 10 p.m. on FX.

SEE ALSO: 'People v. O.J. Simpson' star Sarah Paulson says it took 2 hours of hair and makeup to drastically transform her into Marcia Clark

SEE ALSO: See how the amazing cast of 'American Crime Story' transformed to bring the O.J. Simpson trial back to life

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A former district attorney who did not bring sex-crime charges against Bill Cosby a decade ago testified Tuesday that a verbal agreement he made with the star prevents the current prosecutors from proceeding against him in a sexual assault case, the Associated Press reported. 

Cosby was charged in December with drugging and sexually assaulting Andrea Constand in 2004. She worked at Philadelphia's Temple University, where Cosby is an alumnus.

Former Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, District Attorney Bruce Castor took the stand in Cosby's pretrial hearing as the comedian's lawyers attempted to get the case thrown out, the AP reported. They asserted that Castor had made a non-prosecution agreement with Cosby, which Castor confirmed on the stand.

In an interesting twist, Castor said he made the deal in an attempt to secure a better settlement agreement for Constand, who had filed a civil suit against Cosby.

"I thought making Mr. Cosby pay money was the best I was going to be able to set the stage for," he said. "I was hopeful that I had made Ms. Constand a millionaire."

Constand is one of more than 50 women who have alleged the former TV star and comedian drugged and sexually assaulted them during the past half century. This is the only case he has been criminally charged in so far, and he could face up to 10 years in prison.

Gloria Allred, an attorney for more than half of the women who alleged that Cosby committed sexual crimes against them, released a statement to Business Insider questioning why a district attorney would be worried about a potential civil case.

"Since when is it the duty of a district attorney to concern himself with civil cases?" she said. "If there was any such deal it should not be enforced, and this pending criminal case should be permitted to proceed."

That deal was not put on paper, which the current DA, Kevin Steele, said would have had to happen in order to prevent future prosecution. Steele has said there is no record of any such agreement.

Castor said he believed Cosby, 78, committed the crime, but proving it would have been difficult because of what he described as serious flaws in the case. He said the agreement not to bring forth charges would last "for all time, yes."

Cosby then testified in the civil suit brought forth by Constand without invoking his right against self-incrimination. That lawsuit was unsealed last summer and led to the charges brought forth against Cosby in December.

"Cosby would've had to have been nuts to say those things if there was any chance he could've been prosecuted," Castor said, adding that he hoped Cosby's willingness to testify in the civil suit — which he almost certainly wouldn't have done had a verbal agreement to not bring criminal charges forth been made — would help Constand win a large payout. That suit was settled for an undisclosed amount, per the AP.

He did add that, although his testimony could only help Cosby's case, he's hoping for the prosecution to win.

"I'm not on your team here," Castor told one of Cosby's lawyers. "I want them to win."

It was not immediately clear when Common Pleas Judge Steven T. O'Neill will announce his ruling on whether the prosecution can move forward. 

We reached out to a lawyer for Cosby and will update this post if we hear back.

SEE ALSO: Cosby's lawyers to urge dismissal of sexual assault criminal case

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Channing Tatum plays a 1950s movie star in the Coen Brothers' upcoming movie "Hail, Caesar!," and had to learn how to sing and tap dance for the role. He had some big shoes to fill, but really pulled it off.

"Hail, Caesar!" comes out in theaters on February 5th.

Story by Ian Phillips and editing by Stephen Parkhurst

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Super Bowl 50 is fast-approaching and some brands have already released teasers about the ads they will be airing during the big game on February 7.

The average cost of a 30-second slot during the Super Bowl has soared to $5 million this year — up 11% on the highest price last year's broadcaster NBC banked for its Super Bowl commercials. This year's broadcaster, CBS, has hinted that the last available ad space could even fetch as much as $6 million.

Here's everything we know so far about which brands are advertising during the Super Bowl and what they've got planned.

We've organized the brands in alphabetical order for ease of navigation. We'll keep updating this post right up until February 7, when you can follow our live coverage.

Acura

The automaker's ad will air during the first quarter and will serve to launch the new $156,000 NSX supercar — the most expensive car ever advertised in a Super bowl ad, according to I4U News. 

The ad is set to Van Halen's hit "Runnin' With the Devil." Here's the spot:

Acura last featured in the Super Bowl in 2012, with a 60-second spot starring Jerry Seinfeld. Here's that ad:

Youtube Embed:
http://www.youtube.com/embed/1LofPu0ycbo
Width: 560px
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Amazon

Amazon is making its Super Bowl ad debut this year, with a spot starring actor Alec Baldwin and former Miami Dolphins quarterback Dan Marino.

A teaser video released on January 27 — created by Leo Burnett, the agency behind the campaign — showed the pair using the Amazon Echo voice-activated wireless speaker to help them organize a Super Bowl party. 

The final teaser before the big game is here:

Apartments.com

Jeff Goldblum is continuing his job as brand ambassador for Apartments.com, reprising his role from its previous ads as eccentric Silicon Valley exec "Brad Bellflower," The WSJ reported. Lil Wayne also stars.

The 60-second spot, entitled "MovinOnUp," has been created by ad agency RPA. It will air in the second commercial break of the game.

Here's the ad:

The moment viewers think the tide could change in the trial of Steven Avery comes with the discovery of a hole in a tube. 

Avery, the subject of the Netflix docuseries "Making a Murderer," is currently serving a life sentence without parole for the murder of Teresa Halbach. But at one point during the series, there's hope that a tube of blood — one that helped exonerate him from an earlier crime — might be the evidence needed to clear his name again.

When the blood sample is recovered during Avery's second trial, it appears as if it has been penetrated by a syringe.

Avery's defense attorneys use that evidence to argue that it had clearly been tampered with — meaning that the blood found in Halbach's car, which was later used to incriminate Avery, could have been planted there. 

All the defense needed to prove was that the blood from the tube was the same blood that was found in Halbach's car. And that hinged on one critical chemical: EDTA. 

What is EDTA?

EDTA, short for ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid, is a fairly standard part of blood collection. It is used not only as a way to keep blood from clumping together, but also to treat extreme cases of lead poisoning in a process called "chelation therapy."

Business Insider chatted with FRND CEO Coley Parry, whose company does routine blood draws, so they could demonstrate a standard blood collection procedure. EDTA is on the lining of the tube where it mixes in the blood to keep it from coagulating.

The collection tube

What's not disputed in the Avery trial that the tube was indeed punctured — in fact, the nurse responsible for the blood draw was scheduled to testify about how the hole got there.

What is disputed is why the puncture left such a big mark. 

To collect blood, FRND uses vacuum-sealed, "vacutainer" tubes — the same kind used to collect Avery's blood. To get the blood into the tube, a health care professional inserts one needle into a vein and another into the vacuum tube. The pressure in the tube pulls in the blood from needle to needle until it's full. The needle in the tube is then removed and a seal is created in the rubber that was punctured microscopically.

I had my blood drawn by a FRND phlebotomist in December. After my blood was drawn (pictured above), I didn't see any marks on the tube. I called Parry over Skype to have him re-demonstrate the process using water instead of blood. After the draw, he shows me the top of the tube: No marks whatsoever. 

According to Parry, there should never be a mark on the top of a tube. And Parry, who's been following Avery's case after watching "Making a Murderer," has his own theory as to how the mark got there. He thinks it's from dried blood which collected outside the stopper. He says dried blood wouldn't have gotten there while the blood was being collected. 

"I've never seen blood on the outside of stoppers," said Parry. That's not to say it's not possible, he said, just "very unlikely." Plus, as revealed on "Making a Murderer," the box containing the tube had also been opened, something that Parry said raised his suspicions further. 

So how would dried blood have gotten on the outside of the stopper?

Parry says it's feasible that if someone had opened the blood, used a syringe to make a secondary draw, and then transported that syringe to whatever location he or she wanted (say, a car, to fit the theory), the blood could have collected on the stopper then.

Limitations of the EDTA test

Because the blood had been treated with EDTA, it seems like a simple solution to just test for the chemical in the blood at the scene of the crime to determine if it was planted. But, as viewers saw, this wasn't the case.

Rarely do scientists test blood for the presence of EDTA. Usually, it's only used to collect blood. In the Avery trial, a test is designed to look for EDTA which is based on a 1997 study that was then updated for "technology advancements." What exactly those modifications were is not yet public.

The test shows no evidence of EDTA in the blood found in Halbach's car, which looks bad for Avery. 

Still, there are some unresolved problems with the test itself. A scientific investigator whom the defense later calls to testify speaks to one of these, saying that a finding of no EDTA can mean one of two things: either there was indeed no EDTA, or the test wasn't very good.

Parry also said he's skeptical of the speed with which the test was assembled. He's probably among many viewers when he says he hopes for a "legitimate test" in the future.

RELATED: All of the FBI's EDTA blood evidence from Steven Avery's murder trial is now online

SEE ALSO: The moment when everything turned against Steven Avery in the 'Making a Murderer' trial

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NOW WATCH: That bizarre-looking star just got way more mysterious — and aliens could be the reason

The wealthiest 50 people in the world control a staggering portion of the world economy: $1.46 trillion — more than the annual GDP of Australia, Spain, or Mexico.

That's according to new data provided to Business Insider by Wealth-X, which conducts research on the super-wealthy. Wealth-X maintains a database of dossiers on more than 110,000 ultra-high-net-worth people, using a proprietary valuation model that takes into account each person's assets, then adjusts estimated net worth to account for currency-exchange rates, local taxes, savings rates, investment performance, and other factors.

Its latest ranking of the world's billionaires found that 29 of the top 50 hail from the US and nearly a quarter made their fortunes in tech. To crack this list, you'd need to have a net worth of at least $14.3 billion. And for the most part these people weren't born with a silver spoon. More than two-thirds are completely self-made, having built some of the most powerful companies, including Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway, Google, Nike, and Oracle.

From tech moguls and retail giants to heirs and heiresses, here are the billionaires with the deepest pockets around the globe.

SEE ALSO: The 20 most generous people in the world

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49. TIE: Aliko Dangote

Net worth:$14.3 billion

Age: 58

Country: Nigeria

Industry: Diversified investments

Source of wealth: Self-made; Dangote Group

At 20, Nigerian businessman Aliko Dangote borrowed money from his uncle to start a business that dealt in commodities trading, cement, and building materials. He quickly expanded to import cars during the country's economic boom. Four years later, in 1981, he formed Dangote Group, an international conglomerate that now holds diversified interests that include food and beverages, plastics manufacturing, real estate, logistics, telecommunications, steel, oil, and gas. At $14.3 billion, Dangote's fortune is the largest in Africa and equal to 2.5% of Nigeria's GDP.

The majority of Dangote's wealth stems from his stake in Dangote Cement, which is publicly traded on the Nigerian Stock Exchange. He owns cement plants in Zambia, Senegal, Tanzania, and South Africa, and in 2011 invested $4 billion to build a facility on the Ivory Coast. Dangote bought back a majority stake in Dangote Flour Mills — which had grown unprofitable after he sold a large stake to South African food company Tiger Brands three years ago for $190 million — in December for just $1. He is also chairman of The Dangote Foundation, which focuses on education and health initiatives, including a $12,000-per-day feeding program.

49. TIE: James Simons

Net worth:$14.3 billion

Age: 77

Country: US

Industry: Hedge funds

Source of wealth: Self-made; Renaissance Technologies

Before revolutionizing the hedge fund industry with his mathematics-based approach, "Quant King" James Simons worked as a code breaker for the US Department of Defense during the Vietnam War, but was fired after criticizing the war in the press. He chaired the math department at Stony Brook University for a decade until leaving in 1978 to start a quantitative-trading firm. That firm, now called Renaissance Technologies, has more than $65 billion in assets under management among its many funds.

Simons has always dreamed big. About 10 years ago, he announced that he was starting a fund that he claimed would be able to handle $100 billion, about 10% of all assets managed by hedge funds at the time. That fund, Renaissance Institutional Equities Fund, never quite reached his aspirations — it currently handles about $10.5 billion— but his flagship Medallion fund is among the best-performing ever: It has generated a nearly 80% annualized return before fees since its inception in 1988.

In October, Renaissance shut down a $1 billion fund — one of its smaller ones — "due to a lack of investor interest." The firm's other funds, however, have been up and climbing. Simons retired in 2009, but remains chairman of the company.

47. TIE: Laurene Powell Jobs

Net worth:$14.4 billion

Age: 52

Country: US

Industry: Media

Source of wealth: Inheritance; Disney

The widow of Apple cofounder Steve Jobs, Laurene Powell Jobs inherited his wealth and assets, which included 5.5 million shares of Apple stock and a 7.3% stake in The Walt Disney Co., upon his death. Jobs' stake in Disney — which has nearly tripled in value since her husband's death in 2011 and comprises more than $12 billion of her net worth — makes her the company's largest individual shareholder.

Though she's best recognized through her iconic husband, Jobs has had a career of her own. She worked on Wall Street for Merrill Lynch and Goldman Sachs before earning her MBA at Stanford in 1991, after which she married her late husband and started organic-foods company Terravera. But she's been primarily preoccupied with philanthropic ventures, with a particular focus on education. In 1997, she founded College Track, an after-school program that helps low-income students prepare for and enroll in college, and in September she committed $50 million to a new project called XQ: The Super School Project, which aims to revamp the high-school curriculum and experience.

Last October, Jobs spoke out against "Steve Jobs," Aaron Sorkin's movie about her late husband that portrays him in a harsh light, calling it "fiction." Jobs had been against the project from the get-go, reportedly calling Leonardo DiCaprio and Christian Bale to ask them to decline roles in the film.

Sometimes you get the feeling that Joel and Ethan Coen make movies just to mess with the audience.

Their latest, "Hail, Caesar!" belongs to the wildly bizarre section of the Coen canon, alongside "Burn After Reading" and "The Man Who Wasn't There." These movies have all the pieces to make a phenomenal "Coen brothers movie," but something about them doesn't grab you like the classics "Fargo" or "The Big Lebowski" or "No Country for Old Men."

It's not that "Hail, Caesar!" is bad. It's more that the film is a collection of great scenes that don't add up to a story.

We're inside the workings of the fictitious movie studio Capitol Pictures, where Eddie Mannix (Josh Brolin) is the head of physical production. He's essentially the studio's fixer. Making sure things go smoothly means Mannix ping-pongs from each soundstage or sometimes helps out the public image of one of his ingenues (Scarlett Johansson).

But on this day, he has to deal with the disappearance of the star Baird Whitlock (George Clooney) from the studio's big movie of the year, "Hail, Caesar!: The Tale of the Christ." Mannix quickly learns that Whitlock has been abducted and is being held ransom for $100,000.

Warning: If you're expecting the next act to entail a ragtag group of actors teaming with Mannix to find Whitlock before the papers get wise, as the movie's trailers spin it, that's far from what happens.

That's the blessing and the curse of a movie by the Coen brothers: You can't bottle it into a marketing campaign.

"Hail, Caesar!" is the Coen brothers paying homage to the sword-and-sandal epics, Westerns, musicals, and aquatic movies of yesteryear topped with some great performances from Brolin, Clooney, Johansson, Channing Tatum, Ralph Fiennes, and Alden Ehrenreich, who has a scene-stealing performance as a star of Westerns that the studio wants to rebrand.

I still don't know whether I liked "Hail, Caesar!" I may never know. And that indecisiveness is what the Coens strive for.

"Hail, Caesar!" opens in theaters on Friday.

SEE ALSO: Incredible before-and-after images of the visual effects in 'The Martian'

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Vin Diesel has vowed that before the “Fast and Furious” franchise rides off into the sunset, there will be a final trilogy, and true to his word, he sent out this Instagram Tuesday night with the release dates to prove it:

Why is this franchise being expanded to 10 films? A big reason is the massive global success of last year's “Furious 7,” which made over $350 million at the domestic box office and over $1 billion in foreign ticket sales. The film was the last featuring the late Paul Walker, who died in a car crash while it was in production.

“Furious 8” (out April 14, 2017) will be directed by F. Gary Gray, who's coming off the success of the N.W.A biopic “Straight Outta Compton.” Diesel will return along with Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, Jason Statham, Michelle Rodriguez, and Tyrese Gibson.

SEE ALSO: Here's the moment record-label executives knew 15-year-old Britney Spears would be a superstar

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NOW WATCH: This guy proposed to his girlfriend in a tank full of sharks

Hulu wants to follow its rivals Netflix and Amazon by buying films from this year's Sundance Film Festival, according to Bloomberg. This would mark the first time Hulu has distributed original films, and could perhaps indicate a shift in strategy for the company.

Most of Hulu's value for customers has previously come from its selection of current TV show seasons. This has set it apart from Netflix and Amazon. But that advantage may have an expiration date, as potential Hulu investor Time Warner wants to pull "next-day" shows from the service, according to The Wall Street Journal.

This would likely force Hulu to put more resources into original content like movies and TV shows. Though Hulu does have its own original shows, one of which, "Casual," was nominated for a Golden Globe, it has trailed rival Netflix in terms of both volume and quality. And though it has licensed old films, it has never put out any of its own.

Both Netflix and Amazon went on a buying spree at Sundance, and seem to be diving headfirst into the original films business. Hulu appears set to follow. Hulu would likely release any films bought at Sundance both in theaters and online, and work with a traditional distributor, according to Bloomberg. What we don't know is whether they would release in theaters and online at the same time, something which Netflix has insisted on, but which could have put off some indie filmmakers.

SEE ALSO: Netflix just got snubbed by the biggest film in Sundance history — here's why

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NOW WATCH: Adult coloring groups are popping up across the country as a way to de-stress

To fill time between MMA fights, producers in Russia put knights in the ring to entertain the audience. These battles became so popular that they became a fully fledged tournament, called M-1 Medieval.

Story by Jacob Shamsian and editing by Carl Mueller

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Danny DeVito is used to doing some crazy stunts on the set of "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia," the FXX comedy, but filming one particular scene for season 11 almost killed him.

During an appearance on "Conan" Tuesday night, Charlie Day explained how DeVito, 71, almost drowned. 

“We did an underwater sequence, and Danny’s incredibly buoyant, like a buoy," he said. "It was hard to get him down, so we really had to weigh him down to get the shot where we’re all holding hands."

The rest of the cast was able to swim up after the shot was over, but since DeVito was weighed down, he struggled to get up to the top. 

"And when the shot was over and we were all trying to get back to the surface for air, we all quickly got through the water but because we weighed him down, he sort of got halfway and was going nowhere," he said. "And that look of panic in his eyes of like, ‘This is the end, these guys killed me.'"

Safety divers pulled him out, but DeVito was done for the day. 

“He went straight home,” Day said. “He was like, ‘Goodbye, that’s the end of filming for today.’ I don’t blame him.”

Luckily for "It's Always Sunny" fans, though, it wasn't DeVito's last day on set.

Watch the clip of Charlie Day explaining the incident from "Conan" below: 

SEE ALSO: 'People v. O.J. Simpson' star Cuba Gooding, Jr. explains why movie stars are flocking to TV

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NOW WATCH: Kylie Jenner has been wearing this $4,500 bracelet for years because she can't get it off

While people may call the O.J. Simpson case "the trial of the century," one of his lawyers doesn't think it ranks as one of the most important cases of the 20th century.

"It was a highly publicized trial that established no real important legal principles," his former lawyer, Alan Dershowitz, told Business Insider.

As an appellate adviser for Simpson's defense, Dershowitz helped get Simpson acquitted of the murder of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown, and her friend, Ron Goldman, in 1995.

But despite his opinion that the case didn't introduce any novel legal principle, Dershowitz still believes the trial helped change the way police behaved in Los Angeles.

The Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) was widely perceived as rife with corruption, police brutality, and racism during the 1990s.

The high-profile case against O.J. Simpson — which was broadcast into many Americans' living rooms — may have contributed to the LAPD's bad reputation. Simpson's team accused police in Los Angeles of mishandling evidence and even planting a notorious bloody glove at Simpson's estate.

"I think it was the first time the LA Police Department was caught doing what it they had been doing for years and that is framing 'guilty' people," Dershowitz said. "In their minds O.J. was guilty, and therefore it was OK to frame him."

In one of the more dramatic moments from the trial, the defense team had Simpson try on the notorious glove. It appeared too small for his hand, leading to the suggestion that police may have planted it.

In perhaps the most quotable line of the trial, lead attorney Johnnie Cochran famously exclaimed, "If it doesn't fit you must acquit."

The defense argued similarly that police had smeared some of Simpson's blood on a sock collected at the crime scene to prove he committed the murders.

"I think it was a very common modus operandi in Los Angeles for police to frame people they thought were guilty; to drop drugs near drug dealers, to put guns on people who they thought probably had guns," Dershowitz said.

Cochran agreed, calling the LAPD lab "cesspool of contamination" during the trial.

Dershowitz asserts that claims during the O.J. Simpson trial that the LAPD lied and planted evidence were pivotal to the department's improvement over the past two decades.

The LAPD had already gotten some bad press by the time Simpson was tried. Just a few years earlier, in 1991, the beating of Rodney King ignited the fury of many LA citizens.

King was a taxi driver who was beaten by four police officers following a high-speed chase. The beating was caught on camera by a local witness and sent to the media. The video footage shocked and horrified people around the world, and further inflamed racial tensions in LA.

All that tension gave way to federal oversight of the LAPD in 2000, when the US Department of Justice entered into a consent decree that allowed for a five-year oversight of the department's reform process.

The Justice Department said the LAPD was "engaging in a pattern or practice of excessive force, false arrests, and unreasonable searches and seizures in violation of the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments to the Constitution." 

"I think LAPD is a lot cleaner today than it was back then," Dershowitz said.

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What happens when a late-night host plans a show reunion and only one actor from the old series shows up? That's the dilemma Jimmy Kimmel dealt with on Tuesday night with George Clooney.

With Clooney stopping by to promote his new movie, "Hail, Caesar!" Kimmel went into a commercial break teasing a proper "ER" reunion. What a difference a few ads make. 

As the "ER" sketch is underway, Clooney requests a scalpel, and then Kimmel breaks the news.

"I know I'm supposed to be under," Kimmel, playing a patient, says to the star. "The reason nobody is bringing you a scalpel is this is kind of a last-minute thing, and we had some trouble getting the whole cast of 'ER' together."

He then explains why everyone couldn't make it: Julianne Marguiles was shooting "The Good Wife," Noah Wyle had "Taco Tuesdays" with his family, Eriq La Salle had jury duty, Sherry Stringfield couldn't get an Uber, and Anthony Edwards is at SoulCycle.

The movie star is a good sport: "If George Clooney says he's going to show up for an 'ER' reunion, George Clooney does it," Clooney confirms.

The show reunion must go on, but Clooney won't go it alone. He appears alongside another popular TV doctor, "House" star Hugh Laurie. They save patient Kimmel's life with a pretty extreme medical technique.

Here's a hint:

Watch the video below:

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Steven Avery has another family member in his corner, who says Steven has apologized for ever naming him as a suspect.

The "Making a Murderer" subject's brother, Earl Avery, appeared in his first television interview earlier this week, and he said that he's made amends with Steven, who previously implicated him in a theory of the murder.

“I guess blood is blood and you can’t change that. Life is too short,” Earl told "Access Hollywood."

After his 2007 conviction for killing Teresa Halbach, who was allegedly last seen on the Avery property, Steven accused his brothers, Earl and Charles, of possibly killing her. Earl said he understands why Steven pointed to them.

"He told me that his lawyers told him to say that," Earl told the show. "And he told me that he was frustrated that we wouldn't talk to him or go up and see him."

Earl also pointed out an observation that may have bearing on his brother's conviction: He says that on the night Halbach went missing, he drove by the spot where her car would later be found, but it wasn't there.

Debates have been raging around Steven's conviction since December, when Netflix released "Making a Murderer," a 10-episode docuseries following Steven and his then-teen nephew Brendan Dassey's trials in the murder of Halbach. Its themes of police corruption and the impact of wealth and media on the criminal justice system resonated with many viewers.

Steven and Dassey are currently serving life sentences.

Watch the interview with Earl below:

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Everyone has their own perception of the perfect body. It is influenced by a number of trends, changes in culture, and even the availability of food.

Artist Nickolay Lamm — who brought us the realistically proportioned girls' doll named Lammily, a direct challenge to Mattel's Barbie — wanted to see how the male ideal had changed over time. So he collected reference photos for what was considered among Americans to be the "perfect man" from each decade since the 1870s, then sculpted 3D models.

In the late 19th century, for example, the Dad-bod was the perfect-bod. Having a large waist and chubby cheeks was a sign of wealth and social class. 

As with all generalizations, this will not be "perfect" for everybody. Lamm's study is only interested in body shape and does not take into account skin tone for example, explaining the whitewash. But the illustrations give insight into how pressures around the male ideal have changed so dramatically over the past couple of centuries.

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1870s: Before everyone had easy access to food, obesity represented wealth.

In 1866, a "Fat Man's Club" was founded in Connecticut, which became popular and spread across the US — its members had to weigh at least 200 pounds. Here's a photo of that same club from 1894.

1930s: By the '30s, food was easier to find, and Hollywood actors created the slim ideal.

Life is hard for Adriana Lima.

The legendary Victoria's Secret model — who once disclosed to The Telegraph that she drinks only protein shakes complete with powdered eggs nine days before the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show — posted a tired, beautifully haggard no-makeup selfie to dispel the myth that being a model is easy and glamorous.

(We here at Business Insider know it's hard; I've tried to eat like one and it was a miserable experience.)

Here's the makeup-free photo:

And here's Lima's Instagram diary entry — which she swears, is not a "complain [sic]."

"This is not a complain [sic], just sharing a little bit of my life. Sometimes, people question, that model life is easy, and that's wrong, we work as hard as any other individual. Today I had 10 hours of work day, shooting with a very bad cold, coughing no stop and a massive headache. That did not stopped me on doing what I love. I finished, went to airport, to comeback home to see my 2 princesses. Arriving there, my flight was over 3 hours delayed. I fly from NYC to Miami. Just waked [sic] home 2am. Happy to be here. And wanted to share the face of a hard working model, and share that I am not the only one that works this hard. Thank you. And I hope my message doesn't get misunderstand. Love u all."

Hey, her day is almost as long as that of a Wall Street intern.

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Sarah Paulson learned a lot about what professional women have to overcome in another specialized field while playing Marcia Clark on FX's "The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story."

"Because she’s a woman she got the harsher side of the spotlight, and she had no support," Paulson recently told Business Insider of playing the prosecutor in the O.J. Simpson murder trial. "And this woman in a man’s world, being ripped apart for her appearance, it’s pretty shocking."

The 10-episode series, which premiered Tuesday night, follows the lawyers on both side of the notorious Nicole Brown Simpson/Ronald Goldman murder case intensely — including, in a future episode, a much-documented focus group for the prosecution that didn't fare well for Clark. 

As seen on the show, a jury consultant put together the focus group, which criticized Clark's looks and presentation in court. It's an eye-opening experience for both Clark and the viewer as the group, many of them women, see the attorney's command of the courtroom as a reason to dislike, distrust, and even vote against her.

"Any of the words, the negative words to describe Marcia Clark, would be positives in a man: aggressive, strong, tough," Paulson said. "When it’s a woman and she’s doing the same thing, it becomes a negative and women don’t want to associate themselves. They’re like, ‘I don’t want to be like that.’ When in fact, we all should have rallied around her and said, ‘She’s one of our people.'"

After the focus group, the consultant suggested Clark soften her hair and wear skirts instead of suits. Midway through the trial, Clark would take the consultant's advice and get a much-publicized makeover.

But as far as Paulson is concerned, Clark already had a huge task ahead of her as the prosecuting attorney and didn't need the extra pressure of changing her looks and demeanor.

"The prosecution has the burden of proof. They have to prove it," the actress said of the courtroom's roles. "All the defense has to do is poke enough holes in it to make the boat leak. In my opinion, that’s rough."

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Democratic presidential candidate and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) had a film career that spanned at least one project.

Sanders played a rabbi in the low-budget 1999 comedy "My X-Girlfriend's Wedding Reception." The film has a 5.3/10 rating on IMDB, but a 100% score on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 86 user ratings.

His cameo as Rabbi Manny Shevitz, who gives a speech during a wedding reception, doesn't disappoint.

"Testing, testing, can you all hear me?" Sanders begins. "Today we celebrate life, a very sacred part of life. I remember when I used to walk down my old neighborhood in Brooklyn."

He then went into an extensive rant about the Brooklyn Dodgers — who moved to Los Angeles in 1958:

That was before the Dodgers went to Los Angeles, which was the worst thing. The worst thing that ever happened and I don't know why we let them do that. I mean nowadays, there is no pride. You don't know who owns what team, you don't know who's playing for what today. They're here one day, and they're gone the next day. It's a terrible thing. I remember when the Dodgers played the Yankees and that ticket was good for 10 years. Now, you go to the stadium and you look out on the field and you see the Red Sox, you see the Orioles, you see the Cleveland Indians, you see everything but you don't see the Yankees playing the Red Sox.

OK, I'm getting a little bit off the track here, but let me not take any more of your time. Oh, by the way, that free-agency crap, that really gets me, they spend $2 million here, $12 million there, what's so free about that free agency? I can't take that anymore. Okay, let me just make my point here and that is all in all, it's not so bad. When it's good, it's good. If it doesn't feel right, just say no. There's always tomorrow. There's always tomorrow. It could be worse. Now, let's just thank God you have your arms, you have your legs. Let's eat.

BuzzFeed reported on the cameo last April, but it's making the Internet rounds again Wednesday.

You can watch the full clip here:

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Vice is gearing up to launch its new cable TV channel, Viceland, and CEO Shane Smith is feeling confident.

Part of the reason might be that, according to Smith, Vice had already had astronomical success with running its own channels in Europe.

In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Smith was asked how Vice would fill out the big programming requirements of a 24-hour network.

He replied that the company found success leveraging its old videos for TV audiences in Greece and Serbia. "They packaged [old videos] in a really smart way, and Vice went from being an online thing to a block to a network there. Now, 15% of media consumption in Greece is Vice."

That wasn't even the biggest number.

"Now we're 25% of the market in Serbia," he continued. That's a bold claim.

If that's true, it's easy to imagine why Smith is rosy on the future of Vice's 24-hour cable play. Viceland launches on February 29, and is a partnership between Vice and A&E Networks, which took a $250 million stake in Vice in 2014. The channel with go live in 70 million homes with providers like Time Warner Cable, Comcast, DirecTV-AT&T, and Dish.

Business Insider has reached out to Vice for comment.

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