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The 20 best new TV shows ranked, according to critics

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Westworld press photo

There are nearly 70 new TV shows in fall 2016. And many critics will say that there's a high degree of quality in that batch.

But that doesn't mean real people have the time to watch everything, no matter how good.

The problem now is we have to become really selective, really nitpicky. Some of the stuff that made it to our TV screens a year or two ago just doesn't hold up any longer compared to the competition.

Cable, the streaming companies, and even broadcast are taking viewers to bold new places — from "Atlanta" to "One Mississippi," "The Good Place," and "Westworld."

But where should you start? 

Metacritic keeps track of a curated group of critics, assigns each review a number according to how positive or negative it was, and then creates a weighted average score for each show.

Here are the 20 most critically acclaimed TV shows of fall 2016 so far, according to Metacritic:

SEE ALSO: Every late-night show, ranked from worst to best

DON'T MISS: 7 TV shows you need to watch if you love 'Game of Thrones'

20. "The Get Down" (Netflix)

Metacritic Score: 69

From "Moulin Rouge" director Baz Luhrman, this musical series tells the story of the rise of hip-hop.



19. "No Tomorrow" (The CW)

Metacritic score: 69

A woman finds adventure after meeting a charismatic guy who believes the world is going to end soon.



18. "Designated Survivor" (ABC)

Metacritic score: 71

Kiefer Sutherland plays Tom Kirkland, the secretary of housing and urban development, who becomes president after a deadly terrorist attack kills everyone else in the line of succession to the president.



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Everything you need to know about X-23 — the mysterious female Wolverine in the new trailer

'SNL' mocks the third and final debate with some help from guest host Tom Hanks

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snl third and final debate tom hanks alec baldwin nbc

This week's "Saturday Night Live" guest host, Tom Hanks, joined Alec Baldwin and and Kate McKinnon to spoof the third and final presidential debate.

Playing moderator, Fox News' Chris Wallace, Hanks opened the debate.

"Tonight is going to be a lot like the third 'Lord of the Rings' movie," the "Forrest Gump" actor said. "You don't want to watch, but hey, you've come this far."

To set the tone for the debate, McKinnon's Hillary Clinton explained her plan for this head-to-head.

"In the first debate, I set the table," she said. "In the second debate, I fired up the grill. And tonight, I feast."

Baldwin's Donald Trump promised to remain calm for this debate, but that lasted for not even a minute. Hanks' Wallace asked about women's rights and "Trump" yelled, "They're ripping babies out of vaginas!"

During a question about immigration, "Clinton" yelled bingo after "Trump" said his now-infamous reference to Mexican immigrants as "bad hombres."

"I've been playing all year and I got it," "Clinton" explained, while holding up a bingo card and pointing at phrases Trump has said during the election. "'Bad Hombres,' 'rapists,' 'Miss Piggy,' 'they're all living in hell,' and 'if she wasn't my daughter.'"

In regard to the growing group of women accusing Trump of sexual misconduct, Baldwin repeated the real estate mogul's statement that "no one has more respect for women than I do."

As a result of all the laughing, Hanks' Wallace turned to the audience and said, "Settle down, Settle down, entire planet." 

"SNL" ended the sketch with Trump's brazen refusal to say that he'd accept the election results amid claims that the election is rigged and the media is making him look bad.

When "Wallace" asked how the media is doing that, Baldwin's Trump answered, "By taking all of the things I say and all of the things I do and putting them on TV."

Watch the whole sketch below:

SEE ALSO: Stephen Colbert mocks Donald Trump's latest election comments: 'The p---y has grabbed us'

DON'T MISS: 'SNL' spoofs the 'second and worst ever' presidential debate

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: 'Mr. Trump, would my son have a place in your America?': Watch Clinton's new emotional ad featuring Khizr Khan

There are 50 exotic weapons in 'Destiny' right now — and we've ranked them all

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Exotic weapons are the rarest and coolest-looking guns in "Destiny," the popular shooter from the makers of "Halo." Each one has its own unique perk, designed to help you in clever ways other guns can't.

With the latest expansion dropping last month, "Destiny" now has a whopping 50 different exotic weapons, so we thought it'd be fun to rank them all. Now, for some background, I've personally played over 1,000 hours of "Destiny" since 2014, and I've acquired and used a vast majority of these weapons. These exotic weapon rankings are not just based on their unique abilities, but also their overall usefulness. Since you can only equip one exotic weapon at a time, it helps to know which ones are worth that valuable slot.

SEE ALSO: Raids are the best part of 'Destiny' — and we've ranked them all

50. Dreg's Promise

In-game description: "Wait for enemy to make a mistake. Die. Stand by for Ghost Resurrection. Repeat as necessary."

Exotic perk: "High ricochet shock rounds with enhanced target acquisition."

Bottom line: Dreg's Promise is a sidearm — a quick-shooting pistol — that suffers from a poor damage output and low rate of fire. It also often requires an entire clip, if not more, to down any single enemy. It's not better than any other exotic weapon on this list. Let's move on.



49. The First Curse

In-game description: "...is when death becomes an afterthought."

Exotic perks: "Bonus to range, stability, and movement speed when aiming down sights. First precision kill of this weapon's magazine refills it, granting bonuses to movement speed while aiming down sights, range and stability until player reloads."

Bottom line: The First Curse is disappointing to use, especially since it requires a relatively long questline to get it. It has an extremely slow rate of fire and lacks the impact required to compensate for that slowness. 



48. Necrochasm

In-game description: "Eternity is very close. Can you feel yourself slipping?"

Exotic perk: Precision kills with this weapon trigger a Cursed Thrall explosion.

Bottom line: Though Necrochasm has one of the best attack values in the game, its bullets have extremely low impact and its exotic perk, while cool (blue fiery explosions from landing a headshot is pretty cool), is only really effective against low-tier mobs, and not much else. You have better options for your primary slot.



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11 Easter eggs hidden in the official 'Westworld' website

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If you're confused about what's going on in "Westworld" and looking for answers, one place to look is the park's official website. It's filled with details about how the park works, and it includes a chat bot/host named AEDEN which will answer any questions you type. While much of this info is related to the characters and park rules, there are also plenty of secrets to be discovered. 

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A visual history of Nintendo consoles

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nintendo mario switch reveal

Nintendo’s future has arrived. It’s called the Switch, and, true to its name, it blurs the line between home console and portable gaming machine.

We can’t say how good the new device will be just yet, but on concept alone, it looks neat.

This is far from the first time we’ve said that about a Nintendo console. The Japanese giant has earned legendary status among gaming fans for making machines — and a whole lot of games — that aren’t quite like their peers.

Some of those have brought massive success; others have led to total failure. Though we don’t know where the Switch will land in that spectrum, it appears to continue the company’s penchant for doing its own thing.

To show you what we mean, here’s a quick look back at the hardware Nintendo has released over the years.

SEE ALSO: A brief history of Apple killing standards you loved — and others you didn't

Before there was the NES, there was the Color TV-Game. Nintendo first dipped its toes into console gaming by launching five of these Japan-only rectangles between 1977 and 1980.

There were no cartridges or discs here, so you could only play whatever was loaded onto the system by default. The first of the bunch was built in partnership with Mitsubishi, and included a simple game called "Light Tennis" — which you might know as "Pong."



Before there was the Game Boy, meanwhile, there was the Game & Watch.

Again, this was a series of handhelds, with each one capable of playing one simplified game on a tiny LCD display. Sixty different models were made in total, and Nintendo sold roughly 43 million units between 1980 and 1991.



Now we get to the familiar stuff. Nintendo built on the success of its various arcade tiles with the 1983 launch of the Family Computer (or Famicom) in Japan. Two years later, it released an American version, known as the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES).

After a massive, years-long recession, it's hard to understate just significant this thing was for the gaming industry. It standardized business models, gave home to several iconic hits, and made Nintendo a titan in its field.



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Tyler Perry's new 'Madea' edges out Tom Cruise at the box office

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Boo Madea Halloween Lionsgate

Tyler Perry has shown once again that he is a box office draw.

Perry's famous Madea character went up against Tom Cruise over the weekend at the multiplex and edged out the superstar actor to win the weekend.

"Boo! A Madea Halloween" took in an estimated $27.6 million over the weekend; Cruise's "Jack Reacher: Never Go Back" took in around $23 million, according to The Wrap.

Both titles performed better than expectations and were stronger than previous releases in their franchises.

"Never Go Back," a sequel to the 2012 movie "Jack Reacher" based on the Lee Child novels, was a better earner than the original, "Jack Reacher" had a $15.2 million opening.  "Boo!," the first Madea movie since 2013's "A Madea Christmas," proved audiences still love the character Perry created in the early 2000s as it also had a bigger opening than the $16 million "Madea Christmas" had.

jack reacher never go back paramountThough "Never Go Back" was looking to run away with the weekend as it took in $1.3 million in its Thursday preview screenings versus the $855,000 "Boo!" had, things drastically changed by Saturday night as "Boo!" ticket sales rose 20% from Friday while "Never Go Back" dropped 4%.

What's even more impressive by "Boo!" is that the movie, released by Lionsgate, was on 1,520 screens less than "Never Go Back."

But Paramount, which releases "Never Go Back," shouldn't be too disappointed. In a year where the studio has dealt with many flat releases, the Cruise release is its third best opening weekend this year (behind "Star Trek Beyond, $59.2 million, and "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows," $35.3 million).

The Madea franchise, which has earned close to $400 million total over the six films released before "Boo!" (budgets for recent titles hover around $20 million), have been profitable for Lionsgate and proves that Perry is still the king of the box office when it comes to attracting the urban market to the movies. 

On the specialty side, A24's Oscar-contender "Moonlight" came on the scene in a big way with a huge $100,000-plus per-screen average in four theaters its opening weekend. The movie is primed for some big figures as it goes wider.

SEE ALSO: The 20 best TV shows ranked, according to critics

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We just learned a lot more about Nintendo Switch, the new game console from Nintendo

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After years of waiting, Nintendo's finally got a new video game console on the way: the Nintendo Switch.

nintendo switch

It's a hybrid console — you can play it at home, on your living room television, or you can take it on-the-go. Here's what we know about the console thus far:

  • It's called Nintendo Switch.
  • It's scheduled to launch in March 2017.
  • Nintendo has a gaggle of games starring its most prominent creations in the works. 

There's of course much more to the Switch than that, but Nintendo isn't offering a lot of explicit details just yet. Thankfully, the Japanese game company released a trailer to debut Nintendo Switch that tells us a lot more. Here are the coolest things we discovered!

SEE ALSO: This is Nintendo's new video game console

DON'T MISS: These are all the games that were showcased during the Nintendo Switch unveiling

There's a lot going on in this image! Here's a breakdown:

Top, far left: This is the Nintendo Switch itself, in home console form. The tablet-like portable bit is dropped into the "Nintendo Switch Dock" like bread into a toaster. The dock connects to your TV, so you can play the same games on-the-go and at home. Nintendo says the Switch is a home console, "first and foremost."

Top, middle: As you see in the image here, a woman is playing an unannounced Super Mario game. She's holding a traditional gamepad, and playing the game on her television. With Nintendo Switch, the Japanese game company is making a push toward more traditional video game consoles. 

Top, far right: That said, you can take Nintendo Switch with you anywhere. The portable game console you see in this image is just the tablet-like bit seen in the first image, but removed from the Nintendo Switch Dock. It's also got controllers snapped onto each side, making it into a portable handheld game console.

Bottom, far left: No game discs here! The Nintendo Switch uses cartridges, similar to those used with Nintendo's 3DS handheld. It's likely that Nintendo Switch also has an online service for buying and downloading games digitally, but Nintendo hasn't announced as much yet. It's also not clear how much internal storage is in the Nintendo Switch handheld (or if there is any in the Nintendo Switch Dock). 

Bottom: middle: Nintendo envisions a future where you'll bring your Nintendo Switch with you, set it down on a table, and play multiplayer with friends. Given that the screen looks to be in the seven inch range, and that the controllers are incredibly small, we're betting this won't be a much-used feature. Still! It's pretty neat that you could set it up somewhere and challenge a friend to, say, a match in the latest Mario Kart.

Bottom, far right: These are the aforementioned small controllers. These snap onto the sides of the Switch screen, turning it into a portable console. They can also be used individually, or snapped onto a controller at home for a more traditional experience. Nintendo's calling them "Joy-Con" — like joystick and controller, all at once.



Here's a good look at the portable version of Nintendo Switch:

As you see above, the Joy-Con slide onto the sides of the screen, turning it into a portable handheld game console. Each controller has a thumbstick and four main buttons. They can be used with the screen, detached from the screen, or at home with the Nintendo Switch Dock. 



Here's a good look at the Nintendo Switch Dock and the "Joy-Con Grip" gamepad:

We're betting that what you see above is exactly what'll come in the box when Nintendo Switch arrives in March 2017: the Nintendo Switch Dock, the tablet-like console, and a home gamepad with the detachable Joy-Con in-tow. Notably, the controller is actually called the "Joy-Con Grip" — since you can detach each side of the Joy-Con bits and attach them to the Switch tablet, the Grip acts as a means of turning the Joy-Con into a more traditional gamepad.



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

Anthony Bourdain: 'I work really hard to not ever think about my place in the world'

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This past May, Anthony Bourdain shared a meal with President Barack Obama in Hanoi, Vietnam for an episode of his CNN show "Parts Unknown" that premiered in September.

The scenario would have sounded like a joke to Bourdain 20 years ago, when he was bouncing around New York City's restaurant scene, doing whatever he could to make it one day to the next.

Bourdain, 60, has documented in detail his adjustment to the surrealness of the fame that hit him in his 40s with the huge success of bestselling 2000 memoir "Kitchen Confidential" and the television series that followed, but in an interview with Business Insider earlier this year, he explained that only recently has he attained a level of inner peace.

"I know the guy who wrote 'Kitchen Confidential' very well," Bourdain said. "He's not me anymore. I'm not boiling with rage. I don't live in this tiny, tunnel-vision world. I had such a limited view of what reality was like outside of the kitchen doors — I had no clue! I never lived with normal people. I lived in the restaurant universe for my entire adult life."

A major turning point for Bourdain was the birth of his daughter Ariane in 2007. "I'm no longer the star of the movie," he said. "At all. That's it!"

"It's a huge relief in a lot of ways. And it's such an understatement to say that having a kid changes your life. You're just no longer the first person you think about or care about. You're not the most important person in the room. It's not your film. The music doesn't play for you — it's all about the girl. And that changes everything."

Setting aside his ego has also allowed him to pursue career opportunities that he may have overanalyzed in the past, he explained, such as being the spokesman for the Balvenie whiskey company or appearing as a judge on "Top Chef."

"I work really hard to not ever think about my place in the world," he said. He continued:

"I'm aware of my good fortune. I'm very aware of it, and I'm very aware that, because of it, people offer me things. Opportunities to do extraordinary things. The ones that are interesting to me are collaborations. I get to work with people who 10 years ago I wouldn't have dreamed to have been able to work with. And that's a big change professionally, and it's something that I think about a lot."

Bourdain said he's now driven by the desire to "play in a creative way" and "not repeat" himself. "I like making things," he said.

SEE ALSO: Anthony Bourdain discusses the new season of 'Parts Unknown,' his favorite restaurants, and how he went from outsider chef to the top of the food world

Join the conversation about this story »

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There's a good reason 'The Walking Dead' creator doesn't use the word 'zombie'

Horror movies tap into a primal fear instinct in your brain

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It's October, the perfect time for scaring yourself with a spooky film.

Some people adore the rush they get from watching a horror flick; others can't stand how filmmakers somehow worm their way into your consciousness, building up tension and then striking that moment of terror with a jump scare or with some creepy moment that seems to burn itself into your brain.

Using images and sound, the best horror directors are able to tap into a part of your brain that operates purely on instinct.

When you sit down to watch "The Witch" or "The Ring," you know that the movie obviously isn't real. And yet somehow, the best scary films put you on the edge of your seat, ready to jump — sometime actually eliciting a yelp or a gasp.

That's a powerful effect.

"Usually when we're watching something we've shut down the motor regions of the brain, and yet those stimuli [from a shocking scene] are so strong that they overcome the inhibition to the motor system," says Michael Grabowski, an associate professor of communication at Manhattan College and the editor of the textbook "Neuroscience and Media: New Understandings and Representations."

We jump or yell because a film bypasses our tranquilized state and taps into a primal instinct, which is to react immediately to protect ourselves and warn others — before taking time to process what scared us.

"The scream is a way to alert others in your social group and scare off attackers," says Grabowski.

These scary moments supersede our rational thought process that knows they aren't real.

Neurocinematics

Grabowski's background is in filmmaking, but his research now is focused on an emerging field called "neurocinematics," which focuses on the connection between the mind and the experience of cinema.

While filmmakers have been able to evoke emotional responses in viewers for more than a century, it's only now that modern neuroscience can show us what's happening in someone's brain.

This goes beyond horror, too. Think of the last time that you felt emotion while watching any film, whether you laughed or suddenly felt tears welling up in your eyes during "Inside Out." Despite knowing that what you're watching isn't real, you feel real emotion.

But as Uri Hasson, a researcher and professor who focuses on neuroscience and psychology at Princeton, discovered when conducting the study that first coined the term "neurocinematics," people watching something scary or suspenseful tend to have particularly similar responses in their brain.

For now, that insight is mostly helping us understand what that fear looks like in the brain. But some researchers think that modern filmmaking, with an updated understanding of neuroscience and psychology, is actually better able to tap into emotion than it used to be.

Vertigo, HitchcockAs Dutch media studies professor Patricia Pisters wrote in a recent essay for Aeon, "in contemporary thrillers, the spectator knows just as little as the characters, and is immediately drawn into the subjective emotional word of the protagonists. As spectators, we indeed experience the world increasingly 'inside out' and have direct access to the drama of the neural mechanisms of emotion. We are taken on a neuronal rollercoaster that will eventually give us the story."

In the future, says Grabowski, it's possible that filmmakers will be able to use even more precise insights to directly stimulate certain emotions, to control when their audiences jump and what they feel.

When you combine that with powerful technologies like virtual reality, something that makes it even harder for us to tell reality from fiction, the possibilities are fascinating and even a little scary. (If you have a Carboard headset, check out the terrifying short film "Catatonic" — the future of interactive media is somewhat terrifying.)

It's like the dream of Alfred Hitchcock that Pisters cites in her essay, quoted from Donald Spoto's biography of the filmmaker.

"The audience is like a giant organ that you and I are playing," Hitchcock reportedly told scriptwriter Ernest Lehman. "At one moment we play this note, and get this reaction, and then we play that chord and they react. And someday we won't even have to make a movie — there'll be electrodes implanted in their brains, as we'll just press different buttons and they'll go 'oooh' and 'aaah' and we'll frighten them, and make them laugh. Won't that be wonderful?"

SEE ALSO: Technology is eroding our ability to understand what's real and what's just an illusion

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11 thought-provoking questions raised by 'Westworld'

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Dolores Abernathy fly Westworld premiere

Note: Spoilers are ahead for previously aired Westworld episodes, as is some potentially spoiler-y speculation for future episodes.

Something is wrong in "Westworld."

HBO's sci-fi western drama — a serialized reboot of Michael Crichton's 1973 thriller by the same name — depicts a fantastical robot-filled "theme park" of the future.

Westworld guests can interact with artificially intelligent "hosts" — gunslingers, brothel madams, a farmer’s daughter, Native Americans, and more — taking part in all the sex and violence that can be jammed into these characters’ storylines. And all of it teed up by the people who are essentially Westworld's game designers.

But as visitors ride, terrorize, shoot, and sleep with the park's robot hosts, the designers operating behind the scenes soon discover that something is off.

Along the way, Westworld’s story brushes up against all kinds of uneasy questions — mainly scientific and philosophical — about the complex intersection of technology and people.

While we can't say where the show is going, or whether it will ever answer any of these questions, here are some of the most interesting ones we’ve spotted so far.

Do we all live in a simulation?

Everyone in Westworld wakes up to go about their day — working, drinking, fighting, whatever it may be — without knowing that their entire existence is a simulation of a “real world” created by the park’s designers.

Physicists and philosophers say that in our world, we can’t prove we don’t live in some kind of computer simulation.

Some think that if that is the case, we might be able to "break out" by noticing any errors in the system, something the Westworld robots seem to be brushing up against.



Can we control artificial intelligence?

Each time the park wakes up (or the simulation restarts?), the hosts are supposed to go about their routines, playing their roles until some guest veers into the storyline. The guest might go off on an adventure with the host — or they might rape or kill them. In any case, when the story resets, the hosts' memories are wiped clean.

Supposedly.

For some reason, a few hosts seem to remember their disturbing past lives. This may be related to a “software update” created by park founder Dr. Robert Ford (played by Anthony Hopkins) or it may have something to do with his mysterious co-founder, Arnold.

Luckily, and for a variety of reasons, AI researchers today believe out-of-control AI is a myth and that we can control intelligent software. Then again, few computer and linguistic scientists thought machines could ever learn to listen and speak as well as people — and now they can on a limited level.



How far off are the intelligent machines of Westworld?

Behind the scenes at Westworld's headquarters, advanced industrial tools can 3D-print the bodies of hosts from a mysterious white goop. Perhaps it's made of nanobots, or some genetically engineered tissue, or maybe it's just plastic that's later controlled by as-yet-undisclosed advanced technology.

There's a lot of mystery here, and as we find out in one episode (when a host smashes his own head in with a rock), the "thinking" part of the machines is definitely located in the head. But what's it made of? And what powers these strange constructs? And how are the batteries recharged, if at all? Can (and how do) they feel pain and pleasure?

These automatons seem like an engineer's dream as well as her nightmare.

Nothing like this exists in the real world, but researchers and entrepreneurs are working hard to advance soft robots, ultra-dense power sources, miniaturized everyday components (some down to an atomic scale), and other bits and pieces that might ultimately comprise a convincing artificial human.



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

How Tyler Perry went from humble beginnings to one of the most powerful entertainers in film and television

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Boo! A Madea Halloween

The INSIDER Summary:

• Tyler Perry has influenced pop culture with his defining character, a loud-mouthed grandma named Madea.
• Here's how Perry went from humble beginnings to one of the most powerful entertainers in film and television


Tyler Perry has become synonymous with his most famous character, Mabel "Madea" Simmons. Even if you’ve never seen any of his Madea movies, you most likely recognize the character and know a little something about her.

Madea, always played by Perry, is tough, loud, funny without trying, chronically makes questionable choices, and occasionally spurts a wise truth. Long before she crashed into theaters or appeared on Jimmy Fallon's show, the Madea character, and Tyler Perry, had humble beginnings. 

Perry’s career isn’t just about Madea, though. He has constantly reinvented himself, always trying on a new hat in Hollywood. But it seems we can always count on him returning to the character that earned him a place in Hollywood in the most unorthodox of ways.

With his newest film,"Boo! A Madea Halloween," out this weekend, keep reading to see how Perry's career in film and television took off .

Tyler Perry was born Emmitt Perry Jr. in New Orleans, Louisiana. He had a tumultuous relationship with his father, after whom he was named.

Perry changed his name at the age of 16 to distance himself from his dad. His early years influenced much of his early work. In 2009, he revealed on his website that he was molested as a young child by the mother of a childhood friend and a man from his church.



Perry also grew up going to church with his mother. He explored themes of abuse and faith in his first play “I Know I’ve Been Changed,” which toured from 1998-2000.



Perry introduced the character Madea in his second play “I Can Do Bad All By Myself,” which he later turned into a film starring Tiraji P. Henson of “Empire” fame.

 

 



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Ethan Hawke and his costar and director talk about the biggest problem plaguing Hollywood

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Director Ti West has built a loyal fan base over the last decade by making unique horror movies like "The House of the Devil" and "The Innkeepers" that appeal to horror fanatics while challenging them with unconventional stories that delve into internal fears, rather than going for over-the-top gore.

With his latest movie “In a Valley of Violence” (opening Friday), West veers further from his horror roots. The Western follows a man (Ethan Hawke) who arrives in a town and instantly becomes a threat to the local marshal (John Travolta) and his annoying son (James Ransone of "The Wire"). There are certainly thrills (and blood) but the movie also shows West’s comedic talent and ability to work with a bigger production (the movie was produced by Blumhouse Productions, which is behind the “Insidious” and “Paranormal Activity” franchises) and bigger stars.

Business Insider sat down with West, Hawke, and Ransone in New York City to talk about the movie, their awe of Travolta, and the scene-stealing talents of the dog in the movie. And the three also got candid about the challenges that come when you want to make art in an industry that is concerned only with box-office grosses.

Jason Guerrasio: Was this story something you wrote recently or was it on the shelf for a while?

Ti West: No, your first part was correct. I had made “The Sacrament,” which was a movie heavily steeped in realism and it was about confronting unpleasant violence using a real brand and a documentary style and a real tragedy. And that was great, but by the end I was burnt on that and wanted to do something traditionally cinematic. For me the most traditionally cinematic genre is the Western. And I thought it's not so far removed, because there is violence in it, that it would be a relatively reasonable step. I had been talking to [Blumhouse head] Jason Blum for years about movies and I had mentioned it to him and I also mentioned that I was a fan of Ethan's and he said, “Go to New York and talk to Ethan about it.” I went and Ethan was doing "Macbeth" at Lincoln Center and I pitched him the idea for the movie and he kind of dug it. He gave me the date of when the play was ending and I said I'll send you a script and if you don't like it we don't have to talk about it, but if you do let's try to get it made. And I think it was the day after you wrapped, you read it on the plane and you were like, "This is cool."

Ethan Hawke: We met in December and we were on set in June. There was no script in December when we met — that has never happened in my life. 

Guerrasio: Ti works quickly. 

Hawke: It was unbelievable. It went from concept to reality incredibly fast. And people can work quick, but there's a confluence of things that went right. I have met tons of people who wrote a script in a week, but for it to get made...

West: I got a stack of them if you want to read them. [Laughs]

Hawke: Just the idea that all the dominoes kept falling to that we actually got to go into production was awesome. 

Ethan Hawke Ti West Jack Plunkett APGuerrasio: With Blum, did you have to pitch it with a horror angle to sell him, since that's what you're known for?

West: I think for Jason the idea of doing a Western was a little outside of the box. He said go talk to Ethan first.

Hawke: Because Jason and I had a conversation, the way Jason explained it to me anyway, he was talking to Ti, he  wanted to make a Western, and I said the same thing and Jason was like, "F--k, you guys should get together." So we didn't have to sell it.

I was pushing Jason to expand his idea of what a genre film was because a lot of people think horror is just the genre but Roger Corman exploited all the genres to great effect and I was encouraging Jason, why isn't he doing creature features? Spaghetti Westerns? Crazy sci-fi?

James Ransone: It's weird because when you think about it, it's only been a recent phenomenon where it's this compartmentalization of genres being so specific. “The Exorcist” is a horror movie, but that was one of the most beloved movies, they didn't think of it as just a horror —

Hawke:“The Shining.”

Ransone:“Rosemary's Baby” is a horror movie. It's not trying to define the Western as being something different, it's just there used to be movies that had a certain thing and now it's sort of, "Well, our shop doesn't do that." 

Hawke: People are so into branding.

Guerrasio: It all comes down to how it can be marketed, and if the company doesn't know how to pull it off, it's not worth their time. 

Hawke: And it's true, perception creates reality, right? It is very difficult to sell a Western overseas. It's hard to make your money back. 

Guerrasio: Was this before you did “Magnificent Seven,” Ethan?

Hawke: This was before. It's just coincidental that these came out when they did. It turned out I was on a horse for two years. 

Guerrasio:James, what did you like about your character, Gilly? What made you get on board?

Ransone: I don't really like anything about Gilly. [Laughs]

Guerrasio: But it has to be fun to play a bad guy.

Ransone: Yeah. Ti wrote to the strengths I think in playing some tragic clown character that is pretty easy for me to do. It was just Ti and I had met many years ago and we were looking for something to do for a while and then I think he wrote the character with me in mind hoping that I would be so lucky to do it.

Guerrasio: When did Travolta sign on?

West: Ethan went on vacation, wrote me a nice note that he loved the script, Jason said he was in, and then very soon after Jason sent me an email that said, "What about John Travolta as the marshal?" Which was a very inspired kind of out-of-nowhere idea. We hadn't gotten really too far, and I was just like yeah, and before I even finished saying that he was like, "Good news, he already read the script and loves it and wants to meet." And so Jason and I went and had this surreal, incredible dinner with John Travolta and he embraced the project —

Hawke: Completely. 

West: I mean, it was a very odd experience to sit down with John Travolta and have him so eloquently be so excited and so specific about what he loved about the movie, the character, him as a character actor, what the movie's subtext was saying. It was just like, "How could it be anyone other than him?"

Hawke: It was outside his wheelhouse, independent cinema is not something he does often, though he's done a few to great acclaim, but —

Guerrasio: He's not as active in it as you are.

Hawke: Yeah. You know, doing movies without trailers and going down and dirty, it was kind of a surprise to all of us that he was all in and he understood it completely. And it was a great role Ti wrote him and he was smart enough to know that. 

Ransone: And it's not the '90s. You used to get 40 days for a movie this big, and we had half the amount of that time.

Hawke: You start to wonder what they did with all that time?

West: It does sound crazy. People ask if you had enough time, and you go no, maybe one more day would have been good, but if we had another week —

Hawke: What would we have done? And technology has changed, you can work so much faster, lighting is so much less an issue. 

Guerrasio: But you gave yourself a potential problem, you wrote in a part for a dog. Ti, did you panic a little before production started? Because if you didn't get the right one that could have held you up. 

West: There was a moment when I was like, wow, Ethan and Travolta want to do this movie and then I was like, "Oh no, the dog!” If I can't find the dog what are we going to do? And I literally Googled "talented dogs" and the first thing that came up was this YouTube video about Jumpy.

Hawke: He's like the Justin Bieber of dogs.

West: It's true. And I remember being like, "I wonder where this dog is?" I'm thinking in Florida or something, no, the Valley [in Los Angeles]. So we tracked down the trainer, Omar Von Muller, he's a nice guy. I took him out to lunch and I met Jumpy. And in the course of that I learned that Omar trained Uggy, the dog in “The Artist,” which gave me a great deal of confidence. Uggy was actually on our set the whole time hanging out. But we go to this park and Jumpy is there and Omar showed me what Jumpy could do and the world came to halt. I mean, forget the tricks, which are insane and we could talk for days about that, but you literally put a mark down, like for any actor, and Omar would say, "Jumpy, go to your mark," and he put his paw on the mark and would stay there until you say cut. And not one out of ten times, every time. 

Ransone:
I've never met a human actor who has done that, by the way. [Laughs]

West: So we just figured out how to incorporate him more into the film. There's a point, and I think we joked about this on set, we were doing over-the-shoulder shots with the dog and I was just like this is so strange: Ethan and Jumpy were seriously acting together.

Hawke: It was really cool. It was so remarkable that things in another movie that would be outlandish became commonplace in this movie. There's a shot in the movie where Jumpy is leading the horse, he's got the reins of the horse and pulling it, but the audience is so used to Jumpy doing amazing things at that point that they are like, “Of course he would do that!” 

violence jumpy
Guerrasio: James, was it intimidating at all to work alongside Travolta? Most of your scenes are with him. Did you two have to break the ice before working?

Ransone: I have been a journeyman actor for 15 years and I have been lucky enough to work with Ethan — this is our third thing to be on together — but my experiences with other movie stars have not been that great and then you get one of the biggest movie stars in the entire world. I was like, "This is going to be terrible." So in some ways to galvanize myself for that I was trying to keep as much distance between us as possible, but I ended up feeling like an asshole because truth be told he was one of the most gracious and sweet actors that I've worked with. And I don't say that with lip service, he’s amazing —

Hawke: He's a warm person. 

Ransone: I was like, "You're just a really sweet dude." He would talk about flying. I mean, this is a person that has been famous since he was 17, so you don't know what you're going to get, but after meeting him I was like, this is a really solid dude. And he's so insanely meticulous about every choice that he's making about his character from the costume, the subtext of the lines, and that's inspiring for an actor. You see the bad habits you have.

Guerrasio: Speaking of meticulous, people including myself are always fascinated by the Travolta facial hair choices in his roles. Did you guys talk about what he wanted to do for this movie?

West: We talked about it. He's very interested in the period, so we talked about that for a while. He's got this great quote, in all his movies he wants to be "watchable," and it's such a simple but brilliantly articulate thing, and with him being a movie star he's like, "That's all great, but as long as its watchable." 

Hawke: The choice can be true, but if it isn't watchable who cares?

in a valley of violence john travolta james ransoneWest: Exactly. I think it was cool where he was playing a character that was very much his age and the authoritative, older, wiser character in the movie, but it was great to see John Travolta with an older, gray vibe.

Hawke: It's hard for guys who have been world famous for as long as he's been —

Guerrasio: And a sex symbol.

Hawke: Look, he was one of the first male sex symbols of his era, so to let yourself change and evolve is really tough and he's realizing he's evolving into having to play characters, like what he did on the O.J. show to this. The people who have a long career evolve. 

Guerrasio: Has that been the same for you? You tell yourself you can't play a certain role anymore?

Hawke: I haven't had a relationship with the audience the way that he does. Like Harrison Ford, I remember when he did this great Kathryn Bigelow submarine movie.

Guerrasio: “K-19: The Widowmaker.”

Hawke: You can tell he did a lot of work, he did a pretty good Russian accent. But the audience has no desire to see Harrison Ford in that. He could be Daniel Day-Lewis great with that accent, but he's still Harrison Ford to us and he has a relationship with the audience that is more powerful than that relationship to that character. So I have never had that and for those who have that, it's a great resource and a great burden. Vincent D’Onofrio can change in every movie. People don't know it's the same dude. My dad's like, "That's the same guy that was in ‘Daredevil’?” 

Guerrasio: And what he does in “The Magnificent Seven,” you do a double take.

Hawke: Yeah, what the f--k? But he's an old-school actor and that's different than a genuine first ballot hall of fame movie star.

Guerrasio: Ti, you were working in a larger machine with Blumhouse compared to your previous films. Did you like it?

West: I mean there wasn't much of a machine to it. It just felt the same as making any other movie. I'm in my sort of bubble with it with the same group of people, from the ADs to the ACs down, that's what helps get these smaller movies to look a little bit more expensive than they are. But it was a good experience. It didn't feel like a grind, it didn't feel hard or confusing, it really felt like we were in the right place at the right time. I would be in Santa Fe and look at Ethan on a horse with Jumpy next to him and Travolta. It was like, how did we get here? That's not always how it is. 

Hawke: I've spent my life trying to be in that position. Where you can work from a place of gratitude.

Guerrasio: Ti, the way I see things progressing for you, the next logical step is the superhero movies. Does that interest you?

West: I’m not anti-it — it's just not really in my wheelhouse. My goal is what Ethan just said, to be at another place having another experience like that. It's one thing making these independent films that yes, it's a career, but it's also a bit of a lifestyle. We all moved to Santa Fe for a while and had this experience we take with our life. I think there's a part of that where you're making a movie that's two years at best, that's the fastest it's going to go, that's a big commitment, and you need to be able to believe in it and you need to believe in it enough to sit in front of you now being enthusiastically talking about it. Maybe there's a version of a superhero movie where that happens, but typically it's got to be something that you're excited about when you do it and you're excited years later. 

Sinister Ethan HawkeGuerrasio: Do the superhero movies ever excite you enough that you'd want to be in one, Ethan?

Hawke: If somebody had passion and an idea behind their superhero movie I would consider it. I had no desire to make a horror movie and then I met Scott Derrikson (“Sinister”) and he had a very clear idea of the horror movie he wanted to make and he had a really cool character for me to play and so I didn't feel like I was making a "horror" movie, I thought I was working with a filmmaker who had an idea and it was a character that was perfect for me at that time. I was just turning 40 and playing a guy who felt he was more famous before, I could really sink my teeth into that. If somebody came at me with “The Pink Panther” and I related to it like that I could imagine doing it. I'm not working my life to get to do it. The thing that's great for me to do “Magnificent Seven” is to get to be in a movie that plays at the mall that I get to be an actor in. It's a victory for me because I'm not in a cape. I wanted to be a dramatic actor when I was a kid, so to be a dramatic actor in a movie that plays at the multiplex, if I don't do that every few years, I don't get to do this movie. It's a giant balancing act. So to do it in a way that doesn't offend me is always the goal. 

Ransone: Here's the deal —

Guerrasio: And you would be a great villain in a superhero movie, by the way, James. 

Ransone: I have been up for like five different incarnations of Marvel things, going through all the auditions and then it's gone. It happened five times in a row to me this year. 

Guerrasio: Some of the bigger characters?

Ransone: Yeah, some of the bigger characters on the TV shows and a couple of the smaller villains in the movies. Here's the thing with what it's like to be working and being an artist. We're all freelance, there's no place we have to show up, if we don't audition or hustle we don't work. And that provides a continuum of fear throughout the longevity of our careers. It's like "What's the next one going to be?" and the sexy thing about the commercialism in that you get this false consciousness of a breath of okay, I'm going to be okay for a minute. 

Guerrasio: Those movies, you're likely set for a few years. 

Ransone: That's what makes those roles so attractive. 

Hawke: If you can make people money you basically have a hall pass for three years. You're at the party for three years. 

Ransone: My experience is if I've always made the decisions that were based on my creative gut, they are always more fulfilling. And I have gotten a few paydays, and I cannot tell you what cashing those checks felt like, but I can tell you how rich the depths of my experiences were on the times when I felt I was operating at full potential creatively. And those are much more important experiences.

Hawke: I mean, I'll remember my whole life you doing that monologue on Main Street challenging me to fight that's in this movie. It was so fun, it's why you want to be an actor. 

Ransone: So with the comic-book thing, it provides something that feels safe that is inherently not. That's the weird part about the whole thing. 

Hawke: I didn't know I had to be on this treadmill going so fast forever or else I'm perceived as a loser. 

Ransone: I would venture to guess that even Travolta to this day still doesn't feel safe. I don't think he's like, "Got it, this is fine now. The money is going to keep coming in." He's like, what do I have to do to preserve whatever I did to be here?

Hawke: I got to work with Jack Lemmon when I was 18 and he was probably in his 70s and somebody asked him, "Why do you work so much?" and he said, "I'm convinced every job is the last one," and people laugh but I really think he was right. 

tom cruiseRansone: If you could hang with Tom Cruise long enough, I bet if you got down to that place —

Hawke: What makes him go to the gym every morning.

Ransone: Yeah, because it could all go away at some point. This “Jack Reacher” movie may be the last thing. 

West: And then there's this thought that if your movie doesn't make a billion dollars, it's a failure. It's no longer a movie, it's just content. 

Ransone: And it would be false for me to say that capital isn't a reflection of the quality or success of a movie, but it can't be the only metric and that's where we are now. 

Hawke: We are in a funny place where literally in my lifetime I've watched the rules completely change. When I was a kid, you had no idea how much money a movie made. And then you started to find out how much a movie made at the box office, they would put it in USA Today or something, and that would be interesting. I never saw it as a competition. Then came the internet and the metric of reviews, and it's America making everything into a competition.

West: Jason, you and I have talked about this before, and I said that I can give you all the reasons why it's good to be transparent, however I can also tell you why the weekend box-office stats and the ranking on Rotten Tomatoes has made everything worse because it has turned movies into sports. And I love sports, but it's a different thing. 

Hawke: I love sports, too, but I want one thing in my life where there is room for opinion. In sports, you either got a touchdown or you didn't.

Ransone: And what's even more terrifying is when you crack the nut on how things get made, they are so concerned about that final number that they don't actually want to do it cheaper or in a different way and that's what scares me is you're jumping in place. Couldn't we take less and take some creative risks? “Absolutely not because the bar is up here.” 

West: It's not a time when someone makes $10 million on a movie and goes, "Someone had a good day," it's "Hm, could have done better." Billion is the number now.

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Hundreds of people walked out of an Amy Schumer comedy show after she mocked Donald Trump

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amy schumer emmys 2015

About 200 people walked out of Amy Schumer's stand-up comedy show at the Amalie Arena in Tampa, Florida, after she mocked Donald Trump in her act, according to the Tampa Bay Times.

Schumer called Trump an "orange, sexual-assaulting, fake college-starting monster" about halfway through her Sunday night show, and loud boos reportedly emanated from a "a vocal, but small minority" of the arena's crowd (the arena holds about 20,000).

According to the Tampa Bay Times, Schumer said that she doesn't understand how people can support the Republican nominee, and she even invited one Trump supporter onstage: 

"At one point she asked for a Trump supporter — preferably one with sleeves, she told security personnel — to join her up onstage to explain their enthusiasm for Trump. One fellow did, but he said he voted for Trump mainly because he doesn’t trust Clinton. When some audience members booed, the actor and comedian invited them to leave and also asked security to remove anyone booing."

Several fans took to Twitter after the show to protest Schumer's open political stance, as the Daily Intelligencer points out. 

Schumer endorsed Hillary Clinton in March. On Sunday, Clinton's Florida campaign Twitter account tweeted a picture of Schumer registering voters in Florida.

Watch footage of Schumer's Trump routine below:

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We finally know who was killed in the season 6 'Walking Dead' cliffhanger and it was a big shocker

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the walking dead rick Warning: There are massive spoilers ahead from "The Walking Dead" season seven premiere.

Wow. Did you see this coming "The Walking Dead" fans?

The season seven premiere of AMC's hit show finally answered the question fans have been waiting to find out for months — who did Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) kill off in the season six cliffhanger finale?

The answer wasn't as clear-cut as fans may have expected. The series took an unexpected departure from the comics surprising fans with multiple deaths in the premiere.

This is your last chance to head back before spoilers!

the walking dead season 6 negan

When we last saw Rick, a number of his group were kidnapped by the Saviors, another group of survivors led by Negan, a foul-mouthed, bat-wielding no-nonsense type of guy. 

Negan wasn't happy with them for killing off a bunch of his men throughout season six. In response, Negan decided to take out one of Rick's in a sinister game of eeny, meeny, miney, mo.

As we soon learned, it was Abraham (Michael Cudlitz) who received the brutal beating.

abraham killed walking deadnegan kills abraham

Fans immediately broke out in response on Twitter:

Some were guessing that Abraham's time may be coming. In the comics, Abraham was gone before Rick's group ever met up with Negan. He was killed by an arrow through the eye in issue #98 of the popular comic series.

abraham dead the walking dead

While it looked like his days may have been numbered, it made sense for Negan to kill off Abraham since he physically appeared to be the Savior's biggest threat. If I were Negan, I'd want to try and take out who I thought was Rick's right hand man, something that was hinted at in the first released clip for the season

In the comics, Glenn famously gets the bat from Lucille in issue #100 of the series. Since some of the speech Negan gave nearly mirrored the one that resulted in Glenn's death, many fans were initially relieved to find out the fan favorite was safe from harm.

 

However, as we soon found out, it wasn't just one of our survivors who felt the vengeance of Negan's blood-thirsty vampire bat, Lucille. 

Nope. "The Walking Dead" killed off two of the show's long-time characters in the season seven premiere. And that second victim was none other than Glenn (Steven Yuen) himself.

negan kills glenn

Negan wasted no time in another game of eeny, meeny this time. He just went right for it.

The death came as a big surprise to many and fans lost it.

 

What did you think of the show's big twist? Did it make up for the season six cliffhanger finale? 

We'll have more on the episode coming later tonight and tomorrow afternoon after a conference call with episode director and executive producer Greg Nicotero. 

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Sunday's big 'Walking Dead' premiere was in the works for 2 years

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negan walking dead season 7

Warning: There are spoilers ahead if you haven't seen "The Walking Dead" season seven premiere

"The Walking Dead" offered a few surprises Sunday night in a heart-wrenching season seven premiere. Not only did the show kill off one beloved character on the series, but it departed from the comics in a surprise second kill. 

Last chance to head back before spoilers.

walking dead rick

While the cast has had to keep the deaths of Abraham and Glenn secret for some time, "The Walking Dead" creator Robert Kirkman and the series showrunner Scott Gimple told fans Sunday evening they knew who would be killed for years.

"It was a good while," said Gimple during "The Talking Dead" aftershow.

"How many years was it, two?" Kirkman asked.

"It was definitely inside two years," said Gimple. "Though there were little 'choose-your-own-adventure' sort of pockets that could delay or accelerate stuff."

Gimple went on to explain that the season seven premiere was all about breaking Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) the leader of the survivors fans have been following faithfully for six seasons.

rick gun the walking dead

"I think the hardest thing about it was thinking about, when starting the script, what would break Rick?" Gimple said. "It was all in the book, in issue #100, but [we were] looking for a way to break the audience too — not in a way that is in any way to hurt them, but for them to believe that Rick Grimes would be under the thumb of Negan. That he would go through an experience that would do that to him that the audience would go through the experience too so that they would believe that Rick could do what this guy says."

We're used to seeing this man, someone who previously has acknowledged that they should be feared and shouldn't be messed with, literally meet his match and possibly moreso in Negan and the Saviors as they killed two of their men, kidnapped Daryl, and nearly forced Rick to chop off his own son's arm

If that's not enough to break a man, I don't know what is.

rick walking dead zombies

Speaking of Carl's arm, "The Talking Dead" host Chris Hardwick also asked if they considered actually cutting it off.

In the past, Robert Kirkman has said that taking off Rick's hand (something which occurs in the comics) would pose a physical challenge to the show, but on the aftershow he seemed more open to the possibility of taking off his son's limb.

"There were a lot of variations of that that were discussed," said Kirkman. "We're not ruling it out for the future."

carl walking dead

Of course, Kirkman famously loves to joke with his fans so you should probably take that with a grain of salt. 

He became more serious for a moment:

"I think more than anything, the introduction of Negan, as heartbreaking as it is and how gut-wrenching as it is, was really just to set the stage in a way of saying this show, this story isn't going anywhere. We still have a lot more to do. We're setting the stage for a lot more to come. There's so much that comes out of this scene that has to be resolved," he continued. "We feel like after as many years as we've been doing this we just wanted to send a clear message that we are just getting started and there is a lot that's going to be coming from this."

So rest assured, Rick and Carl's arms are safe for the time being. They have a lot of other healing to do for the time being.

We'll have more on "The Walking Dead" premiere Monday afternoon.

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Netflix is taking on another $800 million in debt

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reed hastings netflix

Netflix is raising another $800 million dollars of debt, the company announced on Monday. This brings Netflix's total long-term debt to over $3 billion, and a big chunk of the new money will likely go to fund the company's efforts in original content.

In a press release, Netflix said it will "use net proceeds from this offering for general corporate purposes, which may include content acquisitions, capital expenditures, investments, working capital and potential acquisitions and strategic transactions." In a word: anything.

But content spending is one item that's certainly ramping up. Last week, Netflix announced that its budget for shows and movies would rise to $6 billion in 2017. That would likely put Netflix in the No. 2 spot for content spending behind ESPN (which will spend around $7.3 billion on content in 2016, according to CNBC).

A large (though unspecified) part of that will go toward Netflix's original shows and movies.

Netflix was particularly rosy about originals in its Q3 letter to investors last week. Netflix overperformed Wall Street expectations for Q3 soundly, and credited its huge beat on subscriber additions to "excitement around Netflix original content." Netflix particularly mentioned cult hit "Stranger Things" and the second season of "Narcos."

Netflix CEO Reed Hastings also sung the praises of upcoming Netflix original series "The Crown."

"We have a show coming up, 'The Crown,' which is some of the most impressive television I have ever seen," he said on Netflix's earnings call. The show, which chronicles the life of Queen Elizabeth II, will be released on November 4.

Netflix CFO David Wells has said that eventually Netflix's goal is to have its content have about a 50/50 split between licensed and original work.

Here's a chart that shows how Netflix has increased its original programming, measured by hours of content, over the last six years.

NetflixOriginals

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8 details you may have missed in episode 4 of 'Westworld'

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Each episode of HBO's "Westworld" seems to raise more questions than provide answers. In episode 4, we saw a few callbacks to previous episodes, saw some flashbacks from both Dolores and Maeve, and were fed a few more pieces of information about both the Man in Black and William to help fuel or debunk the two timelines fan theory. Here's a quick look at some details you may have missed.

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Kanye West is threatening to boycott the Grammys if Frank Ocean isn't nominated

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kanye west

Kanye West is speaking his mind on his current tour, and he's not too pleased with the Grammys.

The rapper announced at a show in Oakland, California, on Saturday night, that he'll boycott the Grammy Awards if they fail to nominate R&B singer Frank Ocean and his 2016 album "Blonde" at next year's awards.

"The album I listened to the most this year is Frank Ocean’s album," West said in video captured by a fan. "I’ll tell you this right now: if his album’s not nominated in no categories, I’m not showing up to the Grammys. As artists, we gotta come together to fight the bulls--t they been throwing us with."

The problem here is that Frank Ocean is almost definitely not going to be nominated, and that's at least partly on Ocean. Billboard reports that Ocean's team did not submit either "Blonde" (a digital-only release through Apple Music) or his "visual album" "Endless" for Grammy consideration, despite being reportedly aware of the deadlines.

Though the Grammy eligibility of "Endless" is unclear, "Blonde" presumably would have had a good shot, especially given that it hit No. 1 on the Billboard album chart, and the Grammys have altered rules to allow streaming-only releases.

West pointed to Lady Gaga as an example of why Ocean should be nominated during his Saturday comments, E! reports.

"So, I don't know if any of y'all remember: I was supposed to go on a tour with Gaga, like about six, seven years ago—a while back," West said. "I remember, that it was something... She wasn't nominated for best new artist, right? But they wanted her to perform at the show; they wanted her to open, right? So, the Grammys secretly changed something about the nominations in order to nominate her — in order for her to perform in the show."

Indeed, Gaga's ineligibility for the best new artist category in 2010 did spur the Grammys to change the rules, but she was still excluded from that category in 2010 (though she won in others), and the change in rules was not done secretly.

Nominees for the 2017 Grammys will be announced on December 6.

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