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Chris Evans is officially Hollywood's most bankable movie star

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Chris Evans

In Hollywood, a star is only worth as much as they can haul in at the box office. Which would explain why Disney is happy to keep paying the big bucks to its Marvel stars.

One of those stars, Chris Evans, landed at the top of Forbes' list of the "best actors for the buck" for a second year in a row.

To come up with the list for 2016, Forbes looked at the most recent three films actors starred in prior to June 2016, and excluded cameos, animated films, and titles that didn't get a wide release. Forbes then divided the films' operating income by the total estimated earnings the star received for them.

By that calculation, Evans brought in an average of $135.80 at the box office for every $1 he was paid. His role in Marvel's blockbuster "Captain America: Civil War" this year certainly helped.

Fellow Marvel stars Chris Pratt and Scarlett Johansson came up just behind Evans on the list, at No. 2 and No. 3, respectively. Other who made the list include Vin Diesel, Mila Kunis, and Jennifer Aniston.

See the full list of the best actors for the buck at Forbes.

SEE ALSO: 20 TV shows you're watching that are probably going to be canceled

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NOW WATCH: ‘The Walking Dead’ fans think they uncovered something huge in this scene from the latest episode


Kanye West caps off tweetstorm about meeting with Trump with cryptic '2024' tweet

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GettyImages 629489716

Kanye West concluded a tweetstorm about his Tuesday meeting with President-elect Donald Trump by posting a cryptic tweet hinting at a possible 2024 presidential run.

West said in a series of tweets posted to his official account that he "wanted to meet with Trump today to discuss multicultural issues."

"These issues included bullying, supporting teachers, modernizing curriculums, and violence in Chicago," West wrote.

Hope Hicks, a spokesperson for Trump, told The New York Times earlier in the day that West requested the meeting with Trump.

"I feel it is important to have a direct line of communication with our future president if we truly want change," West wrote.

West concluded his tweetstorm with a tweet hinting at a future presidential run:

The rapper said last year at MTV's Video Music Awards that he was planning to run for president in 2020.

Earlier on Tuesday, West sent the political universe into overdrive when he entered Trump Tower in New York City.

Accompanied by his entourage, which included a videographer, the pop culture icon walked into the lobby shortly after 9 a.m. ET for a meeting with the president-elect.

"We've been friends for a long time," Trump told reporters after the meeting, adding that the two discussed "life."

Asked by reporters whether he had anything to say about his meeting, West said only that he wanted to take a photo.

The pair then shared a surreal handshake before parting ways:

West said at a recent concert that he would have cast his ballot for Trump had he voted in the 2016 presidential election.

Soon after his pro-Trump outburst, which was widely covered in the news, West canceled the remaining shows on his tour and was checked into a Los Angeles area hospital for exhaustion. He checked out in late November.

SEE ALSO: Here’s video of the surreal handshake between Trump and Kanye West

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NOW WATCH: Donald Trump's 'strange' morning habit tells you everything you need to know about him

Here’s why so many people connect with ‘Star Wars'

'It's really raw, stripped down death': New stunning documentary shows the secret drone war at ground level

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Drone

A new documentary, "National Bird," exposes the secret drone war being carried out in Afghanistan, Iraq, Yemen, and elsewhere from the ground level of the strike and from the perspective of three military operators who used to pull the trigger.

"When you watch someone in those dying moments, what their reaction is, how they’re reacting and what they’re doing," Heather Linebaugh, a former drone imagery analyst, says in the film. "It’s so primitive. It’s really raw, stripped down, death."

Though unmanned systems have been used for many years to carry out surveillance, it wasn't until after the September 11, 2001, terror attacks — on February 4, 2002— that a drone was armed and used for targeted killing. That 2002 strike apparently killed three civilians mistaken for Osama bin Laden and his confidantes, a theme that went on to play out again and again.

Armed drones have operated since in Afghanistan and many other countries in which the US is not at war, including Yemen, Somalia, and Pakistan. They have been used to strike militants and terror leaders over the years — a program accelerated under the Obama administration — but it has come at a deadly cost, with thousands of innocent civilians killed, to include hundreds of children.

"I can say the drone program is wrong because I don’t know how many people I’ve killed," Linebaugh says.

Linebaugh and two others, introduced only by their first names Daniel and Lisa, tell equally compelling stories from their time in the military's drone program. The film gives them a chance to shine a light on what is a highly secretive program, which officials often describe as offering near-surgical precision against terrorists that may someday do harm to US interests.

Instead, the three offer pointed critiques to that narrative, sharing poignant details of deaths they witnessed through their sophisticated cameras and sensors. The most disturbing thing about being involved with the drone program, Daniel said, was the lack of clarity about whom he killed and whether they were civilians. 

"There’s no way of knowing," he says.

Darpa Drone

Though the testimony of the three operators is compelling, the documentary's most important moments come from a visit to Afghanistan, where the documentary showcases a family that was wrongly targeted by a strike. It was on February 21, 2010, when three vehicles carrying more than two-dozen civilians were hit by an Air Force drone crew.

"That's when we heard the sound of a plane but we couldn't see it," one victim says.

Filmmaker Sonia Kennebeck mixes witness statements with a reenactment of overhead imagery and voices reading from the transcript prior to the strike. A later investigation found that the operators of the Predator drone offered "inaccurate and unprofessional" reporting of what they saw.

During the incident, the drone operators reported seeing "at least five dudes so far." Eventually, they reported 21 "military-age males," no females, and two possible children, which they said were approximately 12 years old.

"Twelve, 13 years old with a weapon is just as dangerous," one drone operator says. The operators never got positive identification of the people below having weapons.

That's because the group consisted only of innocent men, women, and children, according to the documentary. Twenty-three Afghan civilians were killed, including two children aged seven and four.

"We thought they would stop when they saw women, but they just kept bombing us," the mother of the children says.

Gen. Stanley McChrystal, then the commander of US forces in the country, apologized for the strike. Four officers involved were disciplined.

The documentary cuts through the defense of drones as a "surgical" weapon that only kills the bad guys. As many reports have made clear, the US often doesn't know exactly who it is killing in a drone strike, instead hazarding an "imperfect guess," according to The New York Times, which is sometimes based merely on a location or suspicious behavior.

That imperfect guess has often resulted in the death of innocent locals — or, as was the case in 2015, the death of two men, an American, and an Italian, who were being held hostage by militants.

As Daniel points out in the documentary, the presence of drones on the battlefield has only emboldened commanders, who no longer have to risk military personnel in raids and can fire a missile instead. That viewpoint only seems to be growing, as the technology gets better and drones continue to proliferate around the world.US Air Force 2014 predator drones

The drone may continue to be the "national bird" of the US military for a long time, but perhaps the documentary can start a conversation around their use and whether they create more terrorists, as has been argued, than they are able to take out.

"Not everybody is a freakin’ terrorist. We need to just get out of that mindset," says Lisa, a former Air Force technical sergeant, in the documentary. "Imagine if this was happening to us. Imagine if our children were walking outside of their door and it was a sunny day, and they were afraid because they didn’t know if today was the day that something was going to fall out of the sky and kill someone close to them. How would we feel?"

SEE ALSO: How the NSA tells the president what foreign governments are going to do before they do it

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'To discuss multicultural issues' — Kanye explains why he met with Trump

'The Daily Show' torches media coverage of Trump's meeting with Kanye West

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Trevor Noah

A lot has been said about President-elect Donald Trump's meeting with Kanye West on Tuesday.

West, who voiced support for Trump at one of his concerts last month, showed up at Trump Tower with an entourage and later emerged for a photo with the president-elect.

On Tuesday night, "The Daily Show" host Trevor Noah cracked a few jokes about the powwow, but he mostly criticized news outlets for how they covered it.

Noah pointed to clips showing CNN and MSNBC breaking away from regular programming to capture footage of the rapper walking through Trump Tower.

In the case of MSNBC, a commentator who was speaking about Exxon Mobil CEO Rex Tillerson's nomination as secretary of state, the current secretary of state, John Kerry, and the Iran nuclear deal, was interrupted by a news anchor mid-sentence so the network could cut to Kanye.

Watch the footage below, starting at the 1:10 mark:

"The media is the best," Noah said sarcastically. "It really makes you wonder how America ended up electing a celebrity president when the media is so focused on the issues."

The meeting between the next leader of the free world and the outspoken rapper turned designer raised more than a few eyebrows, considering Trump and West have equally bombastic personalities.

Soon after his pro-Trump outburst at a concert in Sacramento, California, in November, West canceled the rest of his tour and was checked into a Los Angeles-area hospital for exhaustion.

He checked out in late November.

SEE ALSO: Harry Reid says Russia's hacking of the Democratic Party is 'as big a deal as Watergate or 9/11'

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NOW WATCH: 'To discuss multicultural issues' — Kanye explains why he met with Trump

The 10 biggest box-office bombs of 2016

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Bridget Jones Baby Miramax

The 2016 box office had some incredible performers, like Disney's "Finding Dory" and "Captain America: Civil War," which both earned over $1 billion worldwide, and the surprise success of Fox's "Deadpool."

But there were also some major flops that just didn't connect with audiences.

With as varied a mix as "Ben-Hur" and "Bridget Jones's Baby," here are the lowest-earning movies at the box office in 2016.

Note: These titles are limited to only those from the six major studios and those that have played in more than 2,000 screens. Grosses below are all domestic earnings from Box Office Mojo. Reported budgets are estimates and do not figure into the rankings.

SEE ALSO: The 25 worst movies of 2016, according to critics

10. "Hail, Caesar!" — $30 million

Reported budget: $22 million

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



9. "Zoolander 2" — $28.8 million

Reported budget: $50 million

 



8. "The Finest Hours" — $27.5 million

Reported budget: $80 million



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

Amazon just launched a massive global expansion of Prime Video (AMZN)

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The Grand TourAmazon's Prime Video just launched a massive global expansion, putting it into more than 200 countries and territories, and making it a true global competitor to Netflix.

Prime Video's new countries include India, France, Canada, and basically every major market except for China (where Netflix also still doesn't operate).

Amazon's expansion mirrors Netflix's global launch in January.

This launch comes at a time of rapid growth for Prime Video. Amazon had previously said it was doubling its spending on video content in the second half of 2016, compared with last year.

One expensive item was "The Grand Tour," a new show by Jeremy Clarkson and the "Top Gear" crew, which cost Amazon a reported $250 million. The show appears to have been a success so far, getting Amazon's biggest premiere audience to date, and becoming the most illegally downloaded show in history (perhaps partially due to Amazon not being available globally). In a recent survey, an impressive 25% of survey respondents said "The Grand Tour" impacted their decision to sign up or renew their subscription to Prime.

But it's not just "The Grand Tour" that has generated buzz. 

On Monday, Amazon secured a whopping 11 Golden Globe nominations, including two nominations for best comedy series ("Transparent" and "Mozart in the Jungle," which won the category last year). Amazon also has it's first movie-critic darling in "Manchester by the Sea," which earned five Golden Globe nominations.

There's a simple reason why Amazon continues to bulk up its Prime offerings: Prime members spend a lot more on Amazon. In fact, they spend about 4.6-times more money on Amazon than non-Prime members, Morgan Stanley said.

Prime costs $99/year or $10.99/month, and besides access to Amazon's videos, members also get access to free two-day shipping, a bunch of streaming video and music content, online storage space, game discounts, and much more.

Previous reporting by Eugene Kim.

SEE ALSO: New research reveals which of Amazon's TV shows are the most popular

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Inside the swanky Greenwich Village condo Leonardo DiCaprio just sold for a reported $2 million loss

Stephen Colbert ruthlessly mocks Kanye West for his meeting with Trump

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stephen colbert

Stephen Colbert tore into the meeting between President-elect Donald Trump and rapper and designer Kanye West on "The Late Show" Tuesday night.

Colbert started by assessing the revolving door of apparent candidates for cabinet positions in Trump Tower in Manhattan, where Trump has his office.

"So far it's been a who's who of 'why? what?'" the host joked.

The "strangest news" in the Trump Tower lobby came Tuesday when Kanye showed up for a sit-down with Trump.

"You can tell it was a high-powered meeting because Kanye is wearing his formal sweatsuit," Colbert said.

Colbert mentioned the "bro-hug" between the two and needled Kanye and Trump for their similar traits.

"Now obviously a meeting like this is a security risk: gathering the two most powerful American narcissists in the same room. Just for security reasons, they had to keep Shia LaBeouf in an undisclosed location for continuity of government," Colbert said.

He added the two would release an album together "called 'The Deportation of Pablo,'" and wondered what administration position Kanye could possibly want.

"Which government agency regulates diamond masks and track pants?" Colbert said.

Watch the video below:

SEE ALSO: 20 TV shows you're watching that are probably going to be canceled

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NOW WATCH: 10 details you may have missed on the season finale of 'Westworld'

Here are all the celebrities who met with Trump after the election

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Donald Trump Kanye West

Since his victory in November, President-elect Donald Trump has hosted many visitors outside the political realm at Trump Tower in New York City — some of whom have been nominated to his Cabinet.

The most obvious difference between Trump and his predecessors is, of course, that he has been burnished in the world of entertainment. It follows then that Trump would spend a fair amount of time with other celebrities, some of whom have made highly publicized appearances at Trump Tower in Manhattan.

Here's a list of celebrities who met with Trump after the election. There's still more than a month to go before Trump's inauguration, so this list is not exhaustive.

SEE ALSO: Kanye West just unexpectedly showed up at Trump Tower to talk about 'life' with Trump

Dec. 13: Rapper and designer Kanye West visited Trump at Trump Tower. West raised eyebrows when he told concertgoers last month that he supports Trump and would have voted for him, had he voted at all.

Source: Business Insider



Dec. 13: NFL legends Jim Brown and Ray Lewis also met with Trump, and emerged from the pow-wow with glowing words for the president-elect.

Source: The Hill



Dec. 13: Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour, a Clinton supporter who has held major fundraisers for Trump's Democratic rival, reportedly sat down with Trump for half an hour and discussed a range of issues.

Source: ABC News' Candace Smith



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

The trailer for Christopher Nolan's war movie 'Dunkirk' is here, and it's stunning

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dunkirk

We know a lot more about director Christopher Nolan's next movie that's shrouded in mystery, "Dunkirk," thanks to the first full trailer that came out Wednesday.

Set during World War II, the movie (out July 21, 2017) follows Allied soliders who are surrounded by the German army on a beach and must evacuate in a harrowing battle.

Cillian Murphy seems to have a prominent role in the movie, while other big names like Tom Hardy and Mark Rylance show up in the trailer.

More than anything, it's clear Nolan (the "Dark Knight" movies, "Interstellar") wants to command sound and picture to make you feel like you're hunkered in the terrifying action with the Allied members (especially since "Dunkirk" will be shown in IMAX and 70mm projection).

The stunning images of war here rival what Steven Spielberg accomplished with "Saving Private Ryan."

Watch the "Dunkirk" trailer below:

 

SEE ALSO: The 30 best movie endings of all time, ranked

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Seth Meyers takes a closer look at Trump's super-rich cabinet picks

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donald trump cabinet picks seth meyers late night nbc

President-elect Donald Trump's choices for cabinet positions have folks on both sides of the political aisle scratching their heads. Seth Meyers argues the wealthy picks show Trump's hypocrisy and don't seem qualified for the positions for which they're nominated.

"As a candidate, Trump cast himself as a champion of the working class who would take on Wall Street and fix a rigged system," the host said on Tuesday's "Late Night," "even going so far as to claim that he personally did not get along with rich people."

"Trump says he doesn't get along with the rich and won't cozy up to special interests," he continued. "So who did he pick for secretary of state?"

Meyers is referring the latest cabinet controversy swirling around Trump's pick for the country's highest-level diplomat: Exxon Mobil CEO Rex Tillerson. Tillerson reportedly made more than $240 million last year.

"I guess when they drained that swamp, there was oil at the bottom," Meyers said.

Tillerson is under increased scrutiny for his business dealings with Russian oil companies and his friendship with Russian President Vladimir Putin. The pick has been especially scrutinized after the CIA found that Russia interfered in the presidential election with the goal of helping Trump win.

Tillerson is just the latest wealthy person to be chosen for a cabinet position by Trump. Meyers pointed out that the combined net worth of Trump's picks amounts to about $14 billion. Those choices include Steven Mnuchin, a 17-year veteran of Goldman Sachs, for treasury secretary; Andy Puzder, the CEO of CKE Restaurants, which includes the Carl’s Jr. fast-food chain, for labor secretary; and six donors who gave about $12 million to his presidential campaign.

“It’s not just that Trump’s cabinet picks are rich that makes them problematic," Meyers said. "This is a capitalist nation and there’s nothing intrinsically wrong with getting rich. It’s just that for many of his choices, their records don’t necessarily suggest that they’ll be a champion of working people.”

Watch the latest edition of Seth Meyers' "A Closer Look" below:

SEE ALSO: Samantha Bee: Why Democrats need to stop acting like losers

DON'T MISS: Seth Meyers slams Trump's dismissal of the Russia election hack

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: 'To discuss multicultural issues' — Kanye explains why he met with Trump

Watch the intense trailer for Christopher Nolan's new WWII film featuring One Direction's Harry Styles

YouTube highlights the importance of the TV screen (GOOG, GOOGL)

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Devices used to watch online tv

This story was delivered to BI Intelligence "Digital Media Briefing" subscribers. To learn more and subscribe, please click here.

YouTube viewing time on TVs has more than doubled in a year, according to a statement from Matt Brittin, president of EMEA business and operations at Google at the company's Brandcast event on Monday in the UK.

YouTube also said that while 73% of viewing happens on mobile devices in the UK, TV represents the fastest growing platform for video consumption, which has been largely propelled by millennials. Nearly half (48%) of viewers aged 16-34 have watched YouTube on their TV, according to the company.

Speakers at the event also outlined how traditional brands are leveraging YouTube to highlight their linear offerings. For instance, The Late Late Show host James Cordon and representatives from CBS have uploaded clips of the star’s “Carpool Karaoke” segment to YouTube in order to widen its audience beyond those that can stay awake for the 12:30am EST airing of the CBS program.

YouTube’s event highlights a bigger trend in the media industry, which is that digital and traditional TV can have a mutually beneficial relationship.

  • Cross-platform initiatives seem to be paying off. UK-based Research firm IPA found that utilizing both online video and traditional TV campaigns increased marketing effectiveness by 54%. When online video is used on its own, the increase falls to 25%.
  • This is leading to increased cross-platform ad budgets. A third of US advertiser's 2016 budget will be spent on cross-platform video buys, which is a 21% increase from 2014, according to the IAB. The same study found that nearly two-third's (62%) of advertisers plan on increasing their cross-platform spend this year vs. 2015.
  • Increased adoption of connected devices are keeping viewers in front of the TV. Twenty-seven percent of households in the US have at least one multimedia device – such as Apple TV, Roku, or Google Chromecast – connected to their television, which is an increase of 59% in just two years, according to Nielsen. As adoption becomes more widespread, brands can start to incorporate interactive marketing campaigns through these platforms — something that the Washington Post is already doing

Jessica Smith, research analyst for BI Intelligence, has compiled a detailed report on streaming media devices that sizes up this market by device category and takes a more granular dive into each.

The report includes new shipments forecasts, identifies major players, and assesses the advantages and weaknesses of each device category. It also examines how usage and ownership may vary among device categories and the implications of this upswing on various ancillary markets, like advertising and app development.

Here are some key takeaways from the report:

  • Streaming media device adoption is rising fast as over-the-top (OTT) streaming video services — such as Netflix and HBO NOW — make it easier than ever to ditch traditional pay-TV. We expect global shipments of streaming media devices to grow at a 10% compound annual growth rate (CAGR), from 240 million in 2016 to 382 million in 2021.
  • Over the next few years, we expect the market for streaming media devices to grow and consolidate. In the long term, newer technologies like virtual reality will become a leading connected device segment. However, in the next five years, smart TVs, gaming consoles, and media streamers will remain the top categories by a wide margin.
  • Smart TVs currently dominate shipments, accounting for three-quarters of device shipments in 2015. As people upgrade their TVs, the global installed base of smart TVs will grow from 584 million in 2016 to 896 million in 2021.
  • As streaming media device uptake rises, stakeholders throughout the larger media ecosystem will need to adapt to consumers' changing habits. Legacy TV providers will likely need to offer skinny bundles or their own OTT subscriptions to stay relevant, while advertisers will want to capitalize on the opportunities available in targeting streaming viewers using demographic and behavioral data. App developers, platform creators, and game makers will also have a stake in where and how streaming activity develops.

In full, the report:

  • Identifies the major device categories in the streaming media market.
  • Sizes up the current reach and shipments forecast for each device category.
  • Compares and contrasts the benefits and downsides of each device category within the greater streaming media ecosystem.
  • Examines the major players in each device category.
  • Assesses the gap between streaming media device installed base and usage.
  • Explores how this growing market is impacting other industries in its peripherals.

To get your copy of this invaluable guide to the streaming media device universe, choose one of these options:

  1. Subscribe to an ALL-ACCESS Membership with BI Intelligence and gain immediate access to this report AND over 100 other expertly researched deep-dive reports, subscriptions to all of our daily newsletters, and much more. >> START A MEMBERSHIP
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The choice is yours. But however you decide to acquire this report, you’ve given yourself a powerful advantage in your understanding of the ever-changing world of streaming media devices.

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Trevor Noah breaks down Trump's secretary of state pick and his 'friendship' with Russia

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rex tillerson russia donald trump daily show comedy central

Trevor Noah sized up the qualifications of President-elect Donald Trump's pick for secretary of state, Exxon Mobil CEO Rex Tillerson.

“The question is: What the hell does an oil man know about the intricacies of international relations? Well, it turns out a lot,” the host said in a tongue-in-cheek segment called "Profiles in Tremendousness" on Tuesday's "Daily Show."

Noah admitted he had never heard of Tillerson before the pick, but he surmised from media reports that Tillerson's qualifications for the highest-level diplomatic position in the US are "impressive." They include working alongside the State Department in the course of operating in 50 countries around the world, and the fact that Exxon Mobil has its own intelligence department.

"Wow. That's insane. This guy has his own CIA? I'm impressed by that," Noah said. "Another important part of being secretary of state is cultivating good relationships with key foreign leaders. The question is: Is Tillerson up for the job? And the answer is hell to the dah.”

Noah's use of "dah," which means yes in Russian, is a reference to Tillerson's strong relationship with Russia. In addition to doing business with Russian oil companies, he has a relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin. In fact, Putin awarded Tillerson the country's Order of Friendship Medal in 2013.

“You know your country’s hardcore when friendship gets a medal,” Noah joked. "Tillerson even got Vladimir Putin to smile. Yeah, look at that. Nobody’s ever done that before.”

But Tillerson's "impressive" Russian ties have been widely viewed as problematic, especially after the CIA found that Russia interfered in the presidential election to help Trump win. Additionally, Exxon Mobil was nearing a $500 billion oil deal with Russia under Tillerson, which was blocked when President Barack Obama placed sanctions on Russia after it invaded Ukraine.

That led to Noah putting two and two together.

"Those sanctions are firm," the host said. "To lift them, you'd need somebody like the secretary of state to convince the pres— oh, look at that. I don’t know if Russia hacked the election and tilted it toward Trump. But if they did, that investment has already paid off."

Watch the latest edition of "Profiles in Tremendousness" below:

SEE ALSO: Seth Meyers takes a closer look at Trump's super-rich cabinet picks

DON'T MISS: Samantha Bee: Why Democrats need to stop acting like losers

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Gov. Rick Perry is selected to head the Department of Energy — In 2011, he once forgot he wanted it eliminated

Michael Moore: 'Donald Trump is gonna get us killed'

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Michael Moore

Michael Moore's voice grew louder than it had been in years during the 2016 election, and it hasn't stopped since Donald Trump was elected president.

The Oscar-winning filmmaker posted a note on his Facebook Tuesday searingly titled, "Donald Trump Is Gonna Get Us Killed," in which he blasts the president-elect for, among other things, failing to attend most of his daily security briefings. Trump has said he doesn't need the briefings every day because he's a "smart person."

"Most would agree the #1 job of the leader of any country is to keep its people safe," Moore wrote. "There is no more important meeting every day for the President than the one where he learns what the day's potential threats are to the country. That Trump would find it too cumbersome or too annoying to have to sit through 20 minutes of listening to his top intelligence people tell him who's trying to kill us today, simply boggles the mind."

Moore went on to slam Trump for using time to tweet insults rather than spend it on national security concerns. He also made another prediction (he correctly predicted that Trump would win the election and how) about what would happen in the event of a terrorist attack under President Trump:

"So, my fellow Americans, when the next terrorist attack happens -- and it will happen, we all know that -- and after the tragedy is over, amidst the death and destruction that might have been prevented, you will see Donald Trump acting quickly to blame everyone but himself. He will suspend constitutional rights. He will round up anyone he deems a threat. He will declare war, and his Republican Congress will back him.

"And no one will remember that he wasn't paying attention to the growing threat. Wasn't attending the daily national security briefings. Was playing golf instead or meeting with celebrities or staying up til 3am tweeting about how unfair CNN is. He said he didn't need to be briefed. 'You know, I think I'm smart. I don't need to hear the same thing over and over each day for eight years.' That's what he told Fox News on December 11th when asked why he wasn't attending the security briefings. Don't forget that date and his hubris as we bury the dead next year."

Moore compared Trump skipping security briefings to what he sees as George W. Bush's failure to do something stronger about the threat of Osama bin Laden before the 9/11 attacks.

"It's one thing to have a president who was asleep at the wheel. But, my friends, it's a whole other thing to now have a president-elect who REFUSES TO EVEN GET BEHIND THE WHEEL!" he wrote.

You can see the full note below:

SEE ALSO: The 30 best movie endings of all time, ranked

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Gov. Rick Perry is selected to head the Department of Energy — In 2011, he once forgot he wanted it eliminated

AT&T's new $35 streaming TV service keeps getting hit with big outages (T)

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directv now

In its first few weeks after launch, DirecTV Now, AT&T's $35-a-month streaming TV package, has been rocked by technical issues.

On Tuesday, the service suffered its second big outage in the past week, as first pointed out by TVPredictions.com. DirecTV Now was down for hours and the company acknowledged there was "an outage in effect."

These outages are nothing new for the young service. Directly after the launch, multiple Business Insider staffers (and frustrated customers on Twitter) saw channels stall and drop repeatedly. The bugs made watching DirecTV Now a pretty frustrating experience.

But since then, we have had much better luck getting it to generally work as advertised — unless the service is down. The fact that these outages continue, however, does not bode well for the future of DirecTV Now.

direcTV now down

How DirecTV Now's competitors are doing

If you've never used a live-TV streaming product, the fact that DirecTV Now is having repeated technical snafus might surprise you.

From a tech delivery perspective, Netflix is fine, Amazon is fine, Hulu is fine — so you might be forgiven for thinking DirecTV would be fine as well. But live TV products streamed over the internet have often been plagued with technical failures.

DirecTV Now's primary rival right now is Dish's Sling TV, which also promises your favorite cable or satellite channels delivered over the internet, wherever you are.

This summer, after months of testing Sling TV, we wrote that while we had a largely positive experience with it, the product suffered from repeated technical failures, at the exact moments we really didn't want it to. Channels would get intolerably fuzzy or cease to work, particularly at high-traffic moments like the NBA playoffs or the "Game of Thrones" premiere.

The steadiest of these streaming TV services, at least in our experience, has been PlayStation Vue. Sony's streaming service consistently felt natural enough over the course of a three-month flirtation, but past reports suggest it's dealing with fewer subscribers, and even then, plenty others have expressedfrustrations. Vue usually works, and when it does it's the most complete cable substitute of the bunch — but there's always a little bit of risk.

For some cord-cutters, any of these three services can be a bargain from a programming perspective. You can get the channels you want for less money. (We even constructed the ideal cord-cutter bundle at around $63 per month using DirecTV Now).

But they don't always nail the technical side, and that's tough to accept, especially if you are used to cable. You want your streaming TV service to work every time you turn on your TV — like cable, or even Netflix — period.

AT&T declined to comment.

SEE ALSO: AT&T's new $35 streaming TV package is the key to ditching your $100-plus cable bill and still watching whatever you want

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Gru and the minions are back in the hysterical 'Despicable Me 3' trailer

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Universal and Illumination just dropped the trailer for the next "Despicable Me" movie and it looks hysterical. The movie will see Steve Carrell return as Gru, with South Park's Trey Parker starring as the villain.

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How Scientology costs members up to millions of dollars, according to Leah Remini's show

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So far, the A&E docuseries "Leah Remini: Scientology and the Aftermath" has primarily focused on the alleged emotional and physical costs of being a member of Scientology. On Tuesday's episode, it focused on the actual financial commitments one makes as a member.

Hint: They're steep.

“There is no other religion that I know of that requires two and a half hours of your day, a quarter of a million dollars minimum, and at least 40 years of your life,” host and former Scientologist Leah Remini said.

Remini claims she spent "millions" during her 35 years with the church.

The episode focused on the course requirements of the religion and the alleged ways the religion pressures its members into continually giving above and beyond the course costs.

For the record, the church has declined to take part in the series. It contends that the statements Remini and the other contributors to the show have made about Scientology are false and are driven by a desire to profit or gain publicity from their time in the religion. 

Here's how Scientology could cost hundreds of thousands of dollars for its followers, according to former members:

SEE ALSO: The shocking truth about how Scientology really works, according to one former insider

DON'T MISS: The 7 most shocking Scientology allegations we learned from Leah Remini's new show

Scientologists allegedly spend thousands of dollars to purchase every book written by founder L. Ron Hubbard.

Remini showed off a large bookcase in her home filled with L. Ron Hubbard texts. One wouldn't think that books for church membership could cost thousands of dollars, but Remini explained that there are 12 basic books in Scientology, and the package costs about $4,000. And a member will often have to buy the books multiple times whenever Scientology says they've been updated.

Additionally, Scientology allegedly tells members that libraries have a demand for the books and encourages members to buy multiple book packages to donate to libraries.

In addition to books, Remini said that Scientologists must buy Hubbard's lectures, various audio CDs, donate to the church's causes, and pay a membership fee.



The low-priced introductory Scientology courses are allegedly just ways to bring in new members and don't actually count toward anything.

Remini referred to several $35 introductory courses as "throwaways," which don't really count as credits in the intense list of courses Scientologists are required to take. She said they were only meant to bring in new members and "indoctrinate" them to the Church's terms.



Scientology has a detailed and costly course list called "The Bridge to Total Freedom."

"The Bridge to Total Freedom" is the list of courses required to reach spiritual actualization. 

"'The Bridge to Total Freedom' are the series of steps that were laid out by L. Ron Hubbard that every Scientologist must follow in order to attain the ultimate in spiritual enlightenment and in spiritual freedom," Scientology's former international spokesperson Mike Rinder explained.

Scientology teaches that reaching the top of the Bridge means one should be able to use their mind to do powerful things like “move things, cure cancer in yourself,” according to Remini.

Required courses cost about $650 each, Remini claimed. A course could require that its members study from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. seven days a week.

Remini admitted that she got something out of the courses. 

“There are some useful one-on-one therapeutic things that are being done,” she said.

Rinder and Remini both reached level two of the Bridge, though both feel as if they didn't achieve the level's goal of "relief from the hostilities and challenges of life."



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