From its striking reenactments to its shocking conclusion, HBO’s "The Jinx" has become our latest true-crime fix. But with the series over where do you go now to consume a juicy real life whodunit?

Coincidentally, the film that started the true-crime film genre just became available on Blu-ray Tuesday for the first time ever.

“The Thin Blue Line” (1988) is Oscar-winning documentary filmmaker Errol Morris’ masterpiece that reexamines the 1976 murder of a slain Texas police officer in which Randall Dale Adams was convicted and sentenced to death. Morris interviews most of the lawyers, investigators, and witnesses involved in the case in an attempt to prove that Adams was innocent of the crime. Morris also interviewed David Harris, who said he was in the car with Adams when the murder took place.

His testimony was one of the chief reasons Adams was convicted, but "The Thin Blue Line" suggests that it was actually Harris who was guilty.

And to top this incredible story, Morris added something that set his film apart from the talking heads in documentaries of the 1980s; he incorporated lush reenactments of the night in question accompanied by a stirring score from composer Philip Glass (he’s since done the music for four more Morris films) to create an immersive experience that elevates the story and makes you feel you're right there investigating what really happened. "The Jinx" incorporates similarly vivid reenactments. 

"The Jinx" and "The Thin Blue Line" both have shocking endings. In the former, the real-estate heir Robert Durst apparently confesses to killing his wife, his good friend, and his neighbor when he utters the phrase, "What the hell did I do? Killed them all of course."

At the end of "The Thin Blue Line," Harris admits to Morris it was he, not Adams, who killed the police officer.

Morris, who talked to Business Insider from Los Angeles last week, says he hasn't seen "The Jinx" yet, but moments he recounts from his experience making "The Thin Blue Line" are almost a carbon copy of what we see "The Jinx" director Andrew Jarecki go through while making his HBO documentary series. 

Like in the final episode of "The Jinx" where Jarecki is filled with anxiety preparing for the final interview with Durst, Morris told BI he also had his own issues when doing his final interview with Harris. Perhaps even worse than Jarecki's nerves, Morris' camera malfunctioned while interviewing Harris and he had to tape record their conversation instead of filming it.

“I thought it was a disaster at the time,” said Morris. “I remember I came home from doing the interview with the tape recorder and I started crying.”

The scene has since become one of the most memorable endings in cinema, the shot of a lone tape recorder playing Harris’ confession. Many believed at the time that it was Morris’ intention to film the conversation in this unconventional way. Morris admits it's taken him some time to finally appreciate the power of the scene as it is. 

"The Jinx" fans may recall that Jarecki also uses shots of a tape recorder playing interviews with sources.

Morris admits he still wonders if Harris would have been as open to him on that day if a camera were in front of him. “I felt very strongly that I had a case, a very powerful case, with or without that,” he said. “But I may not have had as powerful a film.”

In "The Jinx," Jarecki speaks about the guilt of having to question Durst about new evidence he found after having built a relationship with his subject over the course of making the film. Morris felt similarly about Harris.

Although Morris was certain he was “a cold blooded killer,” he had spent numerous years talking to him on and off camera and began to like him. So, after the film's release, when he had to appear at Harris' trial for the unrelated killing of another man in Beaumont, Texas in 1985, he was extremely nervous that he would be called to the stand and betray his subject's trust. Morris says he was never called.

Morris' relationship with Harris was on such good terms, in fact, that the director spent time with Harris several hours before he was executed by lethal injection in 2004 in Texas for the murder of the Beaumont man. (Harris never officially confessed to killing the police officer.)

“We talked about his absolute conviction that he would never be executed," Morris said. "He didn't believe that it would ever happen, even a couple of hours before his death."Jarecki and his filmmaking team are preparing for the likely chance of being called in a future Durst trail.

But perhaps one of the biggest things that links the two films are their ties to advocacy journalism and the paradox of providing new information to the authorities for the good of society versus keeping it to use for their films. The release of "The Thin Blue Line" in theaters in 1988, which at that time for a documentary was unheard of, didn't only get a man off death row but brought more discussions to the fore about capital punishment.

"The Jinx" doesn’t have such lofty aspirations, but Jarecki and his team discovered new evidence that could link Durst to unsolved murder cases. There are now questions as to whether Jarecki and company delivered materials to authorities in a timely fashion, but the LAPD have denied that their arrest of Durst was related to findings in "The Jinx." 

Recently, filmmaker Joe Berlinger — who along with his filmmaking partner Bruce Sinofsky brought new evidence in the case of the West Memphis Three in their "Paradise Lost" films that eventually got them off death row — commented on this topic following the final episode of "The Jinx."

"The great success of 'The Jinx' raises, for me, issues we have been grappling with and that is the continued blurring of the lines between reporting and entertainment. Documentaries are in a unique position to go the distance … you can go deep and you can get answers, but at the same time there are some issues. The selective withholding of information at the right dramatic moment, the recreation of gory details that are painful for those involved, and yet, it's entertainment. So I think this raises a lot of issues, the most important of which is when somebody knows something that is key to a case when do you communicate that to the police?"

For "The Thin Blue Line," Morris struggled with the issue of when to divulge new evidence he'd uncovered to the authorities, because they were convinced they had got their man.

"I'm sure there were Dallas police officers who, until their dying day, believed Randall Adams was guilty," he said.

And Morris did not trust Adams' lawyer, either. "Inevitably you always, in life as in art, volunteer and withhold information for a lot of different reasons. Some of them are defensible reasons, some are indefensible reasons. I came to distrust Randall Adams' attorney and I withheld information from the attorney while I was doing my investigation for a number of reasons. I would defend those reasons to this day. And I reached a certain point where I knew I had to turn over everything I had to him. Didn't like him. Think he's the principal reason why Randall Adams sued me. But I realized I had to give him everything. It was the correct thing to do."

That is the main point behind any true-crime story, according the Morris. Whether it be told through a novel or movie, whether the subjects are arrested the day before the story we're watching ends or years later, regardless how great the stories are presented to the audience or how popular they become, it isn't what closes a case.

"What a documentary should do is make you think about what is true and false," Morris said. "It should make you question the nature of the evidence that you are being presented with. When people say ["The Thin Blue Line"] got Adams out of prison I remind them it brought an unknown, unheralded, obscure case to national attention. It was the evidence, the evidence I uncovered, that got him out of prison."

Randall Dale Adams would eventually go free in 1989 and "The Thin Blue Line" would become a classic, added to the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress in 2001.

As of today, “The Thin Blue Line” is available now on Blu-ray through The Criterion Collection. 

SEE ALSO: Oscar-winning director Errol Morris reveals what his Netflix series will be about

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The BBC has fired "Top Gear" host Jeremy Clarkson for his involvement in a "fracas" with one of the show's producers.

Here's the BBC's confirmation:

BBC boss Tony Hall says: "It is with great regret that I have told Jeremy Clarkson today that the BBC will not be renewing his contract."

— BBC Newsbeat (@BBCNewsbeat) March 25, 2015

Here is the full statement from BBC director General Tony Hall, as provided by a BBC staffer:

Here is the summary of the BBC's investigation into the event, by Ken MacQuarrie, the director of BBC Scotland.

The highlights include a description of the fight:

The incident makes Clarkson look really bad:

The statement from BBC chief Tony Hall, says that the decision comes with "regret," but is hard-hitting elsewhere.

It notes that Tymon attended a hospital accident and emergency room following the "fracas" (a physical altercation) and that he sustained "prolonged verbal abuse of an extreme nature." Hall adds that the situation has been "difficult for everyone involved," and also concedes that Clarkson is a "huge talent" and says he's sure the presenter will go on to entertain in the future.

At the time of writing, Clarkson had not reacted to the decision, but had updated his Twitter bio to "I used to be a presenter on the BBC2 motoring show, Top Gear." Before, it read "I am probably a presenter..." 

Earlier Wednesday morning, he tweeted that he had not heard the decision yet:

Just to keep everyone up to date, I haven't heard a thing.

— Jeremy Clarkson (@JeremyClarkson) March 25, 2015

The future of Top Gear, the show that Clarkson helped reel in a global audience of 350 million, now remains in the balance. The BBC statement says that the broadcaster will look to renew Top Gear for 2016, but mentions that it will "be a big challenge and there is no point in pretending otherwise."

The news follows reports from The Telegraph and The Guardian that the host of the wildly popular car show would be sacked for an incident that happened at a hotel after a long day of filming.

The move will at least in its current form end a TV franchise that gathers £50 million ($74.6 million) in revenues for the BBC globally. The BBC will attempt to "reconstruct" the show around the other two presenters, Richard Hammond and James May, The Guardian reports. That move would be a huge surprise, given Clarkson's outsize role and popularity on the show.

The Guardian says BBC director general Lord Tony Hall felt he had "little alternative" but to get rid of Clarkson. The Guardian has this great quote:

... a source close to the inquiry said: "There can't be one rule for talent and one rule for ordinary human beings."

Clarkson had already been suspended from his long-running job hosting "Top Gear." He was sidelined after he reported the incident to BBC Television chief Danny Cohen. 

The fracas took place after the producer failed to secure Clarkson the steak dinner he ordered after a long day of filming, according to various reports. In response, the BBC pulled three yet-to-be-aired episodes of the show's 22nd season from its schedule.

"Top Gear" started on British TV in the late 1970s, but the current incarnation of the program kicked off in 2002. It has since grown into a broadcasting juggernaut, seen weekly in 200 countries by 350 million viewers.

Clarkson has been no stranger to controversy over his long career as both a broadcaster and newspaper columnist. In recent years, he was accused of using a racial slur in a segment of a "Top Gear" broadcast that was edited out, as well as provoking Argentines with a license plate that may have referred to the 1982 Falklands War.

His suspension by the BBC divided fans and critics into two camps. Especially in Britain, where Clarkson is a prominent media celebrity, detractors argued that he should be kicked off "Top Gear."

But his legions of fans worldwide lined up to support the 54-year-old. A million people signed an online petition calling for his reinstatement.

SEE ALSO: 10 reasons BBC's 'Top Gear' is the greatest show on TV

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NOW WATCH: Top Gear cast responds to Jeremy Clarkson's suspension

Jimmy Kimmel says he left Austin after an 8-day SXSW trip with a heavy souvenir — 9 lbs on his frame.

“I think Texas may have broken my stomach, I really do,” he told the audience of Monday night's “Jimmy Kimmel Live.”

"Even my yoga pants don't fit," he exclaimed to a laughing crowd.

SXSW is a week-long conference that takes place in Austin, Texas, every March.

It's part tech conference, part music festival, and lots of food.

Lots and lots of food. In fact, Kimmel created a "Wall Of Food" for his viewers to show them just how much food was available to hungry event participants.

"This is every meal we ate on Tuesday," he joked. In reality, it was nearly every meal he and Guillermo, Kimmel's sidekick, had in Austin. As viewers looked at the photos, Kimmel challenged them to find photos of vegetables.

The dining establishments present at SXSW create a long list. On the event's official site, a sidebar called "SouthBites" allows visitors to plan ahead and prepare their stomachs. 

"East Side King, Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams, Goro & Gun, Micklethwaite Craft Meats, Burro Cheese Kitchen, Garbo’s Lobster Truck, Be More Pacific, Chi’lantro, SLAB BBQ, Cazamance, The Seedling, The Butcher’s Son, Foreign & Domestic, Holy Kombucha, The Duk Truck, Ms. P’s Electric Cock, House of Card Coffee House, The Peached Tortilla, Phamily Bites, The Waffle Bus, Gourdough’s Big. Fat. Donuts," the site lists.

Kimmel recently lost a good amount of weight, and told Glamour magazine:

I decided it was time to lose weight. Buying a scale was a big turning point, and now I weigh myself. I get depressed if it’s over a certain number, and I’m pleased if it’s under a certain number. My wife does this weird thing called exercising, which I want no part of. Honestly, even if I were unemployed, I would somehow find a way not to have time to go to the gym. Instead, I’m on the two-five diet. On Monday and Thursday I eat only 600 calories or less and am starving at my desk. But the rest of the week? I eat like I’ve been on an island and then got dropped off in front of an all-you-can-eat buffet in Las Vegas.

You can watch Kimmel's entire "Wall Of Food" clip here and below:

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NOW WATCH: A lawyer in Florida has come up with an ingenious way for drivers to evade drunken-driving checkpoints

In a country where esports constitutes a national pasttime, the South Korean government is cracking down on teen addiction to video games.

Roughly one in 10 South Korean children between the ages of 10 and 19 are addicted to the internet, according to most recent government data via Reuters. In a new report, VICE estimates that number could be as high as 50%.

In an epic five-part documentary series, VICE reporter Matt Shea traveled to South Korea to dive into the glamorous and dark world of esports. There he learned that, while many of the country's residents rally around online games like Starcraft and League of Legends, the government is less than thrilled.

At nicegametv, a Twitch-like video game broadcasting company based in South Korea, Shea met an unnamed future star of the esports world, who was recently scouted by a professional team. In an interview, the teenaged boy admitted to spending on average 88 hours per week playing video games.

"Apart from sleeping, taking showers, or eating, I live in front of the computer," he said.

When Shea asked him if he had a back-up career plan, the young man replied: "I have nothing."

Answers like this frighten the South Korean government. Addicted gamers suffer sleep deprivation, mood swings, and seizures as a result of their dedication, and make for less engaged citizens.

In 2011, the government passed the "Cinderella Act," commonly known as the "Shutdown Law," which prevents children under the age of 16 from accessing gaming websites between midnight and 6 a.m. Under the system, anyone in South Korea wishing to log into those sites must enter their age-encoded national I.D.

Dr. Lee Jae-Won, a neuropsychiatrist at Gangnam Eulji Hospital in Seoul, told Shea that online gaming accounts for roughly 90% of addiction cases in South Korea.

Of course, the overnight gaming ban has its flaws. Some kids will use their parents' I.D.s to hop online — a pretty amateur hack. When that system fails to "save kids from themselves," some parents employ an alternative defense mechanism: internet rehabilition.

One-quarter of teens diagnosed with internet addiction will be hospitalized in a government-sponsored center, like Dr. Lee's practice. Shea visited Gangnam Eulji Hospital and tried out some of the unusual therapies.

The first stage of treatment is a brain scan to test addiction. Shea watched gameplay while eletrodes were strapped to his head.

Next, he received some sort of neurofeedback- or biofeedback-therapy, the applications of which were unclear. He sat in a chair as Dr. Lee delivered a single electric shock via a brain-pulse instrument. In the seconds after the zap, his whole body shuddered involuntarily.

"It felt like someone had struck my bones with a tuning fork," Shea said. 

In the final stage of therapy, Shea sat in a chair and watched footage of violent video games. Doctors measured how long he could observe without feeling a dire need to pick up a controller.

"The notion of addiction treatment has changed," Dr. Lee said. "For example, the goal of treating someone with a drug addiction problem would be for the person to stop taking drugs completely."

"But for internet addiction treatment, it's not about avoiding using the internet as a whole. It's more about a patient being able to control their use of the internet like a normal person. That is when we can say that they are cured."

As esports grows more mainstream around the world and internet-addiction cases crop up by the millions, the South Korean government should be scared.

SEE ALSO: Gamers are spending thousands of dollars a year on this 'free' video game

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NOW WATCH: This is what happens to your brain and body when you check your phone before bed

It was a star-studded New York Rangers game Tuesday night when Carrie Bradshaw herself was spotted sitting a row away from Joe Fox (or, if you'd rather address them by their real names, Sarah Jessica Parker and Tom Hanks).

The camera focuses on Hanks — he seems to say "something something something what's the matter with you!" — and then, on Parker's disgusted reaction.

Check it out (via BuzzFeed's Whitney Jefferson):

 As Jefferson put it, "I am BLOWN AWAY by this Vine! What did Tom Hanks say to offend SJP?"

Any expert lip readers out there? If only we had Hanks mic'd before the game.

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Reigning WWE Heavyweight Champion Brock Lesnar just ended any speculation that he might be leaving the company after his main event match at Wrestlemania this Sunday.

In an interview on ESPN, Lesnar said that he extended his contract with WWE and that he would not return to the world of Mixed Martial Arts.

"I'm officially closing the door on MMA," Lesnar said.

The announcement resulted in a flurry of high-profile responses from the world of professional wrestling on Twitter.

Lesnar previously reigned as Heavyweight Champion in UFC before leaving MMA due to being diagnosed with diverticulitis. He returned to WWE and made big news at Wrestlemania XXX in 2014 by snapping the Undertaker's undefeated streak of 21 consecutive wins in at the popular event.

Lesnar is scheduled to defend his title at Wrestlemania this Sunday against challenger Roman Reigns at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, CA.

Watch Lesnar's interview on ESPN:

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NOW WATCH: This video will change the way you watch the WWE

Tom Cruise has always boasted that he does his own stunts.

Whether it’s driving a race car in “Days of Thunder,” battling enemies with a samurai sword in “The Last Samurai”... 

... Or climbing the tallest building in the world, the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, in “Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol,” the megastar has prided himself on giving audiences an authentic experience.

But with the release of the trailer for the new “Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation,” Cruise proved himself as one of the toughest guys in Hollywood.

In the much-hyped trailer, Cruise, reprising his role as IMF agent Ethan Hunt, ends up on a giant Airbus A400M plane and is hanging from the door as it takes off.

In today’s era of Hollywood plugging in CGI for almost anything, when watching the scene teased one would likely assume it was done in a sound studio covered in green screen with a giant fan to project the star of the movie.

But that's not Tom Cruise's style.

“I knew I wanted to have an airplane sequence. I’ve been thinking about it for a long time," Cruise told Yahoo Movies UK during an interview with director Christopher McQuarrie. "As a kid I remember flying on an airplane and thinking: ‘what would it be like out on the wing or on the side of the airplane?!’”

So after eight takes on a runway in England, Cruise's childhood dream finally came true.

Cruise and McQuarrie were both aware that they had to top the stunt of Cruise climbing Dubai's Burj Khalifa in “Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol” (which he also did without a stunt double).

When the production designer brought McQuarrie a model of an Airbus plane, the director joked to Cruise, “What if you were on the outside of this thing when it took off?’ Cruise replied, “Yeah, I could do that.”

Discussions began and the major concern was debris on the runway or bird strikes. According to Cruise the production spent days clearing the grass near the runway of any birds. But Cruise was also concerned about something no one else was bringing up: fuel.

“You have jet fuel coming right out of the back at me because I’m on the wing of the engine,” he said. “Even when we were taxying I was also inhaling the fumes and [it] was going in my eyes.”

To help the fumes and any particles getting in his eyes, Cruise was given custom contact lenses that covered his entire eyeballs, but the threat of being struck by something on the runway was real.

“I remember one time we were going down the runway and there was just a little particle that just hit me, it was smaller than a finger nail,” Cruise recalls. “I was thankful it didn’t hit my hands or face, if it did I’d have a problem because those parts were exposed, but it still could have broken my ribs!”

“When that thing was going down the runway it was everything to keep my feet down, then it went up and my body was slamming on the side. I was like whoa, this is intense," the actor tells Yahoo.

Cruise notes that he was strapped to the side of the plane from the moment the engine started to the moment it landed and the engine shut down — "The climb, the taxi, down the runway, getting the shot, leveling off, turning around and landing. And I did it EIGHT TIMES to get the shot.”

“It’s the most dangerous thing I’ve even done, to be honest,” said Cruise. He notes that climbing a mountain in Moab for “Mission: Impossible 2” and the Burj Khalifa in “Ghost Protocol” were dangerous...

But when they got this shot, he said, “We’re not doing it anymore!”

SEE ALSO: The 4 most insane stunts from 'Mission: Impossible' trailers

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NOW WATCH: Watch 52-year-old Tom Cruise beat up bad guys in the new 'Mission: Impossible' trailer

Warner Brothers just released a new trailer for the cinematic adaptation of the hit HBO series "Entourage." In what looks like an extremely fun, extended episode of the show, Ari Gold (Jeremy Piven) and the boys continue to navigate the choppy waters of Hollywood as Vincent Chase (Adrien Grenier) declares he wants to become a director.

But enough about the plot! The trailer features plenty of bikini-clad ladies, super-cars and yachts -- all of which will undoubtedly lure the show's faithful fanbase into theaters.

The movie also promises myriad celebrity cameos. Some standouts include Warren Buffett and Ronda Rousey, but there are literally too many to name here. Maybe this gif will help:

"Entourage" opens on June 5th.

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We finally have an idea of how one of DC comic's iconic villains will look in the big "Batman V Superman" movie out next summer.

Jesse Eisenberg ("The Social Network") will be taking on the role of the Man of Steel's arch nemesis Lex Luthor.

The casting back in January 2014 was a bit of a surprise because it meant the 31-year-old actor would most likely have to cut off his locks for the role.

Luthor, a billionaire scientist and CEO of his own company LexCorp, is known for being bald.

While filming for "Batman V Superman" has been underway for some time, Eisenberg has been very careful to keep his new look under wraps.

DC Entertainment chief creative officer Geoff Johns teased the first image of Eisenberg in the upcoming film in which his hair is clearly gone.

DC Entertainment since released the image on Instagram.

Director Zack Snyder spoke with Entertainment Weekly revealing how this version of Luthor will be different than others fans have seen on screen before.  

“He’s not any of the Lexes that you’ve seen, that’s for sure,” Snyder told EW. “… other than him being a captain of industry and one person to the world and another person to himself. And bald, of course.” 

“Our Lex is disarming and he’s not fake,” he added. “He says what he believes and he says what’s on his mind. If you can unravel the string and decipher what he means, it’s all there.”

"Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice" is in theaters March 25, 2016.

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Zayn Malik, one of the five members of insanely popular boy band One Direction, has decided to leave the group.

The following was posted to the band's Facebook page regarding the news:

After five incredible years Zayn Malik has decided to leave One Direction. Niall, Harry, Liam and Louis will continue as a four-piece and look forward to the forthcoming concerts of their world tour and recording their fifth album, due to be released later this year.

Malik, 22, also released a statement posted to Facebook:

My life with One Direction has been more than I could ever have imagined. But, after five years, I feel like it is now the right time for me to leave the band. I'd like to apologise to the fans if I've let anyone down, but I have to do what feels right in my heart. I am leaving because I want to be a normal 22-year-old who is able to relax and have some private time out of the spotlight. I know I have four friends for life in Louis, Liam, Harry and Niall. I know they will continue to be the best band in the world.

Malik made headlines last week when he inexplicably left the tour, leaving the rumor mill to go wild as to what sparked his sudden absence. Some said it was caused by the a photo of him with another woman (not his fiance, Perrie Edwards) making its way into the media.

The remaining members of the band (Louis Tomlinson, Liam Payne, Harry Styles, and Niall Horan) had this to say: "We're really sad to see Zayn go, but we totally respect his decision and send him all our love for the future. The past five years have been beyond amazing, we've gone through so much together, so we will always be friends. The four of us will now continue. We're looking forward to recording the new album and seeing all the fans on the next stage of the world tour."

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Early reports have predicted the next "Fast and Furious" film, "Furious 7," could debut to record-breaking $115 million opening weekend April 3. Lead star and producer Vin Diesel thinks the action flick has even more potential.

In a recent profile in Variety, Diesel reflected on the "Fast" franchise, the death of his close friend and costar Paul Walker, and his belief that "Furious 7" should win best picture at the Oscars next year.

“Universal is going to have the biggest movie in history with this movie,” Diesel told Variety. “It will probably win best picture at the Oscars, unless the Oscars don’t want to be relevant ever.”

“This will win best picture,” Diesel added. “There is nothing that will ever come close to the power of this thing.”

Diesel has a lot of faith in the "Furious" franchise. He describes himself as the "saga visionary" and Universal relied on Diesel for everything from laying out story structure to picking the songs on the soundtrack. He even turned down the opportunity to star in "2 Fast 2 Furious" saying that he would have taken a more "Francis Ford Coppola approach" to the sequel, as opposed to just rehashing the original idea. 

With Coppola in mind, Oscar glory has clearly always been one of Diesel's ambitions.

The marketing for "Furious 7" has taken on a much more serious approach than other franchise installments have taken in the past.

One of the many criticisms against the Oscars is that they lean towards smaller indies as opposed to bigger films with both critical praise and big box-office numbers to match. After the snub of "The Dark Knight," the Academy stretched the best picture award to ten nominees in 2009.

The inclusion of more nominees arguably led to the inclusion of such box-office hits as "Avatar," "Toy Story 3," and "Gravity" getting nominations. However, with rumors swirling that the Academy may go back to five best picture nominees, a "Furious 7" nod seems less likely.

While early reviews have been positive so far with an 88% score on Rotten Tomatoes, according to Variety, one Universal studio executive simply "chuckled" after being told about Diesel's prediction.

SEE ALSO: 'Fast and Furious 7' is an absolutely ridiculous thrill ride and Paul Walker tribute that fans will love

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NOW WATCH: The new 'Furious 7' trailer is packed full of cars, explosions, and ridiculous stunts

Let me start by explaining how this happened: My boyfriend, let's call him "Dave," and I are in a long-distance relationship. Therefore, we have to come up with activities that we can do together without actually being together.

Last month, he suggested we read a book. After discussing possible genres, then arguing over what constitutes a "good" mystery novel, I only half-jokingly suggested "50 Shades of Grey." After all, it was just in time for Valentine's Day and I had been seeing the seductive trailers for the film "50 Shades of Grey," based on the 2011 novel. I was admittedly more than a little curious.

To my surprise, Dave agreed, after a few seconds of hesitation. And here we are, more than 500 pages of mediocre plot and cringe-inducing porn later, and I must say that our relationship is better for it. Here's why:

Experts will tell you how important communication is for a healthy relationship, and while E.L. James's novel isn't the best piece of literature around, it's a classic example of a relationship gone sour because of poor communication.

As we read the book, Dave and I could objectively discuss where the main characters went wrong, who was to blame, and ultimately what they could have done to avoid the miserable situations they find themselves in by the end.

Over the course of our five-year relationship, Dave and I have had our fair share of arguments. Many of them spawned from miscommunication by one or both of us. And if you and your partner have ever fought because of some kind of miscommunication, then you know how difficult it is to see any side but your own.

Reading "50 Shades of Grey" gave Dave and me the unique chance to see each other's perspective on how couples should communicate.

More importantly, we were detached from the characters, thanks to their bizarre qualities and poor character development. This detachment meant that if we disagreed how one character acted or miscommunicated we could calmly discuss our opinions without getting into a heated dispute where someone's pride was left beaten on the floor.

During one memorable conversation we even managed to resolve a major misunderstanding we had early in our relationship.

For example, about two-thirds into the story, the two main characters, Anastasia Steele and Christian Grey, have an in-depth discussion on Steele's feelings about their relationship, which at that point has escalated from just sex to semi-serious. The discussion, however, is conducted through a series of back-and-forth emails.

Dave strongly felt a conversation like that should take place in person and did not understand why the author had it happen any other way. While I agree a topic that important should be discussed in person, the emails were a perfect example of Steele's inability to express herself when she's with Grey.

As it turns out, I sent a few angry emails to Dave during our first year together because I, too, used to struggle with communicating my emotions. (I eventually stopped when I learned those emails ruined his entire day.)

As we discussed the example in the book, I mentioned my angry emails as a way to defend both the author's choice and Steele's actions. To my surprise, Dave had thought that I was sending those emails to be a killjoy. To his surprise, I'd sent those emails to communicate.

Needless to say, I was reminded of the importance of clear communication in a relationship and it's all thanks to a very unexpected source. Thanks, E.L. James.

CHECK OUT: How 'Fifty Shades of Grey' would be different if it were written for men

LEARN MORE: Science explains how to make a long-distance relationship actually work

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NOW WATCH: Learn what all the fuss is about — here's the regular guy's guide to 'Fifty Shades of Grey'

Comedy legend Will Ferrell received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and actor John C. Reilly honored him with a funny and thoughtful poem he wrote for the occasion. 

Produced by Jason Gaines. Video courtesy of Associated Press.

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Shortly after Mark Cuban got his bachelor's degree from Indiana University in 1981, he moved in with some friends in Dallas and became a bartender.

After getting sick of making drinks, Cuban worked at a PC software business, where he built up a strong clientele but provoked his boss to fire him for disobeying an order.

He was left with no savings and no means to pay his bills; it was as good a time as any to venture out on his own, he figured, and so he started a software distribution company called MicroSolutions.

He partnered with an experienced executive, and soon they had a nice thing going — until their receptionist embezzled and ran away with $83,000 of the company's $85,000.

As Cuban explains in his book "How to Win at the Sport of Business," he didn't give up or seek revenge. Instead, he buckled down and spent countless hours learning about the software he sold so that he would outperform the competition. He eventually sold MicroSolutions in 1990 to H&R Block for $6 million, personally making around $2 million. It was his first big deal.

He tells Business Insider that the greatest lesson he learned in his 20s was that "with time and effort I could learn any new technology that was released."

Rather than a boast, it's a message to entrepreneurs that when you hit dire straits, your competition isn't going to slow down for you to catch up, but you can accelerate past them with the knowledge you acquire. And Cuban doesn't suggest you spend the money or go in debt for an MBA.

"I remember going into customer meetings or talking to people in the industry and tossing out tidbits about software or hardware," he writes. "Features that worked, bugs in the software. All things I had read. I expected the ongoing response of: 'Oh yeah, I read that too in such-and-such.' That's not what happened. They hadn't read it then, and they still haven't started reading it."

Cuban says that despite a minimal background in computers, he was outperforming so-called experts in the field simply because he put time and effort in. It's why, he writes, he still allocates a chunk of his day to reading whatever he can to gain an edge in the businesses he's involved in.

"Most people won't put in the time to get a knowledge advantage," he writes.

Cuban explains that college is the time you pay to learn, but "now that you have graduated, it's your chance to get paid to learn. And what if you aren't a recent college grad? The same logic applies. It is time to get paid to learn."

SEE ALSO: Mark Cuban's 3 fundamental rules for running a business

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Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel will be making a cameo appearance on the season two premiere of HBO's "Silicon Valley" show, the Los Angeles Times reports.

Though his appearance will reportedly be brief, he will have a prominent role in the episode. 

Spiegel will be playing himself, but little else is known about his part. 

The first episode of season two airs April 12 at 10 p.m. 

Google chairman Eric Schmidt, Re/code editor-in-chief Kara Swisher, and TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington were among those who had cameos in the first season of Mike Judge's parody of the tech industry.

SEE ALSO: The fabulous life of Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel, the youngest billionaire in the world

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Apple is building a streaming music service to compete with Spotify, and it will be integrated into the next version of iOS.

We first heard about the project last year, but the New York Times has a report today that re-confirms a lot of facts previously reported elsewhere, plus adds a few new bits.

• Apple was trying to get record labels to agree to price cuts so the service could cost only $8 a month, instead of Spotify's $10 a month, but the labels held firm on price so that effort has been scrapped.
• But Apple also won't allow a free tier, as Spotify does.
• Musician Trent Reznor is playing a major role in designing the service, as he told CNET last December. So is Jimmy Iovine, the longtime music industry player who cofounded Beats.
• Apple is also revamping its iTunes Radio service, perhaps with a bigger focus on local stations that match local tastes. Former BBC DJ Zane Lowe is helping out with that project.
• The next version of iOS, which will include the new service, is code-named "Copper." It's probably version 8.4, according to 9to5 Mac.

SEE ALSO: A lot of people are mad that Apple bought this tiny company and shut it down

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SuperGroup announced that British actor Idris Elba will "collaborate" with its trendy high street clothing brand Superdry and help design a new "premium line of clothing" to boost future growth.

The company also confirmed a range of other plans in a strategy update posted on the London Stock Exchange.

It appointed Penny Hughes as a non-executive director. Hughes is still a non-executive director for the Royal Bank of Scotland.

Euan Sutherland, the former CEO of the Co-operative Group which he ceremoniously left after calling the company "ungovernable," will also help the company "deliver sustainable, long-term growth."

"Today we are setting out our strategy to deliver sustainable growth at SuperGroup, as we continue progressing towards our goal of creating a global lifestyle brand," said Sutherland, who was appointed CEO in October last year, in a statement.

"Superdry represents British innovation, quality premium products at affordable prices sold to customers around the world. Superdry is an iconic brand with a strong heritage and we will continue to broaden and strengthen its appeal to customers across countries and age groups."

SuperGroup also confirmed that it has gained the exclusive rights to distribute Superdry products in the US, Canada and Mexico by terminating the existing US licence.

It also was keen to point out that SuperGroup's expected profit outcome for 2015 remains in line with previous guidance (in the range £60 - £65 million). This is probably because SuperGroup CFO Shaun Wills had to leave the company last month for one of the most embarrassing reasons possible: He was personally declared bankrupt.

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After the news broke yesterday that Zayn Malik would be leaving wildly popular boy band One Direction, teenagers hopped on Vine to record 6-second loop videos of themselves crying over Malik's departure and the band's future.

Lots of outlets pulled together roundups of the Vines — here's one from BuzzFeed, and one from Fusion— but CBS' roundup included a joke Vine, created by a guy named Ben Berst. 

Berst posted the video of his Vine making it to CBS with the description: "Hey guys, I didn't think this would blow up so much, so I'm going to take this opportunity to sellout and ask you to subscribe to my main channel. Thanks yo, I love you all."

He also posted it to Reddit. 

Berst continues to maintain he is absolutely not a fan of One Direction, and that this was just a joke.

Here's that Vine again.

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A few months ago, Kayvon Beykpour met a fellow Stanford University graduate, Jessica Verrilli, for coffee.

Verrilli is the Director of Corporate Development and Strategy for Twitter. She asked what Beykpour had been working on since leaving Blackboard, an education company that had acquired his prior startup, TerriblyClever. Beykpour fired up his iPhone and showed her Periscope.

Periscope, he told her, was like a mobile teleportation service. It let users livestream whatever was happening around them for anyone who wanted to watch. Instead of Youtube, where a viewing experience was passive, Periscope was active. Viewers could comment, ask questions, and heart broadcasts in real time. 

Beykpour and his co-founder Joe Bernstein came up with the idea for Periscope while traveling abroad in 2013. Beykpour was in Istanbul when protests broke out in Taksim Square. He wanted to see what was happening there, so he turned to Twitter. While he could read about the protests, he couldn't see them.

"It just occurred to me, there were so many smart phones out there, why wasn't there a way for me to ask who else was out there what was happening there?" Beykpour explains. 

Periscope was founded in February 2014. Beykpour and Bernstein raised a seed round from angel investors, including Adobe executive Scott Belsky. 

"When I first met Kayvon and Joe I was struck by their desire to spread truth and empathy by enabling anyone to experience the world through someone else’s eyes," Belsky wrote to Business Insider in an email. "We joked that Periscope was akin to teleportation, a technology and user experience that lets you be anywhere and witness anything. This became a lot more serious when I witnessed a major fire in San Francisco, a child’s first steps, and a man’s cancer treatment."

Verrilli was impressed with Periscope and offered to introduce Beykpour to some big-wigs at Twitter, including CEO Dick Costolo and co-founder Jack Dorsey.

Before long, Twitter offered to buy Periscope. And it doesn't sound like Twitter was the only interested party.

("I can't comment specifically on that but it was an incredibly fortunate situation," Beykpour says.)

The acquisition interest in Periscope felt gratifying for the entrepreneurs. "[You feel] a mix of things," Beykpour says. "It can be hard and terrifying to build a startup and anytime there's a minute where someone steps aside to validate you — whether it's friends, parents or an acquirer, it's a moment that feels really awesome." 

After seeking a lot of advice from people both inside Twitter and out, Beykpour and Bernstein determined an acquisition was the best way to ensure their product would succeed. Twitter and Beykpour won't reveal the exact acquisition amount, but an industry sources tell Business Insider the deal was somewhere between $75 and $120 million. The deal closed in January.

"They paid us all in hashtags," Beykpour jokes.

Startup stories like Periscope's make entrepreneurship sound easy. Just put in 11 months of work and flip your app for ~ $120 million, no traction or launch needed.

"I can tell you it's not easy," Beykpour says. "A year might not sound like a lot of time, but it's our baby quite literally and we've been living and breathing it."

He adds, "Acquisitions are really hard personal and team decisions to make. Thinking about it objectively though, it’s total first-world problems making a choice like that."

It’s total first-world problems making a choice like that.

Here's everything you need to know about Periscope, Twitter's new prized possession, and what Twitter plans to do with it.

What is Periscope?

Periscope is a mobile app that lets users broadcast live to others. The viewers can comment, ask questions, and send hearts to the broadcaster in real time. Periscope users create usernames and follow each other, just like they do on Twitter. It's a lot like Meerkat and YouNow, two livestreaming competitors.

What are Periscope's key features?

Some of Periscope's best features are hearts and notifications. Hearts can be sent from viewers to broadcasters as a show of appreciation for what's being streamed, like a virtual round of applause.

And we're not just talking one heart. A 3-minute broadcast can yield hundreds of hearts from just a few viewers (Beykpour sent more than 40 hearts during one of my broadcasts).

Push notifications are also well executed on Periscope. You'll receive one anytime someone you follow starts a livestream, or anytime someone you follow recommends a livestream so you can tune in.

How Periscope works:

When you open the app, you'll see three icons at the bottom: a TV, a camera, and a group of people. The group of people takes you to a screen where you can see other Periscopers and choose to follow them.

Here, you can see a bunch of Periscope beta testers, including TechCrunch Editor in Chief Alexia Tsotsis and Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel.

If you click on the camera icon, you'll be able to start a broadcast. Just type in what you're seeing to name the broadcast (for example, I made one titled: "Tour Business Insider, where scoops break and snacks are eaten.")

Then you can either hit the lock button and invite select friends to watch or share the link to your Twitter followers who can tune in on their desktops. You can also broadcast to everyone on Periscope. It's pretty nerve-wrecking!

That's pretty much it. There are a few extra bells and whistles, but the experience is easy to grasp. The hardest thing about Periscope is figuring out what to say and stream.

What's Twitter's plan for Periscope?

Twitter is letting Periscope continue to operate independently, with its own team, brand and headquarters. Both Periscope and Twitter want the same thing: to be the pulse of what's happening around the world in real time.

Belsky believes Periscope will be a "huge part" of Twitter's future.

"The concept of what I call 'live mobile immersion' will enable people to eye-witness news as it happens, see sporting events from the sidelines, see behind the scenes of anything official...its huge," he says.

Chris Sacca is a renowned tech investor whose early investments in Twitter and Uber made him a billionaire. He isn't invested in Periscope, but he has been using the app in closed beta. He agrees with Belsky — the app is bound to shape Twitter's future.

"When I first saw Periscope, I loved how immediate and intimate it was," he tells Business Insider in an email. "There is no longer any distance between me and the people I am watching...Twitter owns real-time and there is nothing more real-time and engaging than live video. This is the future of Twitter."

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Fortune came out with its second annual "World's Greatest Leaders" list, where it names 50 of the biggest and most influential names in business, entertainment, and politics.

Taylor Swift is number 6.

From Fortune,

Taylor Swift didn’t become the highest-paid woman in the music business by accident. Pop’s savviest star has crossed swords with Spotify, embraced corporate sponsorship, and moved to secure dozens of trademarks (including phrases like “This sick beat”)—plus she has proved shrewder at honing a brand in the social media age than virtually any other person or company. And she’s done it without resorting to dumbed-down salacious gimmickry. (Swift, ahem, is arguably the anti–Miley Cyrus.) With 1989, the top-selling album in 2014, Swift’s efforts to ensure she gets paid for her music could have a huge ripple effect on the way artists are compensated in an era of free streaming.

Pope Francis is number 4, while Tim Cook grabs the number one spot.

You can look at the full list here.

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