On Sunday's edition of HBO's "Last Week Tonight," host John Oliver traveled to Russia to interview National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden.

It's been almost two years since Snowden fled to Moscow after leaking hundreds of thousands of documents revealing the NSA's spying programs.

The interview started off on an awkward footing as Snowden was more than an hour late for the interview and Oliver realized that the building they were filming in was directly across from the headquarters of Russia's Federal Security Bureau.

Oliver seemed genuinely surprised when the man he described as the "most famous hero and/or traitor in recent American history" did show up.

After asking Snowden how much he missed America and Hot Pockets, Oliver challenged Snowden on how many of the leaked documents he had read. Here's that exchange:

Oliver: How many of those documents have you actually read?

Snowden: I’ve evaluated all the documents that are in the archive.

Oliver: You’ve read every single one?

Snowden: Well, I do understand what I turned over.

Oliver: There’s a difference between understanding what's in the documents and reading what's in the documents.

Snowden: I recognize the concerns.

Oliver: Right, because when you are handing over thousands of NSA documents, the last thing you want to do is read them.

Snowden: I think it's fair to be concerned about, Did this person do enough? Were they careful enough? Were they …

Oliver: Especially when you are handling material like we know you are handling.

Snowden: In my defense, I’m not handling anything anymore. That’s been passed to the journalists. They are using extraordinary security measures to make sure this is reported in the most responsible way.

Oliver: But those are journalists with a lower technical skill set than you.

Snowden: That’s true, but they do understand just like you and I do just how important this is to get right.

Oliver: So The New York Times took a slide, didn’t redact it properly, and in the end it was possible for people to see that something was being used in Mosul on Al Qaeda.

Snowden: That is a problem.

Oliver: That is a f-----up.

Snowden: That is a f----up and these things do happen in reporting. In journalism, we have to accept that some mistakes will be made. This is a fundamental concept of liberty.

Oliver: Right, but you have to own that then. You are giving documents with information you know could be harmful, which could get out there.

Snowden: Yes, if people act in bad faith.

Oliver: No, we’re not even talking about bad faith. We’re talking about incompetence.

Snowden: We are, but you will never be completely free from risk if you are free. The only time you can be completely free from risk is when you are in prison.

Snowden seemed genuinely taken aback by Oliver's hard stance.

From there on, the interview loosened up a bit. Oliver showed Snowden a compilation of New Yorkers who barely knew who Snowden was or what he did, and were far more concerned when the interviewer asked them about the government spying on their "dick pics."

Oliver then had Snowden explain each NSA program and executive order in terms of how it allowed the government to view your "dick pics."

The interview starts at about 14:00 in the video below:

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Victoria's Secret's Angels might be going out of fashion.

The lingerie giant hires about 10 models to act as "Angels" that represent the brand. 

The exposure put supermodels like Gisele Bundchen, Heidi Klum, and Adriana Lima on the map.

Victoria's Secret controls a whopping 35% of the lingerie market, far more than any other retailer.

But several key Angels including Miranda Kerr, Karlie Kloss, and Doutzen Kroes have vacated their positions.

It's rumored that the schedule Victoria's Secret puts models on isn't worth the pay, which is a fraction of what it used to be. 

"Older contracts like Alessandra Ambrosio were in the millions, now they’re like $100,000," according to Stephanie Smith at Page Six. 

There's also been increasing consumer backlash against the perfectly toned and tanned Victoria's Secret image. 

The brand faced widespread backlash for its "Perfect Body" ad last year, which featured a row of stick-thin Angels dressed in lingerie.

"There is a line between aspiration and thinspiration, and this campaign clearly oversteps the mark," columnist Sarah Vine wrote in The Daily Mail.  "As for their use of the word 'perfect', it’s not only offensive to the 99.9% of the female population who don’t share the models’ ‘perfect’ proportions, it’s also deeply irresponsible, if not downright cruel."

Victoria's Secret eventually apologized for the ad, which was recently spoofed by competitor lingerie brand Curvy Kate. 

Consumers are also pressuring Victoria's Secret to offer larger sizes. 

The largest panty size it offers is XL, or equivalent to a size 16. The fashion industry defines plus-size clothing as sizes 12 to 24, though many retailers offer up to a size 28 to meet demand. 

Bra sizes are inconsistent. Some styles are offered up to a D, while others go up to a DDD. 

Still, many women feel they don't have a good selection at Victoria's Secret. 

"My money and my credit are good enough for them, but the fact that I can only buy items like perfume, lotion, and body spray sends the message that my body is not," said Dana Drew, a California woman who launched a petition against the brand. "Every year I watch the Angel fashion show and would love to purchase the items I see on my screen but can't because Victoria's Secret doesn't sell plus sizes."

Victoria's Secret is the undisputed leader of the lingerie world.

But if it wants to stay there, it might have to change its Angels strategy. 

SEE ALSO: Plus-size models Victoria's Secret should hire

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NOW WATCH: This Sports Illustrated swimsuit rookie could become the next Kate Upton

"Fast and Furious 7,” aka “Furious 7,” had a record-breaking opening weekend at theaters.  

The film, which grossed an estimated $143.6 million over the holiday weekend, beat all analyst expectations, which originally estimated the film would make between $115 million and $120 million. 

Now, the film is the highest-grossing debut for an April movie and Easter weekend. 

“Furious 7” also debuted at number one in 63 markets, grossing another $240.4 million overseas to bring its worldwide total to $384 million. 

Why did “Furious 7” take off at the box office? There were many of factors that led to the film’s success both at home and overseas. 

1. Paul Walker

The most obvious reason fans and non-fans may want to head out to see the film is to see how Universal and the cast handled finishing the seventh installment in the franchise after Walker’s death in November 2013. 

Ludacris said recently at one of the first fan screenings that Walker completed about 80% of filming. Walker’s brothers Caleb and Cody came in to help complete the rest.  

“Its success at the box office, many people are going to see that as a tribute to Paul Walker, and what he brought to the franchise and they’re going to show up for that reason,” Phil Contrino, the vice president and chief analyst of BoxOffice.com, tells Business Insider. “Even if they maybe skipped some of the other movies, they’ll show up for this one.” 

“The big thing is, what happens to Paul Walker and how they handle that,” adds Contrino. 

Cast members like Vin Diesel and Tyrese have been telling their social media networks that they hope to make Paul (or Pablo, as some affectionately refer to him) proud with this movie. The hashtag “#ForPaul” appears on screen at the film’s end, offering fans the chance to start a conversation. 

2. Vin Diesel

After Walker’s death, Diesel quickly became one of the most-followed celebrities on Facebook, with over 87 million likes, as he shared images and stories of himself and Walker with fans in both English and Spanish.

Diesel makes it a point to share news with his fans first. He revealed the release date for “Furious 7” before Universal had the chance to break the news, and has shared news of secret meetings at Marvel and Facebook headquarters with Mark Zuckerberg. 

Diesel also gained a big following after his role in last summer’s hit, “Guardians of the Galaxy,” in which he played the lovable tree Groot, a role the actor later said helped him get through Walker’s death.

The 47-year-old Diesel has been the driving force behind the “Fast and Furious” franchise for some time. After skipping the 2003 sequel, “2 Fast 2 Furious,” Diesel returned at the end of the third film, “Tokyo Drift,” for a brief cameo.  

After "Tokyo Drift" had the worst performance of the series, taking in $158 million worldwide, Universal considered sending the series straight to video. Instead, the studio turned to Diesel, giving him creative control over the franchise. Since then, each film has only been bigger, both in terms of stunts and worldwide gross. 

3. Social media 

It’s not just Vin Diesel. Much of the cast — including Michelle Rodriguez, Tyrese, and Ludacris — are among the stars that have shared behind-the-scenes images from the film before it hit theaters, and related anecdotes and memories of Paul to fans. Some of the biggest cast members in the film openly grieved Walker’s death and the fans responded to that enormously. 

The “Fast and Furious” movies in general have a huge social footprint. The films’ Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube pages and more are a well-oiled machine. While the movie’s YouTube page has put out countless featurettes on the making of the film and nostalgic clips from previous installments, Instagram was releasing seven-second long videos teasing footage for the movie days before the trailer came out.  

The Facebook account alone has 54.9 million followers— well more than Marvel (17.9 million) and “Star Wars” (13 million) combined. 

Each social account was always putting out something different that engaged fans and felt organic. Unlike other films, the social experience didn’t stop once a film was put out. Fans are never given a chance to forget about the “Fast” family. 

“If you follow ‘Minions,’ ‘Jurassic World,’ and ‘Fifty Shades of Grey,’ they had the same approach with those movies where it was just kind of a slow-drip marketing approach,” Contrino explains. “Where they say here’s a new still or here’s a funny ‘Minions’ video or here’s something from ‘Jurassic World.’ They keep it going and they keep building it. People share that stuff and they add more likes.” 

“Universal’s marketing department deserves a huge amount of credit for how successful these movies are,” says Contrino. “They’re going to be neck and neck with Disney this year, at least domestically, for the highest market share of the major studios at the box office. That’s pretty significant because they don’t have a superhero franchise and they’re doing incredibly well.” 

4. The diverse cast

There’s a reason the audience opening weekend for “Furious 7” was 75% non-white. 

One of the things the “Fast and Furious” franchise excels at, which so many other franchises have difficulty doing organically, is having an ethnically rich cast that that hits upon nearly every demographic.  

A look at all of the “Fast and Furious” films shows that the characters speak a number of languages on screen including Spanish, English, and Russian. 

Entertainment Weekly recently pointed this out in a cover story titled, “This is What America Looks Like: So why don’t our movies?” 

Diesel told EW, “It doesn’t matter what nationality you are. As a member of the audience, you realize you can be a member of that ‘family.’ That’s the beautiful thing about how the franchise has evolved.” 

“They do it in a smart way,” Contrino tells us. “It doesn’t feel tacked on like some movies where a Spanish-speaking character pops up for an obligatory line or two that’s caricature. They don’t do that. It’s fully fleshed-out characters who people care about. That’s a huge lesson for any other content producers who want to take the quick easy route. That doesn’t work. You have to do it the right way.” 

5. It’s more than just a car movie

Since its inception in 2001, the “Fast and Furious” films have had souped-up cars, hot chicks, and ridiculous stunts. While the films certainly contain those elements, at the heart of each movie, especially the last three, is family. 

Nowhere does this resonate more than in the series’ fifth film, when Dominic Toretto (Diesel) gathers everyone around to say, “The most important thing in life will always be the people in this room. Right here. Right now. Salud mi familia."

The "Fast and Furious" films are fun, they’re silly, but at the end of the day they're about Dom protecting both his immediate and his extended families.  

That’s something to which everyone worldwide can relate.

SEE ALSO: One of the most insane stunts in ‘Furious 7’ almost didn’t happen

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NOW WATCH: Cars fall from the sky in the new 'Furious 7' movie

Over the past five seasons of the hit ABC reality show "Shark Tank," countless entrepreneurs have pitched their products to some of the world's most influential investors.

Not only do contestants have a shot to convince billionaire investor Mark Cuban or real-estate mogul Barbara Corcoran to fork over a few hundred grand, but they do so in front of a national audience of about seven million viewers.

Some aspiring entrepreneurs have risen to the challenge and shown how to give a pitch that's so concise and effective that the investors feel like they'd be missing out on some major cash if they didn't gain a stake in the company.

In anticipation of the sixth season's two-hour premiere on Friday, Sept. 26, and with the help of Andrew Figgins, a Chicago-based entrepreneur and owner of the fan site InTheSharkTank.com, we look back at some of the greatest pitches we've seen so far on "Shark Tank."

Vivian Giang contributed to this article.

PITCH: Charles Michael Yim has a breathalyzer that plugs into your smartphone.

In the fifth season, Yim galvanizes all five Sharks around Breathometer, a startup that makes a breathalyzer that plugs into your smartphone. He already has $1 million in venture backing, $100,000 in sales the previous month, and readily answers the Sharks' questions. He initially asks the Sharks for $250,000 for a 10% equity stake in his business. 

RESULT: All five Sharks invest for a total of $1 million.

Yim ends up with all of the episode's investors — Mark Cuban, Kevin O'Leary, Daymond John, Lori Greiner, and Robert Herjavec — in his corner and a whopping $1 million investment for 30% of his company.

PITCH: Bruno François has an app that will let you take panoramic video without using your hands.

If you place your phone vertically on a solid surface and use the Cycloramic iPhone app, it will vibrate your phone in a circle as it records video.

François boldly tells the Sharks he expects to have one million users after one year and requests $90,000 for 5% of his company.

The seventh installment of the successful "Fast and Furious" franchise is in theaters this weekend. 

Vin Diesel, Michelle Rodriguez, Tyrese, and Ludacris return along with the late Paul Walker for another sequel to the epic car saga which started over a decade ago.

However, you may not realize that at the heart of the globe-spanning, physics-defying films lies a real-life story about street racing in New York City.

The movies, which have earned well over $2.3 billion globally, were inspired by an article from Ken Li in the May 1998 issue of Vibe.

"Racer X" tells the story of street racer Rafael Estevez from Washington Heights and how he transitioned into the sport of drag racing.  

The article also divulges on the popularity of Japanese import car customization and the operations in place to crack down on New York City street racing.

"Racer X" was a featurette available on a "Fast and the Furious" disc release that came out in 2002. 

In the feature, director Rob Cohen reveals he was inspired to make the film after hearing about the article and subsequently watching a race in Los Angeles.

As a result, Cohen convinced Universal to make the film and the studio bought the rights to the film from Li. 

2001's "The Fast and the Furious" was a film featuring an LAPD officer (Paul Walker) who went undercover into the world of illegal street racing to join the ranks with a well-established racer (Vin Diesel). 

The film, produced on an estimated $38 million budget, went on to make $207.3 million worldwide.

Watching the film now, it's easy to see the article's influence in the movie. 

Here are excerpts from "Racer X": 

A black Nissan 300ZX and a white Mitsubishi Starion pull out of the pack and creep up to the starting line. As the sun dances on the nearby river, the sound of honking horns and screaming drivers is drowned out by the sonic blast of the two engines revving for takeoff. A stocky Latino dude in a blinding yellow shirt stands in the middle of the highway and raises his hands. Both cars lurch and halt like chained pit bulls, their wheels spitting out black smoke. The hands drop.

Young men have been fascinated with tweaking and tuning big block Chevys and Mustangs since the days of Rebel Without a Cause. But the new guys wouldn’t be caught dead driving the gaudy muscular beasts of yesteryear. Instead, they’re tricking out low-buck Japanese imports like Honda Civics and Acura Integras and tattooing them like skateboards with Neuspeed and Greddy car parts stickers. By stroking the engine, adding a supercharger, and hitting the “juice” (nitrous oxide: a gaseous liquid once used to boost bomber planes in WWII), they can smoke the herb in the Iroc at the stoplight.

Read the full piece HERE.

"Furious 7" is in theaters April 3. 

Relive the trailer for the original film below which has a drastically different feel from the heart of the more recent additions to the franchise.

SEE ALSO: The cars that will be in "Furious 7"

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Sen. Rand Paul (R-Kentucky) seems to be letting his inner Don Draper shine in his presumed presidential campaign — at least visually.

Paul released a video over the weekend previewing his big Tuesday campaign announcement, and the opening segment of the video features a red outline of Paul with red, white, and black colors defining the image. Swag for the likely GOP candidate also sports a faceless image of Paul.

"On April 7, a different kind of Republican will take on Washington," the video declared. 

This silhouette design closely resembles the imagery for the popular show opener of AMC's "Mad Men." In the opening credits, the show's protagonist, Draper, is depicted as a black silhouette with white accents to detail his collared shirt, handkerchief and cigarette. 

The Sunday Times' reporter Toby Harnden noted the similarity on Twitter:

Paul's political operation has long embraced the image. The curly-haired outline is also emblazoned on T-shirts, posters, caps, and mugs for sale on the Rand Paul 2016 merchandise website. The "Stand with Rand" shirt first debuted a few years earlier at CPAC and the $15 tee is already out of stock. 

And his artsy design has earned some praise. 

The Daily Caller's Matt Lewis extolled the imagery, declaring in 2013 that the senator "gets" the importance of aesthetics used by the likes of Barack Obama in his presidential campaign.

But the designers of the "Mad Men" opener explained in an earlier interview with Print magazine that the faceless silhouette of a suit clad Draper is certainly not an optimistic figure. In the sequence, he is seen falling from a tall skyscraper.

"It is simply a dream sequence of a man lost and trapped in the American dream he is selling," designers Steve Fuller and Mark Gardner, from Imaginary Forces production company, told the magazine.

The production company didn't respond to a request for comment in reaction to the image used for Paul's design swag. 

A representative for Paul did not respond to a request for comment.

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NOW WATCH: 14 things you didn't know your iPhone headphones could do

At first it seemed coincidental that the X-Men were fading in popularity, while the Avengers were rising.

Then there was a conspiracy theory that Marvel, which was bought by Disney in 2009, was downplaying the mutant superheroes because their film rights were owned by 20th Century Fox.

After all, X-Men comics of the past decade have featured the decimation of the mutant population, a negative portrayal of the team in a big crossover in which they battled the Avengers, the death of star hero Wolverine, and the retconning of two popular characters to cut their ties to the X-Men. Meanwhile, the number of X-Men series seemed gradually to be declining, while there were fewer and fewer licensed X-Men products.

The theory was all but confirmed last summer, with reports that Disney forbade the creation of new X-Men characters and with senior vice president of publishing Tom Brevoort telling a fan: "If you had two things, and on one you earned 100% of the revenues from the efforts that you put into making it, and the other you earned a much smaller percentage for the same amount of time and effort, you'd be more likely to concentrate more heavily on the first, wouldn't you?"

It's understandable that Disney would do this. As Alex Abad-Santos pointed out at Vox, "The Avengers" earned around twice as much in the box office ($1.5 billion) as the entire North American comic market in 2013 ($870 million). In other words, movies matter a lot more than comic books. Still, it's a shame to see the company squelch such a rich creative property — one that has millions of fans and thousands of official or unofficial cocreators — for cold, commercial reasons.

Now the more you look, the more you'll see just how much Disney is burying the mutants, even while continuing to publish several X-titles to keep fans from freaking out.

For instance, go to marvel.com and you'll find very few prominent articles about the X-Men. The top stories on the site right now feature Daredevil, the Avengers, Hawkeye, Quicksilver, Scarlet Witch, Spider-Man, Spider-Gwen, and the Agents of SHIELD. Marvel owns the exclusive film rights to most of those characters, along with rights to its own versions of Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch and a profit-sharing deal for Spider-Man with film rights-holder Sony.

Marvel's shop page includes only three X-Men items in a list of 60 featured-product popular picks.

Marvel's subscriptions page currently features more than 50 titles, and only four of them star characters from the X-Men.

Marvel's movies page prominently features the Disney movies, and only by clicking the "All" tab and scrolling to the bottom can you find Fox's movies.

Games like Marvel's "Mighty Heroes" apparently don't have any X-Men:

The disappearance of the X-Men is astonishing given how big they used to be.

Wolverine, Professor X, Storm, Gambit, Cyclops, Jean Grey, Magneto, and company were popular going into the '90s and blew up after the launch of a Fox Kids cartoon in 1992. This was followed by wave after wave of X-Men action figures, X-Men lunchboxes and everything else, more video game appearances than any character but Spider-Man, hundreds of characters, a bunch of spinoff teams, and many, many comics.

The group represented something inspiring as genetic outsiders who rise above bigotry, and they were edgy and exciting, with wildly complex and imaginative storylines.

In a 2005 interview with "In Focus," future "Avengers" director Joss Whedon, who had recently written a great X-Men series, aptly described what makes the characters so good: "The thing about the X-Men is they have a coherent core. The Avengers to me is tough. I wouldn't approach The Avengers, I wouldn't approach the Fantastic Four. The X-Men are all born of pain, and pain is where I hang my hat."

To see how popular they were, look at the top comics in 1991, per Comichron. The relaunch "X-Men #1" in August remains one of the highest selling comics ever, and an X-title topped the charts in six different months:

X dominance only grew for the next decade, with the mutants winning seven months in 1994, nine months in 1998, and a stunning 11 months in 1999:

The mutants won 11 months again in 2001:

But things started going downhill after that. X-titles won only two or three months in 2002. They won only one month in 2003, three in 2004. In 2005, they didn't win any months, except for a universe-wide "House of M" crossover issue that featured the X-Men prominently and an issue of the newly launched "New Avengers" that featured Wolverine on the cover.

In 2007, Marvel beat DC for the top comic in every month, but none of them were X-titles (though two had Wolverine on the cover):

And that's been the status quo ever since, with universe-wide crossovers starring the Avengers sharing top billing with Spider-Man, while the X-Men languish on the bottom shelf.

What's next for the mutants?

Disney recently sidestepped its standoff with Sony, which was widely thought to be bungling the Spider-Man movies; however, it may have a harder time winning concessions from Fox, which has been building a promising movie universe of its own, even without much comics and merchandising support.

Disney is supposedly promoting the Inhumans — humanoid alien characters whose film rights it owns — as replacements for the X-Men, with an Inhumans movie scheduled for 2019. But it will take a lot more than that to get fans to forget some of the best characters Marvel ever created.

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NOW WATCH: This Was Marvel Legend Stan Lee's One Big Mistake

Retired neurosurgeon and possible GOP presidential candidate Ben Carson criticized hip-hop culture this weekend, suggesting it plays a role in destroying the African-American community. 

In an interview Sunday on R&B radio station WBLS, Carson, a committed Christian, lamented that modern culture has turned African-Americans away from the faith of their forefathers. 

“We need to reestablish faith in our communities and the values and principles that got us through slavery, that got us through Jim Crow, and segregation, and all kinds of horrible things that were heaped upon us," he said. "Why were we able to get through those? Because of our faith, because of our family, because of our values, and as we allow the hip-hop community to destroy those things for us, and as we grasp onto what's politically correct and not what is correct, we continue to deteriorate."

But one caller balked at the notion and phoned into the station to insist that hip-hop has been a force for good for African Americans. Likewise, the radio show host interviewing Carson voiced his skepticism. 

"When you said 'hip-hop,' my antennae went up very quickly, because I said, 'Wait a minute that sounds like an old argument that they used to make about rock 'n' roll/R&B back in the fifties.' That's what they used to say," the host said. 

Carson then backtracked to clarify that he wasn't speaking about hip-hop at large.

"When I talk about the hip-hop community, I'm talking about the aspect of modern society that pretty much dismisses anything that has to do with Jesus Christ, that's what I'm talking about," he said.

He also said during his Sunday interview that he will announce if he will run for president during the first part of May. 

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NOW WATCH: We went inside the top-secret tunnel under Grand Central that only presidents use

At the beginning of his interview with former NSA contractor Edward Snowden in Moscow, HBO host John Oliver set the stage: He asked the 31-year-old how much he missed certain things in America, including "truck nuts."

Snowden, who did not know what truck nuts are, said: "You really thought ahead."

"Well, at least one of us did," Oliver replied. "You know because of the um, quandary, the Kafkaesque nightmare that you're in."

Snowden, who has been living in an undisclosed location in Russia after flying from Hong Kong to Moscow on June 23, 2013, could do nothing but take the jab and nod.

The US government reportedly charged the 31-year-old with three felonies, including two under the World War I-era Espionage Act, after he stole up to 1.77 million classified NSA documents and fled from Hawaii to Hong Kong and eventually Moscow.

Given his value to Russian President Vladimir Putin and the unlikelihood that he would get a favorable deal to return home, Snowden is a self-avowed human rights activist living under the watchful eye of Putin's intelligence services.

One could say he's stuck in a "nightmarish situation which most people can somehow relate to, although strongly surreal. "

After the quip, Oliver started the interview.

Here's the clip. It all starts around 16:10:

SEE ALSO: John Oliver just exposed a very big lie surrounding Edward Snowden

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NOW WATCH: This 26-year-old from Baltimore took a 35,000-mile road trip and ended up fighting in the Libyan revolution

Things appeared to be looking rosy for Trevor Noah after Comedy Central announced last week the South African comedian would be the new host of "The Daily Show," replacing Jon Stewart. 

Some of the internet applauded the decision. Others gave the network the side-eye, since Noah had only appeared on the program three times.

Despite his apparent notoriety in South Africa, where he regularly sells out venues for his comedy shows, he was relatively unknown in the US.

Naturally, with the huge promotion came the requisite social media background check, and Noah didn't pass.

Comedy Central quickly swooped in to defend Noah a day later with a simple tweet and a short statement.

Now Jon Stewart has done the same, telling his audience Monday night Noah would "earn [their] trust and respect ... or not."

SEE ALSO: Here are the 3 times Trevor Noah, the guy replacing Jon Stewart, appeared on 'The Daily Show'

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NOW WATCH: Disney just dropped another 'Avengers: Age of Ultron' trailer — and it's the best one yet

It's finally happening: At long, long last, "Star Wars" is going to be available online.

All six films in the series, from "The Phantom Menace" to "Return of the Jedi," are coming to numerous digital outlets. According to Variety, these include "iTunes, Google Play, Amazon, Vudu, Xbox Video, PlayStation Store, and Verizon Fios."

USA Today reports that the recommended retail price of the films is $20 a pop— or $100 for the complete set. The movies will also come bundled with numerous bonus features included deleted scenes, bloopers, and voiceovers.

Interestingly, Disney has elected to keep "Star Wars" off streaming sites in favour of premium stand-alone downloads. It means rising powers in the industry like Netflix are missing out on what is guaranteed to be an extremely popular launch.

The launch comes in the run-up to the Dec. 18 release of "Star Wars: The Force Awakens," the first new "Star Wars" feature film in 10 years as well as the first since Disney bought the franchise in 2012.

Here is the official trailer for the launch:

And here is the complete list of bonus features, courtesy of StarWars.com:

Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace

Conversations: Doug Chiang Looks Back
Discoveries From Inside: Models & Miniatures
Legacy content includes "The Beginning"; The Podrace: Theatrical Edit; plus eight deleted scenes.

Star Wars: Episode II Attack of the Clones

Conversations: Sounds In Space
Discoveries From Inside: Costumes Revealed
Legacy content includes "From Puppets To Pixels: Digital Characters In Episode II"; State Of The Art: The Previsualization Of Episode II; and "Films Are Not Released, They Escape"; plus Episode II Visual Effects Breakdown Montage and six deleted scenes.

Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith

Conversations: The Star Wars That Almost Was
Discoveries From Inside: Hologram & Bloopers
Legacy content includes documentaries "Within A Minute: The Making Of Episode III"; The Journey Part 1; and The Journey Part 2; plus six deleted scenes.

Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope (20th Century Fox)

Conversations: Creating A Universe
Discoveries From Inside: Weapons & The First Lightsaber
Legacy content includes "Anatomy Of A Dewback"; Star Wars Launch Trailer; plus eight deleted scenes.

Star Wars: Episode V The Empire Strikes Back

Conversations: The Lost Interviews
Discoveries From Inside: Matte Paintings Unveiled
Legacy content includes "A Conversation With The Masters" (2010); "Dennis Muren: How Walkers Walk"; "George Lucas On Editing The Empire Strikes Back 1979"; and "George Lucas On The Force: 2010"; plus six deleted scenes.

Star Wars: Episode VI Return of the Jedi

Conversations: The Effects
Discoveries From Inside: The Sounds Of Ben Burtt
Legacy content includes "Classic Creatures: Return Of The Jedi"; "Revenge Of The Jedi Teaser Trailer"; Return Of The Jedi Launch Trailer; "It Began TV Spot"; "Climactic Chapter TV Spot"; plus five deleted scenes.

Because they're available on iTunes, here is a gratuitous picture of Tim Cook holding a lightsaber.

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NOW WATCH: The First 'Star Wars: Episode VII' Trailer Is Here!

Here's a fun new ad from Virgin Money that aims to show how the brand stands apart from other, boring banks.

Virgin Money's production company, Rattling Stick, shot the real pigeon for an entire day and managed to piece together enough footage to make it look as though it is dancing along to 2 tone/ska revival band The Selecter's 1979 hit "On My Radio."

Yes — it's a real pigeon and those movements are real, we're told.

The ad is only airing on TV in the UK, but judging by the success of another UK-only effort — mobile carrier Three's dancing pony ad, which has been watched more than 10 million times on YouTube— expect this to be another viral hit.

The "Pigeon" spot will be followed by another TV ad in April, and supported by a print campaign that uses other animals (a sloth, squirrel, guide dog, and a goat) to represent its range of products and services. Credits for the campaign also go to its media agency m/SIX and content agency AllTogetherNow.

SEE ALSO: A bunch of ad execs told us the truth about the drinking, sex, and whether the business is still like ‘Mad Men’

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As any "Mad Men" fan knows, Don Draper is truly one of a kind, a man with perfect style and a seemingly infinite number of complexities.

But despite his many distinct traits, fans and critics have spent countless hours over the past seven seasons trying to figure out which real-life ad men inspired Draper's creation and helped forge his unique personality.

From our research, four candidates have sprung up repeatedly as the advertising executives people think Draper is most likely to be modeled on. Here's what we know about them.

This post was originally compiled by Aaron Taube.

SEE ALSO: A bunch of ad execs told us the truth about the drinking, sex, and whether the business is still like ‘Mad Men'

Draper Daniels

Don Draper gets his name from Draper Daniels, a Chicago advertising executive who created the famous Marlboro Man campaign during the 1950s. Like his namesake Mad Men character, Draper Daniels was something of a smooth operator with the ladies, persuading a female business partner to marry him, even though she was already engaged.

Draper Daniels' wife, Myra, has said her late husband became a one-woman man once they were married, and even quit drinking at her request. It's perhaps for these reasons that Mad Men creator Matthew Weiner told New York Magazine that Daniels was not related to the show. "I just saw the name," Weiner said.

Draper Daniels died of cancer in 1983.

Albert Lasker

Albert Lasker is considered by many to be the "father of modern advertising" because he was one of the first ad men to write copy that persuaded people to buy a product rather than merely informing them of what it did.

As owner of the Chicago ad agency Lord & Thomas during the first half of the 20th century, Lasker helped sell American Tobacco's Lucky Strike brand to women by promoting it as a weight-loss method. He was also at the helm of the account when it began its famous campaign describing its cigarettes as "toasted," an idea Draper is credited with on the show.

Lasker essentially invented several consumer products that have since become household staples, including orange juice (first sold to the public because the California Fruit Growers Exchange were growing more oranges than they could sell) and tissues (which were originally being sold as a cosmetics remover before Lasker started marketing them as disposable handkerchiefs).

Lasker died in 1952.

Emerson Foote

Emerson Foote, the "F" in modern-day agency FCB, famously resigned from his post as chairman of McCann-Erickson in 1964 because he didn't want to promote the sale of cigarettes. This bold move was later copied (sort of) in Mad Men's fourth season, when Don Draper took out a full-page ad in the New York Times to explain why Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce would no longer accept clients that sold tobacco.

Of course, Draper's declaration came shortly after his firm lost its big tobacco account, Lucky Strike, while McCann Erickson was still advertising cigarettes in international markets when Foote decided to step down. Earlier in his career, Foote had worked on the Lucky Strike account, just like Draper.

Foote was also once director of the American Cancer Society, an agency whose fictionalized counterpart began working with Draper's firm after being impressed by his letter in the Times. The show even went so far as to have Draper's secretary let him know "someone named Emerson Foote" had called for him after the letter ran.

Foote died from complications related to appendicitis in 1992.

An unnamed NBC source told Vanity Fair about how difficult it was for network executives to get anchor Brian Williams to explain how he misremembered a helicopter ride in Iraq more than a decade ago.

In conversations with his colleagues at NBC, Williams reportedly wondered whether "something" happened to his head to make him forget what happened in Iraq.

Williams' career derailed earlier this year when he was forced to acknowledge that he had exaggerated his role in a story from his coverage of the Iraq invasion.

Earlier this year, Williams said during an NBC broadcast that a helicopter he was flying in "was forced down after being hit by an RPG" in Iraq. Crew members who were on the helicopter that was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade that day came forward to say Williams had been on another helicopter that arrived at the site later.

Williams was suspended from NBC for six months after the embellishment surfaced, and public trust in him has cratered.

Williams blamed his mistake on "the fog of memory over 12 years." He wrote in his apology on Facebook: "I spent much of the weekend thinking I'd gone crazy. I feel terrible about making this mistake, especially since I found my OWN WRITING about the incident from back in '08, and I was indeed on the Chinook behind the bird that took the RPG in the tail housing just above the ramp."

This apology didn't seem to help Williams much, and one NBC source told Vanity Fair that it was difficult to get an explanation out of Williams once stories about his exaggerations began to surface:

"He couldn't say the words 'I lied.' We could not force his mouth to form the words 'I lied,'" the source said. "He couldn’t explain what had happened. [He said,] 'Did something happen to [my] head? Maybe I had a brain tumor, or something in my head?' He just didn't know. We just didn't know. We had no clear sense what had happened. We got the best [apology] we could get."

NBC executives had been aware of Williams' tendency to embellish long before his telling of the Iraq story fell apart, according to New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd.

One NBC reporter told Dowd "there was no one around to pull his chain when he got too over-the-top."

Another "longtime NBC employee who has worked with Williams on several occasions" told the New York Post earlier this year that "everyone" at the network knew Williams was "a liar."

NBC is now trying to restore morale and stability at the network's news division, according to Vanity Fair.

Bryan Burrough writes for the magazine: "Williams's stunning fall was only the worst of a string of embarrassing episodes that have brought NBC News, long one of the gold standards of television news, to its knees."

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Facebook users have gotten a glimpse of what happens when you share a name with the most powerful woman in entertainment.

In a Facebook post from "Humans of New York" that went viral, a woman named Beyoncé explained why having a first name in common with Mrs. Carter could get on her nerves.

Photographer Brandon Stanton approached Beyoncé to photograph her.

Like all photos Stanton takes for the "Humans of New York" series, he conducted a short interview with his subject, choosing a blurb of her answer to accompany her photo.

Here's that photo and blurb:

The caption says:

Sometimes I hate my name because it always draws attention to me, and I'm not a very social person. My family moved this year from Pennsylvania. I was so scared the first day of school that someone would notice me. I wouldn't even adjust my seat because I thought it would make a noise. One time I really had to cough, but I held it in. When the teacher started calling attendance, I got really nervous, because every time people learn my name is Beyoncé, somebody starts singing 'Single Ladies.' And some did, of course. But the second day of school wasn't too bad. Because everyone knew my name.

Then the comments started pouring in. They came from Mary Kate Olsen, Kaity Perry, and Julia Roberts. They came from Katie Holmes and Serena Williams and Rachel Green (Jennifer Aniston's character on "Friends.")

Everyone empathized with Beyoncé, ABC 7 reports.

The comments kept rolling in.

Even people who didn't share names with celebrities joined in:

Beyoncé ... you're not alone.

Read the entire hilarious thread here.

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Madonna will premiere her new music video "Ghosttown" on the live-streaming app Meerkat, according to The Next Web, marking the second time she's released a music video via a popular social networking app. She debuted "Living for Love" on Snapchat's Discover platform in February. 

Interestingly enough, Madonna is not premiering the video on Jay Z's new music streaming service, Tidal, even though she publically partnered with Tidal last week by signing a contract onstage next to other artists and musicians ranging from Kanye West and Jay Z to Rihanna and Daft Punk.

While Rihanna has already released two new singles from her upcoming album exclusively on Tidal, it appears Madonna is choosing instead to experiment with other platforms such as Meerkat, which has received a lot of buzz in the last month. She has yet to announce anything for Twitter's Meerkat competitor, Periscope.

Madonna did tease a 16-second clip of the "Ghosttown" video on Tidal, however.

Non-Meerkat users probably won't have to wait too long to see the video for "Ghosttown."Shortly after Madonna debuted her video for "Living for Love" on Snapchat Discover, it was quickly uploaded to YouTube. 

You can tune in for the live premiere of "Ghosttown" at 1 p.m. Eastern over at Madonna's Meerkat page online or through the Meerkat app.

SEE ALSO: The race between Meerkat and Periscope is closer than it seems

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John Travolta's 40-year involvement with Scientology is one of the main story lines in "Going Clear," HBO's explosive new documentary on the controversial church.

And while the premiere of "Going Clear" pulled in record ratings for HBO, Travolta was not one of the film's 1.7 million viewers.

"No, I haven't" seen the film, "and I don't really care to," Travolta said in a phone interview with the Tampa Bay Times while promoting his new movie "The Forger."

"I haven't experienced anything that the hearsay has [claimed], so why would I communicate something that wasn't true for me?" Travolta said. "It wouldn't make sense, nor would it for Tom [Cruise], I imagine."

In "Going Clear," director Alex Gibney alleges that John Travolta and Tom Cruise have turned a blind eye to the reported harassment suffered by church members.

The film alleges the high-profile actors have remained the faces of Scientology because if they ever left, the church would disclose the stars' deepest, darkest secrets to the tabloids based on hours the two have spent confessing everything during audits, the church's form of spiritual counseling.

Gibney told Business Insider that he hoped the attention of "Going Clear" would make it easier for Cruise and Travolta to eventually leave the church.

"I think one of the reasons we're trying to turn the spotlight on them is not to victimize them but to say you really have a responsibility," Gibney told us. "You're given an enormous amount of wealth as a movie star and with that comes a certain amount of responsibility, particularly when people are joining an organization because of you. If the popular opinion begins to swing that way, I think you can see a change with them."

But Travolta insists that Gibney's documentary is simply the result of "people who were disgruntled with their experiences" with Scientology, adding that the church had "been nothing but brilliant for me."

"I've been so happy with my [Scientology] experience in the last 40 years," the 61-year-old actor said, "that I really don't have anything to say that would shed light on [a documentary] so decidedly negative."

Travolta said his faith was especially tested in 2009 after the death of his 16-year-old son, Jett.

"Oh, my god, I wouldn't have made it" without the church's assistance, Travolta said. "Honestly."

"I will forever be grateful to Scientology for supporting me for two years solid, I mean Monday through Sunday," Travolta told the BBC last year. "They didn't take a day off, working through different angles of the techniques to get through grief and loss, and to make me feel that finally I could get through a day."

Travolta elaborated to the Tampa Bay Times: "I've been brought through storms that were insurmountable, and [Scientology has] been so beautiful for me, that I can't even imagine attacking it."

Travolta said he also used the church to try to help others in need.

"I've helped so many people through hard times," Travolta said. "Loss of children, loved ones, physical illnesses. Through many tough, tough life situations I've used the technology to support them and help them. It's always worked. So, why would I even approach a negative perspective? That would be a crime to me, personally, to do that."

According to the Tampa Bay Times, when Travolta isn't off shooting a film, he spends up to five days a week visiting Scientology's headquarters in Clearwater, Florida. Travolta's primary residence is a nearby estate in Ocala, which also acts as a functional airport with two runways for his private planes.

SEE ALSO: Why Tom Cruise and John Travolta can't leave Scientology, according to the HBO documentary 'Going Clear'

MORE: Why Leah Remini left Scientology after 30 years with the church

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Matthew Weiner, the creator of Emmy Award-winning TV show "Mad Men," has spent years writing about workplace drama and bringing it alive onscreen.

But that doesn't make him immune to the challenges of managing people.

"It's hard to be the boss," Weiner told Kyle Buchanan in a recent Vulture interview.

Being the boss means you're responsible for the success or failure of the entire team. "Signing off on a budget, having a conversation with the studio where you promise this is what it's gonna cost … that's a scary job," Weiner said.

It also means keeping people accountable. "It's hard to fire the first person you fire — it's hard to do that every time, actually," he said. "That is one of the worst parts of your job."

How did he get a handle on his leading role? "I learned to be patient," Weiner said. For example, he would get frustrated when he handed a script that he'd worked on for three months to an employee who, after just 24 hours with it, didn't get his vision. With time, he said he learned to calm down, assess whether he'd provided clarity, and give employees time to work through the material themselves.

Ofcourse,evenifmanaginghasitsdifficulties,itcertainlyhasitsbenefits.Weinerreportedlymade $25 million to $30 millionforthefinalthreeseasonsof"MadMen."

SEE ALSO: The most effective leaders share 2 traits

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NOW WATCH: 14 things you didn't know your iPhone headphones could do

Here's the best news of the day: you can now pre-order all 6 Star Wars episodes on Amazon. 

Each episode can be purchased individually for $19.99

Or you can save $29.95 by pre-ordering  "Star Wars: The Digital Movie Collection" in HDfor$89.99.

Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace

Conversations: Doug Chiang Looks Back
Discoveries From Inside: Models & Miniatures
Legacy content includes "The Beginning"; The Podrace: Theatrical Edit; plus eight deleted scenes.

Available in HD for $19.99 and SD for $19.99.

Star Wars: Episode II Attack of the Clones

Conversations: Sounds In Space
Discoveries From Inside: Costumes Revealed
Legacy content includes "From Puppets To Pixels: Digital Characters In Episode II"; State Of The Art: The Previsualization Of Episode II; and "Films Are Not Released, They Escape"; plus Episode II Visual Effects Breakdown Montage and six deleted scenes.

Availavle in HD for $19.99 and SD for $19.99.

Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith

Conversations: The Star Wars That Almost Was
Discoveries From Inside: Hologram & Bloopers
Legacy content includes documentaries "Within A Minute: The Making Of Episode III"; The Journey Part 1; and The Journey Part 2; plus six deleted scenes.

Availavle in HD for $19.99 and SD for $19.99.

Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope (20th Century Fox)

Conversations: Creating A Universe
Discoveries From Inside: Weapons & The First Lightsaber
Legacy content includes "Anatomy Of A Dewback"; Star Wars Launch Trailer; plus eight deleted scenes.

Availavle in HD for $19.99 and SD for $19.99.

Star Wars: Episode V The Empire Strikes Back

Conversations: The Lost Interviews
Discoveries From Inside: Matte Paintings Unveiled
Legacy content includes "A Conversation With The Masters" (2010); "Dennis Muren: How Walkers Walk"; "George Lucas On Editing The Empire Strikes Back 1979"; and "George Lucas On The Force: 2010"; plus six deleted scenes.

Availavle in HD for $19.99 and SD for $19.99.

Star Wars: Episode VI Return of the Jedi

Conversations: The Effects
Discoveries From Inside: The Sounds Of Ben Burtt
Legacy content includes "Classic Creatures: Return Of The Jedi"; "Revenge Of The Jedi Teaser Trailer"; Return Of The Jedi Launch Trailer; "It Began TV Spot"; "Climactic Chapter TV Spot"; plus five deleted scenes.

Availavle in HD for $19.99 and SD for $19.99.

Pre-Order "Star Wars: The Digital Movie Collection" for $89.99 today.

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NOW WATCH: What the Chinese saying 'The ugly wife is a treasure at home' actually means

Author of "Frank: A Life in Politics from the Great Society to Same-Sex Marriage" and 16-term congressman Barney Frank told us why he prefers "The West Wing" to "House of Cards," and why "House of Cards" is doing a disservice to the American people.

Produced by Devan Joseph & Alana Kakoyiannis. Additional camera by Jason Gaines.

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