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Unless you’ve been living under a rock with no Wi-Fi, chances are you’ve heard about the “Hawk Tuah Girl,” aka Haliey Welch, a previously-non-famous 21-year-old who went mega-viral for her memorable description of spitting on a dick during sex, in response to a question about the “one move in bed that makes a man go crazy every time” in an Instagram video that would have been viewed by no one in a less stupid world.

Welch’s overnight fame was anything but surprising to Simpsons fans, who have pointed out that the Hawk Tuah Girl seems to be experiencing the exact same arc as the “I Didn’t Do It Boy”: Bart Simpson.

It’s true, Bart’s rise to stardom in the Season Five episode “Bart Gets Famous” arguably parallels Welch’s story in a number of ways.

For starters, both gained notoriety for a catchphrase completely by accident.

On Wednesday, jurors in the National Rifle Association fraud trial in Manhattan heard testimony about a secret $1 million-per-year contract that was paid to NRA President Oliver North in 2018. The contract was not disclosed to the board of directors.

Previous NRA presidents had been unpaid, so the contract raised eyebrows internally.

North butted heads with NRA CEO Wayne Lapierre, and North resigned abruptly in April 2019, alleging that there were financial improprieties at the nonprofit group.

During a board meeting in Irving, Texas, Lapierre announced his departure from the gun rights group a few weeks ago.

The 74-year-old cited health reasons for his decision.

Lapierre is a co-defendant along with the NRA in a case brought by New York Attorney General Letitia James after accusing the organization of corruption. James is seeking to disband the group and make it pay financial penalties.

James claims that Lapierre has used millions of dollars from...

On Monday, the National Rifle Association and its former CEO, Wayne Lapierre, went on trial for corruption in a Manhattan courtroom.

The civil case takes place three days after Lapierre’s surprise resignation as the gun rights group’s chief executive.

New York Attorney General Letitia James (D) sued the NRA and Lapierre in August 2020. She claimed that the group transferred millions of dollars so that they could fund luxury perks for top officials, such as travel expenses for Lapierre to several resorts. These include private jets and trips to the Bahamas for Lapierre.

James accused NRA officials of not acquiring board approval for conflicts of interest and insider transactions, as well as agreeing to no-show contracts for associates and retaliating against whistleblowers who suspected financial wrongdoing.

According to James, the organization’s actions violated laws in New York governing nonprofits.

In December, a state appeals court allowed the case...

Longtime National Rifle Association leader Wayne Lapierre has announced that he will resign from the organization days before the organization is scheduled to stand trial on civil corruption charges in New York.

“The National Rifle Association of America (NRA) announced today that Executive Vice President Wayne Lapierre announced he is stepping down from his position as chief executive of the organization, effective January 31. Long-time NRA executive and Head of General Operations Andrew Arulanandam will become the interim CEO & EVP of the NRA,” the organization wrote in a statement on Friday.

Jerry Springer’s eponymous talk show may have been tasteless, but you can’t say that Springer himself didn’t have taste.

“I would never watch my show,” he commented to Reuters in 2000. “I’m not interested in it. It’s not aimed towards me.”

He may not have been interested, but plenty of people were. The hugely successful tabloid show, one of the pioneers of trash television, notched nearly 5,000 episodes during its 27-season run from 1991 to 2018. During the peak of its popularity in the mid ‘90s, it even beat The Oprah Winfrey Show in the ratings in many cities.

You could say that Jerry Springer was the anti-Oprah Winfrey Show; if aliens monitored our broadcasts in those days, they would have been hopelessly confused about whether mankind was worth preserving or not.

Springer, who died on Thursday at 79, was such an iconic figure that he even became the subject...

Jerry Springer, the former Cincinnati news anchor and mayor who became best known for his controversial daytime talk show, has died at the age of 79.

Springer died peacefully Thursday at his home in suburban Chicago after a “brief illness,” a spokesperson confirmed to TheWrap. A source told TheWrap that Springer was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.

“Jerry’s ability to connect with people was at the heart of his success in everything he tried whether that was politics, broadcasting or just joking with people on the street who wanted a photo or a word,” Jene Galvin, a lifelong friend and spokesperson for the family said. “He’s irreplaceable and his loss hurts immensely, but memories of his intellect, heart and humor will live on.”

Also Read:

Jerry Springer Admits His Wild Show Contributed to Acceptance of Donald Trump’s Misbehavior (Video)

Born Gerald Norman Springer in London, England on February 13, 1944, he immigrated to Queens,...

Houston — Nineteen children and two adults were murdered at the Robb Elementary School, in part because the gun lobby has made it legal for 18-year-olds in Texas to buy weapons designed for mass killing.

But to hear National Rifle Association honcho Wayne Lapierre tell it, the real victim here is the NRA.

Lapierre took the stage of the National Rifle Association’s governance meeting Saturday to the strains of AC/DC’s “Thunderstruck” and delivered an angry address in which he painted the NRA as the target of “weaponized government.

Houston — The National Rifle Association bills its convention hall as “14 acres of guns & gear.” But the hall is less than 300 miles away from Uvalde — where 19 elementary school students were murdered at a “hardened” school by a lone gunman with an Ar-15, while “good guys with guns” reportedly stood down for nearly an hour — and the convention lineup is shrinking.

The big-name musical acts, including Don “American Pie” McLean and Lee “Proud to Be an American” Greenwood, have bowed out of the “NRA Grand Ole Night of Freedom” concert scheduled for Saturday.

Toby Keith, award-winning country superstar and avid supporter of American troops, will headline the Heroes Honor Festival 2022 alongside special musical guests Justin Moore and Craig Morgan at Daytona International Speedway on Memorial Day weekend.

The event, presented by Engage Your Destiny, an organization dedicated to bringing honor, hope and healing to military veterans and their families, will show appreciation for Vietnam veterans with a grand display of American festivities, feature special guests, pageantry and memorable moments.

“This celebration is long overdue,” said Ben Peterson, Iraq Veteran and Founder of Engage Your Destiny. "Our society largely rejected Vietnam Veterans when they first came home from active duty, yet they chose to become the guardians of honor, committing to never again allow combat veterans to return home to scorn, ridicule and mistreatment.

“On behalf of 9/11 era veterans and citizens who love our military and were welcomed home by these veterans, it’s...

She was a person of humble means who then made and lost a fortune, one half of a pioneering couple responsible for building a televangelism empire, a wife and a mother, a devoted disciple of Christ and even bigger believer in the power of puppetry to spread the Good Word. But you likely remember Tammy Faye Bakker, if you remember her at all, for her eyes. Specifically, the kilometer-long lashes that framed those famous high-beam peepers, and the coal-black streaks of mascara that would run down her lids to her...

The National Rifle Association had a clever plan to avoid the state of New York’s efforts to shut it down over allegations of executive self-enrichment: Declare bankruptcy and reincorporate in the Lone Star state. But Tuesday, after a weeks-long trial, a federal judge has called bullshit on the NRA’s Texas two-step. U.S. Bankruptcy Court judge Harlin Hale ruled that the NRA’s bankruptcy petition was “not filed in good faith” and represented, instead, an “effort to gain an unfair litigation advantage” against the state of New York...

(This article contains major spoilers for the fifth episode of the Marvel series “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier” on Disney+)

The 5th episode of “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier” featured a totally unexpected — and tonally strange — surprise appearance by a real-life American national treasure, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, playing a character we’re willing to bet you’ve never heard of named Contessa Valentina Allegra de Fontaine. Who is she? Could she be the mysterious Power Broker who’s been lurking around the edges of the show this whole time?

First, we need to get the context out of the way. So, John Walker (Wyatt Russell) straight-up murdered a member of the Flag Smashers with his shield in last week’s episode, and this week he suffered the consequences. First, he got quite a beatdown from Sam Wilson and Bucky, and then he was formally stripped of his Captain America-ness...

The embattled National Rifle Association is seeking an exit from its financial and legal woes by declaring bankruptcy, with a plan to reorganize in the state of Texas.

In a statement to reporters on Friday, NRA CEO Wayne Lapierre said the NRA had reached a “transformational moment” and that a move to Texas opens “a pathway to opportunity, growth and progress.” He added that “an important part of this plan is ‘dumping New York,’ ” where the NRA has been incorporated for more than 150 years, but has come under immense legal pressure,...

National Rifle Association CEO Wayne Lapierre has returned nearly $300,000 to the gun group, in repayment of illicit personal gains, according to an explosive report in the Washington Post. The Post details new tax filings, obtained from the NRA, in which the gun group reportedly admits to a “significant diversion of its assets” — including in the form of “excess benefits” paid out to Lapierre and a handful of other officers. According to the Post, that term is used by the IRS “to describe executives’ enriching themselves at the expense of a nonprofit.

R.J. Cutler’s “Belushi” charts the rise and fall of “Animal House” star John Belushi without dwelling on the particulars of his tragic death of a drug overdose at 33.

“Drugs and his overdose have become the thing that many people focus on in John’s story, but that’s not what I was interested in,” said Cutler. “I wasn’t interested in his death. I was interested in his life.”

Instead, the documentary is a celebration of Belushi’s anarchic spirit — the way he could commander an “SNL” skit with the cock of an eyebrow and send it spinning off in fresh and revolutionary directions. Chevy Chase may have been the late night show’s first breakout star, but it was Belushi who provided the sketch comedy program with its rebel yell.

Cutler relies heavily on footage of Belushi’s “SNL” tenure and work in films like “The Blues Brothers...

New York Attorney General Letitia James filed a lawsuit on Thursday to dissolve the National Rifle Association, accusing the powerful gun rights lobby of engaging in a pattern of self-dealing to benefit its leaders.

In the hours before her press conference, there was wild speculation of what she planned, as her office had informed members of the media of a pending “major national announcement.”

The lawsuit — read it here — singles out the longtime leader of the NRA, Wayne Lapierre, as well as current and former senior executives Wilson “Woody” Phillips, Joshua Powell and John Frazier. The suit claims that Lapierre has diverted millions of dollars away from the charitable mission of the organization, at the cost of core services like gun safety, education and training. Among other things, the lawsuit claims that Lapierre and his associates used NRA reserves for personal use, including trips to the Bahamas, private jets and expensive meals.

The Manhattan courtroom where Harvey Weinstein is being tried for rape and sexual misconduct took on the aura of a college psychology classroom today as a high-profile cognitive psychologist and defense witness Dr. Elizabeth Loftus testified about false memories and the ways in which misinformation, media coverage and leading questions from police investigators can warp how people recall — and mis-recall — even the most traumatic events.

Loftus is an acknowledged memory expert who has testified — mostly for defense attorneys — in a roster of celebrity trials and litigation including those of O.J. Simpson, the Menendez Brothers, Ted Bundy, Oliver North, Bosnian war criminals, the Oklahoma City bomber and the Duke University lacrosse team. She testified today about the malleability of memory and about how susceptible the human brain is to misremembering events, particularly as time passes. Researchers, she said, have successfully implanted false memories “in the minds of otherwise healthy people” merely by suggestion and “post-event information.

President Donald Trump was working on Thanksgiving, visiting the troops in Afghanistan at Bagram Air Field to let them know they were not forgotten on the holiday.

Today, the President is visiting another place of combat: The Mar-a-Lago Trump Golf course, where he will battle the little white ball and get some leisure moments in before tackling the tasks of the nation.

While the Commander-in-Tweet is out on the links, he is still keeping small business in mind, retweeting a Small Business Administration reminder message on its Small Business Saturday shopping campaign.

We will update as more communications roll in. The tweetstorm so far:

An incredible experience! https://t.co/n6BNQY6dIx

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 30, 2019

Nancy Pelosi won’t put it up for a vote. Has delayed it for 6 months. See you in #2020! https://t.co/lOrWm9u10r

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 30, 2019

I will be...

Who knew Stephen Colbert was a Gossip Girl fanboy? The Late Show host tonight went all shipper as he talked about others talking about Tuesday’s first television hearing in the Donald Trump impeachment inquiry.

He showed a clip of Kellyanne Conway on Fox News’ Fox & Friends lamenting what she perceived as a lack of action at the Capitol Hill shindig. In it she says: “You tune in, you’re either sound asleep or you can’t follow he said/she said/she said/he said/he said — it’s a bunch of gossip girls.” Shrugging off a line that likely would draw major ire if spoken by a man, Colbert said: “Well is it boring or is it Gossip Girl? Because it can’t be both. Gossip Girl was a very successful show — that’s why you’re referencing it.

“And,” he added emphatically, “it’s why I’m...

When the House Intelligence Committee launches its first public hearing of the impeachment inquiry of President Donald Trump on Wednesday, it’s likely that the first hours might matter more than anything else.

Throughout the day, the hearings will draw across-the-board coverage on broadcast networks, streaming platforms and cable news channels, not to mention the river of comments and clips that will proliferate on Twitter and Facebook.

Given the social media quick reaction to recent hearings featuring Corey Lewandowski, Trump’s former campaign manager, and Special Counsel Robert Mueller, initial impressions make a big difference.

When Lewandowski testified in September, pundits quickly focused on the extent of his pugnacity and defiance. When Mueller testified in July, much of the initial attention was on his points of shakiness. It didn’t seem to matter that there were moments of revelatory substance further along in the hearings; Trump and his supporters seized...

Washington — Wayne Lapierre, the head of the National Rifle Association, increasingly looks like the last man standing at the powerful gun lobbying group.

Lapierre orchestrated the departures of Oliver North, the former NRA president who raised the alarm about questionable accounting under Lapierre’s watch, and Chris Cox, the former head of the gun group’s powerful political and lobbying groups. Mid-level employees who were not aligned with Lapierre have left the group or been shown the door. Late last week, Jennifer Baker, the longtime top communications aide for the NRA’s lobbying arm,...

1978: Ryan's Hope's Siobhan arrived in New York.

1987: Another World's Vicky found trouble in Vegas.

1987: Bold and Beautiful's Stephanie wanted another chance.

2004: Guiding Light's Dinah phoned home."History speaks to artists. It changes the artist's thinking and is constantly reshaping it into different and unexpected images."

― Anselm Kiefer

"Today in Soap Opera History" is a collection of the most memorable, interesting and influential events in the history of scripted, serialized programs. From birthdays and anniversaries to scandals and controversies, every day this column celebrates the soap opera in American culture.

On this date in...

1965: On Another World, Pat (Susan Trustman) was worried she was the cause of Lee's (Gaye Huston) illness.

1965: On Peyton Place, Rodney (Ryan O'Neal) and Allison (Mia Farrow) played hide-and-seek- with Kim/

1966: On The Guiding Light, Peggy (Fran Myers) and Johnny continued to face opposition to their dating.

1971: On Another World,...

The National Rifle Association has ended production of Nratv, the live broadcasting media arm it launched in 2016, the New York Times reported Tuesday.

The organization has also formally severed ties with Ackerman McQueen, the Oklahoma-based advertising agency that operated Nratv and has represented the NRA since the 1980s, according to the Times.

Nratv may continue to air previously recorded content on its website, but all live broadcasting will cease, and on-air personalities like Dana Loesch, who were technically employees of Ackerman McQueen, will no longer represent the NRA publicly, the Times reports.

Also Read: NRA TV Ripped for Turning 'Thomas and Friends' Characters Into Kkk Members

The NRA and Ackerman McQueen did not immediately respond to requests for comment from TheWrap.

The Times said Tuesday that Lapierre will announce the decision in an email to members Wednesday morning.

“Many members expressed concern about the messaging on Nratv becoming too far...

The National Rifle Association has suspended its longtime head of political operations, Chris Cox, after filing a lawsuit in New York Supreme Court that fingers Cox as a participant in the failed April coup attempt against the gun lobby’s CEO, Wayne Lapierre.

Cox is a towering figure in the gun world. He has been the executive director of the NRA’s Institute for Legislative Action, the explicitly political arm of the gun lobby, since 2002, and according to the NRA’s latest IRS filing his pay package topped $1.1 million in...

The divorce papers have been filed. The breakup between the National Rifle Association and its longtime PR firm, Ackerman McQueen — the creator of Nratv — is nearly complete.

On Wednesday, Ackerman McQueen served the NRA with a “notice to terminate” its nearly 40-year business partnership with the gun group.

Ackerman McQueen has long crafted the NRA’s public image, whether tapping Soylent Green actor Charlton Heston as the gun group’s ceremonial president, crafting the NRA’s increasingly apocalyptic messaging or staging the its elaborate annual conventions. Following the 2016 launch of the NRA’s streaming service,...

Ackerman McQueen is biting the hand that feeds it. The longtime PR firm for the National Rifle Association is counter-suing the gun group for a staggering $100 million, alleging the NRA is dishonestly attempting to sever business ties — for the benefit of the gun group’s top-dollar legal firm.

The PR firm’s suit was filed Thursday in Virginia state court, just a day after the NRA sued Ackerman McQueen for $40 million, accusing the firm of “fomenting” an attempted coup and leaking confidential documents. The counterclaim sheds new light on the...

The National Rifle Association is accusing its longtime public relations firm of “fomenting” an “executive coup” attempt, and the gun group is suing the agency for $40 million in damages, alleging a “total breach of contract” in the wake of what it calls “misleading, defamatory” leaks of confidential documents.

The lawsuit, filed in Virginia state court on Wednesday, is the latest salvo in the battle between the NRA and Ackerman McQueen, which has long crafted the gun group’s public image, including launching the streaming service Nratv. Ackerman McQueen’s services...

Excessive spending at the National Rifle Association is “draining NRA cash at a mindboggling speed” and poses “an existential threat to the financial stability” of the gun group, according to slate of leaked documents that have spurred calls for the resignation of CEO Wayne Lapierre.

Posted anonymously online, the documents have surfaced amid an increasingly public feud among NRA leadership, the gun group’s PR firm, Ackerman McQueen, and the NRA’s outside legal firm, run by William Brewer, III. (For more context read: Wtf Is Happening at the NRA,...

Samantha Bee dissected the chaos, infighting and money woes consuming the National Rifle Association on Full Frontal Wednesday.

In recent weeks, a power struggle broke out between longtime NRA CEO Wayne Lapierre and recently ousted NRA president Oliver North (whose previous hits include the Iran-Contra affair). Lapierre has accused North of trying to blackmail him into resigning from his post, threatening to leak damaging information such as allegations against a staff member of sexual harassment and spending half-a-million dollars on clothes and travel. But as Bee pointed out, much of...

Chaos broke out at the NRA’s annual convention in Indianapolis last week. The gun group’s figurehead president, Oliver North, backed by its longtime PR firm Ackerman McQueen, allegedly tried to oust the NRA’s powerful CEO, Wayne Lapierre. But Lapierre hit back — forcing North to step down, while winning unanimous reelection by the NRA board.

As this Game of Thrones-worthy infighting played out, New York Attorney General Letitia James announced she has opened an investigation into the NRA’s financial practices — amid public accusations that NRA executives...

This past week, NRA President Oliver North threatened to ruin NRA CEO Wayne Lapierre, citing financial improprieties and an ongoing battle with the group’s PR firm, Ackerman McQueen, but his plan backfired and now North has been told he will not be renominated as the group’s president, the Wall Street Journal reported.

“Yesterday evening, I was forced to confront one of those defining choices — styled, in the parlance of extortionists — as an offer I couldn’t refuse,” Lapierre wrote in a Thursday letter to the NRA board. “I refused it.

Wayne Lapierre, the Executive Vice President of the National Rifle Association, has written an extraordinary letter to the board of the NRA, accusing the organization’s ceremonial president, Col. Oliver North, of both seeking his ouster and threatening to share a “damaging letter” with the NRA board if Lapierre refused to resign.

In the letter, Lapierre links the ouster threat to the NRA’s longtime PR firm, Ackerman McQueen, which the NRA recently sued for not being transparent about its spending, including on North’s multi-million-dollar Nratv contract.

The letter...

A near-perfect episode of Young Justice is marred only by the real world.

This Young Justice review contains spoilers.

Young Justice: Outsiders Episode 7

Probably the biggest hurdle to the success of Young Justice: Outsiders after six years away was getting everything back together again after everyone went their separate ways, and some things have changed irrevocably. "Evolution" was a terrific episode, one of the finest Vandal Savage stories in any medium, but as good as David Kaye is in this episode voicing him, it's still a reminder that a ton of time has passed since the show was last on the air and some of their voice cast couldn't come back.

The two missing voice actors this season are Tim Curry as G. Gordon Godfrey and Miguel Ferrer as Savage, and they've both been missed so far this season. Curry's Godfrey was perfect as the frothing, barely-holding-it-together maniac talk radio host.

Tom Selleck, the star of CBS’ Blue Bloods, has resigned from his post on the board of directors at the NRA. His publicist confirmed the news to Reuters today.

“Tom Selleck has stepped down from the board of the NRA due to his work schedule,” Annett Wolf said in a statement. She added that he remains a member of the nonprofit gun-rights association.

The board membership is difficult to find, but according to several reports Selleck was the leading vote-getter in its 2017 elections. The NRA board has several media figures in its ranks including Iran-contra figure and former Fox News host Oliver North, who has been tapped to become the organization’s next president.

The Trace website was the first with the news, reporting that Selleck has been a member of the NRA since he was 8 and has served on the board since 2005.

Season 9 of Blue Bloods premieres on...

Exclusive: Mel Gibson and Colin Farrell are set to star in War Pigs, a Millennium Films actioner that Tommy Wirkola will direct, with Lorenzo di Bonaventura and Mark Vahradian producing through di Bonaventura Productions, along with Matt Berenson. Production is to start October.

Scripted by Nick Ball & John Niven, the project first got set up as The Takedown. A group of disillusioned ex-marines go on one last mission to get revenge on the cartel that murdered one of their own while making off with millions of dollars in drug money. Farrell plays Drex and Gibson plays The Pastor.

Gibson will make the movie before focusing on directing the WWII action film Destroyer with Mark Wahlberg starring, and financing being sewn up. Farrell wrapped the Steve McQueen-directed Widows and the Tim Burton-directed Dumbo, and will play Oliver North in an Amazon miniseries about the Iran Contra scandal. The Norwegian-born...

1978: Ryan's Hope's Siobhan arrived in New York.

1987: Another World's Vicky found trouble in Vegas.

1987: Bold and Beautiful's Stephanie wanted another chance.

2004: Guiding Light's Dinah phoned home."All true histories contain instruction; though, in some, the treasure may be hard to find, and when found, so trivial in quantity that the dry, shrivelled kernel scarcely compensates for the trouble of cracking the nut."

― Anne Brontë in "Agnes Grey"

"Today in Soap Opera History" is a collection of the most memorable, interesting and influential events in the history of scripted, serialized programs. From birthdays and anniversaries to scandals and controversies, every day this column celebrates the soap opera in American culture.

On this date in...

1965: On Another World, Pat (Susan Trustman) was worried she was the cause of Lee's (Gaye Huston) illness.

1965: On Peyton Place, Rodney (Ryan O'Neal) and Allison (Mia Farrow) played hide-and-seek- with...

It has been quite some time since Jim Carrey has starred in a bona fide box office hit, but not to worry, as he has been filling his time by becoming 2018’s foremost political cartoonist. Slideshow: Donald Trump’S 30 Craziest Tweets His latest masterpiece portrays new National Rifle Association president Oliver North, who was previously best […]

Source: uInterview

The post Jim Carrey’s Latest Painting Shows Oliver North As Snake Over Bleeding NRA Sign appeared first on uInterview.

As the debate around gun control in the U.S. has crescendoed, gun violence in Hollywood films with PG-13 ratings is becoming more acceptable, according to a new study.

Parents with children under the age of 17 are more desensitized to gun violence when it’s deemed justified, according to the study from the Annenberg Public Policy Center (Appc) at the University of Pennsylvania.

The study determines justified gun violence as that which is used in the defense of a loved one or for self-protection. Unjustified gun violence would be when it has no socially redeeming purpose.

Also Read: Shannon Watts of 'Moms Demand Action': 'The NRA Is a Paper Tiger' (Video)

While gun violence was more acceptable when it was justified, parents did think the movies would be more suitable for teens age 15 and older, rather than the recommended 13 years old and older by the Motion Picture Association of America.

A representative for the MPAA declined to comment.

Parents thought movies with unjustified but bloodless gun violence were more appropriate for 16-year-olds, the study found.

“The findings suggest that parents may want a new rating, PG-15, for movies with intense violence,” said Daniel Romer, research director of the Annenberg Public Policy Center, in a statement. “Violent movies often get a PG-13 rating by omitting the consequences of violence such as blood and suffering, and by making the use of violence seem justified. But parents of teenagers say that even scenes of justified violence are upsetting and more appropriate for teens who are at least 15.”

Also Read: New NRA President Oliver North Compares Anti-Gun Sentiment to Jim Crow-Era Racism

Romer argues that even bloodless, justified gun violence could potentially be harmful. And there’s more gun violence in films with PG-13 ratings than films with R ratings.

Researchers in the study showed movie clips to a national sample of 610 parents with at least one child between 6 and 17 years old.

Parents watched 90-second clips of justified gun violence from PG-13 rated films, including “Live Free or Die Hard,” “White House Down,” “Terminator Salvation” and “Taken.” Or they saw clips of unjustified violence from PG-13 rated films “Skyfall” and “Jack Reacher,” or R-rated films “Sicario” and “Training Day.”

Scenes from the R-rated movies were edited, taking out graphic and upsetting material such as blood and suffering to mimic the effect of PG-13 movies.

Also Read: Jennifer Hudson: Gun Violence 'Can Happen to Anybody'

The study found that parents were less upset by the justified violence and thus more lenient on what age is appropriate for a child to watch it. When they watched the scenes of unjustified gun violence, however, they were more restrictive.

“We still don’t know whether repeatedly seeing movies with justified violence teaches children that using guns is Ok if they think it’s justified,” Romer said. “Hollywood is exploiting the movie rating system by leaving out harmful consequences like blood and suffering from PG-13 films.

“By sanitizing the effects of violence, movie makers are able to get a PG-13 rating and a wider audience for their films,” he continued. “But this gun violence may be just as brutal and potentially harmful to young viewers.”

We’re about four and half months into 2018 and there have been 92 reported mass shootings in the U.S., according to the Gun Violence Archive, a not for profit organization that’s been tracking gun-related incidents since 2013. The database finds that 905 teens (ages 12 to 17) have either been injured or killed by a gun in 2018.

One of the most notable incidents this year was the Parkland shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida, in which the shooter killed 17 people.

That shooting sparked a rallying cry for a change in gun laws that has been met with staunch opposition.

Read original story Study: Gun Violence in PG-13 Films Is More Acceptable as Long as It’s ‘Justified’ At TheWrap...

Lt. Col. Oliver North is set to become the president of the gun lobby group.

North, best known these days political commentator and host of the Fox News show War Stories With Oliver North, will retire from his role at Fox News effective immediately, Fnc reported.

But North, who worked for President Ronald Reagan’s National Security Council, became famous in the late 1980’s for his role in the Iran-Contra scandal, arranging the secret sale of weapons to Iran, which was subject to an arms embargo, proceeds of which funded Contra rebels in Nicaragua. He was convicted in 1989 of obstructing Congress’s investigation, destroying government documents. Those convictions were overturned in 1991.

“This is the most exciting news for our members since Charlton Heston became President of our Association,” group Executive Vice President and CEO Wayne Lapierre said, calling North “a legendary warrior for American freedom, a gifted communicator and skilled leader.

Andrea Luka Zimmerman’s tale of Vietnam war veteran ‘Bo’ Gritz gives a preposterous true story an alarming, haunting edge

The decorated former Us special forces officer James “Bo” Gritz, now 79, is a certain kind of lairy, gung-ho publicity addict – like Oliver North or G Gordon Liddy. Documentary-maker Andrea Luka Zimmerman gives a pretty alarming account of his life, and leaves it to us to notice his relation to the present White House incumbent. Her film is a bit shapeless and unsignposted, sometimes more like a rough cut than a finished movie, a patchwork of original interview material and archive footage. But it’s a good story.

Related: Erase and Forget: new documentary reveals life story of the real Rambo...

After Greek director Yorgos Lanthimos landed an Oscar nomination for “Dogtooth,” his twisted dystopian vision of a family trapped in deranged rituals, his agent took him around town. It was the usual routine: Promising young talent offered numerous pre-conceived projects, with no guarantee that he’d have any control over the final result. “I didn’t really know the landscape,” said Lanthimos in an interview. “I just realized it’s not what I’m interested in. I’d never be able to survive such a situation.”

See More:Cannes Review: With ‘The Killing of a Sacred Deer,’ Yorgos Lanthimos Comes to America and Makes the Scariest Movie of His Life

That early decision paid off. After “Dogtooth,” Lanthimos churned out a series of movies that have continued to cement his status as one of the most original, visionary filmmakers working today. His movies present bleak, self-contained universes of despair, and they’re never predictable.

Ryan Lambie Aug 24, 2017

Doug Liman on Swingers, getting arrested, American Made, Bourne and much more...

It was only a couple of weeks ago that we last spoke to Doug Liman, who in July was promoting his compact, $3 million war thriller The Wall. Now, he's back with another thriller, this one taking place over a much broader canvas. American Made tells the story of Barry Seal, a pilot who wound up running missions in and out of Central America for the CIA; taking covert photographs and smuggling in guns. 

See related  Game Of Thrones season 7 episode 6 questions answered Game Of Thrones season 7 episode 7 review: The Dragon And The Wolf

The film's the perfect vehicle for Cruise, given that he gets to fly lots of planes, but then again, Barry Seal's hardly your typical heroic Cruise lead: Seal earns a fortune running guns for the CIA and cocaine for the cartels, but...

Tom Cruise and director Doug Liman reteam for American Made. Here's our review of a great crime drama...

There are certain things you can generally count on in a Tom Cruise movie: running really fast, smiling winningly at ladies and hurtling around in fast cars, or on motorbikes, or in planes. Also, he’ll be topless at least once.

See related Marc Webb interview: The Amazing Spider-Man, villains, casting, sequels and more

Cruise’s second collaboration with director Doug Liman (they previously brought us the unexpectedly great sci-fi action film, Edge Of Tomorrow), American Made requires quite a bit more from the Hollywood stars than just winning smiles and stunts - though the movie does deliver plenty of those too. Cruise plays Barry Seal, a former Twa commercial pilot who, at the behest of an enigmatic guy with a beard who calls himself Schafer (Domhnall Gleeson) winds up flying planes for the CIA.

There’s a case to be made that Tom Cruise is a compelling screen presence when he looks desperate. Much evidence for this claim was gathered in his millennial run – 1999’s “Eyes Wide Shut” and “Magnolia,” 2001’s “Vanilla Sky” – in which varyingly forceful writer-directors did their level best to chip away at their star’s glib toothpaste-salesman confidence and expose the very human doubts and frailties behind it. After those box-office failures, Cruise retreated to the surety of known properties and franchises; though we got glimpses of other Cruises – notably the Comic Cruise of “Tropic Thunder” – this was his fall-back position up until the disastrous “The Mummy.” It’s possible that audiences had grown tired of watching a performer playing it so consistently safe: as Kubrick and Paul Thomas Anderson had twigged, it’s always more revealing watching a control freak losing control.

“American Made” isn’t a major breakthrough,...

Author: Richard Phippen

Tom Cruise’s American Made trailer lands. Just. Now that Tom Cruise has got The Mummy out of the way, we’re finally able to gaze upon the first trailer for his next collaboration with Edge of Tomorrow director Doug Liman.

American Made tells the (mostly true) story of pilot Barry Seal, who was hired by the CIA in the 80s to fly guns into South America. Not content with being a CIA gun smuggler, Seal decides to add a lucrative return trip to his schedules, hooking up with Pablo Escobar to bring cocaine back into the Us.

It’s quite the departure for Cruise, playing an anti-hero covered in coke, but we’re going with him on this one. Both he and Liman have a good grasp of the comedic elements of the script, and the story is mad enough to require very little embellishment.

Indeed,...

Simply marvelous news for acolytes of Amy Sherman-Palladino: Amazon is moving forward with the Gilmore Girls creator’s dramedy The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, handing the very well-received project an unprecedented two-season series order.

The pilot debuted on Amazon on March 17 and garnered an average customer rating of 4.8, with 92 percent 5-star reviews.

Written and directed by Sherman-Palladino, who also serves as an Ep alongside Daniel Palladino, the 1950s-set The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel centers on Miriam “Midge” Maisel (Manhattan‘s Rachel Brosnahan, in a star-making performance), whose seemingly idyllic Manhattan existence is upended when she discovers a previously unknown talent for stand-up comedy.

David Crow Apr 10, 2017

A major confrontation between unlikely participants adds tension to the penultimate episode of Homeland Season 6...

This review contains spoilers.

See related Quiz: Can you recognise these movie cats? Men In Black: David Schwimmer on turning down the lead role

6.11 R Is For Romeo

Homeland season six is in its final movements. The season finale is only a week away, and the penultimate hour didn’t want you to forget that as it ended its fifty-minute drama on a thundering cliffhanger filled with explosives, vital missed phone conversations, and every implication that a full-throated military coup is in motion with CIA badmen headed to “protect” the president-elect at gunpoint.

And ironically, the most exciting thing about the episode is not in the pyrotechnics of a somewhat arbitrary cliffhanger; it’s in the tension of a president (or president-elect) sitting down with rightwing talk radio/fake news, legitimising...

Hot off the critical and awards season success of Kenneth Lonergan’s “Manchester by the Sea,” Amazon is continuing to ink major production deals with some of the art house world’s biggest stars, from newly-minted Oscar winner Barry Jenkins to the the delightfully original Leos Carax — and that’s just the start. Amazon’s relationship with creators also includes a number of television heavy-hitters, including Amy Sherman-Palladino and Matthew Weiner, but the keen eye they’ve turned on filmmakers is the one to watch.

Still, there is much work to be done. While Amazon has had major success working with filmmaker and showrunner Jill Soloway — and its latest batch of pilots includes a standout from “Gilmore Girls” alum Sherman-Palladino — the list of filmmakers who recently signed on to produce features with the studio is woefully lacking when it comes to female talents. If you can grab a Yorgos Lanthimos,...

Why the Greek director’s tragicomic sensibility is perfect for the subject matter.

Not to be outdone by Netflix’s upcoming string of auteur dramas, Amazon Studios just announced that director Yorgos Lanthimos will be reteaming with The Lobster star Colin Farrell for an upcoming original series. The topic? The Iran-Contra Affair. For those of you (like me) who are too young to remember, the so-called Iran-Contra Affair was a scandal that occurred during Ronald Reagan’s presidency, in which administration officials conspired to sell weapons to Iran (against whom there was an arms embargo) in order to funnel the profits to a right-wing Nicaraguan army known as the Contras (to whom Congress had forbidden funding). The initial plan was to use said profits to negotiate the release of several hostages held by Hezbollah, but then Colonel Oliver North got involved and devised a plan to use the money to also fund the Contras. Farrell...

Are you overwhelmed by how much television is available right now? Is life getting in the way of keeping up with the shows you wanna try out? We feel your tube-related pain. Here’s a handy feature that’ll help you locate the hidden gems in this era of Peak TV.

Fleabag

Network | Amazon

Created By | Phoebe Waller-Bridge

Number Of Episodes | 6

Episode Length | 30 mins.

Premise | Waller-Bridge (Broadchurch) stars — and shines — in this UK comedy as Fleabag, a proudly promiscuous London café owner who talks directly to the camera, sharing her most intimate dating misadventures with us like we’re old chums.