Month: January 2024

Though Breaking Bad may have ended over a decade ago, co-stars Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul have maintained a wonderful friendship. The two still make appearances at events together, promoting their Mezcal brand, Dos Hombres.

Last October, photos surfaced of the two online with Drake at the rapper’s birthday party. Many fans believed Drake had hired the Breaking Bad co-stars to bartend at his party. But last night (January 29), during an appearance on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, he revealed that their presence at the party actually came as a surprise to Drake.

“Did Drake just call you and say, ‘Would you bartend on my birthday?,’” asked Colbert.

Cranston then shared that this was actually a side hustle he picked up amid the SAG-AFTRA strike.

“Well, no,” said Cranston. “He called the catering company, and because it was the strike, I needed a gig. I was bartending just to pick up a few bucks, you know. It was really fun because he didn’t know we were gonna be there.”

The actor then recalled Drake’s reaction to the pleasant surprise.

“We’re in Miami and we were behind the bar,” Cranston said, “and Drake is thinking, let’s see, what should I order? And I said, can I get something for you, sir? And he goes, yeah, I’d like… Oh!

You can watch the full interview above.

The year of our lord 2024 was supposed to be when people got normal about Taylor Swift. Instead the exact opposite has happened. The far right, already incensed that a Biden supporter was the most popular pop star on the planet, went even further into the abyss. Some even hatched tinfoil hat conspiracy theories that she’s part of some deep state psyop tomfoolery to keep Donald Trump out of office (again). Others, though, aren’t worried, because MAGA has plenty of popular influencers. Like one of the guys from the 1969 film Midnight Cowboy.

In a recent appearance at an RNC summit, Trump crony Jack Posobiec claimed that the Biden administration has been leaning on what he called “The Taylor Strategy,” which involves using the pop star to get out the vote. Or something! Posobiec had nothing against Swift herself. He just felt she was being used by the “machine that’s around her” that wants to “use the power of her celebrity.”

But never fear, because MAGA has some pretty popular celebrities, too.

“We don’t have Taylor Swift on our side,” admitted Pobosiec. “But you know who we have? We have Kid Rock. We have Ted Nugent. We have influencers. We have all these people — Jon Voight.

“We have people who can come out and use their audiences,” Probosiec said, asking MAGA heads to attend Kid Rock and Ted Nugent shows and perhaps even movie premieres for films with Jon Voight.

For the record, Jon Voight’s a very fine actor, so excellent that he still gets work despite his always awkward Trump stumping. Nugent and Kid Rock, less so, and the same goes for other low-rung MAGA celebrities like Scott Baio, Kevin Sorbo, Dean Cain, and Chuck Woolery. Another thing all of these names have in common is that none are remotely popular with the young people today’s GOP has almost completely alienated, prompting the MAGA meltdowns that are getting both worse and weirder.

Anyway, when people caught wind of Probosiec comparing Jon Voight to Taylor Swift, there was plenty of laughter.

And there were plenty of people pointing out that none of those folks could, as they said nearly 35 years ago, when Voight was in his 50s, “rock the vote.”

There were also some Seinfeld jokes, as Voight made one of the show’s more inspired celebrity cameos (and without saying a word).

Anyway, let the Trump folks think Zoolander’s dad will save MAGA from the Swifties. Heck, even Trump thinks he’s “more popular” than she is. Let them have their delusions.

Many a celebrity has felt the wrath of Eminem’s scathing pen, but it looks like the Detroit Lions’ offensive coordinator Ben Johnson will avoid such a fate — for now. The coach had potential offers to move up to a head coaching role for teams like the Seattle Seahawks and the Washington Commanders, but opted to stay in Detroit for the time being after the historically awful Motor City football club made a respectable push in the playoffs this season, taking it all the way to the NFC Championship, where they were narrowly defeated by the San Francisco 49ers this past Sunday, 34-31.

Eminem expressed his relief at Johnson’s decision on Twitter, where he joked that he had been working on a diss track, which is presumably shelved for the time being. He also called back to his earlier joke about joining the team, which he’s supported with his star power for years. “Guess I should stop recording this diss track..!!” he wrote. “@ Ben Johnson Thank you for staying!!! We can’t break this team up ESPECIALLY since I’M on it!!! Coach Campbell we love you bro!!! Let’s run it back next year!!…I’m READY!!!! I promise you I WILL get us to the super bowl!!”

The joke played on the media furor surrounding Em’s attendance at the recent NFC Championship, where he prematurely celebrated the Lions’ hefty halftime lead, gloating while flipping off the surrounding Niners fans. Unfortunately, his overconfidence came back to bite him right in the tuchus when the Lions fell apart in the second half, paving the way for San Franciso to stamp their tickets to the Super Bowl. It looks like the Lions will be running it back next year, and Em will have to pick a new target to poke (just as long as it isn’t Taylor Swift, for the love of God).

A year ago, “Saturday Night Live” poked fun at an obnoxiously large western hat trend made popular by Instagram influencers with a sketch called “Big Dumb Hat” starring Amy Schumer, Heidi Gardner and Chloe Fineman.

On January 27, Fineman and Gardner were back, this time with actor Dakota Johnson, poking fun at the next Big Dumb trend that’s popular with influencers and their followers, Stanley cups. Boosted by their popularity on TikTok, the $45 Stanley Quencher cup recently created a consumer frenzy with grown adults stampeding shopping displays in Targets across the U.S. to buy one.

The sketch opens with the 3 women, dressed in their Big Dumb hats, stating the requirements for owning a Stanley Quencher: driving to Target every day in a big car, being between the ages of 12 and 70 and being “physically or at least spiritually” blond.

Big Dumb Cups – SNL

Throughout the sketch, the women crack jokes about the cup’s unique properties while Johnson’s gets progressively bigger. “Mm! You can really taste the bacteria!” Fineman said, while Gardner added, “I’m getting lead.”

“If your car explodes, you won’t survive. But your Big Dumb cup will, Fineman said. “If I’m not sipping, I’m peeing,” Gardner added.

The sketch was a highlight in an episode that was criticized by some for allowing musical guest and frequent ‘SNL’ host Justin Timberlake upstage Johnson during the monologue. Timberlake would later reprise his role as Andy Gibb alongside Barry Gibb (Jimmy Fallon) in “The Barry Gibb Show.” The show was also notable because Dave Chappelle was announced at the end-of-show stage call, but didn’t appear in the episode.

Thank you, Dakota Johnson, @jtimberlake, @jimmyfallon, @BarbaraCorcoran, @mcuban, and @TobeNwigwe! Goodnight!

— (@)

Addie Rodriguez was supposed to take the field with her dad during a high school football game, where he, along with other dads, would lift her onto his shoulders for a routine. But Addie’s dad was halfway across the country, unable to make the event.

Her father is Abel Rodriguez, a veteran airman who, after tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, was training at Travis Air Force Base in California, 1,700 miles from his family in San Antonio at the time.

“Mom missed the memo it was parent day, and the reason her mom missed the memo was her dad left Wednesday,” said Alexis Perry-Rodriguez, Addie’s mom. She continued, “It was really heartbreaking to see your daughter standing out there being the only one without their father, knowing why he’s away. It’s not just an absentee parent. He’s serving our country.”

But as Addie sat there in front of the game’s crowd, with no one to join her on the field, someone ran toward her. That person was Central Catholic High School senior Matthew Garcia, who went to her after realizing she was the only cheerleader without a partner.

Garcia told local news station FOX 29, “I ran down from the bleachers right here, and I just hopped the fence, and I went over, and I kneeled down, I talked to her and I said, ‘Are you OK?'”

He then lifted Addie onto his shoulders just like the dads did with their daughters so she could participate in the routine. Many onlookers quickly realized they were witnessing an extraordinary act of kindness, and social media was abuzz:

@Harvard hopeful @matt_garcia_ exhibits the true measure of a man! Read about him on ABC News & GMA today/tomorrow!https://news4sanantonio.com/news/local/student-rescues-cheerleader-whose-military-dad-couldnt-attend-performanceu00a0u2026

— Central Catholic HS (@Central Catholic HS)
1476293152

It may have been a small gesture for Garcia, but as Addie tells it, that little bit of assistance meant the world to her. They posed for a picture after the routine was done, and it’s clear this will be one encounter she won’t soon forget.

“I just felt like somebody saved my life,” Addie said, adding, “I thought that’s so nice, especially since my dad’s serving for us.”

Watch the YouTube video below:

This article originally appeared on 08.21.18

The Story of Bottled Water

www.youtube.com

Here are six facts from the video above by The Story of Stuff Project that I’ll definitely remember next time I’m tempted to buy bottled water.

1. Bottled water is more expensive than tap water (and not just a little).

via The Story of Stuff Project/YouTube

A Business Insider column noted that
two-thirds of the bottled water sold in the United States is in individual 16.9-ounce bottles, which comes out to roughly $7.50 per gallon. That’s about 2,000 times higher than the cost of a gallon of tap water.

And in an
article in 20 Something Finance, G.E. Miller investigated the cost of bottled versus tap water for himself. He found that he could fill 4,787 20-ounce bottles with tap water for only $2.10! So if he paid $1 for a bottled water, he’d be paying 2,279 times the cost of tap.

2. Bottled water could potentially be of lower quality than tap water.

Fiji Water ran an ad campaign that was pretty disparaging about the city of Cleveland. Not a wise move. The city ordered a test of the snooty brand’s water and found that Fiji Water contained levels of arsenic that weren’t seen in the city’s water supply.

How was that possible? Sarah Goodman of the New York Times explains:

” Bottled water manufacturers are not required to disclose as much information as municipal water utilities because of gaps in federal oversight authority. Bottom line: The Food and Drug Administration oversees bottled water, and U.S. EPA is in charge of tap water. FDA lacks the regulatory authority of EPA.”

3. The amount of bottled water we buy every week in the U.S. alone could circle the globe five times!

That sounded like it just had to be impossible, so we looked into it. Here’s what our fact-checkers found:

“According to the video, ‘ People in the U.S. buy more than half a billion bottles of water every week.’ National Geographic says for 2011, bottled water sales hit 9.1 billion gallons (roughly 34 billion liters).

A ‘typical’ water bottle is a half-liter, so that’s about 68 billion bottles per year. Divided by 52 weeks would be a little over 1 billion bottles of water sold per week in the U.S. Because that’s based on a smaller ‘typical’ bottle size, it seems reasonable that a half billion bottles a week could be accurate.

The Earth is about 131.5 million feet around, so yep, half a billion bottles of varying sizes strung end-to-end could circle the Earth five times.”

4. Paying for bottled water makes us chumps.

Beverage companies have turned bottled water into a multibillion-dollar industry through a concept known as manufactured demand. Bottled water advertisements used a combination of scare tactics (Tap water bad!) and seduction (From the purest mountain streams EVER!) to reel us in.

Well, we now know their claims about the superior quality of bottled water are mostly bogus. And research shows that anywhere from a quarter to 45% of all bottled water comes from the exact same place as your tap water (which, to reiterate, is so cheap it’s almost free).

5. Bottled water is FILTHY.

It takes oil — lots of it — to make plastic bottles. According to the video, the energy in the amount of oil it takes to make the plastic water bottles sold in the U.S. in one year could fuel a million cars. That’s not even counting the oil it takes to ship bottled water around the world.

And once we’ve guzzled our bottled water, up to 80% of the empty bottles end up in landfills or noxious-gas-producing incinerators. The rest is either recycled or shipped to countries like India where poor people without environmental and labor protections have to deal with it.

On top of all that, the process of manufacturing plastic bottles is polluting public water supplies, which makes it easier for bottled water companies to sell us their expensive product.

6. There are 750 million people around the world who don’t have access to clean water.

A child dies every minute from a waterborne disease. And for me, that’s the core of what makes bottled water so evil.

The video wraps by comparing buying bottled water to smoking while pregnant. That may sound extreme, but after learning everything I just did about the bottled water industry, I can’t disagree.

If you’re properly disgusted, here are a few ways you can help destroy the bottled water industry:

1. Don’t buy bottled water. Get a reusable water bottle. The savings will add up.
2. Rally your schools, workplaces, and communities to ban bottled water.
3. Demand that your city, state, and federal governments invest in better water infrastructure.

This article originally appeared on 5.7.15

From a young age, Deddeh Howard was enthralled by fashion and its role in culture. Unfortunately, she was never really able to see herself in it.

“Something that always bothered me when you see these amazing images [was] that very rarely you ever see a black woman on them,” Howard, who grew up in West Africa but now resides in Los Angeles, wrote at her blog, Secret of DD.

“Black girls are almost invisible,” she wrote.

So Howard created “Black Mirror,” a photo series in which she re-creates famous photos with herself in place of models like Kendall Jenner, Gigi Hadid, Gisele Bundchen, and others.

Howard’s partner, Raffael Dickreuter, shot the series. As its title suggests, it holds a “black mirror” up to the fashion world. The project’s goal is both to make people notice the lack of diversity in the fashion world and to provide inspiration to other non-white models.

Of the models featured on the fall 2016 runways, 75% were white. There’s a major need for a diversity boost.

Sometimes, that lack of diversity can be downright embarrassing. Earlier this year, one fashion show featured models walking to Beyoncé’s “Formation,” a song Essence described as a “wholly and undeniable a tribute to Blackness — particularly Black girl power.” The problem: The show didn’t feature a single non-white model.

Diversity, representation, and visibility play key roles in shaping ambition and self-acceptance in the real world.

It’s important to be able to see yourself in the world, and it’s important to know that someone who looks like you can succeed.

“The next generation can only get inspired and reach for the stars themselves if they believe they can do it too,” Howard wrote on her blog. “For that reason diversity in ad campaigns is in my opinion much more important than you might think.”

This article originally appeared on 12.08.16

These days, we could all use something to smile about, and few things do a better job at it than watching actor Christopher Walken dance.

A few years back, some genius at HuffPo Entertainment put together a clip featuring Walken dancing in 50 of his films, and it was taken down. But it re-emerged in 2014 and the world has been a better place for it.

Walken became famous as a serious actor after his breakout roles in “Annie Hall” (1977) and “The Deer Hunter” (1978) so people were pretty shocked in 1981 when he tap-danced in Steve Martin’s “Pennies from Heaven.”

But Walken actually started his career in entertainment as a dancer. He took his first dance lessons at the age of three. “It was very typical for people—and I mean working-class people—to send their kids to dancing school,” he told Interview Magazine. “You’d learn ballet, tap, acrobatics, usually you’d even learn to sing a song,” he later explained to Interview magazine.

As a child, he also studied tap dance and toured in musicals. He even danced with a young Liza Minelli. “I’d been around dancers my whole life, having watched my parents make musicals at MGM, and Chris reminded me of so many of the dancers I knew growing up,” Minelli said according to Entertainment Weekly. “He’s talented in every way.”

Craig Zadan, Executive Producer of “Peter Pan Live!,” agrees with Minelli. “I think that if he had been around in the heyday of MGM, he would have been a big star of musicals on film,” he told Entertainment Weekly.

His dance moves were put center stage in 2001 in Spike Jonze’s video for Fatboy Slim’s song “Weapon of Choice.” Walken says he did it because one day he’ll be too old to cut a rug. “You think, ‘Well, do it now!’ You know, you get too decrepit to dance,” he told Entertainment Weekly.

This article originally appeared on 02.15.22

College is generally a time where kids are feeling much more freedom than they’re used to. They’re finally able to come and go as they please, stay out as late as they want and sleep in as long as they feel like it without immediately having to answer to a parent. It’s a mix of freedom and privacy that nearly every adolescent craves and as long as they do well in classes, no one asks too many questions.

Well, about that privacy, professors are saying not so fast in feeling untethered. Apparently the software used on many college campuses is not just for submitting assignments or downloading readings. After a recent article was published by The Markup titled, He Wanted Privacy. His College Gave Him None. written by Tara García Mathewson, college professor and doctoral candidate Victoria Alexander took to social media to help ring the alarm.

There’s some level of privacy expected while attending college but according to Alexander, that privacy is simply an illusion. The educational software the schools use not only track when you log on, off and how long you spend logged into the site, it tells so much more. It lets professors know where you logged on from, what materials you accessed and how long you accessed the material. But the lack of privacy doesn’t stop there according to Alexander and Mathewson.

“Those are just what I can see as a professor. The general university surveillance can see many other things,” Alexander explains. “If your phone’s connected to university WiFi they can tell where you’re going on the internet and where you’re physically going on campus. Many universities also use facial recognition through their security cameras so they know where you are in person and they know where you are online and if you’ve logged into your social media they can also know what you’re up to on there and what your friends are sharing.”

This information gathering isn’t just for the universities to use, some may also sell it. And this isn’t something that college campuses are forthcoming about or really give students the option to opt out.

“Still, whether living on campus or off, taking classes in person or remotely, students simply cannot opt out of most data collection and still pursue a degree,” Mathewson says in The Markup.

@victoria_phd

#stitch with @The Markup 💥 Read: He Wanted Privacy. His College Gave Him None by Tara García Mathewson #Surveillance #Privacy #DataPrivacy #MarkupPartner #SchoolSurveillance

Some professors let it be known in the comments of Alexander’s video that they don’t use the excess information provided by the learning management systems.

“I make it a point not to use this information against my students. They’re adults, they can lie, I will judge their work and participation,” one professor writes.

“I choose not to access ANY of this info about my students. They’re adults, I’m not their keeper,” another professor says.

While it’s great that most of the professors who revealed themselves in the comments aren’t using this private information, the average commenter was flabbergasted and a bit upset that it’s available.

“There’s actually zero justification for my professor knowing my location…like ever. I’m an adult who’s PAYING to be there,” one person says.

“Help me out, why would any college or university need access to that kind of information? How is that not an invasion of privacy,” someone asks.

“So you’re telling me universities are practically FBI agents,” another person questions.

Certainly this isn’t something that is advertised when taking college tours and surely if students knew how much they were being monitored, many tech savvy kids would find a way around most of it. But when using facial recognition and location tracking via student IDs it may be a bit more tricky. Either way it seems the concerns raised are valid and something that may need to be discussed before sending your student off to college in the fall.

Actress Jessica Biel has caused quite an online commotion after sharing her unconventional eating habit of eating in the shower.

The discourse first started in 2020, when Biel shared a since-deleted Instagram post of an empty plate, fork and coffee cup sitting on the ledge of her shower. In her caption, Biel wrote, “Yes. I eat in the shower. I admit it,” adding that this particular shower meal consisted of chicken, apple sausage and an espresso.

Biel has gone on to list other things she considered “shower appropriate items,” which include cereal, yogurt, coffee, tea and popsicles (which are “safe” from being too messy even though they’ll start melting pretty fast).

Most recently, the “7th Heaven” actress gave others some helpful “pro-tips” to get the ultimate shower snacking experience, such as utilizing a handy shower ledge, and keeping your mouth closed while chewing if you’re going under the water while noshing.

@jessbiel Replying to @Ryan ♬ original sound – Jessica Biel

And while Biel’s shower eating “movement” might have caused a few to scratch their heads, those who enjoyed eating while taking a bath could see where she was coming from

“For me it’s a cheeseburger from In-N-Out and the bath,” one person wrote.

Plus…you know who’s totally onboard with the idea? Moms, that’s who.

“I got four kids, they eat my food. I stand by this 100% since it’s the only place I have privacy,” one mom commented.

Another person shared, “it’s the only place you can probably eat without having to share with kids.”

Still another wrote, “mom life. We know this too well.”

Let’s face it. Moms who are doing a million things at once for their kids have to be both diligent and creative when it comes to carving out time alone. Compared to the all-too-common fantasy of going to the hospital in order to get some R&R, eating in the shower seems like a way healthier alternative.

And as far as the hygienic soundness of the trend—well, the jury seems to be out on this one.

Some experts warn that eating in the bathroom is inherently risky, given the proximity to the toilet (and therefore fecal matter). Others argue that unless the food is basically directly in contact with the toilet—apologies for the visual—that the bathroom is no more germ and bacteria ridden than any other part of the house. Although the general rule of thumb is to simply make sure your bathroom is clean beforehand. Something tells me this isn’t something Biel struggles with.

So if you’re a tired mom, chronic multitasker or simply looking for a self-care ritual that ticks off many boxes at once, maybe join this shower-eating movement. Just be sure to clean the bathroom beforehand. Bon appétit!