Category: News

On Sunday night, Emma Stone won her second Golden Globe. It was for Poor Things, in which she plays a Frankenstein’s monster-like creature who learns the pleasures of the flesh and the annoyances that are men. It’s a fearless performance and any actress would be glad to have it out in the world. Thing is, it’s not the only out-there Stone performance skulking about the pop culture landscape. While Poor Things plays multiplexes, she can also be seen every week on Showtime, teaming up with Nathan Fielder and one half of the Safdie brothers for The Curse.

The satirical show began airing episodes in earlyish November. It has one more episode left. But when is it airing?

The answer: Sunday, January 14. That’s when viewers can watch the capper, called “Green Queen,” which will bring the whole crazy tale of a couple who simply wanted to break into the home renovation TV landscape and instead upended their lives.

The Curse stars Stone and Fielder as Whitney and Asher Siegel, a newly married couple who team up with an HGTV producer, played by Benny Safdie, for the show Fliplanthropy. After Asher offers a cool hundred to a young girl on camera, only to ask for it back when the shot is completed, the girl puts a curse on them, which leads to all manner of havoc. And their wild journey is nearly at an end.

You can watch The Curse on Sunday, January 14 at 9pm.

What do you do after you win an award? You usually go to a party. They probably have fancy hors-d’oevres there. But perhaps you’re not hungry for canapés or roasted lamb on a stick or a chocolate fountain. Maybe you want a greasy-ass burger. A decade ago, after winning his second Best Director Oscar for Life of Pi, Ang Lee was seen housing an In-N-Out burger, sparkly new trophy in his other hand. After his win at Sunday night’s Golden Globes, Paul Giamatti had much the same idea.

Per The Wrap, after Sunday night’s show, after winning Best Actor in a Comedy for The Holdovers, the beloved actor (who definitely needs to play a shouty Bond villain) was spotted in the Westwood neighborhood of Los Angeles, inside one of the southwest fast food chain’s locations. Still clad in his tuxedo, he could be seen staring at his phone at a random seat, just like anybody else. It’s not clear what he’s eating. Did he get his burger animal style? We may never know.

It was Giammati’s third Golden Globe, following the HBO miniseries John Addams and the 2010 comedy Barney’s Version. Somehow he’s only received an Oscar nomination once, for the 2005 boxing saga Cinderella Man. Perhaps his work in The Holdovers — in which he reunites with Sideways director Alexander Payne, playing a grumpy, alcoholic private school history teacher prone to calling his students “philistines” and “snarling Visigoths” — will be his first. If he wins that one, maybe he can switch things up and hit Fatburger instead.

But anyway, yes, everyone loved it. As they should.

(Via The Wrap)

In addition to being the star of Marvel franchise “Thor,” actor Chris Hemsworth is also a father-of-three? And it turns out, he’s pretty much the coolest dad ever.

In a clip from a 2015 interview on “The Ellen DeGeneres Show,” Hemsworth shared an interesting conversation he had with his 4-year-old daughter India.

“My daughter’s kind of envious of my boys,” Hemsworth told Ellen. “She came to me the other day, and she’s like ‘You know, Papa, I want one of those things that Sasha and Tristan have.’ And I’m like, ‘What do you mean?’ She said, ‘You know the things in between their legs that you have.'”

Hemsworth said he tried to explain the differences between male and female bodies, but his daughter wasn’t having it.

“She goes, ‘I really want one!’ Hemsworth said. “I’m like, ‘A penis?’ And she’s like, ‘I want a penis!’

And then, Hemsworth had the best possible response. He recalls:

She’s four and I’m like, ‘You know what, you can be whatever you want to be.’ And she goes, ‘Thanks, Dad.’ Runs off into the playground and that was it.

And then, I cannot confirm, but I’m pretty sure the Ellen audience did this:

Major kudos to Hemsworth for taking a potentially awkward parenting situation and turning it into a lesson about love and acceptance.

You can watch the full clip here:

This article originally appeared on 08.27.18

When Qatar’s Mutaz Essa Barshim and Italy’s Gianmarco Tamberi both landed their high jumps at 2.37 meters, they were in the battle for Olympic gold. But when both jumpers missed the next mark—the Olympic record of 2.39 meters—three times each, they were officially tied for first place.

In such a tie, the athletes would usually do a “jump-off” to determine who wins gold and who wins silver. But as the official began to explain the options to Barshim and Tamberi, Barshim asked, “Can we have two golds?”

“It’s possible,” the official responded. “It depends, if you both decide…” And before he’d even told them how sharing the gold would work, the two jumpers looked at each other, nodded, and then launched into a wholesome and joyful celebration guaranteed to bring a smile to your face.

Just watch:

None

— (@)

(If you are unable to view the video above, check it out on NBC’s YouTube channel here.)

The two jumpers have been competing against one another for more than a decade and are friends on and off the field, so getting to share the gold is a win-win—literally—for both of them. It’s also a historic choice. According to the BBC, the last time competing track and field Olympians shared the gold medal podium was in 1912.

The friendship and camaraderie between the two athletes are palpable and their immediate decision to share the gold truly embodies the Olympic spirit.

“I look at him, he looks at me, and we know it,” Barshim said, according to the CBC. “We just look at each other and we know, that is it, it is done. There is no need.”

“He is one of my best friends,” he added, “not only on the track, but outside the track. We work together. This is a dream come true. It is the true spirit, the sportsman spirit, and we are here delivering this message.”

Barshim was the silver medalist in the event in the Rio 2016 Olympics, and Tamberi suffered a career-threatening injury prior to those games, which took him out of medal contention.

“After my injuries, I just wanted to come back,” Tamberi told CNN. “But now I have this gold, it’s incredible. I dreamed of this so many times. I was told in 2016 just before Rio, there was a risk I wouldn’t be able to compete anymore. It’s been a long journey.”

What a beautiful display of sportsmanship, excellence, and genuine human connection. This is what the Olympics are all about. Love to see it.

This article originally appeared on 08.02.21

A father-daughter snowboarding session takes the cuteness up a notch, thanks to dad’s brilliant idea to attach a mic to his 4-year-old. Sweetness ensued.

Sporting an adorable dinosaur onesie, the “powder-saurus” glides through their “secret path,” warning dad of intruders. Cause clearly, it’s THEIR secret path.

As she does, she sings her song of resilience and courage.

“I won’t fall … maybe I will … that’s okay … cause we all fall.”

Truly powerful wisdom in such a tiny package.

@chasing.sage We mic’d up our 4 year old while snowboarding.🥰 #fatherdaughter #dadlife #snowboarding #micdup #cuteness #wholesome #familytime #raddad #fatherhood ♬ original sound – Chasing.Sage

One person astutely wrote in the comments, “this is the mantra we all need in 2022.” I mean … it’s accurate.

Another added, “this child gave a TED Talk about the power of positive self-talk.”

Indeed, “Shredder Dad” shares footage of our loveable snowboarding dinosaur making a few face plants, but she quickly bounces back. Nothing can stop her from her “weewhoos.” Nothing.

That is, until she becomes a “stuck-asaurus.” A truly relatable moment for all ages. Aren’t “indiscernible verbal struggles” part of the soundtrack of life? Still, she takes it all in hilarious stride, laughing all the way, and the positivity is heartwarming.

This video quickly put a smile on more than 6 million faces, and even got a comment from Walmart, which agreed that “we all fall sometimes.”

Turns out that there’s even more wholesome adventure content on the family’s TikTok. They even have a very thorough guide for teaching a toddler to snowboard here.

And by the way, yes, that dinosaur outfit does come in an adult size.

Next time you’re feeling down, just think of the powder-saurus song, and you’ll be back to “weewhoo” in no time.

This article originally appeared on 02.11.22

Optical illusions are wild. The way our brains perceive what our eyes see can be way off base, even when we’re sure about what we’re seeing.

Plenty of famous optical illusions have been created purposefully, from the Ames window that appears to be moving back and forth when it’s actually rotating 360 degrees to the spiral image that makes Van Gogh’s “Starry Night” look like it’s moving.

But sometimes optical illusions happen by accident. Those ones are even more fun because we know they aren’t a result of someone trying to trick our brains. Our brains do the tricking all by themselves.

The popular Massimo account on X shared a photo that appears to be a person and two dogs in the snow. The more you look at it, the more you see just that—two dogs and someone who is presumably their owner.

But there are not two dogs in this picture:

This is how optical illusions mess with your mind. nnFirst you see two dogs and their owner, and then…

— (@)

There are three dogs in this picture. Can you see the third?

Full confession time: I didn’t see it at first. Not even when someone explained that the “human” is actually a dog. My brain couldn’t see anything but a person with two legs, dressed all in black, with a furry hat and some kind of furry stole or jacket. My brain definitely did not see a black poodle, which is what the person actually is.

Are you looking at the photo and trying to see it, totally frustrated?

The big hint is that the poodle is looking toward the camera. The “hat” on the “person” is the poodle’s poofy tail, and the “scarf/stole” is the poodle’s head.

Once you see it, it fairly clear, but for many of us, our brains did not process it until it was explicitly drawn out.

@Rainmaker1973 That one took me AGES to see. nOwner is is a 3rd dog closer to the camera. The black fur hides the contours.

— (@)

As one person explained, the black fur hides the contours and shadows, so all our brains take in is the outline, which looks very much like a person facing away from us.

People’s reactions to the optical illusion were hilarious.

One person wrote, “10 years later: I still see two dogs and a man.”

10 years later:
I still see two dogs and a man

— Farhad (@farhadge) January 8, 2024

Another person wrote, “I agree with ChatGPT :)” and shared a screenshot of the infamous AI chatbot describing the photo as having a person in the foreground. Even when asked, “Could the ‘person’ be another dog?” ChatGPT said it’s possible, but not likely. Ha.

@Rainmaker1973 I agree with ChatGPT 🙂

— (@)

One reason we love optical illusions is that they remind us just how very human we are. Unlike a machine that takes in and spits out data, our brains perceive and interpret what our senses bring in—a quality that has helped us through our evolution. But the way our brains piece things together isn’t perfect. Even ChatGPT’s response is merely a reflection of our human imperfections at perception being mirrored back at us.

Sure is fun to play with how our brains work, though.

Being a tween or young teen can be difficult. You’re stuck between feeling more grown up than you are and being a child too young to do many things older teens are doing. It can be a confusing place to reside for a few years and if you’ve been on social media in the past few weeks, you’ve noticed an influx of women talking about “Sephora kids.”

These are the young girls that have received gift cards for the beauty supply store and are being left unsupervised while some of them essentially run amuck. Several women have complained about girls as young as 10 being in the chain being disrespectful to staff and adult customers looking for expensive skincare products by Drunk Elephant.

But there are a group of moms that have a theory on why these tweens and young teens are finding themselves in adult beauty stores–tween stores are extinct.

How many of you remember waiting for the mail to run so you could get the latest Delia’s or Justice catalog to circle all the things you wanted? In the 90s we had stores like 5-7-9, Limited Too and Delia’s. Then Justice popped up and eventually 600 Limited Too stores decided to covert to the Justice brand which was a lower priced competitor for the retail store. Those stores were a tween girl’s haven where the models in the pictures looked their age and dressed like 9-14 year olds.

The stores were brightly colored with lots of sheer, glossy and lightly colored lip glosses, eye shadows, blushes and perfumes surrounded the cash registers. There was also toys mixed in with the tween/young teen selection, giving kids a chance to fully embrace the in between of being a child and an adult. There was even the boy equivalent to Justice, named Brothers, that offered boys much of the same experience as the girls, minus the light make up options.

It seems the only store still around that could double as a tween oasis is Claire’s, which is an accessory store. Samantha Sophia argues that there was once a whole tween market that’s simply gone outside of stores like Rave and Baker Shoes. This spills over into nearly all areas of tween culture because that group grew up with the last generation. Hannah Montana is now just Miley Cyrus. The Jonas Brothers are no longer singing about puppy love.

@chloevanberkel

is the next generation growing up too fast? #grwm #generationz

One mom explains, “We had all of the things for teens and tweens…they have nothing! I think it’s both. They’re going from “Baby Alive–>ULTA” there’s no coming of age era.”

Another commenter says, “Interesting. Childless in my 40s, I didn’t see this hole in the “market,” but wow, it’s so clear. There is something deeper here to unravel. I’m very nostalgic over Delia’s, Limited Too and Claire’s. Those were OURS. What do tweens have now they can own?”

@raisingself

Replying to @ash mccormack we are failing our tweens. #sephorakids #parentingtweens

It doesn’t seem like there’s a comfortable place for tweens to stretch their legs to get a lay of the land on their way into adulthood. So while other people may think it’s a lack of supervision, parents spoiling their children or worse, parents only having children for accessories, it could simply be that tweens don’t have their own space.

“Like y’all don’t understand. The kids are alright. The Gen Alphas, they have boundaries. They don’t want to be adults, or they are so in this twilight zone of TikTok and social media consumption that they don’t even realize that they are being adultified by the way we formed our society, Samantha says closing out her video. “And I’m so sad for them because even though it doesn’t feel like it, it’s such a beautiful time in their lives in their age. And every day I’m fighting for my kids to feel that, and experience that and enjoy that.”

Did you, a reasonable and mature adult, turn into a child around the holidays? You’re not alone and there are ways to feel better and potentially repair any damage caused by the sudden regression.

Perhaps you were at the grocery store with your sibling, going in on the bill for a holiday meal together. One minute, you’re tallying items and the next, you’re arguing about who got more assistance from your parents growing up, and by that, you mean love. If you could stomp across the hall and slam a door in their face, you would, but instead, you have to ride back to your childhood home together in a sensible minivan and return to your spouses and children. Hypothetically, of course.

Or maybe your mom asked you a simple question about her iPhone again, one that you’ve answered a million times, which is easily Google-able, but jeez, why doesn’t she ever listen when you explain? You aren’t her personal Apple Genius.

And if she tells you one more time, there are more cookies in the pantry when you said no thank you and plus, she’s not exactly not the reason you have body image issues to begin with. What is she trying to do? Doesn’t she see how this affects you?

This is normal, apparently. It’s a psychological phenomenon dubbed Holiday Regression.

Around the holidays, the idea is all the sensory cues, from the people you’re around to the smells of home to the feeling of sleeping in your old childhood bedroom, create an environment where it’s incredibly easy to slip back into a younger version of yourself.

“We may have shifted in our adult life because we have new relationships and a new sense of ourselves,” clinical psychologist Lisa Firestone told CNN.com, “but going back for the holidays, being with your parents and sleeping in your old room, that’s what’s going to trigger you and bring back all those old feelings. Not on a conscious level, but it can put you in that frame of mind, and it can put your parents in that frame of mind, too.”

See, it is your parents’ fault!

So, let’s say you lost your cool, and you feel atrocious. Or still angry. What now?

First off, you want to figure out why you reacted the way you did. Is it just holiday stress or more likely, is it old anger or resentment that got triggered?

“We tend to fight with our loved one about the same few things over and over in different forms—content might change, but context rarely does,” clinical psychologist Dr. Jessica L. Dubron told Upworthy.

“I frequently tell patients that people generally stick to their brand and we set ourselves up for disappointment and frustration by thinking that something we say or do will magically change them,” she continued.

Okay, fair, but what about those hurt feelings you might be left with? Or maybe a feeling of guilt from overreacting?

“For hurt feelings, simply identifying what happened is important. If this is holiday regression, there is power in recognizing that, honoring that, and sharing what happened with someone supportive. If you feel hurt, let yourself feel exactly that. It’s a physical sensation that will subside if you allow yourself to experience it,” Dubron said.

“Guilt is different in that you may benefit from doing something to make amends. You can’t control how the other person will react, so just think of what you need to do to feel like you’ve taken accountability while at the same time being considerate to the person you feel you’ve hurt,” Dubron told Upworthy.

Dubron explains this could look like having an in-person conversation, which she generally feels offers the best chance for communication and repair, or sending a short message in your chosen form of communication if the intensity is still hot. “Keep the message short, sincere, and unequivocal in the accountability you are taking,” she said.

If you’re feeling stuck, says Dubron, the key is to “ask yourself, in a year from now, what would you have wanted you now to do? Most of the time, we ultimately don’t want ourselves to die on the hill of any holiday conflict. Letting go is not usually done in an instant. Like forgiveness, it can take time,” Dubron added.

Completely sensible and reasonable. Like you!

Have you ever picked up your kid from school and asked them, “How was your day?” and they responded with a one-word answer such as “Good,” “Fine,” or “OK”? This all-too-common interaction can be disheartening because, as a parent, you want to know what your child did during the 6 hours you were apart.

Let’s be honest: not every day can be “fine.” There are probably some days that weren’t so great that got glossed over. Or, some beautiful days, but your child didn’t feel like doing the emotional or mental labor of recalling everything.

Yamel Belen, a mother of 5 kids ages 7 to 25, who lives in Tampa, Florida, was tired of hearing the same old responses from her kids, so she started asking open-ended questions to get the ball rolling. She shared her conversation starters on TikTok, and the view has really resonated with parents, earning 740,000 views.

“I really hated getting the ‘It was good’ response to my after-school questioning,” Belen, a registered nurse originally from Brooklyn, told The New York Post. “I wanted to know everything about their lives at school and felt like I was doing something wrong [as a mother].”

“So, I started asking questions that would give me better responses,” she added.

@themotherhoodkit

I really hated getting the “it was good” reaponse to my after school questionining! I wanted to know more, all of it….so I started digging for questions that would give me better responses. Try these and let me know how it goes! . . . . . #afterschoolroutine #schoolpickupfun #schoolpickipline #motherhoodseries #motherhoodkit #motherhoodlife #motherhoodunplugged #bondingwithkids #openendedquestions #motherdaughterrelationships

Here are 5 questions that Belen says will open up some conversation with your kids:

“What made you smile today?”

“Who did you sit next to at lunch?”

“Did you see any acts of kindness today? If so, what were they?”

“Did you see any acts of people being unkind, and if so, what did that look like?”

“What part of the day made you super happy?”

“Remember, these are conversation starters, so they’re meant to have open-ended responses, Which leads you to better conversations with your kids,” Belen added.

Belen says that the conversations opened up the lines of conversation with her elementary school daughters, ages 7 and 9, and her 17-year-old son. “Now I’m getting all the tea,” Belen joked.

Dana Basu, PsyD, a licensed clinical psychologist in private practice at everGROW therapy, agrees with Belen in that asking “How was your day?” will probably cause your kids to draw a blank.

“I love asking my kids specific questions about their school day, which helps point their attention to specific moments,” Dr. Basu tells Verywell Family. “I find that this allows them to be better able to recall stories and moments from their day with me.”

Elizabeth Manly, who currently runs the website Discovery Play With Littles, adds that parents should set an example by sharing about their days, too. Parents don’t have to go on about the adult world of work, either. They can talk about what made them happy or moments of kindness they noticed.

“The more you tell them, the more they will understand how to talk about their day,” Manly said. “Oftentimes, younger kids don’t know how to talk about their day. We forget this is also a skill that has to be taught.”

This article originally appeared on 10.16.23

Even though America has come a long way in gender relations over the past few decades men are still far behind women when accepting domestic responsibilities.

A recent study from the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ American Time Use Survey found that women aged 15 and over spend 5.7 hours daily on domestic tasks, whereas men spend 3.6 hours, a 37 percent difference. Women with a 35-hour week devote 4.9 hours daily to home chores and child care, compared to men’s 3.8 hours.

In a world where men still trail behind women when it comes to work on the homefront, a Texas UPS driver is going viral for a TikTok video where he urges men to reconsider how they think about domestic responsibilities.

In a video with over 6 million views, J.R. Minton proudly says he doesn’t “help” his wife with jobs around the house. “I don’t help my wife cook. I don’t help her clean, do laundry, take care of the kids — none of that,” Minton, 32, began his clip.

Warning: Strong language.

@minton__jr

So, why does Minton refuse to help his wife?

“Because I do what I am supposed to do as a father and a husband. I cook. I clean. I do the laundry. I take care of the kids. I can’t help my wife do those things because they are my job, too,” he reveals.

He then urged men to change their perspectives on how they view their relationship to domestic responsibilities and their wives. “Change the way you speak, change the way you think, and grow the f*** up and be a man,” he added.

The video received raves from women in the comments. Sadly, many used the video to share that their husbands have fallen short of Minton’s level of understanding. “My husband sometimes doesn’t even flush the toilet,” Human Robot wrote. “I am sending this straight to my man he needs to see this,” JJsMom added.

“Yep! My husband and I recognize it’s BOTH our kids and BOTH our house, therefore BOTH our responsibility,” Sweetheart wrote.

Minton is an equal partner to his wife because he was raised much differently and wants to right the wrongs of his past. “Pretty much everything about my parenting style is in spite of what I saw when I was growing up,” he told Today.com

Minton knew that his philosophy on marriage was necessary when a woman at Target praised him for doing the “bare minimum.” “I was wearing the baby, and I had two kids in the cart, and this lady comes up to Brittany, and she’s like, ‘Oh my God. Is this your husband!? Look at him. You should take a picture of him,’” Minton said. “I get so much credit for doing nothing. How low is the bar?”

Minton responded to his viral video with a heartfelt follow-up to everyone who loved how he cared for his wife and family. “I’m truly humbled at how far my message has gone,” he said. “However, I’d like to take a second to say: I am not special. I am no ‘unicorn.’ I am normal.”

“Nothing about my parenting style or my commitment to my wife is unique. Although it may seem out of the ordinary, it is far from extraordinary,” he continued. “Every father and husband we know (that seems to come up short) is fully-capable — yet unwilling.” He added that there was one thing that separates dads who do their part and dads who don’t: “Effort.”

This article originally appeared on 10.16.23