GoneTrending

Amanda Knox was an American undergraduate exchange student in Italy when her entire world turned upside down in 2007. Her roommate, Meredith Kercher, was murdered in their rented home, and Knox quickly came under suspicion by police, who also zeroed in on her then-boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito. A tabloid frenzy ensued, and Knox found herself dragged for every nonverbal gesture she made and even her soccer-team nickname, “Foxy Knoxy.” During the eight years following Kercher’s death, she and Sollecito were found guilty and had their convictions overturned only to be tried again and found guilty. It wasn’t until 2015 that the pair was exonerated, and Knox was free to return to the U.S.

Since that time, her story has been adapted at least three times (including for Lifetime) in the true crime realm, but Hulu is going to do it again, and the synopsis will draw Knox’s saga through the present day, given that the project is not only “based on the true story of how Knox was wrongfully convicted for the murder of her roommate Meredith Kercher” but also “her 16-year odyssey to set herself free.”

Casting for the project is largely being kept under wraps, but we do know who will play Knox. The Hollywood Reporter has revealed that Margaret Qualley, who not only knocks every role out of the park but makes increasingly interesting choices (everything from Maid to Sanctuary to Drive-Away Dolls, Fosse/Verdon, and Once Upon A Time In Hollywood in recent years) will portray the lead role in a limited series executive produced not only by Knox but someone else who has experience with being misunderstood and dragged through tabloid hell: Monica Lewinsky.

Certainly, the group believes there’s much more story to tell, and hopefully, more details on the project will arrive soon.

(Via Hollywood Reporter)

(WARNING: Spoilers for BMF episode will be found below.)

The latest era for the Black Mafia Family isn’t off to the smoothest start as depicted in the first episode of BMF season three. Down in Atlanta, Meech has united with a new crew down in Atlanta and things quickly got chaotic after Meech and his new associates spotted the man who shot Trey at the end of season two at a nightclub. A fight quickly broke out, but things didn’t end there, as the opposing crew shot and killed a member of Meech’s new crew meaning that Meech already has a new enemy in the Atlanta streets after being there for such a short time.

As for Terry, his issues are rooted in family. It starts with Markeisha’s recovery from gunshot wounds after she and Terry were ambushed in a drive-by to end season two. Terry and Markeisha’s relationship has angered Terry’s baby mother Lawanda who is extremely irritated with their relationship. It worsens when Terry brings Markeisha to his parent’s house where Lawanda is staying. The hope is, for both Meech and Terry, that things will start to go more in their favor starting with episode two. Here’s when you can watch it:

When Will BMF Season 3, Episode 2 Come Out?

The second episode of BMF season three, titled “Magic Makers,” will arrive on March 8. The episode will be available on Friday, 3/8 on the STARZ app starting at midnight EST/PST. The episode will later air on the STARZ TV channel at 8 pm ET/PT. A synopsis for “Magic Makers” can be found below:

Meech focuses on expanding BMF into Atlanta while Terry balances maintaining BMF in Detroit, new restaurant business venture, and his family. Terry looks for ways to generate revenue for BMF, yet Meech comes through with Columbian connects to keep them afloat.

New episodes of ‘BMF’ are available on the STARZ app on Fridays at 12 am ET/PT and on the STARZ TV channel at 8 pm ET/PT.

Movie theater etiquette has changed quite a bit over the past few decades. At one point, it was a nice dark place to watch movies in the presence of 100 other strangers. Now it’s a place to dress up and cause commotion in order to prove you love movies as much as Nicole Kidman. There is no in-between.

But no matter what, it is never okay to fart in the movie theater. That’s what home viewings are for. But Sam Neill did not give his 10-year-old child the heads up when the two went to the premiere of the first Jurassic Park back in 1993. Not only did Neill’s child have a flatulence problem, but it was also in the presence of Princess Diana. As we all know, Royals don’t fart and actively scoff at the notion. So this was a problem.

Neill told the story on The Today Show, ” There was a royal premiere in London, and it was, it was sort of a fortuitous occasion — you don’t get to sit beside Princess Diana every day. But my son was sitting on the other side [of me] and it was kind of unfortunate, because once it starts getting exciting, about 45 minutes in, he was so carried away with things — he was about 10 years old at this point — he started to fart unreasonably.” He can’t blame the child for getting excited when there are dinosaurs on the screen, so that’s on him.

He continued, “It wasn’t that audible, but it was very, very [smelly]. And there was sort of a draft through the cinema, and it was all drifting in the Princess’ direction. And I was there in my suit and bowtie and things, sweating like crazy because I thought, ‘The princess is going to think this is me. And it’s this little boy here.’ ” It should be noted that this is also around the time in the film when Laura Dern is sorting through dinosaur droppings, so maybe Diana thought it was a 4-D experience. It’s been done before!

Odds are good that the Princess was way too invested in the dinos to even care about a small child farting beside her. If only they added this scene to The Crown.

Check out the full interview below:

(Via People)

Zack Snyder stopped by Joe Rogan’s podcast this week where the divisive filmmaker made a bold statement about the success of his latest film Rebel Moon.

If you’ve already forgotten about Rebel Moon, don’t worry you’re not alone. Snyder’s attempt at launching his own Star Wars-esque franchise arrived on Netflix to dismal reviews and quickly faded as the holidays kicked into full swing. However, Snyder would like you to believe that, actually, Rebel Moon outperformed Barbie, the billion dollar record-breaking hit that’s currently up for several Oscars.

Via Variety:

“You think about Netflix, for instance, where you push a button,” Snyder said. “‘Rebel Moon,’ right? Say right now it’s almost at 90 million views, right? 80 or 90 million accounts turned it on, give or take. They assume two viewers per screening, right? That’s the kind of math. So you think if that movie was in the theater as a distribution model, that’s like 160,000,000 people supposedly watching based on that math. 160,000,000 people at $10 a ticket would be…what is that math? I don’t know. 160,000,000 times ten. That’s 1.6 billion. So more people probably saw ‘Rebel Moon’ than saw ‘Barbie’ in the theater, right?”

To be fair to Snyder, this is exactly the kind of take that you’d expect to see on Rogan’s podcast. The man knows his audience. That said, there’s no way to verify any of the numbers he’s provided because, despite recent efforts at greater transparency, there are still huge questions around the authenticity of Netflix views.

Did those views really complete the film? We don’t know. How many people bailed on the film? Don’t know either. Does each view actually represent two people instead of one? Impossible to verify. You see the issue here.

Not only that, but there’s an easy way to verify Barbie‘s success: It’s box office numbers are quantifiable as well as the profits it generated for Warner Bros. studio. The film has also remained a pop culture phenomenon months after its release while the hype around Rebel Moon quickly faded shortly after it started streaming.

(Via Variety)

Streaming services like Spotify and Apple Music have made music consumption easier than ever. The issue, though, lies with how artists are paid by the platforms. In short, there are often complaints. Now, there are lawmakers who want to do something about that.

Yesterday (March 6), congresswoman Rashida Tlaib and congressman Jamaal Bowman (founder of the Congressional Hip Hop Task Force) introduced the Living Wage For Musicians Act. Per a post on Tlaib’s website, the legislation, created in partnership with United Musicians And Allied Workers (UMAW), aims “to compensate artists and musicians more fairly at a penny per stream when their music plays on streaming services.”

The post goes on to note, “Currently, musicians make tiny fractions of a penny per stream, while streaming has grown to represent 84% of recorded music industry revenue in the US. Spotify, the world’s largest streaming service, pays rights-holders an average per-stream royalty of $0.003, which means it takes artists more than 800,000 monthly streams to equal a full-time $15/hour job.”

So, essentially, Tlaib and Bowman hope to more than triple the current per-stream royalty currently paid out by Spotify.

More specifically, the post explains:

“The Living Wage for Musicians Act would tax providers’ non-subscription revenues and add a small fee to the price of music streaming subscriptions. DSPs like Spotify offering interactive music streaming services would pass their taxed revenues and royalties to a non-profit collection and distribution fund, that would in turn pay artists in proportion to their monthly streams. The bill includes a maximum payout per track, per month, in order to generate more sustainable income for a broader and more diverse set of artists beyond the world’s most popular performers. […] By creating a fund that directly compensates recording artists and musicians, the bill will allow vastly more artists to achieve a living wage from music, enabling them to pay rent, raise a family, buy a home, and invest in their future.”

Dr. Frances Oldham Kelsey had only been with the Food and Drug Administration for about a month when she was tasked with reviewing a drug named thalidomide for distribution in America.

Marketed as a sedative for pregnant women, thalidomide was already available in Canada, Germany, and several African countries.

---

It could have been a very simple approval. But for Kelsey, something didn’t sit right. There were no tests showing thalidomide was safe for human use, particularly during pregnancy.

When Chemie Grünenthal released thalidomide in West Germany years earlier, they called it a “wonder drug” for pregnant women. They promised it would treat anxiety, insomnia, tension, and morning sickness and help pregnant women sleep.

What they didn’t advertise were its side effects.

Because it crosses the placental barrier between fetus and mother, thalidomide causes devastating — often fatal — physical defects. During the five years it was on the market, an estimated 10,000 babies globally were born with thalidomide-caused defects. Only about 60% lived past their first birthday.

In 1961, the health effects of thalidomide weren’t well-known. Only a few studies in the U.K. and Germany were starting to connect the dots between babies born with physical defects and the medication their mothers had taken while pregnant.

At the outset, that wasn’t what concerned Kelsey. She’d looked at the testimonials in the submission and found them “too glowing for the support in the way of clinical back up.” She pressed the American manufacturer, Cincinnati’s William S. Merrell Company, to share research on how their drug affected human patients. They refused. Instead, they complained to her superiors for holding up the approval. Still, she refused to back down.

A sample pack of thalidomide sent to doctors in the U.K. While more than 10,000 babies worldwide were born with thalidomide-related birth defects, FDA historian John Swann credits Dr. Kelsey with limiting the number of American babies affected to just 17.

Over the next year, the manufacturer would resubmit its application to sell thalidomide six times. Each time, Kelsey asked for more research. Each time, they refused.

By 1961, thousands of mothers were giving birth to babies with shocking and heartbreaking birth defects. Taking thalidomide early in their pregnancy was the one thing connecting them. The drug was quickly pulled from shelves, vanishing mostly by 1962.

Through dogged persistence, Kelsey and her team had prevented a national tragedy.

In 1962, President John F. Kennedy honored Kelsey with the Federal Civilian Service Medal. He thanked her for her exceptional judgment and for preventing a major tragedy of birth deformities in the United States:

“I know that we are all most indebted to Dr. Kelsey. The relationship and the hopes that all of us have for our children, I think, indicate to Dr. Kelsey, I am sure, how important her work is and those who labor with her to protect our families. So, Doctor, I know you know how much the country appreciates what you have done.”

But, she wasn’t done yet. Later that year, the FDA approved new, tougher regulations for companies seeking drug approval, inspired in large part by Kelsey’s work on thalidomide.

Reached via email, FDA historian John Swann said this about Kelsey’s legacy: “[Her] actions also made abundantly clear to the nation the important public health role that drug regulation and FDA itself play in public health. The revelation of the global experience with that drug and America’s close call indeed provided impetus to secure passage of a comprehensive drug regulation bill that had been more or less floundering during the time FDA was considering the application.”

Kelsey continued to work for the FDA until 2005. She died in 2015, aged 101, just days after receiving the Order of Canada for her work on thalidomide.

Bureaucratic approval work is rarely thrilling and not often celebrated. That’s a shame because it’s so critical.

People like Kelsey, who place public health and safety above all else — including their career — deserve every ounce of our collective respect and admiration.

This story originally appeared on 05.20.16

Remember those beloved Richard Scarry books?

Books from when you were a kid?

---

Like a lot of people, I grew up reading them.

And now, I read them to my kids.

If that doesn’t ring a bell, perhaps this character from the “Busytown” series will. Classic!

Scarry was an incredibly prolific children’s author and illustrator. He created over 250 books during his career. His books were loved across the world — over 100 million were sold in many languages.

But here’s something you may not have known about these classics: They’ve been slowly changing over the years.

Don’t panic! They’ve been changing in a good way.

Scarry started publishing books in the 1950s, when times were, well, a little different. So some of the details were quietly updated.

Alan Taylor, a senior editor for the photo section of The Atlantic, noticed differences back in 2005 and decided to photograph them. From his Flickr album:

“The 1963 edition is my own, bought for me in the late 60’s when I was a toddler, and read to tatters. The 1991 edition belongs to my kids today. I was so familiar with the older one that I immediately started noticing a few differences, and so have catalogued 14 of the more interesting differences here in this collection.”

Taylor found 14 pages with differences between the original and updated versions.

Here are eight changes that reflect some of the progress society has made:

1. First up: The cover got a makeover. It might seem subtle at first glance, but look closely.

The original has a woman (bunny) in the kitchen, while the updated cover has both a man and a woman (still bunnies) in the kitchen. Also: The “policeman” bear changed to a woman, and the label changed to “police officer.” The word “mailman” became “letter carrier,” and a female farmer was added. Oh, and we went from a cat-mom pushing the stroller to cat-dad! Progress!

(The bunny brushing its teeth in the house was changed from a boy to a girl, but I’m not gonna read into that because hopefully all bunny-kids brush their teeth, right? I mean, for the sake of their little bunny teefs!)

2. Men can be flight attendants and women can be pilots. And, you know, they don’t have to be hot.

While the gender of each role remained the same in the newer version (which is, unfortunately, pretty legit, given the glaring lack of female pilots in real life), the stereotyping was eliminated by making the “handsome pilot” more of an everyday “pilot” (raccoon?) and by turning the “pretty stewardess” into a regular flight attendant.

3. Christmas isn’t the only holiday people celebrate.

Shhhh: Don’t tell the Starbucks Christmas cup haters this, but there are a lot more winter holidays than just Christmas. The newer version of the book included a menorah in the blank space to recognize those who celebrate Hanukkah.

4. Mommy Bears are no longer expected to have breakfast prepared for Daddy Bears…

…and the subtle change from “called to breakfast” to “goes to the kitchen to eat his breakfast” reflects that.

(Side note: Do Daddy Bears realllllly want to be treated like Kid Bears by being called to a meal, where they must promptly appear? I’m thinking not.)

5. Because guess what?! Dads can cook, too! (Even Dad Bunnies.)

And Richard Scarry’s book was updated to reflect the late-20th-century realization that everyone belongs in the kitchen!

6. Helping professions aren’t just for men.

The updated version recognized that fact by changing “policeman” to “police officer” and “fireman” to “fire fighter.” The ever-important job of cowboy was eliminated ( sigh … how many career hopes and dreams were squashed?), replaced with a gardener and a scientist, both of which are filled by female characters. Three cheers for women in STEM! Also: The milkman was replaced by a taxi driver, but I’m pretty sure that was had to do with the fact that milkman (or woman) isn’t a growing occupation any longer.

7. Regular people need rescuing, too.

The newer version did away with the “beautiful screaming lady” (sigh… how many career hopes and dreams … oh, wait — none) and replaced her with a regular “cat in danger.” The “jumping gentleman” label was removed altogether, and the “fireman” became a “fire fighter” again.

8. “I” is for “ice cream” — and not stereotypical depictions of Native Americans.

We’re still waiting for our football teams to get with the times, but the folks behind the Richard Scarry book update eliminated the “Indian” character that was wearing stereotypical clothing.

Yay, progress! And before you shrug and say “It’s just a book,” listen to this:

Florida State University recently led “the most comprehensive study of 20th century children’s books ever undertaken in the United States.” As you can surely guess, they found a gender bias toward male lead characters, even in books about animals — books like those by Richard Scarry.

Janice McCabe, the assistant professor of sociology who led the study, wrote:

“The widespread pattern of underrepresentation of females that we find supports the belief that female characters are less important and interesting than male characters. This may contribute to a sense of unimportance among girls and privilege among boys. The gender inequalities we found may be particularly powerful because they are reinforced by patterns of male-dominated characters in many other aspects of children’s media, including cartoons, G-rated films, video games and even coloring books.”

It’s kind of cool to think these changes were made at least two and a half decades ago! That’s something.

And we need changes to keep happening! Kids should be able to read books with same-sex couples and characters who have disabilities, for example, because those are everyday occurrences and books are a great intro to the world for kids.

Anyone else up for modernizing other classic kids’ books so we can feel good about sharing them with our kids?

This article was writen by Laura Willard and originally appeared on 11.11.15

Josh Levi is back again for another smooth performance on UPROXX Sessions. Earlier this week, he helped kick off the latest season of Uproxx’s one-take performance show with his single “Birthday Dance,” and today, the multitalented Texan returns to perform another standout from his 2022 project DISC TWO, “She Keeps Coming.”

In contrast to the upbeat “Birthday Dance,” “She Keeps Coming” is a chest-beating ballad (an amusing combination) in which he boasts to a romantic rival that their mutual interest is choosing Levi. Naturally, there’s a bit of a double entendre with the title, explaining exactly why Josh is the superior man. “He’s gotta be high, he can’t be sober,” he sings, “Can’t blame the next guy who has your old girl.” In this performance, he also nods to one of his inspirations, slipping in some lyrics from Beyoncé’s 2003 solo breakout hit “Crazy In Love.”

You can watch Josh Levi’s performance of “She Keeps Comin’” for UPROXX Sessions above.

UPROXX Sessions is Uproxx’s performance show featuring the hottest up-and-coming acts you should keep an eye on. Featuring creative direction from LA promotion collective, Ham On Everything, and taking place on our “bathroom” set designed and painted by Julian Gross, UPROXX Sessions is a showcase of some of our favorite performers, who just might soon be yours, too.

Josh Levi is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Amen Dunes, the project of Damon McMahon, is releasing a new album Death Jokes, which is set to drop in May. McMahon has now provided fans with a glimpse of the project by putting out a song called “Boys.”

The record marks his first full release since 2018’s Freedom. “‘Boys’ is another interstitial character portrait, this time about outcasts, ‘bad kids,’ and seeing things from their side: ‘Everything you’ve done, it’s been done to you too,’” McMahon shared about the song in a statement.

Overall, “Boys” is propelled by an indie rock instrumental that layers the drums and vocals to create an eerie and psychedelic effect.

There was also a music video released with the song, which was directed by Steven Brahms. This taps into the same mysterious aspects that grab the listeners’ attention. Throughout the video, chaos starts as the boys tear the living room apart.

“We only had one shot to destroy the room,” says Brahms. “The guys in the video gave us such an authentic look and flow. Everyone on the crew was buzzing after the shoot and we knew we had something special. Destruction can be very cathartic.”

Check out “Boys” above.

Death Jokes is out 5/10 via Sub Pop. Find more information here.

Nicolas Cage is back with a new film, and if you’ve ever wanted to see the eclectic actor have a knife fight with aliens (Or at least we think they’re aliens?), boy, are you in luck.

In the first trailer for Arcadian, Cage and his twin sons live in a dystopian future where pollution has ravaged the Earth. More pressingly, that pollution opened the door for some sort of horrifying creatures to begin wiping out humanity. However, the creatures only move at night, and they are aggressive in trying to reach their prey.

Pushed to the brink, Cage and his sons decided to finally fight back as they take the fight to the terrifying invaders, who are not about to go down easy.

Here’s the official synopsis:

In a near future, normal life on Earth has been decimated. Paul and his two sons, Thomas and Joseph, have been living a half-life – tranquility by day and torment by night. Every night, after the sun sets, they face the unrelenting attacks of a mysterious and violent evil. One day, when Thomas doesn’t return home before sundown, Paul must leave the safety of their fortified farm to find him. A nightmarish battle ensues that forces the family to execute a desperate plan to survive.

Arcadian opens in theaters on April 12.