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Move over, Wordle. There’s a new word game taking over social media, and it’s Connections. The category-based puzzle from The New York Times has become the latest gaming obsession, and we’re here to help you out with today’s challenge.

Here’s how Connections works: Each puzzle gives players 16 words and tasks them with placing the words into secret groups or themes based on how those words relate to each other. To help players out, the groups are color-coded. Yellow is the easiest, followed by Green, Blue, and Purple. What makes things tricky is that many of the words seem like they go together, but there’s only one right answer. If you guess wrong, that’s a mistake. You’re allowed four before the game ends, so tread carefully.

Like Wordle, Connections is frighteningly addictive and players can share their results on social media. To help you best your friends, we have some hints for today’s puzzle and answers if you’re really stuck.

Hints For November 8 Connections Puzzle

Yellow

Life’s a beach

Green

You want fries with that?

Blue

Playing both sides

Purple

On the rocks

Answers For November 8 Connections Puzzle

Yellow

FLIP-FLOP, SUNSCREEN, TOWEL, UMBRELLA

Green

CURLY, SHOESTRING, WAFFLE, WEDGE

Blue

HEDGE, SEE-SAW, WAVIER, YO-YO

Purple

BREEZE, MARY, MULE, RUSSIAN

(Via NYT Connections)

On last week’s Gen V season finale, Antony Starr swooped in from the sky as Homelander and accomplished a great deal in less than one-minute during an action-arresting cameo. Of course, one minute was only his screen time. This likely amounted to a full day of work, and while hashing out finale business, I not-so-casually wrote of Starr, “Whatever the guy is receiving for a paycheck, it isn’t enough.”

Additionally, Karl Urban popped into a credits scene as Billy Butcher, who was shown to be aware of the Supe virus shenanigans, which feels like a straight shot into the vigilante group’s approach to Season 4. He, like Starr, is one of the essential players in The Boys, and it’s hard to imagine either role being played by any other actor. So, how much did Starr and Urban get paid for their narrative-propelling Gen V appearances?

It must be noted that neither actor has spoken on the subject. However, wayyy at the bottom of an Entertainment Weekly piece about The Boys/Gen V‘s modular structure along with Starr and Urban’s cameos, The Boys showrunner Eric Kripke (amid a mountain of praise for the duo) is quoted as mentioning that Starr and Urban both did their cameos essentially for free. Hmm:

The Boys boss praised both Urban and Starr for filming these cameos on their days off from shooting the main show. “They’re shooting the first two or three episodes of The Boys and it’s grueling,” Kripke recalls. “Then we’re asking them to go to that [Gen V] set, put on the suits again, and work more with the fact that we have no money to pay you. Michelle said their support of the wider world is really, really impressive.”

That is, they were not paid in addition to their The Boys pay rate despite filming Gen V on their day off, which seems… again, hmm.

The issue is certainly a timely one. The SAG-AFTRA strike has prompted some actors to reveal that acting on a hit streaming show (like a few Orange Is The New Black cast members) doesn’t automatically bring the big bucks. Sometimes, these actors need night jobs to supplement their acting day jobs, and they’re not seeing much in the way of residuals, either. That is, of course, part of why actors are still on strike, nearly 120 days and counting.

(Via Entertainment Weekly)

Hot off the (pink) heels of a Mean Girls reunion comes the first trailer for the Mean Girls movie musical.

Tina Fey and Tim Meadows are back from the original teen comedy classic (which Fey also wrote), but don’t expect to see Rachel McAdams or Lindsay Lohan; Regina and Cady are now played by Reneé Rapp and Angourie Rice.

The rest of the cast includes Angourie Rice, Moana star Auli’i Cravalho, Jaquel Spivey, Avantika, Bebe Wood, Christopher Briney, Jenna Fischer, Busy Philipps, and Jon Hamm. His “freaking crushing it” list now includes playing a coach who also teaches sex ed.

You can watch the trailer (which is bizarrely set to an Olivia Rodrigo song, not anything from the musical itself) above. Here’s the official synopsis:

From the comedic mind of Tina Fey comes a new twist on the modern classic, Mean Girls. New student Cady Heron (Angourie Rice) is welcomed into the top of the social food chain by the elite group of popular girls called “The Plastics,” ruled by the conniving queen bee Regina George (Reneé Rapp) and her minions Gretchen (Bebe Wood) and Karen (Avantika). However, when Cady makes the major misstep of falling for Regina’s ex-boyfriend Aaron Samuels (Christopher Briney), she finds herself prey in Regina’s crosshairs. As Cady sets to take down the group’s apex predator with the help of her outcast friends Janis (Auli’i Cravalho) and Damian (Jaquel Spivey), she must learn how to stay true to herself while navigating the most cutthroat jungle of all: high school.

Mean Girls comes out in theaters on January 12, 2024.

Once again, Danny DeVito was denied the honor of being named People‘s Sexiest Man Alive. Instead, the distinction went to Patrick Dempsey (he replaced last year’s winner Chris Evans), who was unveiled on Tuesday’s episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live. But it took awhile to get there.

“If you know anything about me, you know I am a huge fan of sexy man who are alive, and right now there are a team of scientists who have been working at People Magazine Laboratories. They’ve spent the last 12 months crunching numbers to determine which of the four billion men on this planet will be called sexiest,” host Jimmy Kimmel said. He then stood next to the aforementioned sexy man, whose identity was hidden using “cutting-edge hologram technology” that gave him a lizard face. “It’s Ted Cruz,” Kimmel joked before explaining that his studio audience had to guess who it was using a 20 Questions-like game.

The first question: are you an actor? Good start! But things went off the rails once people started guessing other famously sexy men, like Harry Styles, Timothée Chalamet, “Taylor Swift’s boyfriend,” the Golden Bachelor, and George Clooney. “This is the worst batch of questions ever,” Kimmel said while laughing in disbelief. Eventually, someone in the audience correctly guessed the Grey’s Anatomy actor, although it took two hints to get there.

You can watch the Sexiest Man Alive unveiling above.

A recent study by the National Center for Education Statistics found that 87% of public schools say the COVID-19 pandemic has negatively impacted students’ socio-emotional development. Respondents have also said there has been a significant increase in student misconduct.

However, a teacher with 24 years of experience in the U.S. and abroad believes we are misplacing blame for this rise in misconduct. In a viral TikTok video with over 480,000 views, Lisa Conselatore claims that the big problem isn’t the pandemic but modern parenting.

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“The problem is cultural,” Conselatore says. “We have raised children to think that they are absolutely the most important person in any room. They are so special that whatever they want to do, or whatever they think, or whatever they say is the most important thing in that moment.”

@lisaconselatore

#tiredteacher #enough #raisingkids #timetolisten #supportteachers #culturetalk #culturecheck #teachersoftiktok #teachersontiktok #teaching2023belike

“I know your children are special to you. I know that my children are special to me,” she continues. “But none of them are the most special person ever in the room at any time. They’re not. Nobody is because we live in a society and we all have to get along and we all have to respect one another and part of respecting one another is recognizing when you have a contribution to make and when you need to sit there and open your ears. … We don’t have that down. We’ve missed it.”

In the video, Conselatore lays some pretty big blame on America’s parents, but she also offers some simple solutions to improve the situation.

“Teach them when to listen, taking a turn to speak. Speak when it’s appropriate. When you have something to say and. It’s your turn,” she says. “Let’s reevaluate our family cultures, our community cultures, and our larger society cultures. Because of this is not working, not working.”

Shortly after Timbaland started getting criticism for saying he thought that Justin Timberlake should’ve put a “muzzle” on Britney Spears, it seems he offered an apology.

“I apologize to the Britney fans,” he said in a TikTok video. “And her. Yeah, so you know, about respecting women? Hell yeah.”

The comment was originally made during Timbaland’s appearance at the Afrotech Conference in Austin, Texas, but quickly picked up steam online. Given that he had collaborated with Timberlake in the past, especially on songs like “Cry Me A River,” someone in the audience asked what he had thought about the headlines surrounding Spears’ recently-released memoir.

“I wanted to call JT and say, ‘Man! You gotta put a muzzle on that girl,’” Timbaland responded.

Many online were quick to call out his misogyny, his history with the late Aaliyah, and the fact that Spears reportedly didn’t want to work with him several years ago.

As for her memoir, Spears didn’t hold back on Timberlake. She revealed that she had an abortion during their relationship, claimed that he cheated on her, and gave her thoughts about how she seemed to have been portrayed using a lookalike in the “Cry Me A River” video.

Check out Timbaland’s apology about his Britney Spears comment above.

Drinking on the job is always a bad idea — unless it’s New Year’s Eve, and you’re on live television. It used to be tradition for Andy Cohen to get blitzed while co-hosting CNN’s end-of-year broadcast with Anderson Cooper. When they rang in 2022, Cohen got so hammered he railed against Ryan Seacrest (to whom he later apologized) and departing NYC mayor Bill DeBlasio (to whom he did not). Last year CNN banned on-air boozing, much to Cohen’s despair. This year, though, he’s hoping they’ll reverse that decision.

During a sit down on E! News, the talk show host was asked if he was planning on drinking on the DL during this year’s NYE broadcast.

“Hopefully, I will not be sneaking it,” Cohen replied. “I haven’t heard anything yet, but come on, they need to let us drink. It’s New Year’s Eve. That didn’t go well last year in terms of viewer happiness about us drinking. People really cared and I hope CNN gives the people what they want.”

He added, “Give the daddies some juice.”

Truly. During last year’s show, while trying to subsist on apple cider vinegar, a presumably sober Cohen lost it, screaming, “I NEED TEQUILA! HONESTLY!” while throwing his non-alcoholic drink.

Even Kevin Hart, during a remote interview, took pity on them. “I can’t believe this right now! Watching you guys, and you are completely sober! What is happening? What is happening right now?” Hart railed. “You guys can’t say anything about it, but I can! I can say things about it! This is absolute bullsh*t! I don’t like it one bit!”

CNN has had a rough year, with dramatic management upheaval and a disastrous attempt to kowtow to the MAGA crowd. They need a win. Perhaps that can come by feeding Andy Cohen shots of Malört while he insults the Pope or something. Surely Newsmax would let him do it.

(Via E! News)

City Girls recently dropped their new album, RAW. As part of the press cycle, both Yung Miami and JT talked with Billboard about the record. However, during the interview, the former was also asked about her relationship with Diddy.

For those who don’t know, Yung Miami has been apparently dating the media mogul for a while, even though they have a bit of a unique relationship. A few months ago, she appeared to go shopping with Diddy’s money as a celebration of his and City Girls’ collab dropping. Now she’s sharing how she first attracted him.

“I don’t know ’cause people say that I wasn’t Diddy type,” Yung Miami said. “But clearly, I am. So, I think that you just be yourself because people, they gravitate towards real. Like, so many people try to be something that they not.

“You just got to be yourself,” she added. “I’m just myself. I’m just that b*tch.”

In terms of the timeline of Diddy and Yung Miami’s relationship, they were first linked during the summer of 2021. By the following summer, she was in the crowd of the BET Awards, cheering him on while getting the Lifetime Achievement Award with a sign that read “Go Papi!.”

Meanwhile, JT had been seeing Lil Uzi Vert, but she confirmed that while they are a rap duo, the two girls won’t be going on double dates any time soon.

Lil Uzi Vert is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Billie Eilish is planning to add a new fragrance to her collection pretty soon. This one’s titled “Eilish No. 3,” and it’s being released in a sleek red bottle, modeled after a body. For fans or perfume collectors who might be wondering how to get Eilish’s limited-edition release, here’s what to know about when it’s coming out.

Back in September, when Eilish unveiled her previous fragrance, her social media post noted that it would be dropping simply in November, without an exact date given.

The same is true for Eilish’s fragrance website, which only has it listed as “coming soon.” However, those interested can enter their information to “be the first to shop” it when it does.

As of now, the perfume will at least be out sometime by the end of this month.

“I wanted them to feel like they’re from the same family, but very different in themselves,” Eilish told W Magazine about her past two perfume drops. “I wanted them to feel not similar at all, while also feeling familiar, in a way.

“‘Eilish’ was very cozy and very sitting-by-the-fireplace,” she added. “It’s warm, and it’s amber-looking—this dark, soft, warm light. I wanted ‘Eilish No. 2‘ to be the opposite of that: cold and dark, but also make you feel very soft and tender, while also being sultry and sexy. I wanted it to be spicier and more gender-neutral, too.”

Last year, during Election Day 2022, Republicans got a rude awakening: Their predicted “red wave” was more like a splash in the tub, thanks in part to their draconian stance on abortion. There was much reckoning. Many blamed Donald Trump. (Trump blamed pro-lifers.) Cut to a year later, and the GOP is once again talking abortion restrictions — and their 2024 frontrunner is Donald Trump. Will they ever learn? Probably not. But for now, enjoy one of their bigger stars having an existential meltdown she’ll probably forget about in two or three months.

https://twitter.com/kayleighmcenany/status/1722081476039110739

Per The New York Times, one of the bigger takeaways from an off-Election Day year was that Ohio voters had overwhelmingly voted to enshrine a constitutional right to abortion. (They also legalized marijuana. Hell yeah.) The win comes in the wake of the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade, which has led to abortion restrictions in several states — and to massive backlash when put to the voters, as seen Tuesday in the Buckeye State.

After the results came in, McEnany appeared on Hannity, not to spin the decision but to blame themselves.

“On the issue of abortion in Ohio tonight, we continue the losing streak in the pro-life movement,” McEnany lamented. “Every ballot initiative has been lost post-Dobbs for the pro-life movement.”

Should they realized that restricting abortion is a non-starter, a party-killer? Nope. They just need better messaging about taking rights away from women.

“As a party, Sean, we must, we must not just be a pro-baby party. That’s a great thing. We must be a pro-mother party,” McEnany said. “We need a national strategy… to help vulnerable women because the results of next year’s election could be determined by that.”

McEnany also said something revealing — and troubling, at least to the GOP, after that recent poll that shows Trump beating Biden in swing states.

“Kentucky’s a red state. Ohio’s a red state. Mississippi, we don’t know what will happen this evening, we hope that [incumbent GOP governor Tate] Reeves pulls it off, but it is a red state” she said. “Tonight, the midterm elections, the last few elections, we must realize that as a party good polling does not always translate into resounding victory.”

McEnany then pitched some ideas about making voting easier — the very things Republicans have spent the last few years denouncing, as voters tend to vote Democrat: “It must be operationalized, with a mail-in vote strategy, with a voting early strategy, with a get-out-the-vote strategy, to put a tailwind behind those very poor numbers for Biden and very good numbers for Trump.”

But again, if history repeats itself, Republicans won’t learn a damn thing, including that their views are for the most part deeply unpopular with most Americans.

It’s the second day McEnany got mad/sad on-air. On Monday, after Trump’s chaotic court appearance, she had a field day with his unflattering courtroom sketches.

(Via Mediaite and NYT)