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Do today’s Republicans even know how to do Congress stuff? It’s a fair question. After all, it appears they do not. On Tuesday, three weeks after an elite group of MAGA lawmakers ousted House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, the chamber’s GOP made their third attempt at a replacement. Third time wasn’t the charm. Mere hours after they voted for Majority Whip Tom Emmer, the guy who really controls the Republican Party — prolifically criminally charged former president Donald Trump — shanked him good.

All it took, of course, was a social media post. “I have many wonderful friends wanting to be Speaker of the House, and some are truly great Warriors,” Trump seethed on Truth Social. “RINO Tom Emmer, who I do not know well, is not one of them. He never respected the Power of a Trump Endorsement or the breadth and scope of MAGA—MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”

Coincidence or not, Trump’s disparaging post dropped not long before Emmer announced he, like Steve Scalise before him, was removing himself from the race. He thereby missed the chance to be repeatedly humiliated in one defeating vote after another, as Jim Jordan did last week.

Naturally, Trump gloated when he learned Emmer had been driven from the race.

Trump also claimed to not know Emmer all that well. But of course there was a picture of the two, beaming like besties.

Emmer’s Speaker run lasted a mere few hours. It also meant some House GOP members flip-flopped from supporting him to denouncing him in record time.

Some on social media marveled at how short Emmer’s campaign lasted.

Others mused that the future of Congress being in the hands of a chaos agent with 91 criminal charges to his name is maybe a bad omen for the future of the Republican Party and, more importantly, of the nation.

Some of the reasons MAGA lawmakers detested Emmer sure were strange.

There were lots of jokes.

https://twitter.com/Emme0703/status/1716920561241309192

One person who was happy about the news was Marjorie Taylor Greene, who thought Emmer exiting the race was now good news for…three-time loser Jim Jordan?

(Via The New York Times)

Prime minister antics rarely cease to entertain. Recently, there was (now former) Finland PM Sanna Marin, who caught hell for daring to party. There’s that time that Canadian PM Justin Trudeau gratuitously showed off his yoga arm balances. And there’s British pretend-PM Jason Statham, who could probably do a fine job while keeping a serious look on his face during antics.

Finally, there’s Italian PM Giorgia Meloni, who wants no part in public shenanigans of a certain variety. As Page Six relays (via a TV show called Striscia La Notizia, or The News Spreads), Meloni has dumped her long-term boyfriend, talk-show host Andrea Giambruno, after audio footage revealed that he was propositioning potential participants for group sex like this:

“Listen, I wanted to tell you something. Do you want to join our group? Will you join our working group? … You have to give us something in return … You have to do threesomes or foursomes with us … We f–k … Can I touch my package while I’m talking to you?”

Following the dumping, Meloni has issued a statement:

“My relationship with Andrea Giambruno, which lasted almost 10 years, ends here … Our paths have diverged for some time, and the time has come to acknowledge it. I will defend what we were, I will defend our friendship, and I will defend, at all costs, a 7-year-old girl who loves her mother and loves her father, as I was unable to love mine.”

This situation is particularly not-ideal for Meloni as an espouser of family values, but Meloni, for her part, promised that her statement was her final word on the story. Awkward!

(Via New York Post & Politico)

New York prosecutors have just released a 115-page filing in their assault case against actor Jonathan Majors and the report contains some disturbing insight into the alleged domestic dispute that led to the star’s arrest.

On March 25th, Majors was taken into custody after an alleged dispute with his then-girlfriend, Grace Jabbari, turned violent. The fight began in the back of a taxi after Jabbari saw a text message on the actor’s phone that was sent by another woman. When Jabbari grabbed the device, she claimed that Majors twisted her arm and middle finger, hit her, and pushed her back into the cab. Majors was arrested on charges of strangulation, which were later dropped. He’s now facing assault and aggravated harassment charges. And, according to the DA’s latest filing, there may have been more domestic disturbances in the actor’s relationship with Jabbari that pre-date the New York incident.

Prosecutors revealed they’re waiting on a London Metropolitan Police report from September 2022 that contains information on medical care received by Jabbari — who is a U.K. citizen. Majors was in the U.K. during that time, filming the second season of Disney+’s Loki. While the purpose of the request — and the details of the report — are still unclear, the filing did shed light on what happened during the confrontation between the pair just a few months later in New York. The couple was heading from a party in Brooklyn to their home in Chelsea when Jabbari saw a text on Majors’ phone that read, “Wish I was kissing you right now.” She grabbed the phone from his hand which allegedly prompted Majors to begin “grabbing the right side of Ms. Jabbari’s body and prying Ms. Jabbari’s right middle finger off the phone, causing bruising, swelling, and substantial pain.” The filing continues, claiming Majors “grabbed Ms. Jabbari’s arm and right hand and proceeded to twist Ms. Jabbari’s forearm, causing substantial pain to her finger and arm.” He then allegedly “struck Ms. Jabbari’s right ear, causing a laceration to the back of her ear and substantial pain.”

Once the actor retrieved his phone and the cab came to a stop, he exited the vehicle with Jabbari following. Prosecutors claimed Majors then “grabbed her, picked her up, and threw her back inside” which caused “substantial pain, including a fractured finger, bruising about her body, a laceration behind her right ear, and a bump on her head.” Majors legal team has denied these claims, pleading not guilty to all charges and accusing both the NYPD and the DA of racial bias in regard to the case. The actor’s lawyer has argued that Jabbari was the aggressor in the dispute, something the filing also references, revealing Majors’ defense team, “leaked and misrepresented court evidence, as well as attempted to have police create a wanted poster with Jabbari’s photo.”

Despite media reports, the DA currently has no plans to charge Jabbari in the dispute but it seems they’re committed to going forward with prosecuting the Marvel star in court.

(Via Variety)

Beyoncé has announced the launch of her latest perfume, Cé Noir. The perfume is already for sale on beyonce.com, while her Instagram announcement promises that the fragrance will ship in November — giving it enough time to arrive for the holidays. Per Harper’s, the scent is “both floral and gourmand,” with clementine, rose, and honey notes. Fans can get 1.7 oz bottles for $160.

Harper’s Bazaar has a full report on the new fragrance, writing:

The Cé Noir bottle is topped by a half-domed cap, with stairlike edges on its neck and a streamlined engraving of its name on one side. Since the fragrance is developed in France, “crafted and designed by Beyoncé,” and “encased in art,” it’s practically guaranteed to be a standout on your vanity. It is also anchored by a built-in stand for ultimate perfume elevation.

Earlier this year, Beyoncé teased an upcoming hair care line, writing, “I can’t wait for you to experience what I’ve been creating can’t wait for you to experience what I’ve been creating,” on Instagram alongside a throwback photo of herself at her mother’s hair salon. This led to fans believing that she’ll either be offering hair care products or a brand of actual hair for weaves or wigs.

Meanwhile, fans have plenty more Beyoncé to look forward to; her Renaissance World Tour concert film hits theaters soon.

Netflix’s latest hit docuseries, Get Gotti, charts the wild, violent downfall of infamous mob boss John Gotti.

The New York kingpin rose through the ranks in the ’60s, serving as a member of truck-robbing street gangs before helping to orchestrate a hit on the head of the Gambino crime family, Paul Castellano. As Gotti replaced Castellano, he gained more power and attracted more scrutiny from federal investigators — which is what Netflix’s doc covers across three episodes. In the ’80s, Gotti was the most powerful mafia don in New York. Netflix’s series covers that, but the show also breaks down how his hubris helped cause the collapse of the Gambino crime syndicate.

Here’s what happened to John Gotti after his life of crime ended.

What Happened To John Gotti?

Once Gotti usurped the Gambino throne, he became practically invincible, despite authorities constantly surveilling him and slapping him with charges that ranged from assault to racketeering. Most of those didn’t stick, which is how he earned the nickname, “The Teflon Don,” but in the early ’90s, Gotti was betrayed by his underboss Salvatore ‘Sammy the Bull’ Gravano. After learning that Gotti incriminated him in a murder case, Gravano worked with the FBI, providing them with evidence and even testifying against his former boss in court. Gotti received a life sentence for a host of charges that included racketeering, tax evasion, extortion, illegal gambling, and multiple murders.

Gotti spent roughly eight years behind bars, still running the Gambino empire with the help of his son who investigators believed was carrying out orders on his behalf. In 1998, Gotti was diagnosed with throat cancer. He initially had a tumor removed, but when the cancer returned, he was sent to a medical facility in Missouri to serve out the remainder of his sentence. Gotti died two years later.

What Happened To The Gambino Crime Family?

Gotti’s son, John Gotti Jr., and his brother, Peter, ran the Gambino crime family in Gotti’s absence. John was charged with racketeering in the late ’90s and, against his father’s wishes, he pled guilty before serving six years behind bars. The Gambino crime family is still believed to be active in New York, though no one with the name Gotti is now running the operation.

(Via Digital Spy)

Optical illusions are universally beloved for how they trick our brains and blow our minds. There’s a reason we enjoy magic shows and Escher paintings and are mesmerized by fake oases in the desert. We love seeing things that bend our perceptions of reality, and the science behind the magic always proves fascinating as well.

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The Ames window is a pretty well-known optical illusion, but it’s always cool to see. When spun, the angled window appears to oscillate back and forth instead of spin all the way around. But this video adds a twist that makes the effect even more mindbending—our brains simply can’t process objective reality mixed with an optical illusion.

The YouTube channel Curiosity Show explains the science of the illusion and gives a DIY demonstration for making your own Ames window. But wait until the pen gets taped to the window and spun. This is some real-life magic right here. Mind. Blown.

This article originally appeared on 02.21.20

It’s amazing to consider just how quickly the world has changed over the past 11 months. If you were to have told someone in February 2020 that the entire country would be on some form of lockdown, nearly everyone would be wearing a mask, and half a million people were going to die due to a virus, no one would have believed you.

Yet, here we are.

PPE masks were the last thing on Leah Holland of Georgetown, Kentucky’s mind on March 4, 2020, when she got a tattoo inspired by the words of a close friend.

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“We were just talking about things we admire about each other and he said, ‘You courageously and radically refuse to wear a mask,’ like meaning that I’m undeniably myself. I thought that was a really poetic way of saying that,” Holland told Fox 13.

So, she had “courageously & radically refuse to wear a mask” tattooed on her left forearm. It’s a beautiful sentiment about Leah’s dedication to being her true self. It’s also a reminder for Leah to remain true to herself throughout her life.

However, the tattoo would come to have a very different meaning just two days later when the first case of COVID-19 was reported in Kentucky.

“It basically looked like I’m totally, you know, anti-mask or whatever, which is not the case,” said Holland.

Now, she was embarrassed to be seen with the tattoo for fear she’d be associated with the anti-maskers who either deny the existence of the virus or refuse to wear a mask to protect others. Either way, it’s a bad look.

So Leah started wearing long-sleeve shirts and cardigan sweaters whenever in public to cover up the tattoo.

On Monday, TikTok users asked each other to share their “dumbest tattoo” and she was pretty sure she had the winner.

@wakaflockafloccar #stitch with @hannanicbic I could NOT have had worse timing. #fyp #foryoupage #tattoo #worsttattoo #winner ♬ original sound – wakaflockafloccare

In her video, she talks about how her tattoo was about “not pretending to be something you’re not,” but then revealed it to show how — after a historical twist — it made her out to be someone she isn’t.

“I just kind of wanted people to laugh with me because I think it’s funny now, too,” said Holland.

Plenty of people on TikTok laughed along with her with one user suggesting she update the tattoo with the phrase: “Hindsight is 2020.”

“I was dying laughing. I’m like, I’m glad there are people that find this as funny as I think it is,” said Holland.

“It will be a funny story to tell years from now,” she said. “I don’t think it will ever not be a funny story.”

Unfortunately, even when the pandemic is over, Leah will still probably have to explain her tattoo. Because most won’t soon forget the COVID-19 era in America and there’s no doubt many will still feel passionate about those who refused to wear a mask.

This article originally appeared on 02.24.21

“The Carol Burnett Show” ran from 1967 to 1978 and has been touted as one of the best television series of all time. The cast and guest stars of the show included comedic greats such as Tim Conway, Betty White, Steve Martin, Vicki Lawrence, Dick Van Dyke, Lyle Waggoner, Harvey Korman and others who went on to have long, successful comedy careers.

One firm rule Carol Burnett had on her show was that the actors stay in character. She felt it was especially important not to break character during the “Family” scenes, in which the characters Ed and Eunice Higgins (a married couple) and Mama (Eunice’s mother) would play host to various colorful characters in their home.

“I never wanted to stop and do a retake, because I like our show to be ‘live,’” she wrote in her memoir, as reported by Showbiz Cheat Sheet. “So when the ‘Family’ sketches came along, I was adamant that we never break up in those scenes, because Eunice, Ed, and Mama were, in an odd way, sacred to me. They were real people in real situations, some of which were as sad and pitiful as they were funny, and I didn’t want any of us to break the fourth wall and be out of character.”

It was a noble goal, and one that went right out the window—with Burnett leading the way—in a “Family” sketch during the show’s final season that ended with the entire cast rolling with laughter.

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In the scene, Eunice, Mama, Dan (an old friend of Ed’s) and Mickey (Ed’s employee at the hardware store) are playing “Password” and the word they’re trying to get their partners to guess is “ridiculous.” Eunice (played by Carol Burnett) gives Mickey (played by Tim Conway) the clue word “laughable,” and after pondering for a bit, he says “elephant.”

Eunice scolds him for his bizarre answer, then Conway launches into a wild ad-libbed story about a circus elephant that goes on and on and on.

Burnett is the first one to lose it. The cast barely keeps it together through the sketch.

But that was just one take. Between takes, the director gave the actors a note: The elephant story would be different in the next filming—and good luck.

The next elephant story was even wilder than the first, and Burnett and Dick Van Dyke couldn’t stop themselves from laughing. Conway himself breaks a couple of times, and even Vicki Lawrence (playing Mama), who famously never broke character, had to hide her face for a moment.

Then, just when they finally got themselves composed and Burnett was able to deliver her line, “Go on, Mama,” Lawrence delivered the most perfectly timed a-bomb and the whole cast exploded:

So delightful. And for an added bonus, watch Vicki Lawrence tell the story about how that scene came about:

See the full interview at http://emmytvlegends.org/interviews/people/vicki-l…

This article originally appeared on 9.14.22

Thanks to the release of the new Netflix docuseries, Get Gotti, viewers are finding themselves absolutely riveted by the tale of infamous New York mafioso John Gotti. While older audiences will recognize the events in the three-part series, younger audiences might not be aware that all of this happened in real life.

Despite being a literal crime boss who orchestrated a brutal takeover of the Gambino crime family, Gotti was practically a celebrity in the ’80s, and it didn’t hurt that actual celebrities wanted to hang out with him. According to USA Today, stars couldn’t help but flock to the controversial figure even as he was facing trial for murder and loan sharking. Actor Anthony Quinn, who starred in HBO’s Gotti, showed up to the courtroom at the mob boss’s request, who remained grateful for years.

“He was very nice to me and very kind to me,” Quinn told the Hartford Courant in 1996. “In New York, whenever I went to a restaurant – for years – I would find a bottle of wine on my table from ‘Mr. G.’”

Here’s the official synopsis:

It’s 1985 and John Gotti is the most powerful man in New York; he’s also the most surveilled. His public execution of ‘Boss of Bosses’ Paul Castellano sets in motion a series of events that catapults the young mobster to the helm of America’s most powerful mafia family. As the tentacles of Gotti’s criminal enterprise extend deep into the heart of the city, law enforcement and state prosecutors scramble for their chance to bring the charismatic Godfather to his knees. From the creators of ‘Fear City,’ this three-part series for Netflix chronicles Gotti’s meteoric rise and crashing fall – all told from the very mouths of those who brought him down.

Get Gotti is available for streaming on Netflix.

(SPOILERS for Netflix’s Bodies will obviously be found below.)

These days, the Netflix release schedule is a little thinner than usual, possibly due to the Hollywood strikes. However, some sleeper hits are still rising to satisfy bingewatching addicts. In particular, Bodies has captured the attentions of viewers who adore other mind-bending shows like Netflix’s The OA and Amazon’s Undone.

Bodies (co-starring Unorthodox‘s Shira Haas, shown above, who plays Detective Maplewood) dives headfirst into an also mind-melting take on multiple detectives who try to solve (and stop) the same murder in different decades. Somehow, the very fate of Britain lies in the balance of this crime being solved. The series is based upon a Si Spencer graphic novel, and the show was intended to be a limited series, so one shouldn’t expect a followup. With that said, the show actually leaves the door slightly ajar.

To briefly refresh, the series follows the mystery of an unidentified murder victim who is discovered in London, and somehow, this is happening as far back as 1890 and in current times as well as a few other points. Details begin to blend together several times throughout he show, so let’s hash out that ending.

As viewers have already learned, the dead body in question belongs to Gabriel Defoe, who (in the year 2053) tries to shut down a plan by Elias Mannix to travel back to 1890-ish and assume the identity of fallen soldier Julian Harker. In doing so, Harker plotted a cult that would eventually spur a 2023 terrorist attack by his teenage self. Defoe eventually teams up with Detective Hasan, whose son died in that attack. However, the relatively (?) straightforward time-travel business is further complicated by Maplewood, who is, at one point, working at the behest of Mannix.

While Maplewood cannot seem to reconcile that Mannix is responsible for all the havoc, Mannix surfaces and hops in his Time Machine. He’s followed by Defoe, and Maplewood fires her gun just in time to cause Defoe to die in different decades. (Yeah, that was enlightening for her.)

This is where things get extra complicated. Maplewood travels back to 1890 and appears alongside Detective Hillinghead (who found the body, too). Maplewood fills in Hillinghead on what she’s learned. He confronts Harker, and this leads to Harker’s mind being blown. Somehow, this causes Harker to rethink his 2023 plot (which he believes, along with his cult, will actually spark a revolution of human love).

That’s not everything that happens in between, but the ending leads to 2053, where the Longharvest Lane (where Defoe’s body was found) brick wall now contains an inscription that adds Maplewood’s name along with that of Hillinghead and Detective Whiteman (from 1941). The latter has left an indication that Hasan must travel to 2023 and discover another clue. There, Mannix determines to die in order to squash the whole plot of his older self to orchestrate the terrorist act. The plan works, and no bomb goes off. This ends up altering the entire course of time, and Defoe is never found dead on Longharvest Lane in 2023.

So is all well that ends well, and is this truly the conclusion of the story?

No clue. There’s a final tidbit that shows Maplewood as a cab driver in 2023, and somehow, she is familiar with her passenger, Hasan. How she ended up in 2023, we don’t know, and there’s also a visual clue that the Mannix cult slogan is present, too, even though it should have been eradicated in that timeline. Whether or not this points towards ambiguity that we should simply live with, or if the door is kind of open for more, we might never know.

Bodies is currently streaming on Netflix, so get to re-binging.