Tag: Current Affairs (31-40 of 472)

Oct 6 2012 12:00 PM ET

'Pitch Perfect': The real story about collegiate a cappella

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Image Credit: Peter Iovino

It’s aca-awesome, for sure. But aca-accurate?

Pitch Perfect is finally in wide release this week, and the buzzy collegiate a cappella movie already has quite a few fans. With my colleague Lanford Beard, I checked out the movie last weekend, was completely charmed, and instantly wanted to know anything and everything about collegiate a cappella.

The movie obviously takes some liberties, but here at PopWatch, we were curious to learn how close the Beca (Anna Kendrick) singing experience was to the real thing. So we called up Drew O’Shanick, a third-year student at University of Virginia and member of the a cappella group the Hullabahoos, who actually cameoed in the film (for those that have seen, they’re the group that briefly sang “Final Countdown” as part of a montage). The Hullabahoos were also one of the groups featured in the non-fiction book Pitch Perfect: The Quest for Collegiate A Cappella Glory, on which the movie is based.

No big plot points are given away in this very scientific (Read: Please don’t take this seriously!) exploration, but a SPOILER ALERT! to those that haven’t yet seen the film and don’t want to know anything. READ FULL STORY »

Oct 3 2012 12:13 PM ET

Local news reporter responds to nasty viewer email -- VIDEO

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Paging Lady Gaga!

A local news reporter got a lot more than she bargained for when on-air video of her responding to a bully went viral yesterday.

Jennifer Livingston is a reporter for La Crosse, Wisconsin’s CBS affiliate WKBT. Last week, she received an email from a viewer, writing, in part, “I was surprised to witness that your physical condition hasn’t improved for many years. Surely you don’t consider yourself a suitable example for this community’s young people…I leave you this note hoping you’ll reconsider your responsibility as a local public personality to present and promote a healthier lifestyle.”

Livingston’s husband is an anchor on the local nightly news there, and he posted the email on his public Facebook page, where it quickly inspired hundreds of comments. Yesterday, Livingston chose to  respond on-air to the controversy. READ FULL STORY »

Oct 3 2012 11:48 AM ET

Jerry Seinfeld pens 'really' fuming letter to the editor

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Image credit: Marc Stamas/Getty Images

Jerry Seinfeld is really, really ticked off. The comedian penned a letter to The New York Times in response to TV critic Neil Genzlinger’s Monday column about the abuse and overuse of one of Seinfeld’s favorite words: ”really.”

”Really, Neil? Really? You’re upset about too many people saying, “Really?”? I mean, really,” Seinfeld writes.

The amusingly outraged letter to the editor, which uses the word ”really” 10 times, comes to the defense of the ”lazy” comedy writers who use the word that Genzlinger claims is ”undoing 2,000 years’ worth of human progress.” Seinfeld defends Saturday Night Live’s Weekend Update segment “Really!?! With Seth,” which used to star Amy Poehler and Seth Meyers and which Seinfeld himself contributed to in 2010; and turned the tables on Genzlinger by ripping him for using the phrase, “wrap my head around it.” “Don’t preach to us about ‘Really?’ and then wrap our heads around things,” wrote Seinfeld. “You crumbled a bit of civilization off there yourself.”

Seinfeld’s keen observation about everything and nothing couldn’t come at a better time — his five-borough New York City comedy tour kicks off tomorrow. I really hope he addresses the “R word” in his routine.

Watch Seinfeld’s SNL skit below: READ FULL STORY »

Sep 27 2012 02:22 PM ET

Darren Criss, Jane Lynch, Neil Patrick Harris in new NSFW Rock the Vote ad -- VIDEO

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“This election, there are a lot of really important decisions being made that affect marginalized groups in big ways,” Jesse Tyler Ferguson declares in a new Rock The Vote ad.

“Thank you, Jesse. Which is why, as an openly straight man, I implore you to think about people like me as you cast your ballot,” Ferguson’s co-star on Modern Family and recent Emmy-winner Eric Stonestreet continues.

What follows is a whole host of celebrities giving you their best reasons to vote on Nov. 6. Kathy Griffin reminds us that everyone at a polling place is over 18, which means they’re legal. Joel McHale votes because he’s not “a motherf***ing communist” and Jane Lynch tells us that casting a ballot is the best decision you can make. A close second? Getting a One Direction tattoo, like Lynch did.

Want to know who’s proud to be an American because of Ryan Gosling (even though he’s Canadian)? Check out the full NSFW ad below: READ FULL STORY »

Sep 27 2012 12:17 PM ET

Happy Birthday, Google. 14 reasons I love you

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Image Credit: Torsten Silz/Getty Images

Happy birthday, Google!

You’re turning 14 today, which means that you’ve been a teenager for one year. But I’m loving that instead of search engine rebelling, you’re just creating more cool features, whether that be Bacon Numbers or Google Doodles.

Besides those new updates, I want to personally thank you for 14 things you’ve helped me out with over the years.

1.)    Last-minute research: Lord knows I got through college Sociology courses thanks to “Google Scholar.”

2.)    Sports knowledge: Ref lock out? What does that mean? Now even I know. READ FULL STORY »

Sep 25 2012 04:23 PM ET

Lady Gaga talks bulimia, launches new foundation project: A Body Revolution

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Lady Gaga was born this way – and now she’s stepping up the acceptance with a new project, A Body Revolution.

The singer/activist has been in the news with lots of websites and tabloids making disparaging comments about her apparent weight gain.

As a response to that, Gaga has launched a new section of her Born This Way Foundation, and the site, LittleMonsters.com, dealing specifically with body acceptance.

To kick things off, she posted a few photos of herself in just her bra and underwear (some above), with the captions “bulimia and anorexia since I was 15” “but today I join the body revolution” “to inspire bravery” “and breed some m$therf*cking compassion.”

Above the photos, she writes: READ FULL STORY »

Sep 21 2012 12:55 PM ET

Sarah Silverman records NSFW PSA about new voter fraud laws -- VIDEO

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“Hey black people, old people, poor people and students. Guess what you all have in common?” Sarah Silverman asks in a new, incredibly NSFW PSA.

We can’t print what the answer is here – nor much of anything else from the four-minute clip. Suffice to say, she’s fired up about new voter fraud laws and wants to get people registered to vote. In typical Silverman fashion, there are a lot of R-rated quips in between some great information about what you need to have in order to vote Nov. 6.

“Let My People Vote” isn’t Silverman’s first time delving into politics. The outspoken comedian had an “indecent proposal” for a Mitt Romney superdonor, pushed the envelope with some abortion tweets, and held a NAACP fundraiser in Rick Perry’s home state after some of his remarks.

Check out the PSA below to find out why you should get your Nana a gun license ASAP: READ FULL STORY »

Sep 19 2012 06:30 PM ET

Lady Gaga smokes a joint onstage. This is not the most scandalous thing she's done this month

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Even monsters get the munchies.

Or, at least, we can assume Lady Gaga did after taking a hit of a joint that a fan passed her onstage in Amsterdam yesterday.

“Oh, it’s real,” she said in video that caught the exchange, and then, after taking a few puffs, “And for those of you who are wondering if I’m high right now, I am not. That is not nearly enough to get me high.”

Legally smoking some marijuana? So not controversial. Here are a few things just off the top of my head, just of things I’ve read in the past month, that Gaga has partaken in that make me much more likely to clutch my pearls (or, more accurately, to text my friends with a poker sad face and a WHYYYY).

1.) This tweet: “@therealXtina (Christina Aguilera) just bought your new single. Seems the old Christina i loved has returned! Congratulations!! :) ” Compliment or the most passive-aggressive tweet of all time? You decide. READ FULL STORY »

Sep 19 2012 01:28 PM ET

Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart together again? We imagine the reunion.

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Oh happy day, Twi-hards! Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart reunited in Los Angeles over the weekend, according to People. And it sounds like a relationship reconciliation might be in the cards for our favorite star-crossed lovers, after K-Stew broke R-Patz’s heart when she cheated on him with her Snow White director. An insider told People that Pattinson’s crew “think they’ll be a couple again.” And that’s enough for us to get excited. So what does a Robsten reunion look like? Well if we really thought about it …*

READ FULL STORY »

Sep 18 2012 02:34 PM ET

Julie Bowen on seeing Angelina Jolie: 'She's like a unicorn'

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Image Credit: Jason Merritt/Getty Images

Angelina Jolie has been called many things, but Modern Family actress Julie Bowen went in a different direction when she called the Oscar-winning actress (who moonlights as a meme-ready wax figure) a unicorn.

“If I see Angelina Jolie, I have to look away … She’s like a unicorn,” Bowen said in an interview with Health. “It’s like, ‘There’s Angelina Jolie. We’re not going to seriously stand here and pretend it’s not like seeing a yeti, right?”

Stars! They’re just like us: Reduced to awkwardly staring at the pseudo-mythical creature in the room.

But maybe the two can bond over their beauty regimens (That’s all Hollywood stars talk about, right?) “I do find it odd people choose to do stuff that makes them look like crazy Hollywood faces, but I’ve got zero judgment,” Bowen said. “I’ve worn some ugly shoes.”

As long as they don’t get in the way of showing off a leg, we’re guessing Jolie is onboard.

Read more:
First Look: Angelina Jolie as the evil sorceress ‘Maleficent’
Mary Pickford: The Angelina Jolie of her day, but much more famous
Notes for Charlize Theron: What are the challenges to making a journalist biopic?

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