Just try to be offended by the new Starbucks holiday cups
Starbucks seems to be awfully cautious about this year’s holiday cups, which debut annually after Halloween. The company has released new holiday cup lines since 1997, and this year’s four new cups appear to wholly embrace the “season”—whatever that completely inoffensive “season” is—with a lineup of red-striped; green argyle; red-and-white sweaterish pattern; and holly-and-berries cups. Nondenominational, seasonal, neutral. We get it.
It’s quite a pendulum swing back from the plain red cups of 2015, or the festive, multicultural mural motif of last year (inspiring our all-time favorite Takeout headline from Jen Sabella: “Pry this lesbian Starbucks cup from my cold, dyke hands”). For 2018, Starbucks appears to be striving for a lukewarm medium: more festive than the sacrilegiously plain (according to some) red ones, but no hints toward multiculturalism as on last year’s cup. Argyle patterns and coffee cherries are about as non-controversial as you can get.
No matter what, though, we’re sure that somehow these cups will inspire some sort of backlash to kick off the season. It’s becoming as much an annual tradition as watching Elf every year.
Article via TheTakeout
Carly Rae Jepsen’s Joyous New Single Celebrates Self-Love and “Self-Love”
Carly Rae Jepsen is the “queen” of many things, from Japanese shampoo commercials to preserving our sanity in troubled times. Now we can add songs about masturbation to the ever-growing list of accomplishments that Jepsen has dominion over. On Thursday, the pop star released a new single, “Party for One,” which she said in a statement is “an anthem of what it is to celebrate time with yourself, which is a hard thing for people to really enjoy sometimes, and it’s something I’m learning to do more and more.” Sure enough, the lyrics are a tribute to singledom and self-affirmation:
Party for one
If you don’t care about me
I’ll just dance for myself
Back on my beat
I’ll be the one
If you don’t care about me
Making love to myself
Back on my beat
There are many songs about self-love that also sound like they’re about, y’know, self-love.(Looking at you, “Love Myself.”) But in the case of “Party for One,” that innuendo isn’t confined to the lyrics. The music video, directed by Bardia Zeinali, features Jepsen at a hotel surfing TV channels and encountering a suggestive ad for the “confidential, easy, fast” hotline 1-800-PARTY-4-1. The rest of the video follows Jepsen and a variety of other singles staying at the same hotel in various states of undress: lying on the bed in their underwear, eating naked in the bathtub, and, in the case of one old woman in lingerie, pulling sex toys out of a bag and holding them aloft like they’re Simba in The Lion King.
Jepsen also announced that she has a new album coming out next year, her first since 2015’s Emotion. In the interim, Jepsen has collaborated with the likes of Bleachers and Charli XCX and put out another single of her own, “Cut to the Feeling.”
Article via Slate
Harvey Weinstein accused of sexually assaulting 16-year-old virgin
An aspiring actress says she was a 16-year-old virgin when disgraced movie mogul Harvey Weinstein sexually assaulted her in New York, according to an amended Manhattan federal racketeering lawsuit filed Wednesday.
The woman, a former model from Poland identified only as Jane Doe in the court papers, said that after agreeing to meet for a business lunch in 2002, Weinstein instead took her to his Soho apartment.
“…Weinstein wasted no time in aggressively and threateningly demanding sex,” the suit alleges. He told the distraught starlet that if she wanted to be an actress she had to give in to his perverted desires.
“Weinstein threatened and pressured Jane Doe, saying that he had ‘made’ the careers of Penelope Cruz and Gwyneth Paltrow, and that neither would be working without him,” the suit alleges.
“He then took off his pants and forcibly held Jane Doe while taking her hand and making her touch and massage his penis,” the filing states.
Weinstein allegedly became enraged when the terrified teen objected and refused to let her leave — but eventually relented, the suit says.
The underage catwalker had just met Weinstein three days earlier at a soiree for her modeling agency Next.
After picking her up in his car for what she thought was a business lunch, she told him she was only 16, the papers say.
The pervy producer pursued the model for the next decade, getting her an extra role in the “Nanny Diaries” in 2004 — but she continued to resist his demands for sex.
In a 2008 after-hours meeting in his Greenwich Street office to arrange for her to sign with the modeling agency Marilyn, Weinstein spotted Christina Aguilera on a nearby TV and allegedly said, “‘Wow, I’d really like to f—k that p—-y’ then unzipped his pants and began touching his penis,” the filing states. Jane Doe fled the room.
But later she continued to discuss her career with Weinstein, including trying out for “Project Runway.”
Weinstein “ensured she never received work” because she refused to hop into bed with him, she alleges. The abuse and harassment left her depressed and exacerbated her anorexia, the suit says.
She is the 10th victim to join the class action lawsuit against Weinstein, the Weinstein Company and Miramax, accusing them of assault, battery and racketeering.
The women all claim that Weinstein lured them to hotels and auditions under the guise of furthering their careers and sexually assaulted or raped them.
The suit, filed by firm Hagens Berman, says that the companies, which it calls the “Weinstein Sexual Enterprise,” were aware of the producer’s alleged illegal conduct and enabled it by threatening victims and paying them off.
In September, a federal judge instructed three women — Melissa Thompson, Caitlin Dulany and Larissa Gomez — to consolidate their suit with six other class-action plaintiffs —Louisette Geiss, Katherine Kendall, Zoe Brock, Sarah Ann Thomas, Melissa Sagemiller and Nannette Klatt.
The new complaint, filed Wednesday, added plaintiff Jane Doe, describing her disturbing allegations for the first time.
Weinstein’s civil lawyer, Elior Shiloh, declined to comment.
“This claim is preposterous,” said Weinstein’s criminal lawyer Ben Brafman. “Like so many other women in this case who have already been exposed as liars, this latest completely uncorroborated allegation that is almost 20 years old will also be shown to be patently false.”
Article via PageSix
‘Better Call Saul’ actor admits he cut off his own arm and lied about being a wounded vet
A New Mexico-based actor who has appeared in AMC’s “Better Call Saul,” the western TV drama “Longmire” and the 2009 movie “The Men Who Stare at Goats” says he cut off his own arm and pretended to be a wounded veteran in hopes of furthering his acting career.
In a video interview with Albuquerque’s KOB-4 TV, Todd Lawson Latourette, who is bipolar, said he was off his medications and in the midst of a psychotic episode 17 years ago when he cut off his right forearm with a Skilsaw and cauterized it himself.
“I don’t want to say the word ‘insanity’ because the mentally ill – we’re so far from insane,” he said tearfully of his mental state at the time. “We are your brothers, your mothers, your sisters. And we hurt.”
Latourette later fashioned his own prosthetic forearm and hand. He also began lying about the cause of his disability, saying he sustained the wound in combat. It worked, he insisted. Casting directors started booking him for roles.
“The film industry obviously took a different angle,” he recalled. “That I was different. And so they liked that.”
He added, “They trusted me that I was exactly who I said I was, that I was a war veteran. I was hired because I lied.”
According to IMDB, Latourrette’s first role was in the 2002 horror film “Unspeakable,” starring Dennis Hopper. He also appeared in the 2008 Toby Keith movie “Beer for My Horses,” and the following year, he was onscreen again in the George Clooney film “The Men Who Stare at Goats.” His most recent role was during the fifth episode of the current season of the Albuquerque-based “Breaking Bad” spinoff “Better Call Saul.”
But the lie weighed on him to the point where he felt had to come clean.
“It’s been so difficult to live with,” he told the TV station. “It’s been years since I told that lie.”
“I was dishonorable. I’m killing my career by doing this,” he acknowledged, adding that he doesn’t expect his admission to be met with forgiveness. “If anyone thinks this was for personal edification, that’s not the case. I’m ousting myself from the New Mexico film industry. And gladly so, just to say what I’ve said.”
Latourette says he hopes he can serve as a cautionary tale for other people with bipolar disorder.
“The power is in your hands to take that medication in the morning and at night so that this discourse of my life doesn’t necessarily need to be yours. Because it happens quick.”
Article via USAToday
Stephen Curry Named Executive Producer on Charleston Church Shooting Documentary
Stephen Curry‘s company, Unanimous Media, has received a producer credit in a documentary about the 2015 church shooting in Charleston, South Carolina.
Per Variety‘s Todd Spangler, the Golden State Warriors star is an executive producer on the project, entitled Emanuel.
Curry launched Unanimous Media in April and agreed to a multiyear deal with Sony Pictures to produce content for television and movies.
Emanuel chronicles the events of June 17, 2015, when Dylann Roof shot and killed nine people at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church. The movie premiered earlier this year at the Bentonville Film Festival and will screen later this month at the DOC NYC festival.
Article via BleacherReport
CVS launches pilot membership program: $5 monthly gets you $10 store credit
CVS Health is launching a pilot membership program that provides delivery perks, discounts and $10 monthly to spend in its stores.
The drugstore giant, one of the largest retailers in the U.S., will charge $5 monthly or $48 for a full year for the new CarePass program, which will be tested in Boston.
“The goal is to expand the program nationally but the pilot is to test-and-learn so we can make sure it is a great experience for customers,” CVS spokesperson Erin Pensa said in an email.
The $10 monthly store credit can be spent on most retail items at CVS Pharmacy locations but doesn’t roll over to the next month if you haven’t used the full amount.
The membership program includes free one-day or two-day delivery on certain prescription drugs and “eligible purchases” from the company’s website with no minimum amount required, CVS said.
In that respect, CarePass bears a resemblance to Amazon’s Prime membership, which requires users to pay an annual fee of $119 for free shipping and other services.
Fending off Amazon is crucial to the long-term success of CVS. The drug industry is bracing for Amazon’s entry into the pharmacy business after the company recently bought online pharmacy startup PillPack.
With more than 9,800 locations, CVS is one of the largest retailers in the U.S. and had about the same annual revenue as Amazon in 2017.
CVS currently offers retail customers discounts through a free membership card called ExtraCare. Cardholders can also accumulate ExtraCare dollars, which act like expiring gift-card money, to spend on in-store products.
CarePass members will get $10 to spend every month on most items in the store. Exceptions include alcohol, lottery tickets, prescriptions and gift cards.
“The CarePass promo reward is automatically added to the customer’s ExtraCare card at the beginning of each monthly benefit cycle and expires at the end of the monthly benefit cycle,” CVS said.
Article via USAToday
The Obamas’ First Netflix Project Will Be Adapting This Book About the Trump Administration
The Obamas have licensed a book about the Trump administration’s incompetence, which is quite the passive-aggressive way to start out their Netflix deal. According to Deadline, Barack and Michelle have picked up the rights to Michael Lewis’s book The Fifth Risk, which describes how Trump’s animosity toward and failure to understand the basic structure of the government has left many departments severely understaffed or headed up by incompetent appointees. According to Deadline, the Obamas are considering making a possible series out of the book, which Lewis describes as a sort of “civics lesson” about how government really works — or in this case, doesn’t.
Article via Vulture
People warned Kanye not to date Kim K. because of her sex tape
Kim Kardashian claims that people warned Kanye West not to get involved with her because of her infamous sex video with ex Ray J.
“He’s put himself up against the world for me when everyone told him, ‘You cannot date a girl with a sex tape. You cannot date a reality show girl. This is going to ruin your career,’ ” Kardashian, 38, told Van Jones. “Everyone told him that.”
“To me, he was like, ‘Oh, you’re not going to tell me what to do. I’ll let you know that it’s going to be okay,’ ” she recalled. “And he always was that strength for me. So I’ll always love and appreciate him for always standing up for me.”
“We’ve been through a lot together,” she added. “You know, I’ve known him for 15 years now. Became friends with him maybe in like 2006, 2007. Met him in like [2002 or 2003]. I’ve known him forever.”
Kardashian’s sex tape, “Kim Kardashian Superstar,” was released in March 2007, when West, 41, was engaged to Alexis Phifer.
Kardashian and West began dating publicly in 2012, though West’s ex Amber Rose alleged that West cheated on her with Kardashian (who was dating Reggie Bush at the time) before they became an exclusive couple.
The couple collectively known as Kimye welcomed daughter North West in 2013 and tied the knot a year later.
They’ve since had son Saint in December 2015 and daughter Chicago in January 2018.
Part of why Yeezy may not have minded Kardashian’s past may be because of his own personal porn preferences.
West revealed on “Jimmy Kimmel Live” over the summer that he still watches Internet porn and is particularly fond of the “black on white” genre because “it mirrors my own reality.”
Article via PageSix
Nurse fired for blackface Beyoncé costume
A nurse at a Missouri hospital lost her job after using blackface to dress as Beyoncé for Halloween.
Shelbi Heenan posted a photo of her in the racist costume to her Facebook account on Monday alongside her boyfriend, also in blackface, dressed as Jay-Z, KCTV reported.
The photo quickly circulated online and by lunchtime, St. Luke’s hospital in Lee’s Summit released a statement saying Heenan was no longer an employee.
“While it is against Saint Luke’s policy to comment on specific personnel matters, we can confirm that this individual is no longer a Saint Luke’s employee,” read the statement.
“Saint Luke’s is deeply committed to our culture of diversity and inclusion. It is fundamental to who we are as an organization and we vigorously protect it on behalf of all our patients and employees and expect those who represent us to do the same,” the statement continued.
Heenan’s Facebook account was no longer active on Wednesday, but a photo of her from 2009 reportedly showed her in blackface dressed as a member of Destiny’s Child, Fox4KC reported.
Teachers in the local community used the incident as an opportunity to educate people on the racist history of blackface.
“The fact that this racist behavior persists is simply an indication that our racist history is not past, basically,” Matthew Osborn, associate professor of early American history at UMKC, told Fox4KC.
“African-Americans, in our history have been the most exploited, most marginalized group and yet African culture is inseparable from American popular culture. It’s at the heart of popular culture, music, sports, theater and film. That is something about American society and culture that we haven`t really come to grips with. Why is it that the racial divisions that exist here in Kansas City exist while we all enjoy so much of African-American culture?” he added.
Article via NYPost