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Demi Lovato Announces New Single With Sexy Cover Art

June 25, 2015, 2:35 pm
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Lovatics, rejoice!

Demi Lovato has just announced she'll be releasing a new single called "Cool for the Summer," out July 1. The 22-year-old singer shared a photo of the song's cover artwork on Instagram to express her excitement.

"My new single is called #CoolForTheSummer and will be out July 1!!!!! AHHHHHHHHH," she wrote.

In the picture, the former Disney Channel star is seen posing on a beach chair in the sand, wearing a sexy cutout swimsuit and a purple fur jacket. Her brunette locks are slicked back and her eyebrows are #onfleek.

A photo posted by Demi Lovato (@ddlovato) on





The image has a very '80s day-glo vibe going on, leading us to believe the new single will be a dance-floor hit -- and maybe even the song of summer. We'll just have to wait and see.

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Dear Vogue, Cara Delevingne's Bisexuality Is Not A 'Phase'

June 25, 2015, 2:58 pm
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Vogue is being criticized -- and rightly so -- for the way bisexuality was framed in a July cover story about Cara Delevingne.

Rob Haskell's interview with Delevingne delved into the model and actress' romantic relationships with both men and women -- specifically her current relationship with singer Annie Clark, a.k.a. St. Vincent. “I think that being in love with my girlfriend is a big part of why I’m feeling so happy with who I am these days," Delevingne told Haskell. "And for those words to come out of my mouth is actually a miracle.”

She also opened up about being confused by her sexuality as a child "until [she] first fell in love with a girl at 20 and recognized that [she] had to accept it.” The model told Haskell that while "women are what completely inspire" her, it's men who she tends to have sexy dreams about. Delevingne's comments come off as open and honest, painting a complicated picture of sexuality that feels authentic. After all, sexuality can be a messy, confusing thing and it's refreshing to hear public figures acknowledge that.

Instead of applauding Delevingne's honesty, Haskell surmised that, "Her parents seem to think girls are just a phase for Cara, and they may be correct."

He also tied her checkered relationship with her mother to her attraction to women, and later offers her unsolicited (and deeply condescending) advice: “When I suggest to Cara that to trust a man, she might have to revise an old and stubborn idea of hers -- that women are perennially troubled and therefore only women will accept her -- her smile says she concedes the point.”





"I'd wager that her smile more likely meant, 'You're a homophobic moron. F**k off,'" wrote Cosmopolitan.com's Lane Moore. We'd have to agree.

In the wake of the tone-deaf piece, Julie Rodriguez launched a Care2 petition which currently has over 13,200 signatures, telling Vogue that "Being LGBT Isn't A 'Phase!'" Rodriguez writes:
The idea that queer women only form relationships with other women as a result of childhood trauma is a harmful (and false) stereotype that lesbian and bisexual women have been combating for decades...As a bisexual woman myself, I’ve experienced hurtful comments like this many times. People are quick to assume queer women’s identities are a “phase” and to refuse to recognize the important relationships in their lives -- an attitude which can cause depression, result in families rejecting their daughters (or forcing them into abusive conversion “therapy”), and even put young women at risk of suicide. Vogue should have taken this opportunity to combat negative stereotypes, not reinforce them.


The idea that bisexuality is just a "phase" one goes through -- either on the way to being gay, or as a rebellious period before settling down into a heterosexual relationship -- is a misconception that many bisexual people feel acutely in their daily lives. We asked our female readers who identify as bisexual to weigh in on Haskell's comments, and they echoed deep frustration because their sexual identity is often not taken seriously.

"With bisexual women in particular, the orientation is fetishized and treated as a joke," wrote Emily Clemons. "Bisexual women are treated as if their sexuality fits more into the subplot of a summer flick or a porno, a tool of heterosexual men to become aroused... As a bisexual woman, I crave positive representations of bisexuals in the media because we are struggling for acceptance in both the gay and straight communities."

Bisexual women don't need the Vogues of the world doing more to marginalize and delegitimize their identities. Attraction and sexuality are complicated, and it is imperative that people who write about these subjects be responsible to the communities they are covering.

So here's some free advice for Haskell and anyone else writing words about a group he or she is not a part of: Before you dismiss an entire sexual identity as a "phase," pause for a minute, look at your keyboard, and then hit the delete button.

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Dear God, Hollywood Reporter, 'Stromo' Is Not Going To Be A Thing

June 25, 2015, 3:16 pm
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On Thursday, The Hollywood Reporter tried to make "stromo" happen, with an article about "straight white male stars going gay (ish)." After chucking their laptops into the sea, HuffPost Entertainment editors Matthew Jacobs and Lauren Duca got new laptops so that they could discuss what this means for society.

Lauren: Hey, Matt! I just wanted to pass along a quick congrats to you and all gay men. According to The Hollywood Reporter, we are the lucky witnesses to the rise of the stromo -- a(n offensive) term referring to straight actors catering to gay audiences (which sounds a lot like something a lax bro would make up in the late '90s). Apparently, the evidence of the stromo is that the vagina-appreciating likes of Channing Tatum and Chris Hemsworth are totally cool with gay men liking them. Isn't that great? Y'all used to be stuck with Barbara Streisand and, I don't know, Liza Minnelli, but now it is totally fine to like straight men, too! Are you writing a thank-you note to THR as we speak or ... ?

880channing

Matt: Since THR's New York offices are in the same building as HuffPost's, I've already hand-delivered flowers. I wanted to express gratitude for validating all the deep V-necks I own (thanks for making that okay, Adam Levine!) and for reminding us that Robert Pattinson could have filed a lawsuit all those times the media made him the subject of a "bromance." THR knows those guys are the true trendsetters, paving the way for us gays to feel comfortable in our own skin.

Lauren, I'm not sure if you and I should continue debating the merits of this trend piece, if one is generous enough to give it such a label, or if we should just rank the most clueless quotes about what its sources claim as progress. (My favorite: "Straight men now want to be sex objects -- and what better way to get objectified than by other penised human beings?") In truth, the idea that straight men in Hollywood are now embracing gay audiences isn't offensive, and there are thoughtful arguments to be made about how that's evolved in recent years. But Nick Jonas taking his shirt off at a gay bar and James Franco being sexually fluid "up to the point of intercourse" does not give them some amalgam of hetero- and homosexuality. That's not how that works, but I'm not sure the author of this piece understands that. Welcome to 2015, where the "stromo" is the true freedom fighter!

Lauren: "Penised human beings" is just how I refer to all men all the time anyway, so that didn't really stand out to me. But what did is this insistence on a microscopically stereotypical understanding of gay men including, but not limited to, the phrase "butts, gym-molded or otherwise." As if choosing to go to SoulCycle and, according to this piece, the nail salon is some metric of sexuality. There are scenes featuring Stanford Blatch in "Sex and the City" that are less mind-numbingly ignorant than that.

The idea that we would need to coin a phrase, and that that phrase would combine the words "straight" and "homo" (unless it stands for straight FOMO, which, I guess, also works?), is gross. It's totally missing any conception of gender fluidity and assuming that being gay requires a small arsenal of V-necks. (Also, LOL, does Merle Ginsberg think it's chill for her to write this because she was a judge on "Drag Race"?)

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Matt: Right, and the only straight allies worth mentioning are white, well-sculpted men anyway. Thank goodness we have someone to highlight the bravery of pretending to be gay on a movie set for a few months or riding on a float at a pride parade or, you know, just generally being willing to associate with the LGBT population. But what about the "young" moviegoers? Channing Tatum better put in overtime on "harder workouts" to catch their attention, or I'm afraid they'll send America right back to the '50s with their homophobia. Praise be to straight men in Hollywood for advancing LGBT rights!

In case the Internet commenters want to attack me for implicating Chan-Man and Mr. Jonas in my vitriol, just take a step back. I'm not criticizing any of the celebrities mentioned in the article -- their open-mindedness is nothing if not a step forward, even if there's an element of slight pandering at times. But the media must be held responsible for how we see celebrities, and employing a crass portmanteau like "stromo" misplaces the progress that both Hollywood and larger society have made. Tatum does not need a round of applause for being polite to his gay fans, and we do not need trend pieces that imply there is profitability in being an LGBT ally. If that is considered progress, then it is a phony, reductive version of it. But what do I know? I'll just keep sending photos of my chiseled eyebrows to Ryan Gosling's fan-mail address in hopes he'll switch teams. This article makes all my dreams seem more plausible!

Lauren: Yeah, no shade to all the beautiful, famous white men and their eight-packs mentioned here, but it's insulting to discuss these shifting images as though they are solely geared at taking advantage of an LGBT audience for profit. As if the only reason to be an ally is limited to selling tickets specifically to those gay men that shave their chests. Acceptance is great, but what THR is describing here is more like "non-homophobic pandering."

Maybe, if we decide not to burn this article to the ground and then scatter the ashes in the sewer, there's a tiny nugget of something good buried under the trash attempt to make "stromo" happen? Straight cis gods like Channing Tatum definitely don't need praise for their trailblazing "gayish" (also Ginsberg's word) appeal, but maybe this kind of marketing, however cynical, is a sign we're moving away from heteronormative standards.

Matt: It surely is, for better or worse, and there's no doubt that celebrities can do wonders for steering cultural discussions in progressive directions. I want to see someone think through that transition carefully and not rely on formulaic ideas of gay men's bodies to emphasize its relevance. Also, can we stop with the Twitter-hopeful buzzwords? The "dadbod" moment was cute, but "stromo" is a bit desperate, even before we weigh its tactfulness. The next time someone wants to discuss this, let's remember that a cute new word does not expand the spectrum of sexual identity, just as "big-lipped" Eddie Redmayne's willingness to play a transgender character is not a substitute for the actual advancements needed within that community. But hey, this is just a one-off article, and we can at least give it credit for attempting to celebrate the strides we've made. Now, off to yoga!

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Kurt Cobain's Death Should Be Reinvestigated, Says Former Seattle Police Chief

June 25, 2015, 5:43 pm
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Spoiler alert: Director Benjamin Statler's docudrama "Soaked In Bleach" ends with former Seattle Police chief Norm Stamper saying he would reopen the investigation into the death of Kurt Cobain, if he were calling the shots today.

But Stamper was the guy in charge from 1994 to 2000, including the time of Cobain's death. He now insists that Seattle Police should "have taken steps to study patterns involved in the behavior of key individuals who had a motive to see Kurt Cobain dead."

He went on to to say that, "If in fact Kurt Cobain was murdered, as opposed to having committed suicide, and it was possible to learn that, shame on us for not doing that. That was in fact our responsibility. It’s about right and wrong. It’s about honor. It’s about ethics.”

Stamper hammered home his point, adding: “If we didn’t get it right the first time, we damn well better get it right the second time, and I would tell you right now if I were the Chief of Police, I would reopen this investigation.”

The movie, which is told from the perspective of private investigator Tom Grant, (who was hired by Cobain's wife Courtney Love to find her husband after he went missing from a rehab center in Los Angeles), is woven together through reenactments of the the hours of recorded conversations between Grant and Love, and interviews with experts who refuse to believe Cobain died by suicide.

The present-day Seattle Police Department do not share their sentiments. Last year, just before the 20th anniversary of Cobain's death, rumors began flying that authorities were about to reopen an investigation after it was reported they had developed four rolls of film from the crime scene that had been sitting in an evidence vault.

While the photos were released to the public, the Seattle PD made it very clear they were not reopening the case. “No change, no developments, no new leads,” a police spokeswoman said, while the department tweeted, "Our detective reviewed the case file anticipating questions surrounding the closed Cobain case as the 20 yr anniversary approaches."

The movie addressed the undeveloped film and reenacts a scene in which Grant is told the photos will probably never be developed because they "don't develop photos on suicides." "Soaked In Bleach" goes on to claim that "by their negligent death investigation," the Seattle Police:


  • Allowed Kurt Cobain to be cremated 6 days after being discovered.

  • Waited 30 days to process the shotgun for fingerprints.

  • Gave Courtney Love the shotgun to have it melted down.

  • Allowed the greenhouse crime scene to be torn down and destroyed.

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25 Famous Women On The Best Advice They've Ever Given -- Or Received

June 26, 2015, 6:31 am
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This post originally appeared on The Cut.
By The Cut Staff

This week, the Cut is talking advice -- the good, the bad, the weird, and the pieces of it you really wish you'd taken. Here, 25 smart women share their most valuable tidbits.

Greta Gerwig: "Don't drink all the drinks just because they're free!"

Julia Stiles: "Comparison is the thief of joy."

Mindy Kaling: "My mom always said, 'You should judge your relationship not by how a guy makes you feel when you're with him, but by how he makes you feel when you're not with him.'"

Kelly Ripa: "Somebody's negativity dumped on you is a bigger commentary on how they feel about themselves than you. Jessica Seinfeld taught me that."

Susan Sarandon: "You can always forgive yourself or apologize for things you do, but you can't ever work through things you wish you'd done and you didn't."

Judy Greer: "My mom told me not to shit where you eat, which a lot of people say, but when your mom says that to you as you're packing up your car to go away to college, it really sticks."

Rosie Perez: "My aunt used to say, 'Rosie, I'm so depressed, but tomorrow's another fuckin' day, eh?'"

Helen Mirren: "My headmistress told me not to be afraid of being afraid."

Jill Soloway: "Speak! It's a revolution for women to have voices."

Ali Wentworth: "Don't worry about working out until it's more about preventing death and less about what you look like."

Gayle King: "Maya Angelou said, 'When people show you who they are, believe them the first time.'"

Sandra Oh: "It's not a sprint, it's a marathon. I've got to tell you, that's serviced me so many times. It's big-picture thinking."

Liv Tyler: "Make eye contact, stop to really look someone in the eye. My grandmother taught me that."

Marilyn Minter: "Make envy your enemy."

Robin Roberts: "Don't play a supporting role in your own life."

Tavi Gevinson: "'Don't date anyone you wouldn't want to be,' from the writer Kate Bornstein."

Ava DuVernay: "Oprah told me that everything that happens to you is not happening to you, it's happening for you."

Dana Delany: "Trust your instincts -- but the caveat is you don't usually know what those are until you're much older."

Sandra Bernhard: "When I was starting off, my mentor Paul Mooney said, 'Bernhard, shed your skin.' In other words, get closer to who you really are as a performer. But I think it's good advice for people in life."

Veronica Roth: "My mom used to tell me, 'Other people are not thinking about you as much as you are.'"

Laverne Cox: "I think for trans folks, the struggle is, even as we want to transition and be better versions of ourselves, we have to love who we are today."

Rene Russo: "You have to maneuver in this world. You have to look at another person and go, 'What is it they need?' You can use that to ultimately get what you want."

Chita Rivera: "Take advantage of every opportunity that comes your way, with grace and humility. Be a sponge -- and absorb and learn."

Marin Ireland: "Fail better. Try again, fail again, fail better."

Aidy Bryant: "Just chill 'til you die, pretty much."

Reporting by Diane Gordon, Soo Youn, Kylie Gilbert, Kat Ward, Trupti Rami, Kara Warner, Bennett Marcus, Suzanne Weinstock Klein, Stephanie Eckardt, Valentina Valentini, Fawnia Soo Hoo, Claire Landsbaum, Katie Van Syckle, and Jennifer Vineyard.

Also from The Cut:
25 Famous Women On Female Friendship
30 Famous Women On Overcoming Their Insecurities
15 Famous Women On Their High School Cliques
What Do You Do When You Hate Your Best Friend's Boyfriend?
25 Famous Women On Getting Older






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Jimmy Fallon's #EmailFail Tweets Are All Your Best Autocorrect Nightmares

June 26, 2015, 6:34 am
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Nothing can ruin a career, destroy a relationship or just make people laugh harder than a good autocorrect fail. Messages saying "you're accepted" become "you're adopted," "I'm leaving now" turns into "I'm leaving you" and talking to your mom about "that great, big pile of shirts" becomes something no mother should ever see. Ever. (Sorry about that, Mom. It was a pile of "shirts"!)

In honor of Gmail's latest feature allowing you to unsend emails, Jimmy Fallon made this week's hashtag #EmailFail. Fallon has actually had this same hashtag earlier this year, but, judging by the high-quality fails in this week's favorites, don't be surprised if we see it a few more times, too:










There's probably a lesson here to read over things before you send them. But these were pretty great -- so keep up the good work, America.

"The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon" airs weeknights at 11:35 p.m. EST on NBC.

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.


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Caitlyn Jenner Says 'We're Going To Do Some Good' In New 'I Am Cait' Promo

June 26, 2015, 7:26 am
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Caitlyn Jenner is living her life and giving the world front-row access as she tells her story on her upcoming docuseries "I Am Cait."

"Why did I decide to do a series? I am telling my story. People don't understand looking into the mirror and nothing seems right. Putting on clothes that you just really don't identify with. This is about getting to be who you really are," the 65-year-old said in a new promo for the series that was released on Friday.

i am cait

Jenner assures viewers they'll be in for quite the ride, literally. "We're going to talk about everything. We're going to do a lot of fun things for the first time. We're going to go shopping for the first time. Maybe even some boy stuff, like ride a motorcycle -- because girls do that too."

She added, "It's going to be quite a journey. We're going to do some good."

The clip shows Jenner living her life from her Malibu home surrounded by family and friends.

i am cait

Jenner, who joined Twitter, Facebook and Instagram after she introduced herself to the world with a remarkable 22-page Vanity Fair cover story, earlier this month, has been sharing moments with fans via social media. This past weekend, she spent Father's Day in the company of many of her children, stepchildren and even a grandchild in the mix.

"I Am Cait" premieres on Sunday, July 26, at 9:00 p.m. ET on E!

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.


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Celebrities React To The Supreme Court Ruling In Favor Of Marriage Equality

June 26, 2015, 7:50 am
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On Friday, the U.S. Supreme Court made history, ruling that it is now legal for all Americans, regardless of their gender or sexual orientation to marry.

Almost immediately, celebrity support rang out over social media:



























































































I'm so happy I'm crying!!!! #LoveWins

A photo posted by Kelly Osbourne (@kellyosbourne) on




A photo posted by @chrissyteigen on




Congratulations, particularly to those who have made the case for equality so strongly over the years. I'm so pleased to be celebrating @nycpride over the weekend.

Posted by Ian McKellen on Friday, June 26, 2015











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Taylor Swift And Calvin Harris Replace Beyoncé And Jay Z As Forbes' Highest-Paid Couple

June 26, 2015, 7:53 am
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Beyoncé and Jay Z better watch the throne, because Taylor Swift and Calvin Harris might just overtake it.

Swift, 25, and beau Harris, 31, have just been named the highest-paid celebrity couple by Forbes magazine. The pair beat out Bey and Jay, who are now No. 2, to take the top spot.

According to Forbes, the "Bad Blood" singer and the Scottish DJ earned a combined income of $146 million in 2014, while Beyoncé and Jay Z earned (a still very impressive) $110.5 million. Both Harris and Swift are part of major endorsement deals -- Harris with Giorgio Armani and Swift with Diet Coke and Keds -- which only makes their force in the industry that much stronger.

Coming in at No. 3 on the list are Blake Shelton and Miranda Lambert, who earned $57 million collectively last year.

The full list of highest-paid celebrities will be released on Monday, June 29, on the Forbes website.

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Tavis Smiley: My Conversation With Kathy Bates on Ageism in Hollywood

June 26, 2015, 8:17 am
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Tonight I'm joined by Academy Award winner Kathy Bates. Throughout her remarkable career, she has delivered a number of iconic performances, including her breakthrough role in the 1990 film Misery and, more recently, her scene-stealing turn in the FX show American Horror Story. In addition to her stellar on-screen work, Bates has served as an inspiration for many as a cancer survivor and spokesperson for the Lymphatic Education & Research Network.

One of Hollywood's most respected character actors, Bates has been able to achieve success in an industry that is notoriously biased against certain age groups and image types. In the clip below, she shares when she learned to develop tough skin in order to deal with what can often be an insensitive business.



For more of our conversation, be sure to tune in to Tavis Smiley on PBS. Check our website for your local TV listings: www.pbs.org/tavis.

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Is Michael Jackson Moonwalking In The Clouds 6 Years After His Death?

June 26, 2015, 8:39 am
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A recent storm over Goochland County, Virginia, has turned out to be a "Thriller" for the entire Internet.

6 years after Michael Jackson's death on June 25, 2009, WTVR CBS 6 News is reporting photographer John Plashal may have captured MJ's triumphant return. Plashal was apparently just submitting pictures of a June 23 storm to the CBS 6 Facebook page and didn't know what he had until it started blowing up. Now, the image that many believe looks like the King of Pop moonwalking has "gone international," according to Plashal.

The fact that the photo happened so close to the anniversary of Jackson's death seems too good to be true, but it has reportedly not been tampered with.
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If the photo was altered, it could be devastating to fans. Following the pop star's death, everyone became excited when a video on "Larry King Live" appeared to show Jackson's ghost, but that was later proven false.

In defense of this image, however, moonwalking across the sky does seem like a very MJ thing to do.

So are we just getting our hopes up? Or could this actually be Jackson in the clouds? If it is, we can only hope upcoming summer storms bring some encore MJ performances ahead.

H/T CBS 6, WTVR-TV

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Selena Gomez Strips Down For Sexy 'Good For You' Video

June 26, 2015, 9:11 am
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Selena Gomez just released the video for her latest single, "Good for You," and it's pretty steamy.

The song debuted earlier this week and is the first single from her upcoming album, which will be her first with Interscope.

The video starts with a shot of the 22-year-old singer on the ground in a plain white tee, and alternates to a shot of her lying seductively on a couch and wearing a silky robelike dress.

Things get extra steamy when we see Gomez nude in the shower, where she continues singing about wanting to "look good" for her man (or woman). Throughout the video, she sings for the camera, making plenty of direct eye contact, and seems to get lost in deep thoughts about being loved and desired.

The only thing missing from the video is A$AP Rocky, who's featured on the track. Without the rapper's verse, the song is almost 30 seconds shorter.

You can watch the entire video above.

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Jimmy Fallon Hospitalized With Minor Hand Injury (UPDATE)

June 26, 2015, 9:17 am
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TMZ initially reported on Friday that "The Tonight Show" host Jimmy Fallon was hospitalized on Friday morning and getting treatment in a New York City ICU for an unknown reason.

Initial reports were exaggerated, however, Fallon's rep confirmed in an email to The Huffington Post that the comedian had been admitted to hospital where he underwent surgery:

"Jimmy Fallon was required to have minor surgery after injuring his hand at his Manhattan apartment this morning. He is expected to make a full recovery."

The taping for tonight's show, which was supposed to feature guests Benicio Del Toro and Taylor Kitsch, has been canceled.

UPDATE: On Friday evening, Fallon took to Twitter and explained how he injured himself:








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8 'iCarly' Secrets You Didn't Know, According To Jennette McCurdy

June 26, 2015, 10:13 am
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Good role models are sometimes hard to come by, but lucky for "iCarly" fans, there's Sam Puckett. She may have had some trouble with the law and basically every person she met, but the girl kept ribs in her purse. And if that's not heroic, well, what the heck is?

Jennette McCurdy, the actress who brought Sam and her love of smoked meats to life, is now turning 23 on Friday, June 26. Since her "iCarly" days, McCurdy has gone on to star opposite Ariana Grande in "Sam & Cat" and can now be seen in the new Netflix series "Between," but in honor of her special day, Huffington Post sat down with the actress and talked about some behind-the-scenes secrets from the show that launched her career.

Here are 8 behind-the-scenes secrets from "iCarly," according to Sam Puckett herself:


1. Sam's famous butter sock was actually filled with batteries.
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Butter sounds bad enough, but McCurdy says the actual contents of her character's "butter sock" were even worse.

"Although I am tentative to crush any person's childhood dreams, it was not filled with butter. It was batteries to give it some weight, with Styrofoam around them, wrapped with duct tape," says the actress. "I feel like Nathan [Kress] was probably the receiver of a few accidental butter-sock whacks."

2. Sam Puckett's stuntman was an actual man.

Image: Giphy

McCurdy said she did most of her own stunt work because she liked the "slapstick elements of a sitcom," but there were some she just couldn't do. "Any time you saw me with a hammer or sledgehammer, that was always me, but one time I had to lift either Gibby or Freddie over my shoulder, and they had a stunt double for that. It was a man," said McCurdy. "My confidence plummeted."

3. Jennette convinced the cast her name was Jennette-aria and kept it going for weeks.
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McCurdy says the best prank on set was probably when she convinced the cast her name was actually Jennette-aria.

"At first, everybody didn't believe me and started making fun of me. Then everyone was convinced my name was Jennette-aria. By the time I told them it was not, they didn't believe me." McCurdy joked that Kress still might not know the truth.

4. Sam hates the word "panties," but Jennette never even said the word before the show.

Image: Giphy

"I don't think I had ever said the word 'panties' until I saw it in the script, and for some reason I don't know if we could say it on Nickelodeon. I remember asking our producer Dan about it," says McCurdy.

5. Though Jennette hated most of the food she ate, she the loved Spaghetti Tacos.
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McCurdy tells HuffPost the worst thing she’s ever eaten while acting were vegan sloppy-joe-and-waffle sandwiches on “Sam & Cat,” which were “weirdly textured,” but she says the spaghetti tacos on “iCarly” were actually pretty great.

"They were really good. I was certainly apprehensive at first, as you can imagine, because why would spaghetti tacos be a thing that you're not apprehensive about? But I did eat them for the scenes -- probably sometimes too many of them."

6. The actors were aware of all the innuendo and adult jokes.

Image: Giphy

Savvy "iCarly" fans know about numerous adult jokes hidden in various episodes, like Freddie's interesting apartment number for example:

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McCurdy thinks this gets blown out of proportion, however. "I like to think that that's just people's mind-gutters coming to conclusions, and our writers weren't planning on having the children lose their innocence to Freddie's apartment number." She agrees the show was "certainly rife with innuendo," though.

7. Jennette did not like having long paragraphs of dialogue.

Image: Giphy

"I always like my lines shorter," she says. "If I ever saw a long paragraph, I was like, 'Ugh.' It just messed with the timing. It takes so long, and I had to rush through to get to the beat."

As far as her favorite line, McCurdy says, "I liked calling myself Mama."

8. Jennette's most memorable "iCarly" moment was getting covered in mud in a parking lot with her friends.

mud

"We were doing 'iCarly' goes to Japan, and Miranda, Nathan and myself were standing outside at 3 in the morning in the Nickelodeon parking lot, ready to be hit with this big mud machine, and I just felt like, this is a dream. I don't know. There was something about being in the mud with friends."

Happy birthday, Jennette McCurdy! You'll always be Sam Puckett to us.

obviously
Image: FunnyHub

All images Nickelodeon unless noted.

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J. Cole Attends Fan's High School Graduation And Offers To Help With College Tuition

June 26, 2015, 10:49 am
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In case you thought J. Cole was like every other celebrity, think again. According to MTVNews, the rapper took a break from his national tour in order to attend a fan's high school graduation and follow up on a promise he made a full two years ago.

A promise well kept. Thank you.

A photo posted by Cierra Bosarge - Fussell (@simbahasdreams) on






Teen fan Cierra Bosarge says she reached out to J. Cole in 2013, writing him a letter (which she later summed up in a tweet) about how he had inspired her to persevere in school, despite having a hard time academically.

Cierra's note prompted the hip hop artist to send her a direct message on Twitter and then follow up by phone. J. Cole agreed to attend the high schooler's graduation to watch her accept her diploma, but only if she got admitted to a four-year school.




Two years later, they both followed through on the commitments they made -- Cierra kept her grades up (sending updates via Twitter), and J. Cole's manager sent Cierra a message confirming that the star would be there to watch her graduate.




According to her Twitter account, when J. Cole showed up to the ceremony this week, he not only gave Cierra some of his "favorite books" as a grad gift, but also offered to help pay for her tuition.




Well, that was awfully sweet of him.

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2015 Class Of Oscar Voters Adds Diversity

June 26, 2015, 11:34 am
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LOS ANGELES (AP) — After widespread criticism of the film academy's overwhelmingly white slate of Oscar nominees this year, the organization has announced a roster of potential new members that skews younger and more diverse.


Kevin Hart, Common, Emma Stone, Dev Patel and "Whiplash" writer-director Damien Chazelle are among the 322 membership invitees announced Friday.


"It's really gratifying to see the big increases in genre, people of color, age and national origin," academy President Cheryl Boone Isaacs said in an interview.


Others invited to join the academy include Benedict Cumberbatch, David Oyelowo, Sergio Mendes, Elizabeth Banks, John Legend, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Tom Hardy and "Dope" director Rick Famuyiwa.


Membership in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is by invitation only. Oscar nominees are automatically considered; others must be sponsored by two members of their branch of filmmaking.


"We've stressed very much that our members in each branch, it's their duty to really pay attention to a diverse talent pool, to those coming up, to those that may have been overlooked for membership," Boone Isaacs said. "I think that effort has paid off well this year."


The nearly 6,000-member international group has long been criticized for its largely white, male membership.


All 20 of the acting nominees at the most recent Academy Awards were white, which inspired the hashtag #OscarsSoWhite on social media and increased scrutiny of the lack of diversity in the ranks of the organization.


The criticism was "part of the conversation" that drove existing academy members to actively seek new talent in places they may not have ordinarily looked, Boone Isaacs said.


"It's gotten folks thinking in a way that maybe they just hadn't thought before," she said.


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Follow AP Entertainment Writer Sandy Cohen at www.twitter.com/APSandy .

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Lena Dunham Celebrates Gay Marriage Ruling, Tells Jack Antonoff 'Get On It'

June 26, 2015, 12:05 pm
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Lena Dunham celebrated the United States Supreme Court ruling on same-sex marriage Friday in a series of tweets, plus a message directed at her boyfriend. 











Dunham and her boyfriend, Bleachers' frontman Jack Antonoff, have been dating since 2012. The "Girls" star has been vocal about not planning to wed Antonoff until marriage was made legal for everyone in the U.S., including her sister Grace, who is gay.


"[T]he idea of having a celebration that can't be fully shared among all the people in my life and all the people that we love just doesn't really feel like a celebration at all," she told Ellen Degeneres in March. "So, until that's something that everyone can join into with no sense of being left out on any level, politically, emotionally, it's just not something that we're gonna do." 


 On Friday, with SCOTUS voting 5-4 to legalize same-sex marriage nationwide, a Dunham-Antonoff wedding became a lot more possible. 





Other stars have expressed similar sentiments about holding off on marriage in support of same-sex couples, like Kristen Bell and Dax Shepard, and Charlize Theron. Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt also said they'd wait, but wound up saying "I do" last year. 


-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.


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We Asked the Nearest Hippie About Scalia: It Was David Crosby

June 26, 2015, 12:23 pm
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Paraphrasing Janis Joplin, freedom's just another word... that Justice Antonin Scalia doesn't seem to understand.

In his convoluted, nine-page dissent against the Supreme Court's Obergefell v. Hodges ruling -- which officially makes gay marriage legal in every state -- Scalia went off the cultural-literacy rails, questioning the idea that intimacy and spirituality were freedoms and further suggesting that "Freedom of Intimacy is abridged rather than expanded by marriage. Ask the nearest hippie."

As luck would have it in The Huffington Post's New York headquarters, the nearest hippie happened to be the world's most famous hippie, David Crosby, who, like Joplin, performed at Woodstock. So ask him we did: what did he think of Justice Scalia's line of thinking?

"I think he's slagging gays and hippies," said Crosby, who had earlier appeared on Huff Post Live. "I don't think he understands either one. I think he's an old reactionary guy and I think he's failing to understand the basic thing: hippies and gay people are people. And we are citizens. And we live here. And we are his neighbors. He may not know that, but we are. And that's how he should see us. As citizens of the United States. Voters. People who should be equal. That was the idea of the country. Not 'maybe.' There's no 'if' about that, no gray area there. The idea was that people would be equal here -- all of us. Hippies and gay people included. Black people, white people, yellow people -- all people. People."

Crosby, who once recorded "Find the Cost of Freedom" with bandmates Stephen Stills, Graham Nash and Neil Young -- as well as other classic-rock songs laced with political commentary, including "Ohio" and "Almost Cut My Hair" -- lambasted Scalia as willfully looking past freedoms for all citizens.

"That's the basic thing that I think [Scalia] fails to see, and that I think the more reactionary elements in the court -- and in politics and in government -- fail to see," Crosby said. "That they avoid looking at -- consciously avoid it. I think they don't want to see us that way. And the truth is, the idea of the country was that that would be the way it was: we would be equal citizens."

He holds out little hope that things are headed in the right direction, either. "That's why the country was such a hopeful thing. But I don't think it's in good shape now. I think our government is bought and paid for, and not responsive to the citizens. At all. But I know what was started out with. I know what was intended, and I have not forgotten and I'm not going to roll over and put my paws up in the air and give up fighting for it. I think that's what we should be doing."

The Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young song most relevant to -- and perhaps supportive of -- Scalia's argument, "Love The One You're With," was written by Stephen Stills, not Crosby. Here it is anyway.

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'Scream' Actress Bella Thorne Wasn't Even Alive When Original Came Out

June 26, 2015, 12:38 pm
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MTV released the first eight minutes of its new series, "Scream," on June 25, in which Bella Thorne is seen playing a role quite similar to Drew Barrymore's in the 1996 original movie. If you recall that scene, things didn't end so well, so we can probably guess what happens to Thorne's character.

The 17-year-old actress appeared on "Late Night With Seth Meyers" to talk about her gruesome scene when he pointed out that she wasn't even born when the original film came out.

“I remember when the first 'Scream' film came out, it was really exciting for me,” Meyers said to Thorne. “A little depressing for me: You were not born when it came out.”

The "Shake It Up" actress was born Oct. 8, 1997, just two months before "Scream 2" was released. But though she missed the film's theatre debut, she did admit to watching the horror film later and loving it.

She went on to talk about how fun it was to shoot gory horror scenes, saying, "It's the most fun. I think it's even more fun than shooting something comedic. You're always messing around with the blood ... after I was done, I was covered in blood and I went around hugging all the producers and getting them all bloody."

You can watch Bella's interview with Seth in the video.

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The Real Piper Explains The Devastating Effects Of Solitary Confinement

June 26, 2015, 12:40 pm
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“I spent 13 months as a prisoner in the federal system... The longest amount of time I was placed alone in a holding cell was four hours and I was ready to climb the walls of that small room by the end of that.”

That's how author of Orange Is The New Black, Piper Kerman, began her February 2014 testimony at the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee hearings on solitary confinement. Unlike in the show, Kerman was never actually placed in solitary during her stay at a Federal Correctional Institution in Danbury, Connecticut. Still, she witnessed many of the devastating effects of solitary confinement and urged the committee to reform the government's practice of using solitary as punishment.

Kerman's testimony is particularly relevant if you've watched season 3 of Netflix's "Orange Is The New Black." In the new season, multiple characters are sent to or threatened with being sent to the SHU (security housing unit a.k.a. solitary confinement), shedding light on the misuse of solitary and the terrifying mental and emotional effects it has on prisoners.

(Spoiler alert!!) Sophia Burset is sent to the SHU for "her own protection" after she's assaulted for being transgender. Angie Rice is sent to the SHU after accidentally being released from prison and is later let out looking dead behind the eyes. In season two, you watch Piper slowly lose her mind after spending a month in the SHU.




In her testimony, Kerman discussed the devastating impact solitary has on women in prisons across the country. She touched on three main reasons why solitary confinement reform is necessary: the traumatic effect it has on prisoners' mental health, the way solitary is sometimes used as a way to cover up incidents of prisoners being sexually assaulted by guards and the negative impact it has on female prisoners and their children when visitation rights are revoked while in solitary.

Since this 2014 testimony there has been some reform in the use of solitary confinement as punishment for inmates. New York City has ended solitary confinement for prisoners under 21 years old and banned solitary for anyone with a mental illness or disability.

Although NYC has made progress, most prisons throughout the country still use solitary confinement to demean, humiliate and devastate prisoners. On any given day, there are about 80,000 inmates in solitary confinement in prisons around the country.

"Unlike the normal hive-like communities of prison, 24-hour lockdown leaves you in a six by eight cell for weeks or months or even years."

“Very minor infractions could send you to the SHU. They can then keep you there as long as they want, under whatever conditions they choose," Kerman said to the committee. "Unlike the normal hive-like communities of prison, 24-hour lockdown leaves you in a six by eight cell for weeks or months or even years. And this is unproductive for individuals, for prisons institutions and the outside communities, to which 97 percent of all prisoners return.”

In her testimony, Kerman pointed out the differences between women and men’s experiences in solitary, including the fact that women in prison are much more likely to suffer from mental illness than men. Seventy-five percent of women in prisons in the U.S. have a history of mental illness, and throwing them into solitary confinement can only worsen the negative effects of their illness.

“There are egregious examples of solitary confinement being used by prison officials to hide horrific, systemic sexual abuse under their watch."

She also talked about the way the SHU can be used to cover up the sexual harassment and assault of inmates by guards. “There are egregious examples of solitary confinement being used by prison officials to hide horrific, systemic sexual abuse under their watch," she said. "The terrible threat of isolation makes women afraid to report abuse and serves as a powerful, disincentive to ask for help or justice.”

Towards the end of her testimony, Kerman sums up why she's there: “Isolation should only be used when a prisoner is a threat to her own safety or that of others -- not when pregnant or suffering mental illness or for reporting abuse." Amen to that.

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.


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