• InstaHunk Stuart Reardon is giving his best “Clark Kent.” I’m willing to bet there’s a Superman under that shirt. I hear there’s an opening for the role, btw…
• Cody Wilson, who owns a business that distributes blueprints for untraceable 3-D printed guns, has been charged with sexually assaulting an underage girl in Texas. Clearly proving his innocence, Wilson fled the country for Taiwan.
• American Idol alum and current The Voice judge, Kelly Clarkson, is getting her own talk show. According to reports, she’ll be the lead-in for Ellen in many markets.
• A new, mature version of Batman, titled “Batman: Damned,” depicts the caped crusader naked. And by naked, I mean full-frontal.
I won’t post here, but I can share a glimpse of bat-butt. The new series is for the DC Black Label division.
In a new interview with Hill.tv, Donald Trump eviscerates his own Attorney General, Jeff Sessions, on a multitude of issues.
“I don’t have an Attorney General,” said Trump. “It’s very sad.”
The Trumpster has been angry with Sessions from practically day one of his time in the administration.
Sessions’ original sin was recusing himself from the investigation being led by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, which infuriated Trump.
“I’m not happy at the border, I’m not happy with numerous things, not just this,” said the president, referring to the recusal.
“I’m so sad over Jeff Sessions because he came to me,” laments Trump. “He was the first Senator that endorsed me. And he wanted to be Attorney General, and I didn’t see it.”
“And then he went through the nominating process and he did very poorly. I mean, he was mixed up and confused, and people that worked with him for, you know, a long time in the Senate were not nice to him, but he was giving very confusing answers. Answers that should have been easily answered. And that was a rough time for him.”
Asked if he is considering firing Sessions, Trump said, “We’ll see how it goes with Jeff. I’m very disappointed in Jeff. Very disappointed.”
Attorney General Jeff Sessions during his confirmation hearings
In the ongoing scandal regarding sexual misconduct allegations leveled against U.S. Supreme Court nominee Judge Brett Kavanaugh by college professor Christine Blasey Ford when they were high school students, the Senate Judiciary Committee has invited both Kavanaugh and Ford to testify next Monday.
Kavanaugh has agreed to appear, but in a letter from her lawyer yesterday, Ford requested a pause so the FBI can do a proper investigation of the issue.
Speaking through lawyers, Christine Blasey Ford said she would cooperate with the Senate Judiciary Committee and left open the possibility of testifying later about her allegations against Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh. But echoing Senate Democrats, she said an investigation should be “the first step” before she is put “on national television to relive this traumatic and harrowing incident.”
Republicans signaled Tuesday night that they would not negotiate an alternative date and would go ahead with the hearing without her or declare it unnecessary if she refuses to appear, then possibly move to a vote. They have repeatedly stressed that Monday would be Dr. Blasey’s opportunity to testify, either privately or publicly, and that they planned to move forward with the confirmation process afterward.
In a letter to Ford and her attorney, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA) repeated his invitation to testify this coming Monday.
He also stated, “It is not the FBI’s role to investigate a matter such as this.”
Kavanaugh has expressly denied the allegations.
His longtime friend, Mark Judge, who Ford alleges was in the room at the time of the alleged assault, has said he does not remember the incident and will not testify under oath.
Judge’s inclusion in the story makes for an interesting detail by Ford. Many experts say if she were lying, why would she include the presence of a third person in the room who might corroborate Kavanaugh’s denials?
Unless she’s telling the truth…?
A new Reuters/Ipsos poll shows only 31% of those polled support Kavanaugh’s nomination while 36% oppose (up six points from last week).
Check out the official trailer for Bigger, the new biopic that chronicles the lives of Joe and Ben Weider, who rose from poverty to become the indisputable leaders in the bodybuilding industry for over 50 years.
Former Teen Wolf co-stars Tyler Hoechlin (as Joe Weider) and Colton Haynes (as TV fitness guru Jack LaLanne) head up the cast.
Weider and his brother Ben (played by Aneurin Barnard) are widely credited with creating the modern bodybuilding/fitness movement.
From their fitness publishing empire that included Muscle & Fitness, Muscle Power and Shape magazines to Weider Nutrition founded in 1936, to founding the International Federation of Bodybuilders in 1946, the Weiders were THE leading force in fitness in decades.
In 1967, the IFBB launched its first competition, the world-renowned Mr. Olympia.
Weider also discovered and mentored the young Arnold Schwarzenegger for years in the early 1970s.
It wasn’t all muscle-bound glory, though. In the 1970s and 1980s, the brothers found themselves the target of several investigations regarding claims of false advertising about their products.
Haynes’ character, Jack LaLanne, became famous as America’s first TV fitness star in the 1950s, long before Richard Simmons and Jane Fonda thought about ‘feeling the burn.’
Writer/director Joe Gallo (Bad Boys, Midnight Run) described the film to Deadline as “beyond inspirational, and will resonate with not only the massive crowd of those who have found the balance of body and mind as essential for a healthy life but also the throngs of people that were inspired by Joe and his Mr. Olympia events.”
The flick also stars Julianne Hough as “Betty Weider,” Instagram celeb/bodybuilder Calum Von Moger as “Arnold Schwarzenegger,” and Billy Reilich (Ellen’s TV ‘gardener’) as English bodybuilder “Reg Park.”
The New York Times reports that the Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn will pay out $27.5 million to four men who were sexually abused as children by a religion teacher.
According to the settlement, each of the men will receive $6.8 million.
That amount ranks as one of the highest figures paid to survivors of sexual abuse in the Catholic Church.
According to New York Law Journal, Angelo Serrano, a volunteer and director of religious studies at St. Lucy-St. Patrick’s, allegedly abused the plaintiffs between 2003 and 2009 when they were between the ages of 8 and 12 years old.
Serrano pleaded guilty in 2011 and is currently serving a 15 year prison sentence.
This comes in the aftermath of a stunning grand jury report in Pennsylvania which found more than 1,000 children had been the targets of sexual misconduct by hundreds of priests over decades.
• Just to prove folks can be oh-so-sexy fully clothed, check out all of what med student Marco has going on underneath. Oh, yeah, and there’s that easy-on-the-eyes face. #woof
• The security guards who ejected fans waving rainbow flags at a concert by pop phenom Dua Lipa concert last week have been arrested for their actions.
• Britain’s High Court has overturned pharmaceutical company Gilead Science’s patent extension on Truvada. This ruling could mean affordable, generic versions of the drug could be available in the UK by April 2019.
• Roseanne Barr says the upcoming Roseanne spinoff, The Connors, will kill off her character by having her die of opioid overdose as a ‘screw you’ to Trump supporters. However, in the recent season of the rebooted Roseanne, writers had laid the groundwork for her character to struggle with prescription pain killer addiction.
• Digital series After Forever won “Best Short Film Ensemble” at the L.A. Indie Film Festival this weekend.
The folks at Sesame Street did respond to the recent revelation by tweeting a statement about the “best friends” which read, in part, “Even though they are identified as male characters and possess many human traits and characteristics (as most Sesame Street Muppets do), they remain puppets, and do not have a sexual orientation.”
Republicans need to all get in one room and come up with a singular defense for their Supreme Court nominee, Judge Brett Kavanaugh, when trying to tamp down the recent allegations that he sexually assaulted a teenage girl back in his high school days.
Then today, Carrie Severino, spokesperson of the Judicial Crisis Network, defended the judge on CNN.
JCN is the campaign group for Republican judicial nominations that handles promoting nominees to the public.
In a new take, Severino tried to make the case that what Kavanaugh’s accuser describes could have been a simple case of “rough horse play” as opposed to attempted rape.
Kavanaugh spokesperson/activist says it’s not clear that the incident was attempted rape as opposed to just “rough horseplay”. pic.twitter.com/cANvVNjFKX
Now, if Kavanaugh has “never done anything like” what Dr. Christine Blasey Ford has alleged, how could it be described as “rough horseplay?”
Or – how could the teenage Kavanaugh have engaged in “rough horseplay” if he wasn’t at the party in question?
I’m not the only one who thought this sounded rather odd…
“Horseplay” is the new “Locker room talk”.
COMING SOON: —Waterboarding = “goofing around” —Being thrown down a flight of stairs = “shenanigans” —Murder = “just breaking your balls a little” https://t.co/3lq0wz0jx7
I’m a regular guy: I put my pants on one leg at a time and I turn up my music real loud during horseplay to drown out the screams. https://t.co/9BKA2cqhLR
RuPaul accepts the Emmy Award for “Best Reality Competition Series”
It was a great night for LGBT-themed entertainment last night at the 2018 Primetime Emmy Awards as RuPaul’s Drag Race and the FX series The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story took home top honors in their categories.
Making Emmy Award history, RuPaul’s Drag Race won for “Best Reality Competition Series” and RuPaul took home his own Emmy for “Best Host of a Reality Competition Series.” This is the first time one series has won both awards in the reality category in the same year.
Accepting the honor for the series, RuPaul thanked all those who have supported and contributed to the success of the show, as well as, “all of the dreamers out there.”
The ‘Supermodel of the World’ closed his thanks by reminding folks, “If you can’t love yourself, how the hell you gonna love somebody else.”
In the “Best Limited Series” category, The Assassination of Gianni Versace garnered three Emmys last night, adding to the two won last week at the Creative Arts Emmy Awards.
In addition to the “Best Limited Series” trophy, Darren Criss, who turned in a star turn as gay serial killer Andrew Cunanan, won for “Best Actor in a Limited Series.”
And uber-gay creator and producer of the show, Ryan Murphy, won the award for Directing for the Gianni Versace episode, “The Man Who Would Be Vogue.”
In accepting the award for “Best Limited Series,” he dedicated the moment to the LGBTQ community.
Ryan Murphy dedicates his #Emmys win to the LGBTQ community. “We dedicate this award to awareness. To stricter hate crime laws.” (via THR) pic.twitter.com/Wh8Svi2GCT
Porn star Stormy Daniels disses Donald Trump’s bedroom abilities in her new memoir, Full Disclosure. The Guardian received an advance copy and shares this anecdote about the Trumpster’s now infamous Lake Tahoe tryst with Daniels.
Trump’s bodyguard invites Daniels to dinner, which turns out to be an invitation to Trump’s penthouse, she writes, in a description of alleged events that Daniels has disclosed previously but which in the book are rendered with new and lurid detail. She describes Trump’s penis as “smaller than average” but “not freakishly small.”
“He knows he has an unusual penis,” Daniels writes. “It has a huge mushroom head. Like a toadstool…
“I lay there, annoyed that I was getting fucked by a guy with Yeti pubes and a dick like the mushroom character in Mario Kart…”
“It may have been the least impressive sex I’d ever had, but clearly, he didn’t share that opinion.”
Daniels also writes that when she would see the reality show host on television during the years since the encounter, the memory of her sexual encounter with Trump did not grow fonder.
In fact, she describes her internal monologue as, “‘I had sex with that,’ I’d say to myself. Eech.”
“Mario Kart” and “Toad” instantly began trending on Twitter after The Guardian’s piece hit the internet.
Trump has denied the sexual encounter ever occurred although his former personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, paid Daniels $130,000 in ‘hush money’ just weeks before the 2016 presidential election.
Cohen has since pleaded guilty to multiple felony charges.
all I want on this earth is for sarah huckabee sanders to deny it. to come out, glare menacingly at all the nice reporters in the crowd, and say “no the president’s penis does not look like the little mushroom from mario kart”
The official trailer for the upcoming Mary Poppins Returns is here, and it’s everything we wanted it to be.
Starring Emily Blunt in the title role, the film also boasts a stellar cast including Lin-Manuel Miranda, Meryl Streep, Colin Firth, Angela Lansbury, Julie Walters and Dick Van Dyke.
Rob Marshall, who helmed the Disney take on Into the Woods, is on point as director.
The new film features new original songs with music by award-winning composer Marc Shaiman and lyrics by Scott Wittman and Shaiman.
Mary Poppins Returns lands in theaters December 19.
