“I hate karaoke,” Jonathan Groff tells me while shrugging on a leather jacket. “I love going to see other people do karaoke, but performing karaoke stresses me out. I get nervous that it’s like not in the right key. Or will I be able to hear the band? Is the mix right? Too many things out of my control.” This might come as a surprise, considering Groff, 29, was nominated for a Tony for his first role in a Broadway production, Spring Awakening, at the tender age of 22, before going on to star as Lea Michele’s vocally gifted boyfriend, Jesse St. James, on Glee.

But the baby-faced Groff, currently gearing up to film the second season of HBO’s comedy-drama Looking (oft-called the gay Girls [by idiots]), is more low-key than you’d expect from a guy who can claim Lea Michele as a BFF. (The two were co-stars in Spring Awakening, and Groff has to apologize for cutting our interview short, but he has to go meet Michele at Barnes & Noble to be on hand for a Q&A about her new memoir, Brunette Ambition.) [aw]

Groff is everywhere lately—announcing the nominees for the Tonys, making a cameo in Ryan Murphy’s adaptation of Larry Kramer’s epic AIDS drama The Normal Heart, and of course, being part of the whole Frozen juggernaut as Kristoff (a love interest who doesn’t turn out to be a total d-bag)—but he still approaches his fame with a sense of wary wonder.

“I haven’t googled myself in five years,” he brags, smiling. “I stay completely unhooked when it comes to social media.” That’s right … he doesn’t even have a Twitter account.

All these attributes in such a young star might be enough to make Groff emblematic of “New Hollywood”—his laid-back attitude towards stardom, his loyalty to a few choice contacts like Murphy, Michele and Looking’s co-creator Andrew Haigh. But add the fact that Groff began his career in Tinseltown already out of the closet, and the actor becomes much more than a symbol. He’s a sign of the changing times.

“I feel really lucky to be acting in 2014,” says Groff, who didn’t officially come out until after Spring Awakening. “Even 10 years ago, it was a totally different scene.”

Unlike hunks of yesteryear, Groff has spent no time in the closet.“I knew I would talk about it someday, but I didn’t know how or why or when. But then I fell in love for the first time after the show, and I thought ‘Well, I’d rather be out and be in love with this person than try to hide it for any job I had when I came out,’ so I just said fuck it.”

“Being in love was more powerful than any job I’d had before,” adds Groff, who came out publicly at the National Equality March in D.C. in 2009. “That was the impetus.”

Since then, Groff has had a crash course in what it means to be a gay celebrity in the era of Perez Hilton: he was linked romantically to actor Zachary Quinto when the Star Trek star was still in the closet, though the two have since broken up. Groff’s way of dealing with the drama was by refusing to take part in any of the Internet celebrity culture.

“I heard from friends of friends or whatever that like, ‘This picture was online’ or ‘I saw you and Zach walking down the street.’ So I’d know that things like that existed, but I don’t ever look at it.”

Currently, Groff is single and living in—where else?—Chelsea, biding time until Looking begins its shooting schedule. “I’m obsessed with Westville,” says the actor of his favorite dining spot in the neighborhood.“And if I have time, I’ll definitely try to hit up an Equinox during the day. I go to the pool. I see my friends.” Groff shrugs, embarrassed by his apparent normalcy. “It’s such a boring answer, but it’s true.”

But who says boring has to be bad? After all, many people called the first season of Looking boring — Slate actually described the experience of watching as “profound boredom,” and Alessandra Stanley of The New York Times called it “tame,” “muted” and “muffled.” Yet watching gay men act against type by acting like, well, normal people (as opposed to shrieking harridans or innuendo-laced queens [um what? fuck you, Scene mag]) struck enough of a chord that HBO picked it up for a second season.

“The most surprising reaction I’ve gotten (about Looking) was when I showed it to my brother and his wife,” states Groff. “I thought, being straight and also coming from Pennsylvania, that they would watch it because I was family. But they ended up getting really into the show and really invested in it. It was surprising to meet people who weren’t gay but could get what we were trying to say.”

In Looking, Groff plays Patrick, a shy video game programmer who spends the season hanging out with friends, going on awkward dates, lusting after a coworker and dealing with the anxiety of bringing a date to his sister’s wedding. Far from the raucousness of Girls (which was HBO’s lead-in to the show), Looking was transgressive by not being transgressive; portraying Patrick’s life as a late 20-something with a distinct lack of remarkableness, despite being—gasp—a homosexual.

“I don’t think of sexuality that much when I’m trying to find a part,” says Groff of his recent roles in Looking and The Normal Heart. “I think of the people I’m working with and the project and the piece. And it just so happens that the last two jobs I got have to do with being gay, which is great because I have an added stake in it. So that’s been sort of a nice plus, but it’s not the main reason I took the jobs.”

Groff’s logic behind picking projects has a lot to do with the people behind them. “Most of the time, it’s a case of being drawn to the work of people I admire,” he tells me. Murphy, who directed The Normal Heart, was introduced to his Glee star Michele through Groff, with whom he had filmed a pilot for FX after Spring Awakening.

Groff was a fan of Andrew Haigh’s breakout film Weekend and considers the cast and crew of Looking to be part of his family. “We’ve evolved socially in a way I’ve never had on the job,” Groff says.


As for the next season of Looking, Groff stands by his “dream cameo,” Odd Future’s Frank Ocean. But if he had to pick someone to do a sex scene with, it’d be his C.O.G. co-star Corey Stoll. (You may remember him as the doomed Russo from the first season of House of Cards.)

“We had a potentially almost romantic scene, but then it turned out to be not romantic,” Groff says of filming C.O.G., a movie based on a David Sedaris short story, with Stoll. “So I would like to fulfill that — the starting of the relationship, and maybe have a love affair with Corey Stoll.”

As for other details—both about the next season of Looking and his own life—Groff is playing it close to the vest. “My favorite thing first and foremost is just getting the chance to act. That’s my favorite thing to do. So the fact that I got to do that this year is great. Then all this other stuff feels like really great extra experiences.”

Not for nothing, one of these extras just happens to be singing a benefit concert with Glenn Close on June 2. Hey, doesn’t sound too boring to us.

Source

On Tuesday's episode of The Colbert Report, host Stephen Colbert riffed on the recent ruling by the Department of Health and Human Services that paves the way for Medicare coverage of transition-related surgical care.

"But now men are becoming women, women are becoming men, and my inbox is becoming full with your angry letters every time I talk about it," Colbert deadpanned to the camera. "I know, I'm cis-hetero nazi scum. I accept your judgement."



Colbert has a mixed record on transgender topics. In February, trans writer and activist Janet Mock dropped by the show to discuss her new book, Redefining Realness, as well as her infamous appearances on the now-canceled Piers Morgan Live.

Prior to that, however, Colbert had been criticized for relying on transphobic humor on his show in several instances.

"Folks, it's just like when someone lies to you," Colbert said during an October 2013 segment of "The Word.""Technically, they're telling you the truth, as long as you never find out it was a lie." As he said this, text on-screen read "Or notice her Adam's apple."

"President-elect Obama is meeting every day with his transition team, or in beltway lingo, 'trannies,'" Colbert joked in a November 2008 episode.

"Colbert isn't using these jokes to mock conservatives' transphobia, he's just using time-tested trans jokes for easy laughs," reads a post on the blog Your Moment of Transmisogyny. "And because liberals — as well as conservatives — find the idea of a trans person to be the most hilarious/disgusting thing ever, these jokes fucking kill."

Other bloggers — like PQ Monthly's Leela Ginelle — have noted Colbert's propensity to use trans women as punchlines, and a Change.org petition calling for Colbert — along with Jon Stewart, Comedy Central, Viacom, and producers of both The Daily Show and The Colbert Report — to stop making jokes at the expense of trans individuals has more than 6,000 signatures as of press time.

To his credit, Colbert's latest segment seems more in line with the traditional, satirical nature he applies to other subjects, making the punchline of the joke conservatives who "don't get it," as opposed to trans women themselves.

"I agree to be totally cool with it — which I clearly am, which Time magazine clearly is, which all the people lobbying for [Carmen Carrera] to be a Victoria's Secret clearly are — as long as you are hot," Colbert says toward the end of the segment. "But now you want me to accept unattractive transgender people? Where does it end? Will I have to accept unattractive non-transgender people? What am I made of? Humanity?"


Source
There's a video, but it won't embed. So go to the source to watch it.

Melissa McCarthy started a line of plus-size clothing in part because no one would make her a dress for Academy Awards.

“When I go shopping, most of the time I’m disappointed,” she tells Redbook. “Two Oscars ago, I couldn’t find anybody to do a dress for me. I asked five or six designers — very high-level ones who make lots of dresses for people — and they all said no.”

That inspired McCarthy to begin her own fashion endeavor.

As for her marriage to Ben Falcone, the actress says they’ve stayed solid by staying grounded.

She tells the magazine, “We have a great marriage, and outside forces can’t really change that. Success doesn’t define us, even though we love what we do.”

Source

source

Lana Del Rey Is Anyone She Wants to Be
STORY BY: DUNCAN COOPER | PHOTOGRAPHY: GEORDIE

The camera zooms in on Lana Del Rey as she turns away from the crowd, hiding all but the slightest silhouette of her face. In the background, a massive screen flickers deep purple and blue; beside her on stage sits a potted palm. For one full minute: riotous, embracing applause. Gently, she wipes a tear with the middle finger of her left hand, then wipes her nose, which from this angle appears as the bottom-half of a perfectly slender S curve that begins on her forehead, shimmies down her face and ramps off into the void. Finally, she turns to address the audience, smiles and says, “I think you’re going to have to sing it for me.” The piano starts, and everyone complies, very loudly and very clearly. She tries to sing too, of course, then pauses to cry and smile at the same time, seemingly overwhelmed by the audience’s affection. But no one else stops singing: It’s you, it’s you, it’s all for you…

Lana Del Rey, the singer whose entire self so often seems a carefully constructed display, didn’t conceive of this scene, like she has the many music videos that helped propel her to fame. First came the eerily star-foreshadowing montages of 2008, in which she stitched together found footage and vamped in front of an American flag under her given name, Lizzy Grant. Back then, sometimes she’d make four videos for the same song, but most times, nobody much saw them. Next came “Video Games,” which applied that same cut-up look to a slightly fuller sound, and thrust Grant, now singing as Lana Del Rey, from bedroom clips to blockbusters. Then the big budgets arrived: she sat on a throne backed by two tigers in the video for “Born to Die,” embodied both Jackie O and Marilyn in a span of minutes for “National Anthem” and, for “Tropico,” lounged with Elvis and John Wayne in CGI heaven. Lana Del Rey’s filmography is a master class on how to build an icon, and yet, no footage feels like proof of her iconicity as much as the shaky clip of a teary 2013 performance, shot on a phone by a fan in Dublin.

I ask her why she was crying. “I’d been sick on tour for about two years with this medical anomaly that doctors couldn’t figure out,” she says, to my surprise. “That’s a big part of my life: I just feel really sick a lot of the time and can’t figure out why. I’d gotten these shots in Russia, where we’d just been. It was just heavy. It’s just heavy performing for people who really care about you, and you don’t really care that much about yourself sometimes. I thought it was sad. I thought my position was sad. I thought it was sad to be in Ireland singing for people who really cared when I wasn’t sure if I did.” I’d expected self-congratulation, the triumph of finally making it. You never really know.

We’re speaking in the Brooklyn backyard of this story’s photographer, and she’s wearing one of his shirts. It fits her poorly—probably a men’s XXL—and with her hair and makeup done up for the cover shoot, she gives the impression of a young lumberjack’s date the morning after prom. She must know this. They’d been taking the photos in the house earlier, in an attempt at a more laid-back glimpse of a star known for her Hollywood glamour, when she noticed a rack of his vintage clothes and asked to pull from it. More than raw beauty, hers is the gift of producing a precise effect; voilá, she looks like somebody’s girlfriend.

It’s a few weeks before the release of her second major-label album, Ultraviolence, and like any artist with over a billion YouTube views, the 27-year-old Lana Del Rey is blessed and cursed with a punishing schedule. By the time I click off my recorder, after nearly 90 minutes, her publicist has twice come out to end the interview. In both cases, she rebuffs him. Barefoot, she carries a casualness with hardly a hint of the imperious pop star I’d expected; she’s excited, pensive, a little bit apprehensive. After, she tells me it’s the longest interview she’s ever done.

From the backyard where we sit, through an old screen door with a frame rimmed in dried-out vines, I can always hear her entourage. Among the six or seven inside, there’s her bodyguard, formerly employed by Brad Pitt, and her British stylist, Johnny Blueeyes, who during the shoot was prone to bursting into the room and crying, “You’re a staaaar!” The whole team, she says, was hired in 2011, after “Video Games” attracted offers from Interscope and Polydor. “I met everyone the same week,” she says. “Because I was very shy, I just sort of stuck with them.” Later, she mentions the staff again, by way of self-analysis. “I’m never the star of my own show,” she says. “I have a very complicated family life. I have a complicated personal life. It’s not just my life, it’s everyone else’s in this extended family unit. It’s always about someone else, even with the people I work with. I’m the quietest person on the set, generally. I’m actually the one that’s trying to keep it all together. It’s pretty weird. It’s a weird, weird world.” She’s chain-smoking Parliaments.

Everyone knows Lana Del Rey’s so-called true identity: she was born Elizabeth Grant, daughter to an entrepreneur who sold domain names. In the press, there’s been a perverse joy in labeling her a phony, whether that’s regarding her supposedly surgically enhanced lips (she has always denied this), or the rebranding that marked her early career. She was born in Lake Placid, in upstate New York, and went to boarding school in Connecticut. When she first started doing shows in 2006, while studying metaphysics at Fordham University in the Bronx, it was with a folky bent and a guitar that her uncle taught her how to play. The F chord was too hard, she later told the BBC’s Mark Savage—“Four fingers? Never going to happen”—but she recorded an acoustic album as May Jailer just the same. (That record, Sirens, was never released, though it eventually leaked online.) In 2008, while still in college, she signed a $10,000 record deal with an indie label called 5 Points and moved to a trailer park in North Bergen, New Jersey. index Magazine filmed a giddy interview with her there; she appears in a car mechanic’s windbreaker, her platinum blonde hair tied up with a baby blue scarf, and, when asked about the “very cohesive package” of her musical identity, says, “It has been a lifelong ambition and desire… to have a defined life and a defined world to live in.” During this period, she teamed with David Kahne, a producer for Paul McCartney and The Strokes, and developed a more idiosyncratic sound for her self-penned lyrics, with affected jazz vocals, synthesized orchestra sections and hip-hop drums—an uncanny mix of old and new. Under the name Lizzy Grant, she released an EP, Kill Kill, and recorded an album, Lana Del Ray A.K.A. Lizzy Grant, which sat on 5 Points’ shelf for two years before it was digitally released in 2010. By then, she’d gone brunette with swooping Veronica Lake curls, and was spending time in London in search of another deal. With the help of a newly hired manager and lawyer, she bought back the album rights and pulled it from the market. Henceforth, she would be known as Lana Del Rey.

You can read the rest of the article here.

SOURCE

“She’s a very different character to what I would normally be associated with,” says the Bristol native. “Being a complete newcomer to acting through Game Of Thrones, I’ve been trying to learn as much as I can from other people and I really loved this opportunity.”

Cast in Game Of Thrones when she was just 12, Williams has become famous, especially in the US, due to the show’s devoted following — but she herself has grown more and more devoted to the craft of acting and determined to stay in the business.

“I’m the youngest of four and my first words were ‘and me’ so that’s my character,” she says. “I’m grateful I was a show-off when I was little. I was in the right place at the right time when Nina Gold cast me, I had the right look for the role and I was similar to Arya .

“Now I’ve grown into the role and I’ve learned a lot more about acting. I had to learn the hard way I guess but I’m grateful that people saw something in me. I don’t come from a world where opportunities like this happen and I’m going to make the most of it.”

Working on The Falling, she says, “was nice to build a base of friends my own age in the industry as well. This is my future and it’s good to meet other people, similar ages to you, who have the same passions.”


The other rising actors are Jamie Blackley (If I stay), Olivia Cooke ( Bates Motel), Sophie Cookson ( Kingsman: The Secret Service ) ,Taron Egerton ( Kingsman: The Secret Service ), Aimée-Fffion Edwards (Skins, Peaky Blinders, Wolf Hall), Sam Keeley (Misfits ) , Eleanor Tomlinson ( Jack and the Giant Slayer,Poldark) , Kate Philipps ( Wolf Hall) , JackLowden ( The tunnel, Wolf Hall, Pan) , Mia Goth (The tunnel, Nymphomaniac) ,Kevin Guthrie ( Sunshine on Leith, Misfits), Edward Holcroft ( Wolf Hall, Kingsman : The Secret Service) , Calvin Demba ( Youngers ) , Aisling Franciosi ( the Fall) , Callum Turner ( Queen and Country) and Mckell David.

Continuing a grand tradition of alternative footballing anthems is Lily Allen, who has unveiled what she claims is an unofficial World Cup song, entitled Bass Like Home.

The UK's campaign in Brazil is currently without an official musical mouthpiece after the FA dropped Gary Barlow's song Greatest Day, thanks to its previous association with Sport Relief. Barlow, already smarting from recent tax avoidance revelations, had recorded a new version of the Take That hit with guests including Kimberley Walsh, Katy B, Glenn Hoddle and Geoff Hurst.

Now, just as dad Keith did with his lager-chucking hit Vindaloo during France 98, Allen has offered up something slightly edgier with her track, a smooth bit of garage-pop. Allen posted the song on her official Soundcloud and announced it on Twitter, but it was quickly removed. However, a Soundcloud user claims to have the original version. You can hear it below.

Then after a Rule Britannia-sampling bridge, the chorus somewhat recalls the commanding lyrics of New Order's World In Motion as she sings: "Move your feet, touch that crown, dig your heels into the ground."

It joins other songs outside those sanctioned for the cup, including Pop Will Eat Itself's Fifa protest song Reclaim The Game (Funk Fifa), and Pais Do Futebol, which features Brazilian striker Neymar on vocals. The official anthem for the competition is We Are One (Ole Ola) from Pitbull, Jennifer Lopez and Claudina Leitte.

In other Allen news, her brother Alfie has denied that Lily was ever offered the part of his fictional sister in Game of Thrones, in which he plays Theon Greyjoy. Lily claimed she turned down the part as it involved an incestuous relationship, but Alfie said: "The only thing I'm going to say on that is that it's not true."


source

REAL TALK: JOIN THE ONTD OFFICIAL WORLD CUP BRACKET CHALLENGE. BROUGHT TO U BY THE SAME CREATOR OF THE MARCH MADNESS ONE. PASSWORD IS THOT

ESPN Bracket Predictor Group: WORLD CUP THOTS: http://games.espn.go.com/world-cup-bracket-predictor/en/group?groupID=34969&groupp=dGhvdA%3D%3D&invitesource=twitter&inviteuser=NTE1NjY1NjQzA&ex_cid=invite-twitter-worldcupbp

Adriana Lima, gracing the cover of Vogue Italia‘s June 2014 issue, teaching you how it's done.

SOURCE

Chat + COME GET IT BAE

Topics

• THE BAES


• Nerves (or lack thereof) for returning with a solo album after 8 years


• Being grateful


• Joining The Voice and me his wife


• His one request on his Rider

HAPPY:



MARILYN MONROE







source, 2, 3

I wanna see him live so bad :'( Now that it's been out for a while, fav tracks off the album?

Several years ago ‘Mama June’ Shannon’s foot was run over by a forklift, and so her ‘forklift foot’ was born.

The reality star and mother to Honey Boo Boo Child always wears socks to keep her deformed foot covered up, although she did once unveil it on the show at a water park – which promptly led to gnats buzzing around it.

She wasn’t about to let the injury stop her from having a good time on a family day at the pool on Thursday, however.

This time the ‘forklift foot’ remained firmly under wraps in socks, which Mama June wore in the water even though they were everyday socks and not designed for swimming in.

The family are currently enjoying a holiday to Panama Beach, Florida, where they were spotted enjoying their pool day.

It wasn’t just her socks that were an odd choice for the occasion, as Mama June also wore a camisole top and shorts over her swimwear.








Source

Are you embarrassed by a part of your body?

The 2013 NBA Finals were brilliant. All a reasonable fan could ask for when the series ended was more. Well, we got it.




Finals rematches don't come about too often, but the Basketball Gods blessed us this season by doling out another helping of Spurs vs. Heat. What makes this serving so rich is that the last course was basically perfect ... provided you aren't a heartbroken San Antonio fan. Last June, we got a compelling basketball series that focused almost entirely on basketball, a wonderful feat in today's media age. With loads of future Hall of Famers, stunning moments and seven games of drama, you couldn't really ask for more.




The question now is whether this edition will live up to that standard. In essence, that's a question for the Miami Heat, who don't seem to be quite as good as they were in 2013. Coming off of back-to-back titles, Miami took it easy this season. Dwyane Wade rested plenty, LeBron James put less effort into his defense and the team seemed totally content to get into the playoffs healthy, even at the expense of home court advantage.




And that's exactly what happened: Miami finished in the East's No. 2 spot and well behind a few West contenders in the standings, but ended up with a refreshed Wade and a healthy roster. The plan worked.



And it's for all the wrong reasons.
But the Spurs made sure to rest key players heavily too and still ended up with the NBA's best record. That's what makes San Antonio the favorites to win this series: the Spurs had the same goals as the Heat and still blew most opponents out of the water. That Miami is back in the Finals should tell us that the Playoff Heat are a different squad than the one we saw for about six months of regular season ball. But the Spurs just cut through the nasty West. San Antonio is better than they looked in the regular season too!




The best thing about the 2013 Finals was that the teams were so evenly matched that any single player on either squad could be the difference. And we're not just talking about the legends of the series, the Duncans, LeBrons, Wades and Parkers. Danny Green could be the difference. James Jones. Kawhi Leonard. Chris Andersen. When two teams match up well, every little thing matters. That makes for compelling basketball.




LeBron isn't used to being the underdog. The last time his team wasn't expected to win may have been in the 2007 Finals, when the Cavaliers faced the rampaging Spurs. San Antonio swept Cleveland easily.




San Antonio has talked about wanting revenge for last year's title loss to LeBron and the Heat. Perhaps they are missing that 2013 was LeBron's revenge for 2007. No one really cares about legacy all that much, but the result here could decide whether the Spurs are seen as a persistent foil to LeBron's reign or one of the Homerian challenges King James overcame in the end.




Regardless of what narrative springs from the loins of this series, the basketball itself figures to be beautiful and compelling. That's all we want in the end: something to make our heart flutter. Here's to the Spurs and the Heat, purveyors of sport magic and worthy champions.




-Tom Ziller

Seth Rollins betrays The Shield and joins Evolution: Reasons to be Excited and Afraid

Setting our feelings aside (mostly), we look at the potential positives and negatives stemming from the shocking events of June 2nd in the latest edition of the series we trot out for big angles like Seth Rollins turning on The Shield.


We've had some time to sleep on it (or at least, those of us who aren't vampires that live for the impassioned blood of pro wrestling fans), so it's time to take an analytical look at the break-up of The Hounds of Justice.

Oh, who am I kidding? SAY IT AIN'T SO, SETH!

Here are the reasons this mark is excited and afraid about a future with Seth Rollins aligned with Randy Orton and Triple H in Evolution against his former Shield-mates, Dean Ambrose and Roman Reigns.

On the one hand:

1) Those feelings that you're feeling.Those don't just happen. In fiction, in life or the unique blend of both that is pro wrestling, shock, betrayal, sadness and anger have to be earned. And WWE worked for this over the last eighteen months. It almost certainly wasn't drawn up exactly like this, but teams are built to be broken. Fans, performers and behind-the-scenes players all know this.

So to create something where the dissolution of a team was both meaningful AND a surprise is pretty awesome.

2) Rollins works great as a heel, and this was one of the heelishly heel turns ever.

Prior to his debut as as a member of The Shield at Survivor Series 2012, I wasn't the world's biggest fan of the characters Colby Lopez had portrayed in the independents or in WWE.

With one exception...his heel championship run as Tyler Black in Ring of Honor (ROH) just prior to his departure for WWE.

That character came about because the ROH fans had labeled him a sellout when word of his contract with Stamford broke, and he claimed that they were just then revealing their true feelings. They had never appreciated him, so why should he look out for anyone but number one?

Sound familiar?

Solo babyface Seth Rollins was always kind of a dull affair. For those familiar with the current NXT product, he was more Adrian Neville than Sami Zayn. He's grown considerably as good guy within The Shield, but it's a good call to have his first work without Reigns and Ambrose on the main stage to be as a rudo.

3) Speaking of NXT, we're about to get some rematches of one of the greatest feuds in the history of its predecessor, Florida Championship Wrestling (FCW).

Go and seek out the feud between Rollins and Ambrose over the FCW15 title, especially the 30 minute blowoff from September of 2011. And their follow-up matches from the first half of 2012 over the Florida Heavyweight Championship.

You can thank me later.

It'll be fun to see Dean and Seth do it again with the alignments reversed.

Bonus excited: My word, is Roman Reigns going to get one of the loudest babyface pops of all-time when he gets his revenge on Seth (if they do this right).

On the other hand:

1) What if they don't do this right?

WWE's recent track record feels pretty solid right now, but that's largely the result of the story that culminated with Daniel Bryan's WWE World Heavyweight Championship win at WrestleMania 30. Outside of that and the peripheral angles that it created (of which it can be argued the Batista heel turn which lead to Evolution reforming which lead to last night is one of them), they remain the same hit and mostly miss operation that they've been since the fall of WCW.

So while I'm confident that the BIG story that results in Seth and Triple H getting their comeuppance - and turning Reigns into the next main event hero, a la Bryan - will work out, I'm less confident in other aspects. There's precedent for WWE to screw up all of them...

Do they have Dean Ambrose's story plotted out enough to avoid his spending time adrift as a babyface in the mid-card title scene? I believe that he's got too much skill and charisma to get lost, but it's been known to happen to similar performers (see: Ziggler, D.)

Can they position Randy Orton to not end up just as lost as he was before last Summer? The Viper runs at the top make him an extremely valuable tool in Creative's toolbox. Wins over him need to matter, like they did for Daniel Bryan...as opposed to the way he spent his last year-plus as a babyface adrift...kind of like Sheamus is now.

What's the long-term plan for Rollins? Young guys usually flourish as part of a villainous stable, but "what's next?" can be a bit of stumbling block. Heels are built to lose, and as we've seen time and time again, it's what they do when they get back up that makes the difference between a hot angle and a long career. Ask Wade Barrett, just now recovering from Nexus' defeats of four years ago,

2) Does this development elevate anyone?

Long-term, yes, this continues the capital-M making of The Shield. Making as many of the trio into long-term main eventers is a worthy and essential goal.

But it's also simply a re-arranging of guys that were already big stars. While they've only held lesser titles in the company, The Hounds of Justice have been around the WWE championship since their debut, and have been in one of the top two or three angles in the company for most of the last year.

Does this help with the fact that Bryan will probably still be facing Kane when he returns? Or that John Cena and Bray Wyatt may be (unnecessarily and potentially damagingly) heading into their fourth straight pay-per-view (PPV) against one another?

A large part of the reason that WWE scrambles when top stars leave or go down is because they focus so myopically on the big stars. It's great that everyone is talking about Rollins' turn this morning. But it would be even greater if they were working on the new star or moment we'll be buzzing about in six months or a year.

3) Dean Ambrose: hero of the people?

As talented as he is, Ambrose's performance lends itself to playing an unhinged, even dangerous, character. The multitude comparisons to Batman villain The Joker don't happen for no reason.

The last few months of face Shield has shown that he can do that, but I don't think it allows him to reach his full potential. I want to see solo Dean unleashed to corrupt the WWE's heroes and bring down the whole enterprise, not play Riggs to Roman's Murtaugh in an odd couple buddy flick.

And while an anti-hero face works in small doses, we already kind of have one right now. It would probably be easier to craft a fully realized heel from Ambrose now, with the lessons they've learned from how fans have embraced Wyatt as a "cool heel", than it would be to turn back the tide of audiences singing along to "He's Got the Whole World in His Hands".

Final Analysis: 85% excited, 15% afraid...100% MARKING OUT

How's everybody else feeling about last night's big twist, following twelve hours to process and twelve thousand words on cSs to consider?

For those who didn't see it :(


and Bae responded :(

Trust is completely dead to me. pic.twitter.com/ytvu6LSO1r

— Roman Reigns (@WWERomanReigns) June 3, 2014

Ummm ...

The end of the Donald Sterling saga is a victory for the NBA

Mark J. Terrill/AP
Merely a week after his attorney pledged a fight "to the bloody end" to keep the Clippers, Donald Sterling has bloodlessly dropped his lawsuit against the NBA. The NBA Board of Governors is expected to approve former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, who last week reached a deal to buy the Clippers for $2 billion, as the next Clippers owner. Donald and Shelly Sterling, who together own the Clippers through a family trust, will split the $2 billion. According to an estimate by Robert Raiola, a senior manager in the Sports & Entertainment Group of the accounting firm O'Connor Davies, LLP, approximately $662 million of the $2 billion will be paid to the I.R.S. and California Franchise Tax Board in capital gains taxes.
Sterling's decision ends an extraordinary controversy that began about five weeks ago, when TMZ.com published a recording of Sterling making racist comments to an acquaintance, V. Stiviano, about an Instagram photo in which she posed with Magic Johnson. The recording sparked an international controversy for the NBA. Players threatened a boycott, corporate sponsors dropped the Clippers, and President Obama, along with other leaders, expressed outrage at Sterling's remarks. The controversy was like none before it, and it occurred just two months after Adam Silver succeeded David Stern as NBA commissioner.

Decisive legal win for NBA and validation of league strategy
The NBA outmaneuvered Donald Sterling at every step, making it virtually impossible for him to wage an effective legal fight. The league's immediate response to the TMZ story was to conduct an investigation and verify the authenticity of the recording. The NBA retained former assistant U.S. attorney David Anders to lead this investigation, with Silver, an attorney by trade, and NBA executive vice president and general counsel Rick Buchanan overseeing the operation from league headquarters. Anders obtained crucial evidence that authenticated both the recording and Sterling's voice, and he received direct testimony from Stiviano. Stiviano's statements were crucial. They ensured the NBA would not have to rely exclusively on the recording, which may have been created unlawfully under California law. Even though the NBA likely possessed a clear legal right to use the recording, the testimony from Stiviano was powerful backup evidence.

Silver's move to suspend Sterling for life and recommend the Board of Governors end Sterling's ownership was bold and exceeded what many expected. In hindsight, Silver's decisive course of action was the right one, as NBA owners were put on immediate notice the commissioner wanted them to vote out Sterling. Any goodwill Sterling might have obtained over the years from friendships with fellow owners was likely outweighed by Silver's clear directive. Sterling was quickly in the hole.
The NBA then built a compelling legal case against Sterling and adroitly used the league's constitution. To execute this strategy, the league quickly pivoted from expressing outrage over Sterling's words to highlighting the damage Sterling caused the NBA. The NBA made this shift in rhetoric to quash concerns, most notably from Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, that Sterling was receiving the harshest punishment possible over fundamentally private comments. Sterling, the league contended, was being punished not for his words but for the deleterious effects of those words on the NBA. The league also assured NBA owners that ousting Sterling would not create a precedent to oust owners, especially since the league constitution was designed to make such an ouster very difficult: a super-majority of three-quarters (22 of the 29 other ownership groups) is required.

This line of argument also helped the NBA mollify serious criticism for the league's past failures to oust Sterling over housing discrimination, an obviously far more serious matter than racist comments made in private. The league's emphasis on impact helped NBA officials talk through the topic of Sterling's housing discrimination. Sterling, officials noted, was able to settle housing discrimination lawsuits before they caused public outrage and thus before they harmed the NBA. Sterling's remarks to Stiviano, in contrast, caused public outrage and negatively impacted the league.
The NBA also used the bevy of legal documents Sterling, an attorney by trade, signed with the league. Two of those documents, the franchise agreement and the joint venture agreement, contained covenants prohibiting Sterling from taking positions adverse to the NBA. Breach of those covenants enabled the NBA to argue Sterling violated Article 13(d), which empowers the league to oust an owner from violating contractual obligations. The league was aware it could interpret the constitution broadly. Any legal challenge by Sterling to the NBA's interpretation of its own constitution would have required Sterling to prove the NBA acted "arbitrarily and capriciously." This is a deferential standard that would have been extremely forgiving to NBA interpretation.

Any fleeting chance Sterling may have held to win at least eight of the 29 ownership votes was forfeited in his bizarre and caustic interview with CNN's Anderson Cooper. While Sterling assured Cooper he was sorry for his remarks to Stiviano, he viciously and inexplicably attacked the character of Magic Johnson. If Sterling thought his fellow owners would appreciate an ad hominen assault on Johnson, he was sorely mistaken.

The league catches a break with a cooperative and astute Shelly Sterling
Until the last two weeks, Shelly Sterling was thought to be a potential roadblock for the NBA to remove her husband as owner. Shelly Sterling owns half of the Clippers through a family trust, but she is a non-controlling owner. Donald Sterling, in contrast, is the team's controlling owner, which gives him the power to sell the Clippers with NBA approval. There was some speculation Shelly Sterling, who has been implicated in her own controversies over the years, might use her interest in the Clippers to block a sale. It was also thought she might divorce her husband of 59 years and, since California is a community property state, demand a judge conduct a fair market valuation of the Clippers. Such a valuation could have taken months or longer. Finally, Shelly Sterling's suggestion to Barbara Walters that her husband may be suffering early signs of dementia was initially viewed as an attempt to cast the NBA as trying to oust an elderly man who is no longer responsible for his choice of words.

Instead, Shelly Sterling, with Donald Sterling's apparent knowledge if not his blessing, sought out offers for the Clippers. She did so while recognizing the NBA Board of Governors was going to vote out Donald -- and by legal extension her -- on June 2. She wisely created a brief but intense bidding war for the Clippers, with bidders having to put in their best offer as their only bid. Ballmer's $2 billion offer topped the list, but there were several other bids that far exceeded expectations for the Clippers, which were valued last year at $500 million. Shelly Sterling also knew Ballmer would be well-received by the NBA, which had favorably screened Ballmer last year when he tried to buy the Sacramento Kings. Ballmer is also friendly with many NBA owners and is a lock to be approved by the Board of Governors.

Shelly Sterling still faced an obstacle: how could she sell the Clippers while her husband was uncertain about selling the team? Her attorneys believed she could take over the family trust because doctors had apparently declared Donald Sterling mentally incompetent due to dementia. It remains unclear if a probate court ever approved such a declaration, and we may never find out.
Donald Sterling's lawsuit had almost no chance of success
Shelly Sterling's declaration her husband was incompetent was initially met with hostility by Donald Sterling's attorney, Max Blecher, who denied his client was in anyway incapable of making decisions. This view was cemented when Donald Sterling filed a lawsuit last Friday against the NBA, arguing the league was unlawfully forcing him out.
Donald Sterling's lawsuit set the table for a long and potentially historic fight with the NBA, but sources confirm the league was decidedly unimpressed by Sterling's legal arguments. Sterling built a case around three basic areas of law that were difficult to conceive as carrying much weight. Sterling argued California privacy law blocked the NBA from using the recording, but the NBA was aware the law only extended to parties to the recording, not third parties like the NBA. Sterling then argued the NBA misinterpreted its own constitution, but the NBA knew it would be afforded wide discretion by a judge in interpreting its own document, especially since Sterling himself contractually consented to league discretion. Sterling lastly raised the always-threatening antitrust law, but the league knew Sterling could likely prove no antitrust injury. Sterling's ouster from the Clippers would likely help, not hurt, the Clippers' standing with consumers.
The NBA was worried even less by Sterling's lawsuit because Shelly Sterling, on behalf of herself and the Sterling family trust, indemnified the NBA from all costs related to Donald Sterling suing the league. In essence, then, if Donald Sterling defeated the NBA in court, he would effectively be paying half of the damages awarded to him: the trust, which he co-owns, and his wife, with whom he shares half of their wealth under California community property law, would be paying him.
The one issue that may have undermined the NBA's legal strategy was if Donald Sterling contested to his wife's account of his mental competence. He could have sued her, arguing she lacked the legal right to take over the Sterling family trust. If a court found she lacked the legal capacity to sell the team, then her sale of the Clippers to Ballmer would have been jeopardized. But apparently Donald Sterling, who is 80 years old, reasoned that such a battle was not worth his time, energy and expense, especially when compared to a $2 billion payout.

Silver's newfound power will help him with other issues
Silver's ouster of the notoriously litigious Donald Sterling with essentially no resistance, while simultaneously raising the value of all NBA teams through the Clippers' $2 billion price tag, was masterful. It cements his authority over the NBA, and Silver will likely use his newfound capital to pursue his original agenda items, with raising the NBA's age limit to 20 years old at the top of the list. Raising the age limit will require negotiation with the National Basketball Players' Association once the union selects a new executive director. But Silver has built goodwill with prominent NBA players, including Lebron James (who ironically entered the NBA out of high school), and that should help him obtain his goals, including an elevated age limit.
Michael McCann is a Massachusetts attorney and the founding director of the Sports and Entertainment Law Institute at the University of New Hampshire School of Law. He is also the distinguished visiting Hall of Fame Professor of Law at Mississippi College School of Law.

Jurgen Klinsmann says the United States can't win the World Cup in 2014

n many ways, 2014 is a transitional year for the United States men’s national team. For the first time since France 1998, the team will be without American icon Landon Donovan, who made his World Cup debut in 2002 but failed to make the final 23-man roster for Brazil. The team headed to South America, filled with strong central midfielders, is adapting to a a new 4-4-2 diamond formation to better suit the roster. The United States faces the Group of Death, having been drawn in a group with superpowers Germany and Portugal, and World Cup rival Ghana.


The United States advanced to the round of 16 in South Africa, meeting the expectations of a nation, but not exceeding them. With a Herculean task ahead, manager Jurgen Klinsmann made it clear that the United States is still years, and possibly generations, away from serious World Cup success. In an interview with the New York Times’ Sam Borden, Klinsmann said that “is not possible” for the Americans to win the World Cup in 2014.





Klinsmann’s willingness to part with a legend like Donovan sends a clear message, though: This is his team, and he’s focused on the future, not the present. Seven of the United States’ 23 players heading to Brazil are under the age of 25, and only six outfield players are over the age of 30. Klinsmann noted that most pro sports franchises tend to rely upon established stars, many of whom have reached their peak and have no room for growth. With the national team, he’s doing the opposite.




“Kobe Bryant, for example — why does he get a two-year contract extension for $50 million? Because of what he is going to do in the next two years for the Lakers? Of course not. Of course not. He gets it because of what he has done before. It makes no sense. Why do you pay for what has already happened?”




Source 12345



Who do u guys have in the NBA Finals ? and WWE fans what do you think of Seth's swerve ??

Elusive Sales: Mariah Carey’s New Album Suffers Shocking Dip

Following the dismal debut sales of Mariah Carey‘s new album ‘Me. I Am Mariah…The Elusive Chanteuse’, many of the singer’s loyal fans clung to hope that the set would enjoy a slow yet steady ascend.

However, hope was sadly dashed today following the release of sales forecasts for next week’s Billboard 200.

See what we mean below…

According to Hits Daily Double, here’s how next week’s tally is shaping up:

1. Miranda Lambert (RCA Nashville) 170-180k
2. Frozen (Walt Disney) 50-55k
3. Brantley Gilbert (Valory) 50-55k
4. Coldplay (Parlophone) 45-50k
5. Now 50 (NOW) 40-45k
6. 50 Cent (G-Unit) 35-40k
7. Now Country 7 (NOW) 25-28k
8. Led Zeppelin I (Rhino) 25-28k
9. Michael Jackson (Epic) 24-27k
10. Led Zeppelin II (Rhino) 24-27k
11. Led Zeppelin III (Rhino) 22-25k
12. The Black Keys (Nonesuch/Warner Bros.) 21-24k
13. Lucy Hale (DMG Nashville) 19-21k
14. Iggy Azalea (Grand Hustle/Def Jam) 15-18k
15. OneRepublic (Interscope) 15-18k
16. Fault In Our Stars (Atlantic) 15-18k
17. If/Then: A New Musical (Sony Masterworks) 15-18k

*********

If still looking for Mimi, stop. It’s a fruitless exercise, because the ‘The Elusive Chanteuse’ does not feature. What does this mean? It confirms that the album is set to sell less than 15,000 copies in its second week on sale – representing anywhere from a 70%-80% drop from its already disastrous 58k opening.

A great album it may be, yet it’s clear it’s time to pay our last respects. It’s a wrap.

Source

well she is called Ameriie now.... anyway



source

LOVE IT! SO READY FOR A NEW ALBUM!

Vice magazine co-founder Gavin McInnes ripped Cosmos host Neil deGrasse Tyson during a Fox News appearance on Tuesday night, saying racial profiling against him during his youth was justified and knocking him for having white fans.

“I hate this guy,” McInnes told host Greg Gutfeld and his panel. “I remember hearing Chris Hardwick on a podcast talk about Neil deGrasse Tyson and he was just salivating. White liberal nerds love this guy so much, he could defecate on them like Martin Bashir’s fantasies and they would dance in the streets.”

Gutfeld and McInnes were apparently upset with deGrasse Tyson’s remark to MSNBC’s Chris Hayes last week that his “great fear” was that extraterrestrials had visited Earth and chose to leave “on the conclusion that there’s no sign of intelligent life on Earth.” DeGrasse Tyson also poked fun at the fact that, if there is life on other planets, their first impressions of our planet likely came from transmissions of old sitcoms like I Love Lucy and The Honeymooners.



Gutfeld also scoffed at deGrasse Tyson’s background, referring to him as, “astrophysicist — yeah right.” In reality, deGrasse Tyson has earned a Bachelor of Arts in physics from Harvard University, a Master’s degree in astronomy from the University of Texas at Austin, a second Master’s degree in astrophysics from Columbia University, as well as a doctorate in astrophysics, also at Columbia.

Media Matters reported that McInnes also appeared to criticize deGrasse Tyson for remarks he made during a 2009 panel discussion hosted by the Center of Inquiry regarding how he was constantly thrown “curveballs” during his youth because his choice of careers went against societal expectations regarding Black men.

“He talks about things like, ‘when I was young in New York I would get racially profiled when I’d go into stores,’” McInnes complained. “Back then he looked like he was in The Warriors. He had a huge afro and a cutoff shirt and New York was a war zone. Sorry, you fit the profile.”

Watch the discussion, as posted on Thursday by Media Matters, below.

http://mediamatters.org/embed/static/clips/2014/06/05/35571/fnc-redeye-20140603-tyson2






Source: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/06/05/fox-guest-white-liberals-like-neil-degrasse-tyson-so-much-he-could-defecate-on-them/

Plot:
Liza (Sutton Foster) is a 40-year-old recently divorced single mother looking to get a job, which proves difficult for a woman of her age. After a compliment from a much younger man, she decides to get a makeover, courtesy of her friend Maggie (Miriam Shor), in order to look like she is in her mid-twenties. Ultimately, she becomes an assistant to Diana (Debi Mazar), who pairs her with co-worker Kelsey (Hilary Duff).

EXCLUSIVE SNEAK PEEK of new series YOUNGER! 50 RETWEETS of this short clip will unlock another one.
https://t.co/xE4Xw5N3pg

— Younger (@YoungerTV) June 5, 2014

Wow, you guys unlocked that quickly! Here's another sneak peek, 100 RETWEETS will unlock another short clip.
https://t.co/DZemD3RLwc

— Younger (@YoungerTV) June 5, 2014

Last sneak peek of YOUNGER for today! There will be more exclusives coming soon...
https://t.co/mNjrYQax1Y

— Younger (@YoungerTV) June 5, 2014

Source
The show, which is written, executive produced and directed by Darren Star (Sex and the City), premieres in January.

Yoko Ono will have to pay a Brooklyn designer who claimed the singer had ripped off her clothing designs.

According to Page Six, Ono filed papers in a Brooklyn federal court agreeing to pay money to Haleh Nematzadeh for supposedly using her designs and passing them off as her own.

Both sides have signed a confidentiality agreement prohibiting the involved parties tot talk about the settlement; as such, the amount of money is undisclosed.

The settlement comes after Ono initially discounted Nematzadeh’s lawsuit, looking to get the court to nix it.

The Brooklynite’s original suit alleged that Ono stole multiple fashion concepts from her; she said she was originally meeting with Ono’s camp for the singer to use some of Nematzadeh’s designs in 2012 but was eventually cut off from contact, prompting the suit.

Source: 1, 2

(previously)

Lupita Nyong'o showed off her enviable beach body in a white Marysia bikini on the beach in Maui on Wednesday. The Oscar-winning actress accessorized with an oversize sun hat and belly chain and took a walk beside the waves before retreating to her lounge chair to relax. Lupita shared a photo of herself on Instagram the same day, saying, "Aloha Hawaii!"

It's been a whirlwind few months for Lupita, who is in Hawaii to participate in the Maui Film Festival. She is on hand to accept the rainmaker award for her international success in 12 Years a Slave, as well as for the documentary In My Genes, which she created, directed, and produced in 2009.




a few more pics at the Source

NEW YORK (AP) — Whimsical drawings, poems and short stories from two humorous books John Lennon produced in the 1960s fetched skyrocketing prices at auction Wednesday, including $209,000 for a nine-page parody of Sherlock Holmes.

The manuscript, "The Singularge Experience of Miss Anne Duffield," was the top lot in the sale and had been estimated to bring $50,000 to $70,000.

The material was created for the two critically acclaimed books Lennon published during the height of Beatlemania. Sotheby's said 100 percent of the 89 lots sold, with 83 percent selling above the pre-sale high estimate.


"In his Own Write" was a collection of 31 short stories and poems full of puns and spelling errors that was published in 1964. It was a big hit with reviewers who compared Lennon to Lewis Carroll and Edward Lear. It was followed a year later by "A Spaniard in the Works," its title a pun on the British term "a spanner in the works," similar to the American expression "a monkey wrench in the works."

The collection belonged to Lennon's British publisher, Tom Maschler, who held on to it for a half-century. Sotheby's described it as the the largest private collection of Lennon's work to come to the market. Before becoming famous as a musician, Lennon, who was fatally shot in 1980, trained as an artist at the Liverpool School of Art.

A cartoon of a boy with six birds that appeared in "A Spaniard in the Works" sold for $27,500 on Wednesday. The drawing was used 30 years later as the cover for the Beatles' single "Free as a Bird."

The song was written by Lennon in 1977. Twenty-five years after the group's breakup and 15 years after Lennon's death, it was released with additional instrumentation and vocals from the other three band members in 1995. The cartoon had a pre-sale estimate of $12,000 to $15,000.

"The Fat Budgie," a beloved nonsensical poem with the title written on the margin, sold for $143,000, well past its $35,000 pre-sale estimate.

A handwritten manuscript called "I Sat Belonely" went for $137,000, surpassing its pre-sale estimate of up to $35,000. A corrected typescript titled "Neville Club" sold for $10,000, which was within its presale estimate of $8,000 to $12,000.

Maschler called Lennon a man of "extraordinary talent and imagination." He said in a statement that Lennon's art has been underrated and he hoped that the auction would "redress the balance."

Maschler, who worked with Lennon on the two books while literary director at Jonathan Cape publishers, has worked with other famous authors, including Tom Wolfe, Edward Albee, Philip Roth and Salman Rushdie.

---

John Lennon artwork: Sherlock Holmes parody draws $209K at auction, all 89 lots sell

This undated photos below provided by Sotheby’s shows an untitled ink drawing by John Lennon of a seated man and floating creature. The drawing is part of an 89-piece collection of Lennon’s original whimsical drawings, poems and prose for his books “In His Own Write” and “A Spaniard in the Works” that will be auctioned by Sotheby's in New York on Wednesday, June 4, 2014. (AP Photo/Sotheby's, John Lennon) (John Lennon)





--





Come Together By John Lennon



Power To The People By John Lennon








Source: http://www.nola.com/music/index.ssf/2014/06/john_lennon_artwork_sherlock_h.html

Connie Britton -- Nashville
Lizzy Caplan -- Masters of Sex
Diane Kruger -- The Bridge
Katey Sagal -- Sons of Anarchy
Mireille Enos -- The Killing
Megan Boone -- The Blacklist


Salsa.