Billy Eichner is adding a little romance to his repertoire. The comedian has announced that he will star in and co-write a gay rom-com for Universal. Nick Stoller is set to direct and also co-write, while Judd Apatow is on board to produce the project.
The movie will center around two men with commitment problems who fall in love and attempt a relationship. It’s a simple premise, which leaves a lot of space for the story to waver between outrageous comedy and realistic emotions.
Eichner’s star has been steadily rising as his Emmy-nominated Billy on the Street series continues to heat up. (He recently walked around the streets of New York yelling at passersby with one Lin-Manuel Miranda.) He’s set to appear in Jon Favreau’s The Lion King remake as Timon, stars in Netflix’s Friends From College (which recently released its second season), and has appeared in two seasons of American Horror Story.
Eichner has not been hiding his excitement on social media. “Excited, terrified, completely in shock and PROUD as hell to announce this movie,” he tweeted on Tuesday (February 5). “We’re making a big, new romantic comedy for Universal!!!! AHHHHHHH!!!”
He’s right to be celebrating — a major studio movie about a gay man that is written by and starring an out gay man is a huge move toward visibility and inclusivity. With this announcement coming on the heels of the news that Kristen Stewart will be starring in a lesbian rom-com directed by Clea Duvall, it seems like Hollywood is finally investing in different types of stories.
Here’s hoping the rom-com boom continues to celebrate love in all forms.
Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Nick Foles has declined his $20 million mutual option for the 2019 season and will pay the team $2 million to become a free agent, according to ESPN’s Adam Schefter.
The Eagles picked up Foles’ option earlier Tuesday, per ESPN.com’s Tim MacMahon, but he bought his way out of it as expected. The Eagles must now decide whether to use the roughly $25 million franchise tag on Foles—which would put them in a tricky salary-cap situation if they didn’t find a trade partner by the start of the 2019 league year—or let him stay a free agent and take the compensatory pick they receive in 2020.
Foles, 30, will be an attractive option for any team looking to upgrade at quarterback with a proven veteran. He appeared in five games during the 2018 regular season for the Eagles, throwing for 1,413 yards, seven touchdowns and four interceptions while completing 72.3 percent of his passes.
The Eagles were 4-1 in those starts, and they won the last three games of the season to sneak into the playoffs. Foles then led them to a win over the Chicago Bears in the Wild Card Round before they lost to the New Orleans Saints in the divisional round.
Foles also famously led the Eagles to their first Super Bowl title in franchise history during the 2017 season, outgunning Tom Brady and the New England Patriots in Super Bowl LII.
Given his success over the past two seasons, several teams figure to inquire about his services, especially those that are a proven quarterback away from being a legitimate contender (like the Jacksonville Jaguars).
The contestants for the 2019 NBA Slam Dunk Contest were made official on Tuesday, headlined by new New York Knicks point guard Dennis Smith Jr.
The full four-player lineup includes Smith, Miles Bridges of the Charlotte Hornets, Hamidou Diallo of the Oklahoma City Thunder and John Collins of the Atlanta Hawks.
Smith has had an interesting 2018-19 season, to say the least. He had a strained relationship with the Dallas Mavericks prior to his move to the Knicks.
Head coach Rick Carlisle said on his radio show last month (h/t ESPN.com’s Tim MacMahon) he thought Smith’s advisers were telling him to stay away from the Mavs when he missed six games from Jan. 9 through 21.
The Knicks acquired Smith, along with DeAndre Jordan and Wesley Matthews, as part of the blockbuster trade Jan. 31 that sent Kristaps Porzingis, Tim Hardaway Jr., Trey Burke and Courtney Lee to Dallas.
Even with Smith still settling into his new surroundings, he has proven himself capable of pulling off incredible gravity-defying dunks:
Bridges will be representing the hometown Hornets in the Dunk Contest. The 20-year-old rookie has shown promise in limited usage this season. He’s averaging 6.6 points and 3.6 rebounds per game.
One of Bridges’ best performances against the New Orleans Pelicans on Dec. 2 also featured one of his best dunks since turning pro:
Diallo has had a difficult time finding consistent playing time for a Thunder team competing for one of the top playoff spots in the Western Conference. The 2018 second-round draft pick has appeared in 43 out of 52 games so far this season.
Collins is having the best season among this year’s Dunk Contest participants. The second-year forward is averaging 19.6 points and 10.0 rebounds per game.
It was apparent during Collins’ first appearance in the Las Vegas Summer League last year he would end up in the NBA’s annual slam-dunk showcase:
Smith is the only returning player in this year’s field. He didn’t make it out of the first round in 2018, but he posted a perfect score of 50 with a between-the-legs 360 reverse jam on his second dunk.
The 2019 NBA Slam Dunk Contest will take place as part of All-Star Saturday night on Feb. 16 from the Spectrum Center in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Beto O’Rourke and Oprah Winfrey speak onstage at Oprah’s SuperSoul Conversations on February 5. The former Congressman has not yet said whether he will luanch a 2020 presidential bid. | Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images
Beto O’Rourke said Tuesday that he will decide whether to run for president before the end of February, according to reporters present for an interview taping in New York.
His remarks, in a highly anticipated interview with Oprah Winfrey, come as O’Rourke edges closer to a presidential campaign. The former Texas congressman declined to definitively say if he will run for president, citing family considerations . He had previously said he had no timetable for deciding on a run.
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Asked Tuesday about his timing, O’Rourke said “The serious answer is really soon. Before the end of this month,” according to reporters from the Washington Post and Texas Tribune.
O’Rourke has slipped back slightly in some 2020 polls from the highs he registered just after his closer-than-expected Texas Senate race against Republican Ted Cruz. But he would still enter the Democratic primary in the top tier.
The interview was taken by O’Rourke’s supporters as another sign of his increasingly likely presidential bid.
Jay Surdukowski, a New Hampshire Democratic activist who hosted a “Draft Beto” event at his home recently, said he was “elated about the signals Beto is sending tonight.”
Surdukowski, who co-chaired Martin O’Malley’s 2016 presidential campaign in New Hampshire, said he is “willing to get on a plane to Texas ASAP to talk New Hampshire primary.” The Oprah interview, while not airing until Feb. 16, offered O’Rourke a large stage on which re-introduce himself to Democratic voters. Before appearing at Winfrey’s “Oprah’s SuperSoul Conversations from Times Square” event, O’Rourke had kept a relatively low profile, traveling throughout the Southwest on a solo road trip and making appearances with little or no advance notice.
Late last month, O’Rourke told POLITICO that he has no timetable for making a decision about 2020, a process that he said could “potentially” take months. Private conversations that his former advisers have been having with campaign operatives about a potential 2020 campaign, he said, are not being conducted at his direction.
In an appearance at Columbia College, his alma mater, on Monday, a Texas Tribune reporter tweeted that O’Rourke called President Donald Trump’s proposed border wall “fucking ludicrous,” praised Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and lamented the mean-spiritedness of much of the content he finds on Twitter.
Winfrey herself was the subject of presidential speculation last year, after a politically-charged Golden Globes speech that drew widespread attention. She has said she has no interest in running.
A Chinese satellite swooped behind the moon and snapped a shot of two worlds: the heavily-cratered moon, and in the distance, the cloud-covered planet Earth.
The image, captured on February 3, shows the far side of the moon that us Earthlings never see. The moon is locked in orbit to Earth, meaning that the same side of the moon is always facing us. But as the image shows, the moon’s far side is often illuminated by the sun, exposing the impact-blasted, grey lunar desert.
Meanwhile, some 239,000 miles away, clouds swirl over Earth’s lands and oceans, and life goes on.
The moon and Earth
Image: MINGCHUAN WEI/HARBIN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
The satellite responsible, DSLWP, is a 20-inch tall “microsatellite” built by Chinese astronomers. This moon-orbiting technology is not associated with any government space agency, so it falls into the category of an “amateur” satellite — though it’s certainly capable of sophisticated science and maneuvering through space.
A student-built camera took the shot, which was then beamed via radio antennae to the 82-foot wide Dwingeloo Radio Telescope in the northeastern Netherlands.
Craters on the far side of the moon
Image: Tammo Jan/Dwingeloo Radio Telescope
The heavily-cratered far side of the moon leaves evidence of the chaotic early solar system wherein rocky bodies pummeled the moon and planets. Things have certainly calmed down since then, allowing life to thrive on the blue ocean-world that is Earth.
If you’re nostalgic for the Reddit of ten years ago, we have good news: you can now relive it.
The new subreddit r/Stuck10YearsBehind imagines what the platform was like a decade ago. Unsurprisingly, it’s a warm, nostalgic place that reminds me of the days when the internet was fun.
Do you remember that time? I do. It was glorious time of memes, GIFs, and weird viral videos. Our president didn’t tweet out conspiracy theories on Twitter all day long. People talked about pop culture and the “weird internet.” We weren’t drowning in a sea of social media toxicity. We were dumb and happy (at least happier than we are now).
Here’s just a few sample r/Stuck10YearsBehind posts to give you that warm, fuzzy feeling:
Dylan Perkins, founder of the subreddit, says he came up with the idea for the project out of pure nostalgia:
“I came up with the idea for the subreddit after going down a rabbit hole of old YouTube videos, memes, and forum posts from around 10 years ago and coming out of it feeling like I was in a different world,” Perkins told Mashable in an email. “The humor, the low quality JPEGs and awful Windows Movie Maker YouTube videos have a really unique charm to them, so I wanted to make a place where you can just kind of pretend it’s still 2009.”
Stuck10YearsBehind was formed at the end of January, but already has over 2,4000 subscribers. That’s pretty impressive growth for a subreddit this young — and it’s because Perkins knew exactly where to place it.
“The subreddit grew to 2k subscribers overnight due to me posting it on the /r/findareddit sub where you can advertise new subreddits,” Perkins said. “I guess people really liked the idea and latched on. Since we got so much traffic in a short amount of time we were put on the trending list for new subreddits on the front page of the website.”
Because of the boom in subscribers, Perkins has had to moderate the page closely. The subreddit’s rules are strict: subscribers must post content specific to the exact date from ten years ago.
“Take whatever date it is currently, and subtract 10 years,” the rules state. “It is that time. Do your research and don’t post anything that comes after that date.”
“The reaction has been very positive from users, if not a bit frustrating for me and my 1 moderator due to the amount of people who didn’t understand the strict rules of the page,” Perkins told Mashable. “You see, since it is February 5th as of me writing this, it is February 5th, 2009 in the /r/Stuck10YearsBehind universe. You aren’t allowed to share anything that was posted after that date, so we have to constantly check and remove posts where the content posted was after that date.”
I barely know what happened yesterday, forget ten years ago. Still, I’m grateful for this dose of nostalgia and burst of internet positivity.
An unnamed NBA general manager told Steve Bulpett of the Boston Herald that the Boston Celtics are not listening to offers for five-time All-Star point guard Kyrie Irving.
“Boston’s not taking calls on Kyrie,” the GM told Bulpett. “That was made pretty clear.”
Irving is averaging 23.8 points per game on 50.3 percent shooting for the 34-19 Celtics, who are in a three-way tie for third place in the Eastern Conference.
The 26-year-old can opt out of his deal and become a free agent after this season, per Spotrac.
That has prompted speculation about whether he’ll jump ship. Golden State Warriors forward Kevin Durant has beenmentionedas someone who could join Irving on another team.
But Bulpett noted why Irving is so important to Boston.
“But more important than all that to the Celtics is the knowledge that many of the biggest playoff games are won by stars who can make a play when all the offensive and defensive schemes break down. Irving is one of those people who can make something out of nothing, and the Celts are not about to move him when his type is so hard to find—and while they still believe they are close to contending for a title this season.“
The Celtics are on a roll with nine wins in their last 10 games. They are only 3.5 games behind the Toronto Raptors, who have lost three of their last five, for second place. Boston also beat the first-place Milwaukee Bucks (39-13) in the first round last year without Irving or Gordon Hayward. Granted, the Bucks are much improved, but the C’s can beat them once again with those two in the mix.
Despite Irving’s unknown future come July 1, when teams can start talking to free agents, the Celtics shouldn’t make a panic move, especially with the season going so well.
“There have been offers and counteroffers. There’s been some flexibility on both sides,” Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, one of the conferees, said in an interview. | Alex Wong/Getty Images
Lawmakers have made little progress on how to address Trump’s demands for a wall.
Bipartisan talks to avert another government shutdown are going great, except on the one thing that matters: the border wall.
With an unofficial deadline to reach a border security compromise by week’s end, lawmakers on the conference committee say they’re still far apart on any agreement that could satisfy both President Donald Trump and congressional Democrats.
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Multiple offers have been exchanged at the staff level, conferees said, but the questions of how — and if — the two sides can come together on some kind of border barrier remain unanswered.
“We’re back and forth. Nobody’s shut down their negotiating,” Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), one of the conferees, said in an interview. “There have been offers and counteroffers. There’s been some flexibility on both sides.”
But substantive talks on the border wall?
“It’s not going to be until tomorrow at the earliest,” said Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), another member of the bipartisan committee, on Tuesday.
For now, the 17 members of the panel — along with the rest of Congress — are holding their collective breath to see what Trump says about the talks during his State of the Union address. Negotiators are also scheduled to receive a classified briefing Wednesday on the border wall that will drive the discussion about whether Democrats will agree to more fencing than the $1.3 billion under current funding levels.
Trump has dismissed the conference negotiations as “a waste of time” and hinted he will go around Congress and try to build his wall by declaring a national emergency to free up the funds. But the president isn’t expected to declare a national emergency in his speech Tuesday night, preferring to wait until after the Feb. 15 government funding deadline if he decides to do so, according to sources close to the White House.
Some members of the panel are raising the possibility of passing a short-term funding extension to stave off another shutdown and give lawmakers more time to reach a deal, which might also delay any explosive executive action by the president.
“If we got to a deal even next week, we could maybe get a little more time,” said Sen. John Hoeven (R-N.D.) on Tuesday.
Republicans are increasingly trying to move Trump off the idea of declaring a national emergency, warning that enough members of his own party could join with Democrats to try to block the move. Just four defections in the Senate would force Trump to veto a resolution of disapproval once it’s passed by the House.
“I had rather us do it legislatively, that’s what I’m trying to do,” Senate Appropriations Chairman Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) said Tuesday.
Trump’s threats “will either drive us together or drive us apart,” he added, of the conference committee. “I’m not sure yet.”
Members of the panel say that no real discussions on the border wall can happen until after Trump’s speech. And even then, whatever deal the group reaches will have to be blessed by both Trump and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) to be successful.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said Tuesday that he’s not sure what Trump would sign, an unusual admission from one of the president’s closest allies in Congress.
“It would be great if the president decides to sign the bill. I think we don’t yet know what his view is on this,” McConnell told reporters. “But I think the conferees ought to reach an agreement, and then we’ll hope that the president finds it worth signing.”
Shelby told reporters Tuesday that he’s been in touch with both camps — Pelosi and the White House, via Vice President Mike Pence — and he hopes a classified border briefing for the committee on Wednesday will help break the logjam. The briefing with Department of Homeland Security staffers will be only the second time the conferees will have met in person since the negotiations began.
“I’m hoping that after we hear from the border people, if we can come together in some way in the conference, that the president will listen to that. And also the speaker will,” Shelby said.
Even with little progress to show for the talks so far, members of the conference committee say the fact that the panel hasn’t totally broken down with Republicans and Democrats retreating to their usual talking points offers a glimmer of hope.
And there is some movement behind the scenes. Democratic conferees will meet Tuesday afternoon for an update on the current status of the talks.
Top Democrats, including Pelosi, have said they’re open to some new barrier funding, a hopeful sign for Republicans. And Pence has been in touch with multiple GOP conferees, indicating that the White House is participating in the talks in some capacity.
“I heard one of [the negotiators] say: ‘Democrats can call it a fence, the president can call it a wall, and we can call it a day.’ Which I think is one way of skinning the cat,” said Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas).
Negotiators are hoping they can have more space to clinch a deal by the weekend, an optimistic scenario given Congress’ flailing on immigration over the past two years. Conferees have set an unofficial Friday deadline to reach a deal, saying they will need a week to get the agreement through Congress and to Trump’s desk before government funding runs out Feb. 15.
“I do think that at some point in time we’re probably going to have to apply some additional pressure to get it done by Friday,” Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.), another conferee, said in an interview.
And Trump could ultimately derail the talks if he takes a hard line, either insisting on $5.7 billion for his border wall or deciding a unilateral move is more politically potent than waiting on Congress.
Top Democrats, meanwhile, are telling Trump to butt out of the negotiations.
“If you don’t want to shut down the government, if you don’t want to declare a national emergency,” said Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N..), addressing Trump on Tuesday, “stay out of it.”
Breanna J. McDaniel hopes black girls will recognize themselves in her debut picture book Hands Up!. Even before they flip to the first page, they’ll see a smiling black girl jumping on the cover.
“Unfortunately, you still don’t see a ton of that. And not just black girls. Girls of color, period,” says McDaniel.
McDaniel’s story is about Viv, a lively, responsible, and talented black girl. As readers flip through the vibrant illustrations, Viv grows older and raises her hands in different contexts. She plays peek-a-boo with her parents, participates in class, and practices fifth position, like her favorite ballerina Misty Copeland.
The examples are common, joyful, and in sharp contrast to the violent, painful images typically associated with the title phrase. “Hands up, don’t shoot” became a rallying cry at the Ferguson protests, which started after a white police officer killed Michael Brown, an unarmed, 18-year-old black teenager. McDaniel drew inspiration from Black Lives Matter, a movement to end violence against black people, and wrote the first draft of her book immediately after Brown’s death.
Amid the violence and discrimination black kids face today, McDaniel’s interpretation of “hands up” sets out to remind the world that black kids are just kids. “You matter. Your joy will be celebrated,” she writes in her author’s note.
McDaniel’s book is impressive because it uses one hand gesture to showcase a wide range of feelings and scenarios. It humanizes the black girl experience, a rare thing for children’s literature. The Cooperative Children’s Book Center, a research library at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Education, found that only 340 of the 3,700 books it received in 2017 from U.S. publishers had “significant African or African American content/characters.” (The library notes the statistic only reflects how many books it received.)
“[T]he opposite of despair, for me, I think is joy.”
“When I think about [the phrase] ‘hands up!’ in the context of the Black Lives Matter movement and the social justice movement, my despair is rooted in the systems that have created the necessity for people to protest against these injustices” says McDaniel. “My despair is rooted in that, and the opposite of despair, for me, I think is joy.”
McDaniel tried to move out of “a place of hopelessness.” She reflected on her experiences, as well as those of her niece and nephew, to develop her book. She also thought of her cousin, who played basketball and always heard “hands up” on the court. At one point in the book, McDaniel’s protagonist Viv raises her hands to win a jump ball. She ultimately carries her team’s winning trophy.
McDaniel’s picture book is the epitome of #blackgirljoy, a hashtag that highlights black girls being happy, whether they’re dancing, graduating, or toasting a birthday.
“It was just bringing out moments that maybe have never been tagged as extraordinary for them and saying, ‘This is amazing and you deserve to revel in it and you deserve to be celebrated for it,’” McDaniel says about the hashtag. She shares the same message in her book.
Such depictions of happiness are revolutionary because black girls are often denied the opportunity to express themselves. Black girls, for example, are perceived as “less innocent” than white girls and may be punished at school for how they wear their hair.
McDaniel believes the book presents an opportunity for black girls and women to connect with joyful moments while recognizing their experiences in the pages.
“If they look at the book and they see celebration, and they see joy, and they see themselves, no matter what age they are, I’m hoping that is the point,” says McDaniel.
Other examples of celebration in the book include Viv swinging from her parents’ arms and Viv reaching for the highest bookshelf to pick an adventure book. She also races on her bike, though unfortunately with her hands up. Viv falls to the ground and is comforted by her coach, who helps her get back up. Hands Up! is about joyful family moments and celebration. It’s also about vulnerability, pain, and growth.
The most powerful image in McDaniels’ book is the final illustration, in which an older Viv marches in a protest. It’s profound but just as colorful and heartwarming as the rest of the book. Viv leads a crowd of community members carrying signs that say “Black Lives Matter,” “Love Your Neighbor,” and “Water = Life,”
“Even though it’s so few words at the very end of the book, we [McDaniel and her editor] wanted to be able to capture resilience and hope and grace and community and unity all within that last spread,” says McDaniel.
McDaniel’s greatest feat is her ability to convey so much with such few words. For that reason, among many others, children and adults alike will be able to appreciate this empowering book.
The company that brought us insane mode and questionably sourced farting unicorns is back to remind the world that no one speaks to the soul of children trapped in adult bodies better than its childlike CEO. That’s right, Tesla just launched its own Amazon store, and you wouldn’t believe the goodies for sale.
In the mood for a $250 1:18-scale Tesla Model S toy car with “Steerable wheels”? Or maybe a $45 iPhone X case with the word “Tesla” subtly emblazoned across the side? The Tesla Amazon store has you covered.
According to Electrek, the store launched Feb. 5, and suggests a possible future where Tesla customers might order some vehicle accessories through the online retail giant. In the meantime, however, the page’s offerings are limited to model cars, hoodies, hats, phone cases, and coffee mugs.
Image: screenshot / amazon
Truly, we live in a golden age.
However, the question remains as to why Tesla only decided to list a bunch of overpriced nonsense accessories. Perhaps Amazon didn’t want the headache of storing actual Teslas in its fulfillment warehouses?
But hey, if anyone can chart that futuristic path it would be likes of a Jeff Bezos / Elon Musk team up. With their combined billionaire powers, there’s nothing those two can’t accomplish — just ask unionorganizers.
Now excuse me while I go play with my tiny diecast Model X. The falcon wing doors really open!
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