Rupert Murdoch appeared before a British parliamentary committee today to testify about his knowledge of phone hacking at News of the World. On tonight's Daily Show, Jon Stewart took the opportunity to poke fun at the 80-year-old media mogul—and praise wife Wendi Deng for defending him against a pie-wielding assailant—before mocking Fox News's efforts to downplay the scandal.
When etiquette guides of the future answer the question What do you do when you meet the gay porn star playing you?, they will probably include this photograph of Emma Watson, who plays Hermione Granger in the Harry Potter movies, alongside Cameron Adams, who plays, yes, "Himmione Gainghim" in Whorrey Potter and the Sorcerer's Balls.
It's never a good idea to drink and drive. But it's especially not a good idea when you are driving to the police station. To pick up your daughter's dog. After she was arrested for a DUI.
Today, Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D - Fla.), the chair of the Democratic National Committee, made a speech against the "Cut, Cap and Balance" bill that just passed the House. It was pretty mild! Less mild was the response of Rep. Allen West (R - Fla.), who sent Wasserman-Schultz an email. A very intense email, exhorting her to "shut the heck up."
You have to be pretty stupid, or pretty drunk, to lead the police on a car chase. You have to even drunker, and certainly more Amish, to lead the police on a car-vs.-horse-and-buggy chase.
For the second time, a movie adaptation of the classic book serial has fallen apart. Also today: Law & Order rips from a new headline, Helen Mirren pinch hits, and some exciting Game of Thrones news.
Ant sex! Bacteria attack! Sleep screwing! Quantum internet! Atlantis shuttle! Safe playgrounds! Disappearing diamonds! Star formation! Asteroid scars! And the bug that haunts your every waking moment! It's your Tuesday Science Watch, where we watch science—on the down low!
If we didn't have statistical research on educational techniques, we'd never make breakthroughs like "Maybe we should stop beating children." And if we didn't have the state of Texas, we'd never have angry internet commenters passionately arguing that their state is about much more than dying while raping elderly women. Put these two dynamics together, and what do you get? A new report on how maybe Texas' "expel everyone" discipline plan should be re-examined.
What the fuck does Rupert Murdoch do all day? To judge by his baffling performance before a British parliamentary committee investigating him for phone hacking, little more than gossip on the phone with whatever old-timer is willing to indulge him while his son James and wife Wendi battle for control of News Corporation.
In the pantheon of places one does not expect blatant homophobia, "Gertrude Stein exhibit at a museum in San Francisco" is pretty high on the list. And yet! A guard at San Francisco's Jewish Museum tried to kick out a pair of females for holding hands at such an event this weekend, San Francisco Chronicle columnist C. W. Nevius reports:
We spoke too soon. Today's raids of at least 14 homes throughout the country by the FBI weren't part of just another intelligence-gathering move in an ongoing investigation targeting the hacking group Anonymous. The feds have arrested 14 people—in states including Florida, Washington, California and New York—on suspicion of being involved with the group, according to according to CNN.
White House press secretary Jay Carney broke a bit of news in today's briefing: President Obama publicly supports the Respect for Marriage Act, which would repeal all three sections of the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act. Not really shocking, since he's been against DOMA since his earliest days on the campaign trail, but this endorsement of the actual repeal bill will help draw attention to the Senate hearing on it that's scheduled for tomorrow.
Here's a bootleg-type teaser trailer for Marc Webb's The Amazing Spider-Man, a new version of the classic comic book origin story that last got a movie treatment.. nine years ago. Why so soon?
It's wonderful that New York state passed gay marriage legislation, but now comes the really hard part: gay weddings. Yes, all that pent up wedding planning energy in the gay community is going to come flying out in one concussive burst, and here is the first set of grooms you're going to hate a little bit.
Douche and vagina soap company Summer's Eve has a new ad campaign featuring talking vagina hands imploring their owners to clean their vaginas more thoroughly. And, in case that premise isn't preposterous enough already, Summer's Eve is tailoring its message to different ethnic groups. Above, a sassy black vagina mm-hmm's while mouthing off (...giving lip?) about hairdos.
Apparently sales of the book To Kill a Mockingbird have skyrocketed 123 percent on Amazon.co.uk after "footie" star David Beckham and his wife Victoria, the Posh of Spice, named their daughter "Harper." Now that Oprah has retired, an author's only hope for a bestseller is getting a celeb baby named after them.
It's apparently a lazy summer at Google, where employees are so busy with food trucks, a seafood fair and endless eating they don't actually have time to work, rabble rousing comedian Marc Maron reports. Tell your broker to SELL.
