• Meghan Markle’s TV dad Wendell Pierce defends her against ‘ugly’ negative press
      Entertainment
      Suzy Byrne

      Meghan Markle’s TV dad Wendell Pierce defends her against ‘ugly’ negative press

      Pierce, who played Markle’s father on "Suits" from 2011 to 2018, talked about the negative press attention Markle has faced since quitting Hollywood to marry Prince Harry.

    • ‘Silicon Valley’ Final Season Trailer: Richard Pukes Some More, and Jared’s Got a Gun! (Video)
      TV
      The Wrap

      ‘Silicon Valley’ Final Season Trailer: Richard Pukes Some More, and Jared’s Got a Gun! (Video)

      Based on its trailer, the final season of HBO sitcom “Silicon Valley” looks just like the previous five — and that’s a very good thing.The sneak peek sees Richard Hendricks (Thomas Middleditch) once more going from hero to zero, and this time he actually pukes ON the glass walls to his office, instead of merely just behind them for all to see. Plus, the Pied Piper founder again tries to team up with the equally down-and-out Gavin Belson (Matt Ross), but even the Hooli boss is tired of that narrative.Watch the video above.Also Read: 'Silicon Valley' Star Thomas Middleditch Says He and Wife Mollie Are Writing a Comedy Series About Their Swinging LifestyleThe trailer also features Jared (Zach Woods) getting his hands on a gun, plus the usual nonsense Dinesh (Kumail Nanjiani) and Gilfoyle (Martin Starr) get into. Additionally, Russ (Chris Diamantopoulos) reveals his latest incredibly stupid plan to make a ton of money.“We could all go to prison,” Monica (Amanda Crew) warns the gang at a certain point. We’re not quite sure what she’s referring to, but it still checks out none the less.And oh right, we almost forgot: It seems Pied Piper maybe gets into bed with terrorists this season?The sixth and final season of “Silicon Valley” premieres Oct. 27 at 10/9c on HBO.Read original story ‘Silicon Valley’ Final Season Trailer: Richard Pukes Some More, and Jared’s Got a Gun! (Video) At TheWrap

    • It’s Not Just Ronan Farrow: NBC News Killed My Rape-Allegation Story Too
      Entertainment
      The Daily Beast

      It’s Not Just Ronan Farrow: NBC News Killed My Rape-Allegation Story Too

      Photo Illustration by The Daily Beast/Photos GettyIn the days leading up to the publication of Catch & Kill, Ronan Farrow’s blockbuster account of his dealings with NBC News, I have been struck by the company’s insistence that Ronan didn’t have the Harvey Weinstein story in the bag. I don’t believe a word of what it says because in 2018, the network killed my MeToo story that was being reported by MSNBC host Joy-Ann Reid. Incredibly, a year after NBC botched Farrow’s reporting on Harvey Weinstein, they had the audacity to do it again. In November 2017, I told Joy about my experience of being raped by Russell Simmons in 1994. I also shared that in 2006, former Extra co-host A.J. Calloway sexually assaulted me in his car and was subsequently arrested for his crime. When Joy and I first spoke, Russell had already been accused of rape by Keri Claussen Khalighi. In fact, she appeared as a guest on the now-defunct NBC show, Megyn Kelly Today. However, I would be the first woman to allege they had been sexually assaulted by Calloway. When NBC chose to squash my story, it not only abdicated its obligation to report news, it provided cover for a man who would later be accused of serial rape and sexual assault when my story was eventually published by The Hollywood Reporter the following summer. When I approached Joy, I had no idea that NBC had a reputation for not breaking news about men accused of sexual assault. Therefore, I had no reason to believe my story would be derailed by the network. After going through a thorough vetting process, an on-camera interview with Joy was taped on Jan. 7, 2018. While she’s a host on MSNBC, I was told that NBC was not taping it for the cable network but NBC itself, in order to get it a larger audience beyond Joy’s weekend show; also, it was to be paired with a lengthy print piece written by Joy for New York magazine. I was told the TV portion was scheduled to air on Jan. 13, 2018, but I received an email the day before from Joy asking me to reach out to her. When we spoke a few hours later, she informed me that Russell Simmons’ attorney had gone ballistic and NBC was not going to air the segment, and the New York magazine story was also on hold since they were paired. She assured me the story wasn’t dead, but that NBC simply needed more vetting done in order to feel comfortable with moving forward. I was disappointed, but still hopeful. As I would come to learn, my optimism was profoundly naive.Over the next several months, NBC put me through an elaborate and bizarre vetting process. I provided legal documentation, hospital bills, and over a dozen corroborating witnesses. Still, they stonewalled. I asked Joy repeatedly if NBC was going to do to her what it did to Ronan, and she said that she didn’t think so. We both agreed that it would reflect very poorly if word got out that the network had suppressed yet another story of alleged sexual assault.To expedite the increasingly expansive vetting process, Joy’s piece was assigned to an investigative unit that was supposed to help her clear the hurdles that NBC kept throwing in front of her about my story. In mid-February, she emailed me an explanation about why it was taking NBC so long to pull the trigger:“So basically the story got caught up in a couple of vices: the struggle to get comments from the principles (now mostly alleviated), threats from Russell’s lawyer that spooked NBC,” Joy told me via email. “So now NBC… is demanding that I do all of this additional reporting to meet a legal and standards review.”  Joy then said all that was left was for her to seek comment from people in Simmons’ camp who were aware of the assault, and corroboration of Calloway’s arrest. ‘Women Are Furious’: NBC Roiled by Farrow Book AccusationsNBC News Chief Noah Oppenheim’s Harvard Writings on Women and Sexual Assault Horrify StaffersI responded to her email by thanking her for the update. I added, “Still not clear why NBC is demanding more corroboration regarding A.J. [arrest]... his lawyer already confirmed the case, but I know this isn’t about you.”Almost two weeks went by before Joy contacted me with an update. “My team and I, my PA and senior producer helping me with the story met with the standards department rep today just to figure out what the heck’s going on,” she told me by phone. “I just have to get my company to have the guts to do the story,” she conceded. “I’ve never done a story that has this much evidence before. I have more evidence than the LA Times and The New York Times stories combined. So the whole thing is, if my company will trust the evidence that I’ve shown them, which is substantial, they will do the story.” (Reid declined to comment on this story.) I then asked her if NBC was going to kill my story based upon the ongoing threats from Simmons’ and Calloway’s attorneys. “We have enough that we have satisfied the standards side, but this is now in the hands of lawyers who have to determine the likelihood of a lawsuit by two people now, and what is the likelihood that we will prevail.” She added, “This has now gone up past the attorneys I deal with to the head of NBCUniversal’s lawyers. I’ve never been through anything like this.”  Two more months of back and forth over email would occur before it became clear that NBC had no intention of airing my interview. The last time I spoke with Joy was on April 6, 2018, when she called to tell me that senior management had stopped responding to her inquiries about her piece on me. She said I should take the story elsewhere. Just like that, NBC threw Joy and me under the bus. It killed her story and—at least temporarily—silenced me. NBCUniversal declined to comment for this story. A New York magazine spokesperson said that they did not publish the written piece because Reid withdrew it. Two weeks after my final call with Joy, I was referred to Kim Masters at The Hollywood Reporter. She and I communicated for the first time on April 26, 2018. Two months later, on June 28, The Hollywood Reporter broke the news of my allegations against Russell Simmons and A.J. Calloway, along with the cover-up of my story by NBC. Masters provided the following statement: “Joy’s reporting was extremely thorough. While obviously I had to review everything, she laid out an excellent roadmap. Everything checked and we published. The story was ready to go.”I am one of the many survivors that NBC silenced, and bore witness to how it treated one of their top talents for trying to break a story on sexual predators. Given what has been exposed thus far by Farrow and others, it’s clear that NBC thinks it can spin their way out of this—again. What it fails to recognize is that this is a much bigger issue than their cover-ups, payoffs, and excuses. The media is supposed to be a watchdog for abuses of power. Reporting on the behavior of alleged serial predators is more than news. It’s an act of social good.Actions have consequences. Inaction does as well. In their response to the Hollywood Reporter piece, NBC claimed it didn’t have enough on one of my assailants to air my interview. Yet at the time my account was published, at least a dozen women had already accused Simmons of attempted sexual assault or rape. Despite what the network said, they had enough on Calloway and still held the story. Once my story became public, close to a dozen women reached out to tell me their own stories of alleged sexual victimization at the hands of Calloway. In the absence of publication, these women never would have known they weren’t the only ones he had assaulted. Each of these brave survivors would have gone to their graves thinking they were the only one he attacked, when in fact their assaults are part of a pattern of alleged sexual predation by Calloway that goes back decades.Misogyny and protectionism of alleged serial rapists is not simply an NBC issue. I lobbied Calloway’s parent company, Warner Media, for close to a year before it took action. It took four other stories, including one by The Daily Beast, before it finally did an investigation into Calloway’s behavior.NBC News President Noah OppenheimRob Kim/GettyAfter The Hollywood Reporter ran my story, Simmons sold all his U.S. properties and moved to Bali, a country without an extradition treaty with our country. Warner Media severed ties with Calloway, who is no longer employed by Extra. He is also currently under investigation for rape in two states.The media is supposed to be a watchdog for abuses of power. Yet we keep learning how NBC uses its power to protect those in power. Initially, I thought that NBC failed to act on my story because I’m a black woman, and my assailants were black as well (it is well-documented that mainstream media outlets ignore accusations of sexual assault lobbed at black men unless their victims are mainly white, as in the case of Bill Cosby). I thought maybe it decided to pass on my story because Calloway’s show Extra aired on NBC affiliates and a negative story about someone whose program airs on their network could hurt NBC’s bottom line. Recently, however, there has been a spate of stories about sexual misconduct in the upper echelons of the company: Noah Oppenheim’s misogynistic Harvard Crimson pieces, Andy Lack’s predation of underlings, MSNBC head Phil Griffin showing a photo of Maria Menounos’ genitalia in a staff meeting. The issue at NBC is larger than what I’d feared about its reporting policies on assaults committed against women of color. What we have seen over and over again with NBC is its use of its power to protect those in power. This entire sordid mess is solely about power and NBC's choice to side with those in possession of it. NBC is a media conglomerate with tentacles that expand the globe. It has the power to make or break careers and lives. It has shown that when it comes down to breaking news on the sexual abuse of women by men who also have power, it will protect assailants under the guise of “not meeting standards and practices.” Oppenheim and Lack continue to make the rounds internally and externally claiming innocence and due diligence. The frat boy rape apologist. The serial sexual harasser. These are the people at NBC who are the arbiters of justice and injustice. Yet what is lost in this endless discussion about who knew what and when is a grave truth: NBC put women’s lives at risk. This is one of the darkest of NBC’s sins. By refusing to stand by their hard-working reporters’ work, it knowingly placed members of the public in harm’s way. By discrediting and minimizing the strength of allegations, NBC is complicit in maintaining structures of gender inequality and rape culture. The bottom line is this: it kept dangerous men from being held accountable.Farrow’s PBS NewsHour interview last week sums up his former networks failures succinctly: “The New Yorker looked at the same reporting as NBC had… and four weeks later it was a Pulitzer Prize-winning story. So people can decide if the reporting had valid journalistic grounds. I think it’s pretty clear.”Me too.Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.

    • Nickelodeon Universe, the largest indoor theme park in North America, opens this week
      TV
      CNN

      Nickelodeon Universe, the largest indoor theme park in North America, opens this week

      Nickelodeon Universe, which at 8.5 acres will be the largest indoor theme park in North America, will open on October 25 at the American Dream mall in East Rutherford, New Jersey.

    • Live out your stand-up comedy dreams with a 'Marvelous Mrs. Maisel' edition of the Game of Life
      Entertainment
      Yahoo Entertainment Staff

      Live out your stand-up comedy dreams with a 'Marvelous Mrs. Maisel' edition of the Game of Life

      Hasbro has teamed up with Amazon Prime to make a version of the eternally popular Game of Life board game based on the streaming service’s Emmy-winning comedy The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.

    • Paparazzi Drove Keira Knightley to a Mental Breakdown: ‘I Told Them I Was Going to Kill Somebody’
      Pop Culture
      Indiewire

      Paparazzi Drove Keira Knightley to a Mental Breakdown: ‘I Told Them I Was Going to Kill Somebody’

      The twice-Oscar-nominated actress spoke frankly with The Telegraph about how the enormous pressure of 2003's "Pirates of the Caribbean" and the hits that followed forced her to retreat from the limelight.

    • How well do you know the 1990s? Play along with 'The Room of Doom' and find out
      Entertainment
      Jamie Willcocks

      How well do you know the 1990s? Play along with 'The Room of Doom' and find out

      Can you answer these tough 90s quiz questions — along with ten strangers? There's no room for mistakes.

    • 'Bloodshot' trailer: Vin Diesel's got a new comic book franchise
      Movies
      Tom Butler

      'Bloodshot' trailer: Vin Diesel's got a new comic book franchise

      He's not just Groot, he's also Bloodshot now.

    • Shay Mitchell Gives Birth to Her First Child — See the First Photo of Her Baby Girl!
      Celebrity
      People

      Shay Mitchell Gives Birth to Her First Child — See the First Photo of Her Baby Girl!

      Shay Mitchell Welcomes First Child, a Daughter

    • Kate Beckinsale Settles Divorce With 'Underworld' Director Len Wiseman
      Celebrity
      TheBlast

      Kate Beckinsale Settles Divorce With 'Underworld' Director Len Wiseman

      Finalized Split...

    • Hamilton Star Miguel Cervantes and Wife Kelly Say Their Final Goodbye to Late Daughter Adelaide
      Celebrity
      People

      Hamilton Star Miguel Cervantes and Wife Kelly Say Their Final Goodbye to Late Daughter Adelaide

      Miguel Cervantes, Wife Kelly Say Final Goodbye to Late Daughter Adelaide

    • Felicity Huffman Seen in Her Prison Uniform for the First Time During Visit with Her Family
      Entertainment
      People

      Felicity Huffman Seen in Her Prison Uniform for the First Time During Visit with Her Family

      Felicity Huffman Pictured for First Time in Prison Jumpsuit

    • James Gunn defends Marvel movies after Francis Ford Coppola calls them 'despicable'
      Movies
      Entertainment Weekly

      James Gunn defends Marvel movies after Francis Ford Coppola calls them 'despicable'

      James Gunn defends Marvel movies after Francis Ford Coppola calls them despicable

    • Singer Maggie Rogers calls out audience member who yelled 'take your top off' during concert
      Music
      Erin Donnelly

      Singer Maggie Rogers calls out audience member who yelled 'take your top off' during concert

      “There is no space for harassment or disrespect or degradation of any kind at my show," the singer wrote after being taunted by concert-goers.

    • Michelle Pfeiffer reveals she had #MeToo moment at age 20 with 'high-powered' Hollywood figure: 'I look back and cringe'
      Entertainment
      Meghan DeMaria

      Michelle Pfeiffer reveals she had #MeToo moment at age 20 with 'high-powered' Hollywood figure: 'I look back and cringe'

      Michelle Pfeiffer recalled an "inappropriate" encounter "with a high-powered person in the industry."

    • Jenni 'JWoww' Farley and Boyfriend Zack Are Back Together After Split: Reports
      Entertainment
      People

      Jenni 'JWoww' Farley and Boyfriend Zack Are Back Together After Split: Reports

      Jenni 'JWoww' Farley and Boyfriend Zach Back Together: Reports

    • Chris Pratt Commends Katherine Schwarzenegger's Cooking Fail: 'Proud of My Darling for Trying'
      Entertainment
      People

      Chris Pratt Commends Katherine Schwarzenegger's Cooking Fail: 'Proud of My Darling for Trying'

      Chris Pratt Commends Katherine Schwarzenegger's Cooking Fail

    • 'Terminator' star Linda Hamilton says she wore padded breasts, butt to reprise Sarah Connor role
      Entertainment
      Danny Thompson

      'Terminator' star Linda Hamilton says she wore padded breasts, butt to reprise Sarah Connor role

      The 63-year-old says she was told "we have to build you a butt" after she worked out for a year for "Terminator: Dark Fate."

    • Amy Schumer Says She and Husband Chris Fischer Had the 'Best Time' at Jennifer Lawrence's Wedding
      Entertainment
      People

      Amy Schumer Says She and Husband Chris Fischer Had the 'Best Time' at Jennifer Lawrence's Wedding

      Amy Schumer Jokes About Her Outfit at Jennifer Lawrence's Wedding

    • Marvel fans call Francis Ford Coppola a 'bitter old curmudgeon' after he slams MCU as 'despicable'
      Entertainment
      Erin Donnelly

      Marvel fans call Francis Ford Coppola a 'bitter old curmudgeon' after he slams MCU as 'despicable'

      The famed "Godfather" director defended Martin Scorsese's Marvel criticism, upsetting MCU fans in the process.

    • Box Office: ‘Maleficent: Mistress of Evil’ Dominates With Soft $36 Million
      Movies
      Variety

      Box Office: ‘Maleficent: Mistress of Evil’ Dominates With Soft $36 Million

      Five years after Angelina Jolie's "Maleficent" cast a spell over the box office, the villainous enchantress has returned to the top of domestic charts. Disney's "Maleficent: Mistress of Evil," a sequel to 2014's fantasy adventure based on the "Sleeping Beauty" sorceress, debuted to $36 million from 2,790 North American theaters, nearly half of what the […]

    • Kieran Culkin's Wife Shares First Photos of Their Newborn Daughter: 'Parents'
      Entertainment
      People

      Kieran Culkin's Wife Shares First Photos of Their Newborn Daughter: 'Parents'

      Kieran Culkin's Wife Shares First Photos of their Daughter

    • Netflix scores big with 'Breaking Bad' but streaming wars loom large
      TV
      Alexandra Canal

      Netflix scores big with 'Breaking Bad' but streaming wars loom large

      Netflix is betting heavily on original content slate, but the streaming wars loom large.