Aubrey Plaza as Cleopatra in ‘Drunk History’; Image courtesy Comedy Central(NEW YORK) — Say so long to Drunk History.
The current sixth season of the Comedy Central series will be the show’s last, according to Variety.
Created by Derek Waters, who also appeared in most every episode, Drunk History began in 2007 as a Funny or Die online series then briefly jumped to HBO before moving to Comedy Central in 2013. Each show features a seriously wasted stand-up comic describing historical events, while those events are re-enacted by celebs in full costume, lip-syncing to the narrator’s drunken ramblings.
Celebs who’ve appeared on Drunk History over the years include Will Ferrell, Winona Ryder, Octavia Spencer, Kristen Wiig, Aubrey Plaza, Bill Hader, Bob Odenkirk, Seth Rogen, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Tiffany Haddish and dozens more.
Production on the current Drunk History season was halted in March due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and with the cancellation announcement apparently won’t be resumed.
Courtesy The Jimmy Carter Presidential LibraryGarth Brooks, Willie Nelson and Trisha Yearwood are just a few of the artists slated to give interviews in a new tribute film highlighting President Jimmy Carter’s unique relationship with music.
Called Jimmy Carter Rock & Roll President, the film explores how Carter incorporated his passion for music into his political career, harnessing the power of song to connect with voters and even span party divides. The movie was directed by Mary Wharton, and is scheduled to hit both traditional and virtual theatres this fall.
The President’s friendship and working relationship with Garth and Trisha Yearwood is an example of that powerful bridge between politics and the arts. Carter and his wife, Rosalynn, also routinely join forces with the country superstar couple to build Habitat for Humanity homes.
Other artists who give interviews in the new film include Jimmy Buffett, Rosanne Cash, Bob Dylan, Bono and many others. The movie also features archival performances from many of the artists who worked most closely with Carter, including Willie Nelson.
Jimmy Carter Rock & Roll President will be available in theatres beginning September 9, and will be released for home entertainment the following month.
(SACRAMENTO, Calif.) — Joseph DeAngelo, the man now known as the “Golden State Killer,” was confronted in court Thursday by the family members of people he murdered decades ago. ‘I was the only living witness’
On Sept. 11, 1975, DeAngelo, who was a police officer at the time, shot and killed journalism professor Claude Snelling in front of his daughter, Elizabeth, at their Visalia, California, home.
“My father caught him twice peering in my bedroom window when he came home from teaching night school, and tried to chase him down but wasn’t able to catch him,” Elizabeth Snelling said in court Thursday.
In the early hours of Sept. 11, Elizabeth Snelling, who was 16 years old, said she was awakened by an intruder in a ski mask who pointed a gun at her head.
Snelling said the intruder told her “he was taking me with him and if I made any noise he would kill me.”
DeAngelo dragged her out of the house with a gun pointed at her head, she said, and her dad charged out of the house.
“DeAngelo fired two shots hitting my dad,” she told the court. “He then turned the gun on me as I was down on the ground. My only thought was, ‘this is it.'”
“He started kicking me in the head and face then ran off,” she said.
Claude Snelling was 45 years old and in “the prime of his life,” his daughter said, calling him her “hero.”
“We somehow managed to stay in the same house but with added security. I slept in my mom’s room for the next year,” Elizabeth Snelling said.
“Knowing that my dad’s murderer was never caught … left us all feeling very vulnerable,” she continued. “Since I was the only living witness … there was a chance he could come after me. The police gave us extra security and patrolled our neighborhood … but I still lived in fear.”
“DeAngelo was able to live a normal life with his family for all those years while my family and I could not be with my dad,” she said. “I am so thankful that he will at least spend the rest of his miserable life in prison.”
DeAngelo, a 74-year-old father and grandfather, was arrested in 2018. In June he pleaded guilty to 13 counts of first-degree murder as part of a plea deal, which also required him to admit to multiple uncharged acts, including rapes.
The death penalty was taken off the table in exchange for the guilty pleas.
Three days of victim and family impact statements began Tuesday with powerful words from rape survivors and their relatives. On Thursday, family members of the 13 people DeAngelo killed have their day in court.
On Friday, DeAngelo will be formally sentenced to life without parole. ‘If I had my way he would be shivering, blindfolded, naked and exposed’
In July 1981, Cheri Domingo and her boyfriend Gregory Sanchez were killed.
Sanchez, 27, was shot and bludgeoned in the head two dozen times, prosecutors said. DeAngelo then bound 35-year-old Domingo, raped her and beat her in the head more than 10 times, prosecutors said.
“My heart is racing,” said Domingo’s daughter, Debbi McMullen, as she began speaking in court Thursday.
McMullen, who was 15 at the time of her mother’s murder, said in her 20s “I started to sink into a depression that was undiagnosed and untreated for many years.”
She said she “stumbled into drug use,” during which “a decade was lost.”
“Mom would have helped,” she said. “She would have supported me and guided me toward solutions. She would have prodded me into admitting that I needed help.”
By her mid-30s, McMullen was clean, sober and welcoming her children back home, she said. McMullen then learned her mother’s slaying may be the work of a serial killer and she poured her energy into helping solve the case.
“I am not that lost teenager anymore. Today I am in the room with the pathetic excuse of a man who will now finally be held accountable,” she said. “If I had my way he would be shivering, blindfolded, naked and exposed every moment from now on.” ‘He had no idea how much Katie and Brian were loved’
In Feb. 1978, Brian and Katie Maggiore were shot dead while walking their dog. After Brian Maggiore was shot, his wife ran away and yelled for help, but DeAngelo caught up with her and shot her in the head, prosecutors said.
Katie turned 20 years old four days before she was killed in “cold blood,” her brother said in court Thursday.
“He had no idea how much Katie and Brian were loved. They have remained alive in all our hearts,” he said. ‘Her future was stolen’
Debra Manning and her boyfriend, Robert Offerman, were killed on Dec. 30, 1979.
Manning was bound, raped and shot twice in the head, while Offerman was bludgeoned and shot four times, her friends said in a statement.
“Her future was stolen,” they said.
DeAngelo, who was a police officer from 1973 to 1979, committed 13 murders as well as multiple rapes and burglaries in the 1970s and 80s.
The crimes, which terrorized towns from Northern to Southern California, went unsolved until April 2018, when DeAngelo was arrested in Sacramento County.
DeAngelo was the first public arrest obtained through genetic genealogy, a new technique that takes the DNA of an unknown suspect left behind at a crime scene and identifies him or her by tracing a family tree through his or her family members, who voluntarily submit their DNA to public genealogy databases.
To identify DeAngelo, investigators narrowed the family tree search based on age, location and other characteristics. Authorities conducted surveillance on DeAngelo and collected his DNA from a tissue left in a trash. Investigators plugged his discarded DNA back into the genealogy database and found a match, linking DeAngelo’s DNA to the DNA found at multiple crime scenes, prosecutors said.
Since DeAngelo’s arrest, over 150 other crime suspects have been identified through genetic genealogy.
Zach BroseKane Brown delivers steamy, late-summer retro vibes in the music video for “Be Like That,” his collaboration with Khalid and Swae Lee.
Filmed at a 1940s-era motel in Sun Valley, California, the clip shows the three artists dancing and partying against a variety of vintage backdrops, including a wood-paneled and baby pink motel room, the inside of an empty swimming pool and a neon-drenched diner.
It adds a carefree, tropical visual element to the song, which shrugs off the ups and downs of a drama-filled relationship with the mantra that “Sometimes it be like that.”
“It’s about all the different feelings you can have in a relationship,” Kane said of the song when he first released it. “And trying not to overthink it. When it gets tough, you wanna be on your own, but then you miss the person a second later. I think it’s something everyone goes through.”
Swae Lee and Khalid not only lend their voices to the track, but they also had a hand in writing “Be Like That.” With help from its out-of-genre special guests, the song adds some tropical flair to Mixtape Vol. 1, a collection that Kane put out earlier this month.
(WASHINGTON) — The State Department is appealing a federal judge’s decision that it must recognize the U.S. citizenship of a young girl born via surrogate to a gay couple — prolonging one of many legal fights over its controversial policy that was deemed unconstitutional in June.
Roee Kiviti and Adiel Kiviti of Chevy Chase, Maryland, are legally married and both U.S. citizens. Their daughter Kessem was born in Canada via a surrogate, so the State Department has argued in federal court that she is “born out of wedlock” and not entitled to birthright citizenship.
Specifically, the department’s policy on “assisted reproductive technology” says, “A child born abroad to a surrogate, whose genetic parents are a U.S. citizen father and anonymous egg donor, is considered for citizenship purposes to be a person born out of wedlock.”
If that seems antiquated, that’s because the policy is based in the 1952 Immigration and Nationality Act, crafted years before in vitro fertilization or legal same-sex marriage. The policy was first developed in the 1990’s to be compliant with that law, although critics have questioned why the Trump administration has so vigorously defended it decades later.
While the Kiviti’s are legally married, the State Department essentially disregarded their marriage and determined that Kessem, born out of wedlock, required a biological connection to a U.S. citizen parent who resided in the U.S. for at least five years in total.
Because Adiel Kiviti, her biological father, had not done so at the time of her birth, she did not automatically qualify for U.S. citizenship, the department ruled.
In June, a federal judge ruled in the family’s favor, calling the department’s policy unconstitutional. But last Friday, the department filed an appeal to fight the decision.
Asked why the State Department is pursuing the case, a spokesperson declined to comment on “pending litigation.”
Through their lawyers at Lambda Legal, Immigration Equality, and the firm Morgan Lewis, Roee Kiviti said in a statement Monday, “It’s sad that we have to continue this legal battle. But we are undeterred. We are doing this not just for our daughter and our family, but so that other families won’t have to.”
The Kiviti’s are not the only family in a legal battle with the department on this issue.
According to Immigration Equality, Derek Mize and Jonathan Gregg, a gay couple in Atlanta, are also awaiting a ruling by a federal judge over their daughter Simone’s citizenship.
The group also represents Allison Stefania and Lucas Zaccari — a lesbian couple fighting for their daughter’s citizenship. She was born to Lucas, an Italian citizen, via in vitro fertilization, so the State Department ruled she was born out of wedlock to a non-U.S. citizen, disregarding Allison’s U.S. citizenship and their marriage. The couple is also awaiting a decision.
Aubrey Plaza as Cleopatra in ‘Drunk History’; Image courtesy Comedy Central(NEW YORK) — Say so long to Drunk History.
