Illustration by Elizabeth Brockway/The Daily BeastTo the women of the world, I—and many people on TikTok—have a question for you: Would you rather be left in the woods with a man you don’t know, or a bear?It’s an absurd question on the surface. Of course you’d rather be in the woods with a human being rather than a large beastly animal with terrifying teeth and claws that could maul and maim you. At best it could kill you instantly. At worst, it would be a prolonged death a la Grizzly Man, slowly being eaten alive.Bears don’t always stop to kill their prey before they start consuming them, either. Absolutely, no thank you.Read more at The Daily Beast.

Photo Illustration by Luis G. Rendon/The Daily Beast/Getty Images/XThis week:I’m Heading to the AsylumThe only thing worse than a meme that completely floods your social media timeline is not understanding what in god’s name the meme means. As a burgeoning Old Person, this has become a frustratingly common occurrence. So in between refilling my acid reflux prescription and icing my sore knees, I finally broke down and googled the provenance of the meme that had been assaulting me all week, and now I’m more annoyed than I was when I was just blissfully elderly, clueless, and out of touch.Read more at The Daily Beast.

Photo Illustration by Luis G. Rendon/The Daily Beast/Getty ImagesThere’s still life in the old dog yet. At the age of 93 Rupert Murdoch is about to marry for the fifth time. And there’s no doubt what the best, and by far the most expensive, wedding present from his family would be: To shut down Prince Harry’s litigation against Murdoch’s British tabloids over their industrial-scale hacking.This decades-old saga has already cost News Group Newspapers at least one billion pounds in settlements and legal costs. The next group of 45 cases, including Prince Harry’s, are due to go to court next January.Until now the Duke of Sussex has shown no sign of settling out of court. On the back of a huge settlement with the Daily Mirror’s owners he still wanted to take the adversary he most despises all the way to a trial that would very likely have required Murdoch himself to face cross-examination alongside other top NGN executives.Read more at The Daily Beast.

Photo Illustration by The Daily Beast/Getty ImagesMaya Rudolph didn’t mean to make waves this week when she sat down with Dax Shepard for an episode of Armchair Expert, but alas, sometimes you don’t choose The Discourse™. Sometimes it chooses you. It all started almost an hour into the episode, when Rudolph and Shepard were talking about their families, the biz, and their respective approaches to their careers. It was then that Rudolph’s famous family came up. Her mother was venerated soul singer Minnie Riperton, and her father is music producer Richard Rudolph. Riperton died in 1979 at the age of 31, when Maya was only 7 years old.When Shepard noted that Rudolph seems to have a pretty healthy relationship with her career, she attributed part of that to how her parents raised her. In doing so, she accidentally ignited a nepo discourse that, frankly, seems pretty unfair.Read more at The Daily Beast.

Photo Illustration by Erin O’Flynn/The Daily Beast/MGMApparently, it’s not encouraged to shout, “Alright boys, pucker up!” at a movie theater screen during a packed showing of one of the most anticipated films of the year. God forbid anyone has a little bit of fun. You’re telling me that no one else brought tubes of Blistex to throw at the screen during Challengers? What’s next, I can’t make loud smooching sounds when Zendaya, Josh O’Connor, and Mike Faist all gather in a hotel room, even when I’ve seen the movie’s trailer 50 times and I know exactly what’s about to happen? No, you grow up!Just kidding, I would rather die than be caught dead disrupting a theater. Yet, Challengers has a way of thwarting even our most steadfast moral tenets, prompting audiences to act on impulse. My screening had plenty of gasping, hooting, and cheering as all three characters involved in a tennis-based love triangle wormed their way through each others’ lives. There is so much seduction and subterfuge packed into the film that I found myself holding my breath as often as I did twirling my hair around my finger like a lovestruck schoolgirl with a secret crush. But part of Challengers’ brilliance is that it lets no crush go secret for too long, and it’s impossible to walk away from the movie without feeling like you just got a glimpse of something far more depraved than you were anticipating—in the best possible way. All this immorality is set into motion quickly and carefully, and it’s one steaming hot three-way kiss between the movie’s stars that triggers it.In case you got clocked in the noggin with a fuzzy green ball and missed the memo, Challengers stars Mike Faist, Zendaya, and Josh O’Connor as a triad of young tennis prodigies, whose expertise is outweighed only by their mutual horniness for one another. This results in some calculating betrayal over the years, as the three of them navigate the ups and downs of their personal and professional lives with about as much care as one would expect from ruthless athletes. There’s plenty of viciousness on and off the court, but the scenes of physical intimacy are just as intense. But don’t be fooled: Challengers isn’t your average two-bit, soft porn Netflix movie. There are few actual sex scenes in the film. In Challengers, the sweaty, grunting tennis matches are the real sex, and glimpses of carnal activity are mere foreplay for what happens in these sequences. And, just like in real life, foreplay sets the tone for what comes next.Read more at The Daily Beast.

Spencer Platt/GettyPlans for alumni reunions at Columbia University are colliding with controversy, with some alumni planning to boycott over the continued protests against the war in Gaza on campus.Debate raged in a Facebook group for members of the class of 1989 this week, with at least 10 people saying they would not attend their class’s 35th reunion on campus.A post declaring “I WILL NOT ATTEND REUNION!” and featuring an image of a star of David received 18 likes and more than 50 comments in less than 24 hours.Read more at The Daily Beast.

Nathan Congleton/NBC via Getty ImagesFans of comedian Jerry Seinfeld are going to have to stick to reruns, because the veteran comedian said his most recent comedy special will likely be his last.In a podcast interview with David Remnick for the New Yorker Radio Hour, Seinfeld was brutally honest about the business and his own limitations as a comedian.“I think comedians now try so hard to be all new all the time, I think the quality suffers because none of us are really that good,” Seinfeld said. “A great comedian working his ass off his entire career writes two good hours, the rest is…,” he trailed off.Read more at The Daily Beast.

Fox News Fox News contributor and Washington Times opinion editor Charlie Hurt was back on The Five Friday with another weird take: Showers “are terrible,” and not even farmers have to take them.The discussion was centered around a New York Post story published Thursday that called attention to how some experts consider daily showers more of a social construct rooted out of the opinions of others than a personal necessity for one’s skin. One environmentalist, for instance, told the BBC this week that showers are more popular than ever “because we’re afraid somebody else will tell us that we’re smelling.”The Post also cited a Manhattan dermatologist who warned that prolonged, daily showers could damage the “skin’s microbiome,” which not only protects the skin but is “extremely important in overall health of the body.”Read more at The Daily Beast.

Photo Illustration by Elizabeth Brockway/The Daily Beast/GettyFor the duration of his criminal trial, Donald J. Trump has moved back into the penthouse of Trump Tower at the corner of 5th Avenue and 56th Street. With the owner and former president back in residence, you might think they’d spruce up the abutting commercial and retail space. You’d be wrong. The Daily Beast dropped in earlier this week for a tour of the “crown jewel of The Trump Organization.”FIFTH AVENUE ENTRANCEMetal barriers take up half the sidewalk and serve two purposes: (1) to hold back crowds; and (2) to force people to cross the avenue if they want a selfie of themselves giving the finger to Trump Tower.Read more at The Daily Beast.

The Daily Beast/Courtesy of Bernard CodyThe court decision overturning Harvey Weinstein’s New York rape conviction came as a shock to victims, activists—and the man who was the foreman of the jury that found him guilty.“This decision is so unfair to the women that were hurt by [Weinstein],” Bernard Cody told The Daily Beast on Friday. “When our conviction happened, the women were so relieved it was over. And so were we. To take that away is awful.”Cody and his fellow jurors deliberated five days, reviewing four weeks worth of testimony and evidence, before finding Weinstein guilty in 2020. The former producer was then sentenced to 23 years for sexually assaulting former Project Runway production assistant Miriam Haleyi and raping former actress Jessica Mann.Read more at The Daily Beast.

Photo Illustration by Luis G. Rendon/The Daily Beast/Getty ImagesDonald Trump’s presidency has served as a wake-up call that our Constitution and our laws were not designed to handle an authoritarian like him. And Thursday’s Supreme Court hearing on presidential immunity was yet another reminder of that fact.It’s dangerous to try and divine the court’s opinion based on oral arguments; however, the consensus seems to be heading in a direction that says that a president should be immune from prosecution over “official,” but not private, acts. On the surface, this seems like a reasonable precedent. After all, we don’t want a banana republic where former presidents are unfairly targeted for prosecution after they leave office.Still, this foreboding thought remains: It is virtually impossible to untwine “official” acts from personal crimes. Someone like Trump can always lie about his motives.Read more at The Daily Beast.

George Frey/Getty ImagesA woman in Utah who was dubbed a “Karen” after video of her losing it over a young woman wearing a miniskirt went viral has been charged with sexual battery in connection with the incident. Ida Ann Lorenzo, 48, allegedly pulled down the woman’s mini skirt as she complained that it was too small and threatened to call child protective services. In a video with over 3 million views on TikTok, Lorenzo was filmed defending her decision to pull down the skirt, moments after the encounter in the lobby of the Sakura Japanese Steakhouse in St. George, Utah. Read more at The Daily Beast.

REDA&CO/Universal Images Group via Getty Images For decades, the ritzy leisure and dining group Cipriani has attracted tabloid fixtures to its banquet halls, from Donald Trump to Taylor Swift, the Clintons, Kardashians, and Kennedys. But according to a new lawsuit, some of the real drama has played out within the company’s own ranks.The complaint, filed in New York Supreme Court on Thursday, alleges that Cipriani was duped by its own facilities director and one of his subordinates into paying thousands of false invoices to outside vendors.The company’s regional facilities director, Andrew Heaton, and facility assistant manager Franklin Palaquibay, received kickbacks for facilitating the false payments, the lawsuit asserts. In all, Cipriani says it paid at least $5 million to defendants Fulton Supply Hardware and Tek Mek Inc. “based on the fraudulent invoices.”Read more at The Daily Beast.

Handout via Getty Images South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem appears to have confirmed that she killed a family puppy that infuriated her by being “untrainable,” and she claims it only proves how “politically incorrect” she is.The Republican governor and potential Trump 2024 running mate commented on the uproar over the violent anecdote with her own brief statement on X.“We love animals, but tough decisions like this happen all the time on a farm,” she wrote. “Sadly, we just had to put down 3 horses a few weeks ago that had been in our family for 25 years.”Read more at The Daily Beast.

Scouted/The Daily Beast/MGM/On.Scouted selects products independently. If you purchase something from our posts, we may earn a small commission.Move over, Saltburn. There’s a new movie about bodily fluids, bi-panic, and a group of painfully hot narcissists that has everyone in a chokehold right now. Unless you have been living under a rock (good for you, TBH), you’ve probably seen the many spicy posts on X about Challengers, the latest Luca Guadagnino film that opens in US theaters this week—or, as my friends have been calling it, “that horny Twilight throuple movie on gains.”No spoilers here, but suffice to say that there’s a whole lot of yearning in this love triangle sports drama, a whole lot of tennis, and a whole lot of Zendaya—and her two male love interests—looking preppy and polished as hell on and off the court, courtesy of the film’s costume designer Jonathan Anderson.Read more at The Daily Beast.

Etienne Laurent-Pool/Getty ImagesHarvey Weinstein is coming back to court.The disgraced Hollywood producer is set to return to Manhattan Supreme Court next week, less than a week after the state’s highest court overturned his 2020 rape conviction. The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office confirmed to The Daily Beast he will appear Wednesday before Judge Curtis Farber—a different justice than the one who previously handled his case. In a 4-3 decision, the New York Court of Appeals ordered a new trial for Weinstein after his first one was prejudiced with improper rulings and witnesses that were not a part of the case.Weinstein, who is currently housed in an upstate prison, is set to be transferred to a local jail to be closer to his legal team as they prepare for a new trial. His spokesperson previously told The Daily Beast that Weinstein’s legal team is pushing for him to be housed at the Bellevue Hospital Prison Ward or the medical center at Rikers.Read more at The Daily Beast.

Photo Illustration by Luis G. Rendon/The Daily Beast/Getty ImagesHarvey Weinstein, whose New York rape conviction was just overturned, may have been the biggest #MeToo villain. But there are plenty of other bold-faced names in that rogue’s gallery. In the space of a couple of years, powerhouses of the entertainment, media, culinary, and political worlds would find themselves in disgrace as accusers came forward with stories of harassment, discrimination, and worse.Despite this week’s court ruling, Weinstein is still behind bars, serving 16-years for a Los Angeles rape conviction. Here’s a look at where some of the other men and their comeback attempts have ended up:Kevin SpaceyRead more at The Daily Beast.

Joey Delvalle/NBCU Photo BankEarlier this month, a post popped up on the r/seinfeld subreddit with the headline, “Lost Seinfeld script for 'The Bet' aka 'The Gun' finally found” and a link to a PDF on the Internet Archive of what appeared to be the original script, complete with scribbled notations and edits, of an infamous Seinfeld episode that was never filmed about Julia Louis-Dreyfus’ character Elaine deciding to purchase a firearm.Reached by email on Friday, the credited writer of that episode, Larry Charles, confirmed to The Daily Beast that not only is the script legit but that he recognizes his own handwriting throughout.“I haven’t gone through it page by page but it looks real, including my penciled-in revisions,” Charles says. “I still have my original table read copy with the cover. From looking at the first few pages it seemed funnier than I remember. But very hard-edged.”Read more at The Daily Beast.

ELIJAH NOUVELAGE/AFP via Getty ImagesAn economics professor at Emory University whose needlessly violent arrest was captured by a news crew on Thursday at the school’s pro-Palestine protest, is now facing charges for battery against a police officer.In a disturbing video captured by CNN, Professor Caroline Fohlin approached several police officers as they wrestled one protester to the ground, forcefully shoving their head into the concrete sidewalk. “Oh my God, what are you doing?” Fohlin asked, horrified. Fohlin yelled at the officers to “get away” from the student. She leaned down closer to the student, but did not touch them, or any of the officers.Read more at The Daily Beast.

Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty ImagesWhen Manhattan District Attorney prosecutors called their second witness in Donald Trump’s criminal case on Friday, they wanted the jury to note who is paying for the lawyers for this prosecution witness: Trump.Rhona Graff, who served as Donald Trump’s executive assistant and so-called gatekeeper for 34 years, was called by prosecutors on Friday to testify in her former boss’ criminal hush-money trial. And almost immediately, Assistant District Attorney Susan Hoffinger delivered an important disclosure—that the Trump Organization is paying for Graff’s lawyers.Hoffinger asked Graff—who appeared alongside Trump in multiple episodes of The Apprentice and worked at his family business until 2021—about a contact number for “Stormy” listed in the Trump Organization’s computer system, and another listed for Playboy Playmate Karen McDougal, who claimed to have had a yearlong affair with Trump.Read more at The Daily Beast.

Apple TV+The first season of Palm Royale–the Apple TV+ series set in Palm Beach, 1969—has been nothing if not idiosyncratic, a synthesis of meditations on second and even third acts in American life, examinations of power and gender dynamics among the super-rich, and a whole lot of sunny-hued fun—almost always cranked up to 11 and all filtered through a queer lens. This is a show that featured a 15-minute rumba set piece earlier in the season, so the audience knew coming into the series’ eighth episode, “Maxine Saves A Whale,” that Palm Royale doesn’t simply go for big swings, it relishes them.Still, nothing could have prepared us for the sudden spectacle of an actual humpback whale beaching itself just outside the Dellacorte mansion, or for the profound self-reflection it prompts in three characters in particular: Maxine Dellacorte (Kristen Wiig), Evelyn Rollins (Allison Janney), and Robert Díaz (Ricky Martin). Yes, in this episode, Allison Janney has her most emotional acting scene of the series, tearfully pouring out Evelyn’s bruised heart to a giant, dying whale.As wild as the whale’s surprise appearance is, series creator and showrunner Abe Sylvia describes it as inevitable, the “objective correlative” to his ensemble’s individual and collective character arcs, and a necessary shove forward along their journeys through what they all interpret as “some kind of karma comeuppance.” He fondly refers to Palm Royale as “a gay fantasia” that is also a drama built atop a rich seam of melancholy its characters must mine to navigate their own personal reckonings.Read more at The Daily Beast.

Photo Illustration by Erin O’Flynn/The Daily Beast/Getty ImagesThe overturn of Harvey Weinstein’s rape conviction on Thursday thrust the #MeToo movement back into the spotlight, sparking national conversation about what the movement has accomplished and where it’s going. But one high-profile group was absent from the conversation: Time’s Up.The organization, launched by a coterie of Hollywood power players in the wake of revelations about Weinstein’s misbehavior, was intended to formalize the organic, largely online movement. But after its star-studded launch, the group underwent an almost cinematic fall from grace, facing complaints of elitism by staff, getting entangled in the sexual harassment allegations against New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, and finally, suspending operations entirely.Other organizations, like Tarana Burke’s Me Too International, have remained strong, securing steady funding and launching support programs for survivors. And the passage of legislation in at least seven states opening up a “lookback window” for lawsuits resulted in thousands of cases being filed against alleged abusers in the last two years.Read more at The Daily Beast.

Scouted/The Daily Beast/Hexclad.Scouted selects products independently. If you purchase something from our posts, we may earn a small commission.If you’re anything like me, cooking is not something you do in your finest threads. Whether it’s the sauce simmering or just a smoothie blending, there’s always something splashing around. Thankfully, chef-loved cookware brand HexClad tapped music producer and songwriter Benny Blanco to design a limited edition eco-friendly apron that will inspire you to get creative in the kitchen again. HexClad and Blanco collaborated on a vibrant tie-dye apron made from 100 percent plastic bottle fabric that brings flair and function to the kitchen. Adorned with pink waist ties and pockets aplenty, Benny’s Eco Modern Apron is a must-have for serious gourmands and aspiring cooks alike.Read more at The Daily Beast.

Fox NewsWhere’s Jeff Gillooly when you need him?Reacting to Friday’s news that President Joe Biden said he’s “happy” to debate Donald Trump, Fox News host Emily Compagno speculated that the president could concoct a “Nancy Kerrigan situation” to force a last-minute cancellation.During Friday’s broadcast of Fox News’ roundtable show Outnumbered, the co-hosts parroted MAGA talking points that Biden is either too scared or mentally incompetent to go one-on-one with Trump on a national stage—even though the ex-president is the one who backed out of every GOP primary debate this election cycle.Read more at The Daily Beast.

NetflixBaby Reindeer is Netflix’s latest and most unlikely hit series, taking the world by storm in the weeks since its early-April release. The riveting, pulse-pounding drama is based loosely on star and creator Richard Gadd’s own experience with a relentless stalker (Jessica Gunning), who became fixated on him after he showed her kindness at the pub where he worked. It’s often horrifying to witness, but impossible to look away from—especially in one unforgettable moment in its penultimate episode, which solidifies the show as one of the year’s best.[Warning: Spoilers for Baby Reindeer ahead.]In Episode 6, to put it mildly, things are not going well for Donny, a bartender and failed stand-up comic (played by Gadd). Martha (Gunning) has started to relentlessly harass his parents, and an attempt to coerce her into sending him a violent email so he can finally get the police to do something backfires. Donny’s girlfriend has also dumped him after his inability to handle the Martha situation begins to affect their relationship. “Surely it couldn’t get any worse from here,” he narrates.Read more at The Daily Beast.

Chris Sweda/Chicago Tribune/Tribune News Service via Getty ImagesR. Kelly’s bid to shorten his lengthy prison terms came up short on Friday, as the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago decided that his 2022 conviction would be upheld.Kelly had tried to appeal the 20-year sentence on his child porn conviction in Chicago, seeking a reduction in prison time, but the court’s decision killed that bid this week after directly linking the Chicago sentence to the 30-year sentence the singer received in New York on sex trafficking and racketeering charges.According to court documents obtained by The Daily Beast, Kelly appealed his convictions for Sexual Exploitation and Inducement of a Child on the grounds that the statute of limitations on the charges had run out, one of the charges should have been heard by a separate jury, and that 240-month sentence was “improper” procedurally.Read more at The Daily Beast.

Hollie Adams/Pool/ReutersKing Charles is to return to “public-facing duties” next week, Buckingham Palace said Friday, in an encouraging sign that his cancer treatment is working.One of his first engagements will be to visit a cancer treatment center with Queen Camilla on Tuesday, and in June he will host the Emperor and Empress of Japan for a state visit. Hopes will be high that he will now be cleared by doctors to attend the Trooping the Color ceremony which celebrates the monarch’s official birthday in June.In the statement the palace said, “His Majesty The King will shortly return to public-facing duties after a period of treatment and recuperation following his recent cancer diagnosis.Read more at The Daily Beast.

BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI; JIM WATSON/GETTYPresident Joe Biden told Howard Stern on Friday that he would “be happy to” debate his Republican rival Donald Trump, marking the first time the president has explicitly said he would debate Trump this election cycle.During an hour-long live sitdown with the famed shock jock, Biden was asked whether he would agree to a general election face-off against Trump, prompting the president to insist he was up to the challenge.“I am, somewhere, I don’t know when, but I am happy to debate him,” Biden stated.Read more at The Daily Beast.

Icon Sportswire/GettyFormer New York Giants offensive lineman Korey Cunningham has been found dead in his New Jersey home. He was 28. Local outlet RLS Media said police and emergency services arrived on the scene around 3:30 p.m. Thursday, with the medical examiner removing the body about an hour later.Police said there was no evidence of foul play.Read more at The Daily Beast.

Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty ImagesAs the first week of testimony in Donald Trump’s criminal trial wrapped up Friday, former tabloid king David Pecker was on the defensive.Trump defense attorney Emil Bove already faced a tongue-lashing on Thursday from the judge—New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan—over the way Bove was “misleading” the jury as he cross-examined Pecker about the hush-money payments that went to Stormy Daniels ahead of the 2016 election.But Bove picked up right where he left off on Friday, asking Pecker detailed questions about specific aspects of Pecker’s previous testimony, looking for any inconsistencies in the publishing magnate’s recollections to plant a seed of reasonable doubt in jurors’ minds.Read more at The Daily Beast.