Learning to Like the New Miley Cyrus
Hannah Montana is dead. Long live Hannah Montana? Nah, the new Miley Cyrus, now that she's a young woman of 20 and seemingly fully liberated from her Disney/Billy Ray shackles, is way more fun.
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The Republican senator has announced her support for same-sex marriage. This used to be a more common thing, back when there were more moderate and Democratic senators who hadn't yet made the announcement. Or who hadn't yet "evolved," as politicians say these days. Thanks to Murkowski, we now have a better sense for how long that evolution takes. We counted.
Hannah Montana is dead. Long live Hannah Montana? Nah, the new Miley Cyrus, now that she's a young woman of 20 and seemingly fully liberated from her Disney/Billy Ray shackles, is way more fun.
In a previously unreleased, nearly 20-year-old interview, Steve Jobs made a prescient statement about the current state of the company he made so famous. And Apple might want to keep his words in mind: At some point, everything Steve Jobs conceived will become obsolete — and then what?
Contrary to everything reality television has taught us, extremely lavish nuptials won't make you any happier — or, at least Internet mogul and noted partier Sean Parker does not sound too delighted after his $4.5 million ecological mess of a costume nerd wedding earlier this month.
Sean Hannity, still, incredibly, is officially confused about where President Obama grew up. In a new interview with Playboy, Hannity was asked whether he regrets saying Obama grew up in Kenya. Hannity responded, "But he did grow up in Kenya, and he told The New York Times that he went to a school there and one of the most beautiful things on the planet is Islamic prayer at sunset."
The Vatican has reportedly "approved" a second miracle that can be attributed to the memory of Pope John Paul II, opening the door for him to become a full saint faster than anyone in recent history.
Aaron Sorkin knows a lot of people hate-watch his show The Newsroom, but he wants to change hearts and minds for Season Two. Sort of.
President Obama's speech in front of the Brandenburg gate today intentionally echoed his 2008 speech in the city as a candidate. But, perhaps unintentionally, the themes in each speech were also largely the same. We analyzed each speech to see how the President's priorities have (and haven't) changed.
As unpaid internships seemingly go by the wayside, some argue that these positions provide marketable skills and training, which these young workers of America can't get elsewhere — but is that really true? Not really.
Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana, the legendary designer duo whose billion-dollar fashion empire has been embroiled in a $1.3-billion tax evasion case, were sentenced to almost two years in prison today — but they probably won't serve any jail time in what would no doubt be one of the stranger times behind bars in celebrity history.
Welp, here's hoping you didn't have anything important stored on Megaupload's mostly dormant servers that you wanted back one day. Mega Upload owner and maniacal super villain Kim Dotcom says a huge amount of their servers have been wiped in a "data massacre" for the ages.
Ben Smith on the legacy of Michael Hastings, Fergus Cullen on America's reliance on the sports-star immigration dilemma, Hadley Freeman on the domestic disturbance of Nigella Lawson, Margaret Carlson on Hillary Clinton's 2016 strategy, and Deena Shanker on the feminism of country music.
FBI director Robert Mueller said the government has used surveillance drones in the U.S. — though "in a very, very minimal way, very seldom" — at a Senate hearing on Wednesday. Sen. Dianne Feinstein said drones were the "biggest threat to privacy" in America today, suggesting that she is anti-NSA paranoia but pro-drone paranoia.
Today in celebrity news: Selma Blair is off Anger Management, Paula Deen said some pretty bad things, and Adam Levine has a perfume.
Last night Jimmy Kimmel released a pretty hilarious viral video on his Game Night special. It makes no sense and that's kind of the point. But it is funny. The type of funny that have some saying Kimmel deserves to steal away Jon Stewart's Emmy this year.
For those waiting for the president to do something on climate change, Obama has offered two signs that action is imminent. The public sign came during his speech today in Berlin. The more subtle signal came in conversation with groups about to sue him for his inaction.
John McAfee — the millionaire software developer who was deported back to the U.S. after going on the run from murder charges in Belize — introduces the world to "both of his alter egos" in this oddly self-aware and totally wacky YouTube tutorial about how to uninstall McAfee anti-virus software.
A few hundred of the thousands of Miami Heat ticket-holders who chose to leave American Airlines Arena during the final minute of the fourth quarter of Game Six of the NBA Finals were punished by the sports gods when they tried, desperately, drunkenly, to get back in for the Heat's shocking comeback and overtime win to keep the season alive.
Barack Obama returned to Berlin today, almost five years to the day from when he delivered his famous "Victory Column" speech that cemented his reputation as an international rockstar. Unfortunately, his reception this time was a lot different.
Last night John Oliver, pointing out that he was an immigrant himself, took on the Senate's attempt to pass an immigration reform bill. But he knows that the bill, with its sad looking Schoolhouse Rock face, will have a pretty hard time becoming a law.
If past statistics of the agency's internal examinations hold, expect the FBI to fully justify Ibragim Todashev's killing just before he was about to peacefully sign a confession as Tsarnaev's accomplice to a triple murder — even though it's taking a suspiciously long time to do so.
After a couple very early teasers reintroduced us to our beloved idiotic newsmen and didn't do much of anything else, now feast your eyes on the first full trailer for Anchorman: The Legend Continues — with, you know, footage from the actual movie, all full of Ron Burgundy and his gang as fish out of water in their new decade: the 80s.
Within hours of announcing they were ready to talk peace, the Taliban took credit for killing four more Americans and the government of Afghanistan is backing out of agreements. Is the whole process doomed to failure?
Welcome to the NASA Grand Challenge, where everyone from government agencies to citizen scientists will compete to figure out the best way to detect and study earth-threatening asteroids.
No one said that the Taliban's plan to hold direct talks with the U.S. would be easy.
Josh Duggar, the oldest of the 19 Duggar children, is leaving the family's home state of Arkansas and moving to D.C. for a job with the Family Research Council.
Michael Hastings, most recently of Buzzfeed but well-known and respected for his fearless reporting in Rolling Stone, Newsweek, and elsewhere, has died at the age of 33
Today in viral videos: Russell Brand gets sympathetic, 50 (completely unscientific) ways to trick people into thinking you're smarter than you are, and summer treat from Disney.
Google has filed a motion to end the gag order on the secret FISA court requests that it gets from the government as a part of the National Security Agencies surveillance, which could work considering how recent efforts to reveal the secrets of the secret court have gone.
This is where we are with the IRS scandal: bogged in a subset of a subset of a subset of a war. Today's volley was the releasing of an interview transcript. World War IRS.
The Today show plaza—long the place of concerts, hosts doing silly things, awkward chats—may be getting some sort of makeover. In his New York Times report about the show replacing its longtime director, Brian Stelter quotes an unnamed executive as saying "We’re rethinking the plaza experience."
Today in show business news: Jurassic Park 4 lives again, Pacific Rim may live again too, and Liv Tyler heads to TV.
The results are undeniable. These stockings, which are made to look like a pair of very hairy legs, induce groans, nausea, and physical discomfort and according to Weibo they're the best deterrent to cat calls and objectification that the country has to offer. There's one problem if you want a pair though—they're probably an elaborate joke.
Wall Street Journal columnist James Taranto is not a rape apologist. He's not a woman hater. He only attacks sexual assault victims to help other women.
Can you guess which one? If you think it's the one embroiled in a violent crack cocaine scandal, you are wrong.
Every few months, for reasons that only they can really know, Politico founders submit themselves to questioning from publications that not so secretly hate them.
Don't expect Star Wars: Episode VII to have the Lucas touch. According to a new interview, the original Star Wars auteur isn't even talking to the young Hollywood Padawan about his re-branding of the empire. Which is kind of sad, but maybe a good idea.
Props to Joanna Rohrback, who managed to turn her memeness into Internet fame in less than a month — now with an actual video for a pop song, which, apparently, is about Taylor Swift.
It's an awkward moment to be a professor at New York University — especially if your employer subsidizes luxury housing for you and your spouse.
Vice President Joe Biden gave a speech this afternoon celebrating the administration's push for new restrictions on gun ownership. Which is a little like an athlete stopping mid-race to say that he already considered himself a winner. While in sixth place.
The former government contractor who leaked National Security Agency documents that turned the world's digital privacy expectations upside-down appears to be keeping up with his plan to seek asylum in Iceland, with an assist from Wikileaks, of course. And the Icelandic government tells The Atlantic Wire that won't be easy.
One of the perks of being Treasury Secretary is getting your name on every dollar bill, but that awesome responsibility meant that new boss Jack Lew had to reinvent his name.
Johnny Depp knows that the racial politics of the Lone Ranger character Tonto are dicey, in general, especially when played by a white person like him, in particular. So to get out in front of such concerns, he's told Brian Hiatt in his Rolling Stone cover story that in director Gore Verbinski's reboot of the 1950s TV staple, Tonto is "no joke." Hence the makeup.
"Maker of 'Candy Crush Saga' Plans IPO," reports the Wall Street Journal today, which very possibly makes zero sense to you. What's Candy Crush? you might ask. How does something with a silly name like that get big enough for a public offering? And did you say Zynga? Because that doesn't sound good. The Atlantic Wire is here to answer all those questions and more.
If you were wondering how the NSA and FBI felt about the very friendly hearing the House Intelligence Committee invited them to today, a hot mic has your answer. "Tell your boss," NSA Director Keith Alexander told the FBI deputy director, "I owe him another friggin' beer."
Ben Greenman is a writer who pokes, prods, and sets readers off balance in hopes of generating emotion and thought — and maybe, sometimes, simply because he feels like it. This is a man who has purposely inserted typos in his books.
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