Following criticism, Julian Fellowes and Co. are following through on a plan to add some needed diversity to the show's lily-white roster ahead of season four. Today comes news that Gary Carr has been cast in the role of Jack Ross, a "black and very handsome" jazz singer.
Seven out of ten Americans support the death penalty for Dzhokhar Tsarnaev if he's found guilty of his role in the Boston marathon bombings. There are some reports, however, that the punishment may be negotiated away.
Even though the administration has said that a "red line" would involve chemical weapons, there remain a lot of questions about the Assad regime. "For instance, did he use them in a boat? Did he use them with a goat? Did he use them in a house? Did he use them with a mouse?"
As of Wednesday morning, at midnight, same-sex couples in Colorado were finally allowed to get a civil union — and, more importantly, to get that union recognized by the state. These are just some of the hundreds of happy couples from Denver and beyond.
While violence in the Russian republic of Dagestan is nothing new, the region's connection to the Boston Marathon bombings has shined a new global spotlight on the long-running conflict.
Families of the victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School Shooting are making good on their promise to keep the issue of gun control alive even after the failure of new legislation in Congress.
On Tuesday evening, longtime congressman Ed Markey handily won the Democratic primary for a special election that'll decide who fills Secretary of State John Kerry's former Senate seat.
The Venezuelan National Assembly is a little shaken up after a brutally violent brawl broke out between politicians on Tuesday night as the pro-government lawmakers sparred with the opposition — literally.
The American Orthotic and Prosthetic Association (AOPA) told reporters on Tuesday afternoon that it would provide prosthetics to the estimated 20 to 25 victims of the Boston bombings who lost limbs.
Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah, is running his mouth about Syria again, only this time the Assad ally sounds like he's actually getting ready to make a move.
In the high-stakes race to commoditize the new couch potato, other online networks-in-the-making are working overtime. Can Netflix keep you binging across both ends of the entertainment spectrum? Or is there a funny sleeper hit in the works from the Internet, where two-minute clips are true kings, and 22-minute series are usually, well, really bad?
On Tuesday afternoon the Food and Drug Administration issued a press release about the approval of Plan B One-Step, a brand-name emergency contraceptive. Here's what that means.
The Obama administration is getting ready to send arms to Syrian rebels, The Washington Post's Karen DeYoung reports, by way of very convoluted descriptions from anonymous senior administration officials attempting to describe the Obama administration's thinking. Got that? Didn't think so. Here's a guide to where we're at — almost.
Obama's approval ratings track much more closely with Bush's than Clinton's, and if he repeats the pattern he saw during his first term — a slow drop followed by a recovery — Obama could see fairly low popularity, right around the time of midterm elections.
Today in show business news: Allison Williams is on her way to the big screen, Cinderella has its lead, and Chris Hardwick maes it to late night.
Yes, this story gets weider: Police have found evidence indicating that the man arrested for sending ricin-tainted letters to D.C. attempted to create the poison. According to the AP, a dust mask found in Everett Dutschke's martial arts studio tested positive for the potent poison.
In May, Netflix will lose streaming rights to a whopping 1,794 titles because of expiring deals with Warner Bros., MGM, Universal, and Viacom. A big chunk of them will expire at midnight on May 1 — and by the end of the month, Netflix Instant will have lost the whole lot.
Despite a Showtime release about "the world's most wanted terrorist" in the new season, there may remain — beyond any assumptions that said "global manhunt" would consume all of season three — reasons to get all excited before September 29.
Zimmerman and his attorneys appeared in court to waive his right to seek an immunity hearing under Florida's "Stand Your Ground" law — and keep the rest of their strategy close to the vest. His fate in the killing of Trayvon Martin will now be put in the hands of a jury beginning June 10, when one of the most emotional trials in recent American history will begin.
Amidst increasing pressure from the law and creepy renters, the world's best urban vacation rental startup is forcing users to fork over government-issued photo I.D. so they can crosscheck your identity against your social media account... all to rent a cheap apartment. Yes, Airbnb is now more strict than most bars.
Of the Senator's latest expert suggestions — that the Boston bombings and Benghazi showed a national security weakness — President Obama said, "No, Mr. Graham is not right on this issue, although I'm sure it generated some headlines." Wrong. What it generated was cable news hits for Graham. And the No. 1 thing Lindsey Graham is an expert on... is getting on TV.
The Internet spent Tuesday morning laughing at a suggestion by BlackBerry CEO Thorstein Heins that tablets won't exist in five years, a scenario that is as plausible as it is predictive — in fact, it's as exciting a plan for the future of gadgets as the one Apple built right under your fingertips.
An enormous new billboard in South Carolina features the serial philanderer just a week ahead of his special election. But the CEO of the extramarital "dating" site tells The Atlantic Wire that a Sanford victory would be a move toward cultural acceptance of cheating — or at least would help the site buy some Super Bowl ads.
This week, Digg and Feedly both surveyed RSS users on the types of social features they’d like to see integrated into a Google Reader replacement. Feedly says it will roll out an updated product in a couple weeks, while Digg’s product launches in June and is likely to be paid.
Minutes after a Reuters report came out, Uber released a definitive statement denying that it has raised any money that would value the transportation startup at $1 billion.
During the second half of last year — the hottest recorded year in U.S. history — ocean temperatures off the East Coast also hit their highest temperatures in the 150 years measurements have been kept. It's not a comforting record.
The trial of Philadelphia doctor Kermit Gosnell has been sent to the jury for deliberations. The trial hasn't inspired a flurry of news articles, though — mostly because nothing much of interest is happening in the trial.
Now that the morning show guru turned network executive has CNN's fresh-faced morning show ready for launch, Zucker can turn his attention to reviving his primetime lineup. The big question for the months ahead: Will he take CNN in reverse to pass ahead? And what does Crossfire have to do with any of this?
NBC on the marketing of energy-efficient light bulbs, The New York Times on burning garbage in Oslo, The Washington Post on Fisker Automotive, The American Prospect on Obama's green record, and National Geographic on solar nanotechnology.
At his press conference Tuesday, President Obama said that most Americans are benefiting from the Affordable Care Act, even if they don't know it. He's definitely right about the not knowing it part.
We still don't know much about the seven people who died when a cargo plane crashed Monday at Bagram Airfield in Afghanistan, but dashboard camera footage surfaced Tuesday morning — and it provides more answers than you may even feel comfortable watching.
Yahoo's new maternity and paternity leave policy would delight all those pro-family people who hated on Mayer's work-from-home ban... if only Yahoo's new plan for new parents was as good as the HR strategies at Google and Facebook.
They're not exactly the Oscars of online, but when this year's Webby nominations came out, we were convinced that Dunham was going to take home yet another award for making Republicans angry in that Obama ad. But lo, the winners were announced this morning, and Lena got beat. By Charlize Theron.
Leaders of the New York Police Department offered an innovative-if-self-deprecating rationale for its practice of stop-and-frisks: ten percent of its officers are lazy and need incentives to get them out of their cars.
This blockbuster had it all: popular source material (zombies!) and a massive star (Brad Pitt!)... but it seems to have gone so very wrong. At least that's how Vanity Fair chronicles World War Z in its new cover story, bringing to mind the ultimate Hollywood movie disaster.
Two recent disasters — the tsunami at Fukushima and Hurricane Sandy — show that shoreline infrastructure can easily result in extensive ocean pollution. With sea levels rising rapidly, this problem could quickly become significantly greater.
Josh Barro on the coming out of Jason Collins, Nicholas Jackson on fighting words, Jamelle Bouie on the GOP's civil rights history, Michelle Goldberg on the politics of late-term abortion, and David Brooks on how to write about politics.
The most popular use of Google Glass so far is also the creepiest: Newly minted owners of the awkward eyeglasses of the future sure are taking and posting a lot of self-portraits, and Google sure must love the publicity, what with its plan to make wearing a computer on your face totally normal.
Today in celebrity gossip: Lindsay Lohan might soon be writing for the Internet, Taylor Swift may have paid too much for her house, and Michael Jordan certainly paid a lot for his wedding.
With Congress out of town, the president Obama held a rare Q&Awith reporters at the White House today, swatting away the idea of an intelligence failure in the Boston bombings, and a Fox News report about intimidation of witnesses in the Benghazi investigation. He also promised to continue to push for the closing of the Guantanamo Bay prison.
In January, Rep. Jeb Hensarling, R-Texas, ascended to the powerful chairmanship of the House Financial Services Committee. Six weeks later, campaign finance filings and interviews show, Hensarling was joined by representatives of the banking industry for a ski vacation fundraiser at a posh Park City, Utah, resort.
Arizona cities are going into the gun-selling business. Under a new law, no weapon collected during a buyback program can be destroyed. This is not usually how such programs work.
Jon Stewart turned to Urban Dictionary to help him tell the story of how Congress jumped to action when federal budget cuts were getting in the way of their travel plans.
Not only is Weiner bragging about cashing in, he's bragging about how easy it was to cash in.
In honor of today's 20th anniversary of the World Wide Web, its creators at the research laboratory CERN (the Higgs Boson guys) have gone all nostalgic — and a bit anti-establishment — in recreating the first publicly available free web page.
Why hasn't the American public risen up in fury at Republicans over the sequester's annoyances and inconveniences, as President Obama had clearly hoped? Because the annoying things about the sequester perfectly play into the Republican talking point that government is dumb and wasteful and run by people with no common sense.
Movie stars be damned: The Tony Awards are all about a race between a magical little girl who likes to read and a drag queen who helps save a shoe factory.
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