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Slate Arts & Culture – Spoken Edition

Appreciation and obituary of Ursula K. Le Guin.

The late night shows are all about Donald Trump, so maybe watch The Steve Allen Show instead?

Sundance’s The Tale is the perfect movie for our #MeToo moment.

The Patriots are going to keep doing this forever, aren’t they?

Eliza Dushku’s agent and on-set legal guardian both back her account of sexual assault.

Mark Wahlberg donates his All the Money in the World reshoot money to Time’s Up.

Fire and Fury by Michael Wolff, reviewed.

“None of us thought that much into it,” Ed Sheeran says, right before breaking down in great detailed bit by detailed bit just how much thought went into creating this year’s biggest musical hit, “Shape of You.” As they’ve done in the past with other popular songs, the New York Times released a fascinating video in which the artists give a behind-the-scenes tour of their inspirations and creative processes.

Ed Sheeran Needs Legos to Help Him Write, and Other Fun Facts From the Making of “Shape of You”

In 2009, Chris Brown viciously assaulted then-girlfriend Rihanna. His sentencing as ordered by a judge included five years probation, as well as a five-year restraining order. (In 2011, the restraining order was lifted, conditionally.) In 2015, Brown was accused of forcibly ejecting a woman off of a bus during a video shoot. In 2016, former tour manager Nancy Ghosh alleged that the singer threatened her with violence, and she subsequently cut ties with him.

Nick Cannon Casts Chris Brown in a Movie Meant to “Empower Women.” Seriously.

It’s that time of year again: Love Actually season is upon us. The modern holiday classic is full of egregious flaws, from the not-so-romantic cue card scene to the constant body shaming of a healthy, attractive woman—flaws that fans such as myself have had to come to terms with in order to enjoy the holiday season staple.

Love Actually’s Workplace Harassment Feels Especially Egregious at the End of 2017

When the entire cast belts out “THIS IS THE GREATEST SHOW” a minute into your movie, the film itself had better live up to it. The Greatest Showman—how shall I put this?—doesn’t. Something feels off right from the beginning, as we see Hugh Jackman’s P.T. Barnum making his way through the space behind the circus bleachers in silhouette, pounding his cane to the rhythm of crashing drums.

The Greatest Showman Isn’t Exactly the Greatest Show on Earth

Dave Grohl, who many lifetimes ago was in a band called Nirvana, stopped by Saturday Night Live with his new band the Foo Fighters, and he brought some Christmas cheer with him! After starting off with “Everlong,” from 1997’s The Colour and the Shape, the Foo Fighters turned in a rocking performance of “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)” by Darlene Love (off Phil Spector’s 1963 Christmas album) and a guitar arrangement of the Vince Guaraldi classic, “Linus & Lucy,” which first appeared on A Charlie Brown Christmas in 1965....

Dave Grohl, Who Used to Be in Nirvana, Plays Crowd-Pleasing Christmas Ditties With the Foo Fighters on Saturday Night Live

There’s no shame in revisiting a classic, and on this week’s Saturday Night Live, host James Franco riffed on one of the show’s most iconic sketches: Dan Aykroyd’s legendary French Chef bit where, as Julia Child, he sliced a finger and merrily bled to death. Franco’s character, a gift-wrapper at Bloomingdale’s, is motivated by Christmas cheer rather than Bordeaux and chicken livers, but the basic premise is the same: blood, blood, and more blood.

James Franco Gets in Touch With his Inner Dan Aykroyd in This Bloody Saturday Night LiveSketch

The Hollywood Reporter revealed on Wednesday that the 2018 Screen Actors Guild Awards ceremony will be presented by women, women, and more women, as a mark of what womenfolk have been through this year and since the dawn of time. Like many award ceremonies, the SAG Awards usually pairs a man and a women to announce each winner—but this year, only women will have that honor.

The 2018 SAG Awards Will Be Presented by an All-Female Line-Up, Because Women Are Awesome

On Monday, a 27-year-old man tried to blow up a pipe bomb at the Port Authority Bus Terminal, but really he only succeeded in inconveniencing a lot of people, since he was the only one to sustain serious injuries. Stephen Colbert and Trevor Noah, both of whom tape their shows in New York, were not impressed with this attempt to bring chaos down on the city’s transit system, which is already pretty chaotic.

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Slate Arts & Culture – Spoken Edition

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