Latest news with #CatcherintheRye
Elle
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Elle
Ava and Deborah Take Singapore in the 'Hacks' Season 4 Finale
Spoilers below. This season of Hacks has revolved around repairing Ava and Deborah's relationship after Ava blackmailed Deborah to become the head writer on Deborah's show last season. The season finale opens after the shocking ninth episode saw Deborah quit her job on air, walking away from her decades-long dream of hosting a late night show. When studio head Bob (Tony Goldwyn) tells Deborah that she must fire Ava because she revealed that the studio appeased a violent guest, she's willing to leave the show. She's finally showing her appreciation for Ava in a way Ava always wanted, but what she didn't realize was that her noncompete means that she'll be unable to perform in any capacity for the next 18 months. It's incredibly difficult to believe that a Hollywood veteran wouldn't realize that studio contracts are typically pretty ironclad, but somehow it seems that Deborah has. She meets with a small-time lawyer (Teddy Margas) who seems shocked that she'd be willing to hire him. He wasn't her first choice, we learn. She's fired her lawyers and gone through several more firms hoping someone could find a way for her to legally perform. Alas, the lawyer agrees with everyone else. There's no way for Deborah to perform without breaching her contract. Realizing that it was her impulsive mistake that created Deborah's situation, Ava takes her own approach to getting Deborah's career back. She suggests to Jimmy (Paul W. Downs) that perhaps offering sexual favors to the head of the network might entice him to give Deborah a break. Jimmy tells her that that's unlikely and he suggests that a better route would be to help Deborah write new material. Alternately, she could work with Greta Gerwig to pitch ideas for her upcoming adaptation of Catcher in the Rye. (The twist is going to be a gender flip.) Deborah and Ava have a discouraging meeting at her house where Deborah turns down her suggestion that they spend 18 months writing intensely so that the minute that Deborah's allowed to perform again, she'll have amazing material ready to go. Deborah needs an audience, she explains. There's no way for her to understand what material works without the feedback that a crowd can provide. 'If I'm not on that stage, I have nothing,' she says. Dejected, Deborah returns to Las Vegas where she spends time with her new grandson. She speaks with him as if he were a talk show guest, making it clear how much she misses her job. She later visits Marcus (Carl Clemons-Hopkins) at his new job and tells him that she wants her old company, DV Industries, back. That's a no go, Marcus tells her. QVC owns it now. Deborah takes to her bed. For days on end, she doesn't leave. We see her eating cookies, playing cards, and doing the New York Times crossword puzzle. Josefina (Rose Abdoo) checks to see if she's still breathing. Late one night, Deborah goes to a Las Vegas convenience store where she buys spangly baseball cap and then drinks in the parking lot. Finally, Marty (Christopher McDonald) calls her with an emergency, which finally makes her emerge from her room. When she finds him, he's trying on suit jackets and asks for her input. It's hardly an emergency, but she's looked brighter than she has in weeks. Marty urges her to go spend some time at his hotel in Hawaii, but Deborah hates vacations. She always just wishes she was working. 'Remember in Santorini?' she reminds him. 'I turned that taverna into an open mic.' Somehow, though, Deborah is swayed. Ava, for her part, seems thrilled to be playing the plus one on a three-week tropical getaway. (Though maybe she should be wondering why her boss would be bringing her along if the trip was going to truly be a break from work.) She's excited about her outfit which could either read as 'fun and flirty vacation girl' or Ace Ventura, pet detective. ('Both are sexually viable!' she decides.) But when Ava and Deborah get off their plane and make their way through the airport, Ava becomes confused. Are they actually in Hawaii? Nope! Deborah has taken them to Singapore. She realized that by using a translator on stage, she can get around the rules about performing. In the United States and Europe, venues would be too wary of the legal risk but in Singapore ('the greatest municipal city-state in the world') things are much more relaxed. Deborah's been booked for a run of shows at the Sentosa casino. Yes, that means that Ava is living in a casino once again. But at least she's finally seeing Deborah writing again. When they're not working, Ava and Deborah spend days drinking by the pool, nights on rooftop bars, and hours on the casino floor. The residency keeps getting extended and Ava and Deborah seem happy to stay, keeping busy doing karaoke and getting massages. But then we see Deborah repeat a joke from all the way back in the first season. The weeks keep going by and Ava becomes frustrated that they haven't actually done any writing and that Deborah is relying heavily on old material. She's also been falling asleep on stage. Deborah's found a group of friends and is happy eating caviar and calling bingo at brunch. Out drinking, Ava tells Deborah that she's worried they haven't been getting anything done and that she thinks they should return home. But Deborah loves her Singapore lifestyle and certainly doesn't appreciate Ava saying she think she's drinking too much. She's hosted a successful late night show and she performs every night. What is Ava doing and why doesn't she leave? What has she ever accomplished? We're at the moment in each season when Deborah turns mean. She took a late night show to No. 1 while all Ava's done is 'follow her around with an 'empty little notebook' and her 'big shorts.' Why is she still here anyway, Deborah asks. Ava's 29, Deborah reminds her, and Deborah is her only friend. 'Isn't that weird?' Deborah says. 'It's weird.' Ava decides to head straight home in the morning and leaves Deborah drinking on a rooftop. But when Ava wakes up the next day, she has dozens of texts. TMZ has reported that Debroah is dead, Jimmy tells her. Unable to reach her on the phone, Ava runs frantically runs across the hotel and through the casino floor to get to Deborah. She pounds on her door, in tears, until Deborah opens the door, very much alive. She's fine, the TMZ obituary was a mistake. But then Deborah actually reads the story. It says she's killed late night. But what really throws her off the edge is seeing that they've referred to her as retired. She's enraged that Deborah is enraged that the obituary refers to her as retired. She starts packing. 'That will not be my legacy,' she says. 'I'm no quitter!' They're heading home. It's time to write.
San Francisco Chronicle
5 days ago
- Politics
- San Francisco Chronicle
Texas parents, school boards may have more control over school library books after House OKs bill
The Texas House gave preliminary approval Monday to a bill that would give Texas parents and school boards a bigger role over what books students can access in public school libraries. Senate Bill 13 would give school boards, not school librarians, the final say over what materials are allowed in their schools' libraries by creating a framework for them to remove books based on complaints they receive. The bill would allow school boards to oversee book approvals and removals, or delegate the responsibility to local school advisory councils if 20% of parents in a district sign a petition allowing their creation. Previously, SB 13 mandated the creation of those councils when it passed through the Senate in March, but the petition requirement was added in a House committee. SB 13, initially passed by the House 87-57, also includes definitions for what constitutes harmful material and indecent content, which led Democratic representatives to express concerns about overzealous bans on books. During the discussion on the House floor Monday, Rep. James Talarico, D-Austin, pointed specifically to bill language requiring approved books to adhere to 'local community values,' which he said could lead small, vocal groups of people to limit students' book access. Talarico said titles often taught in public schools — like Catcher in the Rye, Lonesome Dove and the Bible — could end up banned under some of the bill's vague and subjective interpretations. 'If your answer to 'could Romeo and Juliet be banned,' if it is anything other than 'of course not,' then that is a serious problem,' Talarico said. Rep. Erin Zweiner, D-Driftwood, also worried the bill could lead to overly broad book bans. 'What is indecent for a 17 year old is not the same as what is indecent for a five year old,' she said. Rep. Brad Buckley, the bill's House sponsor, called community values the 'bedrock' of public policy, and the Salado Republican dismissed potential removal of classics as a 'red herring' argument. 'A speaker before me said we should cherish the value of books. Well, maybe so, but I would argue we should cherish and value our kids more, and Senate Bill 13 will do exactly that,' Buckley said. Representatives supportive of the bill said SB 13 would give parents better control over what materials their children can access.' About 16% of complaints about school library books last year were initiated by parents, according to a report from the American Libraries Association, while 72% came from elected officials, pressure groups and board members and administrators. Several amendments by Democratic representatives aiming to loosen the bill's language on profane content failed. An amendment by Rep. Brent Money, R-Greenville, which also failed, would have lowered the threshold to petition the creation of an advisory council to 50 signatures from parents, and would have required that the councils only be made up by people who signed the petition. The bill would also extend regulation introduced by a law passed in 2023 aimed at keeping 'sexually explicit' material out of school libraries. House Bill 900 was partially blocked from implementing a book rating system by a federal appeals court. Opponents of the bill have worried not only about restricting book access, but also about the administrative backlog that having to approve each new library book could create. School boards will have 90 days after complaints on each book are filed to reach a decision on whether to add, keep or remove material from school bookshelves. ___
Daily Mail
23-04-2025
- Politics
- Daily Mail
Fox host Martha MacCallum snaps during tense exchange with guest
Fox host Martha MacCallum snapped at Randi Weingarten, the president of the American Federation of Teachers, after she called the journalist 'sweetheart' on-air. The pair discussed the Supreme Court case that was taken up early Tuesday about censorship over LGBTQ + materials in public schools. They scoffed with each other after Weingarten praised a Massachusetts school district for creating 'a real culture of a safe and welcoming school.' MacCallum then chuckled and shook her heard before stating: 'So what you're saying is if we can find other areas in the country where the proficiency levels are also abysmal and should be embarrassing to any education organization, then we can start to make assessments and say, "Oh it's because of choice." or "Oh it's because of money?" We know that money doesn't equate to a better outcome.' While the news anchor explained the topic, Weingarten abruptly cut her off - and it did not sit well with 'The Story' host at all. 'Martha, Martha, Martha, sweetheart, sweetheart listen to me,' Weingarten said as she moved her hand toward the camera. 'Please don't call me sweetheart,' McCallum quickly replied as she shook her head and appeared to be in disgust about the 'condescending' phrase. Weingarten swiftly apologized for her comment, telling McCallum: 'I'm sorry, my bad,' before carrying on with their conversation. While she did so, MacCallum's face told a different story as she appeared to be annoyed with the guest for the duration of the segment. Further into their discussion, MacCallum told Weingarten that books suggesting that someone should change their gender or that they were born in the wrong body will 'freak out' kids and their families. Weingarten then said that schools across the county have the obligation to alert parents about any controversial book, including Harper Lee's 'To Kill A Mockingbird.' 'You don't want a child to hear a book read to the whole classroom and go home and say "Why am I being taught that I was born a girl but that was just a guess?" I mean, that is going to freak out some children, MacCallum said. 'They're going to be very confused at four, five and six years old and I know that you said you don't agree with reading this in the classroom, but I'm saying this is the problem. And then that same kid can't read and is pushed all the way to 8th grade and they still can't read.' Weingarten then quipped: 'So Martha, I suspect that you and I agree on more than we don't. I know you don't believe me.' 'But, what I'm saying to you is that I saw that case and if you had not socialized books with parents and a book that may be controversial and you talk to the parents of your kids in that classroom, that's gonna be a problem regardless of what's in the book. 'And look, that was a problem, look at 'Catcher in the Rye,' think about 'To Kill A Mockingbird,' think about other books out of different eras that's a problem. You have to actually spend time, as a schoolteacher or a school principal, with parents before you end up talking about issues that some people will think is controversial,' she added. This is not the first time MacCallum and Weingarten have spared on-air, as they had a similar heated conversation in 2021 regarding the reopening of schools following the Covid-19 pandemic. MacCallum cited a New York Post report that accused the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) of influencing the CDC's timeline for when schools were supposed to reopen nationwide, Mediaite reported. After welcoming Weingarten on the show, the labor leader said the AFT was concerned about coronavirus variants that kept schools closed in the United Kingdom. 'We believe that the conditions have changed now so that everybody can be back in full time, but the bottom line is this: I begged the Trump administration, I can show you — I have many, many letters right now. I went to my office to find them,' Weingarten said. 'I begged the Trump administration to do exactly what the Biden administration did, which is real safety guidance that the former president didn't mock every other day.' She then went on to praise former President Joe Biden, but that's when MacCallum cut her off and said: 'transmission among children is very low.' The Fox host then went on to note that schools in China and Europe had already reopened at that point. MacCallum then went on to say that Weingerten previously blamed the slow school return on the lack of money allotted for other pressing issues, including mold. 'Obviously you didn't have the pull with the prior administration, but in this administration there's been $20 million that has gone from — to Democrats — from teachers unions and teacher organizations. So that money seems to be working,' MacCallum said. Weingerten then refuted her statement and praised the Covid-19 vaccine as 'a real game changer.' MacCallum, again, pushed back on her statement before Weingerten said: 'The bottom line is it's time for our kids to be back in school. 'I am grateful that the Biden administration is listening to parents and to teachers and to administrators and to even Fox to try to figure out how we get people vaccinated, how we get our kids back to school and how we get our country back to being back.'
Daily Mail
23-04-2025
- Politics
- Daily Mail
Fox host Martha McCallum snaps at on-air guest for 'disrespectful' name
Fox host Martha MacCallum snapped at Randi Weingarten, the president of the American Federation of Teachers, after she called the journalist 'sweetheart' on-air. The pair discussed the Supreme Court case that was taken up early Tuesday about censorship over LGBTQ + materials in public schools. They scoffed with each other after Weingarten praised a Massachusetts school district for creating 'a real culture of a safe and welcoming school.' MacCallum then chuckled and shook her heard before stating: 'So what you're saying is if we can find other areas in the country where the proficiency levels are also abysmal and should be embarrassing to any education organization, then we can start to make assessments and say, "Oh it's because of choice." or "Oh it's because of money?" We know that money doesn't equate to a better outcome.' While the news anchor explained the topic, Weingarten abruptly cut her off - and it did not sit well with 'The Story' host at all. 'Martha, Martha, Martha, sweetheart, sweetheart listen to me,' Weingarten said as she moved her hand toward the camera. 'Please don't call me sweetheart,' McCallum quickly replied as she shook her head and appeared to be in disgust about the 'condescending' phrase. Weingarten swiftly apologized for her comment, telling McCallum: 'I'm sorry, my bad,' before carrying on with their conversation. While she did so, McCallum's face told a different story as she appeared to be annoyed with the guest for the duration of the segment. Further into their discussion, MacCallum told Weingarten that books suggesting that someone should change their gender or that they were born in the wrong body will 'freak out' kids and their families. Weingarten then said that schools across the county have the obligation to alert parents about any controversial book, including Harper Lee's 'To Kill A Mockingbird.' 'You don't want a child to hear a book read to the whole classroom and go home and say "Why am I being taught that I was born a girl but that was just a guess?" I mean, that is going to freak out some children, MacCallum said. 'They're going to be very confused at four, five and six years old and I know that you said you don't agree with reading this in the classroom, but I'm saying this is the problem. And then that same kid can't read and is pushed all the way to 8th grade and they still can't read.' Weingarten then quipped: 'So Martha, I suspect that you and I agree on more than we don't. I know you don't believe me.' 'But, what I'm saying to you is that I saw that case and if you had not socialized books with parents and a book that may be controversial and you talk to the parents of your kids in that classroom, that's gonna be a problem regardless of what's in the book. 'And look, that was a problem, look at 'Catcher in the Rye,' think about 'To Kill A Mockingbird,' think about other books out of different eras that's a problem. You have to actually spend time, as a schoolteacher or a school principal, with parents before you end up talking about issues that some people will think is controversial,' she added. This is not the first time MacCallum and Weingarten have spared on-air, as they had a similar heated conversation in 2021 regarding the reopening of schools following the Covid-19 pandemic. MacCallum cited a New York Post report that accused the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) of influencing the CDC's timeline for when schools were supposed to reopen nationwide, Mediaite reported. After welcoming Weingarten on the show, the labor leader said the AFT was concerned about coronavirus variants that kept schools closed in the United Kingdom. 'We believe that the conditions have changed now so that everybody can be back in full time, but the bottom line is this: I begged the Trump administration, I can show you — I have many, many letters right now. I went to my office to find them,' Weingarten said. 'I begged the Trump administration to do exactly what the Biden administration did, which is real safety guidance that the former president didn't mock every other day.' She then went on to praise former President Joe Biden, but that's when MacCallum cut her off and said: 'transmission among children is very low.' The Fox host then went on to note that schools in China and Europe had already reopened at that point. This is not the first time MacCallum and Weingarten (pictured with Jill Biden in December) have spared on-air, as they had a similar heated conversation in 2021 regarding the reopening of schools following the Covid-19 pandemic MacCallum then went on to say that Weingerten previously blamed the slow school return on the lack of money allotted for other pressing issues, including mold. 'Obviously you didn't have the pull with the prior administration, but in this administration there's been $20 million that has gone from — to Democrats — from teachers unions and teacher organizations. So that money seems to be working,' MacCallum said. Weingerten then refuted her statement and praised the Covid-19 vaccine as 'a real game changer.' MacCallum, again, pushed back on her statement before Weingerten said: 'The bottom line is it's time for our kids to be back in school. 'I am grateful that the Biden administration is listening to parents and to teachers and to administrators and to even Fox to try to figure out how we get people vaccinated, how we get our kids back to school and how we get our country back to being back.'
