Free Republic

AI quick bio of MoushAli entering Hell. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei arrives at Hell's bureaucratic reception for his final "admissions interview." A smug demon admissions officer, BeelzeBob, reviews his lifetime "achievements" in a twisted, ironic style — leading to a shocking punchline twist about who he really served. Unique AI-generated reconstruction highlights the suffering of the Iranian people under decades of theocratic rule: mass repression, proxy wars, morality police terror, forced hijab, rigged elections, brutal crackdowns on protests, and the human cost of endless conflict. Blending dark humor, hellish bureaucracy aesthetics, and political commentary — perfect for fans of history, Iranian...

In Preston Sturges' posthumous memoir Sturges by Sturges, finished by his widow Sandy and published in 1990, the director recounts an outlandish story from his childhood that would end up inspiring one of the most chaotic sequences in his 1942 screwball masterpiece The Palm Beach Story. His mother, a socially and culturally ambitious woman who was friends with dancer Isadora Duncan and had an affair with satanist Aleister Crowley, had brought him to Dresden while she worked on an operetta and the two of them (plus maid) were heading back to Paris in a train compartment stuffed with masses of...

James Tolkan, who famously starred as Mr. Strickland in the Back to the Future franchise and as the stern Commander Tom "Stinger" Jardian in Top Gun, has died. He was 94. Tolkan died in Saranac Lake, N.Y., on Thursday, March 26, the late actor's management confirmed to PEOPLE. "I dearly, dearly loved Mr. Tolkan," a crew member who worked on Back to the Future tells PEOPLE of the late actor. "I saw him at the last convention he did this past October," the crew member tells PEOPLE. "Well, we sat next to each other, you know, meeting fans. He was...

James Tolkan, the character actor who expressed a disdain for “slackers” in the Back to the Future trilogy and portrayed Tom Cruise’s no-nonsense commanding officer in Top Gun, has died. He was 94. Tolkan died Thursday in Saranac Lake, New York, a family spokesperson announced. Tolkan also played Napoleon and his look-alike in Woody Allen’s Love and Death (1975) and was the crooked accountant known as Numbers who works for Big Boy Caprice (Al Pacino) in Warren Beatty’s Dick Tracy (1990). He appeared in three movies directed by Sidney Lumet: as a cop in the Pacino-starring Serpico (1973), as a...

As subscription streaming services grab more and more games from (broadcast television) and basic cable, many fans are crying foul. A new Fox News national survey of registered voters finds that majorities of both sports fans (72%) and non-fans (60%) think major sporting events should be required to stay on free broadcast television, not behind streaming paywalls. Only 27% of fans and 38% of non-fans say leagues should be allowed to shift games to paid streaming services.

The American actress was nominated for an Oscar for 1974 biopic 'Lenny'Valerie Perrine, best known for her work on the 1970s Superman films as well as the Oscar-nominated biopic Lenny, has died at the age of 82. The American actress had been fighting Parkinson’s disease since 2015, and passed away at her home in Beverly Hills on Monday (March 23). Her friend, Stacey Souther, announced her death via the star’s Facebook page. “It is with deep sadness that I share the heartbreaking news that Valerie has passed away” he wrote. “She faced Parkinson’s disease with incredible courage and compassion, never...

CNN is set to lay off staffers this week as boss Mark Thompson presses ahead with a sweeping digital overhaul — with deeper cuts looming as a potential merger reshapes the network’s future. The Warner Bros. Discovery-owned outlet is set to cut “a few dozen” staffers as it moves to modernize its 3,000-plus global workforce, according to the Status newsletter. The cuts are expected to hit roles not tied to growth areas, marking CNN’s latest move away from its cable roots and toward a digital-first future, Status reported. The move follows a prior round of cuts under Thompson, who eliminated...

Bill Cosby has been ordered to pay his rape accuser Donna Motsinger more than $19 million in damages after a jury found he had drugged and sexually assaulted her more than 50 years ago. A California jury announced the $19.25 million judgment on Monday during its third day of deliberations, per the New York Times. Motsinger first filed her civil lawsuit against the “Cosby Show” alum in Los Angeles Superior Court in September 2023. She alleged that Cosby, now 88, sexually assaulted her after giving her wine and a pill that left her unconscious following one of his comedy shows...

George Lucas could be forgiven if he felt triumphant on March 22, 1976. That was the day cameras started rolling on Star Wars, his epic movie project that had already been underway for two years. Despite the success of his previous film, the coming-of-age story American Graffiti, the director struggled to secure studio support for his new movie, and he even considered quitting the business before studio Fox decided to back him. “I really wanted to hold on to my own integrity,” he told Rolling Stone later. “So, I was going to try to write a very interesting project. Right...

Donald Trump shared a video clip from the U.K.’s version of Saturday Night Live on Truth Social Sunday morning depicting Prime Minister Keir Starmer cowering in fear of the U.S. president. The skit opened on the prime minister’s residence at Number 10 Downing Street, where a worried-looking Starmer sat at his desk making a phone call. “Oh, woah. Oh, golly!” Starmer exclaimed. “What if Donald shouts at me? What do I say?” “Just be yourself, prime minister,” Starmer’s aide advised. “Yourself is whom everyone likes.” When a voice that sounded like Trump answered the call, the Starmer character yelped, “Ah!”...

PITTSBURGH -- Plenty of kids know the joy of a snow day, but what about a draft day? Pittsburgh Public Schools students are about to find out. The district notified staff and families that it will operate remotely April 22-24 as the city prepares for and hosts the NFL draft. With city officials anticipating up to 700,000 visitors and travel disruptions around the region, the school district determined that it would be less disruptive to students to transition to "asynchronous teaching and learning." "Our priority is maintaining continuity of learning while recognizing the extraordinary circumstances the city will experience during...

Netflix’s Queen Cleopatra docuseries has caused an immense storm of controversy surrounding its depiction of Cleopatra VII Philopator as a black woman, and whilst Cleopatra herself was not black, there were indeed black pharaohs who ruled over Egypt at one point in the 8th and 7th centuries BC. The 25th Dynasty, also known as the Nubian Dynasty, or Black Pharaohs, ruled Egypt between 744 BC and 656 BC as part of the wider Kushite Empire. The 25th Dynasty originated from the city-state of Napata in Nubia, in what is today Sudan. The Nubian Kushite civilization, from whom the 25th Dynasty...

The 13th Academy Awards – the ones where The Philadelphia Story was nominated in six categories – were the first held with sealed envelopes to keep the winners secret. For the very first awards in 1929 at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel the winners had been announced three months in advance; there were only 270 people in attendance, the ceremony only lasted fifteen minutes and it wasn't broadcast. For the next decade the Academy did its best to make the awards an event, but they announced the winners hours before the ceremony and in 1939 the L.A. Times published a leaked...

There's a clip on YouTube of director Samuel Fuller in the early '80s talking about the opening scene of his classic 1953 film noir Pickup on South Street. He would be about seventy years old at the time but he's full of energy and enthusiasm, as you would be if you were Samuel Fuller being interviewed for what I presume is French television. Fuller was and had been for decades something like a deity for French cineastes (the director had moved to France around this time) and he would never have an audience this avid anywhere else in the world....

The news of the NBA’s potential expansion has grabbed the headlines recently. And should Las Vegas and Seattle be granted their own franchises, ESPN’s Shams Charania reported that one current Western Conference team — either Minnesota or Memphis — will be moved to the Eastern Conference. However, Golden State Warriors sentinel Draymond Green took things further, proposing that the Grizzlies not only move out of the West but also relocate to Nashville, saying that Memphis doesn’t have the amenities necessary to support professional athletes.

"The View" co-host Joy Behar called out Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., during the show on Thursday for voting to support Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., to head the Department of Homeland Security. "I think he’s terrible," Behar said of Mullin. "And as I said before, Fetterman was the deciding vote to say yes to this guy. With Democrats like that, who needs Republicans?" Fetterman voted to advance Mullin's confirmation as Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., voted against the Republican DHS pick on Wednesday. Co-host Sunny Hostin also slammed Mullin and said Republicans could have come up with someone better. She also blasted...

I watched this last night and was blown away by how stupid it was. It had a good plot but the character portrayal of the military and executive government officials under the stress of nuclear missile launched against the US was horrific. Every one involved from the initial launch detection to the president issuing the go code was so overcome with stress that they couldn't focus and function. Missile commander left his position, SECDEF committed suicide, blah blah blah.

Joseph Duggar's wife Kendra has been arrested in Arkansas, TMZ has learned. A warrant was issued for Kendra Friday … police went to the Duggar family compound in Washington County, Arkansas earlier Friday with a warrant for Kendra's arrest ... but she was not there. But, now she's been taken into custody, according to the Washington County Detention Center. She was wanted for allegedly endangering the welfare of a minor and false imprisonment. As for Joseph, he was arrested Wednesday in Tontitown, Arkansas, and charged with lewd and lascivious conduct with a minor ... this after a now-14-year-old girl told...

ABC has scrubbed the upcoming season of “The Bachelorette,” starring Taylor Frankie Paul, three days before its planned premiere, citing a newly released video from 2023 in which she appears to punch, kick and throw chairs at her former partner as her young daughter watched and cried. Thursday’s cancellation of the already filmed 22nd season of the reality show is unprecedented. While ABC parent company Disney cited the older video, the move comes amid a current domestic violence investigation involving Paul and Dakota Mortensen, father to a son who is the youngest of her three children.

Former reality TV star Joseph Duggar is facing a child molestation charge in Florida, almost five years after his brother Josh, who also starred in the TLC show "19 Kids and Counting," was convicted of downloading child sexual abuse images. Joseph Duggar, 31, was arrested in Arkansas, where he lives, and was awaiting extradition to Florida on Thursday. Duggar is charged with lewd and lascivious behavior on a child under 12 years old, according to an arrest affidavit from the Bay County Sheriff's Office in Panama City, Florida. Police officers in Tontitown, Arkansas, on Wednesday contacted deputies in Bay County,...