When your favorite film loses the Best Picture Oscar on Sunday night, don't be surprised. While it's no secret Academy voters aren't exactly the most fair or progressive bunch, it's always disheartening to be reminded of the fact that many Oscar voters—like many American voters, really—are bordering on senility, a little bit sexist, a lot a bit racist, and really just looking out for their own sexist, racist, and limited interests.

This year, The Hollywood Reporter is interviewing five "brutally honest" voters about their ballots. The first report, published on Wednesday, highlights a "longtime member" of the Academy's directors branch. Amongst his many opinions, he believes 12 Years a Slave is not a "courageous" movie, that Jared Leto is only nominated because of the "person he's playing," that Woody Allen is facing a lot of "absurd bullshit," and that American Hustle is basically the best thing ever.

Honestly, there's a great chance this "brutally honest" voter is either David O. Russell or David O. Russell's greatest fan.

And while this voter is only one man with one of the 6,028 ballots, it's fair to say he's probably not the only member of the Academy who believes Slave is overrated, that Leto's performance is "pandering," and that poor Allen is being unfairly attacked. If that's the case, does it mean American Hustle, Russell, and Jennifer Lawrence will be taking home more awards? Is 12 Years a Slave just too much for old, white male voters?

Here are some of his votes (with explanations):

Best Picture: American Hustle

Why not 12 Years a Slave, the film many expect to win?

With 12 Years a Slave, you don't even crack a smile, but it was interesting, admirable and well done; I must say, though, that contrary to what some have asserted, it's not as if it required great courage to make that movie — maybe if you made it in Mississippi in 1930.

Best Director: David O. Russell

Why not Alfonso Cuaron, the director many expect to win?

Cuaron was part of a committee of technicians who made that movie, and I have seen things at the planetarium that were at least as impressive.

Best Actor: Christian Bale

Why not Matthew McConaughey, the actor many expect to win?

McConaughey was very good; he's really doing some great stuff now, and I would give it to him for True Detective.

Best Actress: Cate Blanchett

Why not Sandra Bullock, the dark horse in the best actress race?

Bullock is the weak link — she's just OK.

Best Supporting Actor: Bradley Cooper

Why not Jared Leto, the actor who is considered a lock?

Jared Leto was good and will win, but he's getting tremendous points because of the person he's playing more than the way he played it, which is as close to pandering as you can get.

Best Supporting Actress: Jennifer Lawrence

Why not Lupita Nyong'o, the odds-on favorite?

Lupita was very good, but a lot of the commotion over her is attributable to people's tremendous empathy with and sympathy for the role she's playing.

Best Original Screenplay: American Hustle

Why not Blue Jasmine, the film written by your friend Woody Allen?

I often choose personal friendship when I am torn between two almost equally good options, but in this case I'm friends with both David and Woody, so that doesn't help. … I'm going for American Hustle because Woody has already been overwhelmingly rewarded. I feel very badly about the absurd bullshit that's flying Woody's way, but that can't intrude one way or the other on voting.

Best Animated Feature: None

Why would you abstain from the most fun category?

I have seen none of them. I have no interest whatsoever. That ended when I was 6. My son dragged me to a few when he was 6; I would seat him and go outside and make phone calls.

Best Documentary Feature: None

Not even a single one?

Even with its new rules, the documentary category has about as much claim to legitimacy as the Bush-Gore presidential election. It's an incestuous little club.

Best Original Score: None

Why? Do you hate music?

I found all five scores inferior.

Best Original Song: None

There's not even one that's better than the others?

I didn't vote because I regard all four songs as utterly inferior and not worth voting for. To dignify any of them with a vote is to suggest that they're worthy of a nomination, and they're not; they're just bad songs.

Best Visual Effects: Gravity

Why not any of the others?

Four of them are completely without interest of any kind whatsoever on any level, and Gravity's effects, in 3D, anyway, are terrific. So this isn't even a contest.

Best Animated Short, Best Documentary Short, and Best Live-Action Short: None

You don't have any friends who need votes?

I don't watch the shorts. And, if I don't know anybody who made one of them — a friend or an enemy — I just don't vote, which was the case this year.

[Image via AP]

Irish budget airline RyanAir's CEO Michael O'Leary said he plans to offer $10 flights from New York to Europe as soon "as he could get enough planes" in an address at the Irish Hotels Federation conference yesterday.

The Independent reports that Ryanair would offer €10 flights to Boston and New York and US$10 (€7.30) seats back to Europe, adding that the airline "would fly from 12-14 major European cities to 12-14 major US destinations and a full service would begin within six months of Ryanair getting the aircraft to do so."

Apparently the budget airline already has a business plan in place for carrying out transatlantic flights, but would not be able to do so for another "four to five years" due to Arab states buying up the present supply of aircraft. At least that's their excuse for now.

O'Leary has been quoted saying; "We can make money on 99 cent fares in Europe – not every seat will be €10 of course, there will also need to be a very high number of business or premium seats."

Those of you who have flown on RyanAir know how much of a clusterfuck those "99 cent fares" really are, and you'll probably be as skeptical as I am of the airline successfully carrying out a transatlantic flight at any cost.

Last time I rode on RyanAir, my flight was canceled an hour before scheduled takeoff and they tried to leave me in some Parisian suburb for half a week waiting for the the "next available" trip to Stockholm.

But I'd love to fly across the pond for ten bucks as much as the next guy, so I'll try and ignore my cynicism as this story develops.

According to Irish Central, O'Learly also "urged Transport Minister Leo Varadkar to privatize Irish airports to make them more efficient as other European countries had done." As some of you have pointed out, odds are high that's O'Learly's real priority and the "$10 flight promise" is a publicity play to get some airtime on that issue.

Image: AP

[Flowers cover the ground and barricades on Wednesday where protesters were killed in a recent clash with riot police in Kiev's Independence Square. Image via Efrem Lukatsky/AP.]

Big day for gay marriage in Texas: First a federal judge ruled that Texas' ban on gay marriage is unconstitutional and then Dan Patrick, a Texas state senator running for lieutenant governor, said on Twitter that marriage equals one man and one man.

Of course, Patrick meant to say "marriage = one woman & one man." He deleted the tweet as soon as he realized his mistake, but by then Talking Points Memo and others had grabbed screenshots. He later corrected his tweet.

MARRIAGE= ONE MAN & ONE WOMAN. Enough of these activist judges. FAVORITE if you agree. I know the silent majority out there is with us!

— Dan Patrick (@DanPatrick) February 26, 2014

Then, to make sure people know just how bigoted his is, Patrick tweeted his anti-gay stance two more times.

Marriage is between one man and one woman. Period.

— Dan Patrick (@DanPatrick) February 26, 2014

As Lieutenant Governor I'll fight activist judges and defend our traditional Texas values.

— Dan Patrick (@DanPatrick) February 26, 2014

Great job, Dan.

Imagine going to your student mailbox and getting a note that reads, "Stop being a sensitive n****r." Now imagine you're not in Mississippi, or even Arizona, but in sunny, progressive, Southern California.

That is allegedly what happened to one UCLA Law student, but it was just the capstone on a series of racial slights...

Racial tensions at the law school started heating up last semester. Students at the school started wearing "Team Sander" T-shirts in support of a law professor named Richard Sander. Sander's scholarship is racially charged. I know it seems weird to call a T-shirt a starting gun for racial unrest, but you're going to have to trust me. Here's a whole post about it, in case you are interested.

In response to the T-shirts, black students on campus organized an awareness campaign to bring attention to the racial divisiveness on campus. They made a very nice YouTube video expressing their concerns. The students argued that they don't feel "safe" on the UCLA Law campus.

For reasons passing understanding, the video pissed a lot of people off. Undoubtedly, some, but not all, of the people who didn't like the video were also in fact racist. That subset of students decided to take things to a whole different level.

Students started ripping down posters and flyers put up by the Black Law Students Association on campus. One black woman complained that a white student stopped her in an elevator and questioned her about her "crime-ridden neighborhood." The crescendo was the "n-word" note that was left in a student's campus mailbox last week.

Black students on campus have been annoyed by the slow response of the UCLA administration. But, they're also Millennials, so they've taken to that most digital form of protest — changing their Facebook profile pictures to this:

I asked UCLA Law dean Rachel Moran about this controversy. She told me:

After we learned that someone had left a racially intimidating note in one law student's locker, I sent an email out to the entire student body of the law school saying that that I was "appalled, deeply disappointed and profoundly pained" by this unfortunate incident... The UCLA police are investigating.

I have also personally emailed the student who was victimized, and my administration has been actively reaching out to black and minority law students to address their feelings of alienation and isolation.

We recognize that racial issues exist across the campus, not just in the law school. In fact, just today Chancellor Block issued a special announcement about the need to redouble our diversity efforts in the wake of Proposition 209, which prohibited affirmative action in admissions at any public college or university in California. At the Law School, my staff and I are taking concrete steps — such as workshops, vigorous outreach and curricular reform — to advance diversity and racial tolerance so that we can enjoy civil dialogue about these very sensitive issues.

I said on Above the Law that the first step has to be trying to find the student who is now threatening other students, and expel them. After that, UCLA can have some "dialogue" about how things have gotten to this point.

But it's really not on black UCLA Law students to be "less sensitive," so much as it is on racist UCLA Law students to be less racist. There are a lot of UCLA kids, of every race, who have figured out how to learn in a multicultural environment. It's the racists who are in the "minority" and need to realize that nobody is going to "tolerate" their beliefs.

Racists' T-Shirts On Campus? Only If You Bother To Think About It [Above the Law]

Michael Sam, the first openly gay football player likely to make an NFL team, has a penis. And some people believe that his penis became erect at this week's NFL Scouting Combine, that there is photographic evidence of said openly gay erect penis, and that this is somehow a "nightmare" for the NFL.

If you squint really hard at this footage of Sam working out, you still probably won't see his alleged gay nightmare boner—just an elite athlete with a penis, doing his job at a facility full of other elite athletes with penises.

[H/T: MediaTakeOut]

There's nothing less sexy than tech public relations, except maybe incessant lewd texts from your coworkers. According to a just-filed lawsuit against OpenCommunications, PR flacks have combined the two, showering a colleague with sleazy advances and unwanted groping.

The complaint was brought to court by Joseph Jackson (center), a former Account Coordinator at OpenCommunications, a small Manhattan firm that reps startups like Yext and Fiverr along with the likes of AOL and Hearst.Publicity firms like this abound in both New York and Silicon Valley, but rarely do we get a look into office culture—and rarely is it this gross. (Also, especially in the tech-bro rictus of the start-up world, rarely do we see males being victimized in this way by female co-workers)

The allegations single out Open's CEO Andy Morris—who we're told has made a name for himself among flacks as an erratic and unpleasant character—and two female employees, Katie Campisano (left) and Sally O'Dowd (right), who allegedly treated Jackson like a press-release-writing chunk of steak. The incidents are numerous:

While hugging Plaintiff JACKSON, Defendant O'DOWD sexually whispered in to his ear, "You are so handsome", "You are so awesome" and "You are so talented".

[...]

During the third unwelcome hug, Defendant O'DOWD kissed Plaintiff JACKSON on the back of his neck.

[...]

On several occasions, Defendant O'DOWD would forcibly massage Plaintiff JACKSON's arms.

[...]

On more than one occasion, Defendant O'DOWD detailed to Plaintiff JACKSON how she loved young black and Hispanic men.

[...]

On one instance, while working together in the basement at Defendant OC, Defendant CAMPISANO said that she wanted to pull Plaintiff JACKSON into the shower

[...]

For instance, in or around November 2013, Defendant CAMPISANO texted Plaintiff JACKSON, "When are we going to have our bang sesh?"

[...]

In addition, Defendant CAMPISANO also texted Plaintiff JACKSON, you "may be easier to bang when were not coworkers"

[...]

Defendant O'DOWD immediately commented on the girth of Plaintiff JACKSON's penis by stating, "It [the condom] probably wouldn't fit Joseph [Plaintiff JACKSON]."

[...]

Later in the day on or around November 15, 2013, Plaintiff JACKSON mentioned to several co-workers how he was too afraid to speak to a girl on the D-train that morning. In response, Defendant O'DOWD told Plaintiff JACKSON, "We totally need to get you fucked everyday."

[...]

Also, while Plaintiff JACKSON and Defendant O'DOWD were by the water cooler at work, Defendant O'DOWD said that, "You [Plaintiff JACKSON] remind me of my hot young Puerto Rican lover Apollo."

It goes on, and on, and on (read more in the document, below). After turning down these advances and complaining to the CEO numerous times, Morris referred to Jackson as a "hater," and dismissed his accusations:

Defendant MORRIS ignored Plaintiff JACKSON's complaint by telling him, "I don't understand what the problem is. You're doing good here."

Jackson's attorney, Rob Salaman of the Akin Law Group, described Morris as a "chaotic monster" and "a raging alcoholic/drug user who fired four people over the weekend in a drunken rage," (Update: Mr. Salaman contacted me saying this was sent by someone using his name, and does not represent his words or opinion) and is seeking damages for lost wages, benefits, emotional distress, and punitive damages that could extend into seven figures. According to law partner Zafer Akin, Jackson is straight as far as he knows, the advances were unwanted, and moreover, he was fired as a result. Jackson isn't a "playboy" who would've, say, welcomed having his dick compared to a banana at work, Akin adds.

I contacted Morris, Campisano, O'Dowd, and Jackson for comment, and none have replied yet.

OC

A teen girl caught on camera slapping a woman in the face with a large fish is wanted by police, who have declared her behavior "completely unacceptable."

The girl approached a 52-year-old fishmonger at a supermarket in Lancashire, England, and asked a few seafood-related questions before picking up "a large bream" and fish-whacking her in the face without warning. The attacker ran out of the shop with another teenager, who is also wanted by the local constabulary.

The fish-slap was captured on CCTV, and the victim believes the second teen filmed it on his mobile phone. Video of the incident has yet to surface online, forcing fans of fish-related violence to continue watching Monty Python's "fish-slapping dance" sketch on a loop until this latest footage inevitably lands on Vine.

[H/T: BBC, Photo Credit: Lancashire Constabulary]

"You cannot police without" stop and frisk, new NYPD commissioner Bill Bratton tells Here & Now. "If you did not have it, then you'd have anarchy." Yes: If you weren't forcibly stopping and frisking young men of color, the city would descend into chaos. Hmm.

Crazy right wing hate groups: sure, they're funny enough , when they're not knocking on your door at night, but most non-hate-group-members probably hope that they're disappearing. Are they?

According to the latest annual report from the Southern Poverty Law Center: yes! Meaning, probably, that racists, Birchers, and paranoid white separatists of all stripes are finally getting their shit together and starting Tumblrs, rather than meeting in groups, here in Obama's America. The bright side:

The number of hate groups last year dropped for the second year in a row, down 7% from 1,007 in 2012 to 939, after reaching a 2011 high of 1,018, according to the latest count by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC). But the more significant drop came among the Patriot groups, which fell 19% from 1,360 groups in 2012 to 1,096 in 2013.

That's quite a notable drop over the period of only a year. Of course, a decline of that magnitude could more than be accounted for by the rising popularity of Duck Dynasty, which causes the natural hate group demographic to stay home on the couch.

Let us not be flip. The danger from hate groups is still real. The report notes that the KKK's numbers held steady in the past year—and their capacity for evil still knows no bounds:

Glendon Crawford, a member of the United Northern and Southern Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, was arrested and charged with working to construct an X-ray weapon that he allegedly intended for use on crowds of Muslims. He called it "Hiroshima on a light switch." Crawford was arrested after trying to get financing from two Jewish agencies and another Klan group.

Never underestimate these people.

[Photo via]

Even when he's not on stage, pop music's tiniest turd can't stop performing.

On Wednesday, the state attorney's office in Miami released the Justin Bieber arrest video from his ten hours in jail on Jan. 23. In the videos, Bieber can be seen sort of stumbling, talking to cops, and sitting in a holding cell.

According to video obtained by TMZ, he also did 23 push ups while behind bars because what else would a 19-year-old kid do early in the morning without immediate access to sizzurp, Xanax, and Instagram? It's basically the world's most pathetic prison movie.

At least his form looks pretty good.

Not looking good for Bieber? Pretty much everything else in his life.

[h/t via TMZ]

Deadspin Anti-Gay Bill Could Cost Arizona The Super Bowl | Gizmodo How Bad Is California's Drought? This Bad | io9 A map of music that's popular in your state—and only in your state | Lifehacker Is Having Cable Ever Worth It? | Defamer Here's Justin Bieber Doing Push Ups in Jail | Kinja Popular Posts

Today, the New York Daily News posted Joshua Greenman's response to Spike Lee's viral critique on gentrification . We have edited it for length and clarity.

This footage of KTVU's Heather Holmes' nose unleashing a torrent of snot on her face as she reports on Miley Cyrus' Monday show in Oakland is great for the snot alone. But what makes it a moment of perfect television is that Holmes begins the intro to her report by saying, "People are just now starting to trickle out." And they're not the only ones.

When she is finished talking, Holmes swallows her body's natural river of ooze. Nice save, I guess?

Don't worry, though, Holmes survived the incident with her sense of humor in tact.

Note to self: Next time bring #Kleenex. pic.twitter.com/gKAuCXpnil

— Heather Holmes (@hholmesktvu) February 25, 2014

[H/T Rich Lieberman]

Girls star Allison Williams got a bit of good news today, and then another bit of good news, and then another bit of good news, and so on and so forth until bits of good news arranged in neat, orderly piles covered nearly every square foot of her home. The bits of good news had that hot, paper fresh from the printer smell that Allison Williams likes, and were stacked so deep that they insulated her apartment from the winter chill and the sad February noises trying to sneak through its big, clean windows. The sun was shining and so was her hair. It was just another good day to be Allison Williams.

Williams' rep confirmed today that the actress is engaged to her boyfriend of a significant-but-not-too-long-in-fact-just-right amount of years (three), CollegeHumor co-founder Ricky Van Veen.

Teeth.

[Image via Getty]

A Key West man recently made a fairly common mistake, telling police officers that he shouldn't be arrested because pretty much everything is legal in Florida .

Unfortunately for this Florida gentleman, however, trying to stash cocaine in a flower planter is still considered a criminal act under the Florida laws that still exist.

Apparently Key West cops busted the 46-year-old painter somewhat by accident — they were responding to a seemingly unrelated complaint of a woman screaming at a resort. When the officers walked by, the man tried to hide behind a flower pot and "quickly shoved his hands into the flower pot and yanked them back out,"

His later tried to play off his attempt to stash what turned out to be less than a gram of cocaine as a reflex, telling officers, "I don't understand. I thought cocaine wasn't illegal in Florida."

[image via Shutterstock]

Last night former Talking Heads frontman David Byrne threw on a pair of overalls, printed up some lyrics, and performed a charming cover of the Biz Markie classic, "Just a Friend".

Byrne's performance was part of a larger event hosted by his Content Creator's Coalition aimed to raise awareness of that fact that only songwriters, never performers, get paid when a song is played on the radio.

Although Byrne — who has strong opinions on copyright issues — wrote many of their songs, one of the Talking Heads' first breakthrough hits was a cover of Al Green's "Take Me to the River".

America is one of only a few countries — including North Korea, China, Rwanda and Iran — with this type of royalty structure.

[h/t Gothamist]

Today Arizona Governor Jan Brewer put an end to speculation by vetoing SB 1062, a bill that would allow businesses to refuse service to LGBT customers on the basis of religious beliefs.

Brewer gave a statement earlier tonight, concluding that the proposed legislation would have too many unintended and negative consequences.

"To the supporters of the legislation, I want you to know that I understand that long-held norms about marriage and family are being challenged as never before. Our society is undergoing many dramatic changes," she said. "However, I sincerely believe that Senate Bill 1062 has the potential to create more problems than it purports to solve. It could divide Arizona in ways we cannot even imagine and no one would ever want.

[image via AP]

(via)

Source tweets here and here.

The original freelancer assigned to the revenge-motivated New York Observer takedown of New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said in an interview with the New York Times today that he was hired straight out of an ice cream shop and quit when he figured out all the paper wanted was a smear piece.

In August, Schneiderman sued Donald Trump — father-in-law of Observer owner Jared Kushner — over allegations of fraud tied to Trump's real estate seminars , Trump University. Emails between the Observer and the attorney general's office suggest the Observer's interest in the story seemed to increase around filings in the Trump case.

The story's original author, 28-year-old Bill Gifford was managing a New Jersey ice cream shop when a customer, Observer editor Ken Kurson, randomly offered him the freelance assignment.

Gifford told the Times that from the start, Kurson described Schneiderman as a "bad guy" and a "phony," and forwarded him negative articles about the attorney general. But just a few weeks after accepting, Giffords quit abruptly.

"He does come to my shop, he did want to give me this opportunity," Gifford [told the Times], "but I do feel like he might have been using me. To even call me a journalist is a reach, and to write such an important piece on an important person," he said, tailing off.

A few months later, Kurson would email Schneiderman's press secretary, Damien LaVera, that Gifford quit the story because "he felt terrorized" by LaVera's implied threats to ruin Gifford's future career in law.

[image via AP]