Although the 15 freeway has been reopened for weekend warriors on their way to Vegas, the fire that destroyed several cars rages on in its second day.
On Saturday morning, officials said the North Fire was only 5% contained, although the storm rolling through Los Angeles this morning should help firefighters in their efforts. According to the L.A. Times, 3,500 acres have burned and 44 cars and at least four homes have been destroyed.
KTLA says 20 of those cars were stuck on the pavement of the 15 freeway, including two big rigs and a boat being towed. The flames jumped the freeway and consumed the trapped cars. Luckily, no drivers were harmed, and authorities reported no major injuries as a result of the fire. The freeway was reopened after midnight.
"Cars were going in the opposite direction into traffic," Gilbert Cagatin told the L.A. Times. "It was that bad."
Talia Sclafani and her soccer teammates were traveling from Las Vegas to San Diego for a tournament when they had to leave their van. "To our left, it was like a spark and then five minutes later the freeway was engulfed," she told CNN.
One witness on the ground captured video of horses fleeing the North Fire and a DC-10 dropping flame retardant:
Meanwhile, only miles away in Wrightwood, the Pine Fire has has burned at least 125 acres after starting around 9:30 p.m., Friday night. Around 300 people have been evacuated, including deaf or partially deaf children and Girl Scouts in nearby campgrounds.
Clint Dempsey Goal - USA vs Cuba 6-0 Gold Cup 2015 HD
Coincidentally I find this matchup to be a little funny because of US-Cuba relations before embargo comes to an end. But nevertheless, they will meet up in the Quarterfinals of the Gold Cup tonight. The US squad was not very impressive in its group stage showing against the likes of Panama, Honduras, and Haiti. They won the group, but it wasnt easy as Honduras came within a goal of tying the game, they could only score a goal against Haiti, and tied with Panama after they trailed in the first half. That doesnt matter now, but they need to show how good they really are in the Knockout stage. Losing Jozy Altidore did not help their attacking unit, but defensively they need to be sound. Cuba is a good team out of the Caribbean zone, but they are well below what the US is in regards of talent. The US should be able to pull out a win here, but they need to step up their game tonight just in case things get hairy.
Its been over a month since TLC pulled 19 Kids And Counting from its schedule after reports surfaced that one of the 19 kidsJosh Duggarhad molested several girls (including a few of his sisters) when he was a teenager. Shockingly/hilariously/depressingly, TLC still hasnt officially canceled 19 Kids And Counting, though, which is especially surprising in light of how quickly NBC was willing to drop the hot potato that is Donald Trump. This just goes to show you the difference in priorities between a regular network like NBC and a basic cable channel like TLC. One cant associate itself with a dopey racist, and the other hopes well all forget about the family that tried to cover up child abuse.
So, anyway, Josh Duggarwho is now 27never faced criminal charges for abusing these girls because the police didnt find out about it until the statute of limitations had already run out. (Imagine that.) However, he might be getting taken to court soon anyway: According to In Touch, one of his victims who is not a family member is preparing to file a civil suit against Duggar, and the magazine makes it sound like this could end up being a bloodbath. The members of the Duggar family who knew about this before it was made public will almost certainly have to testify, which means theyll have no choice but to reveal not only what they knew and when they knew it, but also why it took so long for them to do anything, what they didor didnt doafter finding out about the molestation, and who else knew about it and also didnt do anything.
The family probably wouldnt be in danger of facing any criminal charges based on what they might say in courtthanks to the convenience of that aforementioned statute of limitationsbut we imagine anything that might come out is definitely not going to look good for the Duggars. This will be especially bad for TLC, which is really banking on the public continuing to accept that this is a good family full of good people. Of course, the Duggars could end up scraping together a big settlement of some kind to stop this from ever going to court, but TLC might still have to find another seemingly wholesome family we can gawk at for a while. Then the cycle can continue.
Calvin Harris Gushes About Taylor Swift Relationship TIMENewsfeedcelebrityListen to Calvin Harris Totally Gush About His Girlfriend Taylor SwiftKevin MazurBMA2015/WireImage/Getty ImagesTaylor Swift (L) and Calvin Harris at the 2015 Billboard Music Awards in las Vegas on May 17, 2015."She"s genuinely an incredible cook, and human being"
Taylor Swift and Calvin Harris are goin strong, and in a recent interview with Kiss FM UK, Harris had nothing but super positive things to say about their relationship.
Its going absolutely fantastic, the 31-year-old Scottish musician said. Though of course the paparazzi and general media frenzy surrounding the relationship is tough, he said it could be a lot worse and Id still be, like, insanely happy with her so Im good with it.
Swift and Harris are both extremely busy with their music careers, but he assures us all that theyre still totally making it work.
Shes on a world tour and Im based here [in Los Angeles], Harris said. I guess the luxury is we can both travel very easily. I think thats a reason that it works so, so well. Its really not hard to see each other on a really regular basis.
Finally, Harris gushed about how generally amazing Tay is. Its not even a case of ticking all the boxes. Its like, theres boxes I didnt know existed which she ticks. Its really ridiculous. But yeah she does an incredible BBQ. And shes genuinely an incredible cook, and human being.
Gawker Takes Down Story About Conde Nast CFO After Intense Backlash
Gawker has come under fire for unscrupulously outing a Conde Nast execand arguably abetting a blackmail plot. But theyve been similarly harassing James Franco for years.
On Thursday evening, the media website Gawker ran a clickbait scoop about an executive at a major magazine company who had enlisted the services of a gay p**n star/escort, arranging to pay him $2,500 for a weekend tryst. The john was married to a woman with two young children, and his brother once served as a senior official within the Obama administration.
Once the prostitute caught wind of the johns powerful ties, he proceeded to blackmail the CFO by threatening to expose the arrangement unless he helped the escort with a housing discrimination case against a former landlordone that hed allegedly brought to the attention of his local politician, presidential candidate Ted Cruz (R-TX). Gawker, as is its wont, published all the text messages between the twoeffectively outing and shaming the execwhile protecting the identity of the blackmailer, who turned out to be a complete nutjob.
The media then began (rightfully) policing Gawker for the despicable post, which only seemed to embolden its editor-in-chief, Max Read, who tweeted out a defense of the piece:
The problems with the story, as laid out astutely by The Intercepts Glenn Greenwald, were that the man was not a public official, the post did not serve the public interest, and that Gawker may have even abetted a blackmail plot by serving as a bargaining chip. The post was taken down Friday evening at the behest of Gawkers management board, and Gawker founder Nick Denton later released a mea culpa, claiming hes experienced what alcoholics refer to as a moment of clarity.
Perhaps the vilest thing about the piece is how laced with homophobia it was, as its main, hateful mission seemed to be outing a man, as if being gay was something to be ashamed of in 2015, mere weeks after the Supreme Court legalized same-s*x marriage in all fifty states.
But Gawker Media has long harbored a creepy obsession with outing closeted men. Back in 2007, one of its first controversial stories involved its sister site Valleywag publishing a piece outing Silicon Valley venture capitalist Peter Thiel in a post titled, Peter Thiel is totally h**o, people. In the comment section of the piece, Denton wrote that he was confused why Thiel would keep his personal life a secret from journalists as if he was entitled to this information from a non-public figure. And then there was the unfortunate outing of Fox News anchor Shepard Smith in 2013, a nasty gay fright piece that was eviscerated in a column by the late, great New York Times media critic David Carr.
But no one has been on the receiving end of more harassment by Gawker than Oscar-nominated actor James Franco.
Yeah, and then they got a little pissy because I said it was homophobic, and yeah it is, said Franco.
The repugnant hit pieces began around 2008, as Franco was mid-transition from wandering himbo to serious actor, with standout performances in the stoner comedy Pineapple Express and as the gay lover to Sean Penns Harvey Milk in Milk. Historically, there has been a troubling tendency by the movie-going public and tabloid media to question an actors sexuality once hes convincingly played a gay character onscreen. Gawker, however, took it one step further: they accused Franco of being a gay rapist.
On August 18, 2008, the New York Post ran a gossip blind item that read: Which hunk in a summer movie is a violent, closeted homosexual? The heartthrob snuck into his ex"s apartment a few months ago and raped him so violently, the ex ended up in the hospital - and the actor paid him $500,000 to keep his mouth shut.
Back before Dentons change of heart," Gawker had a tendency to blindly speculate about gossip blind itemswhich, for all we know, could be completely made up. But they took particular interest in this one, with then-Gawker writer Richard Lawson penning a follow-up post guessing that the gay rapist might be either Will Smith, Christian Bale, or James Franco, based purely (or rather, impurely) on Internet rumors.
And then there"s the compelling case ofJames Franco, Lawson wrote. Basically the rumor is that Franco dated the guy about two years ago, and still had a key to his house. Guy goes to an Oscars party, comes back and Franco is waiting for him and then awfulness goes down. He"s rumored to have been abusive towards an old girlfriend, also an actor, some five years ago. This makes me sad because James Franco is dreamy and oh if he were gay we"d surely be married next spring, but if he"s a raper then I don"t want anything to do with him and he should be in jail.
Days later, Lawson penned a follow-up post titled:
All it did was tally up commenters feelings, who voted that among the three baseless candidates, Franco was their choice as likeliest perp. Again, this is all a guessing game, and all of these pieces still live online. The following month, Lawson wrote another Gawker post titled:
The piece was pegged to Francos role as Penns characters gay lover in Milkand a subsequent interview with Out magazineand, based on no evidence whatsoever, the Gawker article insinuated that Franco was a gay rapist, mentioning the ominous rumor that he once raped his gay lover. It also questioned Francos sexuality based on his playing two gay roles in films.
Lawson, who penned all of the aforementioned Franco posts, took to Twitter last night to admit that his posts accusing Franco of being a gay rapist were baseless and that he wrote them on the orders of his boss (hes since deleted the tweet), essentially admitting that hed made them up:
In a statement to The Daily Beast, Lawson said, I deeply regret those posts. Though they don"t really have any upside, maybe they can at least serve as a warning for younger writers now to use far better judgment than I did back then. Franco could not be reached for comment.
Things were left dormant until, in 2013, Gawkers then-staff writer (and now editor-in-chief) Max Read wrote a post with the headline, James Franco Is Gay, and embedding an Instagram post Franco issued of him and a man gallivanting about New York City and kissing with the tongue-in-cheek caption, #JamesFrancoTV in love????? #gawker.com #gay. This was clearly Franco trolling Gawker, yet they ran a definitive clickbait-y headline proclaiming him gay, without including so much as a question mark.
Franco was, presumably, responding to the years of harassment hed received about his sexuality by Gawker, including a recent post by writer Rich Juzwiak two weeks earlier following his Comedy Central Celebrity Roast titled, James Francos Friends and Roasters Agree That He Is Very, Very Gay. And Juzwiak, who months later would pen a post with the clickbait headline, James Franco Bares a*s to Gay Menwhich solely consisted of Franco flashing his behind for charity at a Broadway Bares event that ended up raising $1.3 million for the fight against AIDSwould later whine about being disinvited from a Franco afterparty.
Gawker escalated their Franco witch-hunt with a post on August 6, 2014, that read, James Franco Is Living With a Man. The post, penned by J.K. Trotter, suggested that Franco was in a gay relationship with his frequent co-star Scott Haze solely based on a line in a recent New York Times profile of Franco where Oscar-nominated actor shared that he and Haze lived in the same place.
Franco responded to the Gawker itemwhich still lives onlinewith posts on his Instagram and Facebook pages accusing Gawker of always getting the cutting edge, homophobic scoop!
The following day, Trotter double-down on his baseless Franco outing with a post titled, A Short History of James Franco and Scott Haze Playing Gay, which once again insinuated that Franco was in a gay relationship with Haze based merely on the closeness of their relationshipthe fact that theyd been friends for a decade, and spent a lot of time together. This post also still lives online.
About a month after the two accusatory Gawker posts, I sat down with Franco and Haze at the Venice Film Festival, where they were on hand to promote their film adaptation of the Faulkner classic The Sound and the Fury. During our interview, I asked them about the Gawker posts alleging that they were a gay couple.
Oh G*d, replied Haze, shifting in his seat and showing signs of frustration.
Yeah, and then they got a little pissy because I said it was homophobic, and yeah it is, added Franco. And then they said, Oh, well a gay guy wrote it! I dont care if the press is gay or straight. When did you have to face criticism for having a roommate? I dont understand that!
He pauses. And there were like eight people living in that house, so to make a story about thatI dont care, but it just shows how petty Gawker is. Its ridiculous.
Towards the end of our interview, I jokingly asked them when they were going to hook up on a new project again in the future, and they both started cracking up.
Hey, no comment! said Haze, bowled over in his seat. Franco patted him on the back and, barely containing his laughter, added, Here in Venice? Pretty d**n romantic!
At least he hasnt lost his sense of humor about it, though it stands to reason that given Gawkers constant stream of harassment, Franco has a pretty strong case.
Get to know a PGA TOUR Pro: Brandt Snedeker and Keegan Bradley
This week: Barbasol Championship, Thursday through Sunday, RTJ Trail Grand National, Opelika, Alabama.
In the field: Olympias Andres Gonzales, Gig Harbors Kyle Stanley and University Places Andrew Putnam.
First-round scores: Gonzales shot a 2-under-par 69, Stanley had a 1-under 70, and Putnam shot an even-par 71.
Positions: Gonzales is tied for 25th, Stanley is tied for 47th and Putnam is tied for 71st all trailing leader Sam Saunders (64).
Recap: Except for one hole, Gonzales got off to a solid start. He birdied No. 3 (21-foot putt) to go to 4 under, but he dumped his tee shot at the par-3 fifth hole into a greenside pond, leading to a double bogey. Stanley made five birdies but also had a double bogey at No. 2, where he hit his tee shot so far right that he had to play backward to the fairway. He did make two birdie putts of 15 feet or longer. Putnam bogeyed the 12th hole to drop to 2 over, but he rallied with birdies at Nos. 13 (two-putt from 35 feet) and 17 (15-foot putt) to post his first opening round of par or better since the Memorial Tournament in early June.
Tee times Friday: Gonzales at 5:55 a.m. (PDT) off the first tee, Putnam at 6:39 a.m. off the 10th tee and Stanley at 11:06 a.m. off the first tee.
Stephen Curry Wins Best Male Athlete at 2015 ESPYs Awards - ESPN - HD
Game on! Athletes and stars alike were all smiles at U.C.L.A."s Pauley Pavilion on Thursday for the Kids" Choice Sports Awards. Hosted by Super Bowl champ Russell Wilson, the second annual event celebrates the biggest moments in sports. "I"m pumped! It"s something new for me obviously but I"m really excited about it. It"s such an honor," Ciara"s man told E! News ahead of the show.
And since this is a Nickelodeon show, there is plenty of green slime to go around during the event. Check out celebs like Mo"ne Davis, Nick Young, Stephen Curry, and more while their red carpet outfits are still slime-free!
