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  • At Least 200,000 People Want CNN to Apologize for Its Sympathetic Steubenville Coverage

     Remember the CNN broadcast a few days ago, when Candy Crowley and friends bemoaned the fates of the Steubenville rapists? That didn't go over well, and nearly a quarter million people want the network to do something about it. In the two days since the verdict was read, a Change.org petition asking for CNN to make an on-air apology — okay, several on-air apologies —  has gained over 215,000 signatures and looked to be on track to reach the self-assigned goal of 300,000 in a matter of hours. In other words, a lot of people are not happy with how CNN covered the Steubenville trial, and they're not going to forget about it any time soon.

    If you're just catching up on CNN's Steubenville coverage, you've come to the right place. We've been following the Steubenville rape case closely for a months now and know all too well how divisive its been. The trial and immediate (and ongoing) aftermath turned nothing short of nasty at times, which is precisely why many news organization handled the verdict with kid gloves. The formula for fair coverage was pretty simple. Step one: stick to the facts. Step two: don't sympathize with convicted rapists. Step three: definitely, absolutely, don't even think about revealing the identity of the victim on national television.

    As we pointed out the night of the verdict on Sunday, CNN didn't do so well with those simple steps. Fact-wise, few had complaints about CNN telling the truth. It was how they told it that's stirred nationwide anger. In correspondent Poppy Harlow's report from Steubenville (above), she waxed compassionate in speaking about how the convicted rapists "that had promising futures, star football players, very good students, literally watched as they believed their lives fell apart." The whole segment more or less follows that vein of reasoning with the other two on-air personalities saying similar things, and the Internet was not happy about that. Then CNN revealed the name of the victim on air, with MSNBC and Fox News to follow.

    So now people want CNN to formally apologize. A lot of people want this. The petition's stated request — "apologize on-air, several times over the course of the next week, at the start of every hour" — is a little extreme. At a basic level, however, it's hard to understand why CNN wouldn't feel compelled to address the backlash. Then again, CNN doesn't do everything right, well, ever.

    Jay Leno calls NBC 'extinct' in latest monologue joke

    With a report in the New York Times today confirming the network has promised Jimmy Fallon that he will succeed Jay Leno as the next host of the iconic late-night program, fans of talk-show intrigue will doubtless tune in to see if Leno has a reaction tonight.

    Though we’re told the host did not directly address the Fallon news in Wednesday’s taping, he did once again take a shot at NBC’s low ratings. “According to several reports, scientists say they are getting closer and closer to being able to do Jurassic Park-style cloning of extinct species,” Leno told his audience. “Imagine that. Things that were once thought to be extinct could be brought back from the dead. So there’s hope for NBC. It could turn around.”

    On Monday, he compared his NBC bosses to “snakes.” While on Tuesday night, he took a swipe at the ratings.  Guests tonight include Vanessa Hudgens and Chris O’Dowd with musical guest Gary Clark Jr.

    NBC plans to move The Tonight Show from Burbank, Calif. to New York, where Fallon currently tapes his Late Night show. There is also talk of Tonight returning to a 90-minute format. It’s unclear when an official announcement will take place (NBC “categorically” denied an initial report about the decision). For now, NBC is only confirming that it is building a brand new set for Fallon.

    Disney World photo captures couple together 15 years before they met

     No one knows better than Alex and Donna Voutsinas that it’s a small world after all.

    Thirty years ago, when they lived in separate countries long before they met and married, a family shot of little Donna at Walt Disney World captured Alex in a stroller in the background.

    “It just blew our minds when we realized,” Alex Voutsinas, a 32-year-old transplanted Montrealer told the Star Thursday from south Florida.

    That fateful realization came just one week before their wedding eight years ago. Alex and Donna had been going through old family snapshots. There, in the blurry background of a picture of 5-year-old Donna was 3-year-old Alex being pushed down Main Street at the same moment in 1980 by his father. The senior Voutsinas’s distinctive jet-black hair with its white tuft caught his eye.

    “My mother pulled out albums from the same trip. My dad is wearing exactly the same outfit.”

    Other pictures from that trip showed Alex on his dad’s shoulders. The boy in the background of Donna’s picture and the boy in those pictures were the same.

    A blow-up of the famous frame hangs on their living room wall in Boynton Beach, Fla., but Alex’s mother keeps the original in a safe.

    “It’s like gold to her.”

    It wasn’t until the couple joined Facebook recently and posted the picture that the world got wind of the staggering twist of fate with which they’d entertained family and friends for years.

    Alex, who is a dual Canadian-U.S. citizen, and his family of hoteliers had moved to Florida when he was 10.

    He and Donna met 15 years ago when they worked at the same hotel in Boca Raton shortly after she’d moved south from Long Island, N.Y. They dated for six years, married and had three sons, who they take to Disney World regularly.

    “We’ve taken pictures of the kids,” he said, “and they say they’re looking for their future wives in the background.”

    Sofia Vergara's Bra Size Actress Tells Vogue Her Breasts Are Real

    Sofia Vergara is known for her curves, and though it's her comedic timing that has made her a star on ABC's "Modern Family," she's probably quite happy she didn't listen to a former publicist who suggested she get a breast reduction.

    The Colombian-born actress opens up to Vogue for the magazine's annual Shape issue, and reveals that while curves might be coveted, her assets make it slightly harder to get red-carpet ready.

    "I mean, a normal girl will just put the dress on and leave. I need them to be like an armory. My dresses are like a work of art inside because, you know, I am 40 years old, I had a baby, and I am a 32F boob." she explained to Vogue, adding that she hasn't had any help from surgeons wielding silicone or saline.

    "And they are real still. When they are fake, you take the bra off and they are still there, perfect! Me—no, so I have to bring them up! I have to build the dresses up to here so that the bras—ach, it’s a whole, der—ugh—tchah!” she told the magazine, expressing her exasperation.

    It's not the first time Vergara has discussed her simultaneous appreciation and frustration with her breasts. In 2010, she told Self magazine:

        When I was 13, I got these ridiculous boobs. I wanted surgery. I told my mom, 'As soon as I'm older, please take these boobs away.' She said, 'Sofía, shut up. When you're 18, it will be different.' I was like, 'Why would I want these huge tits? I'm a 34DD.' It's hard to dress. No matter what I wear, I look like a stripper. That said, I'm grateful I have them, and honestly, they've helped me a lot in my career. And I've always felt sexy.

    In the years since that interview, the star has apparently gone up a cup size, no doubt making it slightly more difficult to find the right clothes, but somehow we don't think it's going to hinder her career in the least.

    'Croods' Review New Animated Film Is 'Brisk And Beautiful'

     they're just like us! – or so "The Croods" seems to be saying with its familiar mix of generational clashes, coming-of-age milestones and generally relatable laughs.

    The animated adventure features a strong, star-studded cast and dazzles visually in wondrously colorful, vibrant 3-D, but the script doesn't pop off the screen quite so effectively. The overly facile message here is: Trying new things is good. It's a useful notion for kids in the crowd to chew on, but their older companions may be longing for something more substantive. Still, "The Croods" is both brisk and beautiful, and should be sufficiently entertaining for family audiences for whom few such options exist these days.

    "The Croods" might be especially resonant with young female viewers, with a strong, resourceful teenage girl at its center named Eep (voiced by Emma Stone in her usual charming rasp). It's the prehistoric era, and while the rest of Eep's family prefers the comforting safety of hiding fearfully inside a cave, with only sporadic outings for group hunts, she longs to see what's outside those stone walls.

    Her dad, Grug (Nicolas Cage), is especially protective, neurotically worrying about every possible unknown and urging the same sort of apprehension in everyone else, including his supportive wife, Ugga (an underused Catherine Keener), and doltish 9-year-old son, Thunk (Clark Duke). ("Never not be afraid," is one of dad's favorite sayings.) There's also a sharp-toothed Tasmanian devil of a baby named Sandy and Grug's mother-in-law, voiced in reliably sassy fashion by Cloris Leachman. The gags that depict her as a disapproving nag are more than a bit stale; if there's any heart-tugging or even vaguely engaging bond here, it's the father-daughter one between Grug and Eep.

    One day, Eep dares to escape while everyone else is sleeping and meets up with the hottest (and only) guy she's ever seen. Conveniently, he's named Guy, and he's voiced by Ryan Reynolds. He has a furry, impossibly cute companion named Belt who holds up his pants (kids will dig this tiny scene-stealer). But he also astonishes her with something she's never seen before called fire. Guy warns that the world is ending, and that she should come with him if she wants to live. When her family's cave is destroyed, they reluctantly realize they must all go with Guy. This sets up: a) some basic, tried-and-true road trip jokes and b) a blossoming romance between Guy and Eep, which dad naturally tries to stifle.

    The themes aren't exactly groundbreaking from co-writers and directors Chris Sanders and Kirk DeMicco (with John Cleese sharing a story-by credit, having been a part of early drafts of the script), and the plot feels too repetitive with the Croods encountering one unexplored terrain after another and responding in predictable ways.

    But the oohs, ahhs and scattered laughs come from the various creatures the Croods discover along their journey, including the hungry, hot-pink piranha birds, the upside-down pear bears and the fearsome bear owls. Much of the lush landscape and vivid details feel as if they were taken directly from "Avatar," and a similar sense of wonder propels these stronger segments. The lighting can indeed be magical, so it's no surprise that we are urged over and over again to step into it.

    "The Croods," from DreamWorks Animation, is rated PG for some scary action. Running time: 92 minutes. Two and a half stars out of four.

    7 Marines killed in explosion during training exercise at Army depot in Nevada

    Seven U.S. Marines were killed and at least seven wounded when a mortar exploded during a live-fire training exercise overnight at an Army munitions depot in the Nevada desert, military officials told NBC News.

    There were conflicting reports about what happened. According to one account, a 60-millimeter mortar shell exploded in a tube as Marines were preparing to fire it. Another account said that the shell exploded as Marines were picking it up to load it.

    The accident happened just before 10 p.m. Monday at Hawthorne Army Depot, a 230-square-mile ammunition storage and training facility just east of the California line.

    The injured were taken to two hospitals. Stacy Kendall, a spokeswoman for Renown Regional Medical Center, a trauma center about 100 miles away in Reno, said the injuries included traumas and fractures.

    The Marines were part of the 2nd Marine Division, a ground combat force based at Camp Lejeune, N.C.

    The depot’s website says it is a training facility for the Army, Navy and Marines, including Special Operations forces preparing to deploy to the Middle East. The site says that the facility offers a “realistic simulation of the situation in Afghanistan” because of the mountainous desert terrain.

    A Marines spokesman said that the dead would be identified publicly 24 hours after their next of kin were notified.

    “We send our prayers and condolences to the families of Marines involved in this tragic incident. We remain focused on ensuring that they are supported through this difficult time,” said Maj. Gen. Raymond C. Fox, commanding general of the 2nd Marine Expeditionary Force, which includes the 2nd Division. “We mourn their loss, and it is with heavy hearts we remember their courage and sacrifice.”

    Spring Breakers James Franco as the Wizard of Odd

    His real name is Al, but the Tampa gangsta drugsta played by James Franco calls himself Alien. Sporting elaborate cornrows and front teeth studded with more grillwork than a ’58 Plymouth, Alien is a man in love with his stuff: his gun-bedecked walls, his bed “that’s an art piece,” his constantly running loop of the 1983 Florida crime classic Scarface. (Maybe he never got to the end of the movie.) Put another way, he’s the Wizard of Oz in his own crazy, Day-Glo kingdom, and instead of Munchkins he’s got a posse of hot chicks. “Bikinis and big booties, y’all,” Alien proclaims. “That’s what life is about.”

    It is, at least, during the months-long rite of passion known as spring break. Needing little urging from the gentlemen on Florida’s Gulf Coast, young women booze on the beach, merrily expose their siliconed breasts and fellate red-white-and-blue lollipops, all to fulfill the hedonistic edicts of Girls Gone Wild videos and MTV. They act silly; you can watch.


    Spring Breakers, written and directed by Harmony Korine, operates under two pretenses: that it’s a more extreme version of spring-break movies that stretch back at least half a century, to the sedate dating of 1960′s Where the Boys Are, and that it’s a satire of the genre — indeed, of the American dream of sex, drugs, rock ’n’ roll and eternal nubility.

    But the movie, the most accessible in the oeuvre of the 40-year-old who really was an enfant terrible when, back in the early ’90s, he wrote the script for Kids — Larry Clark’s teen-AIDS outrage — has a little too much fun exploiting the milieu it may be trying to mock. Spring Breakers is a canny mixture of satire and sellout — if there’s even a difference between the two in a movie age where excess and irony have become incestuous twins.

    Say this for the writer-director: he scored several artistic coups, none of them having much to do with what’s onscreen. He signed Franco for the Alien role and corralled three young graduates of well-scrubbed TV shows — Selena Gomez, from the Disney Channel’s Wizards of Waverly Place; Vanessa Hudgens of Disney’s High School Musical films; and Ashley Benson of the ABC Family Channel’s Pretty Little Liars — to dance around in skimpies. Two of them mime smoking dope and lesbonic kissing.

    Gomez plays the pointedly named Faith, who is part of a Christian sect and the college friend of Candy (Hudgens), Brit (Benson) and Cotty (Rachel Korine, the director’s wife). She’s known them for years, she tells her skeptical evangelical cohorts; these girls are good people. Faith should have trusted in the skepticism of her grumpy co-religionists. Yea, I say unto thee, her friends are the demon spawn.

    Stuck at school and short on cash, Candy, Cotty and Brit raise money for the trip to Florida by donning ski masks, talking like rap masters and robbing the patrons of a Chicken Shack. Once in Tampa, with Faith in tow, they party their way into jail. There they are bailed out by Alien, who takes them on as his posse in a turf battle with archrival Archie (rapper Gucci Mane). Faith sees the light and heads for home, another girl takes a bullet, and the remaining pair turn out to be gunslingers of the most violent order.

    A pop-art junk movie, Spring Breakers does reveal an artist at work: French cinematographer Benoît Debie, who filmed Gaspar Noé’s truly transgressive Irréversible and Enter the Void. Saturating the images with a neon tinge and supervising a sensational reverse-crane shot of revelers by the hundreds at a pool party, Debie gives Spring Breakers a great look, even if the movie’s mind is nearly as wasted as Alien’s.

    Johnny Depp, Al Pacino And Keith Richards May Just Be The World's Coolest BFFs

    Apparently the three are very fond of one another, as revealed at the HBO premiere of David Mamet's movie "Phil Spector" this week. According to the New York Post, Pacino (who plays the titular role in "Spector") met up with Richards for the first time and the two icons had a friendly exchange.

    "We have a mutual friend," Richards was overheard telling Pacino. "Johnny Depp!" Pacino replied, "I love Johnny!"

    And somewhere in the world, an angel got a high five.

    Pacino and Depp were co-stars in the 1997 movie "Donnie Brasco" and Richards wrote and performed the song "Only Found Out Yesterday" on Depp's blockbuster hit "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End" in 2007.

    Also, Depp's next talked-about project, the thriller "Black Mass," will be directed by Barry Levinson -- who was the producer on Pacino's "Phil Spector." In the film, Depp is set to play the part of infamous gangster Whitey Bulger.

    Swiss Tourist Gang-Raped in Central India

    Indian media are reporting that a Swiss tourist was gang-raped in the central state of Madhya Pradesh and that 13 men are being questioned.

    Local police superintendent C. S. Solanki told the Press Trust of India that the woman and her husband had camped out for the night in a forest after bicycling from the temple town of Orchha on Friday when they were attacked by a group of eight men.

    He said the couple were beaten and had their belongings stolen, and that the woman was gang-raped.

    Solanki said police were questioning 13 men in connection with the attack.

    India has seen outrage and protests against rape and attacks on women since the fatal gang-rape of a young woman in a moving bus in New Delhi in December.

    A photo showed the woman — her identity concealed with a hood — walking while being escorted by police to the hospital.

    Police detained 13 men and questioned them, Gurjar said. Six of the men were released after questioning. No other details were immediately available.

    Indian television stations showed scores of police searching the forest where the attack occurred.

    Swiss Foreign Ministry spokesman Tilman Renz described the case as “deeply disturbing” and said Swiss diplomats were assisting the couple.

    The diplomats called on Indian authorities “to do everything to quickly find the perpetrators so that they can be held accountable,” Renz said in a statement.

    Last month, the Swiss government issued a travel notice for India that included a warning about “increasing numbers of rapes and other sexual offenses” in the South Asian nation.

    India has seen outrage and widespread protests against attacks on women since December’s fatal gang-rape of a young woman on a moving bus in New Delhi, the capital. The crime horrified Indians and set off nationwide protests about India’s treatment of women and spurred the government to hurry through a new package of laws to protect them.

    One of six suspects in the December attack was found dead in a New Delhi jail this past week. Authorities said he hanged himself, but his family and lawyer insisted foul play was involved. A magistrate is investigating. Four other men and a juvenile remain on trial for the attack.

    Britney Spears, New Boyfriend David Lucado Get Lunch

    Britney Spears grabbed lunch with new boyfriend David Lucado at Cisco's in Camarillo, Calif., Thursday. The 31-year-old pop singer was first spotted out with 27-year-old Lucado in February, and they've since been spotted doing totally normal-person things, like hitting the driving range and dining out for Valentine's Day and going to the tanning salon together.

    Spears ended her engagement to longtime boyfriend Jason Trawick just one month prior, in January. "Jason and I have decided to call off our engagement. I'll always adore him and we remain great friends," she said in a statement at the time.

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