SamTee

Obviously you’ve all seen the Star Trek: Discovery trailer by now (if not, it’s here) so we thought we’d do a quick check-in with what everyone is wearing. The first few shots see Sonequa Martin-Green and Michelle Yeoh on Tattooine:

Can we talk about the fit on that Desert Business Hoodie because it is *chef kiss fingers*

Loving that hood, loving all those scarves, NOT loving this beige rainbow but since it’s a desert, I’ll give it a pass. Also loving how high that belt is sitting. You know how high-waisted jeans are back in style now? That’s why her belt is sitting at her natural waist. AND IT LOOKS GREAT. Michelle Yeoh is ready for DESERT:

Just try it, sandstorm

This practical headcover makes sense for a desert, and is clearly modeled after Middle Eastern fashions, where they KNOW about the desert, but I really hope either that oversized vest is linen or it’s actually cold in this desert because there are a lot of layers happening here. Also: where can I get both these pairs of sunglasses?

Polarized lenses never looked so good

We also get a glimpse at the OLD TIMEY communicators (since the series is set ten years pre-TOS):

Girl that’s a RAZR

At first I was like, this is actually kind of a genius move on the part of whoever designed this flip phone communicator because we, in 2017, look at that thing and go “lol how old is that phone?” but they want us to think of it as the past because this is before Kirk et al. 

Unfortunately, my theory about them wanting us to think of this as the past and also to tie this series into the continuity falls apart completely when we see what the uniforms look like. 

“Excuse me????” - Sonequa Martin-Green

Okay. There’s a lot to unpack here. First of all, THERE ARE NO PIPS. But here’s Captain Michelle Yeoh:

I’m the boss, Michael Scott, y’all bitches just Phyllis

As captain, she has some SHOULDER FLAIR. Here’s a closer look at Sonequa Martin-Green’s shoulders:

Cold Shoulders

Sonequa and Michelle are both command officers, and they’re in what looks like gold. Doug Jones is playing a science officer and he’s in silver. So perhaps that’s how the divisions are identified?

I do think these collars are interesting, but I feel like the place where that central piping (that better not be a zipper) should have been either centered OR a tiiiiiny bit more to the side because right now it looks like a shirt I made once where I did some bad math and the button placket ended up, like, half an inch right of center. It looked like something went wrong (because it did). That said, the overall look here is cool:

Not even a little bit pajamas

The uniform in and of itself is very cool-looking, and I think this color is more dynamic than just a regular-ass navy, but still neutral enough for it to look like a real uniform. I love that panel on the pants that lines up with the shirt panel SO PERFECTLY oh man great job tailoring these, wardrobe department.

However.

HOW DO WE GET FROM HERE TO PAJAMAS?

Even if we are assuming that this is leading us to the Abrams reboot universe, Chris Pine Kirk and his crew still wear uniforms WITHOUT COLLARS? What HAPPENED in Starfleet that they scrapped their gold/silver/bronze situation with these very formal-but-off-center collars and decided to put their command officers in shirts that could charitably be considered athleisure? I like to think there was a horrifying accident in which they realized the off-center collars were EXTREMELY FLAMMABLE and someone’s head got burned off because their collar caught fire, and Starfleet, like all bureaucratic organizations, blamed the wrong thing and instead of making the uniforms out of a less flammable fabric, just banned collars. BUT ADDED PIPS. WHY. 

We also get a quick look at some Vulcan fashion:

Star Trek: Collars

That is so much collar that it feels like maybe it’s helping keep his head on. 

Also on display: an EVA suit!

Disco swimcap not included

This one is interesting, because it’s way more similar to the suits in First Contact than they are to the ones in the Abrams reboot series:

Strong enough for a Worf, pH balanced for a Picard

What if a motorcycle helmet…but in space

And of course if we look at the TOS version of this thing, well…

I couldn’t decide which color so I just used all of them

Quick question though: where can I get this glitter vinyl that Kirk and Spock are wearing because I need it.

In addition to Starfleet, we also see the UPDATED KLINGONS!!!!!

OH SHIT

Whereas the TNG Klingons are sartorially reminiscent of a biker gang that spray-painted a bunch of protective sports wear with silver and matte black, these Klingons look like they asked the question “what if you could make a shirt out of ribs?” and then answered it. The look is more organic - where the TNG Klingons had metal, these Klingons have BONE. They also have NONE of the luxurious hair of the Klingons of TNG. With the STID Klingons, it was like “okay, I see how we get from that look to the TNG look” but these guys have something completely different going on. 

There is one Klingon who has some metal accents and he looks GREAT:

Talk about a statement necklace

What if you took a birdcage, made it into a wicker umbrella, then burst your head through that umbrella? That’s this neckpiece.

Also this alien (Lt. Saru, I think?) has ONE OF THE WILDEST LINES OF DIALOGUE I’VE EVER HEARD:

Are those eyebrows SLICED OUT?!

“My people were biologically determined for one purpose alone…to sense the coming of death.” WHAT?? THAT’S YOUR ONE PURPOSE??? HOW DOES THAT EVEN WORK?? DO YOU EAT???? DO YOU FUCK??? DO HUMANS JUST KIDNAP YOU AND USE YOU LIKE ORACLES??? CAN YOU SENSE YOUR OWN DEATH OR IS IT JUST LIKE A DEATH MIASMA YOU FEEL?? I HAVE SO MANY QUESTIONS.

Anyway, the trailer was a little zzzz for me, but I will be investigating further once the show drops. 

And you may commence “HOLY SHIT”ing presently:

 

 

 

 

 

Because Holy SHIT, does that look good.

Gosh, we’re all profane today for some reason. Maybe because Cersei is giving us life even though we know she’s crazy and horrible and not the person we should be rooting for in the coming battle to end all battles.

Then again, who are we supposed to be rooting for here? Daenerys hasn’t exactly covered herself in beneficial glory throughout her blood-soaked rise and Jon Snow is … let’s just say he’s tough to root for. Can we just pledge our loyalty to the Stark sisters and be done with it? Let’s see Sansa and Arya co-ruling this whole mess when it’s all over.

But the real question is …

 

 

Who are you rooting for?

 

[Stills: Tom and Lorenzo, HBO – Video Credit: Games of Thrones via YouTbe.com]

• Game of Thrones
• HBO
• TV Previews

The post HBO Releases “Game of Thrones” Season 7 Trailer appeared first on Tom + Lorenzo.

Because we’re rarely ever fully offline.

Today in “are we okay with this?” let’s look at the idea that Google is tracking what we do even when we’re offline.

No, wait—first, we need to look at the idea that we’re never offline. When we walk into a store, our phones record our locations. When we make purchases, our credit cards record our locations, as well as what we bought and how much we spent. This information is extremely valuable to a lot of companies, including the big internet company that can both access and synthesize it:

Google Following Your Offline Credit Card Spending To Tell Advertisers If Their Ads Work

Put A and B together, and suddenly you have a much clearer picture to share with advertisers: Why yes, John Smith did see four ads for your coffee drink online yesterday, before spending exactly what one of those drinks costs at a location of yours near his office. Congratulations, your ads work; spend more money advertising with us now, please.

But how is Google getting all of those As and Bs? As the Washington Post reports, they’re not telling:

Google now knows when its users go to the store and buy stuff

Google also declined to detail how the new system works or what companies are analyzing records of credit and debit cards on Google’s behalf. Google, which saw $79 billion in revenue last year, said it would not handle the records directly but that its undisclosed partner companies had access to 70 percent of transactions for credit and debit cards in the United States.

Consumerist notes that a lot of our day-to-day activity and transactions, from both the individual and the corporate end, pass through Google at some point. So Google isn’t necessarily taking anything we haven’t agreed to give it—even if we weren’t fully aware that, for example, giving a business your email address also meant giving that address to Google:

Businesses that collect your email address to track your purchases and send you coupons can import their loyalty program data directly into their Google advertiser account, making it even easier to follow you around everywhere you go. For everyone else, Google says its third-party partnerships capture roughly 70% of all credit and debit card transactions in the U.S.

Are we okay with this? Does it matter? Should we just keep going about our business, knowing that Google (and, let’s be honest, Facebook and Amazon and who knows who else) is tracking everything we do?

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Google Knows What We Spend Even When We Think We’re Offline was originally published in The Billfold on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

And it looks SO DAMN GOOD, kittens.

 

 

 

“Top of the Lake: China Girl is a crime mystery story that begins four years on from the explosive ending of series one. Five years after the shocking events that rocked her hometown in New Zealand, Detective Robin Griffin, recently returned to Sydney, is trying to rebuild her life. When the body of an Asian girl washes up on Bondi Beach, there appears little hope of finding the killer, until Robin realizes ‘China Girl’ didn’t die alone. Robin’s search to discover ‘China Girl’s’ identity takes her into the city’s criminal underbelly and closer than she could have imagined to the secrets of her own heart.”

“Kidman will play an Australian mother, Julia, who’s story will intersect with Elisabeth Moss (Mad Men) who is reprising her Golden Globe-winning role as Detective Robin Griffin.”

LIVING for Miss Nicole’s silver hair and freckles.

Between this, Big Little Lies and The Handmaid’s Tale, Nicole Kidman and Elisabeth Moss are basically winning at television right now. They’re both having banner years of the kind of high quality, highly discussed work any actor would kill for. Kudos to them for their choices – and probably kudos to their agents as well.

The first season of Top of the Lake was haunting, engrossing, and stuck to you for a long time after. This looks to be more of the same and we can’t wait to see it.

 

[Photo Credit: BBC – Stills: BBC, BTom and Lorenzo – Video Credit: BBC via YouTube.com]

• Elisabeth Moss
• Gwendoline Christie
• Nicole Kidman
• Top of the Lake
• TV Previews

The post Nicole Kidman and Gwendoline Christie Join Elisabeth Moss for “Top of the Lake: China Girl” appeared first on Tom + Lorenzo.

#drunkjcrew #MothersDay #Brunch @drunkjcrewuguys

h0odrich:

me being nice to old friends

 

[Photo Credit: Courtesy of Christian Siriano]

• Bridal Collections
• Christian Siriano
• Spring 2018 Bridal Collections
• Spring 2018 Collections

The post Christian Siriano Bridal Spring 2018 Collection appeared first on Tom + Lorenzo.

It’s funny, the things life decides to show you about yourself. For instance, before we got the PR materials for Netflix’s upcoming series about lady wrestlers in the eighties, we had NO IDEA we’d been waiting so long for a picture of Mad Men‘s Trudy Campbell getting slammed in the face while wearing a french-cut bodysuit.

Gosh, the things you learn about yourself in this gig. Anyway, here’s Monsieur Press Release, with the deets:

“The gorgeous ladies of wrestling are here and they are ready to rumble! In anticipation of the June 23 premiere of GLOW, Netflix has released a set of first look images from the upcoming comedy series.

Inspired by the short-lived, but beloved show from the 80s, GLOW tells the fictional story of Ruth Wilder (Alison Brie), an out-of-work, struggling actress in 1980s Los Angeles who finds one last chance for stardom. GLOW is created by Liz Flahive (Homeland, Nurse Jackie) and Carly Mensch (Nurse Jackie, Orange Is The New Black, Weeds). Orange Is the New Black creator Jenji Kohan and Tara Herrmann executive producers alongside Flahive and Mensch who are serving as showrunners.”

“GLOW tells the fictional story of Ruth Wilder (Brie), an out-of-work, struggling actress in 1980s Los Angeles who finds one last chance for stardom when she’s thrust into the glitter and spandex world of women’s wrestling. In addition to working with 12 Hollywood misfits, Ruth also has to compete with Debbie Eagan (Betty Gilpin) a former soap actress who left the business to have a baby, only to be sucked back into work when her picture perfect life is not what it seems. And at the wheel is Sam Sylvia (Marc Maron), a washed-up, B-movie director who now must lead this group of women on the journey to wrestling stardom.”

A Netflix series about the Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling, produced by Jenji Kohan and starring Alison Brie? Universe, WHAT TOOK YOU SO LONG?

The art direction and costume design are ON POINT. This looks like it’s going to be insane good fun.

 

[Photo Credit: Courtesy of Netflix]

• Alison Brie
• Glow
• Netflix
• TV Previews

The post First Look: “GLOW” on Netflix appeared first on Tom + Lorenzo.

Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them 2 is starting to come together, a series that will span five movies. The most recent casting for the anticipated sequel should go a long way to impacting all of the future installments.According to Pottermore, Jude Law has now been cast as young Albus Dumbledore for Fantastic Beasts 2. The ...

Okay, first:

That is a STUNNER. A throwback to seventies movie posters, a modern and minimalist take on the Star Wars aesthetic, and all with a young woman at the center of it. Chills. We got them.

As for the big news:

 

 

 

 

 

Well, come on. It looks flamazing, of course; even if we can barely see anything at all. Handy screencaps:

 

 

Gorgeousness. The cinematography looks first class.

We know we’re gonna get weepy when we see Carrie onscreen, but it sure is fabulous to hear Luke Skywalker’s voice for the first time in almost 35 years.

 

[Photo Credit: Star Wars Stills: Tom and Lorenzo, Star Wars – Video Credit: Star Wars via Youtube.com]

• Movie Preview
• Star Wars: The Last Jedi

The post The “Star Wars: The Last Jedi” Trailer and Poster Dropped and We Have Opinions appeared first on Tom + Lorenzo.

America’s favorite couple hams it up for the cameras.

 

Goodness. They do so want to be loved by you.

Whether it’s an act or not – and we honestly don’t think it is – these two always imbue their red carpet appearances with a kind of cute “mom and dad out on date night” thing. We’re horribly cynical bitches, so the charm will definitely have an expiration date, but it hasn’t come up yet. We remain charmed. But we’d still much rather spend the night with the Saarsgard-Gyllenhaals or the Bettany-Connellys. We’re snooty. Happy-puppy couples would just make our asses itch after an hour or so.

Not that any of the above-named remotely give a shit about what we think, but what would our lives be if we couldn’t imagine which stars we’d want to sit next to at a party, darlings? Empty. Empty, cold and dark.

Fashion talk: Her dress is actually one of the prettiest ones we can remember her wearing. It’s more than a bit prom-y, to the point that we can’t help thinking it would look better with a corsage. We’re surprised that we like such a plain dress in such a non-color, but she’s probably a gal who should stick to the K.I.S.S. rule in fashion; this look being the prime example as to why.

He looks okay. Jacket’s a little snug. We have this thing about superheroes showing up on the red carpet in colorless suits. No one’s asking him to start wearing his Star Lord costume on the RC, but would a pop of color in the tie kill him? His people always over-do his face for red carpets. He looks smudged.

 

Style Credits:
Marchesa Light Pink Gown with Spaghetti Straps from the Spring 2017 Collection
Edie Parker “Jean’ Magnetic Clutch in Rose Quartz Pearlescent

[Photo Credit: Sara De Boer/startraksphoto.com, Getty Images]

• Anna Faris
• Chris Pratt
• Edie Parker
• Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2
• Marchesa
• Movie Premiere
• Pairs Division
• Red Carpet

The post Chris Pratt and Anna Faris Turn Up the Charm Dials at the “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2” Premiere appeared first on Tom + Lorenzo.

Many German beer brands combine a place name with the word Hell, which means “pale” and indicates a pale lager:

In 2010 German businessman Florian Krause recalled that he’d grown up near an Austrian village called Fucking:

So he brewed a pale lager and named it for the town:

The European Union trademark office initially balked at registering the name, but Krause explained his thinking and they accepted it. “The word combination claimed contains no semantic indication that could refer to a certain person or group of persons,” the office noted. “Nor does it incite a particular act.”

“It cannot even be understood as an instruction that the reader should go to hell.”

First of all, HELLO FROM THE SKY. I am writing this on a plane. I hope I never lose my sense of childlike wonder when the in-flight wifi actually works.

Second of all:

Nice

This’ll be a short one, since we have only one character not in Federation uniform, and she only wears one outfit the whole time. We do, however, start with a poker game involving a be-bearded LaForge:

One time I saw Commander Riker wearing a beard, so I bought a beard. I mean, grew a beard. I grew this

I think it looks nice, if a little jarring since it’s not his usual look. Crusher says some sassy things about men with beards while looking like she’s just been Elginized: 

This hair goes to 11

Crusher proposes a bet where if she wins the poker hand, ALL THREE guys playing with her have to shave their beards. Riker is like:

SURELY YOU JEST MADAM

And LaForge is like:

I just grew this beard but fiiiiiine

But Worf is like:

Are you shitting me right now

Worf’s beard is IMPORTANT. The rules of the bet state that if any of the three guys win, Crusher will BECOME A BRUNETTE which is unthinkable. 

Unfortunately, or maybe fortunately, we never get to see the end result of this bet because the game is interrupted when they are all summoned to the bridge. 

Our guest star this week is one Dr. Farallon, who is on her way to either a production of Seussical or a 1941 party:

Notice me, Geordi, feather by feather

Dr. Farallon is one of those aliens who just has a few lines on her face but is still just a pretty human lady. A classic. She also has some gray contouring on her forehead that looks like it needs to be blended in a little more. Get your kabuki brush back out, girl!

Dr. Farallon has invented some EXTREMELY CUTE little robots that are helping with a project. Whoever designed these robots knew what they were doing because OMG THEY ARE SO CUTE:

Beep boop I love you

Look at its little feet!! It doesn’t even need those feet, because it hovers, but it has feet anyway so the feet can be cute!! The fact that the robots are cute is actually kind of important because the plot of this episode involves Data and Dr. Farallon debating whether they are “alive” or not, and an audience is going to be way more invested in whether this cute lil guy is alive than if, say, this robot is alive:

OMG please do not be alive

Let’s take a closer look at Dr. Farallon’s look:

No, those aren’t shoulderpads. That’s how I’m shaped. Deal with it

Her outfit appears to be of a relatively heavy velour, with some hexagonal(?) piecing on the shoulders to really highlight that yes, it is the mid-90s, and yes, she means business when it comes to engineering. She’s sitting right in our Crayola Bold Box sweet spot with that deep cranberry, but then she brings it into Car Interior territory with that dark beige. It’s exactly the right amount of look for her. And the skirt?

She was a sk8r girl

This skirt looks similar to a style that’s popular now, the “skater skirt,” so called because it looks like what a figure skater wears, not because it has to do with Avril Lavigne or actual sk8 culture. But if you look closely, you can see that there’s a little crossover in the front to give it some interest. Overall, I’m digging this look, but I would have liked to see the beige contrast in grey ONLY because I hate beige and everything it stands for and also it looks terrible on me personally. 

We do get a glimpse of Bev in her martial arts PJs:

Category is: Casual Karate Kid

You can see here that Worf is (I assume) at a higher ranking because he’s got red pant cuffs to Bev’s white. While I like the idea of doing something other than belts to indicate rank, pants are way more expensive than belts to replace, so maybe the rank panels are replaceable. Which also seems annoying. I take it back, why didn’t you just stick with belts??? We also get a nice look at the texture of these outfits:

I asked for a cottage cheese suit, and I got it

Bev looks like she’s a deadly assassin getting ready to strangle someone with her belt, but explaining to her target exactly how she’s going to kill them before she does it. Which is to say: I love this look. 

That’s it for fashion! The rest of the episode is a debate about whether the cutie robots are actually alive, with Data putting his own “life” (as was discussed in the season 2 episode The Measure of a Man, also fashion-light) on the line to defend them. It turns out all right for everyone except one of the little robots, who dies saving its friends. 😭😭😭

I LOVE YOU LITTLE ROBOTS

And just for good measure:

» Read More

In 2001 avant-garde composer William Basinski was trying to transfer some old tape loops to digital format, but he found that the original recordings had deteriorated so badly that the ferrite simply fell off the plastic backing as it passed the tape head. Intrigued, Basinski let the loops continue to cycle: the sounds grew more and more indistinct with each pass as the tape literally fell apart.

As it happened, the 9/11 attacks occurred on the morning he finished the project, and the devastation he videotaped from his rooftop seemed to sync with the new recordings. “I felt, with my experience being in New York at that time, and what I went through and what I saw my friends go through, I wanted to create an elegy,” he told NPR. “Yes, there’s that tie to 9/11. But the thing that moved me so profoundly in my studio right after this music happened was the redemptive quality. The music isn’t just decaying — it does, it dies — but the entire life and death of each of these unique melodies was recorded to another medium for eternity.”

Related: In 1969 composer Alvin Lucier recorded a paragraph of speech, then repeatedly played it back and re-recorded it, so that his voice merged gradually into a portrait of the room’s resonant frequencies.

Here’s a modern homage to Lucier using YouTube, showing the effects of ripping and uploading the same file 1,000 times:

A photo reposted to Instagram 90 times in succession:

A video fragment transferred through 20 generations of VHS tape:

(Thanks, Matthew.)

“Okay Google, what is the Whopper burger?”

Well, we all knew this was coming. The question was who would do it first.

This Burger King Ad Forces Your Google Home Device To Tell You About Whoppers

This week, the fast food chain launched a new 15-second TV commercial that attempts to wake up any Google Home devices that may be in the room and thus, continue the ad after it’s technically over.

Since smart home assistants like Google Home or Amazon Echo/Alexa are programmed to respond to specific voice commands, the Burger King ad uses the phrase “Okay Google, what is the Whopper burger?” to activate Google Home devices and get them to spit out information about the Whopper.

Here’s the ad. If you have a Google Home device in the room, let us know if it responds:

https://medium.com/media/ae9169d15eba2a1e09a37c79895ce25a/href

The ad is even more insidious than it first appears. You know how Google shows you ads based on what you search for? Well, now you’re on record as having searched for information about the Whopper, even though you probably didn’t. By activating your Google Home device, Burger King may be subtly influencing the number of Burger King ads you see in the future.

It’s a terrible idea—and I bet we’ll see it again soon.

UPDATE: Google Home devices no longer respond to the ad:

Burger King thought is had a great idea. Instead, it ended up with a Whopper of a problem.

The ad, released Wednesday, features an actor dressed as a Burger King employee, who says, “Okay, Google: What is the Whopper burger?” The line is meant to trigger the device to reel off the definition of a Whopper using the first line of the burger’s Wikipedia page. (Yes, the Whopper has its own Wikipedia page.)

Roughly three hours after the ad launched, the ad stopped working. Google’s Home would only light up in response to the commercial’s prompt and stay mum (although it will give you the first line of the Wikipedia article if you explicitly request the definition of a “Whopper burger”).

Why did the ad stop working? It might have to do with Wikipedia being a free online encyclopedia that anyone can edit—and yes, the Wikipedia entry for the Whopper burger was almost immediately edited to include text that was not complimentary towards the the Burger King brand.

But I’m more interested in learning how everyone’s Google Home devices simultaneously learned that they were not to respond to that prompt. That’s almost as unnerving as the original Burger King commercial.

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Burger King Releases New Ad That Activates Google Home Devices was originally published in The Billfold on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

WITH SOMEBONNY HOO LOVES ME  #drunkjcrew #WhitneyForever @drunkjucrewuguys

Arrow star Stephen Amell will be a contestant on the first ever episode of celebrity American Ninja Warrior.Amell is just one of nine celebrities competing in the event. Also competing are Erika Christensen (Parenthood), Derek Hough (Dancing With the Stars, World of Dance), Natalie Morales (Today), two-time Olympic gold medalist Ashton Eaton, comedian Nikki Glaser, ...

No shade intended against the adults here …

But it’s kinda hilarious how much Miss Girl is shutting down this red carpet. Gotta love a budding babydiva.

 

 

The outfit’s fine. This isn’t the type of screening for gowns and finery. Our only issue is with the sadness of that sash. Like it or not, most pussy bow blouses really do work best when they’re tied in some sort of bow. Just knotting it rarely works and tends to look like you’re on your 15th hour wearing it.

 

No problems here. Love the shoes and LOVE the subtle plaid of the jacket. He’s quietly become one of the most stylish male stars on the red carpet. We would have thought he’s the type who’d rather live his life in jeans, but he wears good, stylish clothing so well and so effortlessly that at least some of this has to be his own preference.

 

And Miss McKenna is slaying all over the place and clearly knows it.

 

 

 

 

[Photo Credit: Theo Wargo/Getty Images]

• Chris Evans
• Gifted
• Movie Premiere
• Octavia Spencer
• Red Carpet

The post Chris Evans, Octavia Spencer and McKenna Grace at the “Gifted” New York Premiere appeared first on Tom + Lorenzo.

12 cheetah cubs were born at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute between March 23-28, and 10 of them survived. [ more › ]

Most of us resemble at least one celebrity. For some, the likeness is so striking it prompts complete strangers to stop us on the street or in the grocery store and say, “You look just like Treat Williams!” (It’s even better when you’re not a fan of your celebrity.) But the people in this gallery go way past resemblance, to the point where they look like they could be the star’s clone. Until we get proof that celebrities can clone themselves, we’ll just have to accept that sometimes genes are weird and you wind up looking a lot like a total stranger.

Check out these photos of celebrity doppelgangers, (and a few people who resemble fictional characters.)

1. Bruce Willis

2. Channing Tatum

3. Dakota Fanning

4. Johnny Depp

5. Jimmy Kimmel

6. Dexter/Michael C. Hall

7. Dr. Evil/Mike Myers

8. Dwight Schrute/Rainn Wilson

9. Bobby Hill

10. Elton John

11. George Costanza/Jason Alexander

12. Jonah Hill

13. Matthew McConaughey

14. Michael Cera

15. Napoleon Dynamite/Jon Heder

16. Natalie Portman

17. Nicholas Cage

18. Ron Swanson/Nick Offerman

19. Steve Martin

20. “Weird” Al Yankovic

 

We figure the title of the post is fairly self-explanatory, but if you’re the type who needs details, dammit, DETAILS, then here you go:

 

“Batgirl is flying solo. The superheroine is getting her own standalone movie from filmmaker Joss Whedon.

Whedon is nearing a deal to write, direct, and produce an untitled Batgirl pic for Warner Bros. as part of its DC Extended Universe.”

 

Those are pretty much all the details out there, with the addition of the news that he plans on doing only one film and not getting roped into a franchise.

Anyway, everyone’s gonna have a think piece on this, because both Whedon and DC films tend to inspire them, not to mention the topic of women and superhero properties, so we’re gonna go ahead and add ours to the pile.

This is mostly good news. Whedon tried to make a go of it with DC a long time ago, when he signed on to do a Wonder Woman film that was ultimately dropped. There was always a sense, even after he went on to pretty much launch the shared Marvel cinematic universe to tremendous success with the two Avengers films, that a part of his heart was still stuck on DC’s particular brand of good-girl heroes, in the mode of Wonder Woman, Supergirl and Batgirl, all of whom tend to be a bit closer to the Buffy mode than Black Widow or Jessica Jones or Storm. On that level, we’re unsurprised by the news and we think he will make a particularly good fit for the character. “Good-girl super-genius detective” is tailor-made for his particular skills and aesthetic.

It’s also very good news coming from the DC movieverse, which has seen a rather gloomy launch with the Dawn of Justice and Suicide Squad films, both of which made a lot of money but also came in for a TON of criticism for being grim and over-serious. This was especially heightened by the continuing success of rival Marvel, whose films keep getting more and more glittery, sunlit, and primary-colored as they progress. Whedon just doesn’t have it in him to take a character like Batgirl and make something grim and horrifying out of her story. Considering his rep at Marvel and the fact that he’s the highest-profile director DC has hired yet, it stands to reason that, whether Whedon wants to do it willingly or not, DC’s looking to him to course-correct the whole line with this one film. The buzz alone will do wonders for the rest of the line’s reputation. We’ll see if Wonder Woman and Justice League, both of which come out this year, will do any work to help lighten the line. The former looks pretty colorful, bold and adventurous in an epic way, the latter is trying very hard to sound jokey and fun in its trailer, but tends to come off fairly forced.

On the flip side of all this is the very fair criticism that a film like this should have gone to a woman director first. We can’t really argue with that. DC gets credit for greenlighting female superhero films and for hiring a woman to direct the first one; Patty Jenkins on Wonder Woman, but there’s no denying that the character of a college-age girl genius and adventurer might be in better hands with perhaps a woman closer to her age than a middle-aged man, talented as he is, and with a record as good as Whedon’s.

We don’t know. We can see both sides here. Whedon’s what the line needs, but the superhero genre in particular is in desperate need of more women’s voices and talents.

And hey, if you don’t want to wade into that thicket, we can always have fun with casting suggestions. We suppose Emma Stone’s too big a deal now, right? A shame, because there isn’t one actress better suited for it than her.

Thoughts, kittens?

 

• Batgirl
• Joss Whedon
• Movie News

The post Joss Whedon is Set to Direct a “Batgirl” Movie and We Have Thoughts About It appeared first on Tom + Lorenzo.

Prince Harry is introduced to ‘Lucky’ the English Longhorn cow and calf ‘Ragamuffin’ during a visit to Epping Forest to view the Wood Pasture Restoration Project, which is part of the Queen’s Commonwealth Canopy (QCC) initiative in Epping, England.

 

Commentary (from us) not required.

Which means we’re off to lunch, darlings.

 

[Photo Credit: Getty Images]

• Prince Harry
• Royal Watch

The post Prince Harry Is Here to Provide Your Mid-Day Sweater Muffin Action appeared first on Tom + Lorenzo.

And I attempt to predict what might happen next.

As regular Billfolders might remember, I spent New Year’s at the Sheraton Gateway Los Angeles Airport Hotel, visiting friends and repeatedly utilizing the services of the Sheraton’s robot butler:

New Year’s Adventures in the Sheraton Gateway Los Angeles Airport Hotel

The robot did exactly what you’d expect a delivery robot to do: it made bleep bloop noises; it displayed “expressions” on its touchscreen face; and when I stepped into the robot’s path to test its adherence to the First Law of Robotics, the robot did not harm me. It stopped — giving me something like a two-foot berth — and waited patiently for me to get out of the way.

The word “repeatedly” is important, because I’m not the only one who shows up at a hotel, discovers they have a robot that can deliver stuff to the room, and spends the rest of the stay seeing how many things they can get the robot to deliver.

As The Economist reports:

Hoteliers would like to employ more robots

Tom Breedon, the general manager of the Residence Inn at Los Angeles airport, says using the robot for deliveries increases revenue per available room, a key industry measure, by at least 0.5%. This is partly because a robot is cheaper than a human (the Relays are leased for $2,000 a month; they cannot be bought). But it is also because guests are so taken by the novelty of being served by a robot that they order more room service.

As The Economist notes—and as I learned first-hand when I asked the robot to bring me a gin and tonic—the robots cannot yet deliver food and drink beyond what can be carried in a sealed bottle or package. I’m guessing this is both a liability and a sanitary issue; if you can’t verify ID in-person, you might inadvertently serve a minor, and if you’re sending up a plate of eggs and hash browns, you’re going to get grease and crumbs all over the robot.

But The Economist also suggests the robot manufacturers are working on ways to fix that. (They don’t use the words “fingerprint” or “optical scan,” but that’s where my mind immediately went, in terms of confirming the robot was delivering alcohol to someone over 21. I guess the robot could also scan a drivers license or ID, but that’s less fun/creepy.)

Now let’s go back to that cost number for a minute. The robots lease for $2,000 a month and are theoretically available for 24 hours a day, although they do need time to recharge. If you do the math, that means the hotel is paying roughly $2.70 an hour for their robot employee.

And yes, if this really takes off the hotels will need more than one robot, and they’ll need to keep them maintained and cleaned, and all of that will add to the cost—but robots are still cheaper than humans, for now. (Human labor isn’t completely eliminated from this equation yet; we still need humans to put the slippers and the bottles of water inside the robot. For now.)

Which means that, theoretically, a few things might happen:

1. A lot of hotels get a lot of robots. The friction of ordering room service goes down, the novelty goes up, and people buy more stuff.
2. As with any situation in which time/investment/labor has to be distributed across an allotment of resources, some hotels take better care of their robots than others. This equation gets really interesting when you consider that, employment-wise, the number of robots might increase as the number of humans who can care for and clean them decrease.
3. When the robots get gross, the humans stop using them. Asimov did not include this in his Laws of Robotics, and it’s an obvious oversight. If your robot shows up and there’s, like, a ketchup smear next to your food? And you didn’t even order anything that would require ketchup?
4. Essentially, the friction of ordering room service is going to go back up. Eventually. Either the robots will take too long to deliver stuff (because the hotels haven’t rented enough robots/hired enough human help to get things done, see “resource allocation,” above) or people will start distrusting whether they should eat food that came out of the robot, did you even see that one YouTube video where they ran a black light over the robot???
5. Plus, at some point the robot companies might jack up the rental price, since they own all the robots, and/or hotels might jack up the room service price, since they control all the robots.
6. And then someone will figure out how to hack a robot and get free delivery. (And/or make the robot play pranks. Or worse. Use your imagination.)
7. Someone is going to show up at a hotel with their own robot and send it down to the bar and ask the bartender to put a drink in its hopper.
8. Hotels will start asking everyone to bring their own robots, the way airlines started telling people to bring their own food and tag their own bags. At this point in the timeline a lot of us will own robots, I guess? That might be interesting. I wonder if we’ll have people on Mars by then.
9. Hotels will retire their now outdated robots, transition into a BYOR (like BYOD but for robots) system, keep a handful of human staff to run the bar and the restaurant if we don’t already have robots for that and put the labor of interacting with those staff back on the guests.
10. We’ll still have to tell our bartenders that we want a gin and tonic, but we can theoretically send our robots down to pick it up. Some people will decide it’s easier to just go to the bar themselves, and that’ll become “a trend,” the novelty of picking up your own drinks and talking to a bartender, and we’ll be right back where we started.
11. Except a lot of people will have robots, a lot of people will be out of jobs, and we might have humans on Mars.

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When Your Hotel Has Robot Delivery, You Order More Room Service was originally published in The Billfold on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Time to say goodbye.

It took us much longer than we thought it would to compile this series of posts. Rather than do a retrospective of everything Michelle Obama wore for the past 8 years, we opted to stick to just those looks that we covered over that span, on this blog and on our previous one (hence the wildly different picture sizes as you scroll through). The results were surprisingly emotional for us, not just because we’re sorry to see the Obamas go, but because, in reviewing the over 100 posts we wrote about her style choices, it was hard not to peg them to various points in our own lives over that same period. We remembered every single outfit and we remembered almost exactly what we wrote about each one. In our ten years of blogging, no single person was the subject of that many style posts.

We’ve already written assessments of each of these looks. There’s no need to rehash them here. That’s not the point. While you can see the evolution of her style over time, and the mistakes she made early on that seemed to evaporate over time as she learned the ropes, our goal here is only to look back and take a broader view. Michelle Obama was hugely important as a cultural, historical and social figure in her time as First Lady and she quite smartly realized early on that fashion was going to be the one of the most important tools in her messaging arsenal. She did something very few modern First Ladies even thought to attempt: she made  high-impact looks her primary style goal. It’s clear in the early years of her time as FLOTUS that she was taking some cues from Jackie Kennedy, in that she preferred simple, mid-Century style sheath dresses that tended to evoke the former First Lady’s signature look. But over time, she became more and more adventurous (and that’s after she started out pretty adventurous for a politician’s wife), choosing bolder and bolder looks with a much more “high fashion” feel than one normally expected to see coming out of the White House. The results were dazzling, even if they weren’t always flawless.

Of course her gowns were rightly celebrated (and will be further lauded in a post later today, along with one on her outerwear), but for us, she was always at her best in day dresses and separates. What struck us most, looking over this collection of pictures from the last 8 years, is just how hard she worked in her job. Gowns and coats are for standing and waving, but Michelle Obama spent eight years talking to kids, reading to kids, hugging military families, giving speeches, making talk show appearances, advocating for her causes, decorating Christmas trees, going to graduations, meeting world leaders, rolling Easter eggs, boarding planes, handing out awards and receiving them – all in an array of stunnongly bold and stylish dresses and separates.

These were her work clothes.

 

November, 2008, Narciso Rodriguez

 

February 2009, Michael Kors

 

May 2009, Isaac Mizrahi

 

June 2009, Michael Kors/Narciso Rodriguez/Givenchy

 

December 2009, Calvin Klein

 

February 2010, Moschino

 

May 2010, Thakoon

 

May 2010, Narciso Rodriguez

 

June 2010, Michael Kors

 

July 2010, Peter Som

 

August 2010, Duro Olowu

 

August 2010, Jason Wu

 

October 2010, Jason Wu

 

December 2010, Marc Jacobs

 

December 2010, Moschino

 

January 2011, Rachel Roy

 

February 2011, H&M

 

March 2011, Jason Wu

 

March 2011, Lanvin

 

March 2011, Marc Jacobs

 

March 2011, Peter Som

 

March 2011, Sophie Theallet

 

May 2011, Barbara Tfank

 

April 2011, Tracey Reese

 

April 2011, Jonathan Saunders

 

May 2011, Naeem Khan

 

May 2011, Ports 1961

 

July 2011, Sophie Theallet

 

September 2011, Chris Benz

 

December 2011, Rodarte

 

[Photo Credit: Getty Images]

• Michelle Obama

The post Michelle Obama FLOTUS Style Retrospective: The Dresses, Part One appeared first on Tom + Lorenzo.

 

For such a matchy-match (They look like a Valentine) red carpet couple, they couldn’t be further apart on the style front. We almost want to shoo her away from him.

Brace yourself.

 

 

It’s possible one or both of us blurted out “YOU’RE A GROWN WOMAN FOR GOD’S SAKE” at the sight of this silly dress. But let’s be clear here. It’s not like this would be more appropriate for, say, Elle Fanning or Kiernan Shipka. Oh no, kittens. When we imply that Miss Rosamund is too old for this dress, it’s because this is something for a 6-year-old to be wearing. Except for the cape and the keyhole neckline, of course – but that only makes it worse. You’ve got a birthday party dress for a pre-schooler with an open neckline and a cape? Don’t even get us started on those sad bows. The fabric’s pretty but the overall preciousness is too much for us.

 

 

This, on the other hand, is lovely. Not perfect, but lovely. We adore the fabric of his suit. The cut’s a little tight and it’s all too matchy for our tastes, which is exactly what we always say about his style, but once again, we can’t help but love that he puts so much effort in and remains so consistently interesting on the red carpet.

 

 

 

 

Style Credits:
Giambattista Valli Floral Dress with a Crystal-Embellished Bow from the Fall 2016 Couture Collection
Giuseppe Zanotti ‘Darsey’ Silver Sandals

{Photo Credit: Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images, IMAXTree – Video Credit: FoxSearchlight via YouTube.com]

• A United Kingdom
• David Oyelowo
• Movie Premiere
• Pairs Division
• Red Carpet
• Rosamund Pike

The post David Oyelowo and Rosamund Pike at the “A United Kingdom” World Premiere appeared first on Tom + Lorenzo.

Rihanna covers the March 2017 issue of Harper’s Bazaar magazine photographed by Mariano Vivanco.

 

 

 

Rihanna on Amelia Earhart and her fearlessness in taking on a man’s world: “There’s something so special about a woman who dominates in a man’s world. It takes a certain grace, strength, intelligence, fearlessness, and the nerve to never take no for an answer. Amelia Earhart was such a dynamic force in her industry, setting multiple aviation records in her time. So it was a no-brainer for me to team up with Harper’s BAZAAR in honor of a woman who held her own with the big boys.”

Style Credits:
Cover: Earrings by Chopard
First Image: Coat and Dress by Ralph Lauren Collection | Vintage Hat and Goggles
Second Image: Dress and Sneakers by Christian Dior | Vintage Flight Cap by Ralph Lauren Collection | Vintage Googles | Earrings, Bracelet, Watch and Rings by Chopard

[Photo Credit: Mariano Vivanco/Courtesy of Harper’s Bazaar Magazine, IMAXTree]

• Chopard
• Christian Dior
• Editorials
• Harper’s Bazaar
• Magazines
• Mariano Vivanco
• Ralph Lauren
• Rihanna

The post Rihanna for Harper’s Bazaar Magazine appeared first on Tom + Lorenzo.

 

Not half-assing it:

 

Would we expect any less from her? This is, of course, FAR too much, but that is entirely the point. We could critique it, and suggest more appropriate, less busy pairings, but we’d sound silly doing so. This is her singular personal style in all its glory and even if she’s breaking some style rules or we risk getting a headache it we stare too long, it’s fun and fabulous to look at. And it’s one hundred percent hers and hers alone.

With a little help from Marc Jacobs and Kate Spade, but still. Who would think to pair these items?

 

 

Style Credits:
Marc Jacobs Black and White Skirt from the Resort 2017 Collection
Kate Spade New York Black and White Polka Dot Faux Fur Coat 

[Photo Credit: ROGER WONG/INSTARimages.com, Courtesy of Marc Jacobs, Courtesy of Kate Spade New York]

• Good Morning America
• Janelle Monae
• TV Style

The post Janelle Monáe Turns the Dials Up on “Good Morning America” appeared first on Tom + Lorenzo.

Bao Bao took her last few tumbles in the yard this morning, once again blissfully unaware of the media circus surrounding her. [ more › ]