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Entertainment May 26, 2017

Today in Movie Culture: 'Love Actually' Sequel Short, Deadpool's Possible True Identity and More

Here are a bunch of little bites to satisfy your hunger for movie culture:

Sequel of the Day:

If you missed the for-charity Love Actually sequel during the Red Nose Day Special last night, here is the star-studded short in full, with the American-exclusive Laura Linney and Patrick Dempsey scenes:

[embedded content]

Fan Theory of the Day:

Based on a clue in the Deadpool 2 teaser in front of Logan, MatPat of The Film Theorists makes the case that Deadpool’s true identity is a certain legendary American novelist:

[embedded content]

Reworked Trailer of the Day:

Did you expect Get Out to be a funnier movie than it is? Well, here’s a recut trailer making it look like a broad Meet the Parents type comedy (via Geek Tyrant):

[embedded content]

Mashup of the Day:

Watch artist Jon Payne sculpt a bust of Marvel’s the Hulk mashed with Star Wars villain Darth Maul:

[embedded content]

Vintage Image of the Day:

John Wayne, who was born on this day 110 years ago, calls his own shots as director (his official debut) while in costume as the star on the set of The Alamo in 1959:

Filmmaker in Focus:

Want to know how to draw a Studio Ghibli movie? Watch this Little White Lies video profiling The Red Turtle director Michael Dudok de Wit:

[embedded content]

Movie Food of the Day:

With Alien: Covenant now in theaters, Nerdy Nummies shows us how to make cake balls to look like the Alien Xenomorph eggs:

[embedded content]

Cosplay of the Day:

Some of the photos of cosplayer Anastasia Komori as Ramona Flowers from Scott Pilgrim vs. the World look so much like Mary Elizabeth Winstead in the role you’ll be looking twice. See more at Fashionably Geek.

Movie Trivia of the Day:

Today is the 35th anniversary of the Cannes premiere of E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, so here’s ScreenCrush with a bunch of trivia about the movie:

[embedded content]

Classic Trailer of the Day:

Yesterday was the 10th anniversary of the release of Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End. Watch the original trailer for the hit sequel below.

[embedded content]

and

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Sports May 26, 2017

Nashville Predators Look To Make History In Stanley Cup Finals

NPR’s Ari Shapiro talks with Justin Bradford, a reporter with Penalty Box Radio, about the Nashville Predators making it to the Stanley Cup finals.

ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:

The Nashville Predators have a chance at making history in this year’s Stanley Cup finals. Game one against the Pittsburgh Penguins is Monday night. If Nashville pulls it off, it would be the first championship for the franchise and the first time a team ranked at number 16 in the NHL won it all. Justin Bradford is a longtime Tennessean, and he’s a Predator’s reporter with Penalty Box Radio. Welcome to the program.

JUSTIN BRADFORD: Hey, thanks for having me.

SHAPIRO: OK, so Nashville’s only had a hockey team since the late ’90s, and the team has never been this close to winning the Stanley Cup. How does it feel down there right now?

BRADFORD: It’s absolutely electrifying. This city has not experienced a run to a championship by a team here since the Tennessee Titans made their run of the Super Bowl the very end of the ’90s. So it’s been a long time coming. The city is just – it’s ready to explode.

It’s ready to explode for support for the Nashville Predators and just ready to explode for something that’s really fun, especially when you see everything that’s going on in the world right now, too. People need something to kind of cheer them up and to get them going. And it seems like Predators are kind of becoming America’s team. It’s so exciting to see everything going on in the city and what it’s doing for it.

SHAPIRO: I have to imagine that hockey culture in Tennessee is a little bit different from like Montreal or Detroit. What’s it like?

BRADFORD: Well, the thing that makes Nashville unique is the location of Bridgestone Arena – right in downtown in the middle of everything, next to Broadway where all the neon lights are, all the restaurants, everything. So imagine yourself walking down the street. You see these neon lights. You smell barbecue. You smell all these great foods coming (inaudible). You hear live music as you’re walking into the arena. So just that alone helps paint the picture of how you can get excited go into this game.

And then after the game, what makes it different, too, you’re right there on the streets – all the bars, all the honky-tonks, all the live music, restaurants. During the game, intermissions – it’s not just advertisements playing on a Megatron. You have live music. So you have guys like Charles Esten from Nashville playing live music there. Sometimes you’ll have people from different major bands, as well. You have country music stars singing the national anthem. It is a totally unique experience in every single way.

SHAPIRO: As we said, Nashville’s only had an NHL team for 18 years. Was it an easy transfer to move all the enthusiasm for all the other sports that Tennessee has to hockey or has it been an evolution over time?

BRADFORD: It’s been an evolution over time. The biggest thing here in Nashville is that people are obviously excited when the team came here but that excitement – what was important for that is that you’re excited about. It’s a social gathering. It’s entertainment but then would breed knowledge of the sport. And that’s what’s really important is for the knowledge of the sport to evolve with that as well.

So once they started getting excited, then they started learning the rules more – started learning about other teams, started learning about the hockey culture and learning what prospects are like. And that’s what we see now here in Nashville is that the hockey culture has bred extreme hockey fans that can compete with anybody around the league.

Even though people may not want to believe it, they know the sport here. You can hear with the way they chant and cheer at the right moments, the right opportunities during a game. So the way it’s evolved has been obviously exciting and thrilling. The leagues have a lot to do with that. The organizations have a lot to do with that. And the fans have taken it upon themselves to do it, too.

SHAPIRO: OK, so what do you think the chances are against the Penguins?

BRADFORD: Well, I’ve been telling everybody my pick is Preds in six. And I say that not just as someone in Nashville, but as what I’ve seen from both teams, what they can offer and what Nashville has been able to do through the playoffs. So I will not skirt back from that. I will say Preds in six, and we’ll see if that comes true.

SHAPIRO: Justin Bradford speaking with us via Skype. Thanks a lot for joining us.

BRADFORD: Thanks so much for having me, really do appreciate it.

(SOUNDBITE OF BOB DYLAN SONG, “NASHVILLE SKYLINE RAG”)

Copyright © 2017 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by Verb8tm, Inc., an NPR contractor, and produced using a proprietary transcription process developed with NPR. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

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Health May 26, 2017

In Arizona, Doctors Criticize Tightening Of Late Abortion Rules

Many states have laws about what to do if there are signs of life after an abortion. But Arizona legislators have passed new rules that some doctors say go against national standards of care.

AUDIE CORNISH, HOST:

The majority of abortions in the United States are performed in the first eight weeks of pregnancy. Sometimes women face severe medical conditions that lead them to terminate a pregnancy later. Many states have laws regulating these late abortions, especially if there are signs of life after the procedure, and Arizona is tightening those rules. Will Stone of member station KJZZ in Phoenix reports that doctors there are concerned.

WILL STONE, BYLINE: When she learned her pregnancy was in trouble, Maureen Williams already had a name picked out.

MAUREEN WILLIAMS: I knew in my heart it was the right decision to make for my baby Zoey.

STONE: Williams’ doctor said her baby would probably not make it to her first birthday. There were issues with her vertebrae and brain, tumors on her liver. So at 23 weeks, Williams and her husband chose to terminate the pregnancy.

WILLIAMS: It was most devastating time in my life. I would wake up crying. Like, that’s just how I woke up – bawling. And she was wanted.

STONE: Williams, who lives outside Phoenix, has no misgivings about that decision. She now has twin girls. But she worries women in this situation could soon face even more trauma because of a new Arizona law. It’s meant to ensure infants showing signs of life after an abortion get medical care.

WILLIAMS: If she was born, I felt like then they would have tried to, in my definition, torture her by trying to resuscitate her when I wanted to give her a peaceful death.

STONE: Rather than a flurry of extreme medical intervention that could have little or no chance of success. Many states have what proponents call Born-Alive Infant Protection laws, but Arizona is now taking its rules further. It’s defining what are signs of life, like a heartbeat or the movement of voluntary muscles, and requiring doctors follow set procedures to resuscitate if any of those are present.

CATHI HERROD: Once a baby is delivered alive following an abortion, then that baby is an autonomous human being deserving of basic medical care.

STONE: Cathi Herrod runs the Center for Arizona Policy, which lobbied for the bill. She believes right now, doctors have too much discretion, and these rules make existing law more enforceable.

HERROD: I fail to understand how anyone in the health care profession can think that it’s acceptable to allow a child that survived an abortion to simply not be given basic humane care and a chance at life.

STONE: While there are anecdotes, there aren’t reliable statistics about how often an abortion results in a live birth. Only a small fraction of abortions are performed after 20 weeks. And in general, during the 22nd and 23rd weeks, the chances of survival are still low. But some argue with advances in medicine, you don’t really know how well an infant will do unless you try to resuscitate.

PAUL LIU: It’s amazing how well some of these children recover.

STONE: Dr. Paul Liu specializes in pediatric critical care.

LIU: Left to our judgments, the reasonable physician would do what is the safe and efficacious thing and err on the side of life, not on the side that, oh, we’ll just let him die.

STONE: Proponents of the law echoed Liu, sharing success stories of babies born extremely premature. But the medical community mostly pushed back. Hugh Miller, an OB/GYN, argued this law could actually jeopardize care. He says deciding whether or not to resuscitate infants born near the limit of viability…

HUGH MILLER: That has to be done in a measured way. And in this zone or this domain of human existence, viability is a critical piece of the definition of life.

STONE: Miller says in practice, existing law has left enough room for physicians and families to make these difficult judgments without undue interference, but this new law will likely curb that. It doesn’t allow doctors to consider the chances of survival except for some lethal conditions, and it could force doctors to violate national standards of care.

JULIE KWATRA: This is undue interference into the practice of medicine.

STONE: Dr. Julie Kwatra is with the Arizona chapter of the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. She says, ironically, this law may not even affect abortion providers that much. Instead…

KWATRA: It reaches into our labor and delivery suites where we have patients with wanted pregnancies who unfortunately deliver before viability. And that is where this law becomes incredibly cumbersome and not compassionate.

STONE: The state hasn’t developed the exact guidelines yet, but Kwatra worries about what those rules could mean for these determinations of early life and death. For NPR News, I’m Will Stone in Phoenix.

(SOUNDBITE OF SPOON SONG, “THIS BOOK IS A MOVIE”)

Copyright © 2017 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by Verb8tm, Inc., an NPR contractor, and produced using a proprietary transcription process developed with NPR. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

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Business May 26, 2017

Episode 774: Unspeakable Trademark

Simon Tam of The Slants.

Ariel Zambelich/NPR

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Ariel Zambelich/NPR

Warning: This episode has explicit language, for unavoidable and soon-to-be obvious reasons.

Growing up in California, Simon Tam had some tough moments. He was Chinese-American, and in middle school, kids called him all kinds of racial slurs.

Those moments stuck with him.

Simon grew up, and eventually started a band that was beginning to take off. He decided on a band name that said something about being Asian. Something that asserted an identity. He picked “The Slants,” as a way to own a stereotype and turn it into something completely different.

There was a problem, though. Other bands started using the same name.

So in 2010, Simon did what artists and companies do when there’s confusion over their name. He applied to register for a trademark with the federal government.

But, it was rejected because the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office said it was disparaging to people of Asian descent.

This is the agency that decides what gets to be registered as a trademark. And that involves making all kinds of calls about racial slurs, homophobic putdowns, and sexist language.

Today on the show, a fight over a band name that turns into a fight about free speech. It goes all the way to the Supreme Court.

Music: The Slants’ “Endlessly Falling” “From the Heart,” and “Faded Dreams.” Find us: Twitter/ Facebook.

Subscribe to our show on Apple Podcasts or PocketCast.

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Entertainment May 25, 2017

Today in Movie Culture: 'Hamilton' Cast Wishes 'Star Wars' Happy Birthday and More 40th Anniversary Tributes

Here are a bunch of little bites to satisfy your hunger for movie culture:

Birthday Greeting of the Day:

Watch the cast of Broadway’s Hamilton sing “Happy Birthday” to Star Wars, which turns 40 today, in the below clip from The Star Wars Show:

[embedded content]

Film Score Cover of the Day:

Speaking of musical performances in tribute to Star Wars, here are two guys covering “The Imperial March (Darth Vader’s Theme)” on accordion (via Geekologie):

[embedded content]

Cosplay of the Day:

Another musical performance of Star Wars can be found in this video of pianist Sonya Belousova in costumes playing specially customized Star Wars pianos. The Millennium Falcon one is currently up for auction, as reported by Fashionably Geek.

[embedded content]

Alternate Poster of the Day:

The unused Star Wars poster below was painted by my father, Jim Campbell, for the release of the first movie. Read all about the gig in my old interview with him.

Movie Science of the Day:

Kyle Hill celebrates the anniversary with an explanation of what hyperspace should actually look like:

[embedded content]

Reworked Movie of the Day:

Lego wishes Star Wars a happy 40th with this video of Star Wars scenes redone with the toy bricks:

[embedded content]

Vintage Image of the Day:

Also in honor of the Star Wars anniversary, here’s a look at one of the many massive crowds lined up to see the movie in 1977:

Legend has it George Lucas watched in amazement from across the street at Hamburger Hamlet as this line formed. Happy 40th Star Wars! pic.twitter.com/MSDoAqgb1U

— Don Barrett (@donbarrettmusic) May 25, 2017

Supercut of the Day:

IMDb does their part to celebrate the occasion with this supercut of parodies of the Star Wars trench run from movies and TV:

[embedded content]

Movie Trivia of the Day:

Nerdist gets in on the occasion by presenting 10 Star Wars facts only diehard fans know (are you one of them?):

[embedded content]

Classic Trailer of the Day:

In honor of the anniversary, of course we present the original trailer for the original release of the original Star Wars:

[embedded content]

and

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Business May 25, 2017

LeBron James' Return To Cleveland Illustrates Remarkable Economic Experiment

Professional sports generate a tremendous amount of money, but it’s tricky to know exactly what part of sports generates that money. LeBron James unintentionally ran a nearly perfect economic experiment by unexpectedly leaving Cleveland and then, three years later, returning with almost no warning. A pair of economists have now used James’ prodigal son data to look at the financial impact a single superstar can have on a local economy.

ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:

The Cleveland Cavaliers and Boston Celtics tip off tonight. If the Cavs win they’ll go to the NBA finals for the third time in a row. Some economists are among the people watching. They say star player LeBron James has let them run a remarkable experiment. Here’s Kenny Malone from our Planet Money podcast.

KENNY MALONE, BYLINE: Daniel Shoag is a Harvard economist, but also a diehard Cleveland Cavaliers fan.

DANIEL SHOAG: There were some great days and some pretty dark days (laughter).

MALONE: You may recall the heartbreaking career path of LeBron James – started in Cleveland, left Cleveland.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

LEBRON JAMES: And this fall I’m going to take my talents to South Beach.

MALONE: And then four years later came back to Cleveland.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

UNIDENTIFIED ANNOUNCER: Cleveland is a city of champions once again.

MALONE: Economists have spent decades studying the business of sports. Is a new stadium worth the cost? Does a championship create jobs? But LeBron James allowed them to test something new – the economic impact of a single player, or as the working paper calls it, local externalities from a superstar athlete because here was the same guy in the same city – there, then gone, then there again.

SHOAG: Because he’s returning to the same place – you know, the correct place – there’s one less thing to worry about econometrically.

MALONE: Now, to show you the LeBron effect that Shoag and his co-author found, I visited one of the many, many bars and restaurants in their study.

MIKE MILLER: See how – up here?

MALONE: This is Mike Miller, the owner of a bar called Wilbert’s. It’s about 500 feet from the Cavs arena. And Miller is looking up at the ceiling, squinting at some brownish splatter stains.

MILLER: I would think it looks like beer.

MALONE: It’s a dark beer, though.

MILLER: Yeah.

MALONE: Booze on the ceiling, it turns out, a leading indicator of the LeBron effect. The study found that bars and restaurants like this, right next to the stadium, they got crushed when LeBron James left.

MILLER: And I think it ended up cutting close to 80.

MALONE: Eighty percent?

MILLER: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, it was bad.

MALONE: Miller was writing resumes, looking for a new job, but then LeBron James came home.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

UNIDENTIFIED ANNOUNCER: As we come up on a minute remaining…

MALONE: The first time that booze ceiling thing happened at Wilbert’s it was a Sunday when the bar typically would have been closed. But it was packed with Cavs fans watching LeBron win the team’s first championship.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

UNIDENTIFIED ANNOUNCER: It’s over. It’s over.

MILLER: Oh, my God, there was alcohol flying everywhere. I couldn’t believe it.

MALONE: I mean, how high up is that, 10 feet?

MILLER: Yeah, that’s got to be 10 feet. Yeah.

MALONE: Sign of success.

MILLER: I guess so.

MALONE: The LeBron study found a nearly 25 percent increase in employment for businesses like Wilbert’s near the stadium. And the LeBron economists give the credit to LeBron coming back. They know this because of the natural experiment of leaving and coming back. And it takes something like this to really study the economic impact of sports because unfortunately, they don’t just hand billion-dollar sports franchises over to academics.

BRAD HUMPHREYS: Now, we – I mean, ideally they would put me in charge as the sports czar of the country and I would just randomly move teams around.

MALONE: You would be a cruel czar.

HUMPHREYS: Well, fans would hate me, right.

MALONE: Brad Humphreys is a sports economist at West Virginia University and says LeBron is a great example of one of these naturally occurring experiments. Another is from 2004 and 2005, when the National Hockey League had a lockout. Because of a labor dispute, there suddenly was no professional hockey for people to spend their money on.

HUMPHREYS: But those people who would’ve gone to NHL games went to minor league baseball games. They went to the movies. They went to a bowling alley. They went to an art gallery.

MALONE: In other words, hockey wasn’t creating new spending. It was attracting money people were already going to spend. Humphreys says that’s almost certainly the case with the LeBron effect as well. Daniel Shoag, the co-author of that LeBron paper, says that one of the lessons here is that we tend to focus a lot on the financial impact of a stadium, but it really does matter who’s playing in that stadium. That’s his lesson, at least, as an economist. His lesson as a Cavaliers fan…

SHOAG: I guess this just shows that LeBron should never leave again.

MALONE: Is that your conclusion?

SHOAG: I think that’s a pretty reasonable conclusion, yeah (laughter). I’m not sure I needed the data to show me that.

MALONE: Kenny Malone, NPR News.

(SOUNDBITE OF HOT 8 BRASS BAND’S “IT’S REAL – LACK OF AFRO REMIX”)

Copyright © 2017 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by Verb8tm, Inc., an NPR contractor, and produced using a proprietary transcription process developed with NPR. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

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Sports May 25, 2017

LeBron James' Return To Cleveland Illustrates Remarkable Economic Experiment

Professional sports generate a tremendous amount of money, but it’s tricky to know exactly what part of sports generates that money. LeBron James unintentionally ran a nearly perfect economic experiment by unexpectedly leaving Cleveland and then, three years later, returning with almost no warning. A pair of economists have now used James’ prodigal son data to look at the financial impact a single superstar can have on a local economy.

ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:

The Cleveland Cavaliers and Boston Celtics tip off tonight. If the Cavs win they’ll go to the NBA finals for the third time in a row. Some economists are among the people watching. They say star player LeBron James has let them run a remarkable experiment. Here’s Kenny Malone from our Planet Money podcast.

KENNY MALONE, BYLINE: Daniel Shoag is a Harvard economist, but also a diehard Cleveland Cavaliers fan.

DANIEL SHOAG: There were some great days and some pretty dark days (laughter).

MALONE: You may recall the heartbreaking career path of LeBron James – started in Cleveland, left Cleveland.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

LEBRON JAMES: And this fall I’m going to take my talents to South Beach.

MALONE: And then four years later came back to Cleveland.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

UNIDENTIFIED ANNOUNCER: Cleveland is a city of champions once again.

MALONE: Economists have spent decades studying the business of sports. Is a new stadium worth the cost? Does a championship create jobs? But LeBron James allowed them to test something new – the economic impact of a single player, or as the working paper calls it, local externalities from a superstar athlete because here was the same guy in the same city – there, then gone, then there again.

SHOAG: Because he’s returning to the same place – you know, the correct place – there’s one less thing to worry about econometrically.

MALONE: Now, to show you the LeBron effect that Shoag and his co-author found, I visited one of the many, many bars and restaurants in their study.

MIKE MILLER: See how – up here?

MALONE: This is Mike Miller, the owner of a bar called Wilbert’s. It’s about 500 feet from the Cavs arena. And Miller is looking up at the ceiling, squinting at some brownish splatter stains.

MILLER: I would think it looks like beer.

MALONE: It’s a dark beer, though.

MILLER: Yeah.

MALONE: Booze on the ceiling, it turns out, a leading indicator of the LeBron effect. The study found that bars and restaurants like this, right next to the stadium, they got crushed when LeBron James left.

MILLER: And I think it ended up cutting close to 80.

MALONE: Eighty percent?

MILLER: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, it was bad.

MALONE: Miller was writing resumes, looking for a new job, but then LeBron James came home.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

UNIDENTIFIED ANNOUNCER: As we come up on a minute remaining…

MALONE: The first time that booze ceiling thing happened at Wilbert’s it was a Sunday when the bar typically would have been closed. But it was packed with Cavs fans watching LeBron win the team’s first championship.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

UNIDENTIFIED ANNOUNCER: It’s over. It’s over.

MILLER: Oh, my God, there was alcohol flying everywhere. I couldn’t believe it.

MALONE: I mean, how high up is that, 10 feet?

MILLER: Yeah, that’s got to be 10 feet. Yeah.

MALONE: Sign of success.

MILLER: I guess so.

MALONE: The LeBron study found a nearly 25 percent increase in employment for businesses like Wilbert’s near the stadium. And the LeBron economists give the credit to LeBron coming back. They know this because of the natural experiment of leaving and coming back. And it takes something like this to really study the economic impact of sports because unfortunately, they don’t just hand billion-dollar sports franchises over to academics.

BRAD HUMPHREYS: Now, we – I mean, ideally they would put me in charge as the sports czar of the country and I would just randomly move teams around.

MALONE: You would be a cruel czar.

HUMPHREYS: Well, fans would hate me, right.

MALONE: Brad Humphreys is a sports economist at West Virginia University and says LeBron is a great example of one of these naturally occurring experiments. Another is from 2004 and 2005, when the National Hockey League had a lockout. Because of a labor dispute, there suddenly was no professional hockey for people to spend their money on.

HUMPHREYS: But those people who would’ve gone to NHL games went to minor league baseball games. They went to the movies. They went to a bowling alley. They went to an art gallery.

MALONE: In other words, hockey wasn’t creating new spending. It was attracting money people were already going to spend. Humphreys says that’s almost certainly the case with the LeBron effect as well. Daniel Shoag, the co-author of that LeBron paper, says that one of the lessons here is that we tend to focus a lot on the financial impact of a stadium, but it really does matter who’s playing in that stadium. That’s his lesson, at least, as an economist. His lesson as a Cavaliers fan…

SHOAG: I guess this just shows that LeBron should never leave again.

MALONE: Is that your conclusion?

SHOAG: I think that’s a pretty reasonable conclusion, yeah (laughter). I’m not sure I needed the data to show me that.

MALONE: Kenny Malone, NPR News.

(SOUNDBITE OF HOT 8 BRASS BAND’S “IT’S REAL – LACK OF AFRO REMIX”)

Copyright © 2017 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by Verb8tm, Inc., an NPR contractor, and produced using a proprietary transcription process developed with NPR. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

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Health May 25, 2017

Do You Know What Red Nose Day Is?

Mindy Kaling is one of many celebrities who have put on a red nose for Red Nose Day, raising the question: Huh, what?

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NBC Universal

May 25 is Red Nose Day in the United States.

And millions of people are probably going, “huh, what?”

The short explanation: It’s a campaign to raise money to fight child poverty.

But how does buying a red foam nose at a drugstore for a buck help the cause? And does this charity with the silly name really do good work?

We did some reporting, and here’s what we learned.

The British charity Comic Relief started Red Nose Day in England in 1985 as a way to raise money to fight child poverty. Why Red Nose Day and not, say, Fight Child Poverty Day? It’s hard to get a definitive answer. But it appears the organizers wanted a symbol that would make people laugh. Everyone from the Spice Girls to Hugh Grant have put on red noses to promote the fundraising effort.

[embedded content]
YouTube

Red Nose Day is held every two years in the U.K. and has raised $1.4 billion, which is distributed to charities that fight child poverty.

Three years ago, the event crossed over to the U.S., where it’s become an annual event. Although it hasn’t yet become a household word. Last year, Comic Relief USA surveyed 1,000 Americans and found that “60 percent didn’t quite understand what we did,” says Janet Scardino, CEO of the group.

In the weeks leading up to Red Nose Day and on the day itself, money is raised in all sorts of ways. Of the dollar people pay to buy a red nose at Walgreens and Duane Reade drugstores, 50 cents goes to charity (the other half covers the cost of producing the nose). The public can also make direct donations on the Red Nose Day telethon airing Thursday night on NBC.

According to the organization’s 2015 tax filings, 85 percent of the proceeds go to a handful of charity partners that support children in need around the world. In the U.S., that includes multiyear grants to groups like Feeding America, the Boys & Girls Clubs of America, Save the Children and Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance.

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, a supporter of NPR, is also backing Red Nose Day in the U.S. by matching donations to the cause made on Facebook up to total of $1 million.

Charity Navigator, which rates nonprofits using a four-star evaluation system, has found that most of Red Nose Day’s charity partners have a three or four-star rating.

But Comic Relief has been criticized in the past for its controversial investments. In the U.K, some funds raised by Red Nose Day are invested in various ways, with the returns going toward the cost of the campaign. In 2013, the BBC program “Panorama” reported that around $816,000 was invested in the arms company BAE Systems while $3.5 million was invested in tobacco companies.

A spokesperson from Comic Relief U.K. told NPR that the group stopped investing in those companies in 2014.

And then there’s the question of the goofiness of it all. Part of the appeal of Red Nose Day is that it makes people feel good, says David Bishai, a professor who specializes in economics and public health at Johns Hopkins University. “The red nose doesn’t drag you into the dark side of the poor, showing you children with swollen bellies. That’s not fun,” he says. “The [campaigners] say: We understand there’s terrible suffering in the world and we’re doing something about it.”

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But it’s a tricky line to toe. This year’s BBC telethon for Red Nose Day in the U.K., on March 24, garnered 150 complaints for profanity and lewd comments from the celebrity entertainers. There was a skit showing a bounty of biscuits followed by footage of a starving infant in Liberia. One viewer tweeted: “Comic Relief … painful.” Asked to comment on the controversy, a spokesperson for Comic Relief U.K. did not address the issue specifically but told NPR: “The broadcast was a live studio event enjoyed by a peak audience of 7.6 million. The amazing British public yet again dug deep to raise over 73 million pounds [about $94 million] so far.”

U.S. campaigns haven’t brought in quite as much: more than $60 million in the first two years. Still,“that’s nothing to sneeze at,” says Sandra Miniutti of Charity Navigator.

But the name might be an obstacle, suggests Miniutti. “Stand Up For Cancer, I know I’m giving to cancer,” she says. “Red Nose Day doesn’t have that attribute.”

So on Red Nose Day the group devotes a lot of effort to explaining what kinds of projects it supports. Tonight, for example, Julia Roberts guest stars on a Red Nose Day episode of the TV series Running Wild with Bear Grylls. Grylls and Roberts head out to delivervaccines from Wamba Hospital in Kenya to children in the a remote community. The challenge? They must keep the vaccines cold the whole time — while avoiding crocodiles and hippos.

Tonight’s Red Nose Day TV marathon also features a reunion of the cast of the 2003 movie Love Actually.

It sounds gimmicky, but academics who study charitable giving don’t seem to mind. “I could have been holy about it — but they’re helping Americans think about those less well-off in other countries,” says Bishai. “Give them a break.”

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Entertainment May 24, 2017

Today in Movie Culture: How to Make a 'Pirates of the Caribbean' Movie, the Best of Roger Moore's 007 and More

Here are a bunch of little bites to satisfy your hunger for movie culture:

Franchise Parody of the Day:

Ranker shows us what to expect in every Pirates of the Caribbean movie in this animated parody fake trailer for a 13th installment:

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Franchise Recap of the Day:

Also prepare yourself for the new Pirates of the Caribbean movie with this supercut of some of the franchise’s best moments:

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Movie Comparison of the Day:

Speaking of Pirates of the Caribbean, did the last one seem familiar? Couch Tomato shows 24 reasons why On Stranger Tides is the same movie as Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.

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Video List of the Day:

CineFix is back with a showcase of more of the greatest shots of all time, including an establishing shot from The Godfather:

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Vintage Image of the Day:

Alfred Molina, who turns 64 today, and James Franco receive direction from Sam Raimi on the set of Spider-Man 2:

Actor in the Spotlight:

In honor of the late Roger Moore, IMDb put together a supercut of his work as James Bond in the 007 movies:

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Screenwriting Lesson of the Day:

Lessons from the Screenplay explores the Oscar-nominated script for Arrival and celebrates its achievement in adaptation:

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Filmmaking Effect of the Day:

Now You See It shows us and explains the significance of the Dolly Zoom shot, most famously done in Jaws and Goodfellas:

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Knife Collection of the Day:

Barry Pepper apparently forges or collects a knife to go with every character he plays, as he shows us in this home movie (via Geek Tyrant):

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Classic Trailer of the Day:

This weekend is the 30th anniversary of Rocky III. Watch the original trailer for the classic sequel below.

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Business May 24, 2017

Boom Time Again For U.S. Oil Industry, Thanks To OPEC

Pumpjacks in North Dakota’s Bakken oil patch extract oil from deep underground. Oil production has grown nationally in recent months to 9.3 million barrels of oil per day.

Amy Sisk/Prairie Public Broadcasting

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Amy Sisk/Prairie Public Broadcasting

Oil producers across the country are watching to see what OPEC does at its meeting in Vienna this week, since the cartel of oil-exporting countries has recently played a big role in turning around a two-year U.S. slump.

There are more than twice as many U.S. rigs drilling for oil as a year ago, a turnaround that’s felt keenly in places like the Bakken oil patch in North Dakota. Cigarettes and chewing tobacco are flying off the shelves of the gas station Angela Neuman manages in the town of Williston.

“Now there are so many new people, I cannot get a handle on that,” she laughs.

A year ago the price of oil was so low that it made drilling less profitable. Production dropped and companies in North Dakota and elsewhere made painful layoffs.

Across Williston, at the Winterton Suites hotel, sometimes there was only a guest or two, and the price plunged from $300 a night to the bargain rate of $100.

“We almost actually thought we were going to lose it for a little bit,” says Winterton’s manager Chelsey Crozier.

Occupancy has ticked back up this spring.

“Of course, [it’s] not as crazy as it was,” she says, “but it’s doing better.”

In the dizzying boom-bust cycle of the oil industry, things were crazy busy here a few years back, when a barrel of oil was around $100. But that led to a surge in production that flooded the market, pushing the price of oil down. That’s when OPEC stepped in to boost prices by cutting its own production, and Russia followed suit.

“Effectively, these cuts that were put into place last fall are being filled in by other countries,” including the U.S., says Eugene Graner, with Heartland Investor Capital Management in Bismarck.

U.S. production has risen to 9.3 million barrels of oil per day, close to the level before prices plummeted.

When OPEC meets Thursday, it’s expected to keep its cuts in place. Graner says that would help ensure this mini-boom in the U.S. keeps going, though he does not foresee another spike in the price of oil.

President Trump has promised to unleash the energy industry by lifting all kinds of regulations. His full rollback has not happened yet. But energy analyst Trisha Curtis with PetroNerds says Trump’s move to approve the Dakota Access Pipeline is helpful.

“That gives sort of a green light,” she says. “If you were a little hesitant on the Bakken on activity or development, that certainly is a game changer.”

The Dakota Access Pipeline is slated to come online next week. It will make transporting Bakken oil cheaper, and allow it to more easily reach a new market in the Gulf Coast.

In North Dakota, this means a lot more jobs will be needed to produce that oil. At the Job Service North Dakota office in Williston, customer service representatives are busy taking applications.

“Over 150 jobs we posted this week,” says manager Cindy Sanford.

That’s more jobs than there are local workers, she says, and the openings keep coming.

Amy Sisk reports for Prairie Public Broadcasting and forInside Energy,a public media collaboration focused on America’s energy issues. You can follow her@amyrsisk.

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