The production company behind the Netflix drama The Crown admitted on Tuesday that its star, Claire Foy, was paid less than her co-star, Matt Smith.
Foy won a Golden Globe for her portrayal of Queen Elizabeth, and was reportedly paid $40,000 per episode for the first two seasons of the show. The producers didn't say how much Smith, who played Prince Philip, earned, but revealed it was more than Foy because he was known for his work on Doctor Who. Suzanne Mackie, creative director of the production company Left Bank, said that "going forward, no one gets paid more than the Queen."
This is the latest example of pay disparity between men and women in the entertainment industry. Both Foy and Smith are leaving The Crown, but not over pay — when The Crown's third season starts filming in July, it will be with an entirely new cast, as the show is moving forward in time to the 1970s. Catherine Garcia
In an interview Monday on Fox News, Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh portrayed his high school days at Georgetown Prep as focused on sports, service, church, and academics, said he's "always treated women with dignity and respect," and suggested he never drank to excess. His senior high school yearbook page paints a different picture, including naming himself the "treasurer" of the "Keg City Club" — "100 Kegs or Bust" — and "Beach Week Ralph Club — Biggest Contributor."
Kavanaugh also named himself a "Renate Alumnius" [sic], one of 14 references to "Renate" in Georgetown Prep's 1983 yearbook. Those references, including a "Renate Alumni" tag under a photo of nine football players including Kavanaugh, are to Renate Schroeder, a student a nearby Catholic girls' school, The New York Times reports. Renate Schroeder Dolphin, who was one of 65 women who signed a letter attesting to Kavanaugh's respectful behavior toward women, wasn't aware of the suggestive references to her in the yearbook until now, and she isn't happy.
"I learned about these yearbook pages only a few days ago," Dolphin told the Times. "I don't know what 'Renate Alumnus' actually means. I can't begin to comprehend what goes through the minds of 17-year-old boys who write such things, but the insinuation is horrible, hurtful, and simply untrue. I pray their daughters are never treated this way."
Four of the men in the "Renate Alumni" photo said in a statement from a PR representative that the Renate references "were intended to allude to innocent dates or dance partners." Kavanaugh's lawyer said "Judge Kavanaugh and Ms. Dolphin attended one high school event together and shared a brief kiss good night following that event," and that's what he referred to in his yearbook, "nothing else." Dolphin told the Times, "I think Brett must have me confused with someone else, because I never kissed him."
Classmates of Kavanaugh said his "fratty" clique bragged about sexual conquests, real or imagined, and the Renate references were in that vein. Read more, and see the yearbook pages in question, at The New York Times. Peter Weber
In a letter sent to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) on Monday night, an attorney for Christine Blasey Ford asked how his client could expect to receive "fair and respectful treatment" when she testifies in front of the committee Thursday, considering what Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) had to say about her earlier in the day.
Ford has accused Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of sexual assault when they were teenagers. Attorney Michael Bromwich said that while speaking on the Senate floor Monday afternoon, McConnell claimed Ford was part of a "smear campaign" against Kavanaugh, and implied, falsely, that there had been an investigation and there was a lack of evidence proving the assault took place. Grassley had told Ford she would be provided "a fair and credible process," Bromwich said, but McConnell's statements "are flatly inconsistent" with Grassley's promise.
Bromwich also wanted to know more about the "experienced sex crimes prosecutor" who is being hired to question Ford. "This is not a criminal trial for which the involvement of an experienced sex crimes prosecutor would be appropriate," he said. "Neither Dr. Blasey Ford nor Judge Kavanaugh is on trial. The goal should be to develop the relevant facts, not try a case." This is not on par with Watergate or Iran-Contra, and it is "disingenuous" for Republicans to state otherwise, he said, later adding. "The central point is that there is no precedent for this committee to bring in outside counsel for the sole purpose of shielding the members of the Committee from performing their responsibility to question witnesses." Catherine Garcia
President Trump heaped praise on Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh Monday night on Twitter, while blasting Democrats for their "False Acquisitions" that are keeping him from the bench.
"The Democrats are working hard to destroy a wonderful man, and a man who has the potential to be one of our greatest Supreme Court Justices ever, with an array of False Acquisitions the likes of which have never been seen before!" Trump tweeted. He followed up with a simple message: "REMEMBER THE MIDTERMS!"
Trump either noticed or was told that "Acquisitions" is not how you spell "accusations," as he later posted his first message again — this time with the right word, albeit still unnecessarily capitalized. Catherine Garcia
Researchers have found that after only 10 minutes of light exercise, there is enhanced communication between the regions of the brain that store and recall memories.
Scientists from the University of California, Irvine, had 36 healthy volunteers in their early 20s exercise for 10 minutes, doing light activity like yoga or walking. The volunteers then took a memory test, which was repeated later without exercise. The researchers asked 16 of the volunteers to take the test again, with some exercising first and others resting. While studying their brain activity, it was discovered that those who exercised had increased activity between the hippocampus and cortical brain regions, which are all associated with memory.
The results were published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, with the researchers writing that volunteers who exercised had an easier time distinguishing between different memories. Michael Yassa, a neuroscientist at UCI and project co-leader, told The Guardian that the amount of exercise is dependent on a person's age, mobility level, and other lifestyle factors, and for many, taking a leisurely stroll is enough. Catherine Garcia
Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) has been working overtime defending Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh against allegations of sexual assault, and on Monday called the latest accusation "phony."
Earlier this month, Christine Blasey Ford went public with her accusation that Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her when they were both teenagers, and on Sunday night, The New Yorker published the account of Deborah Ramirez, who said when they were freshman at Yale University, Kavanaugh exposed himself during a party and thrust his penis in her face.
Hatch, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, told reporters Monday that he is sure Ramirez is "sincere" in believing Kavanaugh exposed himself to her, but "I also think she's sincerely wrong." He also said it's "amazing to me that these allegations come out of nowhere at the last minute and they weren't brought up earlier in this process and it's not untypical for our friends on the other side to pull that kind of crap."
Hatch, who has also called Ford "mixed-up," released a lengthy statement earlier in the day where he claimed to believe that "every accuser deserves to be heard." His statement included a long paragraph where he tried to discredit The New Yorker article, and accused Democrats of conducting "a smear campaign" against Kavanaugh.
He's also supporting Kavanaugh online — the Twitter page run by Hatch's office resembles a shrine to the judge, with a photo of the senator, Kavanaugh, and girls on the basketball team Kavanaugh coaches as the header. The account's tweets from the last week are all devoted to Kavanaugh, with some praising him and others slamming Hatch's Democratic colleagues on the Senate Judiciary Committee. Catherine Garcia
During an interview with Fox News on Monday, Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh said multiple times that he has never sexually assaulted anyone, and is "looking for a fair process, a process where I can defend my integrity and clear my name."
Kavanaugh has been accused by two women of sexual assault, and he told Martha MacCallum he has "always treated women with dignity and respect." Kavanaugh's wife, Ashley, joined him for the interview, and said the confirmation process is "incredibly difficult, harder than we imagined, and we imagined it might be hard. At the end of the day, our faith is strong and we know that we're on the right path. We're just gonna stick to it." She called the allegations "really hard to believe" because her husband is "decent, he's kind, he's good. This is not consistent with Brett."
Kavanaugh said he does not remember being at a high school party with one of the accusers, Christine Blasey Ford, and they did not travel in the same social circles. The other accuser, Deborah Ramirez, knew Kavanaugh at Yale University, and he claimed if he had exposed himself as she has alleged, "it would have been the talk of campus." As part of his defense, Kavanaugh revealed that he "did not have sexual intercourse or anything close to it in high school and many years thereafter," and never drank so much he blacked out or couldn't remember what happened the night before. "I'm telling the truth," he said. "I know my lifelong record. I'm not going to let false accusations drive me out of this process." Catherine Garcia
Two of Judge Brett Kavanaugh's former classmates asked The New Yorker to remove their names from a statement they signed in support of the Supreme Court nominee.
On Sunday night, The New Yorker published an article by Jane Mayer and Ronan Farrow about a woman, Deborah Ramirez, who said while she was at Yale University, her classmate, Kavanaugh, exposed himself to her at a party. Mayer and Farrow spoke to former classmates who said they remembered hearing about such an incident, others who believed Ramirez's word, and some who said Kavanaugh would never expose himself.
The article included a statement, prepared by Kavanaugh's attorneys, signed by two of the male classmates Ramirez said were at the party, the wife of a third male student Ramirez said was involved in the incident, and additional classmates. They said they were "the people closest to Brett Kavanaugh during his first year at Yale" and could declare "with confidence that if the incident Debbie alleges ever occurred, we would have seen or heard about it — and we did not. The behavior she describes would be completely out of character for Brett."
On Monday evening, The New Yorker updated the article to reflect that two classmates who originally signed the statement, Louisa Garry and Dino Ewing, approached the magazine after the article was published and asked that their names be removed. Garry said she "never saw or heard anything like this. But I cannot dispute Ramirez's allegations, as I was not present." Ewing said he did not have direct knowledge of the incident and did not think it sounded like Kavanaugh, but "I also was not present and therefore am not in a position to directly dispute Ramirez's account." Catherine Garcia
