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Dreams do come true: Kenny G and Warren G perform together on 'Kimmel'

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If you've ever kept yourself up at night wondering when Kenny G and Warren G would collaborate, you can finally sleep. 

Last night, smooth-jazz saxophonist Kenny G and the rapper responsible for 1994's hit "Regulate" took part in Jimmy Kimmel's #MashUpMonday, and it was a pretty solid collaboration. The only thing missing was Nate Dogg

Fingers crossed for a Kenny G/Lil B collab next. 

Screengrab via Jimmy Kimmel Live/YouTube 


A new Pee-wee Herman movie is coming to Netflix

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The sequel to Pee-wee's Big Adventure is getting a new home.

The long-rumored film is going to Netflix in all of its territories after being in development at Universal. Judd Apatow, whose name has been attached to the film for some time, is still set to produce, with Paul Reubens putting his character’s signature gray suit and bowtie back on.

Titled Pee-wee’s Big Holiday, Pee-wee Herman will take his first holiday after a meeting with a stranger, and Netflix described it as “an epic story of friendship and destiny.” There’s no premiere date set for the streaming site, but according to Netflix, production will begin early this year. Director John Lee (Inside Amy Schumer, Broad City) will helm the film and Paul Rust wrote the script.

Picking up the movie for Netflix was a no-brainer.

“We didn’t hesitate for a moment knowing that Pee-wee’s Big Holiday was such a passion project for Paul and Judd and we are delighted by the opportunity to introduce such a beloved character to a new generation,” Netflix Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos said.

Apatow called it “a dream come true,” while Reubens noted that he and Apatow had thought about the project for years.

“The world was much different back then—Netflix was waiting by the mailbox for red envelopes to arrive,” Reubens said. “The future is here. Get used to it. Bowtie is the new black.”

H/T Vulture | Illustration by Jason Reed

The YouTube Kids app made me feel 8 years old again

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I don’t care what my mom tells you—I'm never having kids. But since the children of today will someday run my nursing home, I have a vested interest in their maturation.

Still, we can’t have them growing up too fast, which is why Google devised YouTube Kids, an app that allows parents to control what their kids watch online by setting time limits and customizing search features. I downloaded the (currently Android-only) software and dove in.

The first category of promoted offerings features shows and brands from both TV and the Web. There’s Sesame Street, Thomas & Friends, Jim Henson Family TV, and many more characters I didn't recognize. I ended up watching a ten-minute segment starring a group of puppets called the FuZees, who taught me that eating too much junk food can have painful consequences. This may seem obvious to you, but truth be told, it’s a lesson I’m still learning.   

Next I thumbed over to the “Music” tab, where a channel called “LittleBabyBum ®” caught my eye. Disappointingly, it was just hour-long medleys of grating classics like “Wheels on the Bus,” most of which I already know by heart. I was much more taken with “8 Hours of Mozart for Baby - Bedtime Music”—for the baby that prefers to DJ its own slumber.

The next category was “Learning,” and thankfully, PBS KIDS was the first suggestion. Less encouraging: the realization that this ever-reliable broadcaster was slotted beside TED Ed. Because you're never too young to learn about how schools strangle creativity and video games will one day be better than real life, right?

Okay, so these TED videos are nowhere near as depressing. They're just harmless (if high-minded) lessons about real things. If you can get your toddler to show an interest in the great Oxford comma debate, well, you’re probably doing something right.

Finally, I checked out something called “Explore,” an appeal to the creativity of youth. There are videos from LEGO and Play-Doh, tutorials on drawing and painting, and even a fashion channel devoted to “Cute Girls Hairstyles”—though it sometimes branches out into costumed fun.

Overall, YouTube Kids offered a nice eclectic mix of kid-friendly content.

But what about the search function? Terms like “sex,” “suicide,” “9/11,” “World War II,” “porn,” “Gamergate,” and “ISIS” were all blocked. Concepts including “racism,” “equal pay,” “gay marriage,” “atheism,” “abortion,” “domestic abuse,” “slavery,” and “feminism” likewise don't exist in the world of YouTube Kids, while “Ferguson” returned a Sesame Street bit with Modern Family’s Jesse Tyler Ferguson.

Children will be pleased to note, however, that essential topics like “butts,” “farts,” and “student loan defaults” are well represented.

Parents seem mostly jazzed about the app, though reviewers note that any kid old enough to read will have zero trouble getting around the password protection. There’s also a heck of a lot of ads in the app. And as carefully vetted as the content seems, some of it is just plain bad, ridiculous, or copyright-infringing. A gold star awaits anyone who can explain this mashup:  

Anyway, have at it, children. You only have a few more years before the grown-up Internet is yours and no one can tell you otherwise! Trust us, you're missing a lot of cool, horrifying garbage.

Photo via Ricky Cain/Flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0)

Nicolas Cage will take Oliver Stone's Edward Snowden film to the next level

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There are no bad Nicolas Cage performances, only bad Nicolas Cage films. When fortune smiles upon us and puts Cage in a good film, it's a very special occasion. Today brings word that we might be getting our wish once again in Oliver Stone's upcoming adaptation of the Edward Snowden story, aptly titled Snowden.

According to News Diverse, Cage will be joining the film as "an ex-Intelligence Official of the U.S. government." It seems likely the role will involve at least one perilous situation in which Cage will yell in a dire manner, and that instantly raises this project from "interesting" to "must-see." People seem to be pleased with the casting announcement:


Cage joins Joseph Gordon-Levitt, who plays the titular role; Shailene Woodley, playing Snowden's girlfriend Lindsay Mills; Tom Wilkinson as Guardian correspondent Ewen MacAskill; and Zachary Quinto and Timothy Olyphant, who will appear as currently unspecified players in the Snowden saga.

Although Cage's last team-up with Stone was a tad wonky, the potential is certainly there for Snowden to become a classic installment in the pantheon of the Nic Cage adventures.

 H/T News Diverse| Photo via popculturegeek/Flickr (CC BY 2.0)

Every day of the week gets a shoutout in this chronological supercut

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Sunday and Monday are happy days—Tuesday and Wednesday too. In fact, every day of the week gets a shout-out in this YouTube supercut that highlights just how often the calendar gets a shout-out in music.

Of course, weekends tend to get more play in music, mostly because songs like to celebrate relaxation over work. When Mondays or Tuesdays are involved, the songs are usually about surviving those days instead of enjoying them. There's no day that doesn't get some kind of musical love, however.

The cut is decidedly heavy on classic rock, with a few undeniable modern tracks such as Rebecca Black's "Friday" and Katy Perry's "Last Friday Night." What's obviously missing is any hip-hop, R&B, or even country music. But with this cut clocking in at 10 minutes already, it might take a while to catalog every genre.

Illustration by Max Fleishman

Netflix kicks off its own March Madness with 39 new titles

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Now that you've gotten your queue in order and decided which movies you need to watch before they leave Netflix in March, it's time to do some more spring cleaning. 

And holy heck, March is a traffic jam: Teen Witch, Patch Adams, and seasons of Archer, Mad Men, and A Different World are all making their way to the site. March 6 also sees the release of two new Netflix originals: Tina Fey and Ellie Kemper's new comedy Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt and Aziz Ansari's latest standup special, Live at Madison Square Garden

Here are all the new titles coming to Netflix: 

March 1

1) Evelyn 
2) Finding Neverland 
3) Mercy Rule 
4) Monster High: 13 Wishes 
5) Monster High: Ghouls Rule 
6) 30 for 30: Of Miracles and Men
7) Patch Adams 
8) Rules of Engagement 
9) Teen Witch 
10) The Brothers Grimm 

March 5

11) Food Chains 
12) The ABCs of Death 2 

March 6

13) Aziz Ansari Live at Madison Square Garden 
14) My Own Man 
15) Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt

March 7

16) Archer: Season 5
17) Glee: Season 5

March 9

18) After the Fall 
19) Cesar Chavez 
20) The Angriest Man in Brooklyn 
21) Tyler Perry's The Single Moms Club 

March 10

22) Monster High: Haunted 

March 11

23) How to Train Your Dragon 2 

March 15

24) 3rd Rock From the Sun: Complete Series
25) A Different World: Complete Series
26) Marvel & ESPN Films Present: 1 of 1: Genesis 

March 17

27) You're Not You 
28) Dummy 

March 19

29) Life Itself 

March 20

30) Bloodline: Season 1
31) God's Not Dead 

March 22

32) Mad Men: Season 7 

March 23

33) November Man 

March 25

34) Garfunkel and Oates: Season 1 
35) Turn: Season 1 

March 27

36) Trailer Park Boys: Season 9
37) Frankie & Alice 

March 31

38) Ask Me Anything 
39) The Man With the Iron Fists

Illustration by Max Fleishman 

Move over, McConaughey: Blue Man Group's 'True Detective' spoof is perfect

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Could the next stars of True Detective be blue? That's the thinking behind the Blue Man Group's spoof of the show's moody opening sequence.

The Blue Man Group, best known for its bald-capped, all-blue performance art, took a page from HBO in its most recent promotional video. It's definitely more PG-13 than True Detective's opening credits. 

Blue Detective may not be a gritty as True Detective, but with all that paint, it's at least as messy.

Screengrab via Blue Man Group/YouTube

Jason Jones to leave 'The Daily Show'

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Daily Show correspondent Jason Jones is leaving Comedy Central for TBS. This after almost a decade of fake news reporting, and just shortly after his boss Jon Stewart announced his retirement from the show.

According to Rolling Stone, Jones is leaving thanks to a 10-episode order on TBS for a comedy about a family that embarks on a wacky roadtrip to Florida. Jones' wife, fellow correspondent Samantha Bee, will also work on the project, although she's made no formal announcement about leaving The Daily Show to do so. The pair of Jones and Bee were much-touted candidates to take over Stewart's hosting duties.

In celebration of Jones' nearly 10 years on the show, we've highlighted five of his best moments over the years.

The Native Americans vs. The Washington Football Team

This segment caused an uproar before it even aired, with the Washington fans calling foul that the Daily Show producers never told them about having to meet the Native American activists face-to-face. Directly before airing the piece Stewart said, “If we find out that someone in a piece was intentionally misled, or if their comments were intentionally misrepresented, we do not air that piece.” The piece aired, the rest is history.

The segment that inspired Rosewater

Before Stewart embarked on his filmmaking career, Jones went to Iran and interviewed BBC journalist Maziar Bahari. During his imprisonment, his appearance with Jones was used against him interrogation, as evidence of him working with American spies. Much was set in motion by Jones' coverage in the country.

The 'Real Americans' of Wasilla

When Sarah Palin dubbed Wasilla, Alaska, the "real America," Jones went there to pull back the curtains on what that really means. That meant uncovering NSFW tattoos on church-going folks and asking the current mayor to explain how doing her job prepared her to be the President of the United States. 

Republican hostage negotiation

During the government shutdown of 2013, Jones enlisted a former Federal Bureau of Investigation hostage negotiator to try and talk sense into the Republicans at the time. This resulted in Jones with a bullhorn, clad in a bulletproof vest, with the negotiator in his ear coaching him along. When the Republican strategist says Obamacare will be the worst thing in American history, Jones can't hold back from screaming, "Do you remember fucking slavery?" Even the FBI negotiator gives up.

Reporting from Sochi-ish

During the Winter Olympic Games in 2014 gay rights were a big topic, and so Jones traveled across the world and talked with Russians about the climate there. What he found was they weren't so different from America, if you're talking about America of the '70s. They compared gay rights to having sex with tables. This clip also includes the best use ever of a quote from Joss Whedon's Angel

Screengrab via The Daily Show


Conan O'Brien explores Grindr with Billy Eichner's help

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Now that Conan O’Brien has mastered the world of Tinder, he’s expanding his online dating app horizons.

This time he’s going on Grindr with Billy Eichner, who prepares him with some tips and tricks to stand out from everyone else and gives him some pretty terrible openers. O'Brien's username? Frecklefucker.

Even though he’s new to Grindr, he takes in the experience like any other dating app. Still in the honeymoon phase of it, he celebrates every victory, uses incredibly cheesy pickup lines, and even starts to fantasize about life with the people he messages. Even a successful and married man like O’Brien isn't immune to all of that—nor is he immune to rejection.

Depending on what he may have been going for, Eichner is either the best or the worst wingman.

Screengrab via Team Coco/YouTube

Dr. Lindsey Doe is the sex-ed teacher you wish you had in high school

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The Daily Dot is celebrating Woman Crush Wednesday, better known as #WCW on Twitter and Instagram, by highlighting female creators on YouTube whose work we admire.

Remember how terrible your sex education was in high school? There were analogies about cars, your football coach turning bright red every time he said “vagina,” and that one obnoxious kid in the back row raving about all the “sex” he was had with his “girlfriend” who went to another high school who we could never meet because she was “really busy.” Nice story, kid.

There are many regrets I have about my sex education experiences. Chief among them: My classes were not taught by Dr. Lindsey Doe, clinical sexologist and host of the YouTube channel Sexplanations.

Now before you even ask, yes, sexology is real. It’s the study of human sexuality, and as a field, it attracts individuals dedicated to making everyone’s sex lives consensual, pleasurable, and healthy.

Through her channel, Doe embraces topics of sexual health, sex, and sexuality with the unlimited enthusiasm of a kid getting to go to Disneyland. It isn’t uncommon to find her chanting in her videos, “Get turned on!” like an undying fan dedicated to improving your sex game. There is just no way you can not love her.

Her videos cover all areas of the sexual experience including consent, anal sex, slut shaming, talking to your kids about sex, pregnancy prevention, and masturbation. But her most intimate videos are her Q&As, in which she answers viewers’ questions with the same genuine care and interest one feels from their oldest childhood friend.

In every video, Doe provides viewers the space to ask sex-related questions normally labeled as taboo. Her goal is simple: to eradicate shame and guilt associated with sex. And as someone who is one of her 163,000 loyal subscribers, I’d say she’s doing an amazing job achieving this.

Doe originally started making YouTube videos in 2013, three years after Hank Green (of Vlogbrothers fame) approached her about making her own sex education channel. She originally connected with Green in the most YouTube way. After a bad day, she began googling videos of cute animals, eventually stumbling upon the Vlogbrothers and dubbing them one of her heroes. She then asked Green to talk on a panel in her class, and three years later, after a bit of soul-searching, the pair started Sexplanations together.

Outside of YouTube, Doe teaches at the University of Montana while simultaneously running her sexual health center Birds and Bees LLC. There she counsels, coaches, teaches, and nurtures a community passionate about improving sex education.

For me, Doe’s channel is not only an accomplishment in the world of sex education but the world of YouTube. Her channel provides YouTube’s huge demographic of young adults accurate, honest sex conversations that encourages them to pursue healthy relationships. This is especially crucial after last year’sstring of sexual abuse allegations reported between YouTube creators and fans. It’s creators like Dr. Doe who will continue to make this platform, and the world, a safer place.

So cheers to you Dr. Doe, and here’s many more years of keeping sex sexy.

Screengrab via Sexplanations/YouTube

Webseries reimagines Monica Lewinsky's life in 2001

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Last year, Monica Lewinsky slapped the Internet awake with an exclusive Vanity Fairpiece, in which she told her side of a story that’s followed her for more than a decade. Many people only know Lewinsky as the woman who had an affair with then-president Bill Clinton. He was allowed to move on and continue his career; she was one of the Internet's first victims of slut-shaming and, more recently, the subject of a grammatically incorrect line in a Beyoncé song. And so it goes.

A new six-part webseries, simply titled Monica, imagines her life post-scandal in New York City circa 2001, as she attempts to live a normal life. Co-writer Lily Marotta plays Lewinsky with deadpan grace, sporting the beret Lewinsky sought to “burn” in her Vanity Fair piece. Though the series features several NYC comedians, there are moments that are somewhat heartbreaking, like when a vague acquaintance calls Marotta a whore after running into her at the park. Alternately, the scene with her yoga teacher in episode 1 is a subtle stab at physical comedy.

Doron Max Hagay, co-writer and director of the series, says the idea came from another cultural text.

“The concept for the webseries came about last year after I stumbled upon a clip from Monica in Black and White, a documentary that Monica Lewinsky produced with HBO, which aired in 2002, that I had never seen or heard of before,” he told the Daily Dot. “I was so mesmerized by the spectacle—it reminded me of the Max Ophül's film Lola Montès, which, in case you don't know the film, it's essentially about an actress who has sold herself and her story to the circus. On a purely aesthetic level, the documentary completely seized my imagination. As I continued to watch, I became completely absorbed and emotionally invested in Monica's story.”

Hagay says a friend introduced him to Marotta, who’d already embodied Lewinsky in a 2008 short film, Monica’s Day Out, which explored her days before the White House.

“Lily pointed me to an article called 'Monica Takes Manhattan,' published in New York magazine in 2001,” Hagay said. “The banalities in that article offered an entry point into a story that might have otherwise taken us to Washington D.C. or Beverly Hills—places we didn't have a budget to get to. It was a very reasonable world for us to recreate with our non-existent budget. The webseries is a very loose adaptation of that article and what we imagine producing the documentary was like for her.”

The series creates a somewhat dramatic rendering of Lewinsky. There are no real laugh-out-loud moments; the humor is subtle, and it was also important to make her seem like a human being with her own voice.

“An interesting challenge that presents itself when representing Monica Lewinsky is that there are humorous things about her which seem impossible to ignore, characteristics that make it easier to see her as a joke or vixen,” Hagay explained. “It's these aspects of Monica that we try to both represent honestly and passionately critique. It's important to us that the film engage audiences on an intellectual level, but also that it operates on an emotional level. We feel Monica's story should invite empathy. On a formal level, I see Monica as a dramatic archetype, which is exciting for me as I experiment with film narrative."

So why does the Lewinsky story endure, nearly 20 years later?

“One theory I have as to why her story endures is that it all remains a kind of unsolved mystery,” Hagay said. “We never figured out how to talk about Monica because no one knew what it was all actually about. But it's all there: sex, power, greed.”

Screengrab via Doron Max Hagay/Vimeo 

'Parks and Rec' cast says goodbye to Li'l Sebastian one last time

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As Parks and Recreation came to an end, the cast gave one last farewell to one of Pawnee’s most famous residents.

They were all on-hand on Late Night With Seth Meyers to discuss the series finale, but the main spotlight was on Li’l Sebastian, the mini-horse beloved by most in the town. He died in the show’s third season, but they managed to pull off a large-scale tribute in the form of a performance of “Bye Bye Li’l Sebastian” a few seasons later.

Chris Pratt is on guitar to perform the song again, and he’s barely holding everything together while everyone else completely loses it. It's completely understandable—can you keep a straight face?

Screengrab via Late Night With Seth Meyers/YouTube

This is how Chris Pratt wanted 'Parks and Recreation' to end

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By many accounts the Parks and Recreation series finale was perfect, but it could’ve turned out a lot differently had Chris Pratt had his way.

When it came to figuring out where each of the characters ended up, some of the cast members’ pitches didn’t make the cut. (For example, Retta wanted Donna to have sex with Joe Manganiello.) Pratt’s pitch for the episode, however, is both hilarious and morbid.

He could have gone for the easy laugh by mashing up Andy Dwyer with Guardians of the Galaxy or Jurassic World, but he instead went the way of another great series finale. It’s completely absurd and goes against the genuine tone of the show, but you can’t argue that it’s not something out of character.

H/T Digg | Screengrab via Late Night With Seth Meyers/YouTube

Watch the brand-new trailer for Disney's 'Frozen Fever'

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Queen Elsa may be wanted by police in Kentucky, but nothing is going to stop the main character from Frozen from appearing in theaters across the country next month in a new animated short called Frozen Fever. On Wednesday, Disneyreleased the first trailer for the sequel exclusively on Good Morning America, and from the brief clips it looks like things are going to get exciting as the characters try to celebrate Anna’s birthday.

Elsa, Anna, Kristoff, Olaf, and Sven return for this seven-minute film, which will include a new original song from the songwriters behind “Let It Go.” The trailer is less than a minute long, but it gives viewers a glimpse of the gang as they prepare for Anna’s birthday party with the expected amount of Elsa's powers, Olaf's comedy, Kristoff and Sven's enthusiasm, and Anna's contagious excitement.

Watch the trailer below, and check out the full short sequel when it premieres before Disney’s live-action Cinderella starting March 13.

H/T USA TODAY | Screengrab via ABCNews.com

Taylor Swift trolled paparazzi by posting bikini pics on Instagram

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Life as pop megastar and NYC public school benefactress Taylor Swift is hard. Swift can not simply take a vacation with her best friends, the sisters from the band Haim, without being hounded by sneaky paparazzi photographers. 

Last month, she posted this shot from a recent trip to Maui:

Apparently, the posts were a defensive tactic against some vicious paparazzi who were taking her picture with jumbo camera lenses. Swift told BBC radio:

“My security gets out the binoculars and sees that they have a huge long lens camera,” the pop singer told BBC Radio. “At which point, we go back to the beach and realize, ‘OK, so they got pictures of us in our bikinis.’”

“I don’t want them to make, like, $100,000—for a bikini shot. And so we’re like, ‘Get up on the bow of the boat: We’re taking better bikini shots so that they don’t make as much money on theirs.”

“We found out later they had been everywhere we were,” she said. “I’ve never seen such stealth-mode paparazzi, like, three miles away, long-lensing it up.”

The photo violated Taylor Swift's famous "no belly button pics" policy. 


She explained her midriff philosophy to Lucky last November:

“I don’t like showing my belly button. When you start showing your belly button then you’re really committing to the midriff thing. I only partially commit to the midriff thing—you’re only seeing lower rib cage. I don’t want people to know if I have one or not. I want that to be a mystery. As far as anyone knows based on my public appearances, they haven’t seen evidence of a belly button. It could be pierced. They have no idea. If I’m going to get some sort of massive tattoo, it’s going to be right next to my belly button because no one’s ever going to see that.”  

But apparently scooping a photographer out of hundreds of thousands of dollars is worth a little personal sacrifice. 

Like all good things, the art of scooping 'paps through Instagram was initially perfected by the Kardashians and Rihanna. The best example of this is probably Kim's wedding photo—which of course became the most liked Instagram post of all time.

Taylor's next goal should be to master the art of the paparazzi-shaming snap. Kim's already got the game on lock:

Photo via Taylor Swift/Instagram


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'Inspector Gadget' and 'DuckTales' get the reboots they deserve

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Netflix announced Wednesday that it planned to reboot Inspector Gadget and four other shows, while Disney is rebooting the ’80s and ’90s classic DuckTales, bringing Christmas morning early for the nostalgics out there.

The streaming network has already shown an interest in creating content specifically for its younger viewers by announcing the original series F Is for Family and Ever After High and a reboot of The Magic School Bus, and it’s doubling down with the five newest shows on its lineup.

Inspector Gadget—which was a beloved ’80 children’s cartoon (later a live-action movie starring Matthew Broderick) based around a bionic private detective, his keen-eyed niece, and their anthropomorphic dog—is by far the most recognizable name on the list. The series will land on Netflix in the U.S. in March 2015 and will expand to other territories where the service is available at a later date.

It’s also planning to reboot Danger Mouse, a British show about a secret agent mouse, which will debut in spring 2016.

Along with Inspector Gadget and Danger Mouse, Netflix is bringing three other shows to its audience. Some Assembly Required, coming this summer, follows a teenage toy company owner who hires a group of friends to make new toys and is already popular in Canada. Bottersnikes & Gumbles is an animated show based on the book series coming next spring, and Super 4 is a CGI series inspired by Playmobil and does not yet have a release date.

“We’ve seen great characters and rich storytelling work for a global audience time and time again,” Erik Barmack, Netflix Vice President of Global Independent Content, said in the release. “That’’s why we’’re proud to be working with some of the industry’’s best producers and animators on these shows and we can’’t wait for kids and families all over the world to get to know these stories.”

On the TV front, Disney’s DuckTales reboot will bring Scrooge McDuck and his grandnephews back together. It’s coming to Disney XD, which already airs animated shows like Star Wars Rebels and Gravity Falls, in 2017. And before you worry, a whole slew of minor characters are set to return as well for a brand new generation of viewers.

"DuckTales has a special place in Disney's TV animation history, it drew its inspiration from Disney Legend Carl Barks' comic books and through its storytelling and artistic showmanship, set an enduring standard for animated entertainment that connects with both kids and adults," Marc Buhaj, Disney XD’s senior vice president of programming, said in a statement. "Our new series will bring that same energy and adventurous spirit to a new generation."

You better get comfy. You’ve got a lot of TV to look forward to in the next year.

H/T Mashable, USA Today | Photo via Marco Paköeningrat/Flickr (CC BY SA 2.0)

Gritty ‘Power Rangers’ reboot fights legal battle with rights holder

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BY SAM GUTELLE

Yesterday, we shared Power/Rangers, a short film that provides a dark re-imagining of its titular franchise. According to director Joseph Kahn, if this concept interests you, you should watch the film now, because he has “no idea how long it’ll be up.” Kahn and his team are in the midst of a legal kerfuffle with Haim Saban, who owns the rights to the Power Rangers franchise.

Power/Rangers, which stars James van der Beek and Katee Sackhoff, arrived on producer Adi Shankar’s YouTube channel at midnight on Feb. 24. In the first 36 hours after its release, it drew more than 6.5 million views, with bloggers and Redditors alike taking a shine to it.

As soon as Power/Rangers soared up the YouTube charts, its legal troubles began. On Twitter, Kahn claimed that Saban, who is producing a film version of Power Rangers alongside Lionsgatehas been “harassing” him about potential copyright infringement.

In addition, the NSFW Vimeo version of the video has been taken down, with a representative for the online video platform writing that “the DMCA law does not give content hosts (like Vimeo) permission to disregard a takedown notice simply because of the presence of one or more fair use factors. This is a legal matter between the copyright holder and the video creator.”

Kahn responded to that takedown with a series of tweets laying out his own opinions on the matter:

Power/Rangers is a part of Shankar’s Bootleg Universe of fan films based on pop culture franchises. In explaining his creative process, Kahn–whose other directorial credits include Taylor Swift’s “Blank Space” video–told Deadline he “just wanted to make Power Rangers good for once.”

The legal space occupied by online, independent fan films is a hotly contested topic. Rights holders like Warner Bros and Mojang have struck down high-profile fan films based on their respective properties, with the potential for monetary gain often serving as a critical issue. In this case, since Kahn has said he doesn’t plan to profit from his work, he may be able to turn back Saban’s complaints, but for now, you should probably give the undeniably entertaining Power/Rangers another watch while you still can.

Screengrab via Adi Shankar/YouTube

Lady Gaga tells Twitter she's joining the cast of 'American Horror Story'

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Mother Monster is checking in to Ryan Murphy's hotel of (potential) horrors as the newest cast member of American Horror Story for 2015.

Lady Gaga announced her involvement in the fifth season of the anthology, revealing the title of American Horror Story: Hotel, in a video on Twitter urging fans to make their reservations now.

Murphy is no stranger to big name casting on the series, with stars like Angela Bassett and Kathy Bates in major roles. He's also been tapping buzzy actors for his new series, Scream Queens, including singer Ariana Grande and recently out of the closet twin YouTubers Austin and Aaron Rhodes.  

Gaga, of course, is an even more prolific get, and riding high off her Oscars performance that showed her in a new light, a turn at AHS could land the Grammy winner Emmys or Golden Globes come 2016. Perhaps she's on an EGOT hunt.

American Horror Story: Hotel will premiere on FX in October.

Screengrab via Lady Gaga/Twitter.

Dig into this 'House of Cards' refresher before season 3

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A House of Cards binge is the perfect time to clean your house or do your dishes, and you only really need to lock in when Meechum makes an appearance. At least, that’s how we play the game that is watching the interconnected political intrigue of Frank Underwood’s Washington, D.C. But even if you don’t leave your couch for the nearly 11 hours it takes to consume the full season, you’re probably a little hazy on what happened when Netflix released the last installment a year ago.

Well, go grab some ribs and destroy the restaurant owner’s hopes of a franchise while you’re at it, because The Fine Bros. put together a breakneck pace, under-10-minute House of Cards recap of the entire first and second seasons and it’s the perfect refresher before you dive back in on Friday. In fact, it’s the only way we could remember what happened at the end of Freddy’s BBQ storyline to make that reference to it a sentence ago.

If you’re good with season 1, the season 2 recap starts around the five-minute mark.

Now that you have studied up, get pumped with the trailer for season 3 to be released on Netflix this Friday

Screengrab via Netflix/YouTube

Madonna takes a tumble at the Brit Awards

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Madonna took a dive on stage during a performance on the U.K.'s Brit Awards Wednesday evening. It looks like a backup dancer was trying to remove her cape and accidentally pulled her backward down a flight of stairs

Madonna was billed as the grand finale of the evening with her song "Living for Love," off her new album Rebel Heart. She dropped the mic during her tumble to the floor but impressively recovered after missing a few lines. Admirable to say the least.

Madonna's appearance marked her first at the Brit Awards in 20 years. And maybe the last?

Photo via Karen Blue/Flickr (CC BY SA 2.0)

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