Sens. Flake and Coons discuss drama that led to call for FBI probe: ‘It was quite a moment’

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Women plea with Senator Flake to hear their concerns about confirming Judge Brett Kavanaugh.
USA TODAY

WASHINGTON – GOP Sen. Jeff Flake had a message for his friend Democratic Sen. Chris Coons on Friday when they left a meeting on Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination together, just before the Senate Judiciary Committee was set to vote.

“He said very intently, ‘This is tearing our country apart.’ We have to do something,” said Coons, a Delaware Democrat.

Their meeting would lead to the advancing of Kavanaugh’s nomination to the full Senate – but the circuit court judge now faces an FBI inquiry into the sexual assault allegations against him.

In their first interview together since reaching that remarkable compromise, the two senators described on “60 Minutes” Sunday how they agreed on a limited, week-long FBI probe.

More: Analysis: How Jeff Flake seized the spotlight in Kavanaugh confirmation

More: Jeff Flake has managed to frustrate all sides in past 2 years

Coons and Flake met in a tiny hallway outside the Senate meeting, and as other members of the committee got involved in the discussions, the two squeezed into “literally a phone booth that we can barely fit in” to continue discussions with another senator, Coons said.

“It was quite a moment,” Flake said.

Coons had been talking to friends and colleagues about taking a “one week pause, one week only.”

“I was, principally, concerned about helping my friend listen to his doubts and his conscience,” Coons said of Flake. “And I cannot tell you how grateful I am. Jeff’s the hero here.”

If he had been running for re-election, Flake acknowledged, there is “not a chance” that he would have been able to reach an agreement. The Arizona Republican is retiring at the end of this year.

“There’s no value to reaching across the aisle,” Flake said. “There’s no currency for that anymore. There’s no incentive.”

Kavanaugh faces sexual misconduct allegations, including those from Christine Blasey Ford, who testified last week that a drunken Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her while they were in high school. He has vehemently denied all allegations.

After Flake’s call, President Donald Trump on Friday ordered the FBI to reopen its investigation into Kavanaugh’s background after Flake called for the probe.

Earlier on Friday, Flake announced he would vote for Kavanaugh, but he looked shaken after being cornered in an elevator by two sexual assault survivors as he headed to the committee meeting.

“I couldn’t move forward without hitting the pause button,” Flake said on “60 Minutes.” “Because, what I was seeing, experiencing, in an elevator and watching it in committee and just thinking, this is tearing the country apart.”

More: White House is not involved with FBI investigation into Kavanaugh allegations, officials say

More: FBI has contacted Deborah Ramirez about sexual assault allegations by Brett Kavanaugh

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Earl Thomas gives middle finger toward Seahawks sideline after leg injury

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Earl Thomas gives middle finger toward Seahawks sideline after leg injury

After he was carted off with a leg injury, Seahawks safety Earl Thomas gave the middle finger toward his own sideline.

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Earl Thomas’ acrimonious season with the Seattle Seahawks might have reached a head.

The three-time all-pro safety was carted off the field during Sunday’s game against the Arizona Cardinals with what Seahawks coach Pete Carroll later revealed to be a lower leg fracture. As he was leaving, Thomas was shown on camera giving a middle finger toward the Seahawks’ sideline.

Thomas sustained the injury in the fourth quarter on a touchdown pass from Cardinals quarterback Josh Rosen to receiver Chad Williams. An air cast was placed on his left leg and players from both teams approached him to offer their support as he exited.

“I love Earl. I’ve always loved him,” Carroll said after the game. “I’ve loved everything he’s ever done for us.”

Entering the final year of his contract, Thomas waged an offseason holdout before deciding to report for the regular season after the team refused to oblige his request for a trade or extension.

He missed one practice last week and two more prior to last week’s win over the Dallas Cowboys, saying he would refuse to participate if he did not feel up to the task.

“I need to make sure my body is 100 (percent), and I’m investing in myself. If they were invested in me, I would be out there practicing,” Thomas said. “But if I feel like if I have anything, even if it’s something small, if I got a headache, I’m not practicing. But I don’t want that to be taken the wrong way — I know I’ll get fined.”

Carroll said Sunday he did not know about Thomas’ gesture, but he said he believed the player and organization had “just turned things around” regarding the dispute.

Follow Michael Middlehurst-Schwartz on Twitter @MikeMSchwartz.

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Little Women everywhere: Why the classic is making a comeback on its 150th birthday

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It’s not often that, more than a century after publication, a book reenters the culture with real relevance and force. Yet Little Women is doing just that.

Or perhaps — rarer still — it never really went away. As Louisa May Alcott’s classic celebrates its 150th anniversary, the flurry of new adaptations that are surfacing serves as a reminder of its influence. A BBC miniseries aired last year; a graphic novel, reimagining the characters as diverse, debuted online in March. (It’ll be published in hardcover in February 2019.) A modern retelling of Little Women premiered at the end of September; another, directed by Greta Gerwig (Lady Bird) — and starring Emma Watson, Timothée Chalamet, and Meryl Streep — will be released in 2019. “It’s very adult and interesting and thoughtful … and, of course, given the material, it’s always going to be romantic,” Robin Swicord, who’s producing the Gerwig film, recently said. “Greta has a wonderfully associative, well-furnished mind. Her take on the novel more than convinced us that we could bring something new to the screen.”

Little Women, which traces the lives of the March sisters against the backdrop of the American Civil War, has never gone out of print. It’s remained prominent on publisher Little, Brown and Co.’s backlist for more than a century. “Even ‘classics’ fall out of favor with some regularity,” Little, Brown’s publisher, Reagan Arthur, says. Not Little Women.

The book’s lasting appeal stems from, for many, its feminist statement: that “there are different models for how to be a woman in the world,” as Carina Guiterman, editor of a new anniversary edition, puts it. Novelist J. Courtney Sullivan (The Engagements) wrote the 150th edition’s foreword and says she grew up reading Little Women, first drawn to its watercolor illustrations before she could read and eventually to a story that took place close to her Massachusetts hometown. “The most enduring novels are the ones that you can read again and again, and each time take something different away,” she says. “My mom gave me the book when I was in fifth grade. And it belonged to her aunt when she was little.”

“My personal theory is that there’s been a long line of matrilineal pass-alongs — from mother to daughter, and then again, generation after generation. My own 19-year-old daughter has read it multiple times and I expect her daughter, should such a person arrive, to do the same,” Arthur adds. “More broadly, there is a unique and enduring appeal in reading about these strong, vibrant characters and the era they lived in.”

And that appeal extends to situating it in a more modern context — perhaps why re-imaginings are suddenly sparking. (By 2019, three Little Women adaptations will have aired over three years; before that, the last adaptation premiered in 1994.) While Little Women has meant so much to generations of so families, the story also speaks sharply to this moment. “Women today are hungry for reminders of our own strength and potential,“ Arthur argues. Sullivan also sees its vitality as reflective of what makes the book so readable, so enjoyable and comforting. “It’s about putting goodness into a very troubled world,” she says. We could all use some of that.

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California’s ‘giant step forward’: Gender-quotas law requires women on corporate boards

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From sales jobs to EMTs, these gigs have the worst gender pay gap.
USA TODAY

Beginning next year, California’s corporate board rooms will be required to take on a different look.

Gov. Jerry Brown on Sunday signed landmark legislation that will require all publicly traded companies with headquarters in California to have at least one woman on their board of directors by the end of 2019. The minimum requisite will increase to two by the end of 2021.

No other state has passed similar legislation, although a handful have approved nonbinding resolutions with a similar aim of gender equality.

Though Brown expressed some misgivings about the law, which has beencriticized as governmental intrusion into private business, he saw more pros than cons in its passage.

More: Gender quotas: California ponders breakthrough bill to boost female executives

“There have been numerous objections to this bill and serious legal concerns have been raised,’’ Brown said in a statement.. “I don’t minimize the potential flaws that indeed may prove fatal to its ultimate implementation. Nevertheless, recent events in Washington, D.C. – and beyond – make it crystal clear that many are not getting the message.’’

Brown’s comments appeared to reference last week’s Senate hearings involving Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh and Christine Blasey Ford, who has accused him of sexual assault when both were teenagers.

The FBI has since opened a background investigation on Kavanaugh, at the request of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Though several studies have shown companies with at least one female director perform better than their all-male counterparts, progress toward gender equality in the boardroom has been a slow slog at best.

State Sen. Hannah-Beth Jackson, a Democrat from Santa Barbara who co-authored the bill, pointed out the percentage of women in California corporate boards had barely nudged up from 15.5 percent in 2013 to 16 percent this year.

The bill provided statistics from 2017 showing one-fourth of California’s public companies in the comprehensive Russell 3000 index had no female directors. Nationally, nearly half the 75 largest IPOs from 2014-16 were launched by companies with no women on their boards.

“I think this is a giant step forward not just for women but also for our businesses and our economy,’’ Jackson told USA TODAY. “It’s a win-win-win.’’

Jackson said she’s optimistic other states will follow California’s lead in the same way the equal-pay bill she authored in 2015 became a template for similar legislation in most of the country.

However, Jackson acknowledged this legislation is likely to face legal challenges. The California Chamber of Commerce staunchly opposed the bill and questioned its state and federal constitutionality.

“It’s my hope that corporations, rather than fight this, will acknowledge its value and take the lead on pulling together and bringing greater diversity into their boardrooms,’’ Jackson said.

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Gwyneth Paltrow shows of matching wedding bands with Brad Falchuk in new photo

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Gwyneth Paltrow and Brad Falchuk are engaged!
Time

Gwyneth Paltrow is officially off the market. 

The actress posted a sweet picture of her hands intertwined with “Glee” co-creator Brad Falchuk on Instagram Sunday, flashing matching gold wedding bands.

This caption-less picture is truly worth a thousand words, confirming the engaged couple said “I do” during a private star-studded ceremony Saturday. 

Related: Gwyneth Paltrow is officially engaged to Brad Falchuk: ‘We feel incredibly lucky’

Many celebs, including “Iron Man” co-star Robert Downey Jr. (the Tony Stark to Paltrow’s Pepper Potts), Cameron Diaz, Jerry Seinfield, Steven Spielberg and Rob Lowe were on hand for the nuptials, according to People and E! News. 

Lowe posted a picture of himself with Downey at the wedding, captioning the snapshot: “Nothing beats a great night with an old friend. RDJ, I luv ya!” It was tagged in East Hampton, New York, where Paltrow and Falchuk reportedly tied the knot. 

USA TODAY reached out to both of their reps for confirmation.

Related: Chrissy Teigen tried Gwyneth Paltrow-approved vaginal steaming, but should you?

Paltrow, 46, met Falchuk, 47, on the set of “Glee” when she guest-starred on the Fox musical series multiple times between 2010 and 2014.

The actress split from ex-husband Chris Martin of Coldplay in March 2014 after 10 years of marriage and two children. They finalized their divorce in July 2016. Falchuk is also divorced with two children.

The couple announced they were engaged in January in an issue of Goop Magazine, published by the company Paltrow founded. 

Ahead of the magazine’s release, the two confirmed their engagement to “Good Morning America,” writing, “We feel incredibly lucky to have come together at this juncture in our lives when our collective successes and failures can serve as building blocks for a healthy and happy relationship.”

Related: Chris Martin assures Global Citizen fans they’re ‘safe’ after bang mistaken for gunshots

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‘Little lies point to bigger lies’: James Comey writes that the FBI’s investigation into Kavanaugh won’t be ‘as hard as Republicans hope it will be’

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The former FBI director, James Comey, weighed in Sunday on the recent firestorm surrounding Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh and the decision to order an FBI investigation into the sexual-misconduct allegations against him.

In an op-ed published by The New York Times, Comey wrote that “the FBI is up for this,” referring to the background check. “It’s not as hard as Republicans hope it will be.”

Comey continued, “FBI agents are experts at interviewing people and quickly dispatching leads to their colleagues around the world to follow with additional interviews. Unless limited in some way by the Trump administration, they can speak to scores of people in a few days, if necessary.”

But multiple media reports this weekend have suggested that the FBI’s inquiry is far more constrained than previously known.

Initially, Republicans set just two parameters: that the investigation had to be complete in under a week, and that it had to be limited to “current credible” allegations against Kavanaugh.

But on Saturday, NBC News and The Times reported that the White House and Senate Republicans gave the FBI a list of just four witnesses to interview. Investigators are also reportedly barred from pulling records that could be critical to corroborating parts of the testimony given by Dr. Christine Blasey Ford, who says Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her in 1982, to the Senate Judiciary Committee earlier this week.

Republicans and Kavanaugh’s defenders have argued that because the alleged assault happened 36 years ago, Ford may be remembering it wrong, and that it should carry less weight compared to Kavanaugh’s standing since then.

“But FBI agents know time has very little to do with memory,” Comey wrote. “They know every married person remembers the weather on their wedding day, no matter how long ago. Significance drives memory.”

Comey also alluded to the apparent discrepancy between statements Kavanaugh made to the committee about his drinking habits in high school and college, and what some of his former classmates remember based on their encounters with him.

In particular, Kavanaugh claims that he was not a heavy drinker when he was young and that he never drank to excess or had gaps in his memory. His former classmates, conversely, have said that they recall multiple instances when Kavanaugh was heavily intoxicated and likely blacked out.

Kavanaugh’s high school yearbook also appears to contain multiple references to partying and heavy drinking. But the Supreme Court nominee said under oath that they were innocent references to inside jokes that had nothing to do with what the common meanings of those terms typically are.

FBI investigators “know that little lies point to bigger lies,” Comey wrote. “They know that obvious lies by the nominee about the meaning of words in a yearbook are a flashing signal to dig deeper.”

It’s unclear how deep the FBI will be able to dig, however, given the additional limits that have been placed on the scope of the investigation.

“There isn’t a finder of fact in the country that would hamstring investigators like this,” said Jeffrey Cramer, a longtime former federal prosecutor in Chicago. “It would be comical if it wasn’t so important.”

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Halloween director considered alternative titles for horror sequel

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For more on Halloween, pick up the new issue of Entertainment Weekly on stands now, or buy it here. Don’t forget to subscribe for more exclusive interviews and photos, only in EW.

Director David Gordon Green’s horror sequel Halloween (out Oct. 19) is the third film in the franchise to have that title, after John Carpenter’s series-inaugurating 1978 classic and Rob Zombie’s 2007 remake of Carpenter’s film. Indeed, in an attempt to avoid potential confusion, Green and the new film’s other behind-the-scenes principals considered a number of other possible monikers, including The Shape, a reference to the the name given to the character of masked killer Michael Myers in the final credits of Carpenter’s movie.

“That was a weird discussion,” says Green. “You know, do we call it The Shape? Do we call it Halloween Returns? What do you call it? Technically, it’s the third Halloween II. It kind of got to the point where we were like, ‘Well, we don’t want to not invite anybody. We don’t want someone who is unfamiliar with the previous films to think, well, I need to catch up.’ So then we just thought, for simplicity, let’s just call it Halloween.”

In the new Halloween, Jamie Lee Curtis reprises her signature role as the Myers-battling Laurie Strode.

“The first movie I was running more, and in this movie, I’m hunting more,” says Curtis. “[You] watch this woman take back the narrative of her life.”

Halloween costars Judy Greer, Andi Matichak, and Toby Huss, among others.

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Death toll hits 832 after earthquake and tsunami in Indonesia — and authorities expect it to rise

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PALU, Indonesia (Reuters) – The toll from an earth quake and tsunami in Indonesia soared to 832 confirmed dead on Sunday, with authorities fearing the numbers will climb as rescuers grappled to get aid to outlying communities cut off from communications and help.

Dozens of people were reported to be trapped in the rubble of several hotels and a mall in the city of Palu, on Sulawesi island, which was hit by waves as high as six meters (20 feet) following the 7.5 magnitude earthquake on Friday.

A woman was pulled alive from the debris of the city’s Roa Roa Hotel, where up to 60 people were believed trapped. Hundreds of people gathered at the wrecked eight-storey Tatura Mall searching for loved ones.

“Grieve for the people of Central Sulawesi, we all grieve together,” President Joko Widodo tweeted late on Sunday.

Most of the confirmed deaths were in Palu itself, and authorities are bracing for the toll to climb as connections with outlying areas are restored.

Map locating the city of Palu in Sulawesi island.
via Reuters

Of particular concern is Donggala, a region of 300,000 people north of Palu and close to the epicenter of the quake, and two other districts, which has been cut off from communications since Friday.

“We haven’t received reports from the three other areas. Communication is still down, power is still out. We don’t know for sure what is the impact,” Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, a spokesman for the National Disaster Mitigation Agency, told a news conference.

Along with Palu, 1,500 km (930 miles) northeast of Jakarta, these districts have a combined population of about 1.4 million.

A video of the outskirts of Donggala shot on Sunday afternoon by the Indonesian Red Cross showed scenes of devastation, with houses flattened into piles of rubble and broken furniture.

Smaller aftershocks from Friday’s quake continued to rumble through the area.

Social worker Lian Gogali tweeted from the area that several villages on the west coast of Sulawesi were in desperate need of food, medicine and shelter and that road access was still limited.

An aerial view of the Baiturrahman mosque which was hit by a tsunami, after a quake in West Palu, Central Sulawesi, Indonesia.
Antara Foto/Muhammad Adimaja/via REUTERS

Pledge to rebuild

Five foreigners – three French, one South Korean and one Malaysian – were among the missing, Nugroho said. The 832 dead included people crushed in the quake and swept away by the tsunami.

Vice President Jusuf Kalla said the death toll could rise into the thousands.

Earlier President Widodo visited a housing complex flattened when the quake liquefied the soil it stood on, and called for patience.

“I know there are many problems that need to be solved in a short time, including communications,” he said. The ruins would be rebuilt, he said, as aftershocks rattled the region 48 hours after the quake.

Footage of the ruined city show a crumpled mess of houses, cars and trees mashed together by the quake, with rooftops and roads split and left at all angles.

“There are estimated to be many victims in this area. Evacuation is difficult because many collapsed houses are buried in soil,” the National Disaster Mitigation Agency’s Nugroho said on Sunday evening.

A woman cries as she waits to be evacuated by military aircraft following an earthquake and tsunami at Mutiara Sis Al Jufri Airport in Palu, Central Sulawesi, Indonesia.
Antara Foto/Hafidz Mubarak A/via REUTERS

Internal Affairs Minister Tjahjo Kumolo, asked about reports of looting on social media, said he had ordered authorities to help people get food and drink and businesses would be compensated. One video posted on YouTube showed people grabbing boxes of supplies from a truck.

Television pictures showed scores of residents shouting “we’re hungry, we need food” as soldiers distributed rations from a truck in one neighborhood, while footage from elsewhere showed people making off with clothes and other items from a wrecked mall.

State logistics agency chief Budi Waseso said it was preparing to send hundreds of tonnes of government rice stocks to Central Sulawesi areas affected by the disaster.

Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati said the government had allocated 560 billion rupiah ($37.58 million) for disaster recovery, media reported.

Questions about warnings

Indonesia, which sits on the seismically active Pacific Ring of Fire, is all too familiar with deadly earthquakes and tsunamis. In 2004, aquake off Sumatra island triggered a tsunami across the Indian Ocean, killing 226,000 people in 13 countries, including more than 120,000 in Indonesia.

Questions are sure to be asked why warning systems set up after that disaster appear to have failed on Friday. Nugroho, bemoaning a fall in funding, said no tsunami buoys, one type of instrument used to detect the waves, in Indonesia had been operating since 2012.

The meteorological and geophysics agency BMKG issued a tsunami warning after the quake but lifted it 34 minutes later, drawing criticism it had been too hasty. But officials estimated the waves had hit while the warning was in force.

Hundreds of people had gathered for a festival on Palu’s beach when the water surged. A disaster official said the tsunami traveled across the sea at speeds of 800 kph (500 mph).

Video on social media showed water bearing whirls of debris rushing in as people shouted in alarm and scattered.

Palu is at the head of a bay, about 10 km long and 2 km wide, which had “amplified” the wave as it was funneled toward the city, a geophysics agency official said.

The BMKG said its closest tidal gauge sensor, about 200 km (125 miles) from Palu, had only recorded an “insignificant” 6 cm (2.5 inches) wave.

Palu’s airport was damaged in the quake, but had reopened for limited commercial flights, authorities said.

Neighbors including Australia, Thailand and China offered help and Pope Francis, speaking to thousands in St. Peter’s Square, said he was praying for the victims.

The European Union has announced 1.5 million euros ($1.74 million) in immediate aid.

Indonesia has the world’s largest Muslim population but also significant pockets of Christians, including on Sulawesi, which is one of the archipelago nation’s five main islands.

(Reporting by Reuters stringer in PALU, Fergus Jensen, Fanny Potkin, Tabita Diela, Agustinus Beo Da Costa, Gayatri Suroyo and Fransiska Nangoy in JAKARTA, Kanupriya Kapoor in MAMUJU. Steve Scherer in ROME, Ben Blanchard in BEIJING and Patpicha Tanakasempipat in BANGKOK; Writing by Robert Birsel; Editing by Michael Perry, Alex Richardson, Neil Fullick and Adrian Croft)

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Emma Thompson on returning to Shakespeare in King Lear after two decades away

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Many film fans associate Emma Thompson with Jane Austen — the image of her traipsing through the English countryside as Elinor in Sense and Sensibility, or taking the stage at the 1995 Oscars to accept the Best Adapted Screenplay award for that same movie.

But Thompson also has a long history with another great British writer: Shakespeare. In the early 1990s, she starred in several adaptations of the Bard’s work, most memorably as Beatrice opposite then-husband Kenneth Branagh’s Benedict in Much Ado about Nothing. Until recently, Thompson hadn’t done Shakespeare on screen since, not that it was a personal choice. “Nobody asked,” she tells EW. “I never intentionally take a break from anything. It just happens, you know?”

Now Thompson is roaring back with a layered, ferocious performance as Goneril, the eldest of King Lear’s daughters, in a BBC adaptation of King Lear, which stars Anthony Hopkins in the title role and is set in a dystopian version of contemporary London. The film hit Amazon Prime stateside Sept. 28, and EW caught up with Thompson to get the details on what appealed to her about the role, what it was like shooting in historic locations all over Britain, and why the tale is particularly pertinent for 21st-century audiences.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: What about this adaptation appealed to you? Were you gung-ho for its more modern setting?
EMMA THOMPSON:
I was very pleased to be asked, and I would never have said anything but yes because I love Tony Hopkins so much. We had always said, “Whenever we get the chance, let’s do something else.” [Thompson won an Oscar for Best Actress opposite Hopkins in 1992’s Howards End.] Suddenly, this wonderful piece came along and we felt so fortunate. I know it sounds so odd because what we’re playing is so dysfunctional and tragic, but the process was extremely happy. Tony, who’s an extraordinary actor and person, was so generous and so wonderful to watch. Every take he would give everything that he had. Then he’d do it again when it came onto our shot, so he would never sit back on it because he’s just too, well, generous actually, but [also] professional and well-trained and all of that. Goodness me, it was an extraordinary thing watching him do it. I thought [director] Richard [Eyre’s] vision was so clever. Really smart. The Stalinist-dictator-style gave us all a lot to go on, particularly the children, who, of course, have been horribly abused emotionally.

RELATED: Ian McKellen promises King Lear is in no way a ‘farewell tour’

What was it like filming in these stately homes and historic properties in Britain?
The 11th-century chapel we were shooting in at the beginning has never been shot in before. Honestly, when you were in there on your own, you really felt that any minute now [an apparition] of someone praying not to be beheaded would appear behind one of the pillars. It was so resonant and ghostly and amazing.

Goneril is so fascinating because she is vastly mistreated by her father, but then her response is so extreme. How do you calibrate a character like that, especially when it’s one that is commonly perceived as a villain?
The way in which Richard allowed us to play it made it quite clear that these women have just had enough of the abuse. They’ve had enough of him, his childishness. Everything about it makes it very, very clear that they’ve had it up to the eyeballs. We felt very clear about why they behaved the way they behaved. Yes, they’re very cruel.… When something makes emotional sense, there’s no problem with it, really. You can see her rage and her unhappiness make absolute sense. She wasn’t hard to inhabit in that sense. I wasn’t thinking, “Oh my God, I’m playing a monster.” She’s following suit, isn’t she? She’s been taught by masters. We’ve watched her father’s cruelty, and if that’s all you’ve seen and all you’ve learnt, than that’s how you behave in turn.

You’ve done both Austen and Shakespeare, two writers who vie for Greatest British Author in the popular imagination — do you have a preference? How do they compare?
They’re so different. I wouldn’t settle down in bed with a Shakespeare play. I’m unlikely to do that, whereas I am very likely to settle down with an Austen. There’s a big difference in the way in which you experience their writing. Because really, Shakespeare is best watched.

I really feel like King Lear is the play of the 21st century, and we have seen more adaptations of it in my lifetime than any other Shakespeare play. Why do you think that is? And why do you think it transitions so flawlessly to a modern setting?
Because we’re living in a massive dysfunctional family system at the moment, aren’t we? Our leaders are all over the place right now. Here [in the U.S.], you’ve got a very [monolithic] head of state in a sense, who’s really lost the plot almost entirely but isn’t about to give over power to his children anytime soon — though, of course, they’re right in there with him. And our country [the United Kingdom] simply isn’t being governed because no one knows what the f— they’re doing. As a portrait of a failed state, [King Lear is] very redolent of the crumbling of both this form of capitalism and this form of patriarchy, which are dying, hopefully more quickly than the planet will die. Because we’re really in trouble. So I suppose as a portrait of a deeply dysfunctional family and state, it does speak to us. In terms of relating it to any part of the 20th century, I always think of Lear as being quite Stalinist. There are so many corollaries, aren’t there? So it’s not surprising, is it? It’s a dark vision. But at the end when Edgar says we have to just get on with this now, and the young have to really listen and really act together in a decent way, it’s very important, that. All the more important now.

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Macaroni-and-cheese-flavored candy canes are the holiday mashup no one’s been waiting for

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Macaroni-and-cheese-flavored candy canes are the holiday mashup no one’s been waiting for

Seattle company Archie McPhee’s latest mashup is one you probably never imagined your taste buds would encounter: macaroni and cheese candy canes.

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Here’s a holiday candy mashup you probably never imagined your taste buds would encounter: macaroni-and-cheese-flavored candy canes.

Seattle company Archie McPhee, which previously brought candy lovers bacon-flavored candy canes, is selling the new confectionary curiosity on its website. It describes the 5 1/4-inch-tall, yellow-and-white-striped candy canes as having “cheesy flavoring” that tastes “like your childhood favorite – mac and cheese. It’s like comfort food-flavored comfort food!”

The Mac & Cheese Candy Canes have “instant mac & cheese flavor,” says the company, which sells them in a package of six candies for $5.95.

Instagram user @junkfoodmom tried the Mac & Cheese candy canes and said the candy “isn’t bad! Smells like cheese and tastes like Mac n cheese but the sweetness overpowers the flavor eventually so it’s doable.”

Apparently, some early shoppers got the candy canes at the bargain price of $4.95.

The candy is just one among an omnibus of oddities available on the Archie McPhee site, where the purveyor touts that for more than three decades it “has been bringing strange and amazing things to the world. We design and manufacture the kinds of impractical items that make life better.”

If you like unusual food mashups, you will literally be like a kid in a candy store on the website. There you will also find clam-flavored “Clamdy Canes,” dill pickle-flavored candy canes and rotisserie chicken-flavored candy canes. For kids who have been naughty and not nice, try smoky cinnamon-flavored “Krampus Candy Canes” – named after “the anti-Santa Claus of the alpine Germanic tradition,” the site says.

Peppermint, anyone?

Follow USA TODAY reporter Mike Snider on Twitter: @MikeSnider.

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