Epic Level Entertainment Announces New Film "Charlie Says" and New Partner, Dana Guerin

"Charlie Says"  (Epic Level Entertainment)

Epic Level Entertainment announces Dana Guerin has joined the company as a producer, and that their first film together, Charlie Says, will premiere at the Venice Film Festival. 

Charlie Says, which recounts the story of the three female members of the Manson Family who were imprisoned for the notorious murders, is directed by Mary Harron and written by Guinevere Turner, the team behind American Psycho.

Guerin, whose entertainment career includes titles such as The Vault, Outlaws and Angels, and The Taking of Deborah Logan, has been developing the Charlie Says project for the past six years, alongside Harron and Turner. 

She brought the film to Epic Level when she joined the company earlier this year.

"We are ecstatic to welcome Dana to Epic Level Entertainment," says producer John Frank Rosenblum. "I had the pleasure of working with Dana at On Track Entertainment in the 90s, where she was ahead of her time in the repurposing of new media properties for basic cable broadcasting. With her latest film, Charlie Says, she is telling the female perspective of a story that had previously been dominated by the male perspective, ensuring that it was also written, directed and primarily produced by women. Here again, Dana shows that she is ahead of the curve with what the public wants, and indeed now demands, from popular entertainment."

Charlie Says is a story about the three young women who were sentenced to death in the infamous Manson murder case, but when the death penalty was lifted, their sentence became life imprisonment.  

One young graduate student was sent in to work with them, and to help them understand the consequences of their actions. Through this prison counselor, Karlene Faith, we witness their transformations as they face the reality of their horrific crimes.

Epic Level Entertainment has historically focused on horror and genre entertainment. While these themes will remain a mainstay of the company's slate, Guerin's addition will expand their productions to include relevant contemporary themes aligned, for instance, with the #MeToo movement, among others.

"Epic Level Entertainment is excited to be part of the solution with three partner/producers who are female, including myself, Dana and Paige Barnett. Female driven films are more in demand than ever, and Epic Level Entertainment is bringing them to the forefront," says Cindi Rice, Producer.

"Charlie Says" (Epic Level Entertainment)

⏩ Epic Level Entertainment is debuting Charlie Says at the Venice Film Festival on September 2nd.

SOURCE: Epic Level Entertainment

Bonus Video:

Elton John Enters The Rap Scene In New Snickers Ad

Captain Fantastic Elton John ‘Hits Up’ The Rap Scene In New Snickers Ad

Captain Fantastic Elton John, best known for captivating audiences with bittersweet ballads and world-conquering anthems, is back with a bang in a new Snickers ad – but not as you've seen him before. 

The clever new ad, out September 1, 2018, sees Elton venture into the hip hop genre as the personification of American artist, Boogie, amidst a rap battle, when he's lost his edge due to hunger.

The film kicks off at a house party with an MC battle featuring up-and-coming talent, Emarr Kuhomano and Monique Lawz, before Sir Elton steps up to the plate wearing his iconic red glitter jacket and glasses. Out of place in a cipher, Elton lets rip one of his biggest hits "Don't Go Breaking My Heart," humorously cringing the crowd. 

Elton John And Eminem-Signed Rapper, Boogie, On Set Of New Snickers Ad

Oxford-born UK rapper Femi Nylander takes matters into his own hands, getting the beat back on track by offering Elton a Snickers bar - wherein the real Boogie returns on form.

"Most people already know I've long been an advocate of hip hop and that's why I wanted be a part of this – I got to hang out with Boogie and some great hip hop talent from the UK too," said Elton John. "Moreover, I love the direction the new Snickers ads have humorously portrayed being off your game when you're hungry, but in a way that's current and relevant to young people, especially considering hip hop is one of the biggest music genres in the world today."

"Building on the 'You're Not You When You're Hungry' theme, which has connected so well with consumers, we're glad to see this latest installment take the story a step further," said Dale Green, Snickers Global Brand Director. "When we developed the rap battle concept, we knew Elton John would be the perfect fit to help bring this to life. His unique blend of music, style and humor is instantly recognizable around the world and works well with our Snickers brand."

Boogie, who is signed with Eminem Shady Records, says: "Working with Elton on the set of the new Snickers ad was everything I expected and more – he's generous with his time, funny and fantastically talented! Between him and fresh new hip hop talent like Femi Nylander, Emarr Kuhomano and Monique Lawz – it was an incredible coming together of multi-talented people."

The Snicker Ad:

⏩ This latest ad builds on the 'Locker Room' Snickers spot, which launched in 2012, featuring Joan Collins and Stephanie Beacham, and the 'Mr. Bean Kung-Fu Master' ad from 2014.

SOURCE: Mars, Incorporated

[US] 20 Years of Harry Potter: Pottermore Publishing Offering Unlimited Access to Ebook in Public Libraries

"Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" - Front Cover (image via Rakuten OverDrive)

In celebration of the 20th anniversary of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, Pottermore Publishing is offering fans unlimited access to Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone ebook for two weeks from public libraries. From August 27 to September 10, fans across North America can read the ebook on Libby, the award-winning one-tap reading app from the library, with no cost, waitlists or holds.

"Pottermore Publishing is delighted to offer fans the chance to celebrate 20 years since the publication of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone via their local library," said Jennie McCann, Publishing Director at Pottermore Publishing. "We have worked with digital library distributors across the US to bring this to life and look forward to seeing the campaign unfold."

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, the first book in one of the world's most popular series, introduces us to the stories of the Boy Who Lived and his first encounters with Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and the wizarding world. With over 500 million copies sold worldwide, the series has now been translated into over 80 languages and made into 8 blockbuster films. 

Readers can discover the magic of the wizarding world by downloading Libby and checking out the ebook through their local public library. All it takes is a library card; some libraries also have access to an Instant Digital Card which simply requires a cell phone number to sign up. This service is compatible with all major computers and devices, including iPhone, iPad, Android devices, Windows tablets, and Kindle [US libraries] without waitlists or holds. 

⏩ The title will automatically expire at the end of the lending period, and there are no late fees.

To get started, download Libby today from the iOS App Store, Google Play or Windows App Store. Libby is powered by Rakuten OverDrive, the leading digital reading platform for libraries and schools.

About Pottermore:

Pottermore Publishing is the global digital publisher of the Harry Potter and Fantastic Beasts series as well as other audiobooks and ebooks from the Wizarding World.  

It aims to lead the way in innovative digital publishing and to bring new generations of readers together with long-standing fans, celebrating and bringing to life the stories that first began with the Boy Who Lived.

About Rakuten OverDrive and Libby:

Rakuten OverDrive is the leading digital reading platform for libraries and schools worldwide. 

We are dedicated to "a world enlightened by reading" by delivering the industry's largest catalog of ebooks, audiobooks, magazines and other digital media to a growing network of 40,000 libraries and schools in 70 countries.

Named one of Google Play's Best Apps of 2017, Libby is the "one-tap reading app" for libraries. Founded in 1986, OverDrive is based in Cleveland, Ohio USA and owned by Tokyo-based Rakuten. 

SOURCE: Rakuten OverDrive

Explosive New Podcast "Fatal Voyage: The Mysterious Death Of Natalie Wood" Unearths New Evidence To Suggest Hollywood Icon Could Have Been Saved

Podcast: "Fatal Voyage: The Mysterious Death Of Natalie Wood"

Hours before Natalie Wood's corpse was recovered off California's Catalina Island, the occupants of the boat moored next to the Hollywood legend's yacht said they heard a woman desperately crying for help.

That is the startling revelation to emerge from Chapter 7 of "Fatal Voyage: The Mysterious Death Of Natalie Wood," released today, the critically acclaimed true crime podcast that soared to the top of the iTunes chart and made worldwide headlines.

In a stunning exclusive interview with the makers of the 12-part audio documentary, earwitness Marilyn Wayne has finally told all about the anguished cries she heard that fateful night.

"We heard screams from a woman yelling for help," she told the "Fatal Voyage" investigative team for Chapter Seven, titled "The Night Of," which is now available for download on iTunes.

"Well, my son had a digital watch, that we had just given him so that's how we kept the time, minute by minute. I was up on the deck and heard a woman yelling, "Help me, somebody please help me, I'm drowning."

She added: "I would yell down to my boyfriend John, who was on the phone to Harbor Patrol, or trying to reach Harbor Patrol, he never did. Meanwhile, we would continue to ask my son what time is it? So we had a minute by minute history of the time frame and the yelling went on from 5 after 11 until 11:25 and then it stopped."

That time frame, of course, mirrors the believed duration during which the Oscar winner mysteriously vanished from her and her husband Robert Wagner's yacht, The Splendour, following a jealousy-filled two days at sea.

The couple was hosting Natalie's "Brainstorm" costar Christopher Walken aboard their boat.

The Splendour.

In a second blockbuster interview broadcast for the first time in Chapter 7, the former Los Angeles County Supervising Rescue Boat Captain who removed Natalie's body from the water declares: "Wagner could have saved his wife but he didn't."

Roger Smith, is a former Los Angeles County supervising rescue boat captain who headed a lifeguard team that helped in the search for Natalie that fateful morning nearly 37 years ago.

In this never-before-heard interview, Smith broke decades of silence and revealed shocking new details about the tragedy that has remained a mystery and is currently being reinvestigated.

At 5 a.m. on Nov. 29, 1981, rescue boat captain Smith and his team were asked to help in the search. When the empty dinghy was eventually found, a helicopter hovered nearby and spotted something beneath the water several hundred yards away.

It was Natalie, just below the water. Smith was nearby, and recalls the moment her body was gently lifted up and laid up on the deck.

"She still looked like she hadn't been gone, dead very long," Smith said. "In fact, when I took off her ring on her hand, her hands were still pliable. You know, so nothing is set in yet. No rigor mortis at all. And her facial, she looked, she looked like she hadn't been dead very long."

According to commentary in Chapter 7, rigor mortis begins to set in around four hours after death, and cold water could slow it even further. "If Roger Smith's account is accurate, there's a chance Natalie had survived in the water for quite some time prior to being found," explained Executive Producer, Kelly Garner.

In previous chapters of the series, the yacht's captain, Dennis Davern, described a harrowing two days of pettiness and rage from Wagner as he bristled over Natalie and Walken's friendship.

In the debut episode of "Fatal Voyage: The Mysterious Death Of Natalie Wood," a homicide detective from the Los Angeles County Sheriff Department labelled Wagner a "person of interest" in the unsolved case of Natalie's death, which they say has yielded considerable evidence suggesting foul play.

Here are other facts that have been uncovered to date:

• Homicide Detective Ralph Hernandez explaining the bruising on Natalie's body suggests she was the victim of assault on the night of her death.
• Natalie Wood being raped at the age of sixteen during an "interview" at Chateau Marmont.
• 16 years old Natalie having an affair with a director more than 20 years her senior, with speculation of it being to ensure the lead female role in Rebel without a Cause.
• Robert Wagner's alleged affair with a man.
• Robert Wagner, fearing Natalie had fallen for Warren Beatty, showing up at Beatty's house with a gun intending to kill him.
• Natalie Wood attempted to commit suicide by ingestion sleeping pills.
• Natalie Wood's on-set chemistry with co-star Christopher Walken enrages RJ.
• Lana Wood reveals Natalie Wood reunited with RJ because "it's better to be with the devil you know than the devil you don't."
• Natalie Wood was ready to leave RJ for the second time.
• Natalie Wood always made more money than RJ and paid off his debt when they remarried.
• Dennis Davern reveals that after a day of tension where RJ began to act crazy, Natalie insisted on spending the first night of the weekend getaway on shore, away from him.

Fatal Voyage: The Mysterious Death Of Natalie Wood

⏩ Episode 7 is available to download and listen for free in full via iTunes now, including more exclusive details and interviews as part of the reinvestigation.

Series Synopsis:

An A-List Hollywood Actress vanishes from a yacht and her body washes ashore the following morning. Her leading man husband, and a legendary actor who accompanied them on a pleasure cruise, claim she accidentally fell overboard. But questions, terrible ones, linger. A brutal argument. A skipper who overheard violence. A coroner who's ruling of "accidental drowning" is overturned, and Los Angeles homicide detectives who are still running the case to ground almost four decades later. 

'Fatal Voyage: The Mysterious Death Of Natalie Wood' is a 12-part audio documentary series produced by American Media Inc and Treefort.Media that intends to solve the mystery of Natalie Wood's death, once and for all. 

SOURCE: American Media, Inc.

John McCain, Dead At 81, Helped Build A Country That No Longer Reflects His Values

Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain arrives for a news conference in Annapolis, Md. (REUTERS/Jim Young)

Arizona Sen. John McCain – scion of Navy brass, flyboy turned Vietnam war hero and tireless defender of American global leadership – has died after a year of treatment for terminal brain cancer.

“With the Senator when he passed were his wife Cindy and their family. At his death, he had served the United States of America faithfully for sixty years,” McCain’s office said in a statement.

I am a scholar of American politics. And I believe that, regardless of his storied biography and personal charm, three powerful trends in American politics thwarted McCain’s lifelong ambition to be president. They were the rise of the Christian right, partisan polarization and declining public support for foreign wars.

Republican McCain was a champion of bipartisan legislating, an approach that served him and the Senate well. But as political divides have grown, bipartisanship has fallen out of favor.

Most recently, McCain opposed Gina Haspel as CIA director for “her refusal to acknowledge torture’s immorality” and her role in it. Having survived brutal torture for five years as a prisoner of war, McCain maintained a resolute voice against U.S. policies permitting so-called “enhanced interrogations.” Nevertheless, his appeals failed to rally sufficient support to slow, much less derail, her appointment.

Days later, a White House aide said McCain’s opposition to Haspel didn’t matter because “he’s dying anyway.” That disparaging remark and the refusal of the White House to condemn it revealed how deeply the president’s hostile attitude toward McCain and everything he stands for had permeated the executive office.

McCain ended his career honorably and bravely, but with hostility from the White House, marginal influence in the Republican-controlled Senate, and a public less receptive to the positions he has long embodied.

The outlier 

McCain’s first run for the presidency in 2000 captured the imagination of the public and the press, whom he wryly referred to as “my base.” His self-confident “maverick” persona appealed to a more secular, moderate constituency who like him, might be constitutionally opposed to the growing political alignment between the religious right and the Republican Party. 

McCain enthusiastically bucked his party and steered his “Straight Talk Express” through the GOP primaries with a no-holds-barred attack on Pat Robertson and Rev. Jerry Falwell. The two were conservative icons and leaders of the Christian Coalition and the Moral Majority.

McCain branded Robertson and Falwell “agents of intolerance” and “empire builders.” He charged that they used religion to subordinate the interests of working people. He said their religion served a business goal and accused them of shaming “our faith, our party, and our country.” That message earned McCain a primary victory in New Hampshire but his campaign capsized in South Carolina, where Republican voters launched George W. Bush, the stalwart evangelical, on his path to a presidential victory in 2000 against Democratic nominee, Vice President Al Gore.

By 2008, McCain saw the political clout of white, born-again, evangelical Christians. By then, they comprised 26 percent of the electorate. Bowing to political winds, he adopted a more conciliatory approach.

McCain’s willingness to defend America as a “Christian nation” and his controversial choice of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, an enthusiastic standard bearer for the Christian right, as his running mate, signaled the electoral power of a less tolerant, more absolutist “values-based” politics.

Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain and his running mate Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, 2008. (REUTERS/John Gress)

McCain’s about-face revealed a political pragmatist willing to make peace with the Christian right and accept their ability to make or break his last attempt at the presidency.

His strategy reflected his tendency to abandon principles if they threatened his quest for the presidency. Having railed eight years prior against the hypocrisy of the right-wing religious leadership, McCain may have felt some personal discomfort kowtowing to the dictates of self-appointed moral authorities. But the electorate had changed since then, and McCain showed he was willing to shift his position to accommodate their beliefs.

The primary that year also required an outright appeal to independents and even crossover Democrats. That would potentially provide enough votes to boost him past George W. Bush, whose campaign had already expressed allegiance to the conservative religious agenda.

In 2008, Mitt Romney, a devout Mormon considered religiously suspect by many evangelicals, emerged as McCain’s main rival for the nomination.

Sensing an opportunity to establish a winning coalition, McCain jettisoned his former objections to the political influence of the religious right, shifting from antagonism to accommodation. In doing so, McCain revealed his flexibility again on principles that might fatally undermine his overriding ambition – winning the presidency.

In fact, the incorporation of the religious right into the Republican Party represented but one facet of a more consequential development. That was the fiercely ideological partisan polarization that has come to dominate the political system.

The lonely Republican 

Rough parity between the parties since 2000 has intensified the electoral battles for Congress and the presidency. It has supercharged the fundraising machines on both sides. And it has nullified the “regular order” of congressional hearings, debates and compromise, as party leaders scheme for policy wins. 

Fueled by highly engaged activists, interest groups and donors known as “policy demanders,” partisan polarization has overwhelmed moderates in our political system. McCain was a bipartisan problem-solver and was willing to compromise with Democrats to pass campaign finance reform in 2002. He worked with the other side to normalize relations with Vietnam in 1995. And he joined with Democrats to pass immigration reform in 2017.

But he was also one of those moderates who ultimately found himself on the outside of his party.

McCain’s dramatic Senate floor thumbs-down repudiation of the Republican effort to repeal and replace Obamacare turned less on his antipathy to Trump and more on his disgust with a broken party-line legislative process.

On an issue as monumental as health care, he insisted on a return to “extensive hearings, debate, and amendment.” He endorsed the efforts of Sens. Lamar Alexander, a Republican, and Patty Murray, a Democrat, to craft a bipartisan solution.

Foreign and defense policy was McCain’s signature issue. He wanted a more robust posture for American global leadership, backed by a well-funded, war-ready military. But that stance lost support a decade ago following the Iraq War disaster.

McCain’s 2008 presidential campaign slogan of “Country First” signified not only the model of his personal commitment and sacrifice. It also telegraphed his belief in the need to persevere in the war on terror in general and the Iraq and Afghanistan wars in particular.

Presidential candidate McCain at a rally San Diego, 2000. (REUTERS/Mike Blake)

But by then, 55 percent of registered independents, McCain’s electoral base, had lost confidence in the prospects for a military victory. They favored bringing the troops home.

Over the course of six months that year, independent support for the Iraq war fell from 54 percent to 40 percent. Overall opposition to the troop “surge” was at 63 percent. Barack Obama’s promise to wind down America’s military commitment and do “nation-building at home” resonated with an electorate wearied by the conflict and buffeted by their own economic woes.

Advocate for global leadership 

McCain continued to assert the primacy of American power. He decried the country’s retreat from a rules-based global order premised on American leadership and based on freedom, capitalism, human rights and democracy. 

Donald Trump stands in contrast. Trump, like Obama, promises to terminate costly commitments abroad, revoke defense and trade agreements that fail to put “America First,” and rebuild the nation’s crumbling infrastructure.

In his run for the presidency, Trump asserted that American might and treasure had been squandered defending the world. Other countries, he said, took advantage of U.S. magnanimity.

In Congress, Republicans have become cautious about U.S. military interventions, counterinsurgency operations and nation-building. They find scant public support for intervention in Syria’s civil war.

Seeing Russia as America’s implacable foe, McCain sponsored sanctions legislation and prodded the administration to implement them more vigorously.

Accepting the Liberty Medal in Philadelphia, McCain repudiated Trump’s approach to global leadership.

He declared, “To abandon the ideals we have advanced around the globe, to refuse the obligations of international leadership for the sake of some half-baked, spurious nationalism cooked up by people who would rather find scapegoats than solve problems is as unpatriotic as an attachment to any other tired dogma of the past that Americans consigned to the ash heap of history.”

McCain spent his life committed to principles that, tragically – at least for him – have fallen from favor, and the country’s repudiation of the principles he championed may put the nation at risk.


About Today's Contributor:
Elizabeth Sherman, Assistant Professor Department of Government, American University School of Public Affairs

This article was originally published on The Conversation.

(This is an updated version of an article originally published on on June 12, 2018.)

US: Michael Cohen’s Guilty Plea? ‘Nothing To See Here’

After the Manafort and Cohen news dropped, many wondered how Trump would respond. By the following morning, a messaging strategy seemed to coalesce. (Nick Lehr/The Conversation via Reuters and AP Photo)

On the afternoon of Aug. 21, when news of Paul Manafort’s conviction and Michael Cohen’s plea deal emerged within hours of one another, the social media channels of Donald Trump’s most vociferous supporters went dark.

The statements of Cohen, Trump’s longtime personal attorney, seemed damaging.
Cohen pleaded guilty to federal charges of campaign finance violations and swore, under oath, that he acted to prevent “information that would be harmful to the candidate and to the campaign” from reaching the public for the “principal purpose of influencing the election.” In confessing to the federal crimes Cohen also implicated his client, Trump, by saying he committed these crimes at the behest of “a candidate for federal office.”

As a New York Times analysis put it, Cohen’s statement in court “carried echoes of President Richard M. Nixon, who was named an ‘unindicted co-conspirator’ in the special prosecutor’s investigation of Watergate.”

Because of the seriousness of Cohen’s plea, the question wasn’t if Trump and his surrogates would respond, but when.

When someone attacks me, I always attack back...except 100x more. This has nothing to do with a tirade but rather, a way of life!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 11, 2012

Trump and his team reportedly “spent hours working on a statement” to attempt to clear Trump’s name and reject the “unindicted co-conspirator” label. By the following morning, a messaging strategy seemed to coalesce.

As a professor of rhetoric and argumentation who is finishing a book about Trump’s presidential campaign, I paid close attention to what Trump’s camp decided to say in his defense.

“Apologia” – an Ancient Greek term for the speech of self-defense – can assume a few well-known forms. They include: denial (“I didn’t do it”), differentiation (“It wasn’t what you think, it was something else”), bolstering (“Important people approve of what I did, so you should, too”) and transcendence (“Let’s focus on what is really important here – the big picture”).

Trump’s apologia has been primarily based upon denial and differentiation. He wants to persuade Americans that he did nothing wrong and that things are not what they appear to be.

To buttress this, his defenders relied upon what rhetoric scholars call “points of stasis,” which are questions that debaters since Aristotle have used to develop their most persuasive appeals.

Points of stasis deal with four questions: What happened? How should we understand it? How should we value it? What should we do about it?

In coming up with answers to these questions, debaters will attempt to frame what happened, influence how we should understand it, dictate how we should value it and outline what should be done about it.

When paired with apologia, points of stasis can be used to try to wiggle out of difficult situations. They can help an audience understand new information from the perspective of your side and mitigate damaging charges.

For example, Trump’s lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, attempted to explain what happened when he released a statement denying that Trump was implicated at all in the Cohen matter. “There is no allegation of any wrongdoing against the President in the government’s charges against Mr. Cohen,” it read, framing the events in a way that vindicated Trump from any wrongdoing.

But, you might wonder, if Trump wasn’t specifically implicated in Cohen’s guilty plea, then how should we understand what happened? Didn’t hush money still get paid to help the campaign?

To shape how observers might make sense of this, lawyer Alan Dershowitz, the author of the book “The Case Against Impeaching Trump,” appeared on CNN, “Tucker Carlson Tonight” and “Fox and Friends” to argue that everyone commits campaign finance violations – and that campaign finance rules are incomprehensible anyway.

In other words, viewers should realize that this is something really common in politics – an easy mistake to make that shouldn’t be thought of as a big deal.

According to Dershowitz, campaign finance violations are trivial infractions like jaywalking. And if hush money were paid, while it’s not exactly noble behavior, it isn’t a crime. Little value, he seems to be saying, should attributed to the crimes – if they were committed at all.

Furthermore, there’s not much that can even be done about it, they say. A sitting president cannot be indicted (and therefore audiences and courts do not get to judge). And even if it were crime, it isn’t a “high crime,” so it isn’t an impeachable offense.

⏩ To recap the points of stasis:

• What happened? There’s no allegation of wrongdoing by the president in the government’s charges.
• How should we understand Cohen’s guilty plea? It’s a mere campaign finance violation, which everyone commits.
• What sort of stock should we put into this crime? It’s like jaywalking.
• What if Trump paid hush money? Not great, but not illegal.
• What can be done about it? Nothing. The president can’t be indicted.

In the days since Cohen’s plea deal, these points of stasis have been repeated to shore up Trump’s denial of wrongdoing and differentiate campaign finance violations from “high crimes and misdemeanors,” the phrase in the Constitution that describes impeachable offenses.

.@Scaramucci: "What's clear is that you can't indict a sitting president." #TheStory pic.twitter.com/4lkGDEN7IL

— Fox News (@FoxNews) August 21, 2018

Of course, this isn’t playing out in a courtroom or in the Athenian Agora. Instead, it’s playing out in the court of public opinion. Impeachment is a political process, and it seems to hinge on whether enough voters get fully behind the effort.

In this sense, one bolstering strategy may resound the most. Trump’s base is so firmly in his camp, some of his backers in the media have argued, that this news won’t hurt Trump’s political standing.

It doesn’t really matter if he is an unindicted co-conspirator, they say – because his supporters won’t care.

Trump may have enough support for now to stay afloat. How long he can tread water is unclear.

About Today's Contributor:
Jennifer Mercieca, Associate Professor of Communication, Texas A&M University

This article was originally published on The Conversation. 

Bonus Picture:

Will Donald Trump need to pardon himself after all? (Image from Trumpton Facebook Page via LoupDargent.info)

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New Entertainment Platform Offers Exclusive Behind-the-Scenes Look at Famous Personalities

Four time World Series Champion Darryl Strawberry graces the cover of "Beyond The Spotlights"

Beyond the Spotlights recently launched an online multimedia magazine showcasing a variety of unique, exclusive access stories, interviews and photo shoots of featured celebrities. 

The inaugural Summer 2018 editions of Beyond the Spotlights contain interviews and photo shoots with media personality Leeann Tweeden, athlete Darryl Strawberry, YouTube Red Series "Cobra Kai" actor Xolo Maridueña and "Days of Our Lives" actress Victoria Konefal.

With twice weekly releases, Beyond the Spotlights seeks out interesting talent, giving new viewers and long-time fans a glimpse into the private worlds of fascinating celebrities of all types. 

Leeann Tweeden 
Tweeden recently made world-wide headlines when she went public with her story of sexual assault at the hands of Senator Al Franken. The subsequent public scandal and media attention led to the resignation of a United States Senator and added a great deal of momentum to the #MeToo movement. 

Tweeden sat down with Beyond the Spotlights to talk about her life after the scandalous headlines, including dealing with the backlash and criticism, ignoring Twitter, and the support she received from some big-name Hollywood celebrities.

Darryl Strawberry 
Four-time World Series Champion and 8-time MLB All-Star, Darryl Strawberry's baseball career unfortunately ended early due to multiple suspensions for drug violations. As it turns out, Strawberry's greatest challenge was not the opposing pitchers on the baseball field, but rather, facing down addiction. 

He talks about his new book, "Don't Give Up On Me: Shedding Light On Addiction," and his support of the faith-based Darryl Strawberry Recovery Centers.

Xolo Maridueña 
The breakout star of YouTube Red's new series, "Cobra Kai," Maridueña has become the latest exciting addition to the "Karate Kid" franchise. Maridueña talks about juggling karate lessons and class, as well as his love of the LA Dodgers and his goals as a future screenwriter. 

The young actor also manages to keep perspective, citing his family as one of his most important sources of strength and resolve.

Victoria Konefal 
Playing Ciara Brady on NBC's Emmy-winning "Days of Our Lives," Konefal opens up about funny pick-up lines, fashion, her professional and personal likes and dislikes, as well as her obsession with dogs. 

Konefal is just as candid while discussing the stresses of her fast-paced career as well as her passions as an environmentally conscious actress.

Fearless All-American Woman Leeann Tweeden looking red hot on the cover of "Beyond The Spotlights"

"Due to the closure of many popular print publications (e.g. Interview, Details, Teen Vogue, Complex, Nylon, Self, etc.) and the public's thirst for new and constant content, Beyond The Spotlights will be based entirely online — updated regularly with new articles and interviews. The website is optimized for mobile use, but its beautiful photography and videos stand out on larger tablet and desktop formats as well. Take a look. We're proud of our first cast of celebrity exclusives," said Creative Director Mario Barberio.

SOURCE: Beyond the Spotlights