Donald Trump Has All The Best Steves On His Economic Advisory Council

Gabrielle Bluestone · 08/05/16 01:53PM

Today, Donald Trump released a list of the members of his economic advisory council. All of them are white, half of them are named some version of Steve, they mostly all have backgrounds in real estate and business, and none of them are women. “I am pleased that we have such a formidable group of experienced and talented [Steves] that will work with me to implement real solutions for the economic issues facing our country,” Trump said in a statement.

Hillary Clinton Lists Her Black Friends

Ashley Feinberg · 08/05/16 01:36PM

For the first time in months, Hillary Clinton has actually agreed to take questions from the press. Granted, this wasn’t an actual press conference but an appearance at the National Association for Black and Hispanic Journalists convention in Washington, as off-the-cuff as she’s likely to get. Which is why we got to hear two minutes of Hillary Clinton listing her many black friends.

John Waters on Multiple Maniacs, Transgender Bathroom Laws, and the Potential End of His Film Career

Rich Juzwiak · 08/05/16 12:25PM

Yesterday, the Gawker office was graced with the presence of legendary director John Waters, who’s promoting the rerelease of his 1970 movie Multiple Maniacs. The delirious movie, which features Divine being raped by a giant lobster as its centerpiece, has been restored by the Criterion Collection and is being distributed by the illustrious Janus Films. Thus, the king of bad taste meets the epitome of cinematic refinement. Waters told me the seemingly unholy union made sense.

Ira Sachs on Little Men, Gentrification, and the Value of a Movie That "Doesn't Work Economically”

Rich Juzwiak · 08/05/16 11:32AM

I have begun to think of this film as a metaphor for the place of personal cinema in our culture,” Ira Sachs (Love Is Strange, Keep the Lights On) told me one recent morning over coffee in New York’s Marlton Hotel. He was referring to his new movie, Little Men, which includes gentrification among its themes. When white married couple Brian (Greg Kinnear) and Kathy (Jennifer Ehle) inherit Brian’s father’s house in Brooklyn, they move there from Manhattan and face a tough decision: Should they allow the Chilean owner of the dress shop downstairs, Leonor (Paulina García) to remain and continue to pay rent that’s thousands of dollars below market value or kick her out? Since Brian’s an unsuccessful actor, his family could use the boost in salary that another tenant would provide. Complicating the plot is the quick bond Brian and Kathy’s 13-year-old son Jake (Theo Taplitz) forms with Leonor’s similarly aged son Tony (Michael Barbieri). The ensuing drama carefully props up each character’s situation on another’s, deliberately transmitting everyone’s motivation and dilemma to the viewer. To describe his movie succinctly in interviews, Sachs has been borrowing a quote from Jean Renoir: “The awful thing about life is this: Everyone has their reasons.”

Owning a Home Is No Goddamn Picnic Either

Hamilton Nolan · 08/05/16 10:20AM

We all know that The Rent is Too Damn High. The affordable housing crisis is largely concerned with renters. In fact, though, homeowners are being screwed by the very same dynamics.

The Only Woman Fit for President Trump's Cabinet Is Ivanka Trump

Ashley Feinberg · 08/05/16 10:00AM

Speaking to an NBC affiliate in Jacksonville, Florida, Donald Trump was pressed (by a former employee) to name a few of the women he might place on his cabinet when he ascends the throne. The only women Trump seems capable of naming on the spot? His beloved daughter, Ivanka Trump and—oh, I don’t know. How about you. Holding the microphone. Yeah, you’ll do.

I Ran the C.I.A. Now I Work For a Longtime Clinton Ally's Consulting Firm and Am Endorsing Hillary Clinton

Brendan O'Connor · 08/05/16 09:43AM

On Friday, the New York Times ran an op-ed penned by Michael Morell, a 33-year veteran of the Central Intelligence agency who served as its acting director and deputy director from 2010 to 2013. Contravening political conventions of non-partisanship, Morell not only endorses Hillary Clinton for president but even goes so far as to suggest that Donald Trump “may well pose a threat to our national security.”

Donald Trump Admits Mistake

Brendan O'Connor · 08/05/16 07:45AM

An incomprehensibly boring controversy emerged earlier this week after the Wall Street Journal published a poorly-structured piece about Iran involving the return of frozen Iranian funds in the form of cash, which coincided with the release four detained Americans. Naturally, this triggered Donald Trump’s paranoid imagination, and he began ranting about watching a “top secret” video, leaked by the Iranian government, of an airplane covertly delivering the cash. He described the footage as having been shot at a “perfect angle, nice and steady,” which could only have been the work of Iranian state media.