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Crazy Catfish Story Ends With Woman Dating the Model Whose Photos Were Used to Fool Her


PHOTO: Composite. emmaperrier28/Instagram, adamguzel/Instagram

Are you ready for the best catfishing story in maybe all of history? On Thursday, The Atlantic published a modern-day fairytale that’s almost too good to be true — much like the first guy Emma Perrier fell in love with. Two years ago, restaurant manager Emma Perrier, who lived just south of London, decided to sign up for a dating app called Zoosk. She was looking for a relationship, not just a hookup. “I’m a romantic,” Emma, originally from France, told The Atlantic. “I love to love, and I want to be loved, too.”

Soon, she got a message from a good-looking guy who called himself Ronnie, short for Ronaldo Scicluna. He said he was 34 (Emma was 33 at the time) and an electrician. He was Italian but lived in England. They began exchanging messages and hit it off right away. Emma was flattered that Ronnie was interested in her. But there was a catch (of course): Ronnie was actually 53-year-old Alan Stanley, recently divorced and very lonely. He’d uploaded pictures of a “random male model” that he found online — a practice known as catfishing.

To keep the ruse going, Alan made excuses for not meeting Emma in person, even as their relationship became serious, or at least, serious to her. Eventually, though, friends and family convinced Emma that something was up; she used Reverse Image Search to find out where “Ronnie’s” pictures were from and discovered that they were actually of a Turkish model named Adem Guzel. Emma kept the relationship going while she did more research and eventually uncovered Ronnie’s true identity: Alan.

This is where the story gets downright unbelievable. Emma messaged Adem on Facebook to tell him that his pictures were being used in a scam, and they began talking on the phone and via FaceTime. They lost contact for a bit, during which time Emma and Alan, now using his real name and identity, met a few times in person. But eventually, Emma realized she wasn’t interested in Alan and wanted the man she’d seen in those pictures. She called it off with Alan, and this past April, met Adem when he arrived to London to see her. And then they fell in love. Adem and Emma have been living together for six months. Finally, something good in the world!



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The Story Behind Kate's Surprise Pregnancy on This Is Us and How Chrissy Metz Reacted


Is your jaw still on the floor from the last two minutes of tonight’s This Is Us? No one could have predicted that Kate’s reason for worrying about fitting into a new dress—to sing at a bar mitzvah, no less—was because she’s (SPOILER) expecting a baby. A baby! All the signs in the episode—not wanting to eat Toby’s homemade, healthy muffin, checking her fitbit during sex, not missing a yoga class, walking down the pharmacy aisle specifically labeled laxatives, weight loss, and vitamins—pointed to a very (and we mean very) focused Kate merely wanting to keep up a healthy lifestyle. Granted, things were looking like she might be taking it all too far, but haven’t we learned by now not to expect the obvious on this show?

And now we have so many questions: What does this mean for Kate’s burgeoning career? When will she tell Toby? How did Chrissy Metz react? So we called This Is Us executive producer and co-showrunner Isaac Aptaker to fill us in. Read on.

I was totally shocked by that twist. Was Kate’s pregnancy planned from the beginning?

IA: There’s no way you could have known! [Laughs] When we started breaking down this season back in the spring, we knew we wanted to do something really exciting for Kate and Toby. We knew they had the engagement and the wedding in the wings, but that seemed a little too expected, and nothing about their relationship and romance have gone along the traditional timeline. She proposed to him when he was in a coma, they broke up, he had a heart attack…the whole thing has been a little bit unconventional, so we were really excited when we came up with the notion that yet again things would happen a little bit out of the traditional order for them, and they’d get this surprise pregnancy.

So this was not in Dan Fogelman’s original series outline then? Or was it?

IA: Pregnancy was definitely part of the plan for them. I don’t believe in his initial bible he knew exactly when he wanted to tackle it, but it definitely was something he wanted to do for Kate and Toby.

Now that the audience knows Kate is pregnant, should we have really believed she was that obsessed with fitting into a dress if the baby is the size of a lentil? Or was this just a good way for us to make us think this was anything other than her being pregnant?

IA: No, I think [her music gig] was just an easy explanation for her to tell Toby, because she’s not quite ready yet to reveal to him what’s really going on. That was a nice cover story she could use that was believable for him.

What was Chrissy’s reaction when you guys told her about Kate’s pregnancy?

IA: I remember we had her and Chris Sullivan (Toby) into our office, and we kind of pitched them the whole season at the top of the year so they knew what we were planning. They were both so excited to tell this story. Chrissy was already excited that she was going to get to sing, and then we told her about the pregnancy and potentially the wedding down the road, and she was very happy with her season arc.

But was she shocked about the pregnancy?

IA: Oh, totally! She was like, “Wait, what?!” This was another [plot line] where we had to go all secret agent with the script. When we sent out the script [to the cast and crew], we had to omit the final scene. The network called us and was like, “What is it? What is it?” We told them verbally over the phone because we didn’t want there to be any chance that it would leak out onto the Internet ahead of time.

I love a good surprise, but part of me was a little bummed that there’s a baby in the mix because I really wanted Kate’s focus this season to be on her singing and developing her relationship with Toby. Will she still want to pursue her career, or will it get put on the back-burner?

IA: Yeah, it’s yet another challenge we’re throwing at Kate because she definitely has just started getting traction on this career and it’s been a dream of hers. I don’t think she’s going to want to let it go. At the same time, it’s very, very early in this pregnancy, and our show operates relatively in real time. We jump a little bit [every now and then], but pretty much we’re going over the course of the year. It’s not like she’s popping out a baby next week. It takes a while! So there’s nothing really stopping her from continuing to pursue the singing as she’s pregnant.

At the age of 37, being pregnant is technically considered high-risk. Kate even says, “Because of my age and my weight, I want to follow the instructions.” Is there a risk she, unfortunately, won’t carry to full term?

IA: You’re safe to say we’re experiencing this journey along with her, and she’s clearly…she’s nervous to even tell Toby. She’s doing everything right—she’s getting the prenatal vitamins, she’s exercising, she’s eating very carefully—but there’s a lot of anxiety that she’s experiencing. We’re telling a very, very specific pregnancy story here, and that could look a little different for Kate.

Will we see any flashbacks in future episodes to the moment that Kate took the pregnancy test to see her reaction? Will viewers ever get to see that?

IA: Oh, interesting! That’s not in the cards, but that is actually a really good idea! [Laughs] Perhaps down the line we will flashback to that moment.

Will we see or hear Kate talk about the moment she first thought she might be pregnant?

IA: Yes, yeah, that’s a definite possibility. Because we wanted to tell the story in a surprising way, we had to skip over a little bit of the very early days of her learning this, so there’s definitely another piece of the story to tell of that.

When will Toby find out about the pregnancy?

IA: I think it’s safe to say Toby needs to find out soon. Kate’s being very, very cautious about this, and she’s very nervous. She doesn’t want to spill the beans too soon, but they have a very good communicative relationship. I don’t think she can hold out on him much longer before she has to let him know what’s up.

How will the pregnancy affect Toby and Kate’s relationship?

IA: They are so good together, and they love each other so much, but it has moved pretty fast. They met a little over a year ago, and they are already engaged, living together, and now pregnant with a kid. The plan for them was live together for a while, have a long engagement, figure out the wedding as she gets her singing off the ground, and this is going to throw them for a bit of a loop because it’s a lot very quickly.

PHOTO: Maarten de Boer/NBC

Do you already know the sex of the baby?

IA: Yeah, of course. We debate back and forth and plan the whole thing out for the season ahead of time, but I could never tell you.

If Kate carries the baby to term, is this something that would happen in season two, or would it be carried over to season three?

IA: Well, it’s like I said, our show happens in pretty much real time over the course of a year. We’re in the fall now, and she’s very early in her pregnancy, so that puts her due toward the end of the season.

This show already has like 75 cast members, and now you want to add one more? What are you thinking? [Laughs]

IA: [Laughs] Well, whenever we have our babies on, we’re like, “Oh, let’s try and limit the babies!” Hopefully, they’ll have a nice nursery that is off camera as much as possible because filming with a baby is very difficult.

How did the rest of the cast react? When did they find out?

IA: They are all so curious about each other’s storylines because they’re all so close, so when we brought each of our regulars in to walk them through the season, they’d ask, “Well what’s up with the other characters? What’s up with Kate and Toby?” They all knew from the beginning, but they didn’t know when it was going to happen or when we were going to reveal it. But once that script came out with the final scene omitted, they were able to connect the dots pretty quickly.

Kate’s pregnancy adds another layer to her relationship with Rebecca. One example is that if Kate ends up having a girl, how will she try to raise her child differently? There’s so many directions to take this storyline.

IA: Oh, totally. I think I mentioned this before, but this season is so much about the mother/daughter relationship between Kate and Rebecca. As Kate is sort of looking forward to what she’s going to be like as a mother of her child, she’s definitely looking back at what worked and didn’t work with her relationship with Rebecca. It just makes it all the more loaded now that she’s thinking about the kind of mother she’s going to be.

And what about next week’s episode?

IA: We’re picking up right where we left off with this story, and I think it pays off next week in a very fun, satisfying way.



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The Story Behind Kate and Rebecca's Explosive Fight on 'This Is Us' Season Two Episode Two


This is Us fans have always been aware that Kate (Chrissy Metz) and Rebecca (Mandy Moore) have a complicated mother-daughter relationship, but the exchange between the two on tonight’s episode was downright brutal. (Spoilers ahead!)

Rebecca decided to surprise Kate by attending her first singing gig—but rather than appreciate her mother’s support, Kate lashed out and unleashed years of anger in the process. “You still make me feel like a stupid, fat little kid,” Kate admitted after Rebecca said she sang “incredibly beautifully”—a word choice that set off Kate. Dumbfounded by her daughter’s accusation, Rebecca asked what she had ever done to make her feel that way, and all Kate could could say was, “You existed.” Ouch.

If that wasn’t bad enough, Kate followed it up by telling her mother that she only wanted a daughter like herself, and she was never going to be that. “No, you wanted me to be the you that you never became.” Rebecca remained impressively calm and collected, telling her daughter that she had nothing to say because, “I can’t think of anything that would be quite that terrible. You and your brothers are my entire life.”

So what provoked Kate to lash out like that? With too many questions and not enough answers, we asked executive producer and co-showrunner Isaac Aptaker to fill us in.

My jaw was on the floor with some of the things Kate said to Rebecca. Did you discuss how far you were willing to push their conversation? Or what damage this could do to their relationship?

Isaac Aptaker: We’re very fortunate we have a lot of brilliant female producers and writers on our staff who have wonderfully complicated relationships with all of their mothers. [Laughs] So, we had a lot of personal experience and real stories to draw from. Dan Fogelman wrote that episode with Bekah Brunstetter, who is one of our writers, and they did such a good job capturing how much love is there, but how much pain these two women have caused each other over the years and continue to inadvertently cause each other. It’s a long scene, and there’s a lot to it. These episodes are only 42 minutes, [so in editing] we wondered if there was any where to make a cut, but Mandy and Chrissy are just so good and we found it so compelling that we left it pretty much untouched. I think that was the right decision.

At the end of their exchange, Toby tells Rebecca he doesn’t know the full history between Kate and her mother. Is it safe to say that for us, as viewers, we don’t know either? Because what we’ve seen so far of Kate and Rebecca’s relationship doesn’t indicate there’s this much bad blood.

IA: Yeah, definitely. The relationship between Kate and Rebecca is going to be a big one that we’re really unpacking this year. Kind of how in season one it really focused on the dynamic between Randall and his mother and the secret of William that she kept from him for so long. This season we’re really diving into the mother/daughter relationship and what it was like for these two women growing up over the years and how they drifted apart and how they can hopefully come back together as adults.

PHOTO: NBC/Ron Batzdorff

What do you think was the worst of Kate’s accusations?

IA: Oh man, I think the saddest and truest thing that she says to her there is, “When I look back on this day that is my first time singing in front of a crowd, this is what I’m going to remember.” That breaks my heart because Rebecca just wanted to be there. She comes from such a place of pure intention; she just wanted to be there for her daughter and celebrate what should have been this really joyous occasion. And totally, inadvertently—through no fault of Rebecca’s—her presence turned it into this loaded thing for Kate, and it had the exact opposite effect. That’s why their relationship is so poignant and powerful. Rebecca just wants to be a good mom to her daughter. She just wants to do right by her, and it feels like every time she makes a move, it just ends up exploding in her face.

I know. I was like, what did she do that is that bad? She didn’t kill Toby!

IA: [Laughs] Right, right!

Do you worry about having these two female characters pitted against each other?

IA: We never talk about them as pitted against each other. Again, we really try to draw from our own experiences and the experiences of the women on our staff, particularly in this case, and also Dan’s family experiences because Kate’s a lot based on his family. We believed these are two women who are trying to repair and to do right by each other, and there’s a lot of baggage there and history there. At the end of the day, as you saw at the end of the episode, they have that small little repair in the car, where Rebecca tells Kate that she really loves Toby. So even moments after they said these pretty cutting things to each other, there is that effort to get through it and still be there for each other. So no, I don’t think we ever look at it as Kate and Rebecca pitted against each other. It hopefully captures the realities of what is a very complicated, fraught, but ultimately love-filled relationship.

Will we ever see Kate in her 20s in order to get more of that backstory?

IA: That would make our casting department’s head explode! It’s something we talk about a lot, just from a production and practical standpoint: When do our teenage actors transform into our adult actors and do we need another person to bridge that gap or is it something that we can do with our wonderful hair and makeup department? We’re very, very interested in visiting Kate in that time. In terms of whether it’s going to be Hannah [Zeile; teen Kate] or whether it’s going to be Chrissy, you’ll have to wait and find out.

hannah-zeile-chrissy-metz-this-is-us.jpg

PHOTO: NBC

Some fans haven’t gotten on board with the character of Toby, but I thought it was so funny and sweet that he told Rebecca he’ll always be team Kate.

IA: Honestly, we are baffled why anyone wouldn’t love Toby. We adore the character and Sully as an actor! We’ve heard every now and then there are people out there who aren’t on board with him, and I don’t get it. If I had a daughter or a sister, that’s exactly the guy I’d want them to be with. He’s just such a funny, fresh, genuine guy who we all love, and it felt like a very Toby thing to say. But no, it was not a pointed comment to anyone out there who doesn’t think he’s the guy for Kate. [Laughs] We don’t understand that.

Heading into next week, will Kate and Rebecca pick up from where we left off?

IA: Next week is Sylvester Stallone’s episode, so that’s the big focus there, but this is a bigger season-long arc that we’re going to explore their relationship over the years. We don’t dive right back into [what happened in the club], but it’s going to be a big part of the season. We’ll definitely hit on many more moments over the years of Rebecca and Kate, both at each other’s throats and being there for each other in really beautiful ways.



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Nikki Reed Responds to the Backlash Over That Ian Somerhalder Birth Control Story


Nikki Reed and Ian Somerhalder revealed on *Dr. Berlin’s Informed Pregnancy*podcas this week that they decided to have children after Somerhalder threw out Reed’s birth control pills—without her permission. “…unbeknownst to poor Nikki, she didn’t realize that I was going to go in her purse and take out her birth control,” Somerhalder said on the podcast. “By the way, it was the beginning of the pack, so I had to pop all those suckers out. It is a lot of work, especially after a little bit of sangria.”

This anecdote polarized the Internet, with several people condemning Somerhalder for doing something so extreme without Reed’s vocal consent. Many thought Reed should’ve been present for this—or just done it herself. A few outlets noted this story could be seen as a form of reproductive coercion, which added more fuel to the fire.

But Reed doesn’t see it like that. The actress and activist took to Twitter on Friday afternoon (September 22) and shut down the way the media is spinning what she sees as a “funny interview between married people.”

“WOMEN’S RIGHTS MATTER, so please don’t use false narratives to highlight issues that are truly important!” Reed wrote on Twitter. “We should be talking about these things, but using a funny interview between married ppl & twisting it to perpetuate gossip is irresponsible.”

Check out Reed’s tweets for yourself, below:

Reed is right. There are plenty of people and institutions in our culture working against women’s rights. A lighthearted chat between Somerhalder and Reed isn’t one of them. That being said, you should never throw out (or even touch) a woman’s birth control without her explicit permission. That’s just a good rule of thumb.

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Nikki Reed and Ian Somerhalder Will Take ‘One Month of Silence’ After Their Baby Is Born

Ian Somerhalder Broke His Post-Baby ‘Month of Silence’ to Gush About Nikki Reed



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'American Horror Story: Cult' Is a Terrifying, Completely Cathartic Look at Trump-Era America


PHOTO: Copyright 2017, FX Networks. All rights reserved.

When people find out I’m interested in horror, the first question is usually, “Why?” Depending on who’s asking and how much time we have, I may give a surface-level answer (“Jump scares are fun!”), a semi-autobiographical answer (“I’ve always been interested in the creepy and macabre.”), or the real, let’s-get-into-this answer: because it’s cathartic to confront what scares you, which is why horror tends to reflect present-day society’s biggest fears. It’s why movies like The Purge: Election Year and Get Out have been so successful in Trump’s America. It’s also why American Horror Story: Cult, which premiered last night, is so fascinating.

From the start, the episode felt like a 2016-2017 time capsule that’s been dumped open far too soon. It opens with a montage of election highlights (or lowlights, depending on how you voted): Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton announcing their presidential campaigns, Trump’s rallies, the riots, talking heads on Fox News discussing “the emails,” even Trump declaring, “I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody, and I wouldn’t lose voters.” By the time a title card informs us it’s election night, a feeling of dread (well, again, depending how you voted) has set in.

Then the show cuts between two very different election nights taking place in a small Michigan town. At the comfortable, upper-middle class home of life partners Ally and Ivy (played by Sarah Paulson and Allison Pill, respectively), a group of diverse friends pace the room and nervously say things like, “I won’t believe anything until I hear Rachel Maddow say it. She’s the only one I trust!” Contrast that with Kai Anderson (Evan Peters), a 20-something, greasy white dude sitting alone in a drab basement. When Trump is announced as our next President, Kai cheers, humps the TV, and yells, “The revolution has begun!”; Ally wails as if she’s physically being harmed. Meanwhile, upstairs at Kai’s, Winter Anderson (Billie Lourd) watches the news on her laptop and calls her friend to ask, “Why did CNN not give us a trigger warning!?”

It’s a cutting satirical take on progressives and the alt-right alike—Hillary voters may be emotional snowflakes, but Trump supporters are angry losers living in their mom’s basement—that might immediately turn off people who aren’t willing to look in the mirror too long. But this is American Horror Story—and a Ryan Murphy production at that—which means you’ll never have to sit too long in a moment before it’s on to the next atrocity. This time, it’s a scene in which Kai, still reveling in the glory of Trump’s win, throws a bag of Cheetos in a blender and smears the orange goop onto his face as he whispers, “it’s gonna be huuuuggeee” into the mirror. It’s campy, disgusting, and grotesque—but, hey, this show has never been described as “subtle.”

And that’s just what happens before the opening credits. The rest of the episode continues to capitalize on the fears of both the left and the right, with Ally and Kai serving as tropes of their respective parties. Post election night, Ally’s coulrophobia (fear of clowns) and trypophobia (fear of tiny holes) have flared up. Even the most basic places are no longer safe: A trip to the grocery store starts off ominously when a MAGA hat-wearing cashier declares, “We finally got a real leader in Washington.” That alone would trigger Ally, but then a group of people in clown masks wielding knives and metal music start terrorizing her. Ally defends herself by throwing bottles of Rosé (yes, really) until she makes it to her Prius, where she breaks down. Later, back at home, she’s told by the cops it was just a hallucination. Was it really? Or is she being gaslighted? We don’t know yet—but if this season really is an allegory for our current politics, I think we all know what the answer will be.

Kai, meanwhile, may seem more confident than Ally on the surface, but his actions reflect the insecurities and fears that are currently driving many Trump supporters, like the moment when he picks a fight with Mexican workers, telling them, “You wetbacks aren’t welcome here no more.” Most revealing, though, is a speech he gives at a city council meeting that ends with this line: “There’s nothing more dangerous in this world than a humiliated man.” It’s chilling—all he’s missing is a tiki torch.

By the episode’s end, I started to wonder: Is there anything both sides can agree is universally scary? North Korea making good on its threats? Trump’s Twitter feed? Clowns? Maybe clowns—but then again, given Trump’s orange hue, exaggerated facial expressions, and funny hair…maybe not. Maybe that’s what we’re supposed to discover by the season finale.

All I know is this: We’re in for a wild, fucked-up ride. And I’m ready for it.

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This 'Devil Wears Prada' Deleted Scene Tells a Completely Different Story


PHOTO: Courtesy Everett Collection

Over a decade after its release, pretty much everyone knows the basic plot line of The Devil Wears Prada. Andy, played by Anne Hathaway, gets a job as an assistant under icy magazine editor Miranda Priestly, played by Meryl Streep. The entire movie hinges on their tense relationship, and Andy spends the better part of two hours trying to get into Miranda’s good graces, which finally happens right before the closing credits. But based on a recently rediscovered deleted scene, found by BuzzFeed‘s community manager Spencer Althouse, it could have been a totally different movie.

“I’m just seeing this deleted scene from The Devil Wears Prada for the first time, and honestly it changed the whole movie for me,” Althouse tweeted alongside the deleted clip from Miranda’s charity benefit scene, Refinery29 reports.

If you’re one of those people who has seen The Devil Wears Prada so many times that you can quote it line by line (guilty), you probably remember the gist of what goes down in the original version of the scene. Andy is stuck at a black tie event for the magazine helping a sick Emily feed their boss the names and details of the guests as they approach. Emily forgets an important piece of information, and Andy helps save the day. Miranda acknowledges it with a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it smile, and then the scene is over. The whole thing is pretty uneventful.

In the new clip, though, Andy is shown diffusing a potentially even more awkward situation when Miranda’s husband comes over and starts making rude and aggressive comments to the CEO of the magazine’s parent company a.k.a. Miranda’s boss. Miranda steers him away, but not before mouthing “thank you” to Andy for helping smooth things over. Not exactly what you would imagine from a person who casually said things to this same assistant like, “you have no style” and “the details of your incompetence do not interest me,” right? Take a look:

Twitter has mixed feelings about this revelation, ranging from “WHAT?!? Whaaaaat?!” to “Why wasn’t this in the movie?!?” to “No wonder they deleted it. Undermined Miranda’s whole ice queen narrative.”

Regardless of whether you think this moment adds dimension to Miranda’s character or that it’s totally out of place and makes absolutely no sense, there’s one thing we can all agree on: This one, brief exchange would have completely changed the movie. That’s all.



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