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The 8 headlines that our followers ranked as the most conversational are:
MONICA LEWINSKY JOINS IN SUPPORT AFTER HBO INTERN’S VIRAL MISTAKE
Monica Lewinsky on Friday joined other social media users in tweeting messages of support for an unnamed HBO intern who accidentally sent out a test email to HBO Max subscribers, writing, “It gets better.” HBO Max’s customer service account tweeted late Thursday confirming that it had “mistakenly sent out an empty test email to a portion of our HBO Max mailing list this evening. We apologize for the inconvenience, and as the jokes pile in, yes, it was the intern,” the streaming service added. The news prompted a wave of “dear intern” tweets in which social media users shared their own embarrassing stories from their internships, including mistakenly downloading viruses to company computers and erasing massive amounts of files. Lewinsky, who in the 1990s became the center of then-President Clinton’s impeachment over their widely publicized affair while she was a White House intern, also tweeted a message to the unnamed HBO Max intern. “Dear intern: it gets better,” she wrote. Lewinsky, now a Vanity Fair contributor and anti-cyberbullying advocate, also added, “ps. don’t wear a beret for awhile, k?” referring to the hat she was famously photographed wearing while working at the White House. Friday’s tweet is hardly the first time Lewinsky has used social media to poke fun at the scandal that made her a household name. In 2019, she responded to a tweet from another social media user asking, “What’s the worst career advice you’ve ever received?” Lewinsky replied in a tweet that quickly went viral.
[SOURCE: thehill.com / ENGAGEMENT: 6.87%]
‘BOY MEETS WORLD’ ACTRESS-TURNED-PORN STAR MAITLAND WARD SAYS BEING TYPECAST LED TO HER LEAVING HOLLYWOOD
“Boy Meets World” actress-turned-porn star Maitland Ward said being typecast as a comedic performer led her to walk away from “mainstream” Hollywood. The 44-year-old actress said she was being cast for comedy roles in movies like “White Chicks” and that’s why she decided to dive into the world of adult entertainment, where she’s loving it, Fox News reported in a piece published Thursday. “This has always been a dream of mine,” Ward explained. “I just absolutely do my best under pressure and doing like all of the things that I love. I never want to focus on one thing. I love to do so many different things at once, like writing and cosplay and mainstream acting and porn, and it’s always been my intention to go back and forth between worlds, so it’s just amazing that the world is allowing me to do that,” she added. “Because, in the beginning, people would say, ‘You can’t do that. Nobody’s going to allow you to do that. Nobody’s going to take you seriously in the mainstream if you do porn, nobody’s going to want to hear your story,’” Ward continued. “And I just kept going.” The actress decided to try her hand at porn in 2019 and is in the process of writing a memoir titled, “My Escape From Hollywood: Why I Left to Become a Porn Star” which is supposed to hit shelves in 2022.
[SOURCE: https://dailycaller.com / ENGAGEMEN: 4.74%]
1 IN 5 ELECTRIC VEHICLE OWNERS IN CALIFORNIA SWITCHED BACK TO GAS BECAUSE CHARGING THEIR CARS IS A HASSLE, RESEARCH SHOWS
In roughly three minutes, you can fill the gas tank of a Ford Mustang and have enough range to go about 300 miles with its V8 engine. But for the electric Mustang Mach-E, an hour plugged into a household outlet gave Bloomberg automotive analyst Kevin Tynan just three miles of range. “Overnight, we’re looking at 36 miles of range,” he told Insider. “Before I gave it back to Ford, because I wanted to give it back full, I drove it to the office and plugged in at the charger we have there.” Standard home outlets generally deliver 120 volts, powering what electric vehicle aficionados call “Level 1” charging, while the higher-powered specialty connections at 240 volts are known as “Level 2.” By comparison, Tesla’s “Superchargers,” which can fully charge its cars in a little over an hour, run on 480 volts. That difference is night and day, according to a new study published in the journal Nature Energy by University of California Davis researchers Scott Hardman and Gil Tal that surveyed Californians who purchased an electric vehicle between 2012 and 2018. Roughly one in five plug-in electric vehicle (PEV) owners switched back to owning gas-powered cars, in large part because charging the batteries was a pain in the… trunk, the researchers found. Of those who switched, over 70% lacked access to Level 2 charging at home, and slightly fewer than that lacked Level 2 connections at their workplace. Even with the faster charging, a Chevy Bolt he tested still needed nearly six hours to top its range back up to 300 miles from nearly empty — something that takes him just minutes at the pump with his family SUV. Public charging stations may look like the electric version of the gas station, but nearly two-thirds of PEV drivers in the survey said they didn’t use them. Exactly why they didn’t use the public stalls was not specified. EVs have come a long way in recent years in terms of range, safety, comfort, and tech features, but Hardman and Tal note that very little has changed in terms of how they are recharged.
[SOURCE: businessinsider.com / ENGAGEMENT: 4.30%]
DAVE PORTNOY, FOUNDER OF BARSTOOL SPORTS, SUSPENDED FROM TWITTER
Dave Portnoy, the founder of the popular sports pop culture website Barstool Sports, had his Twitter account suspended for a brief period on Friday night. It’s unclear what Portnoy did to warrant the suspension. A rep for Twitter would not comment on the suspension except to say “the account you reference has been reinstated.” But Twitter users noted that earlier in the day, Portnoy — who has a history of blunt, provocative statements — engaged in a Twitter feud with another user, at one point writing, “Let me drop my nuts on your head.” Portnoy’s suspended Twitter page was reinstated a short time later, albeit without his followers or verification status. For the duration of the suspension, his profile page, @stoolpresidente, simply said “Account Suspended” with a line that read, “Twitter suspends accounts which violate the Twitter Rules.” Once his account was restored, he simply tweeted, “I’m back,” with a short video of Ric Flair. Portnoy previously had over 2.5 million followers on Twitter. Dave Portnoy was well aware of the suspension, having made two Instagram Story posts with #freeportnoy in them. The hashtag “FreeDavePortnoy” was trending on Friday night. The main Barstool Sports Twitter account, which has close to 3 million followers, remains active.
[SOURCE: thewrap.com / ENGAGEMENT: 3.24%]
OAKLAND SHOOTING NEAR JUNETEENTH CELEBRATION LEAVES 1 DEAD, SEVERAL HURT
A shooting near a Juneteenth celebration in Northern California on Saturday evening left at least one person dead and several others wounded, police said. Shots rang out after around 1,000 people had gathered at Lake Merritt in Oakland for the holiday commemorating the historical end of slavery. Bullets struck six victims between ages 16 and 27, Oakland Police said in a statement. A 22-year-old victim died of his wounds at a hospital, the department confirmed. Two armed men seen running from the scene were arrested, the department said. Homicide investigators were determining if the men were the shooters. “Tonight a joyous occasion at our Lake Merritt was marred by a senseless act of gun violence,” Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf said in a statement, according to the East Bay Times. “Police in the area tended to victims, and apprehended two people with firearms near the scene. The investigation is ongoing and will determine if they are connected to the shooting. Our thoughts are with the family and friends of the victims, and I want to thank our officers for a quick response.” The victims’ conditions were not immediately disclosed.
[SOURCE: foxnews.com / ENGAGEMENT: 3.20%]
TEEN MOM JENELLE EVANS’ MAKEUP COMPANY JE COSMETICS OFFICIALLY GOES OUT OF BUSINESS AFTER FANS COMPLAIN ABOUT BROW KITS
TEEN Mom Jenelle Evans’ makeup company JE Cosmetics is officially out of business after fans complained about her brow kits. The Sun can exclusively reveal the business license for JE Cosmetics has been “dissolved” by the North Carolina Secretary of State. The office confirmed the business is no longer active because Jenelle, 29, did not file her annual report due April 15, 2021. Jenelle exclusively told The Sun of her decision to no longer continue the makeup company. She said: “Basically I stopped it myself. I still have stuff to sell, and I was still actually selling products, but it’s really hard to keep up with without a team. “I was the one packaging everything, shipping it all, restocking it, it was really hard to keep up with it without a team.” Jenelle said she wants to “focus on monetizing” her “social media channels.” JE Cosmetics was hit with scandal at the time of the September 2019 universal brow launch. Customers who received the $40 product complained of poor quality.
[SOURCE: the-sun.com / ENGAGEMENT: 3.08%]
NAOMI OSAKA WITHDRAWS FROM WIMBLEDON BUT STILL PLANS OLYMPIC RUN
Naomi Osaka—who dropped out of the French Open last month citing concerns about her mental health—will not take part in this year’s Wimbledon tournament but still plans to compete for Japan in the Olympics Games, scheduled to begin next month in Tokyo, according to a statement released by her agent Thursday. A few days before the start of the French Open, Osaka, 23, acknowledged she was battling mental health issues and stated she was “not going to do any press” during the tournament, explaining she often felt “huge waves of anxiety” when speaking to reporters. After her first-round match, she refused to attend a mandatory press conference and was fined $15,000. The organizers of the four Grand Slam events then released a joint statement warning Osaka that skipping future media obligations would lead to additional fines and potentially a suspension. Osaka responded by withdrawing from the French Open, stating she “never wanted to be a distraction,” and acknowledging she had suffered from “long bouts of depression” since 2018. Last Monday, organizers of Berlin’s WTA 500 tournament announced Osaka had pulled out of the event. After leaving the French Open, Osaka said she hoped to have meaningful conversations with Women’s Tennis Association officials before returning. “I really want to work with the Tour to discuss ways we can make things better for the players, press and fans,” she stated. On Thursday morning, Wimbledon organizers said they had reached out to Osaka regarding the tournament’s media arrangements and directly contacted her camp. “We have started a consultation,” All England Club chief executive Sally Bolton told BBC Radio 4’s Today Programme. “Of course, that consultation needs to include not just the players, but the media and all of those engaged in that space.” The world’s second-ranked female and third-ranked male player withdrew from this year’s Wimbledon on the same day. Rafael Nadal announced Thursday he will not play in Wimbledon or at the Olympic Games in Tokyo, explaining he made the difficult decision in order to prolong his career. Nadal, 35, said on Twitter it is “never an easy decision” to pull out of an important tournament but after discussing it with his team and “listening to my body… it is the right decision.”
[SOURCE: forbes.com / ENGAGEMENT: 2.57%]
DAREDEVIL ALEX HARVILL DIES WHILE PRACTICING FOR RECORD-SETTING MOTORCYCLE JUMP
Daredevil motorcyclist Alex Harvill died Thursday while warming up for a world-record motorcycle jump in Washington, authorities said. Harvill, 28, was doing a practice run when he crashed during the first event of the Moses Lake Airshow at Grant County International Airport, about 105 miles southwest of Spokane, according to the event’s website. Video appeared to show Harvill landing short of a ramp, hitting the edge of a dirt berm and being thrown from his bike. The stunt rider was taken to a hospital but later died, event officials said. “Coroner Morrison’s staff will conduct an autopsy on Friday to confirm the cause and manner of death, which is normal procedure,” the Grant County Coroner’s Office said in a statement on Thursday. “Our deepest sympathies go out to Alex’s family, friends and loved ones.” Harvill, who set a record in 2013 for the longest dirt-to-dirt motorcycle ramp jump (297 feet), was trying to fly over 351 feet and break Robbie Maddison’s 2008 Guinness World Record at the time of the crash. He shared his excitement about the potentially record-breaking jump on his Instagram page. “Come watch me hit this ramp June 17th,” he said in a June 6 post.
[SOURCE: nbcnews.com / ENGAGEMENT: 2.41%]
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