CSN Chicago's Susannah Collins let out awhopper of a Freudian slipTuesday night before the Chicago Blackhawks hosted the Minnesota Wild in the Stanley Cup playoffs.
In a pregame report in front of the Blackhawks' dressing room, Collins spoke of the Blackhawks' dominance heading into the postseason.
"This is the season that matters, and despite the fact that they had such a tremendous amount of sex during the reg--" she said before catching herself (watch above). Then Collins attempted to recover.
She meant a tremendous amount ofsuccessduring theregular season,so get your mind out of the icy gutter.
NEW YORK — PepsiCo is once again learning the risks of celebrity partnerships after an ad for Mountain Dew was criticized for portraying racial stereotypes and making light of violence toward women.
The soda and snack food company said it immediately pulled the 60-second spot after learning that people found it was offensive. The ad was part of a series developed by African-American rapper Tyler, The Creator, and depicted a battered white woman on crutches being urged to identify a suspect out of a lineup of black men.
A goat character known as Felicia is included in the lineup and makes threatening comments to the woman, such as "Ya better not snitch on a playa" and "Keep ya mouth shut."
The woman eventually screams "I can't do this, no no no!" and runs away. The word "do" is in apparent reference to the soft drink's "Dew It" slogan.
Mountain Dew, known for its neon color and high caffeine content, is generally marketed to younger men and sometimes attempts to have edgier ads. But the controversy over its latest spot illustrates the fine line that companies must walk when trying to be hip.
In fact, Mountain Dew also was criticized recently because of its endorsement deal with Lil Wayne, whose rap lyrics compared a rough sex act to the tortuous death of Emmett Till, a black teen who was murdered in 1955 for allegedly whistling at a white woman. Last month, Reebok also ended its relationship with Rick Ross after he rapped about giving a woman a drug to have his way with her.
Laura Ries, president of Ries & Ries, a marketing firm based in Atlanta, said companies that want the "street cred" of a celebrity may end up losing control of the message they want to convey.
If PepsiCo had created an ad for Mountain Dew, for example, she said it might not have been considered edgy or cool. But by handing over control to a celebrity, she said the company ran the risk of having an ad that wasn't appropriate.
PepsiCo Inc., based in Purchase, N.Y., said it understood how the ad could be offensive.
en Ryan, a spokeswoman for PepsiCo, said the company learned from its consumer relations team on Tuesday that people found the ad offensive. She declined to explain the approval process for the ad but said it was never meant to run on TV."We apologize for this video and take full responsibility," the company said in an updated statement late Wednesday afternoon. "We have removed it from all Mountain Dew channels and Tyler is removing it from his channels as well."
A publicist for Tyler, the Creator did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment. His raps have been criticized for being misogynistic and homophobic at times but he has also expressed support for the singer Frank Ocean, who revealed he was bisexual.
11:40 AM PT-- Weezy just tweeted that's he's fine.
Lil Waynewas hospitalized again for a seizure ... TMZ has learned. Sources close to Wayne tell us ... the rapper was taken to Cedars-Sinai in L.A. late Tuesday night by his bodyguards. We're told he suffered a single seizure and was treated and released early this morning.
As we first reported, 30-year-old Lil Wayne spent a week at Cedars back in March after suffering multiple severe seizures that nearly killed him. He spent 6 days in ICU.
Wayne subsequently went on the radio and explained he's an epileptic, and has been suffering from seizures since he was a kid.
On Chicago's first day with temperatures in the 80s in seven months, at least 20 people were shot over a course of about 10 hours overnight -- and three men among them are dead as of early Wednesday morning.
The shootings began around 6:15 p.m. when three people -- including a 16-year-old boy and two men aged 40 and 44 -- were shot in the 10800 block of South Princeton Avenue. According to the Chicago Tribune,the 16-year-old was listed in stable conditionand the older men were in serious-to-critical condition.
Later in the evening, around 10:40 p.m., three men were shot in the 1000 block of West Maxwell Street, which is across the street from the headquarters of the UIC Police Department. DNAinfo Chicago reports19-year-old Tytrell Jackson was shot in the armpitand pronounced dead at Stroger Hospital at 11:13 p.m. The two other men -- aged 19 and 21 -- were listed in "stable" condition at Stroger.
Just after midnight, 27-year-old Darrin Rodgers was shot in the chest on the same block where he lived -- the 6800 block of South Cornell Avenue in the city's South Shore neighborhood -- and died shortly after being rushed to Northwestern Memorial Hospital, becomingthe city's first homicide death of the month of May, the Chicago Sun-Times reports.
In an appearance on NBC, McCarthy conceded, "We're going to have good days, we're going to have bad days" and counted Tuesday evening among them. He added the department will need to "examine what happened" that contributed to the violent night.
Erica Lafferty, the daughter of slain Sandy Hook Elementary School principal Dawn Hochsprung, confronted Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.) Tuesday over her vote against expanding background checks for firearm purchases.
"You had mentioned that day you voted, owners of gun stores that the expanded background checks would harm," Lafferty said, during a town hall in Warren, N.H. "I am just wondering why the burden of my mother being gunned down in the halls of her elementary school isn't more important than that."
Ayotte told Lafferty she was sorry for her loss but did not directly answer the question.
"I think that ultimately when we look at what happened in Sandy Hook, I understand that's what drove this whole discussion -- all of us want to make sure that doesn't happen again," she said.
Ayotte began her town hall by defending her vote, which took place two weeks ago, reflecting an awareness that her poll numbers had tanked in the aftermath. Ayotte'sapproval rating droppedby a total of 15 points, according to a survey by Public Policy Polling released last week.
"Where we are right now, my focus has been on wanting to improve our current background check system," Ayotte said at the top of her remarks. "Frankly, we have fallen down on actually prosecuting gun crimes and violations of our current background check system."
She emphasized the need to address gaps in the mental health system and take steps to ensure that the mentally ill are unable to obtain firearms.
NBC reportedthat the discussion of gun control resulted in "a shouting match" between those who supported Ayotte's vote and those who were more critical. One attendee accused Ayotte of regulating the questions she took during the town hall but refusing to regulate guns.
Much of the debate from both sides of the issue over the past week has centered around Ayotte's vote. Pro-gun groups such as the National Rifle Association and the National Shooting Sports Foundationran radio adscommending her for protecting the rights of gun owners, while Americans for Responsible Solutions, the super PAC founded by Tucson shooting survivor and former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.),ran its own radio adscriticizing her for voting against a measure that had the support of 90 percent of Americans. New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg's group Mayors Against Illegal Guns hasalso announced its plansto go after Ayotte over her vote.
Ayotte isn't the only senator to take heat for her role in defeating the background check amendment. Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.)addressed the backlashon Monday, as he and other senators alsosaw their approval ratings tumble.
Cue the Queen B jokes, as Beyonce reportedly had quite an awkward moment with an actual British royal at one of her six London concerts. As is customary at her shows, the singer called upon audience members to sing the "to the left, to the left" refrain in "Irreplaceable." What was different about this night, however, was that Beyonce happened to point her microphone in Princess Eugenie's face.
The royal, who is sixth in line to the throne, apparently either didn't know the words or was just too shocked to perform. Beyonce, left hanging by the daughter of Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson, scrambled to sing the words herself (luckily they're not exactly Shakespeare). It's unclear whether or not Beyonce had any idea who the 23-year-old was.
No word yet on how Eugenie herself feels about the o2 Arena incident, but if the tabs are to be believed, her fellow Brits seem amused by the anecdote. “It was hilarious," a source told The Mirror (because apparently these things require anonymous sources). "Eugenie was on the front row with Kate Middleton’s brother, James, and his new girlfriend, Donna Air, plus designers Matthew Williamson and Patrick Cox. She was really excitable and filming the whole thing on her iPhone like any other fan."
Three men were arrested on charges that they helped Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev after the deadly attacks last month.
Federal prosecutors allege that Dias Kadyrbayev, 19, and Azamat Tazbayakov, 19, tried to conceal and destroy a laptop and backpack full of fireworks belonging to Tsarnaev, a friend from the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth where they were all students at one time. They were charged with alleged conspiracy to obstruct justice by the U.S. Attorney's office in Massachusetts.
A third man, Robel Phillipos, 19, was accused of lying to law enforcement officials who questioned him about the bombing.
Kadyrbayev and Tazbayakov live in New Bedford, but are originally from Kazakhstan. They were already accused of violating the terms of their student visas.
Phillipos is from Cambridge, the same city where Tsarnaev grew up and attended UMass-Dartmouth with the others.
The Boston Police Department had announced earlier on Wednesday via Twitter that new suspects were in custody.
"Please be advised that there is not a threat to public safety," the police announced in a statement. "There is no additional info to release at this time. Additional details will be provided when they become available."
Tsarnaev, 19, was a student at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth at the time of the bombing.
An FBI agent's affidavit explained how Tsarnaev's three friends discovered his alleged role in the bombing and the steps they took to conceal it.
Phillipos called Kadyrbayev to say that Tsarnaev resembled one of the suspects in the photos released by the FBI on April 18, the affidavit said. Kadyrbayev sent text messages to Tsarnaev joking about the physical similarities. Tsarnaev wrote back saying "lol" and "you better not text me," which Kadyrbayev didn't take seriously, the affidavit said.
The three friends met in Tsarnaev's dorm room that night even though he wasn't there, according to Kadyrbayev's statements. While watching a movie, they noticed a backpack containing fireworks that had been emptied of the explosive powder.
"Kadyrbayev knew when he saw the empty fireworks that Tsarnaev was involved in the Marathon bombing," Agent Scott Cieplik swore in his affidavit. He then "decided to remove the backpack from the room in order to help his friend Tsarnaev avoid trouble."
He also took Tsarnaev's laptop, because he thought it would appear less suspicious to Tsarnaev's roommate, who was also in the dorm room. Tzahayakov told authorities that they also took a jar of Vaseline, which they believed might have been used to produce bombs.
Kadyrbayev allegedly told investigators that he threw the computer and backpack into the garbage after Tazhayakov and Philipos agreed they should try to protect Tsarnaev.
Tazahayakov told authorities that Tsarnaev gave him a ride home from class on April 17, two days after the bombing. Authorities claim he said that Kadyrbayev showed him a text message the next day that indicated Tsarnaev would try to flee.
"I'm about to leave if you need something in my room take it," the text allegedly said.
"When Tazhayakov learned of this message, he believed he would never see Tsarnaev alive again," the affidavit said.
Gov. Deval Patrick said he was informed that the new suspects had no role in the actual bombing, but became involved afterward.
Dzhokhar is in a Massachusetts prison hospital and charged with conspiring to use a weapon of mass destruction. His brother, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, was killed during a shootout and attempted getaway from police in Watertown four days after the Marathon bombing.
The attack at the Marathon killed three people and wounded more than 260 others.
A transit police officer who was gravely wounded in a subsequent shootout in Watertown while pursuing the Tsarnaev brothers updated the public today on his recovery from life-threatening injuries.
"I cannot begin to properly thank everyone involved in my recovery, as many fearless individuals stepped up and acted heroically that night," said Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority officer Richard Donohue in a message Wednesday on his department's blog. The update features a picture of Donohue smiling with his wife in his hospital room
"To start I must thank my brothers from the Transit, Boston, Harvard, Watertown, Cambridge and State Police, as well as fire department personnel and the various other first responders, all of whom put their own lives on the line to save mine," Donohue said. "In the midst of a firefight they dropped to the ground and assisted me when I was shot. My family got through those first few days through the community's outpouring of prayers and endless support."
