No, what happens with the rape case has nothing to do with the defamation case. Even if the rape cases did end up going to court and he was found not guilty on all counts, that still doesn't necessarily mean that he'd have a solid defamation case against them (because "not guilty" doesn't mean "he didn't do it," it…

No. If you file a defamation lawsuit, the burden is on you to prove that what they're saying is defamatory.

I thought the point of Newswire was that we could read a short thing and then wouldn't have to read the long thing.

I think Serial has been pretty clear about not wanting the true-crime label, though, so if that's the case then it's probably best they go about bursting people's bubbles on that front sooner rather than later.

Death Cab, I'ma let you finish, but the Dismemberment Plan had one of the best New Year's songs of all time.

Yeah, G&D is an extreme example, but a lot of those mid-century musicals are more "adapted from" than strict "adaptation." South Pacific is not Tales from the South Pacific. Fiddler on the Roof is not Tevye and His Daughters. And obviously Kiss Me Kate is not Taming of the Shrew and Once Upon a Mattress is not The…

I don't think there needs to be a major mystery to keep people hooked, though. Bergdahl is a similar figure to, say, Christopher McCandless in Into the Wild where there may be a minor mystery to his story (in McCandless's case, how did he die?), but the reason people keep getting hooked on the story has very little to…

The switch from plays to movies pretty fundamentally changed the nature of the adaptation, though. Sure, Oklahoma! is an adaptation of Green Grow the Lilacs and Guys and Dolls is an adaptation of Runyon, but the majority of audiences seeing Oklahoma! or Guys and Dolls hadn't seen those plays/read those stories and…

At this point Broadway musicals from original works essentially don't get made anymore. They're far too financially risky a proposition to stage without some kind of built-in audience. If you want original then you need to at least go off-Broadway, if not further.

I really love Legally Blonde, but I'm hard-pressed to find a song in it that works indpedently of the context of the show.

Given that the amount of drugs in Fosse's system would inevitably kill a mere mortal, I'm surprised you're still with us.

I don't blame anybody for not liking Les Mis, because it's definitely over the top and emotionally manipulative as hell . . . but I'll be damned if it doesn't know exactly the way I want to be emotionally manipulated, haha. If you don't get a little misty-eyed during "Do You Hear the People Sing?" you're a much…

. . . Which is fair and all, but the point of this list is literally that there's plenty of American musical theater that is also crazy-under appreciated in comparison to ALW or Les Mis.

The operative words there were "spending a shit-ton of money and time" and "using it as a form of escapism," not "going to conventions and writing fan fiction." Both of those things are fine in moderation/if you realistically have the money to spend on them. But using them (or anything else) as a mechanism to avoid…

I mean, it's entirely possible to acknowledge that in general, there are no real differences between the way men act and the way women act in the workplace . . . while also acknowledging that women in Hollywood are so beaten down and occupy a space with so little power that they are reluctant to engage in those…

"'Hi, it's Sarah.' (That's me calling the Taliban.)" had me laughing far harder than I expected to while listening to this episode.

It definitely has that, and there are certainly a large chunk of listeners who took nothing from it other than that . . . But it also goes much deeper behind the scenes than a traditional true-crime show and explores stuff that those don't—the fallibility of memory, the way our justice system works, etc. In a lot of…

Harry is the Christ of the Potterverse.

If she were spending a shit-ton of money and time going to conventions or writing fan-fiction or otherwise using the Potterverse as a form of escapism, that might indicate a bit of immaturity, but a tattoo alone doesn't really suggest that. The books have plenty of themes that remain relevant as you age, and most…

Grateful to be getting done with school for the semester!—it was by far the most stressful one I've had since I went back. Also grateful for winter break since I get to hang out with my family, play with my almost-nephew, and finally spend some time with my boyfriend. Grateful for my teacher who let me turn in some…