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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper

The Spokesman-Review Newspaper The Spokesman-Review

Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

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Nick Carter files countersuit against his rape accuser

Nick Carter files countersuit against his rape accuser

Backstreet Boys singer Nick Carter has countersued a woman who accused the singer last year of assaulting her in 2001 and infecting her with HPV. Shannon “Shay” Ruth filed a civil sexual battery lawsuit against Carter in December. In a counterclaim filed Thursday in Clark County District Court in Nevada, the musician — real name Nickolas Carter — accused the woman of being an “opportunist” who ...

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A&E >  Pop culture

Yer a father, ‘Harry’: Daniel Radcliffe and girlfriend Erin Darke expecting first child

UPDATED: Mon., March 27, 2023

Daniel Radcliffe is gearing up for a new project: fatherhood. The “Harry Potter” star, 33, and longtime girlfriend Erin Darke, 38, are expecting their first child together, a representative for the actors confirmed Monday. The couple began dating in 2012 after meeting on the set of the 2013 film “Kill Your Darlings,” in which Radcliffe portrayed Beat Generation poet Allen Ginsberg and Darke ...
A&E >  Entertainment

Game On: The slow, inevitable death of ‘games as a service’

I’ve written on numerous occasions about the “games as a service” model pervasive in the video gaming space in recent years. World of Warcraft largely pioneered the concept in the mid-00s, to great success – Blizzard Entertainment found they could easily hook players with the low subscription cost of $15 and keep them coming back month after month, soon netting them far more than the average $40-$60 per copy that most games were earning.

A&E >  Entertainment

Game On: The game that destroyed my childlike wonder with video games

Growing up with an Atari 2600 and Sega Genesis was a funny thing. Looking back now, it’s obvious how these machines were painfully limited by the technology of their time – but as a little kid, nothing was more wondrous to me than slaying the duck-looking, pixelated dragons in Adventure or zipping across the screen in Sonic the Hedgehog.
A&E >  Entertainment

Game On: Atomic Heart confidently fills the void left by BioShock

UPDATED: Thu., Feb. 23, 2023

While we all wait for BioShock creator Ken Levine’s new game Judas to launch most likely in 2025 – seriously – or for Cloud Chamber Collective to deliver some sort of news about the fourth BioShock game beyond rumors and speculation, fans of the genre have to make due with what they can get their hands on. Atomic Heart was released on Tuesday, and players are already calling it “BioShock in the USSR.”
A&E >  Entertainment

Game On: Harry Potter and the case for separating art from artist

UPDATED: Thu., Feb. 16, 2023

Afte two lengthy delays, Hogwarts Legacy was released on Feb. 10 for Windows PC, Xbox Series X|S and PlayStation 5. Taking place in the Harry Potter universe, the player controls a character of their own creation, a fifth-year Hogwarts student in 1899 – about a century before the events of the novels and films – who ultimately finds themself facing dark wizards and quashing a goblin rebellion.
A&E >  Entertainment

Northwest Passages to welcome Mandi Price, producer of upcoming Amazon series ‘Daisy Jones & the Six,’ as panelist for celebration of young Black voices

The Shadle and Gonzaga University alumnus has become a sought-after producer, with her previous project, "Archive 81," becoming Netflix's No. 1 show in January 2022. "Daisy Jones & the Six" continues her work with the Hello Sunshine production company, cofounded by actress Reese Witherspoon. Price was also a producer on the adaptation of "Little Fires Everywhere," which starred Witherspoon and Kerry Washington in a Hulu series based on Celeste Ng's novel. 
A&E >  Entertainment

Game On: Great and terrifying, indie RPG Darkest Dungeon gets a sequel

After spending well over a year in early access on Epic Games Store, on Monday Darkest Dungeon II’s release date was announced. It’ll be available in full on Windows PC and Mac on May 8 through Epic Games Store and Steam. It’s rather poetic that the game will release a day after my birthday, because the first title is easily one of my favorite video games of the 2010s.
A&E >  Entertainment

Jill Biden shines at the Grammys

UPDATED: Mon., Feb. 6, 2023

(Critic’s Notebook)Jill Biden got the dress code memo.As the first lady walked onstage at the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles toward the end of the 65th Grammy Awards — one of the few first ladies in modern memory to present at the show — she did so wearing an off-the-shoulder silver column gown made to sparkle all the way to the nosebleed seats, shining like the gleam of Lizzo’s smile.Actually, shining just like the ruched silver minidress Lizzo herself was wearing (after she changed out of her orange Dolce & Gabbana rose cloak). Not to mention the tinsel-spangled silver Gucci jumpsuit Harry Styles wore to perform his number. Or the silver of Beyoncé’s ruffled Gucci corset gown — the one she wore when she made history as the winningest artist at the Grammys, before she changed into black Schiaparelli and, later, velvet Balmain.Even though Biden’s dress was by Oscar de la Renta, one of the first lady’s go-to designers, and simply a more eye-catching version of the de la Renta navy lace column she had worn to the state dinner in December (the one with hand-embroidered cutouts), it was an unusual choice, given that she generally hews more to the floral and the understated.But it was also a clever one — like the decision to be part of the Grammys. Michelle Obama appeared in 2019, but her husband had left office by then; Hillary Rodham Clinton won in 1997, for best spoken word or nonmusical album.After all, if you are the soft-power face of an administration whose much-discussed Achilles’ heel is the age of its leader; if you are the partner of a president contemplating running again who was already the oldest person ever to assume the office; if the goal is to get out of establishment Washington and be seen in a different, more … energetic context, the Grammys is not a bad way to do it.Especially a Grammys powered by the combined attention of the BeyHive, Swifties and Harries. Especially one recognizing the legacy of 50 years of hip-hop.Especially one in which Biden was handing out the first Grammy in the category of song for social change, given to Shervin Hajipour, a young Iranian whose song “Baraye” has become an anthem for the women’s rights protests and a way for those around the world to demonstrate solidarity. (Haider Ackermann used it in his recent couture show for Jean Paul Gaultier.)The first lady also gave Bonnie Raitt her surprise Grammy for song of the year, but it was the award to Halipour, in Iran awaiting trial and charged with disseminating propaganda against the regime and inciting violence, that made the political point. Albeit one couched in the glitz and circumstance of an awards telecast.If an administration wanted to underscore exactly what side it was on, that was a pretty slick way to do so.The first lady knew the constituency she was speaking to, and she fit right in. How often do Jill Biden and Machine Gun Kelly (in a reflective silver foil Dolce & Gabbana suit) look as if they are in the same universe? Being part of the most dominant fashion trend of the night is a very specific form of outreach, the planting of a visual earwig.It’s like the yin to President Joe Biden’s upcoming State of the Union yang; the pop culture version of the political theater scheduled to take place Tuesday, a mere two days after the Grammys, back in D.C. When it comes to curtain-raisers, you don’t get much better than that. And all the silver meant it was impossible to miss.This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
A&E >  Pop culture

Nick Carter files countersuit against his rape accuser

UPDATED: Thu., Feb. 2, 2023

Backstreet Boys singer Nick Carter has countersued a woman who accused the singer last year of assaulting her in 2001 and infecting her with HPV. Shannon “Shay” Ruth filed a civil sexual battery lawsuit against Carter in December. In a counterclaim filed Thursday in Clark County District Court in Nevada, the musician — real name Nickolas Carter — accused the woman of being an “opportunist” who ...
A&E >  Pop culture

Game On: Forspoken represents everything wrong with big-budget video games

The highly anticipated Forspoken was released on Tuesday, and despite its lofty cinematic presentation, its reception was about what I expected: middling. After all, there’s only so many times big-budget studios can cobble together a cinematic third-person action-adventure game before the niche is completely devoid of originality.

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