Laverne Cox is opening up about her deep connection and meaningful relationship with a man who held opposing political views.

“I was in sheer bliss with this man and you know, things would come up and we would agree to disagree about some political things,” Cox, 54, said while appearing on Wednesday, June 10, episode of The New York Times’ “Modern Love” podcast. “Problematic but not, like, offensive. He had been, the way he grew up and algorithms he was given, information he was consuming that he had been propagandized to. So I tried to give him grace there.”

The Orange is the New Black star continued, “I would understand that his facts were not facts — that they were wrong — and I would express that. I would, you know, offer to look things up and cross reference sources.”

Cox was in a three-and-a-half year relationship with a member of the New York City Police Department who voted for President Donald Trump in all three presidential elections. While appearing on The View on Monday, June 8, Cox said she initially had a “no dating cops” policy, further claiming that her ex initially told her he worked in real estate.

Related: Why Laverne Cox Recently Ended ‘Healing Relationship’ With Boyfriend

Theo Wargo/Getty Images Laverne Cox is learning to cope with her recent breakup one day at a time. “I am recently single,” Cox, 51, said during the Thursday, May 16, episode of Nick Viall’s “The Viall Files” podcast. “It’s really new, it’s literally over a month. It’s weird to talk about.” Cox met her last […]

It wasn’t until the two were already deep in love that she realized he was a MAGA supporter and a police officer.

“When it started out, there was a beautiful, amazing guy who treated me better than anyone I’d ever met,” Cox told The View cohosts at the time. “The political affiliation became obvious, but I’d already had feelings for him, and I wanted to see him as a human being beyond that. His politics and his unexamined life became clear after the three-and-a-half-years. I was like, ‘I love him, but I love myself more.’ And staying in this relationship betrayed myself.”

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While speaking on the “Modern Love” podcast, Cox acknowledged the backlash she received from the LGBTQ+ community as a result of her relationship with a staunch conservative, saying that for years their “connection was bigger than his ignorance, I would say, around politics.”

“I just refuse to betray myself again — as much as that breakup was traumatizing and talking about it publicly. Like, so many people turned on me because I dated a man who was a cop and voted for Trump three times,” she said. “And I get that. I get why people were upset with me about that. I have to say this every time I mention this, is that I never adapted or promoted any Trump policies or any Republican policies. I remain committed to fighting for trans liberation and Black liberation and reproductive rights and a living wage.”

She concluded, “So, I fell in love with someone who as opposing political beliefs, but I think sometimes people think just because you’re in a relationship with someone you cosign their politics. And maybe some people do, I don’t know. But people don’t know me.”

Jennifer Lopez is getting candid about a side of herself fans rarely hear about. During a recent podcast appearance, the music star made a surprising confession about her attraction to darker, more emotionally complicated love stories, even admitting one particular movie awakened what she described as the “dark side” of herself.

The revealing moment came while Jennifer Lopez appeared on “Films To Be Buried With,” the podcast hosted by actor Brett Goldstein, her co-star in the upcoming romantic comedy “Office Romance.”

While chatting with Goldstein, Lopez was asked to name “a film you found arousing that you weren’t sure you should.” The singer and actress did not hesitate.

Instead of naming a conventional romance, Lopez pointed to Quentin Tarantino’s cult classic “True Romance,” the violent 1993 film centered around obsessive love, crime, and dangerous chemistry.

“I would have had sex with any one of them,” Lopez admitted about the cast. “Which says a lot about me… maybe like the dark side of me.”

For those unfamiliar, “True Romance” is far from a traditional love story. Written by Tarantino and directed by Tony Scott, the film follows Clarence Worley and Alabama Whitman as their romance spirals into violence, chaos, and crime.

Lopez Was Drawn To The Film’s Dangerous Chemistry

Lopez specifically pointed to a memorable scene involving Patricia Arquette’s Alabama and James Gandolfini’s mobster character, Virgil.

Despite the brutality of the sequence, Lopez admitted she found the emotional and physical intensity strangely compelling. “[Alabama] has a blown-up face for the rest of the movie, but she’s still s-xy. You still want to kind of kiss her on the lips,” Lopez said.

The conversation became even more revealing when Lopez named the 1986 erotic thriller “9½ Weeks” starring Mickey Rourke and Kim Basinger as “the sexiest movie” she had ever seen. The film follows a mysterious Wall Street trader who pulls an art gallery employee into an emotionally consuming and psychologically complicated romance.

“[Basinger’s character] knew that it was dark and no good and so mysterious but that’s what made it s-xy and good but also knew it was toxic… You want her to get out of it, but I didn’t want her to get out of it. I loved every moment,” Lopez admitted.

Jennifer Lopez Previously Opened Up About Difficult Relationships

Lopez’s comments come after years of being open about the complicated nature of love in her own life. The actress and singer, who has been married four times and engaged six, previously acknowledged that some of her past relationships crossed troubling boundaries.

“I was never in a relationship where I got beat up, thank God,” Lopez said in her Amazon Prime documentary “The Greatest Love Story Never Told.” “But I’ve definitely been manhandled and a couple of other unsavory things. Rough. Disrespectful.”

In the same documentary, Lopez also reflected on her upbringing and how it shaped the way she searched for love. “I felt very ignored by my dad,” Lopez admitted while discussing her childhood. “I didn’t feel like I had enough of a connection with him.”

“When I was growing up, I was always looking for somebody to make me feel loved,” she added.

Lopez Says Emotional Moment With Father Helped Heal Her

Despite years of heartbreak, Lopez recently revealed that one deeply emotional moment with her father helped her heal in unexpected ways. During the podcast interview, Lopez recalled watching the Brazilian drama “I’m Still Here” with her father while recovering from the flu and navigating the aftermath of her split from Ben Affleck.

As emotions unexpectedly surfaced, Lopez said her father noticed her crying. “Oh baby, what’s wrong?” he asked. “I love you,” he later told her. “I always loved you.”

“It healed a part of me,” Lopez admitted, explaining that the moment helped her move on from “those type of relationships.”

Jennifer Lopez Is Entering A New Chapter After Ben Affleck Divorce

The candid confession arrives during a period of major change for Lopez, who is preparing for an empty nest as twins Max and Emme approach adulthood while continuing to focus on new projects, including music, film, and her next chapter following her divorce from Affleck.

By Chris Snellgrove
| Published 22 seconds ago

Like many Doctor Who fans, my wife and I often debate the most important question of them all: who was the best actor to play the Doctor? She and I both came on board with the 2005 revival, so we don’t have the same passion as veteran fans for classic series actors such as Tom Baker. The source of our debate is quite simple. She prefers David Tennant, whose very human performance made the Tenth Doctor a timey-wimey favorite to fans all over the world. As for myself, I prefer Matt Smith, who tempered his whimsical performances with occasional glimpses of both the tragedy and the darkness that have defined the Doctor’s life.

While both Tennant and Smith give showstopping performances, they each worked for very different showrunners. Russel T. Davies brought Doctor Who back in 2005 and soon transformed David Tennant into a household name. After four seasons, Davies left the show, and Steven Moffat took over. His tenure on the show was quite controversial, and countless fans just wanted Davies to come back. However, Davies did come back for the most recent two seasons, and they were so bad that the show he revived is now canceled again. Now that NuWho is dead for the foreseeable future, the fandom can finally embrace a simple truth: Moffat was the best showrunner Doctor Who ever had!

More Like Doctor Whoa

What made Steven Moffat the best Doctor Who showrunner? For one thing, he delivered episodes that were much more cinematic in nature. The classic series had often cheaped out on special effects, and even in the early years of the revival, Davies relied on some shoddy CGI. Once Moffat took over, episodes started looking more and more like blockbuster films (albeit modestly budgeted ones). Throw in the abundance of excellent two-parters (like “The Pandorica Opens” and “The Big Bang”), and stories often had the runtime of a movie, too. Obviously, this is a matter of aesthetic preference, but I’ll take Moffatt’s cinematic storytelling over Davies’ warmed-over schlock any day of the week.  

Speaking of which, Moffat did cool, slow-burning mysteries and reveals better than Davies. Davies often had crazy mysteries (like Bad Wolf) and even crazier reveals (like the Master) that were cool in the moment but made less and less sense the more you thought about them. By comparison, Moffat had meaty mysteries that would keep you on the edge of your seat, including the Pandorica, the Silence, the true nature of River Song, and so much more. In each case, the reveal felt like the rewarding culmination of entire seasons’ worth of build-up. Davies, however, would just show us bonkers stuff and crank out a nonsensical reveal before calling it a day.

The Best Companions, Full Stop

Obviously, a lot of this is a matter of taste. If you don’t care for the mysteries of Moffat, you might be disappointed by how much screentime is devoted to exploring them. Personally, I thought he got the balance of episodic episodes and serialized arcs just right. The unfolding mystery of the Pandorica didn’t keep us from getting standout episodes like “Vincent and the Doctor,” for example, and the mystery of Impossible Girl Clara didn’t keep us from getting bottled brilliance such as “Nightmare in Silver.” Killer standalone episodes and mysteries worthy of TV shows like Lost. Honestly, what more could you want?

If you just said “great characters,” then Steven Moffat still has you covered. Even Doctor Who fans who generally disliked Moffat as showrunner can agree that he brought us some excellent new characters. Amy Pond and Rory are possibly the cutest Companions in franchise history, and they got something most classic Companions never did: their own arcs. Personally, I found their relationship much more compelling than just watching Rose pine for the Doctor in earlier seasons. Plus, under Moffat’s leadership, River gets fleshed out to be a worthy wife for our time-traveling hero. These characters and more got to shine because of how well-written they were from beginning to end.

Gab Man In A Box

That brings me to the last and arguably most compelling reason why Steven Moffat is the best Doctor Who showrunner: the dialogue. Moffat personally wrote a huge number of the episodes under his run, and he gave his characters the wittiest, breeziest banter this side of The West Wing. For as beautifully cinematic as his episodes were, they are almost as enjoyable if you close your eyes entirely and just soak in the weird, found family warmth of the show’s dialogue. Even when Moffat was at his worst (“The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe,” anyone?), he was still writing circles around everyone else.

Long story short? We’re not going to have any new Doctor Who for a while. Possibly a long while; the last hiatus for the show lasted 16 years! There’s no time like the present to go back and watch your favorite episodes of the revival that began in 2005. If you’re someone who hated Steven Moffat’s run back in the day, I encourage you to give him another shot. Every shot is beautiful, every mystery is riveting, and every character is three-dimensional. Throw in dialogue that feels like the lovechild of Joss Whedon and Aaron Sorkin, and you have episodes that can help you do the impossible.

Namely, wash the awful taste of Russell T. Davies’ last two seasons out of your mouth!

Simone Biles is finding comfort in a summer vacation with her husband, Jonathan Owens, less than one week after recuperating from a scary medical emergency.

“A baecation is needed ❤️‍🔥,” Biles, 29, wrote via Instagram Stories on Saturday, June 13, alongside a photo of the couple’s Goyard and Louis Vuitton designer luggage.

Alongside a follow-up slide of a teal-colored ocean, Biles wrote, “Do not disturb, please & thank you.”

The Olympic gymnastic further offered social media fans glimpses of the couple’s dinner date, where they cuddled close while posing for a selfie.

Related: Jonathan Owens Gushes Over ‘Graceful’ Wife Simone Biles

Jonathan Owens is one proud husband. Owens, 29, gushed over his wife, Simone Biles, the most-decorated gymnast in history after taking home four medals at the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics, during a Chicago Bears press conference in Chicago on Tuesday, August 6. “It was amazing to watch,” Owens told reporters after Tuesday’s practice with the […]

Biles’ vacation comes nearly one week after she revealed that she suffered an undisclosed health scare that nearly turned fatal.

“I’m not one to normally share things like this because I value privacy in today’s age, but almost dying wasn’t on my bingo card this week,” she wrote via Instagram on June 6. “This was one of, if not the, scariest experience of my life, especially since Jonathan was in Indy for practices.

Owens, 30, signed with the Indianapolis Colts earlier this year and was attending preseason practices during Biles’ hospitalization.

“I’ve been in bed resting this week,” Biles added at the time. “I’ll explain sooner or later, but [shout out] to my close circle who reached out, checked in, visited or sent flowers 🤍🤍🤍. Love y’all.”

Owens, who met Biles in 2020 via celebrity dating app Raya, has not publicly addressed his wife’s medical emergency or recovery, though this is certainly not the first time the couple has navigated adversity.

“It was one of the few times in her life where everything was just shut off and she couldn’t do anything,” Owens told Texas Monthly in 2021 of meeting Biles during the coronavirus pandemic lockdown. “We used it to get to know each other — really get to know each other. It created our bond and made it stronger. Now, I’m so thankful.”

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Related: Simone Biles Delivers Barbiecore Vibes in Plunging Pink One-Piece

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Simone Biles is a certified Barbie bombshell. “Fit of the day,” Biles, 28, wrote via her Instagram Stories on Saturday, July 26, sharing a glimpse of her sizzling swimwear while enjoying her latest beach getaway. The Olympic gymnast stunned in a plunging, pink one-piece with a pair of coordinating, knit boy shorts. For glam, Biles […]

After three years of dating, Biles and Owens said “I do” in 2023. They also remain one another’s biggest cheerleaders in their respective athletic fields.

“It is not much motivation you need to do, just because you don’t want to put extra, added pressure on anyone. I just tell her, ‘Go do your thing, baby,’” Owens exclusively told Us Weekly in July 2024 about going to Biles’ gymnastic meets. “You get a different type of focus whenever you just have this one person that you’re focusing on.”

He continued at the time, “I’ve played a lot better since [meeting Simone]. I’ve just been focused and locked in, and you come home, talk about my day and play with the dogs, you know what I mean? That’s just kind of, like, our thing.”

I may love a good designer swimsuit, but I’ve learned that a high price tag isn’t what makes swimwear look expensive. It’s usually the thoughtful details like gold hardware, timeless stripes, flattering cuts and colors that instantly elevate the entire look. That’s exactly what I kept an eye out for while building this list.

Whether I’m planning a beach vacation or just daydreaming about one, I always gravitate toward swimsuits that feel a little more luxurious. These styles deliver the same rich resort aesthetic I’d expect from a much pricier brand, but every option comes in under $50. Ahead, shop my favorite luxe-looking bikinis, one-pieces, and more.

17 Under-$50 Bikinis Nail That Luxe Vacation Style

1. My Favorite: The shoulder knot ties on this striped bikini set give it an elevated look that I love. Plus, the high-waisted bottoms have real tummy control built in. My favorite detail is the striped pattern that feels coastal without trying too hard.

2. Shopper Favorite: The ribbed texture on this U-wire bikini top mimics fabric that usually costs three times as much. The V-neckline plus high-cut bottoms creates a longer, leaner leg appearance.

3. Gold-Detail Favorite: The gold hardware on this ruched swim dress does a lot of the styling work for you. Plus, the ruching through the midsection skims the body nicely.

4. Poolside Glam: I always want coverage that still looks dressed up, and the asymmetric strap design on this ruffle-trim set appeals to both. The color blocking draws the eye up, while the ruffle softens the bottom line.

5. Resort Energy: Finding a suit that works for swimming and the beach club bar is tricky, but this V-neck one-piece nails it. The ruffles distract from the midsection, while the deeper neckline keeps it grown up.

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Women with bigger busts know that not all maxi dresses are created equal. Gaping necklines, tight bodices and awkward fits through the chest can quickly ruin an otherwise beautiful dress. Fortunately, a few smart design details can make all the difference. Think supportive smocking, adjustable straps, wrap fronts and silhouettes that create shape without squeezing. […]

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6. Coastal Elegance: The oversized bow on the front of this navy one-piece is the styling moment. The navy and white color palette reads classically expensive, like something you’d find in a Nantucket boutique for triple the price.

7. Quietly Expensive: The tied shoulder straps on this color-block one-piece let you adjust the fit while also looking so adorable. And thanks to black and white color blocking, the suit looks quietly expensive.

8. Designer-Looking: The wrap-front detail on this push-up one-piece creates a flattering diagonal line across the midsection. The print reads like something from a designer resort capsule.

9. Beach Club Chic: For a little edge without baring everything, I went with this gold hardware swimsuit that has chic cutouts to show just the right amount of skin. The metal details elevate it from just beachwear to an actual beach club outfit.

10. Pretty Polka Dots: Black and white polka dots on this strapless one-piece have that retro Riviera energy. The strapless cut works under sundresses and shows off shoulders.

11. Euro Summer: The matching sarong on this blue one-piece swimsuit is the upgrade. The coastal toile print across both pieces creates a head-to-toe look that reads like luxe European resort wear.

12. Mediterranean Mood: The gold shell hardware on this cutout ruched swimsuit is the detail that sells the whole look. Color blocking in green and teal shades feels pulled directly from a Capri postcard.

13. Sleek Stripes: While searching for swimwear that work for pool laps and on-deck cocktails, I discovered this stunning striped V-neck suit. The vertical lines make it genuinely slimming.

14. Sporty-Chic: The skirted bottom on this two-piece tankini covers the hip area without a clunky board-short look. A V-neck top with tummy control gives the sportiness a more polished finish.

15. Ravishing Ruffles: The luxe design and slimming ruffle details on this $30 strapless one-piece punch way above its price tag. The strapless cut eliminates tan lines entirely.

16. Seaside Chic: The seashell-textured fabric on this knotted bikini set adds the kind of detail you’d pay $200 for at a resort shop. The knotted front top and ruffle high-waist bottom feel coastal and chic.

17. Classy Coverage: This striped swim dress gives full coverage up top with a cutout at the waist for shape. The dress hem covers the hip area completely, while the stripe pattern keeps it from feeling like a tank top.

Related: 17 Flowy, Hamptons-Looking Summer Blouses That Hide a Belly Pooch

You don’t need a beach house in the Hamptons to dress like you have one. The secret to the coastal style is leaning into timeless summer staples like striped button-down shirts, oversized linen tops and easy breezy blouses that always look pulled together. Even better, these flowy silhouettes offer a little extra coverage through the […]

Whew, Roomies! New York is still recovering because something very serious went down behind closed doors after the final buzzer, and let’s just say the cameras barely scratched the surface. While the city was already losing its collective mind outside—subways shaking, bodegas buzzing, chopped cheese orders going up in real time—the real scene was unfolding somewhere a little more chaotic. And yes—we’re talking about the moment the New York Knicks officially sealed their championship win and turned a quiet locker room into pure, unhinged celebration energy—and now they’ve already touched back down in New York like nothing even happened.

RELATED: Bing Bong! New York Goes WILD After Knicks’ Historic NBA Finals Win & Even Jordyn Woods’ Purse Is In The Mix (WATCH)

Knicks Turn Locker Room Into Champagne Chaos

Roomies, the videos do not do this justice—because as soon as that final buzzer hit and the reality of victory set in, the Knicks were losing their minds expeditiously. Like, no warm-up, no calm celebration, just immediate full-send energy the second they got behind closed doors. Inside the locker room, several players spray champagne bottles across the room, over each other, and even directly onto the gold trophy like it’s part of the ritual, while screaming like they’ve been holding in 53 years of emotions at once.

Everybody was rocking matching championship tees and white hats with the team logo, passing the trophy around like it was a family heirloom, stopping every few seconds to kiss it, touch it, and make sure it was actually real for the camera. And just when you thought it couldn’t get any more unhinged, Timothée Chalamet popped in and got absolutely soaked in champagne like he subbed himself into the celebration—standing there grinning, drenched, and fully acting like he’d been part of the rotation all season.

Still Can’t Work His Phone, Even As Champion

Even with a championship in hand, some of the Knicks are still out here proving they can win games but not always their phones. OG Anunoby accidentally gives fans an all-access pass to the locker room celebration after the Knicks’ Game 5 title-clincher, hopping on Instagram Live mid-chaos as champagne flies, the trophy moves from hand to hand, and Karl-Anthony Towns pops into frame yelling, “We live baby, we live,” fully locked into celebration mode with goggles on. The problem? OG immediately realized he had no idea how to end the stream, repeatedly asking, “How do you end the live?” while the party kept raging behind him, turning what should’ve been a quick moment into 25 seconds of pure button-mashing confusion before the video cut off with his hand over the camera—championship energy in the streets, but still very much “someone call IT” in the locker room.

Champions Touch Down & Nobody Can Touch ‘Em

RELATED: Daddy Duties! Carmelo Anthony & His Daughter Genesis Serve Twin Vibes With Rare Pop-Out At Knicks Game (VIDEO)

Justin Trudeau had an epic World Cup date with his girlfriend, Katy Perry, at the Team USA game — but that doesn’t mean his allegiance to the country is automatic.

“From @TheAthleticFC: On a day that Canada and the United States both opened their campaigns at the World Cup, Justin Trudeau opted to watch Team USA,” the New York Times tweeted on Saturday, June 13. “His girlfriend, Katy Perry, was performing in the opening ceremony.”

Trudeau, 54, reposted The Times’s upload, adding, “Sometimes supportive boyfriend duties call.”

Trudeau and Perry, 41, attended the Friday, June 12, opener in Los Angeles between USA and Paraguay. The pop star opened the matchup with a performance of her song “Wonder” before the American soccer players won 4-1.

Related: Celebrities Cheer on Global Soccer at the 2026 World Cup

The 2026 World Cup is officially here— and the stars are stepping out to root for their favorite teams. The global soccer tournament will be held in the United States, Canada and Mexico, with the qualifying teams competing in matchups throughout the three countries this summer ahead of the championship game at MetLife Stadium in […]

While Trudeau celebrated the USA victory with Perry, he acknowledged via X that his allegiance still lies with his native country, Canada.

“You know who I’m rooting for to take the Cup,” the former Canadian prime minister tweeted, adding an emoji of Canada’s flag.

Trudeau, who was previously married to Sophie Grégoire Trudeau for 18 years before their 2023 separation, began dating Perry almost two years later. (Perry ended her decade-long engagement to Orlando Bloom, with whom she shares 5-year-old daughter Daisy, in 2025.)

“Things between Katy and Justin are very serious,” a source exclusively told Us Weekly earlier this month. “After her split from Orlando, Katy really wasn’t expecting to jump into another relationship anytime soon, but Justin completely caught her by surprise. He came into her life at the right time, and they have developed a really strong connection.”

Since then, Perry and Trudeau have made public appearances at concerts, red carpets and even political meetings.

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“Former Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau came to Japan with his partner, Katy Perry, and had lunch with us,” Japanese politician Fumio Kishida wrote via Instagram in December 2025, also referring to his wife, Yuko Kishida. “During my time as Prime Minister, I met Prime Ministers many times, and when I visited Canada, we worked together to strengthen bilateral relations, including formulating the Nikka Action Plan. I am glad that we are continuing this friendship.”

As Perry’s romance with Trudeau has continued soaring, the pair are also introducing their families. (Trudeau shares three kids with his ex-wife, while Perry and Bloom coparent their daughter.)

“Their relationship has deepened over the past several months, and they are about to celebrate their one-year anniversary,” the source told Us. “They both feel it’s important to blend their families thoughtfully and at a comfortable pace.”

By Joshua Tyler
| Published 1 hour ago

The year is 2004, and audiences are buying tickets to have a laugh at the expense of a boy named Napoleon in the movie Napoleon Dynamite. The film becomes a box office hit, and no one minds that its protagonist is pitiable. He’s a nerd, part of a cultural group everyone feels comfortable subjecting to ridicule. No one wanted to be a nerd like Napoleon, and that was the point. 

The year is 2006, and being a geek is so cool that a model named Olivia Munn begins portraying herself as a nerd. It may or may not have been true, but it works, and diving into the world of nerds helps make her famous. Munn builds an entire career out of being a desirable dweeb, and soon, the world is filled with attractive celebrities claiming geek status.

Modern readers may have a hard time imagining a world in which geeks and nerds weren’t accepted, but that was the norm until 2005, when one movie changed everything people thought about them. 

The 40-Year Old Virgin was that inciting movie, and this is the story of how it trapped the world into thinking there’s nothing wrong with nerds. 

Judd Apatow Makes Freaks And Geeks A Priority

The world changed in 2005. By 2006, American culture was geek culture, a place where it would surprise no one to hear the captain of the football team talking about his newly purchased lightsaber. 

What happened between Napoleon Dynamite in 2004 and the rise of the aforementioned Olivia Munn in 2006 wasn’t organic. People didn’t change their minds about nerds because they suddenly realized they should be nicer to them. The world changed its mind about geeks because it was tricked into loving them by a singular piece of entertainment called The 40-Year Old Virgin. 

Released in 2005, The 40-Year Old Virgin was the first movie directed by comedian-turned-filmmaker Judd Apatow. In 1999, he’d previously tried to make a TV series around the idea of lovable and sympathetic nerds. The show was called Freaks & Geeks, and it was critically acclaimed. Those rave reviews didn’t matter. Audiences were so turned off by the concept that the series was canceled after airing only a handful of episodes.

Judd Apatow didn’t give up. He found a new way to deliver his pro-geek message when he later teamed up with comedic actor Steve Carell and, with him, convinced Hollywood to greenlight an R-rated comedy called The 40-Year Old Virgin.

“I thought of it as Freaks and Geeks 20 years later if one of them never had sex,” he told GQ. “That was my secret thought as I made the movie.”

He’d learned important lessons from his past failures. This time Judd took a less obvious approach to sympathetic geekiness. He did it with a trick, a trick that transformed nerd-hating viewers into full-on nerd lovers.

Andy Stitzer is the movie’s main character, and he is exactly what the movie’s title says he is. He also has a massive collection of vintage action figures and knows a few magic tricks. He may not wear glasses, but Andy’s not only a 40-year-old virgin, he’s also a 40-year-old nerd.

In the minds of those buying tickets to see it, The 40-Year Old Virgin was supposed to be another piece of nerd abuse comedy in the style of Napoleon Dynamite. That trick is the source of the movie’s screenwashing success. The 40-Year-Old Virgin is designed to appear as if it’s mocking Andy while quietly making the audience root for him. Then, when they least expect it, they fall in love with him. 

This is a Derision Inversion. A derision inversion is a persuasion technique in which a narrative initially encourages the audience to mock or dismiss a character, then gradually transfers audience identification onto that same character, transforming ridicule into sympathy or emotional allegiance.

The Apatow comedy’s name sells the idea of promised geek mockery, and the movie’s trailers only further relayed this notion by focusing on The 40-Year Old Virgin’s lead character making a fool of himself while getting his chest waxed. The film’s marketing wisely avoided anything too heartfelt.

A chest-waxing laugh at the expense of Andy Stitzer isn’t all the movie is and wasn’t something it could have been. The film’s chief nerd is played by Steve Carell, an actor incapable of being unlikable. That’s exactly what Judd Apatow wanted.

How The 40-Year Old Virgin Hypnotized The World

Audiences walked into The 40-Year Old Virgin ready to laugh at Steve Carell’s Andy Stitzer. By the time they walked out, they were laughing with him. 

In the minds of viewers, Andy became the kind of guy you’d love to be friends with, the kind of guy you’d like to see date your daughter. He became that person not because he changed but because you did. He doesn’t stop building scale replica models or staying up late playing tuba. Andy Stitzer is the same nerd at the end that he was at the beginning, except with a new confidence built up by realizing people care about him.

Andy’s journey is not one of abandoning his nerdiness to become someone else. He doesn’t become Stefan Stitzer to get the girl. Andy’s arc in The 40-Year Old Virgin is completed when he learns to accept himself as he is, and then surrounds himself with people who love him, geekiness and all.

The 40-Year Old Virgin was a huge hit. The movie opened at number one and stayed there for two weeks. It remained in the top two for five weeks. Those who saw it went back with their friends. Those who didn’t see it likely heard the news media talking about it and saw lovable Steve Carell out there, front and center, as the movie’s prototypical nerd.

The movie went on to spawn a whole generation of Judd Apatow-related movies, like Knocked Up and Forgetting Sarah Marshall. Steve Urkel was no longer the nerd image in people’s heads. Judd Apatow’s movie and Steve Carell’s warm, friendly character took root there instead.

It doesn’t matter whether you’ve seen the film. The movie’s success created a huge cultural shift by reprogramming the brains of the people who saw it. Those people then took that programming with them and spread it to others. The nerd positivity The 40-Year Old Virgin designed spread through American culture like a mind virus, carried to new, impressionable brains by talk shows and other pieces of corporate entertainment rushing to duplicate that success. The entertainment media battled each other to be on the cutting edge of what Judd Apatow had now convinced them was a new trend.

Maybe your first indoctrination was watching Superbad or a documentary on the dangers of bullying. It doesn’t matter where you got the idea that nerds weren’t so bad; it was The 40-Year Old Virgin that put it in your head.

The Origins Of Andy Stitzer

None of it would have happened if Apatow hadn’t served as a producer on a previous R-rated comedy called Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy. Steve Carell has a supporting role in that film. He steals every scene he shows up in. 

Judd Apatow was so impressed he told Steve to call him, if he ever had an idea for something he wanted to do. Steve Carell did. He’d come up with a character to use in sketches with the legendary Second City Improv group and told Apatow about it. Carell told GQ: “It was about a guy playing poker with his friends, and they were all telling really dirty sex stories, and slowly, you realize that he’s a virgin, and his stories make no sense.”

That sketch would eventually become one of the funniest and best scenes in the movie, but as Apatow and Carell fleshed out the concept, they realized they wanted to do something more than a cheap sketch. They wanted people to understand their geeky virgin as a real person.

Apatow told GQ: “We learned from our research when we read a lot of blogs on the internet from virgins that they are all just nice, shy people, and they weren’t odd. There wasn’t any big joke to it.”

They took the same approach with Andy’s friends who, in a standard movie about an awkward virgin might have mocked him or bullied him. But Judd Apatow tells Entertainment Magazine: “At first glance, these guys embody every bad, misogynistic attitude toward women…but deep down, they are sweet guys with the best of intentions who cover up their own terror with horrible theories on women.”

The movie never tries to hide Andy’s quirks. Apatow says, “Andy has turned his energy—decades of pent-up sexual energy—into his other interests. So he’s amassed a rather large collection of action figures and video games. He’s not exactly a hermit, but he’s an introvert who keeps to himself amidst his collection of stuff.”

Andy is a good, kind, lovable person and also a legitimately introverted, card-carrying geek who keeps his action figures vintage and knows an assortment of magic tricks. He’s the kind of guy you’d have met at the San Diego Comic Con, in the early days before attending became acceptably cool.

Making Andy sympathetic may have been Apatow’s intention, but the studio funding his film was still stuck in a mindset that had them thinking of nerds as less than human.  After only five days of filming, Univeral Pictures got cold feet and tried to kill the movie.

Maybe they’d seen Napoleon Dynamite too many times and weren’t ready to take off their nerd-hatred colored glasses, but Universal decided Steve Carell’s character looked like a serial killer and wanted nothing to do with it. Apatow and his team calmed them down, allowing the movie to resume filming. 

When Nerds Were The Disease And Punching Was The Cure

Before The 40-Year-Old Virgin, nerd perceptions were very different. To prove that point, take a trip back in time with me to the release of the movie Back to the Future. Arriving in 1985, the film features a prototypical nerd character named George McFly.

When the movie starts, George McFly is an adult nerd, and as a result, the movie assumes he’s also a total loser. By the time Back to the Future ends, his character arc is completed only when he gives up his nerd tendencies and starts acting like the kind of cool, confident guy who punches assholes in the face and plays tennis on the weekend. 

Changing George McFly from a nerd into a tennis-playing tool is, in a sense, the entire reason for Marty McFly’s adventure. Because, after all, who’d want a nerd for a father? No thanks. Get that man a doubles partner.

It worked because this was the ideology eighties audiences were most comfortable with. No one paused their VCR and asked, “Hey, what’s wrong with being a nerd?”

The best example of America’s pre-2005 anti-nerd bias is found in the most famous nerd of all time: Bill Gates.

Long before Elon, Bill Gates was famous for being a geek, and also famous for being uniquely hated. He was frequently criticized for overly aggressive business practices and being evasive when faced with government scrutiny. The view of the general public in the 80s and 90s, when it came to Bill Gates, was that he was a creep who spent way too much time reading books and stole everything he’d accomplished. He was also viewed as the prototypical modern representation of a nerd.

Gates was once so hated that it became unsafe for him to go out in public. It culminated in 1998 when, while walking down the street, he was attacked and hit with a pie in the face by a French activist, Noel Godin. The act was seen as a protest against Bill’s monopolistic practices, and the public didn’t exactly feel bad for Bill when it happened. Most felt he had it coming.

While he’s become unpopular again in recent years, after The 40-Year-Old Virgin, people viewed him favorably. Gates became Geek Jesus, a super-smart savior traveling the world dispensing vaccines to sick kids.

The Steve Urkel Effect

Not all nerds were hated in that pre-2005 world. Hated or not, none of them were respected. Few figures embodied this form of anti-nerd bigotry better than Steve Urkel.

Steve Urkel was one of the most popular characters in television history. In the early 1990s, people quoted him, dressed as him for Halloween, and bought thousands of talking Steve Urkel dolls. 

As played by Jaleel White on the sitcom Family Matters, Steve Urkel was loved specifically because people enjoyed mocking him. Laughing at Steve made viewers feel better about themselves because at least they weren’t like him. 

In one of the later Family Matters seasons, Steve develops a magic formula called “cool juice” that transforms him into a less intelligent, more suave version of himself called Stefan. When it happened, the audience did not bemoan the loss of their beloved nerd. Instead, fans celebrated Steve’s victory over his nerdiness. In the context of the show, Stefan is rewarded for his coolness by getting the girl whose heart nerdy Steve Urkel had been trying and failing to win all along.

The most popular, long-running gag on Family Matters revolved around Carl Winslow throwing Steve Urkel out of his house. He tosses him out because Steve is an annoying nerd. It was funny every time it happened because Carl was always right. Steve was annoying, and like all nerds, he had it coming. 

The Early Foundations Of Nerd Acceptance

The foundation for full nerd acceptance was laid in 1999 when corporations looked up and noticed that nerdy things were becoming exceptionally profitable. 

Lines wrapped around the block for The Phantom Menace. Star Wars toys were flying off shelves, and they weren’t being sold to kids. The Matrix was the surprise hit of the decade, and the adult men in line for it looked like they’d fallen out of a Volkswagon bus on its way to a permanently single convention.

The geeks who opened their wallets for those 1999 cash cows did not gain acceptance by rote of their numbers. If you were one of many bespectacled Star Wars fans who slept outside a movie theater that year, there’s a good chance a carload of frat boys drove past, rolled down their windows, stuck out their backsides, and shouted, “Nerds!” at you and your fellow line campers. 

The local news was also present at those Jedi campouts. Their aim was to cover the massive popularity of geek sci-fi properties with a strongly slanted “hey, look at these crazy weirdos!” angle. Making fun of nerds got them ratings.

Those big companies that noticed the profit potential built up inside those line-standers spent the next few years greenlighting more geek-friendly projects. Slowly, as movies like The Matrix gained more widespread acceptance, the cultural stigma against geekery began to soften. It didn’t dissolve. 

The Last Gasp of a Nerd-Hating Culture

When released in 2004, Napoleon Dynamite, for all its uniqueness, was the last gasp of a nerd-hating culture. The character was popular in the same way Steve Urkel was popular. Audiences loved laughing at him, but no one was interested in laughing with him. 

Without the built-in negative feelings American culture had about nerds, it would not have been OK to laugh at all. Instead, the audience might have felt sorry for Napoleon, who lives a horrible and sad life deserving of pity, not scorn.

Napoleon Dynamite’s a nerd, so no one cared. That left the 2004 audience members buying tickets to his movie, free to laugh at him. 

The Current State Of Nerds

Being a geek is now chic. Nerds have gained such broad acceptance that much of our world has been realigned to protect them. Anti-bullying campaigns are the standard in public schools, and social media is filled with super-attractive celebrities telling stories about how they were abused and bullied in high school before they got hot. 

Stories of past nerd suffering make the tellers more popular, or they wouldn’t share them. Take the time to investigate, and you’ll likely find most of them aren’t true. 

It doesn’t matter. When an attractive would-be star declares themselves a nerd, it’s viewed as a good marketing move. Entire YouTube empires have been built off that simple premise. It may not last forever, but in 2025 things have never been better for the word nerd.

Elon Musk Owes It All To Steve Carell

If pop culture’s view on nerds before 2005 was embodied by Steve Urkel, then in a post-2005 world, it is best embodied by Tony Stark. Stark is the smartest and quirkiest character in the Marvel Universe. Like the many other fictional and real-life nerds who came before him, Tony talks too fast because his mouth can’t keep up with the ideas in his head. 

Tony’s every bit the nerd Steve Urkel is, except he’s handsome, rich, and can get any woman he wants without the aid of cool juice to unleash his inner Stefan. And, of course, Tony Stark only wears glasses when doing so will give him superpowers or make him look awesome.

If pre-2005’s real-world nerd representative is best embodied by Bill Gates, then in a post-Apatow world, he’s been replaced by Elon Musk. 

Where Gates repulsed everyone who encountered him, Elon Musk is the toast of the social media and the podcasting world. Elon’s notorious for the number of beautiful women he juggles, and he’s the kind of celebrity most Hollywood stars only dream of being.

There’s no doubt about it: Elon Musk is a nerd. He talks too fast, slurs his words, plays video games, geeks out about space, and has the posture of a middle-aged writer. Yet, everyone wants to be him. If they don’t, it’s only because they’re jealous.

Things have changed, and nerds, at least the good-looking or rich ones, have Judd Apatow’s artful screenswashing in The 40-Year-Old Virgin to thank for it. When it comes to the less physically fortunate nerds out there, maybe things are as bad as ever. Except now they’ve lost their identity to the likes of hunky Henry Cavill (who loves nerdy games and building computers).

If Henry Cavill is now a nerd, then I suppose we’ll have to come up with a new word for the poor, introverted, fat kid still living in his mother’s basement and hoping to meet a supermodel who won’t expect him to look like Superman. Sorry kid, it’s probably not going to happen. Here’s to the losers, one and all.