By Robert Scucci
| Published 1 hour ago

The only thing worse than getting invited to a party where all the other guests plan on murdering you is getting invited to one where the masterminds behind your imminent death are art snobs who frequently toss around words like “banal” and “jejune” in casual conversation. These people do not paint with yellow, they paint with chartreuse. Their pretentiousness is on full display in 2007’s Murder Party, a film that is exactly what it sounds like.

A perfect low-budget yet high-caliber horror comedy, Murder Party boasts a 100 percent critical score on Rotten Tomatoes, which is impressive considering its reported $230,000 budget. The Popcornmeter tells a different story, sitting at 58 percent across more than 2,500 ratings. My read on it is simple. Murder Party caters to a very specific audience. You’ll either celebrate it for the insane, ultra-violent effort that it is, or it is simply not your cup of tea.

Given my own media preferences, I am firmly in the former camp. Murder Party is the best kind of blood bath. I also have an art degree, so I have to suspend very little disbelief when it comes to the maniacs depicted here.

Christopher Just Wanted A Fun Night Out

Lonely, bored, and with nothing to do on Halloween, Chris finds a flyer for a so-called “Murder Party” on his way home from work, and suits up in a makeshift cardboard and duct tape knight costume. Arriving like a walking Monty Python bit, he quickly realizes the theme is meant to be taken literally, and that he’s walked straight into a trap.

He is greeted by the most annoying and pretentious art students imaginable, all dressed in ridiculous costumes. Lexi (Stacy Rock) is styled like Pris from Blade Runner. Sky (Skei Saulnier) shows up as a zombie cheerleader. Paul (Paul Goldblatt) is a vampire. Macon (Macon Blair) is a werewolf. Bill (William Lacey) is dressed like a Baseball Fury from The Warriors, never looking up from his phone.

The only person missing is Alex (Sandy Barnett), the benefactor they hope to impress with their murder installation. The plan is simple. Kill Chris, present it as art, and secure a grant for more unhinged projects.

Chris is chained to a chair while everyone waits for Alex, who eventually arrives with his drug dealer, Zycho (Bill Tangradi), and his dog, Hellhammer. While they wait for the witching hour in which they’ll carry out the violent act, each member pitches their preferred method of execution, all while doing copious amounts of drugs. As you would expect in this kind of setting, creative differences surface rather quickly.

They pass the time by ingesting Sodium Pentothal and playing a game of truth or dare, while Chris, understandably terrified, just wants to get home to his cat, Sir Lancelot, and eat candy corn. He may be in mortal danger, but he is perceptive enough to realize that artists are fickle and petty. If he can survive the evening, their plans might unravel on their own.

A Super Satisfying Blood Bath

For me, Murder Party earns serious points for perfectly lampooning the pretentious art student. The collective moves with an air of self-importance, as if they are doing God’s work, when they are really just insufferable gas bags with a steady supply of party drugs. Odds are their parents are footing their tuition bills, as none of them appear to have actual jobs in their pursuit of artistic greatness.

As the film escalates, it becomes more violent and more absurd. The chaos lands so well because artists like Paul are more concerned about someone walking through their photography shots than one of their friends accidentally setting themselves on fire just out of frame. Bearing witness to a gaggle of selfish wannabes desperate to be edgy, Chris sits in disbelief over the fact that he might be executed for yet another one of their half-baked art projects.

I understand that Murder Party is not for everybody. But if you have ever been dragged to a friend’s gallery opening and forced to brush elbows with a bunch of self-important pseudo-intellectuals who will probably end up doing graphic design for some fly-by-night, underpaying ad agency, this is a bloody good time.

Always ready to poke fun at this very specific personality type, Murder Party is currently streaming for free on Tubi.

Ghislaine Maxwell
Pee Yew … You Smell Rank In Prison!!!

Published
February 24, 2026
4:33 PM PST

Bold and the Beautiful gives a twist as Ivy Forrester (Ashleigh Brewer) acting just insane. She’s peeping and spying. She’s lying. And she’s trying to control Electra Forrester‘s (Laneya Grace) love life.

Fans are wondering why Ivy is so determined to do all this and to get Electra away from Will Spencer (Crew Morrow), not allowing them the space to talk things through and figure them out for themselves because they’re adults. We’re going to discuss why Ivy is going way over the top with Electra.

Is Ivy Forrester Actually Electra’s Mother on Bold and the Beautiful?

Could there be a twist and rather than an overbearing aunt, maybe Ivy is actually Electra’s mother? Ivy’s been around for years, if you remember. She came to Bold and the Beautiful as a fully formed adult. But Electra is a newly invented character who is said to be the daughter of Ivy’s never-before-seen big brother, John Forrester Jr., who is the oldest child of Eric Forrester’s (John McCook) younger brother.

Because Ivy’s been acting like an insane helicopter parent lately, we have to wonder if they’re going to twist things and Electra is going to be revealed to be Ivy Forrester’s daughter instead of her niece. I have to say, I can see it. It’s plausible, and I’m going to tell you why.

Analyzing the Age Gap Between Ivy Forrester and Electra Forrester on B&B

First, I want to address the inevitable question of the age difference between Electra and Ivy Forrester. Because you look at them and you think there are not that many years between them. You may assume the math won’t work. But guess what? It actually does.

Plus, as you know, age gaps really don’t matter on soaps. For instance, there’s only 14 years between Taylor Hayes (Rebecca Budig) and Steffy Forrester (Jacqueline MacInnes Wood) actresses Rebecca Budig, who’s 52, and Jacqueline MacInnes Wood, who’s 38.

Meanwhile, Brooke Logan (Katherine Kelly Lang) was about 30 years old when she gave birth to Bridget Forrester (Ashley Jones). Yet, there’s only 15 years between Katherine Kelly Lang, who’s 64, and Ashley Jones, who is 49 and plays Bridget Forrester.

Now let’s talk about the two Forrester ladies. Ivy actress Ashleigh Brewer is 36, and Electra actress Laneya Grace is 21. If Ivy Forrester had given birth as a teenager, a 15-year age gap is totally plausible. You can widen that gap if you want to and make it 16, 17, or 18 years when it’s already at 15.

Soap Opera Tropes and Secret Parentage Precedents

With the age thing out of the way, let’s talk about red flags that Ivy may be Electra’s mother and why it’s feasible in this storyline. First of all, Bold and the Beautiful did something very similar, playing fast and loose with age gaps and secret kids not that long ago.

Remember Finn (Tanner Novlan) and Luna Nozawa (Lisa Yamada) were raised as cousins, but it turned out Finn got his aunt Poppy Nozawa (Romy Park) pregnant and his cousin Luna turned out to be his secret daughter. It’s not unprecedented on Bold, and they love to repeat plots. So, there’s that.

A Potential Bold and the Beautiful Backstory for Ivy Forrester’s Secret Teen Pregnancy

Electra’s father is supposedly Ivy’s older brother, John Forrester Jr. But I could see a backstory where Ivy had a teen pregnancy in Australia. If she was 15 or 16, her brother John Jr., who would have been in his mid-20s or later, might have stepped up to help his sister Ivy and adopted her baby.

John might have raised Electra in the US to give Ivy the space and opportunity to finish growing up, to go to college, live her life, and not be dealing with the pressures of being a single teen mother. That way, Ivy would always know that Electra was in good hands with her big brother.

Aside from the Remy Pryce (Christian Weissmann) thing, Electra has had a pretty charmed life. She’s had wealth and advantages and loving parents along with a very loving Aunt Ivy. It’s no wonder Electra has zero compassion for a homeless girl because Electra Forrester has never done without anything.

Signs of Tiger Mom Behavior and Artistic Inheritances on B&B

In-family adoptions are common in real life and secret kids are standard soap tropes. If Electra was her kid, then Ivy Forrester could stay in touch, watch her grow up mostly from afar, and see that she was happy and healthy. She could drop by for visits, and then when Electra wanted to come to Los Angeles, Ivy would welcome her biological daughter with open arms.

That would also explain why she makes Electra check in with her all the time and doesn’t like her staying overnight at Will Spencer’s place. Ivy treats Electra like she’s 15 or 16 with her “you can’t do this, you can’t do that” attitude. Electra just tells Ivy “okay” because she was raised to be polite, but there may be more to it.

It would also explain Electra’s raw talent with jewelry making as some inherited artistic skill. If B&B goes this way, it would explain why Ivy is basically acting like a tiger mom trying to micromanage her daughter’s love life.

Protective Maternal Instincts and Spying on Will Spencer on Bold and the Beautiful

It would also explain why, when Electra was out of town, Ivy got up out of her sick bed to go spy on Will. That’s giving overprotective mom vibes more so than just a nosy aunt. If Electra is her daughter, of course she would hate her being allegedly cheated on by her boyfriend Will, especially with a girl who claims to be her friend, Melissa Dylan (Sydney Bullock).

We know nothing happened between Will and Dylan, but Ivy took a little look and jumped to the worst conclusion. I will admit, it wasn’t a good look. The optics were troubling. If she’s Electra’s mom, of course she would leap to the worst conclusion to protect her child.

A lot of fans have noticed that Ivy is acting out of character with all of her “it’s not proper” and “inappropriate” talk. That might be because Electra’s her daughter, and those maternal instincts aren’t something we’ve ever seen before with Ivy. As far as we know, she has no kids on Bold.

Who is Electra Forrester’s Biological Father?

Just to be clear, I’m not saying this is a spoiler about Electra or that it’s definitely happening. I’m just saying I’ve seen red flags about Ivy’s erratic, aggressive, and over-the-top behavior where Electra is concerned. Also, Ivy’s baby daddy would have to be some random Australian guy.

It could not be Wyatt Spencer (Darin Brooks) that got her pregnant—they couldn’t play the timeline for that—and it couldn’t be Liam Spencer (Scott Clifton) because they are both related to Will Spencer. Ivy never would have let Electra date Will if they were related. So, the dad would be a mystery.

Ivy’s Sabotage on Bold & the Beautiful: Stolen Letters and Orchestrating the RJ Forrester Romance

Recently, Electra walked away from Will when he wouldn’t say he’d kick Dylan out, and of course, Ivy was eavesdropping. Then Electra decided to write Will a letter to just kind of work through things. Then Ivy stole the letter.

Daphne Rose (Murielle Hilaire) saw her doing it. Ivy’s going to threaten Daphne about not saying anything. Ivy’s next plot is to get Electra hooked up with RJ Forrester (Brayan Nicoletti) so she’ll forget Will. She’s spying this week and RJ kisses Electra. It looks like Will and Electra officially break up and Will sees the kiss, which I believe Ivy is going to be orchestrating to make sure that he sees it.

If you recall, Ivy wanted Electra to dump Will back when Luna molested him because Will kept it from Electra and didn’t tell her until after they made love. The assault itself wasn’t Will’s fault, but still, every mother wants the best for her daughter.

Ivy might legitimately think Will is not the best for Electra. And Ivy may think Will is a trouble magnet, that he leads women on, or that he’s a serial cheater. Ivy is thinking the worst of him. She also hated that Luna was pregnant with Will’s baby and didn’t want Electra in the middle of all that.

Real-Life Maternity Leave and the Future of Ivy Forrester

Now, with this stuff with Dylan, Ivy may have reached a breaking point, and that’s why she’s actively plotting to get the outcome she wants for Electra. Things are going to wrap up with Ivy probably in the next four to six weeks because Ashleigh Brewer is about to be out on maternity leave. She has a secret baby bump that the soap is hiding. And maybe, just maybe, Ivy has a secret daughter also, and it’s Electra.

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Cream is one of the most influential bands to break out of the mid to late 60s. The power trio consisting of Jack Bruce on bass and vocals, Eric Clapton on guitar and vocals and Ginger Baker on the drums released just four albums during their very short time together. The group formed in 1966 in London and defined the psychedelic and blues-based rock music of the time with classic songs “Sunshine of Your Love,” “White Room,” “Strange Brew,” and the George Harrison and Clapton-penned “Badge.”

The group was a trailblazer at the time and is credited with inspiring many hard rock and heavy metal acts. Jack Bruce’s unique style and thumping bass attack inspired many players that followed. While Clapton was hitting his stride as a guitar god with his amazing and sought-after “woman tone,” created by using his 1964 Gibson SG guitar with the tone knob peeled back through a cranked Marshall amp. The warm and creamy distorted tone still has a sense of mystery as guitarists have been trying to emulate it since. Ginger Baker’s unorthodox drumming with his jazz and African polyrhythmic influences were far from straightforward and at times complicated the music. Together, the trio created a torrent of sounds ranging from psychedelic pop to dirty blues, encapsulating an incredible catalog of songs that will live on forever.

In the book, The Uncanny Origins & Unlikely Fortunes of Eric Clapton & Cream, Jack Bruce explains the magic behind the three-piece band. “Ginger had a rhythm element, Eric had a knowledge of the blues, but I had something else which took the band somewhere else. I think that’s the important thing. That’s what made the band different from a lot of other bands. We didn’t just do cover versions of the blues a la The Yardbirds. I love the blues, but I wanted to make my own statement to carry the thing further forward.”

Cream was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1993. In 2005, they reunited for a final run of shows at the Royal Albert Hall in London and Madison Square Garden in New York City. Ranked by the quality of the songs, overall sound and cultural impact, here are Cream’s studio albums.

4

‘Goodbye’ (1969)

Cream released its final album, Goodbye, after the group parted ways. The album features three studio tracks and three live cuts. The live tracks were recorded in Los Angeles in 1968 and showcase the band’s high-powered live show featuring improvisational elements and great jams. “I’m So Glad” and “Politician” are amazing takes that open the window into the live power of the trio.

“Badge” is the best studio cut on the album. It was co-written by Clapton and George Harrison of The Beatles. The band planned to have each member write a tune for their grand finale. Clapton and Harrison teamed up to write the esoteric song with the classic lines, “I told you not to wander around in the dark / I told you about the swans, that they live in the park,” inspired by Ringo Starr. The song features Clapton’s iconic chorus-driven guitar riff about a minute into the tune and a fantastic solo before diving back into the main theme. The final track “What a Bringdown”, written by Baker, rotates between a 6/4 verse and a 5/4 timing on the chorus, showcasing their progressive side. The intro sounds strikingly familiar to Blind Faith’s “Do What You Like,” both of which were released in 1969.

3

‘Fresh Cream’ (1966)

Fresh Cream is the debut album released in late 1966. The effort was recorded in just 10 days and put the power trio on the map with psychedelic pop songs “I Feel Free,” “N.S.U.,” “I’m So Glad.” Eric Clapton’s woman guitar tone is in full effect, especially on the blistering on bluesy songs “Sleepy Time Time,” and the covers “Spoonful” and, “Rollin’ and Tumblin’.”

The album dabbles into chaotic territory as the band fuses blues, hard rock and psychedelic improvisation, which helped propel a new sound to the masses. The bombastic nature of some of the performances on the album went on to inspire a bevy of hard rock and heavy metal musicians. “Toad” features a lengthy Ginger Baker drum solo that brings the album to a triumphant close.

2

‘Wheels of Fire’ (1968)

Cream released the classic Wheels of Fire in the summer of 68. The band’s third album embraced a more progressive and live sound than previous efforts. At the time, Cream was known for their epic and bombastic live show, taking songs like “Crossroads,” “I’m So Glad,” “Toad,” and “Sweet Wine” and stretching them out with improvisation and extended guitar solos. Songs like “White Room,” “Sitting on Top of the World,” and a cover of Albert King’s “Born Under a Bad Sign,” all showcase the group’s virtuosic musicianship.

Wheels of Fire is a double album that, along with a full studio album, contains four live tracks. The now classic version of “Crossroads” and epic live versions of “Spoonful” and “Toad,” were recorded in San Francisco in early 1968. The band shows off a different side with studio tracks like the spoken word “Pressed Rat and Warthog,” and the soft ballad “As You Said,” which features lyrics were written by Pete Brown, bringing a poetic depth to the album. Other fan favorites peeled off the double LP include “Politcian” and “Deserted Cities of the Heart.”

1

‘Disraeli Gears’ (1967)

Cream released its second album, Disraeli Gears, in November 1967. The group’s best album dives into a more psychedelic territory with the trippy songs “Strange Brew,” “Tales of Brave Ulysses,” “SWLABR,” an acronym for “She Walks Like a Bearded Rainbow,” and “World of Pain.” Eric Clapton uses a wah-wah pedal throughout the album brilliantly tapping into the counter culture vibe of the Summer of Love in 1967.

The album features the band’s biggest hit, “Sunshine of Your Love.” The main riff of the song was written by Jack Bruce after being inspired by seeing Jimi Hendrix live. The song features both Jack Bruce and Eric Clapton on vocals and features one of Clapton’s most famous studio guitar solos. Ginger Baker’s use of his tom-tom drumming gives the track a unique feel that makes it stand out. “Outside Woman Blues” is another classic from the album, really shining a light on Clapton’s “woman tone.”

On top of being Cream’s best album, Disraeli Gears is also one of the greatest album covers of all time. The psychedelic cover, created by Australian artist Martin Sharp, is a beautifully strange collage with a photo of the band surrounded by the most 60s-looking art. The album perfectly captures the vibe and energy of 1967 and was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1999.

Jimmy Kimmel Supporters
Flooded FCC With Complaints After Kirk Comments

Published
February 24, 2026
3:42 PM PST

Sarah Shahi revealed that not all of her friends stuck by her when she made the decision to divorce husband Steve Howey following over a decade of marriage.

“I lost friends from it. It was friends that were very deeply in the know that were like, ‘What are you doing?’” Shahi, 46, recalled on the Tuesday, February 24, episode of Amanda Hirsch’s “Not Skinny But Not Fat” podcast. “[Those were] people that had my back up until the moment that I did get the divorce.”

Shahi recalled getting “dropped” by some of her friends, adding, “I’m not a judgmental person. I’m always somebody where if someone’s going through something, I won’t give them my opinion but I’ll ask them a series of questions about how they feel so that way they come to their own conclusions.”

She continued: “But the amount of judgment I got from getting the divorce from people who honestly were just [as] unhappy in their own relationships. They decided to stick it out and they thought I should do the same. That’s not what we’re here for. We’re here to have fun and be happy. Why can’t I do that? I have the right to be happy. Everybody has the right to be happy.”

Shahi and Howey, 48, met on the set of Reba, dating for several years before getting married in 2009. They were together for over a decade — and welcomed three kids — before Shahi filed for divorce in 2020.

“It worked out for both parties involved. There is no failure here,” Shahi exclusively shared in her January Us Weekly cover story. “I was in a relationship for 18 years and have three beautiful kids. It is by every definition a success to me and we have a beautiful relationship — Steve and I — now as coparents. It’s important to show the kids, in my opinion, that when something is out of sync, you have to have the courage to let it go.”

After working on Sex/Life in the midst of her divorce, Shahi found love with her costar Adam Demos. Following five years of dating, Shahi broke her silence to Us about their split, saying, “There was an element of the relationship that people really felt belonged to them, which was very sweet and heart- warming.”

She continued: “The flip to that is when things end, you feel like you’re going through it twice. You’re going through it emotionally on a personal level, and then you’re going through it again on a much bigger level.”

More recently, Shahi made a rare comment about what led to her split from Demos, 40.

“Without airing any kind of laundry, I do think … it’s hard to build a life when you have children unless the person truly, truly, truly wants that as well,” she said on Kristin Cavallari’s “Let’s Be Honest” podcast earlier this month. “This is not a comment on him but more about the ways that I show up as a parent. I show up as a parent in a very specific way. [As a child], we could walk into our mom’s bedroom at any time and we walked into the bathroom at any time. I think that can be a little challenging for somebody who may not be used to having kids.”

In the same podcast episode, Shahi opened up about her hopes for her love life.

“I want my next relationship to be about me. I’m not looking for a stepparent. I just want a boyfriend,” she added. “Someone that can just take me out and I can be on the beach and just be all sweaty and have sex all the time. I just want someone to purely service me, and if that grows into something else then great.”

In its 60-year history, the Star Trek franchise has made numerous attempts to widen its fanbase beyond devoted Trekkies. Whether through the comedic, time-travel premise of Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home or J.J. Abrams’s action-packed 2009 reboot, the creative team consistently tried to appeal to casual audiences by capitalizing on pop-culture trends. In 1996, the franchise nearly landed one of America’s most treasured actors for Star Trek: First Contact — Tom Hanks.

Paramount often tried to attract A-list talent to bring additional box office muscle to Gene Roddenberry’s beloved sci-fi franchise. Longtime Trek fan Eddie Murphy was once considered for a hip San Francisco professor role in The Voyage Home, and Sean Connery was the studio’s top choice to play the villainous Sybok in Star Trek V: The Final Frontier. But Hanks, who is also a self-professed Trekkie, wasn’t being eyed for just any new role. Instead, the two-time Oscar winner was shortlisted for Star Trek’s most historic figure outside the Enterprise crew: Zefram Cochrane.

Who Is Zefram Cochrane in the Star Trek Universe?

In Star Trek: The Original Series, Cochrane was introduced as the creator of the warp drive system. Played by Glenn Corbett in the Season 2 episode “Metamorphosis,” Cochrane encounters Captain James T. Kirk (William Shatner) and the Enterprise crew on a planet where he had crash-landed years earlier, and an alien entity called “the Companion” had restored his youth. The entity goes on to attack the Enterprise crew, and Cochrane must work with them before they become stranded there permanently.

Cochrane returned in Star Trek: First Contact, whose time-travel plot involves the Borg attempting to assimilate Earth through a temporal vortex. To stop them, the Enterprise crew, led by Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart), follows the Borg back to 2063, where they encounter the legendary warp drive inventor just one day before his historic first flight. However, the Cochrane they meet is far from a heroic icon. He’s an alcoholic inventor who uses his ship in get-rich-quick schemes.

At the time of First Contact’s pre-production, Hanks was at a career peak. After spending much of the ’80s playing comedic everymen in hits like Splash and Big, he transitioned into prestige drama in the ’90s with Oscar-winning performances in Philadelphia and Forrest Gump. Add to that his acclaimed 1995 performance as Jim Lovell in Apollo 13, along with voicing Woody in Toy Story, and the world was Hanks’s oyster. His addition could have conferred a new level of prestige and event status that none of the previous installments had achieved. But how close did he come to playing Cochrane?

In 2021, First Contact co-writer Ronald D. Moore addressed the subject during a retrospective interview with The Hollywood Reporter. Though Hanks’s name was floated early on, Moore revealed that talks “never got that far.” The role ultimately went to James Cromwell, who already had franchise experience from playing multiple characters on Star Trek: The Next Generation.

While Hanks’s popularity, high salary, and busy schedule — including directing and starring in That Thing You Do! — likely prevented his involvement, there remained a slim chance he might have participated. When Hanks appeared on the Happy Sad Confused podcast in 2023, he enthusiastically reflected on the opportunity and his Trek fandom.

“The guy who invented warp drive? Oh come on, I would’ve jumped on that! I would have come in, and I would have brought gift Tribbles to everybody at the first meeting. ‘Guys, here’s some Tribbles for you.’”

Is There Room for Tom Hanks in the Star Trek Universe?

Image via Apple TV+

Despite Hanks’s affection for the franchise, things ultimately worked out for both him and the film. Having already portrayed a string of inspirational and heroic figures, Cochrane might have felt redundant at that stage of his career. Cromwell instead played the iconic fallen hero as a reluctant, slightly cynical celebrity — someone largely indifferent to humanity’s future until the Enterprise crew forces him to confront it. Hanks’s participation likely would have required extensive rewrites to expand Cochrane’s arc in an already crowded narrative. That could have distracted from the ensemble balance that made the film work.

In the end, Star Trek: First Contact succeeded with critics and general audiences without Hanks’s involvement. In later years, the franchise would attract acclaimed actors such as Tom Hardy, Benedict Cumberbatch, Idris Elba, and Paul Giamatti. As Star Trek continues to expand on the small screen with Star Trek: Starfleet Academy and a new feature film in development, the door remains open for Hanks to bring his gravitas to a new but significant character in the broader Star Trek universe.

Star Trek: First Contact is streaming on Paramount+ in the U.S.