The Parting Shot with H. Alan Scott

Three of the most talked-about books right now share one thing: queer themes. Josh Silver, author of Fruit Fly, joins H. Alan Scott on Newsweek's Parting Shot podcast to talk about sharing the spotlight with Marlon James' The Disappears and Douglas Stuart's John of John. "These two authors are like my heroes," he says. 

Silver explains how Fruit Fly found its readers with no marketing budget, carried by online book communities to gay and straight audiences alike. He talks about making the jump from his YA novels HappyHead and Traumaland to his first adult novel, and about the road that took him from actor to nurse to author. He also takes on the MM label, the readers who arrived by way of Heated Rivalry and a publishing industry that he says believes in authentic voices, as long as they sell. 

"Can we please call it a gay story?" 

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In 2004, thousands of women applied for a Fox reality show that promised to turn "ugly ducklings" into beauties. It was called The Swan. Contestants spent three months cut off from friends and family while undergoing cosmetic surgery and intense fitness regimens, and most had no idea a beauty pageant was waiting at the end. 

Now director Erin Lee Carr (Britney vs Spears, Mommy Dead and Dearest) revisits the show in the new Hulu documentary The Swan: Behind the Mirror. She joins H. Alan Scott on Newsweek's Parting Shot podcast to talk about what the show did to the women who lived it, the prizes that came with a tax bill and why she calls the women "patient zero for the internet's appetite to tear [people] apart." 

Carr also reckons with her own hypocrisy, the audience's role in the judgment and how Ozempic and today's reality TV prove The Swan never really went away. Plus, the answer every woman gave to her final interview question: Would you do it again? 

"We live in the world that The Swan built, in ways that we like to have outrage about and then comply with." Erin Lee Carr 

The Swan: Behind the Mirror is streaming now on Hulu. 

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From the Poltergeist curse to The Wizard of Oz, Hollywood runs on urban legends. But few have been snickered about longer than the baseless rumor involving Richard Gere and a gerbil. 

Journalist Allen Salkin spent six years investigating it for Gerbil, a new 12-episode podcast from The Hollywood Reporter. He tracked down sources, ordered obscure magazines off eBay and visited Cedars-Sinai in person. Along the way, he debunks much of the story and uncovers an apparent earlier version of the rumor out of Philadelphia. 

Salkin talks with Newsweek about why the rumor has survived four decades, what Gere's silence has meant for its staying power and what its durability says about the rest of us. Plus, why he doubts a single person started it and why he believes he knows the answer. 

"What can we learn from the durability of this rumor?" Allen Salkin 

Gerbil is available now from The Hollywood Reporter. 

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It's time to talk about what's trending For the Culture. Newsweek Senior Reporter Lauren Giella joins H. Alan Scott to break down the week's biggest pop culture conversations. 

First up: Taylor Swift has entered her nesting era. Now that she's married and in love, will her music suffer? Lauren argues it already has with The Life of a Showgirl. 

Then, Saturday Night Live is back. We run through some of this season's hosts, including Jalen Brunson and Dakota Johnson, and H. Alan asks the question that keeps him up at night: Why won't Dakota Johnson return his calls? 

Finally, Ryan Murphy brings the stars back for American Horror Story season 13. We celebrate the brilliance of Jessica Lange and Sarah Paulson, and H. Alan makes his case for why Leslie Grossman deserves to lead a season. 

Subscribe for more weekly conversations on what's trending For the Culture. 

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Zach Braff, Sarah Chalke and Donald Faison are back at Sacred Heart Hospital, and as the Scrubs reboot heads into its second season on ABC, the stars are still a little surprised at how well it's worked. 

On Newsweek's Parting Shot podcast, Braff (J.D. Dorian) admits he was terrified to come back: "We did it for the fans, and the fans are very passionate about the original show." Chalke (Elliot Reid) explains how 25 years of history created a set where everyone feels safe enough to mess up, and Faison (Christopher Turk) says the cast never wanted to simply repeat what worked before: "We also want to be The Empire Strikes Back after Star Wars." 

Plus, why Scrubs' mix of comedy and heart still stands out at a time when medical shows like The Pitt are leaning into the gritty stuff, and what it's like to show up to a job where you know you'll be laughing most of the day. 

Scrubs season 2 premieres September 30 on ABC and Hulu. 

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This week in culture: royals and reckonings collide. Princess Diana's revenge dress is heading to auction decades after it delivered the ultimate wardrobe comeback and could fetch millions. Macklemore was booted from Ed Sheeran's tour for saying Free Palestine, and everyone collectively lost their minds. And Channing Tatum has a finsta? Here's everything you need to know this week on the Parting Shot Podcast, because if it's happening in entertainment, it's For the Culture. 

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Laura Baginski, co-founder of Earlybirds, joins host Newsweek’s H. Alan Scott to talk about the dance party that starts at 6 PM and wraps by 10 so everyone gets home for a full night of sleep. "I'm not dead yet, so I do like to go out and have fun." Earlybirds was built around that idea, and it has grown into a movement of early evening dance parties for women and gender expansive people in 50 cities. Each party gives 10 percent of proceeds to nonprofits that uplift women and the gender expansive community. Last year that added up to close to $40,000, and Laura says the total could triple this year. The story starts with Susie Lee, Laura's high school friend, who said yes to the idea while living with stage four metastatic breast cancer. Susie has since passed, and Laura carries her mission forward through the Susie Lee Legacy Fund. H. Alan and Laura also get into what surprises Laura most about the parties: the crying, the joy and the people who tell her the dance floor is where they feel like themselves again. 

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He almost missed the story of his career. Investigative journalist Joe Sexton sat down with Newsweek’s H. Alan Scott to talk about HBO's A Killer Story, his six year pursuit of the Dana Chandler case, and the citizen sleuth who wouldn't let it go. 

Sexton explains why it took roughly 3,000 emails from Eileen Umbehr before he took her tip seriously, how a unanimous Kansas Supreme Court reversal convinced him something had gone badly wrong in Chandler's original trial, and how he tried to stay skeptical of Eileen and her husband Keen even as he came to rely on their years of research. He also walks through the thought exercise that still keeps him up at night: if Chandler did it, how exactly did she pull it off? 

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Senior Reporter Lauren Giella joins H. Alan Scott to dig into the week's biggest culture stories. Carole Radziwill returns to The Real Housewives of New York with her name tangled in the Epstein files thanks to her old friendship with Ghislaine Maxwell, and she isn't backing away from the questions. Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim's Elizabeth Holmes film You Can See Everything shocked Telluride audiences who didn't even know what they were about to watch. And Robert Pattinson's Primetime, his Chris Hansen drama about the making of To Catch a Predator, is already stirring Oscar buzz and controversy after its Venice premiere. Subscribe to Newsweek's Parting Shot Podcast for more culture conversations that go beyond the headlines. 

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Ryan Murphy takes on the Lizzie Borden legend and turns Rebecca Hall and Charlie Hunnam loose on it. Hall and Hunnam break down their work on Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story, from balancing camp with real tragedy to watching newcomer Ella Beatty carry the season as Lizzie. Hunnam talks reuniting with Murphy and writer Ian Brennan after making Jungleland with Max Winkler. Hall digs into playing Abby Borden as a woman starved for attention and stuck in a life she never wanted. Subscribe to Newsweek's Parting Shot Podcast with H. Alan Scott for more conversations with the cast and creators shaping this season of Monster. 

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