Darren Criss Tells Seth Meyers How He Figured Out How to Play Andrew Cunanan: WATCH

Darren Criss Tells Seth Meyers How He Figured Out How to Play Andrew Cunanan: WATCH
Darren Criss Cunanan

Darren Criss sat down with Seth Meyers on Late Night (above) and talked about playing Versace killer Andrew Cunanan on American Crime Story.

Said Criss: “People tend to forget that people’s lives are much greater than the worst things they’ve ever done…He was a famously likable guy early in his life…I’ve met so many people that have met him throughout his life that really were quite fond of him and he was famously affable…And that’s when you go, ‘okay, we’re playing a person who has gone down this destructive path and how does something so promising become something so horrible?”

Check out our most recent Versace: American Crime Story recap HERE.

The post Darren Criss Tells Seth Meyers How He Figured Out How to Play Andrew Cunanan: WATCH appeared first on Towleroad.


Darren Criss Tells Seth Meyers How He Figured Out How to Play Andrew Cunanan: WATCH

Theresa May Warns Plotting Tory MPs ‘I’m Not A Quitter’

Theresa May Warns Plotting Tory MPs ‘I’m Not A Quitter’
A defiant Theresa May has warned rebellious Tory MPs that she is “not a quitter” and signalled she will fight the next general election as party leader.

Despite a fresh bout of speculation that she could face a vote of no confidence, the Prime Minister said she was focused on the “long term job to be done” and insisted she was delivering for the public on key issues like Brexit, jobs, health, education and housing.

She also shrugged off claims that she was a “tortoise” on delivering radical policies, adding “I have never tried to compare myself to any animal, or bird or car”.

May has come under unprecedented pressure in recent days from Eurosceptics worried about a ‘no change’ Brexit transition period and from other backbenchers concerned at her lack of vision on policy and her competence following a botched Cabinet reshuffle.

With just 48 MPs needed to trigger a confidence vote, former ministers have urged her to avoid a direct challenge by announcing she won’t lead the party into the 2022 election.

Some MPs want her to quit if May’s local elections are disastrous, while others believe possible successors such as Boris Johnson, David Davis, Jeremy Hunt and Amber Rudd would have a better chance if she stepped aside straight after the UK quits the EU next March.

But in a briefing to reporters on her RAF jet on the way to a three-trip in China, May again called her critics’ bluff and said that she was staying put as PM and offered no departure date.

Asked if she was confident that she would lead the Tory party into the next election, and if it was up to her or her colleagues to make such a decision, she replied: “First and foremost, I’m serving my country, my party.”

“I’m not a quitter and there’s a long term job to be done. And that job is about getting the best Brexit deal, about ensuring that we take back control of our money, our laws, our borders, that we can sign trade deals around the rest of the world. But it’s also about our domestic agenda.”

May claimed she was delivering on the issues her “colleagues” in the party had recommended to her, with a stamp duty cut in the Budget, the first steps to integrate health and social care and new figures showing the exam gap between rich and poor pupils was narrowing.

The PM admitted that housing was “one of the areas that we need to be pushing on” and conceded that “there’s always more for us to be able to do to talk to people about what we’re achieving”.

But when pressed again on whether she was the right person to lead the country, she made clear she was proud of her record.

“What I think is important for colleagues and for the public is actually what we’re doing as a government and what we’re achieving.”

When asked by reporters if she would stay and fight any confidence vote, if 48 letters were submitted to backbench chairman Sir Graham Brady, May replied: “You always like talking about hypothetical situations. Let’s talk about where we are now and what we are doing now.

“Here I am, taking a trade delegation to China, here I am going to China to enhance the British economy and enhance global Britain. We’re very clear: when we come out of the European Union, we want to see a Britain that is standing tall and proud in the world, independent, signing these trade deals around the world, playing its role across the world.

“At the same time as we’re ensuring we’ve delivered the best Brexit deal and delivering on the domestic agenda. That’s what my focus is on: actually making sure we’re delivering for the public.”

Former Tory minister Rob Halfon last weekend urged May to drop her “tortoise” approach to policy change, and suggested she should be like a “lion” in delivering real change for voters.

“I have never tried to compare myself to any animal, or bird or car or whatever sort of comparisons that sometimes people use,” she said.

May suggested she would not seek to change the Tory party’s rules, which allow anonymous MPs to automatically trigger a confidence vote if 15% of the Parliamentary party want one.

Asked if she was effectively daring her critics to write letters if they wanted to, she replied: “I It’s a matter for the party. The rules that are set are a matter for the party. It’s always been written by the [backbench] 1922 [Committee]. They went through a long process in terms of writing those leadership rules.”

And when asked if the current rash of speculation about her leadership was just ‘a phase’ of backbench restlessness, May said: “I think what MPs worry about most is what actually is the government doing in terms of delivering for their constituents”.

She listed the lowest unemployment since 1975, increases in the National Living Wage, more children going to better quality schools, suggesting voters were not as obsessed by Westminster intrigue as some of her MPs.

“All of these things are making a difference to people’s lives on a day to day basis.  That’s what people raise when you go on the doorsteps and talk to people.  It’s those issues that matter to them and that’s what we’re delivering on.”

In a further signal of her determination to stay in No10 for the long term, May dismissed claims that the current bout of Tory infighting risked a Jeremy Corbyn government.

“We are in Government. The next general election is not until 2022,” she said.

www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/theresa-may-in-china-warns-tory-plotters-im-not-a-quitter-long-term-job_uk_5a710913e4b0ae29f08befbc

Stegner wirft CSU vor, mit der AfD um “die Stammtische” zu kämpfen

Stegner wirft CSU vor, mit der AfD um “die Stammtische” zu kämpfen
Stegner war sichtlich nicht glücklich

SPD-Vize Ralf Stegner hat in einem Interview mit den “Tagesthemen” gegen die CSU gewettert – und erklärt, was die GroKo von einer Ehe unterscheidet.

Das ist passiert: 

► Der SPD-Politiker verteidigte den Kompromiss der Verhandler beim Familiennachzug für subsidiär Geschützte als “bescheidenen Erfolg” seiner Partei.

► Über die CSU sagte Stegner, er sei “sehr befremdet, dass eine Partei, die sich christlich nennt, mit einer solchen Inbrunst gegen die Zusammenführung von Familien” kämpfe. Das sei scheinheilig.

 ► Er warf der CSU zudem vor, “geradezu in blindwütigem Wettbewerb” mit der AfD über die Deutungshoheit an den Stammtischen zu stehen.

Darum ist es wichtig:

Am Dienstag war bekannt geworden, dass sich die GroKo-Verhandler auf den Kompromiss beim Familiennachzug geeinigt hatten. Beide Seiten präsentierten den Deal als eigenen Gewinn.

CDU, CSU und SPD hatten sich darauf verständigt, dass Flüchtlinge mit eingeschränktem Schutzstatus ab August in begrenztem Umfang wieder Angehörige nach Deutschland nachholen dürfen. Bis dahin bleibt der Familiennachzug ausgesetzt.

Ab August gilt dann eine Grenze von 1000 Menschen pro Monat. Hinzu kommt eine Härtefallregelung. Eine solche allgemein formulierte Härteklausel gibt es allerdings schon. 

Später sagte Stegner auch noch, die Einigung sei nur ein Zwischenschritt – wie genau die künftige Begrenzung ausgestaltet werde, sei Sache der weiteren Verhandlungen.

Der Streit beim Thema Familiennachzug ist noch lange nicht ausgeräumt.

Mehr zum Thema: Schulz feiert mickrigen GroKo-Deal beim Familiennachzug

Was ihr noch wissen müsst:

Auf die Frage, wie so eine erneute große Koalition funktionieren solle, sagte Stegner: “Wir sind verschiedene Parteien, wir wollen nicht heiraten.”

Es gehe maximal um eine Lebensabschnittspartnerschaft, “die dann hoffentlich bald auch wieder enden wird”. Die SPD habe sich mehr gewünscht.

Aber es gebe für seine Partei weitere wichtige Themen wie ein Ende der grundlosen Befristung von Arbeitsverträgen und der “Zwei-Klassen-Medizin”.

Mehr zum Thema: Verhandlungs-Startschuss: Wer über die GroKo entscheidet – und wer nicht

www.huffingtonpost.de/entry/stegner-csu-familiennachzug-tagesthemen_de_5a70eb07e4b0a6aa487435ef

Labour Plans To Force Government To Publish Brexit Economic Assessments

Labour Plans To Force Government To Publish Brexit Economic Assessments
Labour MPs plan to force the government to publish its Brexit economic assessments by holding a binding vote in the Commons.

The party will use an opposition day debate on Wednesday to table a motion calling for ministers to make their analysis of the UK economy after various Brexit ‘end states’ available to all MPs.

It will use the same mechanism which compelled the government to make its sectoral assessments available to the Brexit select committee – forcing David Davis to admit there weren’t any.

This procedure gives the Commons the power to require ministers to release government papers to Parliament. Unlike typical opposition day debates, the vote – if passed – will be binding.

Shadow Brexit secretary Keir Starmer said: “Once again Labour has been forced to use an archaic parliamentary process to make ministers do the right thing.

“People voted to leave the European Union in part to give Parliament control about its own future. That means giving MPs the information they need to scrutinise the government’s approach to Brexit.

“Ministers cannot keep sidelining Parliament to hide the deep divisions within their own party. They should accept this motion and allow the country to have an informed debate about its relationship with Europe after Brexit.”

Labour’s motion in full reads:

“That an humble Address be presented to Her Majesty, That she will be graciously pleased to give directions that the EU exit analysis which was referred to in his response to an Urgent Question in the House on 30  January by the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union be provided to the Exiting the European Union Committee and made available to all Members on a confidential basis as a matter of urgency.”
According to documents leaked to BuzzFeed News, the government’s latest analysis of the impact of Brexit says the UK would be worse off outside the European Union under every scenario modelled.

The assessment showed even if the UK is able to negotiate a comprehensive free trade agreement – as Theresa May hopes – it estimated growth would be down 5% over the next 15 years.

But Tory Brexiteer Iain Duncan Smith told BBC Radio 4′s Today programme on Tuesday that the leak was “a little bit suspicious”.

“It’s deliberately leaked because it gives a bad view, we should put it on one side and leave it alone,” he said. “It’s an incomplete report.”

The former cabinet minister added that if the government got Brexit “right” then the “economy will grow, food prices will come down and particularly the poorest in society will benefit”.

“None of us know exactly where this will end up,” he said.

www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/labour-plans-to-force-government-to-publish-brexit-economic-assessments_uk_5a70975ce4b0a6aa4873b8db