Nevils said she was in Sochi to work with “Today” co-anchor Meredith Vieira when the attack occurred, according to Variety, who obtained a copy of the book.
She allegedly ran into Lauer during a boozy night at their hotel bar and went back to his hotel room after he invited her.
Once in the room, Lauer pushed her onto the bed and asked if she likes anal sex, according to the report.
“She said that she declined several times,” Farrow wrote in the book, according to the report.
Lauer then “just did it,” Farrow wrote.
Nevils told Farrow the pain was excruciating and she spent the entire ordeal crying into a pillow.
“It was nonconsensual in the sense that I was too drunk to consent,” she told Farrow.
“It was nonconsensual in that I said, multiple times, that I didn’t want to have anal sex.”
Despite the alleged rape, Nevils said she had more sexual encounters with Lauer when they returned to New York.
“It was completely transactional. It was not a relationship,” she told Farrow, according to the report.
“The network proposed a script she would have to read, suggesting that she had left to pursue other endeavors, that she was treated well, and that NBC News was a positive example of sexual harassment,” Farrow wrote in the book, according to Variety.
NBC did not immediately return a request for comment.
Gwen Stefani announced she will not be returning as a coach for Season 18 of "The Voice."
The news comes after Nick Jonas was revealed to be a new coach on the singing competition series. He joins Stefani's beau, Blake Shelton, John Legend and Kelly Clarkson.
Instead, Stefani, 50, will focus on the final dates of her "Just a Girl" Las Vegas residency at Planet Hollywood's Zappos Theater in February and May 2020.
"I didn't expect to be doing [the Vegas show] and 'The Voice' at the same time," the singer told Entertainment Tonight. "I just feel like I'm alive in a way I've never been before, because I have to be! Because doing both is a lot."
In addition to her Las Vegas residency, Stefani, who just rang in the big 5-0, has another reason to celebrate.
She and fellow coach Shelton, 43, are reaching a milestone in their relationship: four years of dating.
The couple first met on the set of "The Voice" in 2014 and sparks quickly flew.
“It’s actually shocking that it has already been that long,” Shelton admitted to People in June. “It’s kind of a blur. It still feels like it’s pretty new to me. I guess it is, relatively. Four years isn’t forever, but man, it seems like it just happened in no time.”
The daytime-talk-show-host-turned-media-mogul used the platform late Monday night to discuss hanging out with former President George W. Bush this weekend at a Dallas Cowboys football game.
There was a bit of an uproar when the pair were spotted -- accompanied by Bush's wife Laura and Degeneres' wife, actress Portia de Rossi -- in a stadium suite enjoying the Cowboys taking on the Green Bay Packers on Sunday (the Cowboys lost, btw) in Dallas.
DeGeneres used her Twitter account to address the controversy, tweeting a video of her almost 4 minute-long monologue talking about it on her show.
Noting that it is normally not unusual for a celeb to attend a sporting event, it was a big deal for her to be seen there because, she joked, "I never leave my house."
"So Portia and I were invited by Charlotte Jones," DeGeneres said. "She's the daughter of Jerry Jones who owns the Dallas Cowboys. And we went because we wanted to keep up with the Joneses."
She then showed the audience a video she had taken at the game which showed her sitting with President Bush.
DeGeneres then joked about rooting for the Packers since she is friends with their quarterback, Aaron Rodgers, and cheering every time they scored "or every time another whistleblower came forward. "
"The referees, you guys, the referees," she told her laughing audience.
She the addressed the criticism she faced because of being seen laughing with Bush, saying "People were upset."
"They thought, why is a gay Hollywood liberal sitting next to a conservative Republican president?" DeGeneres asked. " A lot of people were mad. And they did what people do when they're mad... they tweet."
But instead of sharing some of the negative tweets aimed at her, DeGeneres shared one which said "Ellen and George Bush together makes me have faith in America again."
"Exactly. Here's the thing. I'm friends with George Bush," she said. "In fact, I'm friends with a lot of people who don't share the same beliefs that I have."
DeGeneres said she believes people have forgotten that we are all different and that that's OK.
The former vegan used the example of how she doesn't approve of wearing fur, but is still friends with those who do.
"But just because I don't agree with someone on everything doesn't mean that I'm not going to be friends with them," she said. "When I say, 'be kind to one another,' I don't only mean the people that think the same way that you do. I mean be kind to everyone."
Bush was a guest on "The Ellen DeGeneres Show" in 2017.
It was a night of highs and lows and nearly a brawl at the judges table on "Dancing with the Stars."
James Van Der Beek, who has been a front-runner since the first week, got the exciting news that he's going to be a dad ... again ... for the sixth time! Meanwhile, the gap between the top performers and the Bottom 3 continued to widen, proving that last week's reprieve probably won't make much of a difference.
This competition is proving too much for Sean Spicer, Lamar Odom and Karamo Brown, though at least one of them is showing some signs of improvement. The other two? Yeah, it's still not very pretty.
And while Lamar struggled again, he definitely had a fan in Leah Remini, who not only shouted down her fellow judges for their lower marks, she threatened to walk over them, with Tom Bergeron telling her "it's only a dance show" over and over in an effort to calm her.
Leah stayed fired up throughout the night, talking over Len Goodman constantly and trying to argue that just because you're not a dance, you should get higher marks. It got so bad that Bruno Tonioli actually had to interject to urge Tom to give Len his chance to speak, considering he is head judge and an expert in what they're supposed to be judged on.
In other words, we're not so sure Leah was a great choice as a guest judge -- she had no real dance criticism to offer -- and we're pretty sure she won't be invited back.
Who do I think I am? you ask. Well, I spent nearly a decade of my life sweating and bleeding to the music as a dancer. From a young boy learning a shuffle-ball-change to performing with the St. Louis Ballet Company, I experienced the ups and downs of one of the most difficult physically demanding sports on the planet. During this time, I was also a member of the St. Louis Symphony Youth Orchestra, as well as a gymnast, writer and cartoonist. I had a lot more energy in my younger years. And I've spent the last sixteen years analyzing and critiquing reality competition shows for various media publications. I've got this.
Fair warning, since I'm safe at home, I'm probably going to be a little harsher than my colleagues Carrie-Ann Inaba, Len Goodman, and Bruno Tonioli. But I might be nicer, too. Maybe.
Sean Spicer & Lindsay Arnold
(Paso Doble) With it's more militaristic posture and style, this was easily Sean's strongest dance. And yet, he hasn't yet mastered how to look like he's dancing across the floor; rather he always looks like he's marching or stomping. Still, his timing was better and had the steps down, so this is a tremendous improvement from what we've seen before. He just still needs to loosen up and be less militant.
Judges Scores: 5, 6, 5, 5
My Score: 4
Ally Brooke & Sasha Farber
(Jive) Sasha put her through the works on this one, with plenty of tough and fast jive content once they got past the Tina Turner tribute at the top. Ally was mostly on top of it, but she did spend a lot of the dance chasing both the rhythm and Sasha, as if she was struggling to keep up. Her footwork, as such, lacked in sharpness and finesse at times, but this was nevertheless a confident performance and a competent jive. Ally continues to improve week after week just as we like to see.
Judges Scores: 8, 8, 8, 8
My Score: 7
Kel Mitchell & Witney Carson
(Cha Cha) Where did this guy come from? Kel has been improving all season, but he took four or five steps up that ladder with this impressive cha cha. From the moment he sashayed the length of the dance floor like a dancer it was on. He was in control, he had great rhythm and musicality throughout his body. He used every bit of himself and had such swagger, this was just a blast to watch from top to bottom. He just made himself a contender.
Judges Scores: 8, 8, 8, 8
My Score: 8
Kate Flannery & Pasha Pashkov
(Argentine Tango) Pasha may be one of the best professional partners they've ever discovered, and the work that he is doing with Kate is nothing but magical. Once again, she hit this floor with a grace, poise and confidence you might expect of someone half her age. She did have a little trouble digging into the emotion and acting of such a sultry piece, and wasn't quite as fluid as the format might like, but she really is a mesmerizing dancer to watch and growing each week just the way we want to see.
Judges Scores: 7, 7, 6, 6
My Score: 7
James Van Der Beek & Emma Slater
(Quickstep) James played it a little too broad, especially at the beginning, but was otherwise very confident in a very tough dance style. You could feel the joy exuding off of his body, but more importantly, you could see the quickstep throughout his footwork. The problem was with that big, broad approach, he struggled a bit in those more controlled hold moments moving across the floor, as the judges also noted.
Judges Scores: 7, 7, 7, 7
My Score: 7
Hannah Brown & Alan Bersten
(Paso Doble) We absolutely loved Hannah's attack on this, and she mostly avoided smiling. But she did lack a bit in strength and command. This is a powerful style that requires the woman to stand equal to the man in presence, strength and aggression. Hannah was right there at times, but there was a lack of certainty that betrayed her at others. Still, she really brought commitment to the steps, the moves and the staccato holds, which she hit very hard.
Judges Scores: 8, 8, 8, 8
My Score: 8
Lamar Odom & Peta Murgatroyd
(Viennese Waltz) With all of his height and length, it's remarkable how timid and small Lamar was with his movements. We get he's trying not to outstretch Peta's capabilities in gait and walk, but he overcorrected. Also, while he looked more confident with the steps this week, the concentration it took to get them better took its toll on him looking graceful in a style that is supposed to be all grace and gentle movement.
Judges Scores: 5, 7, 4, 4
My Score: 4
Sailor Brinkley-Cook & Val Chmerkovskiy
(Cha Cha) The piece could have used a little more energy from Sailor in the top half, but she really found her groove as it went along. There was lots of hard striking hits and great lines throughout the piece, though her arms did miss the full extension a few times. Also, she needs to watch singing the lyrics as it's a distraction to her body, which is what's supposed to be telling the story. And her body is doing everything right, with solid hip work and sinuous flexibility.
Judges Scores: 7, 8, 8, 8
My Score: 8
Lauren Alaina & Gleb Savchenko
(Foxtrot) Lauren needs to watch that she doesn't stop between moves; she needs to keep the dance moving and flowing. She did a great job of selling the emotion of the story Gleb chose to tell through body language, facial expression and even the way she attacked this foxtrot. She only seemed to stutter step one time that was noticeable, mostly offering a lovely presentation with Gleb slipping in increasingly complex moves and spins.
Judges Scores: 8, 8, 8, 8
My Score: 8
Karamo Brown & Jenna Johson
(Tango) Karamo needs to dig into the ground, loosen up his hips and sink his body down a bit more to get more into the heat of the tango. This was all too tall, upright and stiff throughout a lot of it. It was lacking in the intensity that it needed to really sell the attitude of the piece. That said, credit where it's due, he seemed to have the dance down pretty well and you could tell that he was fighting for it; he just hasn't fully committed to just throwing caution to the wind and going for it He dances like a reserved person trying to get out of their headspace and dance with abandon, but it's not coming easy.
Judges Scores: 7, 7, 7, 7
My Score: 6
RESULTS
The bottom three isn't changing, but the most important thing to note is that the bottom two aren't really improving. Meanwhile, Karamo stepped up his game this week and is showing the drive and the potential to really find his footing in this competition.
All of that is to say that we were rooting -- that can't be the right word -- for Lamar and Sean to fall to the bottom two. From that point, we're okay with either one going, because the other one should be right behind them next week, barring some miraculous improvement.
And yet, once again Sean managed to escape the Bottom 2, leaving Karamo to battle it out with Lamar to see which one the judges would save. And while we were feeling pretty confident they would reward Karamo's work and improvement with a chance to continue, we're a little concerned that Sean keeps skating by.
Weren't the tweaks in format supposed to prevent this sort of thing? All he has to do, though, is fall into the Bottom 2 and he's done, and he's so far behind the leaders of this competition it has to happen eventually, right?
In the end, Lamar Odom's luck finally ran out, as did his journey on this show.
"Dancing With the Stars" airs Mondays at 8 p.m. ET on ABC.
Got a story or a tip for us? Email TooFab editors at tips@toofab.com.
HONG KONG — “South Park,” the long-running Comedy Central cartoon whose mockery has spared few touchy topics, was erased from major platforms in China after an episode last week taunted Chinese censors and the far-reaching effect they often have on American entertainment.
The government’s censors, who routinely quash news and commentary deemed undesirable by the ruling Communist Party, wiped out video clips and discussions of the show, which premiered in 1997 and has lasted 23 seasons. Once known mostly for the raunchy humor coming from the mouths of its elementary-school-age main characters, the show has in recent seasons focused on political and cultural satire, without abandoning its boundary-pushing ways.
Last week’s episode, called “Band in China,” appeared to cross a new line for the Chinese authorities. On Baidu Tieba, a popular discussion platform, searches for “South Park” on Tuesday returned the following message: “According to the relevant law and regulation, this section is temporarily not open.”
Searches for the show were also fruitless on Youku, a video hosting service, which similarly cited “the relevant law and regulation.” On Weibo, the country’s most popular social network, posts mentioning the show could not be found.
The censorship occurred as the N.B.A. was unintentionally demonstrating how protecting business interests in China can chill speech back in the United States. The basketball league has scrambled to contain a backlash in China since Daryl Morey, the general manager of the Houston Rockets, tweeted support last week for the Hong Kong protests, which are reviled by the Chinese government.
Though the league has supported political expression by its players, it was less supportive of Morey, prompting accusations that it valued its business in China more than free speech.
Whereas the N.B.A. has struggled to respond to the geopolitical fracas, the creators of “South Park” appeared to relish the fight. The show’s creators, Trey Parker and Matt Stone, put out a fake apology on Monday, poking fun at the N.B.A. while insulting Xi Jinping, China’s president.
“Like the N.B.A., we welcome the Chinese censors into our homes and into our hearts,” the tongue-in-cheek statement read. “We too love money more than freedom and democracy. Xi doesn’t look just like Winnie the Pooh at all.”
That last part makes more sense in the context of the episode, which had two plot lines related to China. Spoilers ahead.
In one, the character Randy Marsh flies to China hoping to expand his marijuana business there, only to be arrested at the airport. In a work camp, he meets Winnie the Pooh, who, the show explains, was banned after Chinese social media users pointed out his resemblance to Mr. Xi. (The Pooh censorship is real, and reporting on it got John Oliver censored last year.)
Meanwhile in Colorado, the South Park children form a band, and a manager wants to make a biopic about them — but insists that their life story be told in a way that will be acceptable to Chinese censors, so they don’t lose access to the market. He instructs the boys to cut references to the Dalai Lama (seen by the Chinese government as a separatist), organ transplants (China has been accused of harvesting prisoners’ organs) and homosexuality (nothing is wrong with that subject “unless you want to make money in China,” he says).
Eventually the boys tire of the ordeal. “I want to be proud of who we are, guys, and anyone who would betray their ideals just to make money in China isn’t worth a lick of spit,” says one of them, Stan.
(The full episode is available online here, for those with a high tolerance for profanity.)
The N.B.A. is hardly the first international business to make concessions to China’s political sensitivities as it seeks access to its lucrative market, or to forcefully apologize after running afoul of them. Movie studios, especially, have worked to ensure that their scripts aren’t at odds with state censors, lest they lose billions in potential business.
Disney, for one, earned $858 million for “Avengers: Endgame” in the United States and an additional $614 million from China. Moviegoers in China bought an estimated $8.87 billion in movie tickets last year, according to box office analysts.
The “South Park” episode mocked Disney by turning a Mickey Mouse look-alike into a craven profit seeker. On his flight to China, Randy Marsh was surrounded by characters from “Avengers” and “Star Wars,” along with N.B.A. players.
The world of e-sports had its own run-in with Chinese politics on Tuesday, when Blizzard Entertainment said it was suspending Chung Ng Wai, a Hong Hong player of the game Hearthstone, for a year and forcing him to forfeit prize money. Mr. Chung, who uses the name Blitzchung, had spoken out in support of the Hong Kong protests during a livestreamed interview.
The company said Mr. Chung had broken a rule barring players from engaging in any act that “brings you into public disrepute, offends a portion or group of the public, or otherwise damages” Blizzard’s image.
In their statement on Monday, the “South Park” creators parodied the apologies that businesses have often made after crossing the Chinese government.
“Long live the Great Communist Party of China!” they wrote. “May this autumn’s sorghum harvest be bountiful! We good now China?”
Ronnie Ortiz-Magro denies ever wielding a knife against his baby mama, Jen Harley, in their latest alleged domestic violence incident ... and insists he was only out to protect their daughter.
Sources familiar with the matter tell TMZ ... Ronnie is adamant he NEVER picked up or threatened Jen with a knife during their latest domestic disturbance in L.A. ... which required the cops to come out, break down a door and tase him in the end.
FOX 11
We're told Ronnie only confronted Jen because he was afraid she was trying to take their daughter away from their Airbnb rental home ... which surveillance footage from a neighbor's house seems to support, on the surface anyway.
TMZ broke the story ... Jen looked pretty terrified as she sidled up to the neighbor's home with 1-year-old Ariana in hand, attempting to open the trunk of the neighbor's car.
TMZ.com
The neighbor says they saw Jen trying to drop Ariana over a fence, before we're told Ronnie showed up and snatched back the kid ... allegedly striking Jen as well. Things got worse from there as cops showed up breached the front door to reach Ronnie, who was holed up with Ariana and refused to come out.
He eventually had to be subdued by taser, and was arrested on kidnapping charges. He was released from custody a short time later.
TMZ.com
This, of course, is just the most recent dust-up between the volatile pair. There's the ashtray-throwing saga, the ransacking tale ... and then the notorious car-dragging episode. None of that is lost on those closest to them either, BTW.
Our sources say both Ron and Jen's friends continue to urge them to split for good, if for nothing else other than Ariana's safety.
Drugs, partying and cheating allegations are beginning to surface. Miley Cyrus and soon-to-be ex-husband Liam Hemsworth are pointing blame at each other. Sources on both sides have made shock claims just days after their separation was confirmed.
Things between Miley Cyrus and her new Australian beau appear to be heating up.
Now it seems like the two are spending more time together as Simpson posted to his Instagram Story a selfie of the duo with the caption: "Pre swim breakfast courtesy of baby." The Aussie singer is giving Cyrus a kiss on the side of her forehead in the black-and-white snap, which disappears after 24 hours of posting, as per Instagram Stories.
“I know the public feels invested in my past relationship because they felt like they saw it thru from the beginning,” Cyrus began her statement on Twitter on Friday. “I think that’s why people have always felt so entitled over my life and how I live it because they’ve watched me grow up.”
She continued: “But I am grown now and make choices as an adult knowing the truth/details/reality. People only ‘know’ what they see on the Internet.”
Cyrus went on to address the double standard between men and women when it comes to dating.
“Men (especially successful ones) are RARELY slut shamed,” she said. "They move on from one beautiful young woman to the next MOST times without consequence. They are usually referred to as ‘legends,’ ‘heart throbs,’ ‘G,’ ‘Ladies Man,’ etc…. where women are called sluts/whores!”
