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After #MeToo, these Hollywood women say 'Time's Up' for workplace harassment.

Hundreds of women in Hollywood rang in 2018 with an important message for workplace harassers everywhere: Time's up.

With full page ads in The New York Times and the Spanish-language La Opinión, some of the most prominent and powerful women in Hollywood announced the creation of a $13 million legal defense fund aimed at helping people of all industries seek justice for workplace harassment.

"We write on behalf of [over 1,000] women who work in film, television and theater," begins the letter, signed by the likes of Ashley Judd, America Ferrera, Rashida Jones, Natalie Portman, Kerry Washington, Reese Witherspoon, Emma Stone, and Shonda Rhimes.


The group credits Alianza Nacional de Campesinas (the National Farmworker Women’s Alliance), whose powerful letter of support and solidarity — signed by 700,000 women farmers — with the women of Hollywood helped inspire Time's Up's creation.

The #MeToo movement has been criticized by some working class women for its laser-like focus on high-profile harassers in the entertainment industry. Time's Up hopes to shine a light on how widespread the problem really is.

"We also recognize our privilege and the fact that we have access to enormous platforms to amplify our voices," the letter reads. "Both of which have drawn and driven widespread attention to the existence of this problem in our industry that farmworker women and countless individuals employed in other industries have not been afforded."

"We also want all victims and survivors to be able to access justice and support for the wrongdoing they have endured. We particularly want to lift up the voices, power, and strength of women working in low-wage industries where the lack of financial stability makes them vulnerable to high rates of gender-based violence and exploitation," the letter continues.

While Time's Up raises money via crowdsourcing site GoFundMe, a number of big names are putting their money where their mouths are.

Meryl Streep, Reese Witherspoon, Shonda Rhimes, and Jennifer Aniston each donated $500,000 to the defense fund. Taylor Swift and Oprah Winfrey chipped in for $100,000 each. Natalie Portman, Cate Blanchett, Emma Stone, and Jessica Chastain donated $50,000 a piece. Anne Hathaway, Justin Timberlake and Jessica Biel, Blake Lively, Scarlett Johansson, Debra Messing, America Ferrera, Chelsea Handler, Eva Longoria, Keira Knightley, Kerry Washington, Amy Schumer, Jane Fonda, Megan Mullally, Rashida Jones, Susan Sarandon, Zoe Saldana, Jennifer Garner, Amy Poehler, Kate Hudson, and Julianne Moore all put forward more than $10,000 for the cause.

GoFundMe waived its platform fee for the campaign, and donations are tax-deductible.

Stars took to social media to help spread the word, adding a personal touch to the project.

"Transparent" creator Jill Soloway called the experience of working to help launch Time's Up "beautiful and radical."

Actress Amber Tamblyn saved a number of copies of the Times ad in hopes of inspiring a future generation of badass women.

Larson called out "abuse, harassment, marginalization and underrepresentation" across industries, and Anna Paquin put a special emphasis on the importance of centering marginalized groups. The letter originally omitted any mention of disabled individuals, something Ferrera hoped to remedy in future iterations.

Rhimes, Piper Perabo, and Mira Sorvino all tweeted support and added context.

Ferrera sported a Time's Up t-shirt in one of her tweets, and Messing added that she's "proud to be a member and to stand with [her] sisters."

Time's Up co-founder and former chief of staff to Michelle Obama Tina Tchen weighed in as well.

There's no telling what 2018 has in store for all of us, but the launch of Time's Up is a pretty great way to start.

@penslucero/TikTok

Pency Lucero taking in the Northern Lights

Seeing the northern lights is a common bucket list adventure for many people. After all, it ticks a lot of boxes—being a dazzling light show, rich historical experience and scientific phenomenon all rolled into one. Plus there’s the uncertainty of it all, never quite knowing if you’ll witness a vivid streak of otherworldly colors dance across the sky…or simply see an oddly colored cloud. It’s nature’s slot machine, if you will.

Traveler and content creator Pency Lucero was willing to take that gamble. After thorough research, she stumbled upon an Airbnb in Rörbäck, Sweden with an actual picture of the northern lights shining above the cabin in the listing. With that kind of photo evidence, she felt good about her odds.

However, as soon as she landed, snow began falling so hard that the entire sky was “barely visible,” she told Upworthy. Martin, the Airbnb host, was nonetheless determined to do everything he could to ensure his guests got to see the spectacle, even offering to wake Lucero up in the middle of the night if he saw anything.

Then one night, the knock came.

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Pop Culture

Daughter shares incredible 3D optical illusions painted by her father, who has aphasia

David Hollowell suffered from a traumatic brain injury in 2021, losing his ability to speak. Remarkably, he is still able to express himself through art.

@david.hollowell/TikTok

David Hollowell pictured with his 3D art

For a little over three decades, David Hollowell’s professional life had been dedicated to art. In addition to working as an art professor, his highly acclaimed 3D illusion paintings were shown in prestigious exhibits. In 2018, the 71-year-old began taking his talents to a larger scale, turning his family barn into an immersive mural.

Then, in May of 2021, Hollowell fell off the roof of his home, resulting in a traumatic brain injury leading to aphasia, a disorder that affects a person’s ability to communicate through speech or written language.

Though Hollowell couldn’t access words the way he used to, his ability to paint detailed, mesmerizing images remained remarkably intact. And his daughter-slash-self-appointed-TikTok manager, Adrienne, is determined to share his work and his journey with as many people as possible.

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via YouTube

These days, we could all use something to smile about, and few things do a better job at it than watching actor Christopher Walken dance.

A few years back, some genius at HuffPo Entertainment put together a clip featuring Walken dancing in 50 of his films, and it was taken down. But it re-emerged in 2014 and the world has been a better place for it.

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An Australian woman thinks it's rude that Americans don't say, "You're welcome."

There’s been a growing trend amongst American Gen Zers and millennials to stop saying, “You're welcome,” after being thanked. Older generations may think the change is part of a more significant trend of younger people having more lax manners, but in actuality, younger people believe that giving a simple “OK” or “Mm-hmm” after being thanked is more polite than saying, “You're welcome.”

Recently, Australian TikTok user Tilly Hokianga vented her frustrations with Americans in a viral post entitled, “Things That Send Me as an Australian Living in the US.” A lot of the points she made were pretty typical for someone visiting the United States, such as there's too much sugar in the bread and too many options for cereal.

However, she also noted that Americans have difficulty saying, “You’re welcome.”

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Meteorologist Matt Laubham prays for the people in the path of a deadly tornado.

Broadcasters who have to report on tragedies as they are happening have a tough job. On the one hand, they have to maintain their professionalism and inform the public of what's happening in a factual way. On the other hand, they're still human and sometimes humanity trumps the traditional perception of what's "professional."

Such was the case for WTVA meteorologist Matt Laubhan, who found himself live on the air staring at a radar scan of a deadly tornado as it moved towards the small town of Amory, Mississippi. He, more than anyone, understood the severity of the situation, and he did his best to convey that to his viewers.

"This is a strong, life-threatening tornado that's going to move either extremely close to Amory or in through the northern part of the city of Amory."

He added, "Y'all trust me too much," explaining that people sometimes take his predictions of where the tornado will go as hard fact, but the reality is that tornados can change directions at any time. "So Amory, we need to be in our tornado safe place," he said.

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Rick Astley rocking his Foo Fighters 'Everlong' cover.

Rick Astley has to be the luckiest '80s musician on the planet. The whole "Rickrolling" phenomenon has given his hit song "Never Gonna Give You Up" a reach far beyond its natural life span, and kept the guy a household name far longer than he probably would have been.

(For those who are unfamiliar, Rickrolling is when you make someone think they're being sent to a website, but the link goes to Rick Astley's "Never Gonna Give You Up" video instead as a joke. It's a silly viral bait-and-switch gag that's been going since 2006.)

But what people may not realize, because his most famous song has become an internet joke, is that Rick Astley is actually a really freaking great musician. The man can saaaang and it seems he's only gotten better with age.

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