Daily Beast

ABC/Randy HolmesLike hundreds of thousands of other rapt viewers, comedian Wanda Sykes is getting a lot of mileage out of the Manhattan criminal trial of Donald Trump, the first-ever criminal trial of a former U.S. president. Trump has pleaded not guilty to 34 counts of falsifying business records connected to his sexual relationship with adult film star Stormy Daniels. Podcaster Ben Meiselas insisted this week that Trump, present this week in-person for the beginning of the trial, had suffered a spate of audible flatulence in the courtroom. “I am enjoying the Trump trial, I really am,” Sykes told Jimmy Kimmel on Jimmy Kimmel Live! Tuesday evening. “I know they say he’s passing gas and everything, so I like that I’m watching it from home, you know? I don’t think I wanna be in that room.”Read more at The Daily Beast.

via VKThe widow of a Texas man who spent years aiding Russia’s war against Ukraine only to apparently get murdered by Russian troops is now appealing directly to Vladimir Putin to find his mutilated remains.Lyudmila Bentley, the wife of Dallas native turned Putin fanboy Russell Bentley, appeared in a new video Wednesday in which she speaks in front of a flag of the Donetsk People’s Republic, the unrecognized territory in eastern Ukraine where Bentley first joined forces with Russian proxies back in 2014.Bentley, who obtained Russian citizenship in 2020 and had been working closely with Kremlin-controlled media, was “abducted” earlier this month by Russian troops and later reported dead by local officials and the battalion with which he’d fought. RT editor-in-chief Margarita Simonyan also confirmed his death, without providing details on how he died. Unconfirmed reports circulated among Russian military bloggers suggested Bentley had suffered a gruesome death at the hands of Russian troops who mistook him for a spy.Read more at The Daily Beast.

The Daily Beast/Marin County SheriffThe child of billionaire businessman Stewart Butterfield is missing, and authorities believe the teen may have run away to San Francisco’s seedy Tenderloin district.According to the Marin County Sheriff’s Office, Mint Butterfield, 16, was last seen around 10 p.m. Sunday night in Bolinas, a coastal community of roughly 1,500 people. They were reported missing early the next morning by their mother, entrepreneur Caterina Fake.“Mint has brown/reddish curly hair and their eyebrows are pierced,” Deputy Jose Suarez posted to neighborhood networking site NextDoor. “They were last seen wearing a black sweatshirt, flannel pajama pants, and black boots. They possibly had a gray suitcase with them. Mint is approximately 5’0” tall and 100 lbs.”Read more at The Daily Beast.

Mario Anzuoni/ReutersThe Sydney church leader who was stabbed during a livestreamed service last week supports Elon Musk’s view that footage of the attack should remain accessible on X, a court in Australia heard Wednesday.A lawyer representing the platform formerly known as Twitter claims Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel—a controversial Assyrian Orthodox leader who was allegedly stabbed by a 16-year-old boy—has written an affidavit arguing against the position of Australia’s eSafety commissioner, which ordered the removal of the graphic videos. “He’s strongly of the view that the material should be available,” Marcus Hoyne, an attorney for X, told a federal court, according to The Age. The bishop was seriously injured in the attack at the Christ the Good Shepherd Church in the Sydney suburb of Wakeley on April 15. His alleged attacker reportedly cited Emmanuel’s previous comments about Islam in the moments after the assault. Australian authorities are treating the matter as a religiously-motivated terrorist act.Read more at The Daily Beast.

Photo Illustration by Luis G. Rendon/The Daily Beast/Mondelez InternationalIs there even a reason to eat a classic Oreo anymore? For the flavor-curious, the taste connoisseurs, the palatally adventurous, it’s hard to argue that the standard-edition black-and-white cookie is worth the purchase these days. Buying a regular pack of Oreos seems like a waste when you can sample an Oreo that tastes like coffee, toffee, lemon, tiramisu, or Dirt Cake—a somewhat meta-flavor, considering the ingredients of the beloved dessert.But these flavors also prompt an interesting, almost existential question: What defines an Oreo, anyway? With the brand’s latest and perhaps strangest limited-edition flavor now on shelves, considering the makeup of that classic Oreo becomes all the more intriguing. Because, as buyers will soon learn for themselves, ensuring an Oreo still tastes like an Oreo when it’s also Sour Patch Kids-flavored—yes, the newest Oreo is supposed to taste like the fan-favorite, deliriously sour gummies—is a tall order.Mondelez International, the parent company of America’s most popular cookie, has pumped out the flavor varieties in increasing succession over the last 15 years. Starting in 2012, in tandem with the brand’s 100th birthday, Oreos have dabbled in all matters of flavors multiple times a year. There have been more than 80 flavors released since then, and in 2024, there will be about 11 different flavors of Oreo released, as both permanent introductions to the selection and for a limited time only. And that’s not even including the other varieties, like Golden, Double (or Mega) Stuf, Thins, Oreo minis, Oreo Cakesters, fudge-dipped Oreos…the list is miles long.Read more at The Daily Beast.

Jordan Pettitt/PA Images via Getty ImagesThere were scenes of panic and confusion in central London on Wednesday morning after five horses belonging to a regiment closely associated with the king, the Household Cavalry, threw their riders off and bolted through the city, smashing into cars and buses, knocking down pedestrians and streaming with blood.The Daily Telegraph said the horses, which are kept in stables in Central London near Hyde Park, bolted at about 8:40 a.m. local time during a regular exercise session on Horseguards Parade in London’s civil service district, Whitehall.The Daily Mail said five people, including a serviceman, were injured in three separate incidents.Read more at The Daily Beast.

Photo Illustration by Thomas Levinson/The Daily Beast/GettyDonald Trump’s legal payroll is easily the largest and most diverse of any political figure in modern U.S. history. But while most of the attorneys that Trump’s various fundraising committees have paid over the years are a matter of public record, one of the top recipients still poses a mystery—with more than $8 million in legal costs going to an unknown firm, or firms, through what appears to be a corporate intermediary.Legal experts told The Daily Beast that the arrangement masks the true recipients of a significant amount of Trump’s legal bills, depriving the public of that information while possibly running afoul of federal law. And the unprecedented structure of those payments, the experts said, potentially violates the ban on corporate contributions.For the last 15 months, five of Trump’s political committees, including his 2024 campaign, have paid about $8 million in combined legal costs to a curious recipient: Red Curve Solutions, the firm that handles their political accounting.Read more at The Daily Beast.

Illustration by Elizabeth Brockway/The Daily BeastDear (former, best ever) President Donald Trump,We’ve had our disagreements over the years, some of them pretty bigly. But if there’s one important lesson you’ve taught me, it’s that we should never let personal grievances, ethics, or the law stand in the way of a good business opportunity.As your legal fees continue to mount by the millions, your Truth Social stock tanks, and the bond for your $454 million judgment for sexually assaulting E. Jean Carroll is rejected (so unfair!)—now’s the perfect time to explore a new income stream that can capitalize on the attention you’re getting over rumors you’ve been audibly farting in the courtroom during your first-ever criminal trial.Read more at The Daily Beast.

Photo Illustration by The Daily Beast/HandoutLaura Benanti has been nominated for five Tony Awards (with one win) and appeared in dozens of TV shows and movies since making her Broadway debut at 19 years old as Maria in The Sound of Music. But as the title of her new solo stage show attests, she still reminds herself on a daily basis that “nobody cares” about her many accomplishments.In this episode of The Last Laugh podcast, Benanti talks about mining her most embarrassing life stories for musical comedy in her new show, which returns to the New York stage and premieres on Audible next month. She also reveals how playing Melania Trump on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert finally made people take her “seriously” as a comedic actress and what she thinks is going through the former first lady’s head as her husband stands trial for paying hush money to porn star Stormy Daniels.When I ask Benanti about the bold decision to call her new show Nobody Cares, she admits it stems from a fear of indifference from the industry that has provided her livelihood for more than 25 years. “I know other actors who sort of feel similarly where you’re like, what else do I need to do before I am anointed? When do I get my fucking crown?” she says. “And it always feels like it’s just one rung up the ladder, and then I’m going to be there. And you get there, and you’re like, ‘What? The ladder got taller?!’”Read more at The Daily Beast.

Apple TV+When we last left the residents of Deerfield, the fictional Midwest town at the center of the strange occurrences in The Big Door Prize, everyone was zapped of energy—in some cases, quite literally. The Season 1 finale of Apple TV+’s existential comedy ended with a key character in the hospital after being electrocuted while trying to destroy a MORPHO machine, a photo booth-like contraption that tells you your life’s true potential. The rest of Deerfield’s population is just as exhausted (though, luckily, not under medical care) after spending the show’s first season comically upending their comfortable lives because the mysterious MORPHO spat out a little blue card with one vague word printed on it.The results of this small-town chaos yielded one of 2023’s most unexpectedly delightful new series, which had much more to say about adult life and the nuances of our neuroses than a certain sickeningly upbeat Apple TV+ show. Quirky Deerfield dwellers like Dusty (Chris O’Dowd), his plucky wife Cass (Gabrielle Dennis), Cass’ arrogant mother Izzy (Crystal R. Fox), and toupéed restaurateur Giorgio (Josh Segarra) struggled to understand what their MORPHO cards meant, often finding that one word could conjure endless potential outcomes. These bite-sized, intertwining character studies were a novel joy, albeit one that had limits. Even though last season’s finale packed more than a few twists, repeating the same storytelling pattern would create viewer fatigue fast. One can only watch so many scenes of self-discovery before a show starts dipping into sickeningly saccharine Ted Lesso territory.But The Big Door Prize was always smarter than most of its comedy contemporaries. Where Season 1 found unusual ways to balance its philosophical dissections of human life with intelligent, character-driven humor, Season 2—which premieres Apr. 24—expands its reach. The new batch of episodes brings Deerfield’s residents together after spending so much time solo, trying to figure out what their MORPHO cards meant. This season stresses the importance of community when we’re disoriented, and sharply dissects how humans use interpersonal relationships to grow alongside one another. It’s another blissful, perfectly paced 10 episodes that hit the hardest when you least expect them to, the kind of television that insists upon the intelligence of its viewer, rather than itself.Read more at The Daily Beast.