• While claiming to be looking forward to "staying away from the media," former White House staff member and Apprentice competitor Omarosa Manigault Newman began dropping headline-making statements during Thursday night's episode of Celebrity Big Brother. While competing for a $250,000 prize, Big Brother contestants are completely cut off from the outside world. Manigault Newman spent the majority of the episode conducting one long confessional in front of the world. "It's just been so incredibly hard to shoulder what I shouldered because I was so loyal to a person and I didn't realize that by being loyal to him it was going to make me lose a hundred other friends," Manigault Newman explained to her fellow Big Brother contestant Shannon Elizabeth, best known for her role in American Pie. Manigault Newman revealed to Keshia Knight Pulliam, formerly of The Cosby Show, that she decided to follow President Donald Trump to the White House despite red flags, saying "When you're in the middle of the hurricane it's hard to see the destruction on the outer bands." Then, Manigault Newman told Ross Mathews, who got his start as "Ross the Intern" on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, that things in the West Wing are "not going to be OK, it's not," adding that she'd never vote for Trump "in a million years." A clip of her comments prompted a White House response Thursday. "Omarosa was fired three times on The Apprentice, and this is the fourth time we let her go," White House Deputy Press Secretary Raj Shah said during Thursday's briefing. "She had limited contact with the president while here, and she has no contact now."
• Actress Rose Byrne has done nearly every type of film -- physical comedy (Bridesmaids, Neighbors), horror (Insidious), sci-fi (Sunshine), period (Marie Antoinette), action (Troy), musical (Annie) and superhero (X-Men: First Class) -- so it might come as a surprise that she met her technical match on Peter Rabbit. "I've never done anything this technical!" Byrne, 38, says of the film, now playing in theaters. "It's such a production with the CGI. It's just like a guy in a blue suit. It's kind of a surreal and strange. You have to dig deep in your imagination." Byrne plays Bea in this modern day spin on author and illustrator Beatrix Potter's mischievous rabbit and Mr. McGregor's garden from writer-director Will Gluck (Easy A, Annie). Gluck described Rose's character as a force of nature. "She can't just be there in support of the rabbits or in support of Mr. McGregor," he said.
A Section on 02/10/2018