The Associated Press
• Laurie Metcalf smiles and laughs when she thinks of her character Jackie and her assorted misadventures on the "Roseanne" spinoff, "The Conners." Dating back to her introduction in Roseanne Barr's 1988 sitcom, Jackie has reinvented herself many times over. She's been a cop, a truck driver, a factory worker, co-owner of The Lanford Lunch Box (which was reopened on "The Conners), and was for a time, as the character describes it, "Lanford's leading life coach." While the role has earned Metcalf three Emmy Awards while "Roseanne" was on the air, she's content with Jackie being a supporting role. "A little bit of Jackie goes a long way, so I'm always the weirdo B storyline. Too much of Jackie would be just overdose." Metcalf said that the character "was to be this victimized loser who didn't have a clue that's what she was to begin with," she said. "But [Jackie] just went out every day with her head up and determined to to do something great or make something." While the character has firm opinions, she "meddles in the rest of the family's business, even though her own life is collapsing around her." Filming has wrapped on "The Conners" season three and the cast is waiting to see if they'll be renewed by ABC for a fourth season. Metcalf said there's more to be seen from Jackie. "One of my regrets was that you never really got to see her at work advising someone, so in hindsight there's a tiny piece of me that wonders if she just lied about the whole thing," said Metcalf. "There's no proof, right?"
• A graphic novel for children that was a spin-off of the wildly popular "Captain Underpants" series is being pulled from library and book store shelves after its publisher said it "perpetuates passive racism." The book under scrutiny is 2010's "The Adventures of Ook and Gluk" by Dav Pilkey, who has apologized, saying it "contains harmful racial stereotypes" and is "wrong and harmful to my Asian readers." The book follows a pair of friends who travel from 500,001 B.C. to 2222, where they meet a martial arts instructor who teaches them kung fu and they learn principles found in Chinese philosophy. Scholastic said it has removed the book from its websites, stopped processing orders for it and sought a return of all inventory. The decision came after a Korean American father of two young children started a Change.org petition asking for an apology from the publisher and writer. In a statement on social media, Pilkey said he planned to donate his advance and all royalties from the book's sales to groups dedicated to stopping violence against Asians and to promoting diversity in children's books and publishing. "I hope that you, my readers, will forgive me, and learn from my mistake that even unintentional and passive stereotypes and racism are harmful to everyone," he wrote.