The process works like this: for a fee ($200 for a work on paper, $500 for an oil on canvas), the exhibitionistically inclined can arrange brief private sittings with Finley. They'll be given the artist's private phone number and can snap away. Once Finley has received the photos, she'll translate them into a series of paintings to be publicly displayed in the New Museum lobby. After the exhibition closes on May 26, the subjects can take home their work to be stored as a memento of free-spirited youth, or hung in the living room to the chagrin of friends and family.

Finley, a professor at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, has never shied away from controversy. In 1990, she was one of four artists whose NEA grants were revoked on the grounds that their work was obscene. "Sext Me If You Can" is presented by NE 4 In Residence, which revisits the four grant recipients' work.

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Like the fairy-tale forest that turns out to be something more akin to a Hieronymous Bosch painting, Amy Schumer is far less virtuous than she appears. The comedian, whose series "Inside Amy Schumer" premieres on Comedy Central April 30, boasts one of the most subversive voices in comedy, imbuing riffs on porn, abortion and below-the-belt grooming (she refers to bikini waxing as “getting my vagina ready for its first quinceañera”) with a sly, oddly poignant sensibility. A bit from "Mostly Sex Stuff," on hooking up with a man without testicles, is particularly illustrative: “Girls don’t care about balls, but when they’re not there we miss them. You know, they’re like grandparents.”

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The sinkhole, located at 9600 South Houston Ave., started expanding at approximately 5 a.m. Thursday morning, quickly growing from 20 to 40 feet. Two cars fell into the hole before the fire department arrived at the scene at 5:30 a.m., and a third car fell in after responders had left.

According to witnesses, the injured man had attempted to swerve around the sinkhole as it was expanding, which led to his car falling into the hole. He was taken to Northwestern Memorial Hospital after sustaining minor head injuries, and is said to be in good condition.

A spokesman for the Water Department said the sinkhole was created by a water main break, due to heavy flooding in the area.

Via KTLA:

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From the missed connections to the casual encounters, here's a SFW (more or less) sampling of the those citizens who know that it's only when they lose their carnal desires that the terrorists have really won.

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I realize it might sound callous to argue that the death of one celebrity merits more attention than another, particularly when one was a leader of the free world while the other was chiefly famous for showing her navel in a series of films that the New York Times called “the answers to a moron’s prayer.” While it’s mostly meant in jest, I will say that at one point in my life, Annette Funicello meant a great deal to me, and certainly more than the Iron Lady ever has or will. And if she meant a lot to me, a child of the aughts who was born decades after her original audience hit puberty, I can’t even imagine how her fans from previous generations must be feeling right now.

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My parents and all the other gay and lesbian people here want to be happy, just like you. All they want is to be treated fairly. But unlike most of you, they have to come again here year after year and explain over and over why their love is equal to yours. This year, you have the opportunity to change that. I say, choose love. 

Lannon's mother Maryellen Butke says the 12 year old wrote his speech the night before the 12-hour hearing, which lasted until 5 a.m. Friday:

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The news could not come at a more opportune time for Lauer, who has spent the week fending off rumors that he's about to be ousted from the "Today" show. According to the Post, the "Today" show, which has suffered from a ratings decline in recent months, is not expected to renew Lauer's $25-million-a-year contract with NBC when it expires in 2015 -- which coincides with the end of Trebek's three-decade tenure as "Jeopardy!" host.

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Yet if reports from the Local, an English-language French newspaper, are to be trusted, that's exactly where scores of enterprising smut peddlars are headed. Recently, the historic Catacombs of Paris has become a popular destination for adult filmmakers, models, and photographers, who are heading sixty feet underground to shoot against the backdrop of millions of human skulls and skeletons.

A spokesman for the Musee Carnavelet, the company that manages the catacombs, says that they receive at least one request for permission to film or take photos there every week. Perhaps unsurprisingly, they are not at all pleased with this trend.

“Obviously, we say no. This is a sacred place, which houses the remains of six million Parisians. We only allow serious or scientific documentaries,” the spokesman said. 

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Nashville resident Kylee Francescan was throwing out some old newspapers when she discovered the letters in a dumpster outside a local elementary school. "I didn't know if they were stolen [or] discarded, so I threw them in a box," Francescan told Nashville's News 2 Investigates. "And I'm like, ‘Somebody needs to let Taylor know.'"

The letters, which I like to imagine were sealed with a combination of watermelon lip gloss, mall perfume, and a Lisa Frank panda sticker, were addressed to Taylor Swift International, a P.O. box in a strip mall a few miles outside of Nashville. News 2 reporter Andy Cordan delivered the letters to the address, where he was told that a representative from Swift's staff drops by to pick up fan mail.

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Set in a contemporary California residence (actually, Whedon's -- he shot the film over 12 days at his house in Santa Monica), the film tells the story of fiercely independent Beatrice (Amy Acker, "Alias") and perennial bachelor Benedick (Alexis Denisof, "Angel"), longtime verbal sparring partners who ultimately become lovers.

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Stiller and Odenkirk, who have previously collaborated on "The Ben Stiller Show" and "Saturday Night Live," will executive-produce ten episodes of "The Birthday Boys," a scripted comedy series featuring the LA-based comedy group of the same name. The all-male septet frequently perform at UCB Los Angeles, and their sketches have been featured on Funny or Die. In a press statement, IFC described the show as a combination of "Mr. Show" and "Monty Python," featuring skits that address such pressing, real-world issues as "eggs, toilet paper and computers."

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Wagner apologized for his controversial column in an Emory magazine -- which used the three-fifths compromise as its only historical example of the virtues of compromise and pragmatism -- after it sparked a social media outrage this weekend. That constitutional compromise counted slaves as three-fifths of a person for the purposes of distributing tax dollars to states and determining representation in Congress.

But trustees who spoke with Salon on Tuesday supported Wagner.

"He has my 100 percent, undivided support," said Ben F. Johnson III, the chairman of the board of trustees.

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With the launch of Crazy Blind Date, an app that randomly sets users up based on demographic information, OKCupid seems to be throwing up its hands and admitting that when it comes to finding love, shared tastes can only take you so far. The app works like this: you pick a time and a location, and OKCupid pulls up a list of potential dates in the area, along with their first names, ages and scrambled photos of their faces. You pick one, and let Eros (or booze) do the rest.

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Despite the difficulties of adapting Jane Austen’s novel for the screen, a number of intrepid filmmakers have taken it on, releasing “P+P”-inspired romantic comedies, animated features, musicals and, yes, even an alliteratively titled porno or two. In honor of the novel's bicentennial this week, we look back at a few of the best and worst cinematic takes.

So, which film had the spunkiest Lizzie? The most dastardly Wickham? And the most swoon-worthy Darcy? (Hint: He’s the furriest on the list.)

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NPD’s Harry Balzer attributes the decrease in part to shifting public attitudes about body weight, which the survey also tracked by asking whether respondents agreed or disagreed with the statement: “People who are not overweight look more attractive.” While 55 percent of Americans surveyed agreed with this statement in 1985, now only 23 percent equate being heavy with being less attractive.  Balzer calls it, “One of the biggest changes in our attitudes about health over the past 30 years.” Yet the study is conspicuously vague about defining the term “diet,” prompting NPR’s Allison Aubrey to question whether respondents are curbing appetites and counting calories without actually referring to their eating habits as a “diet.”

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