This post contains “Get Out” spoilers.

The white family’s comeuppance at the end of “Get Out” is part of what made the movie a cultural phenomenon. It was the horrific-race-satire version of “We’re All in This Together.” But writer/director Jordan Peele scripted at least three much darker endings.

On Sunday’s episode of “Talking with Chris Hadwick,” Peele revealed he considered having Chris’ TSA pal, Rod, try to save the day by breaking into the gated community where Chris’ girlfriend, Rose, lives. Alas, Rod was too late: Chris was already in the Sunken Place. “He’s looking for Chris and he sees Chris looking in a window on Main Street, and he goes ‘Chris!’ and Chris turns to him and goes, ‘I assure you, I don’t know who you’re talking about,’” Peele said, according to Yahoo. 

That creepier alternative is the second nixed ending that Peele has divulged. He first talked about one in March, about a week after “Get Out” opened. In that version, cops arrest Chris for slaughtering his girlfriend and her family.  

Additionally, Peele said on “Talking with Chris Hardwick” that there’s another ending he hasn’t yet disclosed. Unlike the others, which were mere ideas, this version was filmed and will appear on the DVD/Blu-ray’s special features. That’s presumably the one that tested poorly among early audiences, prompting Peele to exchange it for a more hopeful culmination ― something producer Jason Blum encouraged, according to a recent New York Times profile.

Ultimately, Peele and Blum decided the movie needed a heroic sendoff, so Rod saves Chris and lets Rose die. “ ‘Buddy, buddy — you gotta do the happy ending! Give the people what they want!’” Peele said, imitating Blum. “That’s what Jason does. He lets you do your thing, lets you be an artist, then gently reminds you: ‘Buddy, it’s entertainment. We’re in the entertainment business.’ ”

“Get Out” is available on DVD May 23.

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What constitutes an act of self-care? The internet is full of suggestions on how to prioritize oneself, ranging from meditation to hot tea, prayer to yoga, face masks to nap time. Although such rituals are often enticing, they are not always feasible ― not when there is dirty laundry all over the floor or a pile of dishes in the sink. 

London-based occupational therapist and illustrator Hannah Daisy had this very tension in mind when she was creating illustrations that celebrate the more banal accomplishments that can go uncelebrated, from going grocery shopping to simply getting out of bed. 

The illustrations resemble DIY badges honoring achievements that require dedication, energy and resilience, even if they aren’t traditionally valued as such. One commemorates cooking and eating a nourishing meal, another changing the sheets or going outside. Such undertakings can seem simple, but for those dealing with illness, disability, depression, anxiety or fatigue, they can be revolutionary.

The conception of self-care as a radical act has roots in the civil rights movement, when women of color created spaces and ceremonies to put their health and bodies first. Self-care was, as Natalia Mehlman Petrzela, an assistant professor at the New School, explained to Slate, “a claiming [of] autonomy over the body as a political act against institutional, technocratic, very racist, and sexist medicine.”

In 2017, as a patriarchal government threatens the well-being and survival of marginalized American citizens, self-care is a crucial way for individuals to emphasize their mental and physical health. Yet some of the rhetoric surrounding self-care can over-emphasize rituals like shopping or beauty routines and can subsequently alienate those people who can’t afford to spend the money or time required to partake in them.

As an occupational therapist, Daisy helps people grappling with illness, disability or neurodiversity to accomplish daily tasks, sometimes helping them to readjust to former habits after a physical or mental transformation, other times helping them find completely new approaches and tactics. As she explained in an email to HuffPost: “Really, when we become ill, the biggest problem is ― how the hell am I going to do X task?” Daisy helps her clients figure that out.

In the realm of occupational therapy, self-care refers to a wide range of “occupations,” or “things you have to do every day” ― a somewhat different understanding than most contemporary self-help guides prescribe.

“I started noticing that online, self-care was talked about in a very different way,” Daisy explained to HuffPost, “often only about nice or lovely things you can do for yourself, like a bubble bath, a massage, buying nice crystals, etc. … I started to feel that conversations online about self-care often alienated people [who thought], ‘I can’t go and do this nice thing for myself because I have this huge pile of washing up and my house is a tip.’”

Daisy began to illustrate some of the lesser-acknowledged actions that help bring people clarity and peace of mind. She uploaded the drawings on Instagram along with the hashtag #boringselfcare. The response was overwhelmingly positive, with many grateful to see responsibilities that can feel burdensome if not impossible framed as triumphs, instead of givens. 

May is Mental Health Awareness Month, a time to educate oneself about the importance of mental health and the various illnesses and disorders that should not be stigmatized or silenced, but explored. Daisy’s illustrations, revolutionary in their everydayness, offer a perfect place to start. 

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The New York Public Library has joined the growing ranks of public library systems contemplating the end of overdue fines for children, according to a WNYC report. 

A fifth of NYPL accounts held by children have been blocked due to unpaid fines, but the library president, Tony Marx, would like to motivate kids to be good library users without charging them for failures. 

“We’ve heard stories of parents saying to their kids, ‘We don’t want you to borrow books because you might be late with them and then you’ll have fines to worry about,’” he told WNYC. In fact, overdue fines can end up keeping thousands of kids from accessing library resources, just because they’re unable to pay what they owe.

Library fines may be small ― NYPL charges children just 10 cents a day for an overdue book ― but many of us live in disproportionate terror of them, a terror forged in our tender, formative years.

“When you’re younger, one of the first or the only external pressures that’s put on you, that’s punitive, could easily be from a library setting,” American Library Association President Julie Todaro explained to HuffPost. Outside of library fines, “Young people really do not have the credit fears that adults do.”

Those childhood fears retain significant space in our consciousnesses, even years after, effectively demonstrated by the highly on-point “Seinfeld” episode, “The Library,” in which Jerry is tracked down by a library detective still searching for a book he failed to return decades before. 

Despite this effect, libraries did not institute fines in order to shame, punish or make money off of patrons, Todaro emphasized. Rather, a fine is “supposed to maximize use of the material” by providing a small but sharp reminder to return what we’ve borrowed.

“People want those books,” she told HuffPost, “and there’s not enough.” What’s more, she explained, replacing a lost or stolen book eats up more library resources than delinquent borrowers may realize ― not just in the price of the new book, but in costly human labor to acquire and process it. Fines provide a classic economic motivation for cardholders to avoid those negative externalities.

In times when government funding for libraries dwindles, some argue that libraries can succumb to the temptation to depend on fines, along with fees for library services, to supplement their operating costs. At most libraries, the proceeds are reinvested in the library in some form, though sometimes the money is allocated to the city’s general fund. Fines and fees are dwarfed by a public library’s overall budget, however ― according to Library Journal, fines often make up less than one percent of funding, and enforcing fines itself requires funding.

Aside from the impracticality of funding a library based on fines, Todaro argued that depending on these nominal fees undermines a library’s essential mission. “We don’t want to run a for-profit business, or even a break-even business that’s based on income,” she said. “It’s something that would not return a great deal of money for us and would create an adversarial role.” Once a public library is funded by use rather than by taxpayer funds, she added, the question arises: “What’s different from a bookstore?”

The NYPL would be far from the first library system to dump fines for children. New York’s Rochester Public Library made the move earlier this year, as did Pikes Peak Library District in Colorado. Others, like Oak Park Public Library in Illinois and Worthington Libraries in Ohio, already have or plan to eliminate fines for all residents. The key to this experiment, as Todaro explained, is finding ways to maximize access and positive relationships between libraries and patrons.

“Technology was a huge boon for us,” she said. Not only can libraries send out automatic return reminders, a significant percentage of books checked out today (about 20 percent, according to Todaro) are eBooks. When an eBook’s due date arrives, a library need not depend on the patron to bring it back; instead, it can simply disappear the eBook from a patron’s device. 

As alternatives to fines, she suggested allowing patrons to pay via food donations, working off their debt in the library, or simply excluding certain vulnerable populations from fines. Suspending accounts until books are returned, rather than involving fines, was one measure Marx floated as an option for NYPL’s young readers, though Todaro notes that “[libraries] do it grudgingly, because we don’t want to limit access.”

Or, libraries can just drop fines altogether and depend on residents to bring back books in a timely fashion without punitive measures. In February, Slate’s Ruth Graham looked at the aftermath of a Colorado library district’s elimination of overdue fines in 2015 and found that the financial loss was manageable and the boost to morale ― for both patrons and librarians ― was striking. Perhaps most notable: “95 percent of materials are returned within a week of their due date.”

Such a simple move might seem too good to be true, but perhaps sometimes the simplest solution really is also the best for all concerned.

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Brad Grey, a former talent manager and producer of some of your favorite movies, died following a battle with cancer Sunday night in his home in Holmby Hills, California, according to Deadline. He was 59.

Grey spent 12 years as chairman/CEO of Paramount Pictures before reportedly being forced out this year due to “five years of dismal results at the film studio.” His death comes only months after leaving the company and is a surprise to many.

The CEO’s successes at Paramount included strong showings from the “Transformers,” “Mission: Impossible” and “Paranormal Activity” franchises, as well as Oscar winners “The Big Short” and “The Wolf of Wall Street.” However, some undeniable flops led to big losses, such as “Ben-Hur,” “Zoolander 2” and the bad idea on wheels, “Monster Trucks.”

Grey previously founded Brillstein-Grey Entertainment with Bernie Brillstein, where he became executive producer of shows like “The Sopranos” and “Real Time with Bill Maher.”

He also co-founded Plan B Entertainment with Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston. Grey reportedly left Plan B before production began on “The Departed,” which would take home the Oscar for Best Picture in 2007. The company was also behind “Troy” while he was still there.

According to Deadline, Grey is survived by a number of family members, including his wife, Cassandra Grey, their son, Jules, three grown children from a previous marriage, his mother, Barbara Schumsky, his brother, Michael Grey, and his sister, Robin Grey.

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Scrabble is a word game, perfect for those with silver tongues and vast vocabularies. It’s also a game the characters in “The Handmaid’s Tale” do not play properly.

The new Hulu TV show, adapted from Margaret Atwood’s novel of the same name, frequently features two of its main characters partaking in games of Scrabble. Offred, played by Elisabeth Moss, faces off in tense, albeit brief, word games with the Commander, played by Joseph Fiennes.

These scenes are meant to be serious. The commander regularly invites Offred, disallowed from fraternizing with men otherwise, to secretly spar with him in his study at night. The meetings could be described as intimate, illicit and revealing.

But fans and viewers of the series have been harping on a different aspect of the Scrabble scenes: Offred and the Commander don’t play by the rules.

They also seem to have inordinately high scores …

Some have said they’re just making up their own methods as they go …

 

Others can’t believe these two players are getting such great letters every round …

 

The lesson here is simple: Hulu, if you’re going to film people playing Scrabble, expect to get served.

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“I knew that Dee Dee was murdered, but that wasn’t the most interesting thing,” director Erin Lee Carr told HuffPost about her latest documentary, “Mommy Dead and Dearest.” “It was about why.”

On the surface, Dee Dee Blanchard and her daughter, Gypsy Blanchard, seemed to be the textbook example of mother-daughter BFFs. Gypsy, who used a wheelchair and received treatment for several conditions, was always at her mother’s side, sporting a huge grin. The two made appearances at Relay for Life events, went on Make-A-Wish trips together, and even received a house through charity upon leaving their home state of Louisiana after Hurricane Katrina.

Yet, when Dee Dee was found murdered in her Missouri home in June 2015, a different story began to emerge. Gypsy wasn’t sick at all — in fact, she could walk. Authorities discovered her in Wisconsin, on the run with a boyfriend she met online. Later, he would confess to stabbing Dee Dee at Gypsy’s request.

This explosive case spread like wildfire around the internet after Michelle Dean’s comprehensive, chilling BuzzFeed article that detailed the abuse and the grisly end for Gypsy’s mother.

Now, Carr’s film further explores the incident, featuring interviews with family members, medical professionals, law enforcement and Gypsy herself, who is now serving out a 10-year prison sentence. And while there are no tantalizing uncertainties in the way of “Making a Murderer” or “Serial,” the sheer facts of what happened are enough to get you hooked.

“It’s really important that it starts off big and bold and scary and weird, for me,” Carr explained, saying that her previous film, “Thought Crimes: The Case of the Cannibal Cop,” unfurled in a similar way, where social media and the internet are the catalyst for revealing darker truths. 

Gypsy, the film shows, was a victim of Munchausen by proxy, in which a caretaker exaggerates or induces illness in a child for sympathy or attention. 

Dee Dee tightly controlled Gypsy’s interactions with the outside world. From a young age, we find, Gypsy was told she suffered from epilepsy, muscular dystrophy, intellectual disabilities and more. Scenes from Gypsy and Dee Dee’s house show an entire hall closet full of medications. Elsewhere, in a scene where Gypsy’s father and stepmother meet with her attorney, stacks of medical records detailing doctor and hospital visits through the years surround them. Oftentimes, Gypsy wasn’t certain of her actual age.

“Sometimes, my mouth drops,” Gypsy’s stepmother, Kristy Blanchard, told HuffPost. “You know, when I think I’ve heard it all, and then you get hit again with something.” 

Dee Dee and Gypsy’s father, Rod Blanchard, were young when they married. They separated before Gypsy was born. Rod then remarried, and he and Kristy saw Gypsy often as a young girl in their home state of Louisiana. But after the mother and daughter’s move to Missouri, the distance allowed Dee Dee’s control over Gypsy to grow even greater.

“Most of the times, I would call to talk to [Gypsy], she told me, ‘I’ll call back in a little while and have her ready,’” Rod said of Dee Dee. “To me, I’m thinking, OK, she’s gonna get her by the wheelchair, wake her up, or do whatever. But looking back now, she was telling her what to say or kind of coaching her along. ‘Don’t talk about this, talk about this.’ So there was never a time that I felt like she wasn’t being coached.”

In the documentary, we see a different Gypsy from the version shown in news stories about the case. There’s no wheelchair, no feeding tube. Her hair has grown out more. She’s able to speak for herself.

“Gypsy kind of changed almost every time I saw her or talked to her,” said Carr. “She was in the process of growing up, she’s in the process of configuring sort of who she was.”

Carr still stays in touch with Gypsy. “I hope that I’m one of many women that will just be like, ‘Hey, you have a voice. You deserve to be listened to,’” she said of their relationship.

“Mommy Dead and Dearest” succeeds in navigating the complications that come with true crime, highlighting what Carr called the “WTF factor” of the murder without feeling exploitative or sensational. By the film’s end, it’s impossible not to feel for Gypsy’s plight, even if she isn’t the one who ended up dead.

“From a New Yorker’s perspective, it felt totally unconscionable that this wasn’t seen quicker,” said Carr. “But as we dove into investigating this story, it was like, [Rod] lived in a different state, Dee Dee literally kept Gypsy from him. She monitored everything that they said to each other. Rod would send her Christmas gifts and Dee Dee would say that she had bought them. There was no shot that he was going to be able to see what was happening here.”

While watching, your heart goes out to Rod and Kristy, who reunite with Gypsy in the courtroom in an emotional scene near the end of the film. The couple represent a kind of silver lining in this sad story — without Dee Dee’s overwhelming presence, Rod and Kristy can finally establish a real relationship with his daughter. Kristy said they now speak all the time on the phone, and showed HuffPost a photo of the three during a recent visit to Gypsy around Easter.

“I was so nervous about it at the time,” Rod said of their initial meeting shown in the film. “Now, when I watch it, now I get more emotional watching it … It was scary, I mean, for a long time I didn’t know if she hated me or what Dee Dee told her about me, so this was the first time I got really face-to-face with her and rejoin with her.”

Carr said she sympathizes with Rod. “He lost years of a life with his child, he almost lost his kid, and what’s gonna happen to Gypsy while she’s in prison? That is a difficult road ahead of her. But they are there for her, and that is a very rare thing.”

”Mommy Dead and Dearest” airs May 15 at 10 p.m. on HBO.

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When it comes to spinoff shows, “Game of Thrones” doesn’t want to be spokes on a wheel. It wants to break the wheel!  

Series author George R.R. Martin cleared up news about the development of HBO’s four “Game of Thrones” spinoffs on his Not A Blog Sunday, revealing that a fifth show is now in the works with a secret writer. Surprise!

We had four scripts in development when I arrived in LA last week, but by the time I left we had five. We have added a fifth writer to the original four. No, I will not reveal the name here. HBO announced the names of the first four, and will no doubt announce the fifth as well, once his deal has closed. He’s a really terrific addition, however, a great guy and a fine writer, and aside from me and maybe Elio and Linda, I don’t know anyone who knows and loves Westeros as well as he does.

If there are five spinoffs on the way, HBO might be in need of some of that Lannister gold to pay for them. But Martin himself thinks it’s unlikely that five new shows will be making it on-air.

For now, the author wants us to know that there is an order for five pilot scripts and he is working with all the writers, not just two as previously reported.

Also, the spinoffs aren’t going to be spinoffs like we usually think of them. They’re all going to be prequels from stories we likely haven’t heard before:

So all of you who were hoping for the further adventures of Hot Pie are doomed to disappointment. Every one of the concepts under discussion is a prequel, rather than a sequel. Some may not even be set on Westeros. Rather than ‘spinoff’ or ‘prequel,’ however, I prefer the term ‘successor show.’ That’s what I’ve been calling them.

But there won’t be any Robert’s Rebellion or Dunk and Egg prequels as of now. Sorry, everyone.

And for those who are wondering, Martin reiterated that he’s still working on his next book in the “Song of Ice and Fire” series, The Winds of Winter. But, oh sweet summer child, you probably shouldn’t expect it to come anytime soon.

At least we have the possibility of five new “Game of Thrones” shows on the way.

Open that wine, Tyrion. It’s time to turn up.

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Deshauna Barber made a touching statement as she took one final walk as Miss USA in Las Vegas on Sunday night ― and she did it without saying a word.   

The Army reserve officer looked stunning in a form-fitting yellow gown, but all eyes were on her hair, which she wore in its natural state. In a pre-recorded segment, Barber revealed that she wore her hair in honor of her mother, who recently died, AZ Central reported.  

It didn’t take long for Twitter to send words of praise and support Barber’s way. 

As if the moment weren’t inspiring enough, Barber passed the crown to Kara McCullough ― also from District of Columbia, also a black woman, also wearing her natural hair. 

McCullough told Refinery29 she made the choice to reflect the traditional pageant’s changing and modernizing ideals. “I decided to embrace what made me feel comfortable, embrace what makes me feel the best and brightest onstage,” she said. “But also embrace what other people can relate to, so that typical, traditional sleek hair, big tease, not to say it’s gone out the window, but it’s transitioning a lot.”

The powerful visual of these two women sharing the special moment onstage garnered even more celebration on social media.   

Tonight made history, indeed. 

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We’re guessing he didn’t take requests.

Russian President Vladimir Putin showed off his piano skills in Beijing Sunday, playing a few tunes while waiting for Chinese President Xi Jinping at a state guesthouse, The New York Times reported.

Putin tickled the ivories with a pair of 1950s, Soviet-era tunes, Vasily Solovyov-Sedoi’s “Evening Song” and Tikhon Khrennikov’s “Moscow Windows,” the Times noted.

He’s played the piano before in public ― and his performance shouldn’t be too surprising. The Russian leader isn’t shy about displaying himself as a macho renaissance man, also participating in judo, ice hockey and horseback riding ― the latter sometimes shirtless.

Putin was in Beijing to discuss a $1 billion economic plan called “One Belt, One Road” that is intended to benefit dozens of countries, according to news outlets.

Twitter was amused by the president’s performance.

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Move over, MTV. The BAFTAs red carpet is here and looking more exciting than ever.  

Celebrities attended the Virgin TV British Academy Television Awards in London on Sunday. While BBC’s programming beating out Netflix’s “The Crown” in multiple categories made headlines, the red carpet caught our attention. 

There were umbrellas (so British!), splendidly spiked hair, the fullest of full skirts and Joan Collins in some serious sleeves.

Check out our picks for wildest looks of the night below.  

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