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Sitdown Sunday: Britney Spears' conservatorship nightmare

Settle back in a comfy chair and sit back with some of the week’s best longreads.

IT’S A DAY of rest, and you may be in the mood for a quiet corner and a comfy chair. We’ve hand-picked the week’s best reads for you to savour.  

1. Independence Day

An oral history of the 1996 Roland Emmerich action movie that was absolutely great craic to watch in the cinema.

(The Hollywood Reporter, approx 30 mins reading time)

ROLAND EMMERICH, director I went for a meeting at Warner Bros. They wanted to make a movie about a prison escape starring Harrison Ford. They said the budget was about $70 million. When I came out of the meeting I said, “Oh my God. A prison escape movie, $70 million? I could finally do the alien invasion movie I’ve always wanted for that.” I went into Book Soup and bought War of the Worlds. I read it, and I felt it was dated. I went to Dean and said, “I think I know our next movie.”

2. Sally Rooney

Read an extract from Sally Rooney’s forthcoming novel – and then read this interview with her about it.

(The New Yorker, approx 42 mins reading time)

At one o’clock she told her colleagues she was going to lunch, and they smiled and waved at her from behind their monitors. Pulling on a jacket, she walked to a café near the office and sat at a table by the window, holding a sandwich in one hand and a copy of “The Brothers Karamazov” in the other. At twenty to two, she looked up to observe a tall, fair-haired man entering the café. He was wearing a suit and tie, with a plastic lanyard around his neck, and was speaking into his phone. Yeah, he said, I was told Tuesday, but I’ll call back and check that for you. When he saw the woman seated by the window, his face changed, and he quickly lifted his free hand, mouthing the word Hey.

3. Britney’s conservatorship nightmare

Jia Tolentino and Ronan Farrow delve deep into the story of Britney Spears’ conservatorship, unearthing new facts about the shocking situation.

(The New Yorker, approx 50 mins reading time)

Running the business of Britney had become routine: every Thursday at noon, about ten people responsible for managing Spears’s legal and business affairs, public relations, and social media met to discuss merchandise deals, song-license requests, and Spears’s posts to Instagram and Twitter. (“This is how it works without her,” one member of the team said.) Spears, according to her management, typically writes the posts and submits them to CrowdSurf, a company employed to handle her social media, which then uploads them. In rare cases, posts that raise legal questions have been deemed too sensitive to upload.

4. Billion-dollar hack

How North Korea hackers planed a billion-dollar raid on Bangladesh’s national bank. 

(BBC, approx 23 mins reading time)

And the printer played a pivotal role. It was located inside a highly secure room on the 10th floor of the bank’s main office in Dhaka, the capital. Its job was to print out records of the multi-million-dollar transfers flowing in and out of the bank. When staff found it wasn’t working, at 08:45 on Friday 5 February 2016, “we assumed it was a common problem just like any other day,” duty manager Zubair Bin Huda later told police. “Such glitches had happened before.”

5. The secret he carried

Phillip A Tavares’s father was killed, and Phillip believed that cops were responsible. So how did he go on to become a police chief himself?

(Boston Globe, approx 22 mins reading time)

But the accomplishments and optimistic demeanor mask a long-ago family tragedy, one that has left him — in this national season of reckoning for police — straddling two worlds: The proud cop who wears his Marshfield Police T-shirt on family vacations to Florida and holds tightly to the old adage that police represent the thin line between order and chaos. And the still grieving son who believes in his bones that his father’s death was the result of a vicious beating by police. 

6. Quitting Twitter

Caitlin Flanagan argues that perhaps we need to – yes – quit Twitter. Or at least, she did.

(The Atlantic, approx 10 mins reading time)

Every thought, every experience, seems to be reducible to this haiku, and my mind is instantly engaged by the challenge of concision. Once the line is formed, why not put it out there? Twitter is a red light, blinking, blinking, blinking, destroying my ability for private thought, sucking up all my talent and wit. Put it out there, post it, see how it does. What pours out is an ungodly sluice of high-minded opinions, sharp rebukes, jokes, transactional compliments, and mundane bulletins from my private life (to the extent that I have one anymore).

…AND A CLASSIC FROM THE ARCHIVES…

This 2016 article about two sets of twins who were mixed up in Bogotá is a fascinating read.

(The New York Times Magazine, approx mins reading time)

Laura was baffled: Why was Jorge pretending to be someone else? Maybe, she thought, he was embarrassed to be seen moonlighting this way — the bloodied apron, the white cap. Janeth insisted she was mistaken, but Laura was not convinced. It was almost easier for her to believe that Jorge was playacting as someone else, rather than that there could be two people who looked so much alike. It was not just their similar coloring or the high cheekbones. It was their frame, the texture of their hair, the set of their mouth and dozens of other details that Laura could not have readily identified but that she knew all added up to a rare likeness.

More: The best reads from every previous Sitdown Sunday

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    Mute alphanautica
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    May 8th 2017, 7:45 AM

    Le Pen may have lost, but % support is increasing dramatically. Just like Sinn Fein, it is only a matter of time.

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    Mute Barry Somers
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    May 8th 2017, 7:51 AM

    @alphanautica: of course the partys are not alike, le pens party is full of racists, shes tried to change its image but the mask keeps slipping.

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    Mute Nick Allen
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    May 8th 2017, 7:55 AM

    @alphanautica:

    Its cyclical and they will lose support over time, look at UKIP in the local elections, completely destroyed

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    Mute alphanautica
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    May 8th 2017, 7:56 AM

    @Barry Somers: both parties do their best to distance themselves from their extreme xenophobic genesis, so they’re not that different. Thankfully the ‘Brits Out’ etc days are over.

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    Mute Willy Malone
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    May 8th 2017, 8:36 AM

    @alphanautica: Our elite congratulations all round , for a man who sees Ireland as a problem . Our corporate tax a major issue for his elitist Europe . Anything to keep elitist Europe in motion. Winds if change growing stronger as you say, only a matter of time ☺

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    Mute TehJurolan
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    May 8th 2017, 9:40 AM

    @Nick Allen: yes, but only after they had played a prominent part in achieving their goal of taking Britain out of the EU.

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    Mute Ryan Comiskey
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    May 8th 2017, 9:57 AM

    @alphanautica:
    Brexit 52-48: “Clear, decisive victory.”
    Trump 46-48: “The people have spoken.”
    Macron 66-34: “OMG France is so divided.”

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    Mute GameOverMan
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    May 8th 2017, 10:13 AM

    @Willy Malone: of course its only a matter of time. And when they’re in, it’ll be a matter of time before they’re out again. The systems not supposed to resolve anything… it has only to be maintained for maximum profit.

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    Mute Diarmuid
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    May 8th 2017, 10:31 AM

    @alphanautica: There are enough decent grown-ups in France and Ireland to keep know-nothing extremists out forever.

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    Mute Mick Jordan
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    May 8th 2017, 12:59 PM

    @alphanautica: Before making any claims of FN support on the rise you should wait and see the results of the French Parliamentary Elections next month. In 1985 they reached a high watermark of 35 MP’s in the current Parliment they have 2 MP’s. If they can match or better their 1985 total then you could say they are on the rise. If they can’t, well it’s just a case of going nowhere.

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    Mute Patricia Cooney
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    May 8th 2017, 4:54 PM

    @Barry Somers: if their is no work and la pen wants to close borders you are racist.what next.

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    Mute Joshua Walsh
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    May 8th 2017, 7:59 AM

    Great to see the French people reject the hate that Le Pen spout.

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    Mute cortisola
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    May 8th 2017, 11:43 AM

    @Joshua Walsh: There will be less and less support for her every year with growing Muslim population in France. She may never win.

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    Mute Mick Jordan
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    May 8th 2017, 1:02 PM

    @cortisola: She has to survive the Parliamentary elections. If the FN don’t do better than her Father did in 85 with 35 seats the party will turn on her.

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    Mute
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    May 8th 2017, 8:19 AM

    God help France now with this political lightweight and apologist for Islamic terror in power.

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    Mute Diarmuid
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    May 8th 2017, 11:35 AM

    From an apologist for “republican” terror….

    Hypocrisy much?

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    Mute Mick Jordan
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    May 8th 2017, 1:08 PM

    And what makes him a political lightweight? Coming out of nowhere and winning the Presidency from experienced and seasoned Politicians puts him right up in the Heavy Weight division as champion. And if you think he is a lightweight because of his lack of political experience then what does that make Trump a Bantamweight?

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    Mute George Orwell
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    May 8th 2017, 7:50 AM

    His wife gave him a well deserved pat on the head

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    Mute The Thinker
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    May 8th 2017, 9:55 AM

    Glad to see France isn’t as easily led as the US and UK. There’s some hope yet

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    Mute Diarmuid
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    May 8th 2017, 10:33 AM

    Fabulous day for France and Europe.

    The fascist wave is dying across Europe, just like it did in 1945.

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    Mute cortisola
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    May 8th 2017, 11:46 AM

    @Diarmuid: You’re are like these lunatics dancing end of islamic terror after US killed Binladen in 2011. You’ll never get it.

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    Mute Lisa Dorothy
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    May 8th 2017, 3:14 PM

    @cortisola: Get what? That we have to think of it like it is us versus them? Because where has that attitude got us so far?

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    Mute No one
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    May 8th 2017, 7:33 AM

    I guess the French must be misogynist ??

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    Mute Deborah Behan
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    May 8th 2017, 7:50 AM

    @No one: no they’re just less racist.

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    Mute GameOverMan
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    May 8th 2017, 10:20 AM

    @Deborah Behan: …speaking of racists theres Geert doing his best impression of every defeated cartoon villain ever… well done Geert, well done.

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    Mute David Harries
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    May 8th 2017, 8:59 AM

    I wounder could trump find France on a map

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    Mute Ó Connmhaigh
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    May 8th 2017, 11:42 AM

    @David Harries:
    First, he’d have to find a map

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    Mute Dáithí Ó Raghallaigh
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    May 8th 2017, 9:07 AM

    Donald trump may actually have prevented Le Pen grabbing power, People have discovered that voting is racist nutters actually offers no solutions either.

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    Mute Lisa Dorothy
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    May 8th 2017, 3:13 PM

    @Dáithí Ó Raghallaigh: And that is it in essence. Without an overhaul of the system nothing will significantly change no matter who you vote in. So people don’t fall for populist politicians like Trump – they will achieve as much or less than their establishment counterparts.

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    Mute Plus Prom
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    May 8th 2017, 10:32 AM

    I can’t believe all these so-called liberals celebrating the perpetuation of the patriarchy. I guess France wasn’t ready for a female leader. Sad. #ImWithHer

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    Mute Ernest Grinkas
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    May 8th 2017, 11:24 AM

    @Plus Prom: Agree. Complete sexism. Very disappointed by french sexism..

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    Mute Aaron O'Leary
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    May 8th 2017, 1:21 PM

    @Plus Prom: So the US was sexist to elect Trump?

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    Mute Lisa Dorothy
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    May 8th 2017, 3:15 PM

    @Aaron O’Leary: That’s what I was wondering.

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    Mute cortisola
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    May 8th 2017, 11:47 AM

    Most of these congrats should be sent to Merkel really.

    13
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    Mute Yenreit
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    May 8th 2017, 12:16 PM

    @cortisola: Germany’s third invasion of France! Will they ever learn.

    11
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    Mute cortisola
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    May 8th 2017, 1:47 PM

    @Yenreit: Soon all they need to learn will be Arabic and Quaran.

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    Mute Ibhar Mac Suibhne
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    May 8th 2017, 2:57 PM

    @cortisola: Hype up the anti-islam propaganda there sure!

    2
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    Mute Philip Gerard
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    May 8th 2017, 4:37 PM

    @cortisola: Betterh than sending congrats to Putin, fascist tw@.

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    Mute Tosin Williams
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    May 8th 2017, 8:46 PM

    @cortisola: what language is quaran?

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    Mute Toon Army
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    May 8th 2017, 7:46 AM

    Interesting to see how Macron balances his overall centre right ideology with some watered down policies on education and EU reform. Suspect it will be the latter that takes a back seat but wish him all the best.

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    Mute Nick Allen
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    May 8th 2017, 8:33 AM

    @Toon Army:

    But more importantly, will Rafa be in charge come Aug. Well done yesterday

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    Mute Gerry Fallon
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    May 8th 2017, 9:54 AM

    Theresa may congratulated him through gritted teeth.

    8
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    Mute Paul Coughlan
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    May 8th 2017, 9:01 AM

    We now have a 39 year old French President married to a 63 year old woman. Merkel would need to watch out. We should replace Enda with an Edna and we would be sure of a listening ear in France. ❤️❤️

    7
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    Mute Larry Molloy
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    May 9th 2017, 11:48 AM

    The deep state are really nice people once you get to know them.

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    Mute Micheal S. O' Ceilleachair
    Favourite Micheal S. O' Ceilleachair
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    May 8th 2017, 8:03 PM

    We will have five years of macronomics!!!!

    1
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