Those of us who are fans of Emma Thompson but not fans of child rape were disappointed to learn the actress signed Bernard-Henri Lévy's petition to free Roman Polanski. But a Shakesville reader might just have changed Thompson's mind. Last week, a...

About two weeks ago, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a new law allowing civil lawsuits against media outlets that commission or publish illegally taken photographs. This should be interesting. Because, you know, what the world needs...

Five suspects are in custody for the gang rape of a 15-year-old girl after her homecoming dance in Richmond, California, and police say more than twenty people may have witnessed the assault. So why didn't anyone help her? Four teenagers, aged 15, 16,...

Brace yourself for the most stomach-turning story in a long time: on Friday, a 15-year-old girl was brutally gang-raped after a homecoming dance in a suburb of San Francisco, while as many as 15 teenage boys stood around, doing nothing. The victim was...

The teenager found in New York two weeks ago with no memory of her identity is lucky in one way — her family is coming to get her. Many young runaways have no one looking for them at all. Ian Urbina writes a poignant story in today's Times about...

Let's hope tonight's episode, featuring host Joseph Gordon-Levitt and the Dave Matthews Band, is an improvement over last week's fairly disastrous January Jones episode. Will JGL get things back on track? Will Tina Fey make an appearance? Let's find...

By a vote of 60-39, the United States Senate has just voted to move forward with the health care bill, opening the bill up to debate on the Senate floor, a process that will begin after Thanksgiving.

It is not unusual for jewelry stores to push diamond rings and necklaces as "the perfect holiday gift." It is unusual, however, for said jewelry stores to set their romantic holiday ad in the middle of a horror movie. To push their "Love's Embrace"...

Once again, it's time for our Saturday Night Social. Don't forget: we're also having an SNL live thread tonight, so come on back and watch the (hopefully decent) show with your fellow commenters. Or just hang here, if you please. As always, let's...

"Even more than the girls, the men really need to learn from it," Rihanna tells The Guardian about her assault by Chris Brown, "Because everyone's focusing on the women, but the problem isn't the women."