• Starting this week, chain restaurants are required to post calorie counts on their menus as part of the 2010 Affordable Care Act.
• The measure is designed to help people eat healthier, but it's important to remember where calories come from in the first place — and to know that they're not the end-all, be-all when it comes to nutrition.
• In 1918, a Los Angeles physician played a major role in popularizing the calorie as a way of losing weight.
  
• It was the first mention of the word in popular culture — and the world's first viral diet book.

Standing before a room of women in Los Angeles, Lulu Hunt Peters wrote a word on a blackboard that she said held the keys to empowerment. It was a word most of her audience had never heard before. Peters insisted it was just as important as terms like "foot" and "yard," and that if they came to understand and use it, they would be serving their country and themselves.

The word was "calorie."

It was 1917, and although the calorie had been used in chemistry for decades, Peters was responsible for popularizing the idea that all we need to become healthier is knowing how much energy is in our food and cutting back the excess. More than 100 years later, that logic lives on in new US rules that require chain restaurants and stores that sell prepared food to list calorie counts on menus. 

Peters' teachings weren’t all academic. She also referred to overweight people as "fireless cookers" and accused them of hoarding the valuable wartime commodity of fat "in their own anatomy." Nevertheless, Peters' weight-loss strategy has become so popular that some experts worry it now eclipses more important aspects of nutrition.

Yet while Peters' concept of calories has managed to stick around for 100 years, few have heard her name. As one of a handful of female physicians in California at the turn of the 20th century, Peters occupied a tenuous role as a health authority. After initially opening up her own private practice, she struggled to feel satisfied with her career.

It was only after America entered the first World War that Peters had the opportunity to find her voice — first as a leader of a local women's club and finally as America's most enduring diet guru.

'Hereafter, you are going to eat calories of food'

Lulu Peters was the picture of 1920s fashion.

She wore her dark hair in the flapper style, bobbed and adorned with glittering headbands, and sported luxurious furs. Her ears were decorated with gleaming pearls. She wasn't rail thin, as the social mores of middle-class white America said she ought to be, but she was 70 pounds leaner than she had been when she'd graduated from medical school — a point she emphasized with pride in a pamphlet she sold for 25 cents and later turned into the world's first best-selling diet book.

When it came to the science of nutrition and weight loss, Peters was in many ways decades ahead of her time. While ads in local newspapers pushed women to try everything from smoking ("Reach for a Lucky instead of a sweet!") to wearing medicated rubber garments to lose weight, Peters was breaking down complex scientific concepts like metabolism into accessible ideas that could be used to slim down.

In 1910, when the average life expectancy was 49 years, most Americans had never heard of things like calories, proteins, or carbohydrates. Even the science of vitamins was a fledgling endeavor characterized by a great deal of pseudoscience. Through her newspaper columns and clubhouse talks, Peters introduced hundreds of people to these ideas, and even began to link unhealthy eating with specific diseases. She went so far as to recommend intermittent fasting for those struggling to lose weight, a topic that is only now beginning to emerge in the scientific literature.

Still, what Peters taught her followers about calories has endured the longest: that all you need to do to lose weight is consume fewer calories than you burn.

"Instead of saying one slice of bread, or a piece of pie, you will say 100 Calories of bread, 350 Calories of pie," she wrote in 1918. "Hereafter, you are going to eat calories of food."

'How dare you hoard fat when our nation needs it?'

In 1909, Peters was one of about 1,000 women across the country to graduate as a doctor of medicine.

War and its demand for medical workers had helped temporarily ease some of the barriers blocking women from entering universities, and in 1910 the percentage of women physicians was at an all-time high at 5%. Shortly after receiving her degree from the University of California, Peters got a job leading the Los Angeles County Hospital's pathology lab. Several years later, even as the percentage of women medical-school graduates receded to below 3%, she secured a role as the chair of the public-health committee for the California women's club federation of Los Angeles, a position that a local newspaper described as having "more power than the entire city health office."

Still, Peters occupied a tenuous position in a society led by men. Even as a leading physician with two medical degrees, most of her roles were unpaid, including a one-year stint with the American Red Cross in 1918 during World War I. Many of the public-health events she attended were derided in local newspapers as nothing more than "supper parties" for "female physicians." And these roles, which were already constrained by gender, were made even more exclusive by the fact that they were volunteer-only. Women who didn't have access to money — many of them women of color — were barred from participating. Those who did attend made a show of their wealth. With her high-society flapper fashion, Peters was no exception.

Whatever signs of excess she displayed when it came to clothing, however, Peters made up for in her approach to eating.

After struggling with her weight for years early in her career, Peters lost 70 pounds by carefully restricting the amount of food she ate. Her diet was a seemingly logical extension of basic chemistry: If you want to "reduce," you need to put less energy into your body than it uses up. To do that, a unit of measure she'd applied frequently as a student of child nutrition at several Los Angeles hospitals was key. Peters and her peers had relied on calculating the caloric content of baby formula to ensure premature babies and other infants under their care were properly nourished. Now, the measure seemed an easy way to calculate the energy needs of adults.

As a leading member of the women's club federation, Peters became a diet guru, frequently sharing bits of her dieting wisdom with fellow members. One day, shortly before leaving for her World War I service with the Red Cross, she delivered a talk about weight loss. In order for her audience to understand how she lost weight, she introduced them to the unit of measure at the foundation of her plan. The calorie, she explained, was a measure of what she called "food values."

"You should know and also use the word calorie as frequently, or more frequently, than you use the words foot, yard, quart, gallon, and so forth, as measures of length and liquids," Peters said.

Losing weight wasn't merely about meeting societal expectations, though, at least in the way Peters presented it.

Being severely overweight was also linked with chronic illnesses such as heart and kidney disease, she wrote. At the time, it was an idea that was just beginning to circulate among scientists. More important, Peters presented calorie counting as a moral, patriotic duty. Hungry troops at the front lines, she explained, needed calories that women like her could do without. What was fat, she said, if not a high-energy resource that should be distributed to the soldiers abroad?

"In war time it is a crime to hoard food, and fines and imprisonment have followed the exposé of such practices," Peters wrote. "Yet there are hundreds of thousands of individuals all over America who are hoarding food, and that one of the most precious of all foods! They have vast amounts of this valuable commodity stored away in their own anatomy."

Peters even went so far as to describe the discomfort of dieting as a physical reminder of American loyalty and an easier way to deal with rationing. If the food they didn't eat didn't go directly to the troops abroad, their leftovers could be used to feed their children: "That for every pang of hunger we feel we can have a double joy, that of knowing we are saving worse pangs in ... little children, and that of knowing that for every pang we feel we lose a pound."

It may have sounded like a noble goal at first, but Peters had taken the idea of calorie counting too far.

An imperfect science

In a world dominated by celebrity fad diets that range from the absurd, like Reese Witherspoon's alleged "baby-food diet," to the absurdly unaffordable, such as Gwyneth Paltrow's $200 "moon dust"-infused breakfast smoothie, calories can seem like the most scientific option for improving your health. But there is more guesswork involved in calorie calculations than you might think.

The current system of calorie counting on which our nutrition labels are based "provides only an estimate of the energy content of foods," Malden C. Nesheim, a professor of nutrition at Cornell University, said at a 2013 meeting of the nonprofit Institute for Food Technologists.

Traditionally, scientists calculated the energy content of foods using a large piece of machinery called a bomb calorimeter. The process involved placing a sample of food into the device, burning it, and measuring how much the water in a surrounding container heated up. Since a calorie raises the temperature of a liter of water by 1 degree Celsius, the calorie count would be found by calculating the change in the water's temperature multiplied by the water's volume. Today, we use a shortcut called the Atwater system, named after agricultural chemist Wilbur Olin Atwater.

Atwater — who wanted to use his work in the 1890s to help poor people get the most calories for their money— determined the average number of calories in four main energy sources: carbs, fats, protein, and alcohol. Fats, he found, were the most energy-dense with about 9 calories per gram, while proteins and carbs were roughly equal at about 4 calories per gram. Alcohol was worth about 7 calories per gram.

The Atwater system is how the calorie counts on nutrition labels have been determined by the US Department of Agriculture since 1988. Before that, they were done by hand. Using this method, you'd be able to determine that a slice of wheat bread with 3 grams of protein, 9 grams of carbs, and 1 gram of fat had roughly 60 calories.

Here's the problem: Not all of us process all foods the same way.

"It's definitely not just 'calories in and calories out' because two people could be [burning] more and consuming less and one person gains and one doesn't," Cara Anselmo, a nutritionist at New York's Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, told Business Insider. "There are metabolic differences person to person."

These variations mean that each of us needs a different amount of energy from our food, and it can vary substantially by the day. One issue that the Atwater system will never account for, Anselmo says, is the delicate balance of hormones that guide everything from appetite to digestion. These hormones can be influenced a great deal by our previous history of weight loss or weight gain.

"We find that with people who lose a significant amount of weight, hormones play an important role, too. So someone who's always been at 150 pounds can actually get away with eating more calories than someone who was at 250 pounds and lost 100 pounds. Your body is producing fewer of the hormones that make you feel full and more of the hormones that make you hungry," Anselmo said.

This means that Peters, who lost a substantial amount of weight before writing her best-selling diet book, might have had to limit her diet more than someone who had always weighed what she did.

Other factors that scientists are just beginning to understand also influence the number of calories we get from food. In a large review of studies published in the Journal of Nutrition, Purdue University scientists found that whole tree nuts and peanuts have roughly 15% fewer calories than the figure calculated using the Atwater method. Although nuts are high in fat, the researchers found, a significant portion of those oils end up being secreted when we eat them. Another study published in the British Journal of Nutrition in 2012 came to a similar conclusion about pistachios, finding that they had about 5% fewer calories than originally assumed.

When calories aren't king

Let's say that at lunchtime you're given two options with the same number of calories. You can either have a ham sandwich, potato chips, and a can of soda or a salad and a whole-grain roll. Which would you choose?

You might be tempted to pick the sandwich and soda if they stack up the same in terms of calories, right?

According to Peters and many modern diets that she influenced, the answer is yes. But it's not that simple. While counting calories can be a useful part of a bigger toolkit for weight loss, it is not a perfect solution for healthy eating, especially when used in isolation.

Nichola Whitehead, a registered dietitian with a private practice in the UK, summarized the problem this way: "While calories are important when it comes to losing, maintaining, or gaining weight, they are not the sole thing we should be focusing on when it comes to improving our health."

Take the following two daily meal plans, for example, both of which are about 2,000 calories:

While they tally up to the same number of calories, the two plans are far from equal.

"Both of these would give you the same number of calories, but only one of them will leave you feeling satiated and satisfied and give you the energy you need," Whitehead said.

That's because the meal on the right doesn't provide what Whitehead refers to as "balance" — essentially the right mix of proteins, complex carbohydrates, fruits, and vegetables that your body needs to be properly fueled in the long term. Instead, that meal plan is based around refined carbohydrates, which the body breaks down quickly. Those carbs will give you a short burst of energy and make you feel full for a few hours, but probably leave you hungry before your next meal.

"Empty calories only give a temporary fix," Whitehead said.

To keep energy levels up and keep you full and healthy for the long term, your diet needs to feed more than your stomach. It has to satiate your muscles, which crave protein, your digestive system, which runs at its best with fiber, and your tissues and bones, which work optimally when they're getting vitamins from food.

How we got to now, from grapefruit diets to Weight Watchers

It wasn't until 1990 that calories made an appearance on the food we buy, and they weren't required by law until four years later.

Before that, there was simply no way to know for sure what was in the food you bought. Several years after Peters gave her calorie talk, Spam debuted as one of the first processed convenience foods. When World War II broke out, the easy-to-eat, no-spoil food was a hit among soldiers.

"In the universe of processed food," Anastacia Marx de Salcedo writes in "Combat-Ready Kitchen," "World War II was the Big Bang." The 1960s saw the invention of two more processed-food milestones: The first chicken nugget and high-fructose corn syrup.

Perhaps in response to these unhealthy eating trends, severe diet fads emerged in each decade from Peters' day to the present. In the 1930s, about a decade after Polish biochemist Casimir Funk first recommended people get enough of micronutrients called "vitamines" (later found in abundance in citrus fruits and veggies), the first grapefruit diet emerged. That was followed by a banana-and-skim-milk diet promoted by United Fruit, the planet's leading banana importer. Several decades later, Weight Watchers surged in popularity, and in the 1970s, women were encouraged to take sleeping pills whenever they felt hungry. Just last summer, singer Katy Perry claimed the "M Diet," otherwise known as eating only raw mushrooms for one meal a day for two weeks, helped her lose fat in select areas of her body. 

Throughout history, most of these diets were heavily marketed to women, and that's still true today. Nevertheless, in Peters' day, she claimed to see weight loss as a tool that she and other women could use to liberate themselves, or, in her words, to become more "efficient."

Today, neither the mantra "calorie is king" nor the allure of fad diets appears to have won out in the global battle for our waistlines. Instead, there may be a move toward eating a more well-rounded diet based — and dietitians and public-health experts say they're encouraged by that trend.

Several recent studies suggest that whether you're looking for weight loss or to improve your health, the best eating plans are based around vegetables, whole grains, and lean proteins. These diets generally also include a variety of healthy fats, like those from nuts, fish, avocados, and olive oil. In its most report on the best eating plans, US News and World Report described vegetable-based ("plant-based") diets as "good for the environment, your heart, your weight, and your overall health."

This means that while we can certainly use calories as a tool to guide our eating choices, we shouldn't live like Lulu Peters, focusing solely on one number.

"Calories should be a tool for information, rather than a way to live your life," Whitehead said.

SEE ALSO: How to lose weight if you're addicted to food, according to a cognitive scientist who struggled for years

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• The musical artist Grimes is dating Tesla CEO Elon Musk, Page Six reported.
• The couple made their debut at the Met Gala on Monday night.
• Grimes and Musk designed her outfit together, according to Us Weekly — and people think her choker necklace looks like the Tesla logo. 

Tesla CEO Elon Musk and the musical artist Grimes made their rumored relationship at least red-carpet official on Monday night when they stepped out at the Met Gala together.

Grimes appeared to be wearing a choker inspired by the Tesla logo.

Here's the Tesla logo, for comparison:

Us Weekly reports that the couple designed Grimes' dress together over a dinner date and commissioned a team to create the futuristic ensemble. Musk wore a white tuxedo jacket and a collarless shirt.

Earlier Monday, Page Six described an unnamed source as saying Musk and Grimes have been "quietly dating." The gossip site said the pair met online about a month ago, after Musk saw on a joke about artificial intelligence that Grimes had made on Twitter and reached out.

The two have not publicly confirmed their relationship.

People on Twitter saw the "Tesla choker" and expressed their shock:

SEE ALSO: Meet Grimes, the Canadian pop star who streams video games and is dating Elon Musk

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Action films have a long tradition of its own. The genre often feels as though it was made for cinema, a medium designed to capture movement and momentum. And for some time, nothing really changed with how action movies were shot, until recently. Using director Doug Liman and Paul Greengrass' Bourne Trilogy, we look at how action films have changed significantly over the years, for the worse. Following is a transcript of the video.

You've probably seen this countless times. The shaky camera, fast cuts and just plain overall mayhem. It's sometimes so bad that you may ask yourself, "What am I watching?" So how did we exactly get to this? Let’s rewind a bit.

The one common denominator among older action films is clarity. And it makes sense, earlier action films, especially martial art pictures, focused on showing the physical feats of its stars. To achieve this, scenes were often shot in a wide angle, with most of the body visible in the frame. The camera also rarely moves and when it does, it follows the actions of its characters, accentuating speed and power.

But modern action movies aren’t shot this way. They lack that fundamental clarity that we’ve become so used to. They are choppy, chaotic and a lot of times just confusing. When you compare these movies side by side, the difference is unmistakable. But perhaps the real shock comes when you realize this is all intentional.

So how did we get to this point? It’s impossible to pinpoint a specific source, but one of the biggest influences was the original Bourne trilogy. These films were revolutionary in the action genre, not to mention both a commercial and critical success. And from jittery handheld cameras to rapidly firing cuts, you can trace all the problems in modern action films to this series.

An easy way to see how the Bourne trilogy changed action films forever is by looking at the average shot length, or ASL for short. It’s a cinematic statistic that measures the average length of a scene before a cut. In the first film, Bourne Identity, the ASL was at around 4 seconds which then became 2.4 seconds in its sequel, Bourne Supremacy. And in the final film, Bourne ultimatum, a total of about 3200 shots were squashed into a 105 minute running time, making the average shot about 2 seconds. That’s a cut happening almost every 2 seconds of the film.

Another change you can notice is in the camera work. Doug Liman, in Bourne Identity, shot his sequence more like the classic action cinema we’re used to. Wider angles and fewer cuts to capture the action as clearly as possible. But under Paul Greengrass’ direction, the camera shots are shakier and closer to the action. He prefers his audience to experience the film rather than to simply observe it. And that’s what Bourne really is, it's an experience, and a successful one at that. The series is actually edited in a similar way our consciousness and sensory perception works. How we gather bits of information to create a larger whole.It’s especially evident in chase scenes like this, where we see everything from Bourne’s perspective and are given the chance to interpret different clues to track down a target.

There is an intensity to these films that we can’t quite place. And the secret lies in how Greengrass chooses to shoot an action sequence. Although every cut and angle seems choppy, chaotic and mostly random, once you take a closer look at it, you realize everything serves a purpose.

But not everyone dedicates the same amount of thought like Greengrass. And, sadly, it’s made for some pretty terrible action films in recent years. There’s a reason Hollywood was so quick to adopt Greengrass’s style: because fast-paced editing makes it easy to use visual trickery to turn anyone into an action star. All it requires is to put three different shots together: action, impact and reaction. This is why we often see a cut, right before the impact then cut to the moment after the impact takes place. They cut to hide the action, especially when the stars don’t possess the skills to pull off a difficult choreography. This not only makes the action look fake but kills the overall momentum of the scene as well.

But in Bourne, cut is a deliberate act to quicken the pace of the film, it’s never used to hide anything. Every hit, every impact is fully delivered in front of the camera. The camera doesn’t cut until the blow has been fully registered making the fight more authentic and engaging. The combination of ‘action’, ‘impact’ and ‘reaction’ still exists in this method of editing, it’s just not as obvious when replicated incorrectly.

And although Greengrass does sacrifice some level of clarity for the sake of adding intensity, it doesn’t mean he’s abandoned it completely. In fact, when you watch any of the action sequences from the Bourne series, you’d be surprised to notice that it isn’t as confusing as it first appears There are clever tricks at play here if you know where to look.

First, check out the frequent use of wide angle shot like these. They let the audience understand the space and the placement of each character. Sometimes in an obvious angle as this, from above as the fight moves on to a new location. Or how most of the blows, the impact and brief inserts whenever a new weapon is acquired, are all centered right on the frame, guiding our focus, gathering these hints of information more quickly.

Now, let’s look at a bad example. The biggest problem in films that try to imitate the Bourne style is that they take it too far — exaggerating everything. For instance, in this scene, you can see the fast cuts — ala Bourne style — but it’s paired with the same shot, repeated numerous times in rapid succession. We’ve seen repetitions in past action films hundreds of times, but not quite to this extreme. Let’s admit it: There’s no reason to watch Liam Neeson jumping over the same fence ten times. Bourne, on the other hand, has none of that. Even in car chase sequences where repetitions are bound to happen, one impact is enough if shot correctly. 

Or even in music. Most recent films have a track that plays throughout entire action sequences, setting the pace and sometimes fading it out to accentuate key moments like this. But it’s the entirely opposite in Bourne. There is no music. What builds momentum and tension is the actual sound of the action itself. Every sound from the brutal impact to the various tools of combat, creates a rhythm, a beat without a single note. Turn down this sound, add a generic music behind it and you instantly see how ordinary the scene turns out.

All these small details and tricks make the action of Bourne more coherent and more intense than anything we’ve seen before, or since. It’s a beautiful combination of what was successful in traditional action films with a new innovative technique. Bourne can’t be blamed for how bad action films are these days, but the blame is on filmmakers who are trying to replicate its techniques and failing miserably. Audiences are smarter than what some directors believe. We can easily notice when we are being manipulated to see and feel in a way that’s not natural. And perhaps that’s what differentiates Bourne from so many of its predecessors. It knows that editing can be used to make anyone an action star but not necessarily a good action movie. And it’s aware what this genre of cinema is really about in the end: Action.

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• Chain restaurants must now list calories on all menus, due to a federal rule that went into effect on Monday. 
• The new rule could hurt sales of high-calorie foods at restaurants like The Cheesecake Factory, Buffalo Wild Wings, and IHOP, which serve some of the unhealthiest meals in America, according to a report by the Center for Science in the Public Interest.
• Among the nation's most unhealthy meals is a 16-ounce prime rib from Texas Roadhouse served with a loaded sweet potato and Caesar salad for a total of 2,820 calories.

Chain restaurants nationwide are required to list calories on all menus and menu boards starting this week. 

The new rule, which is part of the 2010 Affordable Care Act, could hurt sales of high-calorie foods.

That's bad news for restaurants like The Cheesecake Factory, Buffalo Wild Wings, and IHOP, which serve some of the unhealthiest meals in America, according to a report by the Center for Science in the Public Interest.

For the center's annual "Xtreme Eating" list, its nutrition experts reviewed menus at 200 restaurant chains in the US to find the meals heaviest in calories, saturated fat, sodium, and sugar.

Here's the list, ranked lowest to highest by calories.

SEE ALSO: It costs nearly nothing to open a Chick-fil-A — but there's a catch

The Cheesecake Factory: Flying Gorilla drink (950 calories)

This chocolate and banana milkshake with dark chocolate and banana liqueurs packs 950 calories, 26 grams of saturated fat, and 60 grams of added sugar.  

Uno Pizzeria & Grill: Chocolate cake (1,740 calories)

Uno's chocolate cake is a huge serving, which is why it's called the "ridiculously awesome, insanely large chocolate cake" on the menu. 

It has 32 grams of saturated fat, 770 milligrams of sodium, and 168 grams of added sugar — about three times the daily recommended sugar limit. 

Buffalo Wild Wings: Cheese curd bacon burger with fries (1,950 calories)

Consuming this sandwich with a side of fries is the equivalent of eating five Burger King bacon double cheeseburgers, according to the report. It has 53 grams of saturated fat and 4,700 milligrams of sodium.

Once a community staple in suburbs across America, the golf course is now a slowly dying breed.

According to data from Foursquare, the location intelligence company, foot traffic to golf courses has gone down in the last year. While overall visits to golf courses were up 8% year-over-year in the first quarter of 2017, the number of unique visits also decreased by 11% in the same time period. 

This could mean that while regular golfers are continuing to enjoy the sport, the number of occasional or new players — who are trying it out for the first time — is going down. The Foursquare data was drawn from both implicit and explicit visits to golf courses, compared to the same period in 2016. 

Over 800 golf courses have shuttered across the US in the past decade, and data from the Sports & Fitness Industry Association has shown that millennials between the age of 18 to 30 have a lack of interest in playing the game. From Las Vegas, Nevada, to Mahwah, New Jersey, many courses are being replaced with housing developments.

We recently explored two closed golf courses in northern New Jersey, both of which are being turned into housing developments, to see firsthand what courses across the country look like as they become abandoned.        

SEE ALSO: 10 eerie photos of drive-in theaters that have been abandoned across the US

The Apple Ridge Country Club, located in Mahwah, New Jersey, opened in 1966.

Clinton Carlough bought the property, which was originally an apple orchard, and built the country club. It was family-owned and operated by the Carloughs until it was sold in 2014.

Source: NorthJersey.com 

Complete with an event space, 18-hole golf course, swimming pool, and tennis courts, Apple Ridge was a place the whole community could enjoy.

• Donald Trump Jr.'s estranged wife Vanessa was the "first love" of a gang member in high school, according to an exclusive interview with Page Six.
• Valentin Rivera says the pair dated for five years, and that they broke up when she cheated on him with actor Leonardo DiCaprio.

Vanessa Trump, estranged wife of Donald Trump, Jr., dated a member of a violent street gang in high school, Page Six reported on Tuesday.

Trump, a former model who was linked to Leonardo DiCaprio in 1997, dated Valentin Rivera, a member of the Latin Kings gang, after meeting in the fifth grade then reuniting when they were both 15, he told The New York Post's gossip site. Her reps didn't respond to Page Six's request for comment.

While she was still Vanessa Haydon, Trump was reportedly a regular at Rikers Island after Rivera was convicted for assault before her mother forbid her from visiting, he said.

Raised on New York's Upper East Side, Trump, whom Rivera called his "first love", apparently fit in with Rivera's fellow gang members, as Rivera said, "she was fascinated. We were kids. She liked the street life at the time."

Rivera said Trump, who attended the now $46,750 per year Dwight School, would drive him to his gang meetings on the Lower East Side and to drop off weed in her stepfather's convertible. Her stepfather, Charles Haydon, was a high-powered lawyer.

The two dated for five years, Rivera said — until Trump, at that point a model, cheated on him with DiCaprio. Rivera said he found out when Page Six reported the two were spotted together in 1998.

Though he doesn't support President Donald Trump, Rivera told Page Six he is "happy for her that she has five beautiful children and she's doing well."

Trump filed for divorce from Donald Jr. in March, and his alleged affair with singer Aubrey O'Day became public shortly thereafter.

Read the full Page Six report here »

SEE ALSO: Donald Trump Jr.'s wife Vanessa filed for divorce soon after getting a windfall inheritance — and it could change the terms of their split

SEE ALSO: Donald Trump Jr. was reportedly cheating on his pregnant wife with an 'Apprentice' contestant until his father told him to 'cut it out'

Join the conversation about this story »

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• Life skills aren't as obvious as they may seem.
• To clarify things, we put together a list of some important competencies to have under your belt by the time you turn 30.
• Those include public speaking, giving a good handshake, and cooking basic meals.

There's no handbook for adult life.

Somehow you're just supposed to know that you should have more money coming in than going out and you shouldn't wear a fuzzy orange sweater to a job interview.

We've put together our own handbook of sorts for anyone transitioning from their 20s to their 30s, which lists many of the skills you'll need to survive as an adult in the modern world.

It's based on the Quora thread, "What are some of the most useful skills to know?" as well as scientific research and expert opinion.

We can't promise we've outlined every skill, but if you've mastered these, you're off to a good start:

SEE ALSO: 10 life skills every young professional should have

1. Accepting feedback gracefully

"For most of us it is hard to hear how we made a mistake or could have done something better," writes Quora user Pedram Keyani. "An amazing skill (which you can learn through practice) is to set aside your emotional response in the moment and focus on the information presented to you. Some of it will be valid and some of it invalid but let your brain decide that, not your ego."

Depending on what kind of feedback you're receiving, there are different strategies for responding with a cool head. For example, if your boss points out what she thinks is an error and you're not sure she's correct, you can say, "I hadn’t thought of that, and I’m going to look into it right away."

2. Apologizing sincerely

To err is human — but to craft a believable apology isn't a universal skill.

The apology "needs to be sincere, not qualified, not quantified, and also needs [to] outline how X will not happen again," Keyani says.

According to one CEO, there's a six-step strategy for successfully saying you're sorry:

1. Act quickly.

2. Apologize in person. 

3. Explain what happened. 

4. Show how you are going to avoid the problem in the future. 

5. Apologize.

6. Make restitution.

Keyani gives an example of what you might say if you were tardy for an appointment:

"I'm sorry I was late for the meeting. It must have been frustrating because you spent a lot of time preparing and got up early. I did a poor job accounting for traffic and didn't give myself enough buffer. That is my bad and I'm going to give myself an extra 10 minutes instead of five moving forward."

3. Managing your time wisely

There will probably never be a time in your life when you aren't juggling multiple personal and professional priorities. Time-management skills are a must, unless you want to feel constantly frazzled.

Perhaps the most important time-management lesson is that you should stick with one task at a time. Research suggests that multitasking is generally counterproductive, because the brain expends energy as it readjusts its focus from one activity to another.

You'd be wise, too, to limit the hours you spend working. Decades ago, Henry Ford discovered that productivity started to decline after employees logged more than 40 hours per week. Other research suggests that, after three weeks, 60-hour workweeks become less productive.

• During an appearance on "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert," Reddit cofounder Alexis Ohanian on Monday described the moment he fell for his wife, Serena Williams.
  
• The magic moment happened while the pair was watching a leopard at the Paris zoo ravage the dead bunny it had been given for its dinner.

Reddit cofounder Alexis Ohanian just gave us yet another reason to love his romance with tennis champion Serena Williams.

In an appearance on "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert" Monday, Ohanian was coaxed by the talk show host into telling the story of how he met his wife, with whom he now has an 8-month-old daughter.

"How does a self-described, unequivocal nerd end up with one of the greatest athletes in recorded history?" Colbert jokingly asked Ohanian. "How does that come about? That's not a natural match."

"I would beg to differ on one hand because she's actually a total nerd," Ohanian said.

He then revealed that the two met completely by chance. Ohanian was at a conference in Rome during the same time that Williams was playing a tournament there. While Ohanian was drinking coffee at the hotel he was staying at, an Australian man — who turned out to be Williams' assistant — tried to get him to leave by telling him there was a rat by his table.

"I told him thank you, but I'm from Brooklyn; I see rats all the time. It's really not a big deal," Ohanian said.

His indifference got the attention of Williams, who turned around and asked him if he really wasn't freaked out by rats. They started talking, and she asked what he did for a living. When he told her he helped create Reddit, she responded that she had never heard of the site.

Before parting, they traded contact information, and Williams invited Ohanian to see her play at the French Open in Paris shortly after. Although she offered the invitation only half-heartedly, he accepted it without reservation, flying to Paris just to watch her. He told her he wanted to spend some time together, but he played coy, telling her he was really busy.

The pair eventually spent a day together and visited the Paris zoo. While there they happened upon a leopard's enclosure at its feeding time. The two watched as the ravenous big cat feasted on a dead bunny that had been flung at it for its meal.

"It was a show," Ohanian said. "I mean this leopard just went in, and blood is going everywhere."

Williams was visibly disturbed by the scene, so Ohanian held and comforted her. He sensed the connection right then and there.

"In that moment, thanks to that poor, poor rabbit, I found love," Ohanian said. "Despite everything else."

Watch the full clip below.

SEE ALSO: How Reddit cofounder Alexis Ohanian and tennis superstar Serena Williams met and fell in love

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• Everyone thinks they are familiar with air safety instructions.
• But in a crisis, you might not find it so easy to recall what you should do.
• According to a pilot, you should firstly remove all scarves, ties, glasses, and sharp objects from your person.
• Also, you should not inflate your life vest until you're out the doorway because it could trap you inside the plane.
• Here is his step by step advice for how to survive if a plane starts to go down.

When was the last time you paid attention to the safety instructions on an airplane? Be honest.

Flying isn't as glamorous as it used to be, and it can be tempting to read your book or listen to music instead of paying attention to where the exits are — especially when the odds of being killed in a plane crash are about 1 in 11 million.

Still, it's always good to be prepared, and there are a few actions you can take in a crisis that are particularly crucial for survival, according to a pilot.

Dave Inch is captain of a Boeing 787 — a plane used by many international airlines like United Airlines and British Airways. He revealed in a post on Quora how you can increase your chances if your plane starts to go down.

First, you should make sure you are as prepared as possible for the crash and the subsequent escape route by removing everything sharp from your pockets, loosening your belt, and removing any ties or scarfs. You should also take off high heels and glasses if you're wearing them.

Next, he said, know where your closest exit is and a backup exit, because some cannot be used if the plane lands on water. Then count the number of rows to the exits and try to identify any protrusions and obstacles in the way, just in case the cabin fills with smoke.

Don't get up from your seat unless you're instructed to do so, and don't open any doors or windows unless you're told to by a flight attendant. If there is smoke, a damp piece of cloth can assist in breathing, as can staying as low to the ground as possible.

"Follow the instructions of the flight attendants in their pre-landing briefing," he wrote.

"If everyone is on the same page and understands what is expected of them, people will be working together to get everyone out. Don't waste your time taking video with your camera.... LISTEN and PAY ATTENTION. If you survive with a video, it's cool. If you die because you were more interested in taking a video than paying attention, it's not so cool."

Other instructions were not to inflate your life vest until you're out the doorway. This is important because if it inflates inside and the aircraft fills with water, you will get trapped and not be able to swim underwater to an exit. If this does happen, take the lifevest off and hold onto someone else once you're outside, as one vest can buoy two people.

After exiting the aircraft, make sure you move well away from smoke and fire, and do not lie down in tall grass in case it catches alight. That being said, don't completely leave the area so you can be accounted for.

"All that being said, most catastrophic crashes are not anticipated so it is rare to get much advance notice," Inch wrote.

"In those cases, if you survive, follow the flight attendants' directions and don't take anything with you."

SEE ALSO: You should think twice before taking common medicines like the Pill, sleeping tablets, and antihistamines on a plane — here's why

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• The royal family tree of Britain's monarchy is enormous and complicated.
• The more famous royals, like Queen Elizabeth II, Prince William, and Prince Harry— who will marry Meghan Markle this month — are easily recognizable to most people.
• But there's a whole host of distant cousins that are part of the British royal family tree chart.
• Here's a look at some of the other families that are descended from King George V — the UK's first Windsor king.

The royal family tree of Britain's monarchy is quite a thing to behold.

King George V, the first monarch from Britain's House of Windsor, and his wife Mary of Teck had six children. Four of those offspring proceeded to have kids of their own.

As a result, well-known royals like 4-year-old Prince George of Cambridge and his younger siblings Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis have tons and tons of less-famous cousins.

The House of Windsor is a relatively young dynasty — it will turn 101 years old on July 17. King George V, a grandson of Queen Victoria, inherited the throne in 1910. Like his father King Edward VII, he was a member of the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. The German dynasty was injected into the British monarchy by Albert, Prince Consort, the husband of Queen Victoria.

But by 1917, English attitudes towards Germany had soured considerably, thanks to the First World War.

In response to rising anti-German sentiments, George V decided to make a considerable PR move. He swapped out Saxe-Coburg and Gotha for the far more English-sounding name of Windsor. The royal family's website said the new name was inspired by Windsor Castle — where George V's granddaughter Queen Elizabeth II still resides on weekends.

Here's an in-depth look at the British royal family tree, beginning with the family that started it all:

SEE ALSO: The third royal baby has a name — here's where Prince George, Princess Charlotte, and Prince Louis got their names

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King George V was the first monarch of the House of Windsor

King George V and his wife Mary of Teck had six children together between 1894 and 1905. One of their children didn't survive into adulthood. Prince John, the baby of the family, had severe epilepsy and a learning disability. He died in 1919 at the age of 13.

Their eldest son, King Edward VIII, inherited the throne upon his father's death in 1936. Had he remained king, Edward VIII's hypothetical descendants would have inherited the British Crown.

But Edward VIII abdicated in 1937 in order to marry American divorcee Wallis Simpson. The controversial couple — who were rumored to harbor Nazi sympathies— never had children.

King George VI's descendants dominate the current line of succession

After his older brother's abdication, King George VI took to the throne for a reign of nearly 15 years. He and his wife Queen Elizabeth had two daughters, Queen Elizabeth II and Princess Margaret.

George VI's descendants are set to continue to inherit the throne in the foreseeable future. His eldest daughter Queen Elizabeth II is the longest reigning British monarch in history. Her son Charles, Prince of Wales, is reportedly set to succeed her when she turns 95 in 2021.

The Lascelles family is descended from King George V's only daughter

Mary, Princess Royal, was George V's only daughter.

She had two sons with her husband, Henry Lascelles, 6th Earl of Harewood. The princess's sons went on to produce six grandchildren, 17 great grandchildren, and nine great great grandchildren. The Earldom of Harewood is still held within the Lascelles family.

The eldest two children of David Lascelles, the current 8th Earl of Harewood, were born before Lascelles married his first wife. They were therefore unable to inherit his title.

Leo Cyrus Anthony Lascelles, the only son of Alexander Lascelles, Viscount Lascelles, is also not eligible to inherit his family's royal title, as his parents were not married at the time of his birth.

• You're supposed to drink six to eight glasses of water every day.
• If you've lost count, there is an easy skin test you can do to determine if you're hydrated.
• Pinch the skin on the back of your hand for a few seconds.
• If the skin immediately returns to normal, you're fine. If it doesn't, you need to drink some water.

It's easy to forget to drink enough water, but now that summer is approaching, it's especially important that we keep our bodies hydrated. If you don't drink enough, you can get headaches, feel nauseated, and find it hard to concentrate.

The NHS recommends six to eight glasses of water daily, but you may lose track with everything else that goes on in your life. Thanks to Medicine Plus, there is a simple skin test you can do to determine whether you're hydrated enough.

It relies on "skin turgor," which is your skin's elasticity, or how easily it changes shape and returns to normal when pulled or pressed. Skin with normal turgor should be able to snap back very quickly.

You can test your skin turgor if you pinch the skin on the back of your hand for a few seconds. If it immediately returns to normal, you are hydrated enough; if it doesn't, you need to drink more water.

Ali Webster, a dietitian from the International Food Information Council Foundation, told Business Insider that you can get your six to eight glasses of water a day from tea and coffee if that's what you drink — it won't dehydrate you.

Caffeine does have a diuretic effect, but it's minimal in comparison to the benefits of hydration you're getting by drinking the water in tea and coffee.

Juices, smoothies, and soda all contribute to your daily hydration, too, but be wary as they contain a lot of sugar.

SEE ALSO: I tried 'Dry January' for the second time, and it was terrible again — but not because I craved alcohol

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• Disney has been the most profitable movie studio in Hollywood for several years — and remarkably, it hasn't had to pay hefty sums to its actors.
• The studio has proved that today's moviegoer is more interested in the characters in the movies than the actors playing them.
• But Ben Fritz, the author of "The Big Picture: The Fight for the Future of Movies," explains that actors in a successful Disney movie can still make serious bank — they just might have to wait a few movies. 

On Tuesday, Variety listed the salaries of the biggest movie stars working today.

Daniel Craig led the pack with a $25 million payday for the next "James Bond" movie, followed by Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson's $22 million for the upcoming "Red Notice," and then Vin Diesel's $20 million for last year's "The Fate of the Furious."

Of the projects listed for the 20 actors on the Variety list, not one was made by the most profitable movie studio in Hollywood: Disney.

And there's a reason for that.

In the past decade, as Disney has led the charge in superhero franchises — like the Marvel Cinematic Universe from its Marvel Studios arm — and given the "Star Wars" saga a rebirth after buying Lucasfilm, it has shown that its intellectual property is king, not the actors. And because of that, the studio realizes the actors don't have to be paid a huge amount of money.

It's a big shift in how Hollywood has worked for decades.

The 1990s were the high-water mark for the movie star. The biggest actors on the planet — Will Smith, Julia Roberts, Jim Carrey, Tom Hanks, and Tom Cruise — were earning $20 million just to show up on set, then getting hefty back-end deals that would give them a taste of the box office earned by their projects, sometimes even before the studio.

But for the most part, in today's industry, it's more about Batman being on the screen and less about who's behind the mask.

Disney has used that for years to rake in billions while not giving a major slice to the stars on the movie posters. That's not to say Disney doesn't open the vault for some actors — they just have to work a little harder now.

The $2.5 million man

Take, for example, the actor responsible for launching the MCU: Robert Downey Jr., who was cast as Iron Man.

When Marvel Studios was getting into the movie business, it was a company known more for being bankrupt than for making hits. "Iron Man" was made for $140 million, and Marvel was not going to let any star walk away rich if it was a hit.

According to the book "The Big Picture: The Fight for the Future of Movies," by the Wall Street Journal reporter Ben Fritz, Downey agreed to a $2.5 million salary, an incredibly small figure for an Oscar-nominated actor cast as the lead of a studio movie. (Paramount released "Iron Man" and "Iron Man 2.") In fact, the biggest paycheck went to Terrence Howard as Rhodey, aka War Machine, who made $3.5 million thanks to his recent Oscar nomination for "Hustle & Flow" — though all the actors received bonuses when "Iron Man" hit box-office milestones.

But once "Iron Man" became a hit and the MCU gained traction, Downey got a bigger cut. From 2013 to 2015, Downey topped Forbes' list of the highest-paid actors of the year. By 2015, he earned $80 million thanks in part to his starring role in "Avengers: Age of Ultron." (Sony paid him $10 million for being in a handful of scenes in "Spider-Man: Homecoming" last year, according to Variety.)

But Downey is the exception.

From Emma Watson being paid $3 million up front for the live-action version of "Beauty and the Beast" — though she had a clause that she would earn $15 million if it was successful at the box office — to Chris Evans getting $1 million for "Captain America: The First Avenger" and Chris Hemsworth earning just $150,000 for 2011's "Thor" (the latter two reported in Fritz's book), Disney has made clear that its characters are the stars.

"I think many stars and their agents are realistic and know that the days of getting paid $10 million or $20 million for whatever movie they want to do are largely gone," Fritz told Business Insider. "If they want to remain relevant for global audiences, it's very helpful to be attached to these franchises. Plus, it raises their profile and helps them to get paid more for other movies, including possible sequels and spin-offs to that franchise down the road."

Getting involved in a Disney project can catapult an actor to bigger paydays elsewhere — look at Johnson after starring in Disney's "Moana," or Chris Pratt, who was in "Guardians of the Galaxy" and is now earning $10 million for "Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom," according to Variety.

Along with being the box-office champ, Disney is the envy of Hollywood for another reason: Its intellectual property is so bulletproof that once stars find success starring in its films, if they can't get more out of the house Mickey Mouse built, they'll find a big check somewhere else.

SEE ALSO: Daniel Craig is getting paid $25 million for his next "Bond"movie, after once saying he's rather slit his writst than return

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• London has climbed from third to first in QS' index of the best student cities since last year.
• The capital made it into the top 20 highest-ranked cities among students for student experience.
• It also ranked second for its appeal to employers looking to hire graduates.

Dispelling fears that Brexit would have somewhat dampened its appeal, London has been ranked by global higher education analysts QS (Quacquarelli Symonds) as the world's best city for university students.

Released today, the fifth edition of the QS Best Student Cities Ranking sees London rise from third to first, with Tokyo and Melbourne not far behind, as first reported by Business Insider Australia.

To produce the QS Best Student Cities ranking index, QS analysts use indicators divided into six categories: university rankings, student mix, desirability, employer activity, affordability, and student view.

Each indicator compiles information about aspects of the city that concern prospective students, including everything from safety and pollution to social inclusion and the popularity of local universities among recruiters.

Along with the best city ranking, London came in second for employer activity rank, an indicator which measures which cities are most highly sought-after among employers looking to recruit graduates.

Despite much steeper costs for rent and living in London compared with the rest of the UK, London boasts 17 internationally-ranked universities and is home to UCL (University College London), a university among the top 10 highest-ranked institutions in the world.

It also made it into the top 20 cities with the highest rated student experience, which measures students’ ratings of their city in fields such as friendliness, ease of getting around, affordability and nightlife.

The full rankings can be found at www.TopUniversities.com.

SEE ALSO: Europe's Most Innovative Universities 2018

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• The James Beard Awards, one the biggest award ceremonies for the U.S. restaurant industry, took place on Monday in Chicago.
• Before the award ceremony, top chefs, food critics and other industry insiders gather at panel talks and Chef's Night Out, a celebration and massive invite-only party.
• The mouth-watering menus from brunch to Chef's Night Out included seasonal ingredients and innovative combinations, as expected. 

Getting a James Beard Award is a major honor for anyone in the restaurant industry — and those who simply enjoy dining out take notice.  

This Monday, the James Beard Awards ceremony took place in Chicago. The Foundation recognized Gabrielle Hamilton, who owns the Manhattan restaurant Prune, with the national award for Outstanding Chef, and Best New Restaurant was awarded to Edouardo Jordan, who runs Seattle's JuneBaby.

Events leading up to the main award ceremony include industry panel talks, the Leadership Awards, and Chef's Night Out — a massive party hosted by the James Beard Foundation that lets top chefs and industry insiders celebrate the night before the major award show.

Hosted at Chicago's historic Theater on the Lake, Chef's Night Out had plenty of delicious dishes — from strawberry and lime-cured salmon to fried mac and cheese.

See below for the full day's menu.     

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On Sunday morning, an industry panel was held at Kendall College, Chicago's culinary school. After the panel, a massive brunch was served which included James Beard award-winning pastry chef Mindy Segal's soft and chewy bagels — served with a choice of lox, ramp, or plain cream cheese.

This year's Brunch Panel included chef Amanda Cohen of Dirt Candy, Asha Gomex author of "My Two Souths," Beverly Kim of Parachute, Sarah Rinkavage of Marisol, and Mindy Segal of Mindy's Hot Chocolate.

Chef Michael Luth of Marshall's Landing served pork belly confit on top of a pineapple slice and an ancho chile pancake, with pickled watermelon radish and bourbon maple syrup drizzled on top.

Kendall College's Nikil Bendre served ceviche.

• Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson is charging Universal Pictures $1 million to promote his upcoming film "Red Notice" on his own social media pages, according to Variety. 
• The million-dollar "social-media fee" is part of his $22 million salary for the film, which is second only to Daniel Craig's $25 million salary for the upcoming "James Bond" film, according to Variety's round-up of high-profile film salaries.
• Johnson currently stands at 105.6 million followers on Instagram, 57.7 million on Facebook, and 12.9 million on Twitter.

Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson's payday for his upcoming 2020 film, "Red Notice," is a nearly unheard of salary of $22 million plus box office profits, as The Wall Street Journal first reported. 

But $1 million of that total salary consists of a "social-media fee." According to Variety, this means that Johnson is charging the film's studio, Universal Pictures, in order to promote "Red Notice" on his own social media pages, including Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. 

The action-movie star's payday for "Red Notice" is second only to Daniel Craig's salary for the upcoming James Bond film ($25 million), among the recent high-profile movie salaries reported in a round-up by Variety. 

Johnson came in second to Mark Wahlberg on Forbes' 2017 list of the highest-paid actors in the world, earning $65 million between June 2016 and June 2017. 

Johnson currently boasts 105.6 million followers on Instagram, 57.7 million followers on his Facebook page, and 12.9 million followers on Twitter. 

Before the release of "Red Notice" in 2020, Johnson is set to star in the action movie "Skyscraper" this summer and a sequel to his successful 2018 film "Jumanji" in 2019. 

SEE ALSO: The amount of money The Rock gets paid for a single movie is unheard of in today's movie business

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• A personal trainer from Australia has smashed the world record for most burpees completed by a woman in one hour.
• Liz Llorente, 37, completed an impressive 1,490 burpees in 60 minutes — beating the previous record by 169 burpees.
• But internet critics aren't convinced by her victory.
• This is because they're claiming the personal trainer wasn't actually doing burpees at all.

Burpees — exercises which combine one squat thrust, one push-up, and one jump — can be done at home, and don't require any equipment. Completed enough times in a row, they can get your heart rate going and make you work up a sweat, making for a great cardio workout.

However, saying they're unpleasant is an understatement, and most people hate doing them — everyone but Australian personal trainer Liz Llorente, that is.

Llorente loves them so much she nailed 1,490 of them in 60 minutes — a world record smashing number that toppled the previous women's record of 1,321.

Watch Llorente beat the record here:

However, the internet appears to have a problem with Llorente's world record. Facebook users who commented on 7 News Adelaide's video argue that Llorente wasn't actually doing burpees at all.

In a post liked 1,600 times, Facebook user Panos Iatropoulos said: "[I'm] still waiting for the first rep." Another user, William Buschmann, wrote: "I'm no expert but aren't you supposed to stand completely upright as part of a burpee?"

The Guinness World Records enforces a starting position of hands and feet in a plank position, according to Fox News.

To complete a burpee, it states the exercise must transition into a jump, with hands and feet both removed from the ground. It does not explicity state how far the hands and feet must be removed from the ground, or if you have to stand completely upright.

However, the standard burpee, as demonstrated here by Instagram fitness star Kayla Itsines, suggests you should.

Llorente, a 37-year-old from Melbourne, trained for three months ahead of the event.

"I definitely know what a burpee is," she said in an interview with the Washington Post.

SEE ALSO: How to do a burpee — the total-body exercise that will keep you fit for life

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• If the 2018 box office performs better than Wall Street predicted, it might be because of MoviePass.
• The monthly movie ticket subscription company claims to account for 6% of the domestic box office.
• The 2018 box office is up 4.6% from this time last year.
• However, the number of tickets sold isn't spiking — it's the same number as this time last year, which ended up being a 25-year low in the US.

If the movie industry has a solid year at the box office, it might be because of MoviePass. 

The monthly movie ticket subscription company boasts that it currently accounts for 6% of the domestic box office, and with the 2018 box office currently up 4.6% from this time last year, one analyst believes it could be partly due to a MoviePass bump.

“We believe that at least some of the better-than-expected 2018 year-to-date box office has been driven by MoviePass,” RBC Capital Markets analyst Leo Kulp wrote in a note to clients on Monday.

At the beginning of the year, Wall Street was concerned how the movie business would shape out in 2018, as fewer sequels were scheduled to be released and there isn't a “Star Wars” release in December (as in previous years).

But with massive successes like “Black Panther” and “Avengers: Infinity War” in the first half of the year, there seems to be more hope about 2018. And it seems the popularity of MoviePass should get some credit. But how long will this good thing go on for?

Stock of MoviePass's owner, Helios and Matheson Analytics, dropped over 30% during trading on Tuesday following the company's update on its cash and deposits, and losses. One thing that stood out was that HMNY is averaging a cash deficit of about $21.7 million a month since September, though the company did note that some tweaks to the MoviePass app and service led to a reduction of "more than 35%" in its cash deficit during the first week of May.

However, AMC Theaters chief executive Adam Aron gave a glimpse of how much MoviePass has to dish out each month to pay for the discounted tickets its subscribers order. Aron told analysts on a conference call Monday night that MoviePass, in April, paid an average of $12.02 per ticket to the movie chain. He also revealed that MoviePass users went to the movies an average of 2.75 times.

"Now, I took the calculator out and I multiplied 2.75 times $12.02 and I got to a number that was considerably larger than $9.95," Aron said on the call, referring to MoviePass' monthly subscription cost.

And despite the numerous releases that are breaking box office records so far this year, the estimated number of tickets sold to date compared to this time last year is dead even at 449.5 million, according to the National Association of Theatre Owners. That's not a good sign, as last year ended with ticket sales at a 25-year low in the US. 

Have a tip about MoviePass or anything else? Email jguerrasio@businessinsider.com.

SEE ALSO: 15 movie sequels that are better than the original

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• Controversy tends to follow products, businesses, and marketing campaigns that reference major tragedies.
• That hasn't stopped some companies from trying to link their wares to everything from the sinking of the Titanic to 9/11.
• These controversial moves tend to stoke outrage from consumers.

Controversy typically ensues when companies use references to tragedies to hawk products or services.

But that hasn't stopped some brands from tying their products to disasters like the sinking of the Titanic, the September 11 terror attacks, and the Holocaust.

New York Times chief fashion critic Vanessa Friedman noted the surge of memorabilia that tends to follow mass casualty events, like the 2015 Charlie Hebdo massacre or the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing.

She wrote that, while there are vendors out there who are simply trying to capitalize on tragedy, "ultimately the power to decide what is right or wrong lies with the buyer. Everybody needs to consider it for themselves."

Here's a look at a number of products that sparked controversy by seemingly referencing well-known tragedies, and what happened when consumers spoke out:

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A mattress store sparked outcry with a 9/11-themed ad

A Texas mattress store temporarily shut down in 2016 after posting a controversial "Twin Tower sale" ad on the anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks, which killed 2,996 people in 2001.

In the ad, a store manager asks, "What better way to remember 9/11 than with a Twin Tower sale?" and two employees proceed to knock down two piles of mattresses.

Fox News reported that the commercial brought about online uproar. The store apologized and reopened a few weeks later, according to Furniture Today.

A bib sold on Amazon caught flak for its message

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Amazon scrubs site of clothing with slogan ‘Slavery gets sh*t done’ https://t.co/HG5weCygpRpic.twitter.com/P0VxOLSTxR

In January, Amazon came under fire after a number of items labeled with a controversial slogan popped up on its site.

The New York Post reported that a third-party seller started hawking bibs, mugs, and shirts bearing the phrase "Slavery gets s*** done."

The products were pulled after an outcry ensued.

"All Marketplace sellers must follow our selling guidelines, and those who don't will be subject to action including potential removal of their account," an Amazon spokesman said in a statement to the New York Daily News.

Urban Outfitters was criticized for selling a sweatshirt that seemed to recall the Kent State shooting

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Urban Outfitters apologizes for shirt appearing to reference Kent State shooting http://t.co/WNpSYGKbPYpic.twitter.com/EOt9oLlkKN

A sweatshirt that appeared to reference the 1970 Kent State shootings caused a stir on Urban Outfitters in 2014.

The Kent State shootings, which saw National Guardsmen open fire on a group of protestors, left four unarmed college students dead.

The Daily Beast reported that Urban Outfitters refused to say who designed the shirt, and a spokesperson said that the spots that appeared to be fake blood stains were "discoloration from the original shade of the shirt," adding, "We deeply regret that this item was perceived negatively and we have removed it immediately from our website to avoid further upset."

• Travel experts shared their tips and tricks for scoring lesser-known freebies, upgrades, and general special treatment while staying at a hotel.
• Always check in late, let them know you'll be reviewing your stay, and look for the "secret pillow menu," they say. 

Staying in a nice hotel is a rare luxury for most of us, meaning that you'll want to make the most of it when you do.

With this in mind, travel experts at Hotels.com have shared some tips and tricks for scoring lesser-known freebies or upgrades that'll make your stay that little bit more luxurious.

So the next time you're at a hotel, as well as being polite and friendly to the front desk staff of course, you might want to try a couple of the following tactics. 

1. Check in as late as possible.

"If you check in late, then there is a chance that the hotel might have run out of standard rooms, which is generally the room category the everyday traveler books, so an upgrade to a higher room category could be on the cards," according to the Hotels.com experts.

2. Let them know you'll be reviewing your stay.

"Guest reviews and social media exposure are so important to hotels these days," the site added. "At check-in tell them you’ll be writing a review and that you follow them on Instagram and will be tagging and snapping the hotel at every opportunity."

3. Ask about breakfast deals.

"If your room package doesn’t include breakfast, always ask at check in if there are any special deals for the on-site restaurant, especially for breakfast. You could land yourself large discounts on food, an invite to guests-only happy hours, or special 2-for-1 deals."

4. Request fancy freebies.

"Hotel freebies have had a serious upgrade over the past few years. Forget soap in the shower; you can often enjoy designer toiletries, including body lotion, face masks, and beauty utensils.

"Other items to watch out for are exotic teas and snacks, slippers, high-end magazines, stationery, and some hotels even have items for day usage such as portable WiFi units, umbrellas, and bikes."

5. Find the "secret pillow menus."

"A menu in your room might not just be for room service or laundry. Many hotels these days want to offer travelers the luxuries of home, so pillow menus are the new norm," Hotels.com said.

"If you are prone to neck and back pains, ask about pillow options. The front desk usually has a huge selection from super firm to melty marshmallow."

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• Dr. Dre has lost a trademark battle to a gynecologist called Dr. Drai, BBC News reports.
• Dre, whose real name is Andre Young, filed a complaint in 2015 against Draion M. Burch, saying that Burch's moniker would cause "confusion" for consumers.
• Burch argued that consumers would be unlikely to confuse him with Young "because Dr. Dre is not a medical doctor."
• The US Patent and Trademark Office dismissed Young's case in a ruling last week.
  

Dr. Dre lost a long-running trademark dispute this week to a Pennsylvania-based gynecologist who was looking to trademark the name Dr. Drai, BBC News reports.

Dr. Dre, whose real name is Andre Young, filed a complaint in 2015 against the gynecologist, Draion M. Burch, saying that Burch's "Dr. Drai" moniker would cause "confusion" in the marketplace, as Burch intended to sell audio books and web seminars using the name.

But the US Patent and Trademark Office dismissed Young's case in a ruling last week, saying that the music mogul failed to show how people would be misled into buying Burch's products, according to the BBC. 

Burch argued in the case that consumers would be unlikely to confuse him with Young "because Dr. Dre is not a medical doctor nor is he qualified to provide any type of medical services or sell products specifically in the medical or healthcare industry."

He also stated that an association with Young would be "a bad reflection on me as a doctor," citing "misogyny and homophobic things" in Young's rap lyrics, according to The Washington Post. 

Burch, whose website touts himself as "One of America’s Top Women's Health Experts," is the author of a book called "20 Things You May Not Know About the Vagina," and the host of web seminars with titles like "What Your Mama Didn’t Tell You About Making Babies."

Young, the cofounder of headphone company Beats by Dre and a legendary producer and rapper, is currently working on new solo music to follow up his 2015 album "Compton."

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