1. In a panel on Tuesday Looking writers defended the pacing of their HBO show and responded to what they called the "Minority Trap." Writer JC Lee responded to the criticisms that the show eschews campy gay men in favor of more traditionally masculine characters by saying, "It's a minority trap. When you have a piece that showcases a community, there's this identity factor where if you're showing a certain kind of queerness, you're not honoring what queerness is. There's a sense their queerness feels threatened by a show that is normalizing it." You say "normalizing" others say "whitewashing." As for the boring complaints, writer John Hoffman says the pacing's intentional. "I think that has become part of the show. [The episodes] do feel like little half-hour indie movies."
2. Tina Fey will be staring in and producing the film adaptation of Kim Baker's memoir, "The Taliban Shuffle." The memoir tells the story of Baker's time as a journalist in Afghanistan and Pakistan after arriving in 2002. No director is attached to the project as of yet.
3. The death toll in Kiev continues to rise as anti-government protestors clash with riot police. At least 67 are dead and the "truce" between the two sides has collapsed. Many fear that President Viktor F. Yanukovych will call in the military to put down the protestors.
4. For today's installment of "News That Made Me Facepalm," we've got a double-header: Arizona state senators voted yesterday to let businesses refuse gay patrons based on the owner's "sincerely held" religious beliefs and South Carolina is trying to cut the funding of colleges who assign "Gay" books.
5. Meryl Streep, who is talked about more than God at the Oscars, will play Emmilene Pankhurst, a British Suffragette, in an upcoming film. Suffragette was written by Abi Morgan--who wrote Iron Lady, the film that won Streep an Oscar--and will be directed by Sarah Gavron. Filming begins February 24.
6. The Daily Show has a plan for what do with conservatives who moan about America becoming too liberal: move to Russia.
