Entertainment
Catherine O'Hara's Raunchy, Post-Apocalyptic Sci-Fi Is A Forgotten 1980s Gem
By Jennifer Asencio
| Published
The world recently lost comic actress Catherine O’Hara, known for classics like Beetlejuice, Home Alone, and the series Schitt’s Creek. She has been endlessly memed and mimicked, and her work is constantly viewed by fans all over. In the 1983 Canadian animated feature Rock n’ Rule, she makes an unexpected appearance as an unusual character in a place nobody expected to find her.
Rock n’ Rule takes place in a post-apocalyptic future that is now populated by intelligent anthropomorphs and abominations mutated from the remains of a nuclear war in the distant past. A rock band led by Omar strives for fame in Ohmtown, but when Omar is upstaged at their big show by his girlfriend Angel, it causes a rift between the two.
However, Angel has caught the attention of the sinister superstar Mok, whose evil plot to raise an eldritch demon requires a very special singing voice. When Mok kidnaps Angel to raise his demon, Omar and his bandmates Izzy and Stretch head off to Nuke York City to rescue her and fight the rock star on his own turf: the stage.
I’ve been a huge fan of this movie since I saw it in the late 1980s, and I had never noticed that Catherine O’Hara plays Izzy’s aunt Edith, a grizzled Nuke Yorker who runs a tattoo parlor and helps the band while they’re in town. It features a smorgasbord of celebrity voices and musical appearances, including Cheap Trick and Debbie Harry as Omar and Angel’s band, Lou Reed and Izzy Pop as Mok; the dialogue voice talent is a little less well-known but stars Paul LeMat, Susan Roman, and Don Francks.
The story is a fun rock n’ roll romp about the rise and fall to stardom. The soundtrack definitely delivers on the magic and majesty of music, even when it’s not intentionally being used for occult purposes. Debbie Harry absolutely delivers with her performance, and it is easy to see why it would get Mok’s attention. The fantastical blend of magic and technology Mok uses for his sorcery ignites the imagination in ways that a more traditional story about a demonic summoning doesn’t accomplish.
The lingering aura of nuclear war is constantly emphasized throughout the movie, from the names of places to the smoggy and desolate settings the characters inhabit. Mutant creatures that evolved from waste are looked down upon by mainstream society, as illustrated by warnings and security measures at the venues visited during the film. In this respect, the movie is very dated, as the early 1980s were a time of such fear of nuclear war that we had “civil defense drills” against bombs rather than the “active shooter drills” of today.
The movie also saw pushback from Rolling Stones superstar Mick Jagger. Mok was originally supposed to be called “Mok Swagger” and was drawn to resemble the strutting singer with a dash of fellow musical collaborationist David Bowie thrown in. Mok is portrayed as being narcissistic and drunk on his own stardom, a portrait that Jagger didn’t seem to appreciate, even fictionally. He succeeded in having the character’s surname dropped, but otherwise, as he sings in the movie himself, “My name is Mok/thanks a lot.”
Rock n’ Rule may be a throwback to previous social trauma, but it’s still a worthwhile watch today, and I watch it every time I find it because it is just that much fun. It’s raunchy, with slapstick comedy and a thoughtful premise, and most importantly, great music that keeps you coming back to hear it again.
Check out this secret Catherine O’Hara gem, streaming free on Tubi.
Entertainment
OpenAI rolls out ChatGPT 5.5 Instant as the new default model for everyone
Last week, OpenAI managed to stop ChatGPT from talking about goblins all the time. This week, there’s a whole new model for users to play with.
The company announced in a blog post on Tuesday that ChatGPT 5.5 Instant has begun rolling out to all users as the new default model for the popular AI chatbot. The new model is a follow-up to GPT 5.5, which was released in April.
GPT-5.5 Instant replaces 5.3 Instant, which will remain available for the next three months for paid users but will otherwise be sunsetted.
Unlike Claude Opus 4.7 from Anthropic and GPT-5.5, which are only available to paid customers, GPT-5.5 Instant is “available to everyone.” OpenAI says it should produce fewer hallucinations and better overall results for everyday ChatGPT usage.
“This update makes everyday interactions more useful and more enjoyable: stronger and tighter answers across subject areas, a more natural conversational tone, and better use of the context you’ve already shared when personalization can help,” OpenAI’s blog post said.
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According to OpenAI, GPT-5.5 Instant produced 52.5 percent fewer hallucinated claims in internal testing than GPT-5.3 in “high stakes” topics like law, finance, and medicine. In addition, the new model “reduced inaccurate claims by 37.3% on especially challenging conversations users had flagged for factual errors.”
The company also says the new model is better at deciding when to use web search for a prompt and analyzing image uploads than before. The new model is also allegedly more concise in its answers, while also maintaining something of a personality in how it talks to the user. GPT-5.5 Instant should also be better at understanding and referencing context from a connected Gmail account and other integrations to provide quality answers.
And, again, most importantly, it should avoid mentioning goblins unless absolutely necessary.
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Disclosure: Ziff Davis, Mashable’s parent company, in April 2025 filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, alleging it infringed Ziff Davis copyrights in training and operating its AI systems.
Entertainment
The Bears Gary cliffhanger explained: What just happened to Richie?
There’s only one thing more shocking than The Bear dropping surprise episode “Gary,” and that’s the ending of the episode itself.
Written by The Bear stars Ebon Moss-Bachrach and Jon Bernthal, “Gary” flashes back to a work trip Richie (Moss-Bachrach) and Mikey (Bernthal) once took to Gary, Indiana. Their worst impulses soon derail their mission, culminating in Mikey drunkenly (and publicly) dressing down Richie’s penchant for fucking up, and Richie missing the birth of his daughter.
The entire episode takes place long before The Bear Season 1, except for one somber coda that could have massive repercussions for The Bear Season 5. “Gary”s final scene cuts from Richie and Mikey sitting in Mikey’s car to Richie sitting alone in his car in the present day. He stares at his empty passenger seat, reminiscing about Mikey. Then, as he pulls forward into an intersection, another car careens straight into him. Cue the credits, along with my incredulous yell, “Did Richie just die?”
So, did Richie really just die in The Bear?
Ebon Moss-Bachrach in “The Bear.”
Credit: FX
Here’s the thing: The Bear probably isn’t going to kill off Richie, one of its most beloved leads, during a surprise episode that dropped between seasons. Especially not when the show is gearing up for its fifth and final installment. However, Richie’s car crash could be the major event that sets Season 5 in motion.
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At the end of Season 4, Carmy (Jeremy Allen White) quit The Bear, choosing to step away from the kitchen in the hopes of healing himself. He turned full control of the restaurant over to Sydney (Ayo Edebiri), along with Richie and Natalie (Abby Elliott). What does Carmy’s upcoming journey of self-discovery look like? Even he’s not sure. He just knows it should take place far, far away from the stressful environment of any restaurant kitchen. That includes his family, both work and blood-related.
But you know what could bring Carmy back into the fold in Season 5? A need to be there for an injured Richie, and to support the rest of the reeling restaurant staff. Basically, the end of “Gary” appears to be a bridge to the start of Season 5, and the catalyst that will reunite Carmy with the people he walked away from in Season 4.
It’s a bit of a bizarre move on The Bear‘s end, in no small part because a car-crash cliffhanger sends the show skidding into soap territory. But it’s also a strange choice heading into Season 5. Why relegate such a key incident to a standalone episode, instead of keep it as part of the season itself? Plus, in tacking such a shocking moment onto the end of “Gary,” the episode loses some of its power. Instead of leaving viewers contemplating Mikey and Richie’s dynamic, they’re left with the WTF factor of the car crash and questions about what’s next. There’s no meditation on The Bear‘s past, just a collision with its future.
“Gary” is now streaming on Hulu. The Bear Season 5 premieres this June on Hulu.
Entertainment
Pennsylvania is suing Character.AI for allegedly practicing medicine without a license
Pennsylvania has taken the unusual step of suing an AI company for practicing medicine without a license.
In a lawsuit filed May 1, the state is targeting Character.AI after an investigator found a chatbot on the platform posing as a licensed psychiatrist and providing what the state characterizes as medical advice.
According to the complaint, filed by the Pennsylvania Department of State and State Board of Medicine, a Professional Conduct Investigator for the state created a free account on Character.AI and searched for psychiatric characters. He selected one called “Emilie,” described on the platform as a “Doctor of psychiatry.”
The investigator told Emilie he had been feeling sad, empty, tired, and unmotivated. The chatbot mentioned depression and offered to conduct an assessment to determine whether medication might help.
When pressed on whether she was licensed in Pennsylvania, Emilie said she was and even provided a specific license number. The state checked and found that the number doesn’t exist.
The complaint also states Emilie claimed she attended medical school at Imperial College London, has practiced for seven years, and holds a full specialty registration in psychiatry with the General Medical Council in the UK.
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In a similar case, 404 Media reported last year that Instagram AI chatbots were pretending to be licensed therapists, even inventing license numbers when prompted for credentials by the user.
Pennsylvania is seeking an injunction ordering Character.AI to stop allowing its platform to engage in the unlawful practice of medicine. The company has more than 20 million monthly active users worldwide and hosts more than 18 million user-created chatbot characters, according to the complaint.
In an email to Mashable, a Character.AI spokesperson declined to comment on the lawsuit. Further, they added that “our highest priority is the safety and well-being of our users. The user-created Characters on our site are fictional and intended for entertainment and roleplaying.”
The spokesperson added that the company “prioritizes responsible product development and has robust internal reviews and red-teaming processes in place to assess relevant features.”
A much bigger legal battle looms over AI health
The Pennsylvania lawsuit lands in the middle of an already messy legal debate over what AI is actually allowed to tell you — and whether any of it is even admissible in court.
As Mashable’s Chase DiBenedetto reported, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has publicly advocated for “AI privilege,” arguing that chatbot conversations should be afforded the same legal protections as conversations with a therapist or an attorney. Courts have so far been split, with two federal judges reaching opposite conclusions on the question within weeks of each other earlier this year.
The stakes are high on both sides. Legal experts warn that sweeping AI privilege protections could effectively shield companies from accountability, making it harder to subpoena chat logs and internal records when something goes wrong. Meanwhile, health AI is booming — $1.4 billion flowed into healthcare-specific generative AI in 2025 alone, according to Menlo Ventures — and much of it operates outside of HIPAA protections.
Pennsylvania is one of several states to have introduced an AI Health bill this year, following a trend of states that aren’t waiting for Washington to act.
OpenAI rolls out ChatGPT 5.5 Instant as the new default model for everyone
Marc Lore says that AI will soon enable anyone open a restaurant
