Star snaps of the day

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Rihanna holds hands with BFF Melissa Forde outside of Da Silvano in New York City after a Monday lunch date.

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Blake Lively makes faces at paparazzi while filming "The Age of Adaline" in Vancouver on Monday.

Pacific Coast News

Lucy Liu and Jonathan Groff share a laugh at the 2014 Tony Awards nomination ceremony in New York City on Tuesday.

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Justin Bieber poses for selfies with fans outside of Nobu in New York City on Monday, where he dined with Kendall Jenner and Hailey Baldwin.

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Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta-Jones attend the 41st Annual Chaplin Awards on Monday in New York City.

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Jake Gyllenhaal sports a beard and ponytail in New York City on Monday.

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Ginnifer Goodwin and her baby bump shop at Bel Bambini in Los Angeles on Monday.

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Zoe Saldana is just as dismayed as everyone else by the TSA at LAX on Monday.

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Kendall Jenner strolls around SoHo on Monday.

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Cash Warren opens a door for Jessica Alba as they leave Craig's Restaurant in Hollywood on Monday after celebrating her birthday.

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Anne Hathaway dresses up to shop in Los Angeles on Monday.

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Will Chase and Debra Messing attend the New York Pops 31st Birthday Gala at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in New York City on Monday.

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Josh Groban and Hailee Steinfeld attend the Breast Cancer Foundation's 2014 Hot Pink Party on Monday in New York City.

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Elizabeth Hurley, Elton John and Sara Bareilles hang out at the Breast Cancer Foundation's 2014 Hot Pink Party in New York City on Monday.

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Ed Sheeran hangs out on a boat with friends in Sydney, Australia on Tuesday.

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Andrew Garfield leaves his New York City hotel on Monday.

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Emma Stone smiles in selfies outside of "Good Morning America" in New York City on Tuesday.

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Taylor Swift heads back into her Tribeca apartment after a day of shopping, hopefully for shoes less tragic than these, on Monday.

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Elisabeth Moss heads into "Jimmy Kimmel Live" in Hollywood on Monday.

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Jennifer Lopez arrives at "Jimmy Kimmel Live" in Hollywood on Monday.

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Vera Farmiga hangs out with fans outside of "The Late Show With David Letterman" in New York City on Monday.

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Blake Anderson and Kyle Newacheck bring giggles to the red carpet at the premiere of "Neighbors" on Monday night in Los Angeles.

Pacific Coast News

Christopher Mintz-Plasse and Zac Efron are McLovin' it at the "Neighbors" premiere in Los Angeles on Monday.

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Dave Franco waves to fans at the Los Angeles premiere of "Neighbors" on Monday.

Pacific Coast News

Lauren Miller and Seth Rogen hold hands at the "Neighbors" premiere in Los Angeles on Monday.

Pacific Coast News

Hollywood's new BFFs: Kate Upton, Cameron Diaz and Leslie Mann 10 Photos

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Rihanna wows in white, Stacy Keibler shows off her baby...

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Carmen Electra strikes a pose, Heidi Klum keeps her clothes...

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More secret NBA recordings! Warriors coach axed over tapes

Apparently, no conversation is safe in the NBA.

Warriors assistant coach Darren Erman was fired earlier this month because of a "violation of company policy," and the violation reportedly was that Erman secretly recorded conversations between coaches and players.

"He was taping everything," a source told ESPN. "Taping pregame speeches wouldn't have been that bad, but he was taping guys just sitting around talking in the coaches' office."

Erman, named the Celtics' director of scouting on Tuesday, according to a Yahoo! Sports report, would record meetings and informal discussions without the knowledge of those involved. Sometimes, he was not even present, leaving his phone behind to record talks when he left a room. Head coach Mark Jackson has clashed this season with Warriors management.

"Was he taping it for himself or was he taping it for management? That's not known," a source said. "But he had a lot of communication with members of the front office."

Erman's behavior reportedly changed this March, and he soon was discovered making recordings a few weeks later. Erman told the team he had been recording conversations for three weeks. The news about Erman comes as Clippers owner Donald Sterling was allegedly recorded by his girlfriend making racist remarks.

Warriors general manager Bob Myers described the reason for Erman's termination as a serious issue, but would not go into detail.

"We were unaware, and when made aware, forced to act," Myers said.

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Creating Star Wars art, one staple at a time

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By Sophia Rosenbaum

April 29, 2014 | 11:50am

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Brooklyn-based artists makes giant Star Wars mosaics out of staples.

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A Brooklyn-based Star Wars fanatic spends his time making mosaics of his favorite characters…out of staples.

James Haggerty was playing with an old stapler when he realized the metal staples' potential to create mosaics.

The unique pieces take about six months to complete with some using more than 33,000 colored staples. Haggerty has created portraits of Darth Vader, Greedo and C-3PO.

He is a self-described painter, printmaker and mosaic artist. He studied fine arts at Hunter College.

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The surprises & snubs of the Tony nominations

We know that saying "it's an honor just to be nominated" is a way to make you feel better when you lose the actual prize. But in a Broadway season as competitive as 2013-14 — and as chock-full of celebrities — getting nominated truly was an honor. This was such a busy year that, by April, we'd forgotten Orlando Bloom was even here!

Tuesday morning's Tony announcement — see tonyawards.com for the full list — had its share of surprises. Here are just a few of them:

Chris O'Dowd (right) received a nomination for his turn in "Of Mice and Men."Photo: Richard Phibbs

The shocker isn't that Tony-winning machine Mark Rylance was nominated: It's that he was nominated twice: once as lead in "Richard III" and once as supporting in "Twelfth Night." Even more surprising — but delightful — is the nod for his "Twelfth Night" co-star Samuel Barnett in the lead category. Another surprise: Chris O'Dowd getting recognized for his part in "Of Mice and Men," which won mixed reviews. What wasn't surprising was seeing his co-star, James Franco, get snubbed.

Still, my money is on the fifth man: Bryan Cranston in "All the Way." He's a celeb, he's good, he carries his show — Tony voters eat that stuff up.

Another awards fave, Audra McDonald already has five Tonys on her mantelpiece, and she earned yet another nomination — her first as lead actress in a play — for her technically impeccable impersonation of Billie Holiday in "Lady Day at Emerson's Bar and Grill." At this point she's getting nominated for just stepping onto the stage.

Audra McDonald scored a nod for "Lady Day at Emerson's Bar and Grill."Photo: Evgenia Eliseeva

And speaking of mimicry, it paid off in musicals as well, with both Jessie Mueller and Mary Bridget Davies getting noms for playing, respectively, Carole King ("Beautiful") and Janis Joplin ("A Night with Janis Joplin").

The lesson: Come awards time, good bio-acting can transcend a mediocre show. That Davies won a nod probably aced out Michelle Williams for "Cabaret."

The nominators picked five nominees for Best Play but only four for Best Musical: "After Midnight," "Aladdin" (whaaaa?), "Beautiful," and "A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder." This means only one of the Best Musical nominees has a 100 percent original score ("Gentleman"); the other three use entirely or partially recycled ones.

This list also means the committee willfully snubbed big tuners like "Bullets Over Broadway," "If/Then" and "The Bridges of Madison County." Any of them would have been nominated in a lesser year, so not using the fifth slot strikes me as plain ridiculous — I find it hard to stomach "Beautiful" getting nominated over "Bridges." This result has probably to do with the voting threshold needed to get a slot, and those three shows must have split the votes, but still …

Among this year's Tony snubs, "The Bridges of Madison County."Photo: Joan Marcus

At least "Bridges" and "If/Then" turn up in the Best Score category. While Jason Robert Brown's work in the first is often hauntingly beautiful, the score is the weakest point in "If/Then" [scratch head some more].

Staying with musicals, Alan Cumming gave one of the best performances of the year in "Cabaret" but he won for the exact same part in 1998 and so was ineligible. This left room for Neil Patrick Harris in "Hedwig and the Angry Inch" and not one but two reps from "A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder": Jefferson Mays and Bryce Pinkham. This show may end up a big winner in June.

While there were plenty of new musicals this year, the crop of new plays was lackluster. How much so? The utterly mediocre "Act One" and "Mothers and Sons" each got nods while "The Realistic Joneses," which at least is ambitious, got snubbed. F–k me gently with a chainsaw, as they say in "Heathers" — off Broadway, where things can get saltier.

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Old, sick carriage horse made to look half its age

A carriage driver has been accused of altering a hoof brand to make a 22-year-old draft horse with a breathing ailment appear to be a healthier horse nearly half its age.

Frank Luo branded the wrong hoof identification number on an aging horse named Ceasar, who was supposed to be resting on a Pennsylvania farm, so he could work under a license issued to a 12-year-old horse named Carsen, city health officials said in an administrative order last month.

The details of the case, obtained by The Associated Press through a Freedom of Information request, come as Mayor Bill de Blasio and animal-rights activists are pushing to ban the city's carriage industry as inhumane to the horses. Drivers have responded by saying they care for the horses like their own children.

In the written order, officials said a city vet noticed that the horse had Carsen's ID number on its hoof, but its "physical characteristics and medical condition was that of the older horse."

Ceasar had a mild, chronic condition called "heaves," which is similar to asthma, city officials said.

Luo told The Associated Press on Friday that the vet simply got it wrong.

"I did not switch the horses. It's just very confusing because they look alike," he said.

Initially, Luo submitted paperwork intended to prove that the horse really was Carsen, including a handwritten note from a Pennsylvania farmer who said Ceasar had been on his farm for months. The city asked for more proof, including a veterinarian's evaluation.

Five days later, Luo's lawyer informed the department that he couldn't afford to have the horse sitting idle and had shipped him to Pennsylvania and sold him.

"It's all settled now," Luo said. He said he would continue to operate his business using other horses.

The sale effectively ended the investigation by the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, which monitors the horses' health. But the Department of Consumer Affairs, which regulates the drivers, is still investigating.

Luo's regulatory problems date to September, when he was cited for working at least two horses without active licenses. He also was accused of working Ceasar for nine days in July when the horse was supposedly in Pennsylvania. City regulations give the horses five weeks of pasture time each year.

Also in September, the Department of Consumer Affairs cited Luo for false advertising, overcharging customers and operating a carriage for more hours than allowed. Luo's company, the Manhattan Carriage Co., agreed in January to pay a fine and restitution.

In an unrelated incident, a horse Luo was driving in September bolted on 8th Avenue and hit a car. It suffered minor injuries.

A 2007 audit by the city comptroller noted that health certificates kept for carriage horses sometimes contained physical descriptions that changed from year to year, suggesting they weren't the same animals. In 2008, a stable owner pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct to resolve allegations that he tried to bribe a city investigator. Carriage owners have denied any subterfuge and maintained that their animals are among the healthiest and most tightly regulated anywhere.

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Mila Kunis flashes baby bump in crop top

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Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis seen during day 3 of 2014 Stagecoach: California's Country Music Festival at the Empire Polo Club on April 27, 2014 in Indio, California.

Frazer Harrison, Getty Images for Stagecoach

Mila Kunis and Ashton Kutcher seen during day 3 of 2014 Stagecoach: California's Country Music Festival at the Empire Polo Club on April 27, 2014 in Indio, California.

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Mila Kunis seen during day 3 of 2014 Stagecoach: California's Country Music Festival at the Empire Polo Club on April 27, 2014 in Indio, California.

Frazer Harrison, Getty Images for Stagecoach

Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis attend day 1 of 2014 Stagecoach: California's Country Music Festival at the Empire Polo Club on April 25, 2014 in Indio, California.

Frazer Harrison, Getty Images for Stagecoach

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Just call it a country bumpkin.

An expectant Mila Kunis showed off her growing baby bump at Stagecoach: California's Country Music Festival in Indio, Calif., over the weekend.

With doting fiancé Ashton Kutcher — who got into the spirit with a black cowboy hat and blue handkerchief tied around his neck — at her side, Kunis, 30, beamed behind a pair of sunglasses.

The couple's first child — which Us Weekly has reported will be a girl — is due in the fall.

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Soccer player’s must-see reaction to racist banana taunt

BARCELONA, Spain — Barcelona has defended Dani Alves for his response to a racist taunt and teammate Neymar posted a photo of himself with a peeled banana on the internet in support.

Alves, who is black, was about to take a corner in Sunday's 3-2 win at Villarreal when a banana was thrown at him. The Brazil international picked it up, peeled it and ate some of it before throwing the rest aside.

After the match, Alves said humor was the best way to combat racism in sport.

"Barcelona wishes to express its complete support and solidarity with our first team player Dani Alves, following the insults he was subject to from a section of the crowd at El Madrigal on Sunday," the Spanish league champions said Monday in a statement. "Barcelona urges all clubs to continue fighting against the blight on the game which any kind of aggression against a sportsperson on the basis of their race represents."

Neymar posted a photo of himself on Instagram holding a peeled banana alongside his son, who was holding a doll that resembled a banana, with the hashtag message "we are all monkeys."

Besides Neymar, fellow Brazil teammates Hulk and Fred also lent support via their social media accounts.

Argentina striker Sergio Aguero and Brazil women's striker Marta both posed for photos while biting into bananas, while former Brazil international Roberto Carlos also posted an internet photo of himself with the fruit.

"We have suffered this in Spain for some time," Alves said Sunday. "You have to take it with a dose of humor. We aren't going to change things easily. If you don't give it importance, they don't achieve their objective."

The match referee included the 75th-minute incident in his match report, so Villarreal could face a fine.

Alves has often been subjected to racist taunts and called fighting racism "a lost war" in January 2013 after segments of Real Madrid's fans abused him with monkey chants during a match. Madrid defender Marcelo, who is also Brazilian, was also recently greeted with monkey chants by a section of Atletico Madrid fans this season.

Former Barcelona striker Samuel Eto'o was convinced not to walk off at Zaragoza in 2006 after fans berated the Cameroon striker with racist chants. Two years earlier, Spain fans at Madrid's Santiago Bernabeu Stadium infamously greeted England's black players with monkey chants during an international friendly match.

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Giants up to 5 quarterbacks after signing Rusty Smith

The Giants keep collecting quarterbacks. The team announced Monday it has signed free agent quarterback Rusty Smith, bringing the total up to five on the roster.

The Giants recently signed Josh Freeman to go along with Eli Manning, Curtis Painter and Ryan Nassib. Manning is recovering from ankle surgery and is not expected to start running until next month, so the team is loading up on arms for its spring practices.

Smith has played in three games in four seasons with the Titans. His career totals are 23-of-45 passes for 234 yards, no touchdowns and four interceptions.

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Any questions? Jon Jones reasserts dominance in UFC

The dust from UFC 172 has settled. Jon Jones is still the champion, proving so by dominating heralded challenger Glover Teixeira.

And Phil Davis is eating crow, after his pre-fight verbal attacks on Jones clearly took his focus away from fighting Anthony "Rumble" Johnson, who stuffed all eight of Davis' takedowns and punished Davis on the feet.

Everything is a little clearer now in the light heavyweight division. After Alexander Gustafsson gave Jones hell for five rounds in his last title defense, there were questions about his dominance.

But Glover was no match for the champion, and Jones delivered spectacular punishment en route to a one-sided decision. Teixeira hung in till the bitter end. Many thought Teixeira would finish what Gustafsson could not, and 62 percent of fans voted for Teixeira to win in a pre-fight Fox Sports 1 poll.

But in a post-UFC 172 world, it's clear he was just another contender for Jones to topple.

Davis had moved up to No. 4 in the division after taking a close decision victory against surging middleweight Lyoto Machida. His trash talk toward Jones leading up to the event was legendary, "Mr. Wonderful" angling for a title shot with a win at UFC 172.

But Johnson made all that trash talk irrelevant with a three-round shellacking. Davis could not impose his vaunted wrestling on a guy who used to fight at 170 pounds. A new contender emerged from Saturday's event: Johnson surely has cracked the top ten at light heavyweight after his dominating performance against a top-five contender.

Johnson returned to the UFC at light heavyweight after going unbeaten in six fights for other promotions since his last octagon appearance back at UFC 142 against Vitor Belfort.

"I felt like I was right at home," Johnson said. "Sooner or later I'll get the call [for the title shot]. I just got to keep on winning."

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Scientists might have revealed the secret to living to 115

Scientists have long searched for the secrets to longevity – and now, clues to this medical "holy grail" may be revealed in the blood of one of the world's oldest and healthiest women.

Hendrikje van Andel-Schipper was born in 1890 and lived to be an astonishing 115 years old. But even more notable was her health; she was free of disease and in outstanding cognitive shape by the time of her death in 2005. With the support of her living relatives, van Andel-Schipper agreed to have her body donated to science after she died.

Now, in a new study published in the journal Genome Research, scientists have analyzed the centenarian's blood and other tissues to better understand how they change with age.

According to a report in New Scientist, the researchers found that in the years before her death, most of van Andel-Schipper's white blood cells originated from just two stem cells, indicating that most of the blood stem cells she had been born with had been used up or died. Additionally, her white blood cells had incredibly short telomeres – the protective caps on chromosomes that wear down over time.

These findings help to support the theory of stem cell exhaustion, which suggests that an individual's lifespan may be limited by his or her cells' ability to divide. And ultimately, cell division cannot last forever.

"It's estimated that we're born with around 20,000 blood stem cells, and at any one time, around 1,000 are simultaneously active to replenish blood," said lead researcher Henne Holstege of the VU University Medical Center in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. But over time, these cells' telomeres shrink and they lose the ability to divide – leading to stem cell death and depletion.

However, Holstege noted that the results raise the possibility of injecting aging bodies with youthful stem cells saved from the early years of life.

"If I took a sample now and gave it back to myself when I'm older, I would have long telomeres again – although it might only be possible with blood, not other tissues," she said.

This article originally appeared on FoxNews.com.

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‘Fargo’ star savoring her big, bloody, snowy break

When actress Allison Tolman arrived for a recent interview at the FX network's Manhattan office, it wasn't her welcoming smile, bright blue eyes or casually chic Monk and Lou black blazer that made the biggest impression.

It was her necklace with a thin, rectangular gold pendant — barely an inch wide and a quarter-inch high, engraved with the word "lucky." Tolman wore that same trinket to her New York audition for "Fargo" last summer; five days later, she was offered the starring role of deputy sheriff Molly Solverson.

The significance isn't lost on her.

"I feel like a very lucky girl," says Tolman, whose only previous television work consisted of commercials, a one-day part as a nurse on an episode of "Prison Break" and a supporting character in the niche comedy "Sordid Lives" on the Logo network.

"At 32, I kind of thought I was past the point where I was gonna get a break that really changed my life overnight," says Tolman, a Chicago resident since 2009. "It's just a godsend."

Tolman plays a quiet but eager 20-something cop tracking the carnage of a cold-blooded killer, played by Billy Bob Thornton. Tolman's journey to "Fargo" — based on the 1996 Coen brothers film — was a long and winding one for the Texas native, whose parents reside in Houston.

After graduating from Waco's Baylor University in 2004, Tolman dabbled in regional theater and sketch comedy in Dallas and, later, moved to Chicago where she paid her rent by selling theater subscriptions and managing clients for an IT company.

Tolman's Molly Solverson with weak-stomached Bill Oswalt (played by Bob Odenkirk).Photo: FX

In Texas she landed her first of several commercials — a national Denny's restaurant ad. "I played someone who wanted an omelette," she says, laughing. "I was booked because I could make stupid faces, essentially."

She also did two WalMart Christmas ads that could have been "big pay days," but, unfortunately, never aired. "You get paid, but you don't get any residuals. A good commercial can set you up for a while," she says.

In Chicago, Tolman eventually juggled $11-an-hour temp jobs that allowed her to work in the morning and audition in the afternoon. Which is how she one day wound up in her agent's office submitting a reel for the "Fargo" role.

When "Fargo" showrunner Noah Hawley offered her the part of Molly, Tolman was working part time at a photography studio.

"He said, 'I want you to remember this moment for the rest of your life,'" she recalls, adding with a hearty laugh, "I was standing on the street outside the photo studio next to, like, a butcher shop with garbage trucks going by."

Now Tolman, who has a longtime boyfriend, is adjusting to the sudden — and surreal — experience of working alongside actors like Thornton and Keith Carradine, who plays Molly's father, a retired state police offer.

Tolman strolls the red carpet at the Paley Center for Media's presentation of "Fargo" April 11 in New York.Photo: WireImage

She recounts a night last fall in Calgary, Canada — where the series was filmed — when she heard a guitar strumming through the walls of the hotel where the cast was staying.

She remembers thinking, "Oh, someone's noodling around on their guitar; that's so cute. I wonder who's the musician? He's really good!" In the hallway the next day she ran into Carradine — who won an Academy Award for his top-40 hit "I'm Easy" from the 1975 film "Nashville" — and realized he was the phantom guitarist.

"He was like, 'Am I keeping you awake?'" she recalls. "And I was like, 'No, Oscar-winner Keith Carradine, you keep right on playing your guitar. It's totally fine!'"

Tolman realizes the high-profile series with the star-studded cast is quickly moving her into the spotlight. She also understands the comparisons between Molly and Marge, the cop played by Frances McDormand in the original "Fargo."

"It's an iconic role associated with her. That would be intimidating for anybody, and certainly coming in from out of nowhere is very intimidating because, literally, no one has seen, really, what I can do," Tolman says. "I hope that not only do I not disappoint, but that I can be on some sort of the same spectrum with this beloved role that people are so fond of."

Tolman thinks she's naturally well-suited for her incarnation because she reads as "very approachable [in a] Midwestern, blue-collar way."

But she appreciates that Molly is a more understated character than she's used to. "She's very much the one whose strength in comedy comes from silence and stillness, which is really unusual for me coming from the sketch comedy world," Tolman says.

Molly is also the first police officer she's done. "I've played a lot of nurses, but never a cop before," Tolman says, joking that it opens up possibilities. "A nurse with a gun is the goal in 2015, baby!"

In the meantime, Tolman knows that "Fargo" could bring her even more recognition when she's out in public. She says she's ready because she's already encountered it, although on a much smaller scale.

Tolman recalls shooting a commercial in Chicago last year for a Midwestern energy company called Ameren. This past March, she attended a close friend's wedding in St. Louis, where the ad regularly aired.

"When I got to the rehearsal dinner, everyone was like, 'You're the Ameren girl!'" she says, laughing. "I was, like, 'I am, but just wait, 'cause things are gonna get real strange, real soon!'

"It was kind of fun to be recognized for that little commercial," she adds. "But I'm holding onto normalcy for as long as I can before the show blows up."

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‘Orphan Black,’ ‘Americans’ lead an exciting week of dramas

Prefer watching your TV on the edge of your seat? Then here are shows you can't miss this week:

"Orphan Black" (Saturday, 9 p.m., BBC America): Every week, half of the fun of this show is guessing what they're going to throw next at star Tatiana Maslany. Whether it's adopting yet another accent seamlessly, sporting an Audrey Hepburn "Breakfast at Tiffany's" look for a funeral, playing mom, kissing a girl both as a lesbian and a hetero pretending to be a lesbian, or singing in a musical about asthma, you almost forget that this young woman doesn't in fact have three or four duplicates running around. No one is safe in this clone thriller.

"Game of Thrones" (Sunday, 9 p.m., HBO): At the end of last week, Dany (Emilia Clarke) made an offer to the Meereen slaves that they couldn't refuse, and with the capture of the final slave city, she'll get control of enough ships to sail to Westeros, where the Iron Throne is currently occupied by the recently deceased Joffrey's (Jack Gleeson) seemingly weaker brother. And with the blood-thirsty Wildlings turning their attention to the undermanned Night Watch, we can expect no less than two battles that makes those bloody weddings look like, well, normal weddings.

"Fargo" (Tuesday, 10 p.m., FX): Want a crime series that isn't the usual procedural? This series extracts some of the best elements of the 1996 Coen brothers flick and transforms it into the must-watch new series of the season. By the end of last week's episode — the series' second — we were already invested in each of these off-kilter characters, but if there was any justice in this world, Billy Bob Thornton would beat out the vaunted Matthew McConaughey for an Emmy, because Thornton manipulative psychopath killer is one of his juiciest roles.

"The Americans" (Wednesday, 10 p.m., FX): Amid the sinister international intrigue that has Philip (Matthew Rhys) asking the beautiful Annalise (Gillian Alexy) for help and Stan (Noah Emmerich) finally getting a clue this week, The Who's Pete Townshend will lend an original song to this '80s Cold War spy drama — although his previous work has been used for the theme songs to the various "CSI" iterations.

"Bates Motel" (Monday, 10 p.m., A&E): There are only two episodes left until the season finale, and let's face it, Norman (Freddie Highmore) has already bought his ticket for the crazy train — his channeling his mother earlier this season was a highlight — although he is TV's most sympathetic future serial killer. You don't want to miss out on the conclusion to this psychologically challenging season, even if you already know the ultimate ending.

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Don’t miss: Draper goes back to Cali, ‘Modern’ dad distracted

Photo: HBO

 

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'Game of Thrones'

Dany (Emilia Clarke) weighs justice and mercy. Jaime (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) tasks Brienne (Gwendoline Christie) with his honor. Jon Stark (Kit Harrington) secures volunteers, while Bran (Isaac Hempstead Wright), Jojen (Thomas Brodie-Sangster), Meera (Ellie Kendrick) and Hodor (Kristian Nairn) find shelter. Sunday, 9 p.m., HBO

Photo: ABC

 

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'Black Box'

Dr. Catherine Black's (Kelly Reilly) team of fourth-year medical students try to determine why a young nanny is suffering from hallucinations of her head exploding. Will (David Ajala) and Catherine struggle to get their relationship back on track after she reveals that she cheated on him during a manic episode. After the chief of neurosurgery suffers a seizure during surgery, the Cube's medical director (Terry Kinney) calls a meeting to announce that any doctors suffering from medical conditions that could harm patients must come forward. Thursday, 10 p.m., ABC

Photo: ABC

 

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'Resurrection'

With the help of Bellamy (Omar Epps) and Sheriff Fred (Matt Craven), Tom (Mark Hildreth) leads the charge in the search for Rachael (Kathleen Munroe), but her situation becomes increasingly dire as her captors grow more desperate. Meanwhile, Maggie (Devin Kelley) and Dr. Ward (James Tupper) continue their medical research on the resurrected subjects and a series of shocking discoveries sets them on the brink of a game-changing find, however, their focus shifts when Arcadia is suddenly in the throes of an epidemic. Sunday, 9 p.m., ABC

Photo: ABC

 

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'Modern Family'

Claire (Julie Bowen) asks Phil (Ty Burrell) to do one thing for her, one thing — stay home and wait for the repairman. But he can't even do that, and then he has come up with an elaborate lie, but the stress is more than he can physically handle. Meanwhile, Gloria (Sofia Vergara) is obsessing over the family portrait she is responsible for organizing this year. Claire, who's in a bad mood anyway, accuses Cam (Eric Stonestreet) of being too snobby to use her girls' hand-me-downs, and Jay (Ed O'Neill) secretly enters Stella in a dog show. With Jesse Tyler Ferguson. Wednesday, 9 p.m., ABC

Photo: ABC

 

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'The Goldbergs'

Despite her best efforts, Beverly (Wendi McLendon-Covey) is crushed when she cannot console Erica (Hayley Orrantia) when her boyfriend, Drew Kremp, dumps her. So Murray (Jeff Garlin) steps in to help his daughter. Meanwhile, Barry (Troy Gentile) is obsessed with a new arcade game and asks Pops (George Segal) for money to play. When he takes the situation to a desperate level involving Adam (Sean Giambrone), an intervention is planned. Tuesday, 9 p.m., ABC

Photo: AMC

 

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'Mad Men'

Free and easy Don Draper (Jon Hamm) takes an impromptu trip — back to California? Betty (January Jones) has lunch with a friend. Harry (Rich Sommer) lobbies for a cause. Sterling Cooper & Partners consider a questionable asset. Co-starring John Slattery. Sunday, 10 p.m., AMC

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TV’s 13 biggest surprises this season

➣ Zoe Barnes, "House of Cards" 

➣ Will Gardner, "The Good Wife" 

➣ Jerry Grant, Jr., "Scandal"

On "House of Cards," Zoe Barnes, the intrepid reporter played by Kate Mara, was beginning to connect the death of congressman Peter Russo to her ex-lover (and now vice president), Frank Underwood (Kevin Spacey). Underwood had to act fast to stop her. Luring Zoe to a subway station with the promise of giving her some information, Underwood first convinced her to delete his contact info from her smartphone. Then he beckoned her behind a partition — and pushed her into the path of an oncoming train.

On "The Good Wife," the courtroom murder of attorney Will Gardner (Josh Charles) by his own client stunned audiences and exposed the loveless marriage of Alicia and Peter Florrick (Julianna Margulies and Chris Noth). Will's death robbed his business partner, Diane Lockhart (Christine Baranski), of a trusted associate; his special investigator, Kalinda Sharma (Archie Panjabi), of a friend, and Alicia of a fantasy — that she might have the guts to leave her husband.

When Jerry Jr. (Dylan Minnette) stood behind his dad, the president (Tony Goldwyn), on "Scandal," it seemed like a routine campaign appearance. Then the kid started bleeding and collapsed onstage as his mother, Mellie (Bellamy Young), stood by helplessly. The boy died at the hospital, the victim of Rowan Pope's (Joe Morton) insane scheme to become head of black ops again and punish Fitz for robbing his daughter, Olivia (Kerry Washington), of her youth.

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NAACP to honor NBA owner, as Obama calls him ‘ignorant’

President Obama slam dunked LA Clippers owner Donald Sterling on Sunday, calling out the "ignorant" basketball executive for racist comments attributed to him.

From a world away in Malaysia, President Obama took long-distance shots at the Clippers clown, who was apparently captured on tape, telling his young girlfriend to steer clear of black people.

"When ignorant folks want to advertise their ignorance, you don't really have to do anything, you just let them talk. That's what happened here," said Obama, a high school basketball player and admitted hoops junkie.

Sterling was mad that his girlfriend V. Stiviano, who is 23, had the nerve to post a social media picture of herself with beloved NBA and LA Lakers icon Magic Johnson.

"It bothers me a lot that you want to broadcast that you're associating with black people," Sterling reportedly said, in a recording posted by TMZ.

"But why publicize it on the Instagram and why bring it to my games?"

Sterling's dubious statements, Obama said, shows that America still has a long way to go to heal its centuries-old racial divide.

"The United States continues to wrestle with the legacy of race and slavery and segregation," Obama said. "That's still there, the vestiges of discrimination. We've made enormous strides, but you're going to continue to see this percolate up every so often."

The president urged Americans to denounce Sterling's outrageous words.

"We've made enormous strides, but you're going to continue to see this percolate up every so often," Obama said.

"And I think that we just have to be clear and steady in denouncing it, teaching our children differently, but also remaining hopeful that part of why statements like this stand out some much is because there has been this shift in how we view ourselves."

Amazingly, the Los Angeles chapter of the NAACP was set to honor Sterling next month with its lifetime achievement award — despite his mile-long record of racially insensitive comments about blacks, Latinos and Asians.

That NAACP dinner is set to honor, as its person of the year, MSNBC talk show host, the Rev. Al Sharpton.

The National Action Network leader on Sunday demanded that the NBA suspend Sterling immediately.

"You cannot have someone own an NBA team in this country and have these kinds of attitudes," Sharpton told "Meet the Press."

"You must remember, he's settled multi-million-dollar lawsuits in the past and he has a background [in racial insensitivity]."

Sterling's Clippers play Game 4 of their Western Conference quarterfinal series against the Golden State Warriors at 3:30 p.m. today.

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Teen stabbing victim recalled as ‘bright light full of dreams’

Maren SanchezPhoto: Facebook

HARTFORD, Conn. — The night before Maren Sanchez was fatally stabbed inside her high school, she asked to take a break from her drama group for a nail appointment. The junior prom she helped plan was the next day, and she wanted to look her best.

Sanchez, a 16-year-old junior, was attacked Friday in a school hallway, and a boy who's a student there has been charged with murder.

Instead of the prom that night, students gathered for a candlelight vigil and counselors were available for anyone who needed their help. They planned to be on hand Saturday as well, WFSB television station in Hartford reported. The prom was postponed indefinitely.

Police are investigating whether Sanchez was stabbed after turning down an invitation to the prom, an event she had been looking forward to attending with her boyfriend.

Family members and friends at the Jonathan Law High School in Milford were left reeling from the attack on Sanchez, an outgoing member of the National Honor Society who played guitar and was active in drama and other school activities.

Sanchez's boyfriend Jarrod Butts brought her dress to the vigil.Photo: Douglas Healey

"The unprovoked attack on Maren this morning has unfortunately for our family resulted in the permanent loss of Maren Victoria Sanchez, a bright light full of hopes and dreams with her future at her fingertips," her cousin, Edward Kovac, said Friday, reading from a statement prepared by the family.

Sanchez had posted on Facebook a photograph of herself wearing a blue prom dress, and on Thursday she was laughing at school with a friend as they talked about the upcoming dance.

"We were just laughing, talking about what we were going to do when we got there, how many pictures we were going to take," said the friend, Imani Langston.

That night she was helping to paint the set for a high school production of "Little Shop of Horrors" when she asked to be excused to have her nails done, drama adviser Michael Mele said.

"So here is this girl with her freshly painted prom nails, painting the set, and just having a great time with her classmates talking about plans for the prom and plans for after prom and going on a double date with another one of the drama kids and her new boyfriend," Mele said.

On Friday morning, students were gathered in an auditorium waiting for information on what had happened when Langston said a teacher came and told them Sanchez had been stabbed.

Friends and family gathered near the beach in a vigil for Sanchez, all of the students wearing their prom dresses and tuxedos.Photo: Reuters

"She basically just explained to us that Maren Sanchez got stabbed in the throat for saying no about going to prom" with the suspect, said Langston, who described herself as one of Sanchez's closest friends.

The suspect, whose name was not released, was charged with murder as a juvenile offender. He was being held in police custody at a medical facility. Police said they recovered a knife as evidence, obtained a search warrant and searched the suspect's home.

The suspect could be charged later as an adult. State's Attorney Kevin Lawlor said several factors go into making that decision, including the seriousness of the charges. He said the only prohibition in trying a murder suspect as an adult would be if that person was under 14 years old.

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Obama warns North Korea of US military strength

President Barack Obama said on Saturday the United States did not use its military might to "impose things" on others, but that it would use that might if necessary to defend South Korea from any attack by the reclusive North.

The North warned last month it would not rule out a "new form" of atomic test after the UN Security Council condemned Pyongyang's launch of a mid-range ballistic missile into the sea east of the Korean peninsula.

Obama and South Korean President Park Geun-hye presented a united front against North Korea at a joint news conference following their summit on Friday, warning that they would respond firmly to any "provocations" by Pyongyang which routinely threatens the United States and South Korea with destruction.

"We don't use our military might to impose these things on others, but we will not hesitate to use our military might to defend our allies and our way of life," Obama told cheering US forces at the Yongsan garrison on a sunny spring morning.

"So like all nations on Earth, North Korea and its people have a choice. They can choose to continue down a lonely road of isolation, or they can choose to join the rest of the world and seek a future of greater opportunity, and greater security, and greater respect – a future that already exists for the citizens on the southern end of the Korean peninsula."

North Korea is already subject to UN sanctions over its previous three atomic tests.

Recent satellite data shows continued work at the nuclear test site in North Korea, although experts analyzing the data say that preparations do not appear to have progressed far enough for an imminent test.

Adding to tensions surrounding Obama's visit to South Korea, the North announced on Friday it had detained a 24-year-old American this month who demanded asylum after arriving in the country on a tourist visa.

Obama is using his week-long Asia tour to try to ease doubts among US allies about his promise to "rebalance" military, diplomatic and economic resources toward the fast-growing Asia-Pacific region.

He has sought to strike a balance between showing the United States will be a counterweight to China without alienating Beijing, which worries that Washington wants to contain its growth and influence.

Obama and Park also urged China, North Korea's main ally, to uses its influence to help rein in its unpredictable neighbor.

Underscoring the vast differences between the economically dynamic South and the impoverished North, Obama met earlier with a business roundtable in Seoul where he hailed the benefits of a US-South Korea trade agreement that took effect in 2012.

Obama's visit came at a time when South Koreans remain preoccupied with the aftermath of the sinking of a ferry carrying hundreds of youngsters, one of the worst tragedies to hit the country in modern times.

Stressing a deep US bond with South Korea during his visit, Obama has expressed condolences to Park and the Korean people. More than 300 people drowned or are missing and presumed dead after the April 16 sinking. Investigations are focused on human error and mechanical failure.

Before visiting Seoul, Obama spent three days in Tokyo – the first full state visit by a US president since 1996 – on a visit meant to show that the US-Japan alliance, the main pillar of America's security strategy in Asia, is solid at a time of rising tensions over growing Chinese assertiveness and the North Korean nuclear threats.

He is also visiting Malaysia and the Philippines.

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Al Qaeda leader urges American kidnappings

Al Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri has called on Muslims to kidnap Westerners, particularly Americans, who could then be exchanged for jailed jihadists including a blind Egyptian cleric convicted in 1995 of conspiring to attack the United Nations and other New York landmarks.

In a wide ranging audio interview, the al Qaeda leader expressed solidarity with the Muslim Brotherhood which is facing a violent crackdown by the army-backed government in Egypt and urged unity among rebels in their fight against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Reuters could not verify the authenticity of the Zawahiri tape, but the voice resembled that of the al Qaeda leader.

"I ask Allah the Glorious to help us set free Dr. Omar Abdel-Rahman and the rest of the captive Muslims, and I ask Allah to help us capture from among the Americans and the Westerners to enable us to exchange them for our captives," said Zawahiri, according to the SITE website monitoring service.

Abdel-Rahman is serving a life term in the United States for a 1993 attack on New York's World Trade Center.

Zawahiri also urged "jihad and overthrowing the criminal al-Assad regime" in Syria and renewed his call to end infighting among jihadists that increased this year, pitting the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) against rival rebels including other hardline Islamists.

"The Ummah (Muslim world) must support this jihad with all that it can, and the mujahideen (Islamist militants) must unite around the word of Tawhid (unity)," said Zawahiri, an Egyptian-born doctor.

"So everyone should prioritize the interest of Islam and the Ummah over his organizational or partisans interest, even if he gives up for his brothers what he sees as right."

The infighting between the different rebel factions has hindered the battle against Assad and pushed rival rebel groups to consolidate power in their respective areas of control.

Al Qaeda said it was breaking with ISIL in February after disputes over the group's refusal to limit itself to fighting in Iraq rather than in Syria, where the Nusra Front is al Qaeda's affiliate.

Asked about the crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, Zawahiri answered: "the duty on every Muslims is to deter the aggressor by any means, and especially the oppressed Muslims."

Security forces have killed hundreds of Brotherhood supporters and arrested thousands, including most of its leaders, since the army toppled Islamist President Mohamed Mursi on July 3 following mass protests against his rule.

Egypt designated the Brotherhood as a terrorist organization last year.

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Man held starving, feces-covered sister in ‘dungeon’

SEYMOUR, Conn. — What veteran police Officer Lisa Wexler saw inside a stinking, dark, locked bedroom on Eleanor Road was like nothing else she had experienced in her nearly 24 years of policing.

A frail, starving woman covered head-to-toe with feces and urine sat in a room so foul officers couldn't breathe. They had to leave and call in a colleague wearing a hazardous material suit with an air pack to explore the room.

"Your eyes immediately watered. The smell … awful. We had to change uniforms after leaving because the stench was in them," Wexler said Friday afternoon at a news conference outside the Seymour Police Department. "I served on the New Haven police force for 22 years before retiring and coming here last July. I never saw anything like this in my years with New Haven. I was absolutely shocked."

The 56-year-old woman was recovering Friday afternoon at Yale-New Haven Hospital from what police said was neglect by her caretaker — her brother, Arthur Gauvin, 58.

"Officers and detectives have determined the motive for Gauvin keeping the victim locked up inside the house was so he wouldn't lose the house to the state of Connecticut," Deputy Chief Paul Satkowski said on Friday.

Gauvin faces numerous felony charges, including first-degree unlawful restraint, and was being held on $150,000 bond after his arraignment Friday afternoon in Superior Court in Derby. He is due in Milford Superior Court on May 13 for another hearing.

Detectives learned that the victim had owned the house once, and that ownership was transferred to Arthur Gauvin seven years ago. He was required to care for his sister for a total of nine years before the state would begin providing her any services, Satkowski said.

The exact details of the home ownership issue are still being sought by investigators, he said.

Satkowski, at the post-arraignment news conference, said officers had been called to the home for minor issues in 2010 and 2012, and found no evidence of anything wrong. Officers saw and talked with the sister both times, and she appeared normal, and conditions in the home were not unusual, he said.

After an anonymous call Thursday night asking officers to check on the welfare of a woman at the home, "What officers found Thursday night was astonishing, terrible," Satkowski said.

The tiny bedroom — its sole window painted black, nailed shut with boards and locked tight from the outside — was "kept like a dungeon," he said in the news release distributed after Gauvin's arrest.

"When the victim was brought Thursday night by ambulance to Yale-New Haven Hospital, some of the doctor and nurses on duty were mortified by her condition," Wexler said. "She was so frail, malnourished, dehydrated, dirty. Unbelievable."

Gauvin, who police said has no previous criminal record, was arrested twice Thursday night. The first time was on charges that he imprisoned and was criminally cruel to his sister. The second time was on threatening and witness tampering charges because he allegedly warned his daughter, who was waiting for him in the police station lobby, not to talk to police or he would kick her and her young daughter out of the house.

The younger woman, 33, told police later she had often questioned her father's poor care of the victim, saw continued mistreatment of her and was "petrified" by her own father's threat that he would toss her and his own 6-year-old grandchild out of the home if she cooperated in the investigation.

The daughter and grandchild lived in the home with Gauvin and the imprisoned sister. Police also said two young men, friends of the daughter, rented space in the basement because they had no other place to live.

Satkowski said the state Department of Children and Families had joined police in reviewing the case. It was not clear Friday if anyone would be allowed back into the home.

Nancy Phillips, who lives nearby and had bought a dog several years ago from Arthur Gauvin, said she walked by the Eleanor Road home about a year ago and saw a woman standing in the bedroom, looking out the window. Phillips said she thought it might be Gauvin's sister and asked people in Gauvin's yard how "the girl in the bedroom" was doing.

Not long after that, when Phillips next walked past the house, she said the bedroom window was painted black and the air conditioning unit in the window was gone.

"I should have said something," Phillips said Friday, sitting in a parked car outside the Gauvin home before leaving on an errand. "I always saw him sitting on the front steps, drinking. Never saw her again."

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How a Manhattan prep-school kid became a millionaire porn star

Asa Akira always knew what she wanted to be when she grew up.

"I was obsessed with it," Akira, now 28, recalls thinking when she was in middle school. "The girls were just really glamorous. They were having sex for money. I thought, 'What's better than that?' "

Akira has since appeared in more than 300 adult movies (the names of which are too filthy to reproduce here). She's one of the richest porn stars in America, with a reported net worth of over $1.5 million. And in her new memoir, "Insatiable," she's unabashed about the love she has for the industry that has made her dreams a reality.

It has "shaped me into a woman I had always hoped I would be. I've become more confident, more empowered, more sure of myself than I've ever been," she writes. "There's nothing else I'd rather be doing."

"I'm part of the new era of porn."

Akira (a stage name), says her life story doesn't fit most porn-star stereotypes. She had a "perfectly normal" childhood with a doting stay-at-home mother and parents who have stayed together for 30 years. She was educated at the private United Nations International School in Manhattan.

"I'm part of the new era of porn," she tells The Post. "We're feminists, very sex-positive people. We're not victims of rape, not drug addicts, we don't have any daddy issues."

Insatiable
Porn — A Love Story
by Asa Akira

About half the women in porn have similarly "normal" life experiences before entering the industry, especially now that porn is increasingly mainstream, she says.

Born in Manhattan, Akira lived with her mother and father, both Japanese immigrants, in Soho. Her mother stayed home to take care of Akira, an only child, and later returned to work in the nonprofit world.

Akira attended private preschool at Chelsea Day School. They spoke Japanese at home (Akira is fluent) and were avid health nuts. "I can count on one hand the time I was 'treated' to dinner at McDonald's," she writes.

Her family moved back to Tokyo when Akira was 9 because her father, a successful portrait photographer, was relocated there for work.

"Besides the moving around, I had a really normal, happy childhood," she says. "Honestly, nothing happened to me that can explain all this."

Still, Akira knew from an early age that she was more sexual than other girls.

"The first time I was called a slut was in fourth or fifth grade," she says. "I didn't know what it meant so I looked it up in the dictionary and it said something like 'unkempt woman.' Unkempt? I didn't understand."

"I think, 'What's wrong with me? What made me gravitate to this?' I know my parents must ask themselves that," she says. "Once in a while I think I should go see a shrink to figure this out. But part of me just doesn't want to know."

She remembers taking a book out of the library about the reproductive system when she was in first grade and asking her dad, clearly uncomfortable with the request, to read it to her.

Judy Blume's "Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret" — a story of a girl's sexual awakening, read by multitudes of young women with flashlights under their bed sheets — left a "huge impression" on her.

She watched her first pornographic movie during a sleep over at her friend's house in third grade. It was a soft-core movie based off a fairy tale. She wasn't turned on, but she was intrigued.

Photo: Angel Chevrestt

Akira was 13 when her family moved back stateside to Downtown Brooklyn and later Clinton Hill.

Because her grandfather had spent 45 years as a Japanese diplomat, she secured a scholarship to attend the prestigious UN School.

"I was surrounded by the Manhattan elite. Spoiled trust-fund babies, and children of diplomats who arrived to school in black limousines with special license plates," she writes. "And I was the scholarship kid."

At night, she watched Howard Stern's TV show on E! and became obsessed with the women he interviewed.

"Slutty girls were my heroes, somehow glorified in my mind," she writes.

Akira attends a Brazzers party in Las Vegas.Photo: FilmMagic

The UN School didn't invite her back for her sophomore year because of bad grades, so she enrolled in the public Washington Irving School in Gramercy Park.

She worked as a cashier at the children's bookstore Books of Wonder on West 18th Street, but secretly had other ambitions.

She scrolled through Craigslist ads, agreeing to a "sketchy" bikini modeling shoot when she was 14. She answered an ad for a "masseuse" but chickened out when the parlor's owner asked her to "practice" on him.

Her eye was on one prize: Porn.

"But it was a far away concept. I didn't know anyone in porn. I wouldn't even know the first steps to take. It's like saying, 'I want to be an astronaut.' I wouldn't know the first thing about being an astronaut," she says, and pauses.

"I'm sure I'm going to offend a lot of astronauts with that statement."

She transferred to the progressive public City as School her senior year, which requires its students to find internships to graduate. She first worked as a teacher's assistant at a preschool but quickly realized she "hated it, hated the responsibility of it."

Then she landed an internship at the high-fashion magazine V. But that wasn't for her, either.

"I've never been treated so badly," says Akira, who has made films in which she has sex with seven men. "It was the most degrading thing I've ever done and I've done a lot."

Working for high-fashion magazine V was "the most degrading thing I've ever done and I've done a lot."

Thanks to one chance encounter after graduation, her life would change forever.

"Excuse me, miss?" a man asked her on the street. "Would you be interested in working in the adult entertainment industry?"

"It was like if you want to be an actress and ["Kids" director] Larry Clark approaches you," she says. "I immediately said, 'Yes.' "

That night, she finished a shift as a dominatrix at The Nutcracker Suite on 33rd Street.

Her first client, a pro basketball player, asked her to "role-play like we're on a subway. I'll like stare and stare at you, and you're like totally creeped out by me."

Other opportunities followed. A friend hooked her up with a gig at Larry Flynt's Hustler Club, a gentleman's club off the West Side Highway.

The $600 (on a good night), she made at the dungeon no longer cut it. Now she could rake in up to $6,000 a night. She quit dominatrix work and took on the stage name Akira, taken from an anime character.

Deep into a painkiller pill addiction, she began hooking, too, but quit after just two men because she got too close with one of her johns.

The stripper lifestyle began to sour on her, too.

Akira at the 2014 AVN Adult Entertainment Expo in Las Vegas January, 2014.Photo: FilmMagic

"At first it was cool. I had never held so much money in my hand. But the novelty quickly wore off. I'm a bad salesperson — being like, 'Hey do you want some company?' I hated that stuff," she says.

She moved to Florida to work as a feature act on Bubba the Love Sponge's radio show. There, she met porn star Gina Lynn, who offered her on-camera work.

"I knew that if I ever did one scene in a porno it would change my life forever. So many jobs I can't do now. I can't do anything with children. I'm an only child, didn't want to break my parents' hearts," she says.

Despite it all, she boarded a bus from Port Authority to Lynn's house in Amish country, Pennsylvania, to shoot. Two days later, an agency flew her out to Los Angeles.

As one of the 5% of porn stars who are Asian (70% are white, according to The Internet Adult Film Database) Akira quickly discovered what typecasting means in porn.

"I can't even tell you how many times I've covered my naked body in sushi, or played the role of a mail-order bride. 'Masseuse' is something I can practically list on my resume," she writes.

There was an upside: "It pretty much guarantees me work until the day I quit, since there's always a shortage of Asian girls in the business."

She overcame her role as the "token Asian" by becoming a celebrated act in "Gonzo porn" — shot in close up without much plot — for her extreme sex acts.

She decided to keep this new life from her parents, even though she found it highly unlikely that it would remain a secret. It didn't.

Six months in, she got a phone call: "We saw your video," they said. "I didn't ask which one, so I just let it go. The conversation ended there," she says. She never discusses it with them.

During her daily phone conversations with her mother, "I'll be like, ''Work is good,' or 'I'm going to work.' But I'm not saying, 'Hey mom, I'm going to bang a bunch of guys tomorrow.' "

The money is good — the industry average is between $500 and $4,000 a shoot — but Akira claims it's about more than that.

"Almost every time I shoot a sex scene, I fall a little bit in love," she writes. "In love with being watched. In love with being on display. In love with being the center of attention."

In many ways, hers are the travails of any actress or model. Weight issues are inevitable in a field where the average woman is 5-foot-5 and weighs 117 pounds. Instead of doing drugs and drinking, she consumes salads and smoothies, and practices yoga.

Akira poses at the Morgans New York Hotel in midtown Manhattan.Photo: Angel Chevrestt

Sexually transmitted diseases are the biggest industry-specific hazard. She's gotten chlamydia — a difficult thing to explain when you're dating someone outside the industry, she explains. That's one reason she's now married to fellow porn actor Toni Ribas.

And then there's the age issue. She's 28 years old in an industry where the average is 22.

"I know the clock is ticking. I know soon I'll be too old for this business and it will be my time to move on to something else," she writes.

When she first moved to LA, she thought she'd spend two years in porn — most women only get three years in the business before they quit or are spit out — save up money, and then open a yoga studio.

Now she's six years in and has signed a new contract with Wicked Pictures as a featured player (features have storylines and less close-ups on sex), a direction that the porn industry in general is also heading. She's also directing, another way to stay relevant and cash-rich in the new porn business.

Last year, she was invited to her 10-year high school reunion, but had to decline because she already scheduled her directorial debut — a group sex scene. "I told [my friend] to make sure to text me any good gossip — who's gay, who's rich, who's broke, who's fat, who's on drugs, who's dead," she writes.

"Then I realized . . . Me. I'm probably the gossip. Guess who's in porn."

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UFC champ Jon Jones tells contenders to keep talking trash

The most called-out man in the UFC isn't necessarily annoyed by the attention.

Phil Davis has been on a vitriolic campaign against Jones leading into their respective fights on Saturday night.

Dan Cormier dropped from heavyweight to light heavyweight just to get a piece of "Bones" Jones, and hasn't stopped talking about him since debuting at 205 pounds.

And there was Chael Sonnen, too, who called out Jones so effectively he earned a title shot through his trash talking, even coming off of a loss. You would think all the call-outs would get annoying.

Yet Jones is flattered when light heavyweights mention his name.

"It lets you know you are relevant and at the top," Jones told The Post. "If anything, it creates more pressure for them."

In the weeks leading up to UFC 172 in Baltimore, that attention has never been so apparent. Jones takes on Glover Teixeira of Brazil, and fellow light heavyweight Phil Davis will welcome dangerous striker Anthony "Rumble" Johnson back to the octagon.

Instead of focusing on his opponent, Davis' attention seems to be elsewhere.

"I think it's smart for him (to talk about me), but it's definitely smarter for him to win this Saturday," Jones said of Davis, whose call-outs of the champ have dominated the headlines going into fight week. "All I've been hearing this week is about Phil Davis."

"I don't think Phil's very focused," Jones said. "I'm sure he's training hard, but he should be obsessed on Anthony Johnson right now. Instead he's focused on me."

Meanwhile, Jones takes on Teixeira, who carries a 20-fight win streak into the cage. Immune to the provocations, the 26-year-old champ from Upstate New York — the brother of NFLers Arthur and Chandler Jones — is doing what he believes Phil Davis should do as well: Focusing on the task at hand this Saturday.

"Glover has knockout power in both hands, he's a second degree black belt in jiu-jitsu, and to top that off he's a great wrestler," Jones said. "I've only fought a few opponents that are so well-rounded. All the other guys were more specialists."

If he loses to Teixeira, the call-outs and attention will be a thing of the past.

"This is the kind of fight where you have to dig deep to win," Jones said. "There are no holes in [Teixeira's] game. He's comfortable on his back, he can kickbox with me. I haven't even really seen anyone take him down."

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Judge tosses discrimination suit by female bankers over ‘Boys Club’ book

A Manhattan judge tossed a gender discrimination case by female trainees at Merrill Lynch who claimed they were instructed by a boss to learn from the author of a book called "Seducing the Boys Club: Uncensored Tactics From a Woman at the Top."

Seducing the Boys Club by Nina DiSesa

Justice Cynthia Kern ruled that while the book — which, according to the suit, advocates stroking "men's egos with flattery and manipulation in order to succeed in a male-dominated environment" — was indeed "validly assailed as inappropriate," it had nothing to do with the three women being fired in 2009.

Instead, Kern said Merrill's defense showed that Sara Hunter Hudson, Julia Kuo and Catherine Wharton were simply underachievers who didn't meet computer-generated performance goals.

Kern noted that the branch manager who invited author Nina DiSesa — anointed by Forbes as one of the 50 most powerful women in American business for her role as the first female chairwoman of marketing firm McCann Erickson — to speak at the office was later fired. "Boys Club" encourages women to act like a "little sister or a den mother" at work.

The would-be wealth management advisers "considered the message of the book to be highly offensive," they say in their 2013 bias suit for unspecified damages.

Merrill, which was acquired by Bank of America in 2008, claims the women never made complaints to human resources at the flagship Manhattan office about the allegedly offensive presentation.

In her 19-page ruling released Thursday, Kern noted that Hudson, who had worked in the financial services industry since the 1980s, was "terminated because she failed, more than 50 percent of the time, to meet her performance hurdles."

Similarly, Wharton, a former Deloitte Consulting analyst, bombed 10 of 12 achievement tests, Kern said.

"It is undisputed that a computer, and not a Merrill Lynch employee, targeted Ms. Wharton and other underperforming trainees for termination and that the computer did so based on statistical performance metrics," Kern wrote.

Neither reps for the trainees nor Merrill Lynch immediately returned requests for comment.

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Star snaps of the day

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Johnny Depp and Amber Heard arrive at opening night of "Cabaret" on Broadway on Thursday.

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J. Lo shows off her curves on the Los Angeles set of "American Idol" on Thursday.

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Zoe Saldana goes shopping on Los Angeles' Melrose Avenue on Thursday.

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Taylor Swift wore this outfit on her way back from the gym on Thursday in New York City.

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Emma Roberts and James Franco pose at the premiere of "Palo Alto" in New York City on Thursday.

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Accompanied by boyfriend Nicholas Hoult, Jennifer Lawrence shows paparazzi how she really feels in London on Thursday.

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Fergie and her mom arrive at LAX on Thursday.

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Emma Stone leaves her SoHo hotel for the New York City premiere of "The Amazing Spider-Man 2″ on Thursday.

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Kelly Ripa arrives at her SoHo apartment on Thursday.

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Daddy's little girl! Jamie Foxx's daughter, Annalise, rocks Electro face paint to the New York City premiere of "The Amazing Spider-Man 2″ on Thursday.

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Brad Pitt chats up Orlando Bloom at the "Paris Photo" preview in Hollywood on Thursday.

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Khloé Kardashian goes shopping in Los Angeles on Thursday, rocking a shirt that reads "Yeezus is a Gemini."

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Padma Lakshmi and Mario Lopez film "Extra" in Los Angeles on Thursday.

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Chris Martin makes his way through Paris on Thursday.

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Andrew Garfield greets fans and press at the premiere of "The Amazing Spider-Man 2″ on Thursday in New York City.

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Joanna Krupa and Carmen Electra have a joint birthday celebration at Hooray Henry's in Los Angeles on Thursday.

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Katie Holmes runs errands in New York City on Thursday.

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Pharrell continues his unofficial Arby's sponsorship at the New York City premiere of "The Amazing Spider-Man 2″ on Thursday.

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Kris Jenner grabs lunch at the Ivy in Los Angeles on Thursday.

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Dane Dehaan looks pretty dapper for a villain at the New York City premiere of "The Amazing Spider-Man 2″ on Thursday.

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Alan Cumming wears a monocle to his and Michelle Williams' opening night of "Cabaret" on Broadway on Thursday.

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Rita Ora leaves the Mercer hotel in SoHo on Thursday wearing something similar to a bathrobe.

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Gayle King attends the New York City premiere of "The Other Woman" on Thursday.

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Alicia Keys smooches husband Swizz Beatz at the premiere of "The Amazing Spider-Man 2″ on Thursday.

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Selita Ebanks stuns at "The Amazing Spider-Man 2″ premiere on Thursday in New York City.

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