Entertainment Gab

Oh LA Fitness is just the absolute worst. I had a very similar experience to the OP.

A few years ago I did a tour of one of their locations and they gave me one of those complimentary fitness assessments by one of their trainers. They said that for $90 a month I would get 3 training sessions, and if I signed up that day, they would throw in a 4th free. I was trying to get into shape for the first time and didn't know what I was doing, so I decided to sign up.

But first, I asked, "I'll be moving soon to such and such city. Are there locations there?"

The sales manager said, "Oh yeah, that's like our main market, we have a ton of locations."

So I signed up.

It was okay at first. I'd make my appointment, go in and get trained. It was a different trainer every time, but whatever.

Then I'd notice that there were fewer and fewer appointments available. Sometimes there would be nothing available for weeks on end, so I'd end up scheduling all 4 in one week to get my month's worth, as they wouldn't roll over.

Then I'd go in for my appointment, and they would inform me that it was pushed back by a couple of hours. Sometimes it was canceled completely by the manager. I'd ask why wasn't I called and informed, and they'd explain that they were too busy.

Then one month I managed to get 3 sessions in, but because they kept on cancelling, I hadn't gotten to use my 4th before the end of the month. I tried to complain, and they told me, "You're only paying for 3 sessions a month. That 4th session is only a favor to you if the sales manager is available to train you himself, the training staff are not obligated to train you that 4th time. You can always upgrade your training package though if you want more sessions."

I was furious at this point. LA Fitness was screwing me over and just stealing my money at this point. I went home and on a whim checked the locations in the city I was about to move to. There wasn't a single location there. There was one in the suburbs, but it was an hour away from where I would be living.

I called the store manager to complain about everything that had transpired. How my sessions were never with the same trainer, how they were always being rescheduled or cancelled without notice, how the sales person has lied to me about the new city locations. I thought the manager would be sympathetic.

Instead he was completely combative. He said that they are indeed very busy and do have to move appointments sometimes, and they don't have time on to call every time they did. And that his sales staff would never lie to their customers, and that obviously I was the one lying.

I demanded he just cancel my contract. He said no. I demanded again. He said no. I again demanded he cancel my contract. He let up a little and said that the only way to cancel was to come into the gym in person and fill out a cancellation request form and they would mail it into corporate, and my request would be considered but not guaranteed.

I asked if there wasn't just a corporate number I could call.

He said, "NOPE! There are no corporate numbers it can call."

And he hung up.

I went to the website. Found a corporate complaint number. I called. Explained my story. The woman was very sympathetic and told me that managers behavior was unacceptable. She agreed to cancel my contract, but I still had to pay an early cancellation fee which was like $200. At this point I just wanted to be done with it and paid the fee.

Fuck LA Fitness.

The move will put an end to home delivery and "single copy outlet" distribution in El Dorado, Camden, Magnolia and surrounding areas six days a week. That means the statewide daily paper will no longer be available for purchase at coin-operated boxes or at retailers (such as gas stations or grocery stores) in the five-county area. The Sunday edition will continue to be distributed both to home subscribers and to retailers.

The change was first reported by the Magnolia Reporter after WEHCO Media CEO Walter Hussman spoke at a Thursday meeting of the Rotary Club of Magnolia. (WEHCO is the Democrat-Gazette's parent company; it does not own the Reporter, though it owns a separate Magnolia paper, the Banner-News.)

The Magnolia Reporter story said WEHCO will discontinue distribution of the print edition of the D-G "outside Central Arkansas." However, Hamilton said that was incorrect.

The D-G has already substituted iPads for home delivery service in about 20 counties in east and north Arkansas, he explained. The five counties in south Arkansas represent a similar but distinct experiment in cutting distribution costs and shifting to digital. In the east and north Arkansas counties, the D-G has stopped home delivery entirely — including on Sundays — but it continues to distribute the paper to retail stores and newspaper boxes seven days a week.

"We’re testing digital delivery in a couple different methods in counties remote from Central Arkansas," Hamilton said. "We picked those regions because they’re the furthest from Little Rock and the most expensive for us to deliver a printed paper."

Its distribution in the rest of the state, including Northwest Arkansas, will remain unchanged.

Hamilton said the company doesn't know which "test model" will be most effective, which is why it's experimenting with multiple approaches. "We know digital publication is the future. ... [but] we don’t really have an answer and we don’t know what comes next," he said. In both models, the company gives iPads to its subscribers, though it retains ownership of the devices. It also has a trained team of employees in its circulation department that teaches subscribers — many of whom are older people — how to use the tablets.

"We’re literally going into their homes, hooking up their iPads, sitting with people who are 90 years old and teaching them to use an iPad," Hamilton said. He said it's an "intensive process," but the early results are promising, especially in larger towns such as Jonesboro.

"We’re converting from 50 percent to 70 percent of the former home delivery subscribers to use the iPad," Hamilton said. "The areas where the acceptance rate is lowest is in places like Lake Village where people don't have good internet connections," he said.

In the 20 east and north Arkansas counties in which home delivery has already stopped, the newspaper has so far distributed about 2,500 tablets, Hamilton said. It hasn't had a problem so far with people unsubscribing from the digital edition and not giving the iPads back. "It’s got to be less than five that we’ve lost … some people accidentally drop them or break them, but we haven’t had a problem with [theft]," he said.

Across the U.S., daily newspapers continue to shrink, struggle and close as their ad revenue flow to tech giants like Facebook and Google. The Magnolia Reporter quoted Hussman's description of the decline:

“As recently as 1980, newspapers took in 31 percent of all (United States) advertising revenue,” Hussman said. By 2000, newspapers had 22 percent of the ad market.

“They still had enough revenues to have a good, robust news staff to report news and provide lots of opinions, to serve a watchdog function over government and business and labor, and also enough money to provide a profit and return for the owners,” Hussman said.

Revenues began collapsing when the Associated Press, the world’s leading news-gathering and distribution cooperative, started to sell content to Yahoo, Google and other Internet services, Hussman said. Those services began providing news to their users without charge. Many newspapers followed, he said.

“Despite all of these changes, newspapers continued to increase their revenues – not quite as much as other mediums did, but still increasing. All of that happened until 2006. That was the first year in the United States when newspapers’ total ad revenue declined for the first time in a non-recession year,” Hussman said.

Newspaper revenues have fallen annually every year since 2006. Nationally, newspapers now receive less than 5 percent of all advertising revenues.

Newspapers have responded to the newspaper revenue decline in several ways, Hussman said. The first has been to raise subscription prices. An Arkansas Democrat-Gazette subscription is $432 a year. The Banner-News is $180 a year. (magnoliareporter.com, which is NOT affiliated with either newspaper, offers free access to its exclusively online platform).

“But that’s not been enough,” Hussman said.

Supergirl is getting a new addition to the team, one whose powers include the ability to blaze trails with a single photo.

The CW on Friday unveiled the first shot of Nicole Maines (aka CatCo reporter Nia Nal) in full costume as Dreamer, something fans have eagerly awaited since the network announced the casting of TV’s first-ever transgender superhero at San Diego Comic-Con this summer.

Though Nia won’t officially don the Dreamer suit until Supergirl‘s Feb. 17 episode, we’ll get our first glimpse of it when Nia visits her hometown on Jan. 27. The episode, titled “Blood Memory,” sheds new light on Nia’s backstory, including how her powers — she can dream the future! — first manifested.

Nia was introduced in Supergirl‘s fourth season premiere as CatCo’s newest cub reporter, a kindred spirit whom Kara felt compelled to mentor. And that was before she even discovered just how special (and powerful) Nia really is. Along with Nia’s new role as a superhero, we can also look forward to her blossoming relationship with Brainy, who refers to her as a “super friend” in a new promo during what appears to be a date.

Supergirl‘s fourth season resumes with a new episode this Sunday (8/7c). Scroll down to behold Dreamer’s suit in all its glory, then drop a comment with your thoughts below.

Did landing a celebrity really help Gravity Media's Snowball event?

That was Carlotta's plan on Star Season 3 Episode 4 when she realized there was a severe lack of buzz for the event. 

Meanwhile, Star learned that Maurice was the one who stole from her and set out to make him pay before it was too late. 

Also, Derek started to wonder whether there was something off about Alex's super-fan-turned-bestie, Olivia, who seemed to be everywhere they went. 

Use the video above to watch Star online right here via TV Fanatic. 

Catch up on all your favorite shows and reviews and join in the conversations with other fanatics who love TV as much as you.

Paul Dailly is the Associate Editor for TV Fanatic. Follow him on Twitter.

Owing to a lack of vaccinations and a rise in misinformation, the nationwide measles outbreak has soared to include 695 reported cases this year, the highest rate since the disease was declared eliminated in 2000. What do you think?

Justin Kirk has been tapped to play Jennifer Morrison’s embattled TV husband in CBS’ Under the Bridge drama pilot.

Penned by Rina Mimoun (Mistresses, Everwood), the project follows Morrison’s Caitlin “Cait” Lancaster, a cardiothoracic surgeon who is pulled away from a self-imposed sabbatical when her husband Michael is voted out of the medical practice they founded.

Per our sister site Variety, Kirk’s character is described as a charming natural leader but a bit of a “class clown” whose sometimes inappropriate behavior has landed him in hot water.

Supergirl‘s David Ajala was previously cast as Dan, who back in the day hoped that Cait would wind up with him, but she married his best friend instead. When Dan votes to remove Michael from their practice, Michael considers it a personal betrayal. Reggie Lee (Grimm) and Sarayu Blue (Monday Mornings) round out the cast.

In addition to of course his run on Weeds, Kirk’s previous TV credits include Tyrant, Modern Family and Kidding.

People of Walmart is a humor blog that depicts the many customers of Walmart stores across the United States and Canada. Through funny photos and videos, People of Walmart is an entertainment blog in the Three Ring Blogs network that features over 30 of the funniest humor blogs on the internet. Walmart is the largest retail store in the United States and has millions of people visit stores each day wearing anything but proper attire. Hello Flippa.

The CW’s Nancy Drew series has introduced its first plot twist — but it’s happening behind the scenes.

TV vet Scott Wolf has boarded the project in the role of Nancy’s estranged father, replacing the previously cast Freddie Prinze Jr.

Per The Hollywood Reporter, which broke the news, Nancy Drew producers wanted to go in a different direction, but Prinze Jr. left the show on good terms. Recasts are not unusual as broadcast networks continue to choose the pilots that will earn a spot on their fall or midseason schedules.

Wolf will now portray Carson Drew, a dynamic attorney who has become distant from Nancy following the recent death of his beloved wife. But Carson’s attempts to reconnect with his daughter run aground when Nancy’s murder investigation reveals unsettling secrets from his own past.

Though Wolf is best known for his six seasons as Party of Five‘s Bailey Salinger, his more recent TV credits include The Night Shift and Perception.

Nancy Drew was one of three pilots (thus far) to score a series order at The CW this week, along with Riverdale spinoff Katy Keene, starring Lucy Hale, and Arrowverse offshoot Batwoman, led by Ruby Rose.

Your thoughts on the recast? Drop ’em in a comment below.

After taking Ellen DeGeneres to school in a game of ping-pong backstage, Meek Mill hit the floor for a conversation as part of the latest episode of The Ellen Degeneres Show airing on Wednesday (Nov. 28). Throughout the six-minute sit-down, the Philly native reflected on the moment he found he was getting bail and the need for criminal justice reform in America. 

Meek began by explaining that he actually watched Ellen's show a ton during his near six-month prison bid. "It's not a lot of good things to watch on TV. They give us the basic channels. I found myself watching Ellen. Some days it was CNN and then it was Ellen," he said. 

The "Burn" rapper was actually found out about his imminent release from behind bars by watching the news. "I was watching the news and [seeing] 'Meek Mill is up for bail,'" he realized. "I dropped my food and jumped up in the air. I was leaving 10 minutes later. I came outside and I was kind of dizzy."

Since his release on bail in April, the 31-year-old feels the duty to speak up and use his platform as a voice for the voiceless in the prison system. "A lot of these things don't make sense and everybody knows they don't make sense but nobody focuses on changing the system," Meek suggested.

Meanwhile, with the Dreamchasers artist gearing up to release his Championships comeback album on Friday (Nov. 30), his press circuit is now in full-effect. During a recent profile with Vulture, Meek shared that he attempted on several occasions to stop Kanye West from visiting the White House.

"I had phone calls with Kanye for hours. He was trying to get me to go to things like that," he recalled. "It was a mockery, really. I don’t think [Kanye] addressed anything that had to do with what was tough on justice reform. He wasn’t prepared for it, and he shouldn’t have done it."

Watch Meek Mill's appearance on Ellen below.

Source: https://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/hip-hop/8486939/meek-mill-ellen-interview