By Sandy Cohen, Entertainment Writer
LOS ANGELES (AP) --Mindy Kaling agreed to voice a character in Pixar's latest film based on nothing more than an illustration. But she didn't even need that.
"They literally could have shown me nothing," said Kaling, who plays a green, fluttery-lashed girl named Disgust in the new film "Inside Out." She heard the word "Pixar," and she was in.
The much-anticipated film explores the action inside 11-year-old Riley's head, where Kaling's character and other emotions — Fear (Bill Hader), Anger (Lewis Black), Sadness (Phyllis Smith) and Joy (Amy Poehler) — control operations. Joy generally reigns, keeping Riley happy, but things go amiss when her family moves from Minnesota to San Francisco. Riley's team of emotions are thrown out of balance, and they have to work together to set things right.
Riley's personality is represented by "islands" comprising the things most important to her, such as family, friendship and sports. Kaling said the film inspired her to reflect on her childhood experiences and consider what might be included among her own Islands of Personality.
"I was thinking role model island, you know, what I want to project as a role model," the 35-year-old entertainer said. "Definitely fashion island. Friendship island, of course, because I'm very interested in my female friends; 4 p.m. snack island; mid-30s panic island. So I have a lot of islands. Some of them are helpful, some of them are not."
Kaling has also been thinking about the sitcom she created and stars in, "The Mindy Project," which was dropped by Fox last month and quickly picked up by Hulu. With twice the episodes of a typical network season, Kaling said her team plans to experiment with "new, creative storytelling techniques."
"It gives you a little more room," she said, especially since the episodes will be released weekly, rather than all at once as some streaming services do.
When it comes to content, though, Kaling is keeping her audience in mind: "The Mindy Project" won't be racier just because it's moving online.
"Our show was pretty damn risque when we were on broadcast TV," she said. "If anything, it's like I know that 14-year-old girls are watching the show, and I don't want to show them anything that they're not ready to sort of see."
South Korea fines Meta $15 million for illegally collecting information on Facebook users
South Korea's privacy watchdog on Tuesday fined social media company Meta 21.6 billion won ($15 million) for illegally collecting sensitive personal information from Facebook users, including data about their political views and sexual orientation, and sharing it with thousands of advertisers.
It was the latest in a series of penalties against Meta by South Korean authorities in recent years as they increase their scrutiny of how the company, which also owns Instagram and WhatsApp, handles private information.
Following a four-year investigation, South Korea's Personal Information Protection Commission concluded that Meta unlawfully collected sensitive information about around 980,000 Facebook users, including their religion, political views and whether they were in same-sex unions, from July 2018 to March 2022.
It said the company shared the data with around 4,000 advertisers.
South Korea's privacy law provides strict protection for information related to personal beliefs, political views and sexual behavior, and bars companies from processing or using such data without the specific consent of the person involved.
The commission said Meta amassed sensitive information by analyzing the pages the Facebook users liked or the advertisements they clicked on.
The company categorized ads to identify users interested in themes such as specific religions, same-sex and transgender issues, and issues related to North Korean escapees, said Lee Eun Jung, a director at the commission who led the investigation on Meta.
"While Meta collected this sensitive information and used it for individualized services, they made only vague mentions of this use in their data policy and did not obtain specific consent," Lee said.
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