Sen. Ted Cruz doesn’t have as many friends as he says he does. In the latest round of  Cruz’s simmering debate with Sen. John McCain (who labeled Cruz a "wacko bird"), Cruz spoke of "my friend, the senior senator from Arizona" while painting him as out of touch with his party and country. It usually takes a while for senators to learn how to weaponize compliments and imprecations of friendship, but Cruz is a quick study. After a patient attack on McCain's understanding of history, Cruz said: "I know my friend from Arizona is well aware of that because he is such an esteemed historian of this body." Like use of the word "frankly," which in Washington means just the opposite, Cruz’s sentence is best read in reverse: McCain is neither a friend, esteemed, nor a historian. (He is still, however, from Arizona.)

I wish I could summon up Simon Doonan’s enthusiasm for Behind the Candelabra, Steven Soderbergh’s HBO biopic about the affair between the uber-fabulous pop pianist Liberace and his 40-years-younger lover and houseboy, Scott Thorson. (Hell, I’d be happy to summon up Simon Doonan levels of enthusiasm for anything.) While the lead performances are exceptional and the décor and costumes to die for, for me Behind the Candelabra never lived up to the promise displayed in its first half. This seductively opulent movie—much of it filmed inside Liberace’s actual mansion, with the showman’s glitzy original furnishings painstakingly recreated—invites us in with a grand wave of its ermine sleeve, then leaves us trapped in the mansion without quite enough to do.

Warning: This article contains spoilers for Before Midnight.

Saturday night, I’ll be watching the San Antonio Spurs attempt to go up 3–0 against the Memphis Grizzlies in the NBA’s Western Conference Finals. Leading the charge will be the Spurs’ Belgian-born point guard Tony Parker, Brazilian power forward Tiago Splitter, and Argentine sixth man Manu Ginobili.* Boris Diaw, also from France, should get major minutes off the bench as well. The Grizzlies have a much more heavily American roster, but their stifling defense is anchored by Spanish center Marc Gasol.

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In a clear effort to appease a divided membership, the Boy Scouts of America has voted to change its national policy on homosexuality: It will now allow gay youth to become and remain scouts, but it will still ban adult leaders “who are open or avowed homosexuals or who engage in behavior that would become a distraction to the mission of the BSA.” A spokesman told me the focus is on youth so as to ensure that the Scouts can “provide kids a place to belong while they learn and grow.”

Last June, Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Antonin Scalia went at each other over Obamacare. Roberts famously joined with the court’s liberals to uphold most of the health care law, handing the president a victory, while Scalia voted with the court’s conservative bloc to kill the law. In the process, Roberts celebrated judicial restraint, which counsels against striking down acts of Congress, and Scalia mouthed Tea Party talking points, which promote going after federal laws and regulation by any means necessary. Now the two conservative justices are dueling again—only they’ve switched sides.

Richard Linklater’s Before trilogy—Before Sunrise (1995), Before Sunset (2004), and now Before Midnight—occupies a particular place in the heart of its fans, many of whom share a roughly defined demographic berth with the movie’s stars, Julie Delpy and Ethan Hawke. I know more than one couple who feel that their own romantic destiny is tied in some way to that of Céline and Jesse, the characters Delpy and Hawke have been embodying (both in the flesh and on paper; they’re credited as co-writers on the second two movies, and collaborated without credit on a rewrite of the first) for going on 20 years now. In the first film, they played a French student and an American slacker in their early 20s who fell in love over the course of an all-night train layover in Vienna. In the second, they were the same people meeting up again nine years later in Paris for one rushed, geographically impossible, and ultimately life-changing afternoon.

The automobile advocacy organization AAA forecasts that 31.2 million people will drive to their Memorial Day destinations this weekend, up 0.25 percent from last year. Media outlets announce the AAA road travel prediction for most holiday weekends. How accurate are they?

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In Slate’s Arrested Development TV Club, two fans will IM about each episode of Season 4 once they finish watching it. Today, Brow Beat editor David Haglund and editorial assistant Emma Roller prep for the launch of the new season.