Month: November 2021

It sure seems like Mayim Bialik’s gaining momentum for the most audience-favored candidate to host Jeopardy! on a full-time basis. She’s made no secret, as well, of her desire to take over the job after she and Ken Jennings finish out the year of sharing those duties. And Mayim seems incredibly comfortable with the job, too, as she welcomed contestant Julian Huerta this week while devoting some airtime to how he celebrated hearing that he’d be on the show.

Julian received the news on a very significant day, and he elaborated in response to Mayim’s prompt. “We actually got the original email that we were gonna be called back to do the audition process,” Julian explained. “And my wife happened to drop the same day that we were pregnant, as well. So, we actually ended up naming my son Alex.”

What an undeniably sweet tribute. “We love this baby name!” the Jeopardy! Twitter account wrote in response.

Not only that, but the pregnancy yielded twins with a girl named Emma. Alas, Julian did not fare too well during his time on the show, heading out with a third-place finish, but he’s got the souvenir of a lifetime. Nothing to complain about there, for sure.

Donald Trump’s former personal attorney Rudy Giuliani is no longer practicing law as he waits for the FBI to conduct their investigation into his dealings with Ukrainian officials pre- the 2020 Presidential Election. He’s also twiddling his thumbs as Dominion prepares its $1.3 billion defamation lawsuit against him for false claims about their involvement in voter fraud schemes during the election last year.

All this to say: Rudy’s got a lot of time on his hands and he’s choosing to spend it by *checks notes* delivering incoherent rants on Steve Bannon’s radio show. Sounds productive.

Giuliani guested on Bannon’s program recently where he let loose a fear-mongering diatribe for the ages, accusing President Joe Biden of being both a cunning, deceitful playmaker on Capitol Hill and an old geezer with a compromised mental capacity. Bannon suggested that Biden had lied about a campaign promise to seek justice for the thousands of families separated at the border during Trump’s time in office after the President told Fox News the administration would not be paying a proposed $450,000 to each family member affected by Trump’s policy. Negotiations between lawyers representing those families and government officials working for Biden are still ongoing and monetary compensation could still be on the table, but Biden addressed that specific figure after Peter Doocy snuck in the question during a press conference on COVID vaccines for children.

So, technically, Biden hasn’t lied about remedying the situation at the border. That process is still ongoing. But please, whatever you do, don’t tell that to Giuliani because raging out on radio shows is all the man has left at this point.

Giuliani answered Bannon’s claim with his own completely unsubstantiated guesswork over Biden’s current mental state.

“He’s certainly capable of looking with a straight face and lying,” Giuliani began. “We’ve caught him in, what, 100 lies. ‘I never met any Ukrainian.’ We’ve got all those pictures all over the place and text messages and he was spending more time with Ukrainians than Ukrainians do. But here’s the possibilities given the present state of his mental capacity: he could be lying. He could have forgotten. Or they may not have told him. Any one of those three things.”

Giuliani went on to express his very genuine, not-at-all contrived distress over Biden’s ability to govern the country given what he views as his deteriorating mental state.

“Who knows with this guy,” he said. “The simple fact is this is one of the most dangerous points in our history. We have a mental incompetent sitting next to a button that could destroy the world.”

Ummm, Rudy? We’re pretty sure you’re thinking about your old boss.

(Via Raw Story)

Megan Thee Stallion has every right to be proud of herself this year. Not only did she continue her dominant reign on the music side, dropping the well-received turn-up tape, Something For Thee Hotties, and land the cover of Glamour magazine explaining how she was inspired as a businesswoman by Queen Latifah, but she also completed the coursework to secure her degree in health administration from Texas Southern, with what sounds like an “A” average despite her musical and business obligations.

After previously showing off her graduation cap — customized with her signature catchphrase, naturally — Meg shared her graduation photos on social media today, taking both traditional shots in a classy black dress and a racier set in her hot pink graduation stole — and little else, baring her booty in a matching monokini with heels in front of a fleet of customized lowriders. “Showed my ass and still went to class,” she celebrated in the caption.

“IMA ALWAYS STAND OUT WITH NO HANDOUTS,” she continued. “Doing everything they said I can’t/couldn’t! Megan Thee Mf Stallion aka the mf Htown Hottie is graduating Dec 11th from TEXAS SOUTHERN UNIVERSITY now go and talk abt that!” She also teased a graduation party, the date and location of which would appear to be either a secret or to be determined, judging from the peeking eyes emoji she used in place of a date.

With her degree out of the way, Meg will be free to go full-throttle on her musical career, should she decide to, although she’s also got some other plans that involve giving back and helping more women complete their own educations as she aims for the sky and proves that you really can have it all.

Narcos: Mexico (which consistently gets high on its own supply) shall soon end a six-season saga that’s revolved around warring kingpins, trucks full of drugs, loads of excess, and the best promo photos in the business. In the midst of it all, a motley crew of characters make themselves inexplicably likable, relative to the bad things they do. It’s such a fun show, despite all the terrible things that happen, and Narcos is one of those joints that fits many moods. It’s action-packed and meme-able, and it’s more intellectual than one could ever realistically have expected, all while giving us giggles along the way. It’s a soap opera full posturing from cartel heads and law enforcement alike. It’s always been more than a little bit macho but never afraid to laugh at itself.

Narcos has been profound as hell, too, and that happens in the most unexpected ways. Like when Pablo Escobar, monster that he was, became undeniably human while enjoying some damn ice cream in the park, and could practically see his soul and how happy and peaceful he felt. He was freed from the prison of his own making, all before he went down in a necessary hail of bullets. And that brings me to what I’ve enjoyed the most about this saga: characters of significance show both shades of darkness and glimmers of light. Yet no one could ever accuse Pablo Escobar of being a good guy. Not even close, despite the Robin Hood thing. His destructive legacy claimed countless lives, and his hippos are still running amok in real life. Yet the point was not to glamorize Escobar, but rather, to question the whole evil-vs-good dichotomy of the War on Drugs. There aren’t too many “good” guys in this show. There are also no winners here, and there’s no ending to it, either.

As I watched the final episodes of Narcos: Mexico, a certain line from Steve Murphy (Boyd Holbrook) echoed in my head. You know the one? “The Devil’s a real letdown” was what he said as Escobar took his final breaths in Season 2. Well how, exactly, does this show avoid being a letdown when the powers that be couldn’t “finish” a story that never actually ends IRL? I won’t spoil how it happens, but I can tell you five ways that Narcos: Mexico satisfies (and season’s tagline actually is “the final blow”) while doing so.

– Scoot McNairy’s heroic mustache frankly rules: I’ve beat this drum already, so I’m getting this point out of the way first. Scoot has made it clear to us that he can’t wait to shave his mustache whenever he finishes up filming, but god, Scoot, just give in to the power of that facial hair. That mustache leads more resonant conversations and does a lot more maneuvering this season than last time. This is a trustworthy mustache, which makes its existence all the more tragic because Walt Breslin isn’t the classic good guy. He’s achingly complex and plagued by personal demons. This season, Walt Breslin kind-of f*cks with his audience, both on the show, and narratively speaking. What happens brings beautifully flawed humanity to the game and wraps things up well. Regardless of whether Walt Breslin’s a hero, that mustache definitely qualifies as one.

– Narcos: Mexico knows that it very well couldn’t put a bow on the ending: The show takes great pains to warn viewers that it’s a dramatized version of actual events in the drug war. So, we can’t expect total accuracy in details, and some of the franchise’s most sensational scenes were embellished; as with Kiki Camarena (Michael Peña) never really holding a gun to his own head, and at least according to Félix Gallardo (Diego Luna), he never actually met with Escobar. Likewise, composite characters (like Walt Breslin) are amalgamated from real-life figures. Narratively, these were the right moves, to add texture to the whole heroes-vs-villain concept. Most major characters here wallow around in their chosen excesses, until they’re consumed, and the “heroes” are no exception. This season, the gleeful prediction from Gallardo comes true. In taking Guadalajara Cartel down, the fledgling DEA inadvertently unleashed a circus of up-and-coming kingpins. And the drug war is still going, but Narcos ends the storytelling with one of its signature touches: those rare, quiet conversations, which add structure to what could otherwise be absolute chaos.

– The show does not cut corners in the stylish villain department: This season ultimately sees the rise of El Chapo Guzmán, who’s positioning himself for the rise of the Sinaloa Cartel and only recently found himself behind bars in real life. His real-life antics are downplayed in this season for the flashier heads of newly independent cartels. There’s the Arellano Felix family in Tijuana and Amado Carillo Fuentes in Juarez. Law enforcement and government corruption, at all ranks, is part of the drill, and the show certainly doesn’t consider the scrutinization of U.S. leaders to be off the table (and rightfully so). There are so many political shenanigans going down behind the scenes, but there are wild theatrics at the forefront. Returning bad guys surface, and there’s a massive crop of new ones. These guys (including one played by one portrayed by Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, a.k.a. Bad Bunny) are so ridiculously stylish and enjoyable to watch because, as Gallardo previously promised, the pact to get along and “prosper” could never last. So many snakes are eating their tails this season.

– We’ve got something of a Ladies Night: The treatment of women in Narcos‘s a low-key but present issue. Kiki Camarena’s wife didn’t receive enough of a story to highlight her real-life activism after her husband’s death. The girlfriend of Gallardo, the cocaine-soaked Queen Isabella Bautista (a leader herself), did prove to be an exception to the cartel rule, which is that women evaporate into the background; or at least, they did not overtly protest their circumstances, which was largely the case with Escobar’s wife. A female journalist who influenced Escobar grew uncomfortably close to him in the process, and all of those women were more complex than one would hope to expect from a “manly” show. Yet this final season delivers different twists on lady tragedy (Femicide in Mexico) and lady power than we’ve seen from the franchise. On the latter note, we receive the first female narrator, a journalist named Andrea Nuñez (Luisa Rubino) who guides us through all of the intricate history that pulls this season together. Her work for a guerrilla newspaper (which takes on the cartels and linked government corruption) sees some of the only truly selfless bravery in all of six seasons.

(Late-breaking update: Viewers should be quite interested to see Narcos and Narcos: Mexico showrunner Eric Newman’s upcoming (unrelated) limited series starring Sofia Vergara as Columbian queenpin Griselda Blanco. Vergara will likely nail that role, and we’ll see a lot of her serial-killing, Miami coke-running action when that story arrives.)

– Finally, the spirit of Escobar haunts the whole joint: There’s no secret as far as timelines intersecting between Narcos: Mexico and Narcos. That’s to be expected from a reverse time-jump between the shows. The wonderful thing, though, is that Wagner Moura (who portrayed Escobar, through his sad clown phase and everything else) returns to direct. And let’s just say that he makes his presence known, and I won’t elaborate, so that you can enjoy everything without spoilers. Narcos: Mexico does have an ending, although it’s a loose one that works both narratively and historically. I expect that this show won’t easily be forgotten (more spinoffs, anyone?) because, like the real-life saga, though, this tale will never truly end, nor will Narcos ever be forgotten.

‘Narcos: Mexico’ Season 3 streams on November 5.

Scoot McNairy’s career is as wonderful as his name. He’s been in blockbusters (Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice), he’s been in Best Picture winners (Argo, 12 Years a Slave), he’s been in cult favorites (Killing Them Softly), and he has a starring role in one of Netflix’s biggest shows, Narcos: Mexico. But the project of his that people want to talk about the most is Halt and Catch Fire, the criminally under-seen AMC series that, according to McNairy, is finally getting the popularity it deserved when it was on.

“That was my first series, and the viewership was not high. So it was this unnerving feeling that not very many people were watching the show and you didn’t know if you were going to go back. But AMC stuck behind it, they kept pushing it, and they believed in the show,” he told Entertainment Weekly in a career retrospective. Halt lasted for four seasons, and although McNairy wishes it had gone for two more, he thinks “they did a great job wrapping it up.” He’s also noticed an uptick in the show’s popularity:

“In the pandemic everyone went through their queues and they got around to it. People comment on that show more than probably anything else I’ve done. I’m always appreciative of the diehard fans that really stuck with us from the beginning.”

Besides Narcos: Mexico (out November 5), you can also see McNairy in C’mon C’mon, the new Mike Mills film starring Joaquin Phoenix. It hits theaters on November 19.

(Via EW)

Tems is having a stellar year. The Nigerian R&B-afrobeats singer-songwriter broke out in early 2021 as a result of her feature on fellow Nigerian artist Wizkid’s fan-favorite single “Essence,” which catapulted her into the US spotlight and sent listeners scrambling back to her September 2020 EP For Broken Ears. Since then, she’s released another EP, If Orange Was a Place, featured on Drake’s new album Certified Lover Boy, and embarked on her first-ever US tour, which is helping to show her breakout was no fluke.

Now, as if to put the exclamation point on the above-mentioned accomplishments, she offers her take on the star-making NPR Music Tiny Desk Concert. The Tiny Desk (Home) Concert format allows her to spread out, as she and her band perform in an elegantly-appointed ballroom. With a setlist consisting of “Found,” “Free Mind,” “Looku Looku,” “Replay,” and the standout “Damages,” Tems establishes herself as a performer of uncommon talent, managing to be as captivating sitting on a stool as any number of much more animated artists.

Tems’ rise to stardom now has her performing on late-night television shows and videos like “Crazy Tings” racking up millions of plays, making it clear that there are even greater heights in store.

Watch Tems’ Tiny Desk Concert above.

After a 12-year hiatus, Academy award-winning filmmaker Jane Campion (The Piano) is back with a film that already appears both brutish and beguiling in its first official trailer. In The Power of the Dog, Campion casts Benedict Cumberbatch (Doctor Strange, Sherlock) against Kirsten Dunst (Spider-Man, The Virgin Suicides) in a tense Western drama about masculinity, romance, and, of course, power. The film is scheduled for a limited theatrical release on November 17, before quickly becoming available to stream on Netflix on December 1.

Based on Thomas Savage’s 1967 novel of the same name, The Power of the Dog follows “severe, pale-eyed, handsome, Phil Burbank,” (Benedict Cumberbatch) as he unleashes a campaign of torment against his sister-in-law, Rose (Kirsten Dunst) and her son Peter (Kodi Smit-McPhee). While the trailer is good about keeping most of the film’s plot under wraps, those of you more interested in just what transpires can read the thorough Netflix description below:

The year is 1925. The Burbank brothers are wealthy ranchers in Montana. At the Red Mill restaurant on their way to market, the brothers meet Rose, the widowed proprietress, and her impressionable son Peter. Phil behaves so cruelly he drives them both to tears, reveling in their hurt and rousing his fellow cowhands to laughter – all except his brother George, who comforts Rose then returns to marry her.

As Phil swings between fury and cunning, his taunting of Rose takes an eerie form — he hovers at the edges of her vision, whistling a tune she can no longer play.  His mockery of her son is more overt, amplified by the cheering of Phil’s cowhand disciples. Then Phil appears to take the boy under his wing. Is this latest gesture a softening that leaves Phil exposed, or a plot twisting further into menace?

In addition to Cumberbatch, Dunst, and Smit-McPhee, the film also stars Jesse Plemons, Thomasin McKenzie, Genevieve Lemon, Keith Carradine, Frances Conroy, Peter Carroll, and Adam Beach. When The Power of the Dog premieres at the 78th Venice International Film Festival on September 2, 2021, it was met with praise and critical acclaim particularly for Cumberbatch and its ensemble cast.

Last year, Brazilian pop star Anitta teamed up with Cardi B for the showstopping single “Me Gusta.” For her latest single “Faking Love,” Anitta set her sights on another groundbreaking rapper: Saweetie. This week, the duo came together to perform the joint track on The Late Late Show With James Corden.

The captivating rendition of “Faking Love” marked the duo’s debut TV performance of the single. Armed with backup dancers, moody red lighting, and unstoppable confidence, Anitta and Saweetie delivered cutting lyrics about feigning interest in a romantic partner.

Ahead of the set, Anitta and Saweetie chatted with Corden about the exact inspiration behind the track. Anitta admitted that her relationships usually have a three-month expiration date. While writing the song, she was seeing guy she was seeing for about three months and decided it was time to end things. But because it was his birthday week, she decided to wait and “fake love” until after the celebrations ended. “I got to three months and I said, ‘No. He’s not nice,’” she told Corden. “But I didn’t want to break up with him in that moment because it was his birthday week because I’m a nice girl. So I was faking for that week so that after his birthday was [done], I would break up and that’s what I did.”

Anitta also revealed that, with this guy, she took some inspiration out of the 2003 film How To Lose A Guy In Ten Days and did some “disgusting things” to him in order to try to get him to break up with her — but it didn’t quite work.

Watch Saweetie and Anitta deliver their joint single “Faking Love” on The Late Late Show above.

Some of the artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Late last month, a number of individuals within the Phoenix Suns organization released a statement refuting a story that had not yet been published that allegedly detailed instances of racism, sexism, and sexual harassment by the team’s longtime owner, Robert Sarver. The piece, by Baxter Holmes of ESPN, dropped on Thursday afternoon, and it included a number of anecdotes from “more than 70 former and current Suns employees throughout Sarver’s 17-year tenure.”

Among them was an interaction that Sarver had with former Suns head coach Earl Watson, who told ESPN about the exchange. In the aftermath of a 106-100 loss to the Golden State Warriors, Sarver allegedly entered the locker room and had a conversation with Watson surrounding Draymond Green using the n-word.

As Watson told it, Sarver used the actual word and was told by Watson to stop, which led to the owner asking why he could not use it if Green did.

“You know, why does Draymond Green get to run up the court and say [N-word],” Sarver, who is white, allegedly said, repeating the N-word several times in a row.

“You can’t say that,” Watson, who is Black and Hispanic, told Sarver.

“Why?” Sarver replied. “Draymond Green says [N-word].”

“You can’t f—ing say that,” Watson said again.

The piece includes a number of other ex-staffers telling stories of times they heard Sarver use the word, including his belief that the team needed to hire Lindsey Hunter instead of Dan Majerle as head coach in 2013 because “these [N-words] need a [N-word].” While Sarver denied these accounts and claimed “I don’t use that word,” he did say in a statement that one time, he used the word:

“On one occasion a player used the N-word to describe the importance of having each others’ back,” Sarver, via his attorneys, told ESPN. “I responded by saying, ‘I wouldn’t say n—a, I would say that we’re in the foxhole together.’ An assistant coach approached me a short time after and told me that I shouldn’t say the word, even if I were quoting someone else. I immediately apologized and haven’t said it ever again. The N-word has never been a part of my vocabulary.”

In recent months, Charli XCX has dropped some hints about what her next album is going to be like and when it’s coming, but she hadn’t actually offered any concrete info. That changed today, though: Charli has announced that her next album is called Crash and it’s set to drop on March 18, 2022.

She hasn’t shared a tracklist yet, but pre-order listings note the album will have 12 tracks and among them are “Good Ones” and “New Shapes,” the latter of which she shared today and which features Christine And The Queens and Caroline Polachek.

In a recent interview, Charli explained how “Good Ones” is reflective of Crash as a whole, saying, “It definitely sets the palette for the rest of the album. It is heavily ’80s-inspired. There are a lot of uptempo tracks. It’s dark, it’s kind of sexy and sexual and sort of demonic at points, I suppose. But then there are lighter moments, too. But yeah, I think the whole record is about my relationship with relationships and sex and power. But the song itself, I suppose, it’s about falling for a toxic person, being always ready to put myself in the most dangerous positions, just to feel something, which I guess it’s kind of the whole record, but I feel like we’ve all been there at points in life.”

Listen to “New Shapes” above. Charli also announced some 2022 tour dates today, so find those below.

03/26/2022 — Oakland, CA @ Fox Theatre
03/29/2022 — Portland, OR @ Crystal Ballroom
04/01/2022 — San Diego, CA @ The Observatory North Park
04/03/2022 — Los Angeles, CA @ The Greek Theatre
04/06/2022 — Denver, CO @ Ogden Theatre
04/08/2022 — Austin, TX @ ACL Live at The Moody Theater
04/09/2022 — Houston, TX @ House of Blues Houston
04/10/2022 — Dallas, TX @ House of Blues Dallas
04/12/2022 — New Orleans, LA @ Orpheum Theater
04/13/2022 — Atlanta, GA @ The Eastern
04/15/2022 — Asheville, NC @ The Orange Peel
04/16/2022 — Norfolk, VA @ The NorVa
04/18/2022 — Philadelphia, PA @ The Fillmore Philadelphia
04/20/2022 — Boston, MA @ House of Blues Boston
04/22/2022 — New York, NY @ Hammerstein Ballroom
04/23/2022 — New York, NY @ Hammerstein Ballroom
04/25/2022 — Toronto, ON @ Massey Hall
04/26/2022 — Royal Oak, MI @ Royal Oak Music Theatre
04/28/2022 — Saint Paul, MN @ Palace Theatre
04/29/2022 — Chicago, IL @ Byline Bank Aragon Ballroom
05/13/2022 — Dublin, Ireland @ Olympia Theatre
05/15/2022 — Glasgow, UK @ O2 Academy
05/17/2022 — Manchester, UK @ Victoria Warehouse
05/18/2022 — Birmingham, UK @ O2 Academy
05/19/2022 — London, UK @ Alexandra Palace
05/02/2022 — Norwich, UK @ UEA
05/22/2022 — Sheffield, UK @ O2 Academy
05/23/2022 — Nottingham, UK @ Rock City
05/25/2022 — Paris, France* @ Trianon
05/27/2022 — Brussels, Belgium* @ La Madeleine
05/28/2022 — Utrecht, Netherlands @ TivoliVredenburg (Ronda Hall)
05/30/2022 — Berlin, Germany @ Astra
05/03/2022 — Cologne, Germany @ Carlswerk Victoria
06/02/2022 — Barcelona, Spain @ Primavera
06/04/2022 — Milan, Italy @ Fabrique
06/07/2022 — Madrid, Spain @ La Riviera
06/09/2022 — Barcelona, Spain @ Primavera

Crash is out 3/18/2022 via Asylum Records UK/Warner Records UK. Pre-order it here.