Year: 2022

Though Donald Trump’s disastrous tenure as President of the United States may have given a bad name to reality TV stars-turned-presidents, Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelenskyy has many people rethinking the deleterious connection.

Most people know that before becoming president of Ukraine in 2019, Zelenskyy made his living as an actor and comedian—a career he began when he was still just a teenager. But new clips have been popping up of Zelenskyy’s days on the stage which, when coupled with his fierce determination to stay put and defend his country, are quickly turning him into a kind of modern-day folk hero.

Over the weekend, The Recount’s Kat Abughazaleh pulled up a clip of Zelenskyy getting jiggy with it back in 2006, when he was a contestant on the Ukrainian version of Dancing With the Stars.

That he took home the top prize should not be surprising to anyone who watches the clip.

It was, of course, just the latest in a long line of Zelenskyy’s surprising accomplishments that people are celebrating following his bold stance against Russia. In addition to his time spent on the dance floor, Zelenskyy stans are also remembering the time he created and starred in a series in which he played a history teacher who accidentally became president.

Perhaps most endearingly, he also voiced the ever-lovable Paddington in the film’s international release.

The post-Donald Trump Presidency career trajectory for many of the former POTUS’s closest collaborators (and sometime-conspirators) has followed one of three paths: becoming a talking head for Fox News, write a tell-all book, or both. While there have been enough “insider” books written about the Trump years to clog every White House toilet, that doesn’t mean that there aren’t keen insights to glean from a lot of them. And to hear former attorney general Bill Barr tell it in his upcoming memoir about the time he spent working under both Trump and George H.W. Bush before him, Trump was his own worst enemy.

The New York Times got an early look at Barr’s upcoming tell-all, crankily titled the One Damn Thing After Another: Memoirs of an Attorney General. In it, the former AG paints Trump like the impetuous, tantrum-prone toddler he was often described and depicted as, writing that Trump’s “self-indulgence and lack of self-control” are what led to him losing the 2020 presidential election.

In some ways, Barr’s book—and its timing—seem to serve as a giant, hard-covered warning call to Republicans that Trump is not the future of the Republican party—nor should he be viewed that way (despite the fact that he just won the CPAC straw poll). Barr describes the whole notion of Trump running for office again in 2024 as “dismaying,” and begs his fellow Republicans who are leaning that way to reconsider.

“Donald Trump has shown he has neither the temperament nor persuasive powers to provide the kind of positive leadership that is needed,” Barr writes.

Trump and Barr seemed to be pretty tight, right up until Trump lost the 2020 election but refused to concede the fact. It’s at that point, according to Barr, that Trump “stopped listening to his advisers, became manic and unreasonable, and was off the rails. He surrounded himself with sycophants, including many whack jobs from outside the government, who fed him a steady diet of comforting but unsupported conspiracy theories.”

It’s worth noting, maybe just because it’s fun to type, that at the same time Barr started backing away from outgoing president, Trump labeled Barr a “swamp creature.” Because he has the best words!

Barr also claims that Trump’s decision to push The Big Lie and “the absurd lengths to which he took his ‘stolen election’ claim led to the rioting on Capitol Hill.”

One Damn Thing After Another: Memoirs of an Attorney General will be released on March 8, 2022.

(Via The New York Times)

Days after multiple videos emerged online purporting to depict Ukrainian authorities discriminating against African residents seeking to flee the nation as its ongoing conflict with Russia escalates, help for those residents may soon come from a surprising source: Young Thug. Thug posted to his Instagram Story offering his assistance and calling for his “rap brothers” to pitch in as well.

“lf some of my rap brothers are in, I’m willing to help Africans get out of Ukraine,” he wrote. “However I can sense they not letting us pass. Who ever holds the info for these movements please contact me ASAP I’m ready.” It didn’t take long for him to secure pledges from the likes of music impresario Kevin Liles, private jet broker Kelvin Mensah, and YSL Records rapper Strick, who all reshared his post.

Thugger is developing a penchant for putting his money where his mouth is when it comes to helping out those less fortunate than him. In 2017, he donated to Planned Parenthood against threats to defund the organization from Donald Trump, while in 2021, he and his artist Gunna paid bail for 30 Fulton County Jail inmates and hosted a dinner for their families while expressing plans to continue doing so in the future. He’s even gotten more hands-on of late, kicking off the new year by helping a stranded motorist jumpstart his car. Thugger is a man of the people.

Young Thug is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

The second season of HBO’s hit series Euphoria came to its dramatic conclusion last night, and even HBO Max couldn’t keep up. After weeks of ups and downs, viewers finally got some closure, particularly from Rue’s storyline. But could that be the end for the Euphoria teens? As you’ve probably guessed, no, it’s not.

A third season was recently ordered by HBO, though it likely won’t premiere until late next year or even 2024. There was a long gap between the first and second season due to COVID, so perhaps the new season will get started on production earlier rather than later. But, there are a few things to consider.

First, there were some rumors and reports of a toxic work environment behind the scenes, with showrunner Sam Levinson not being as, uh, prepared as he’s supposed to be. Reports stated that the creator often came to set without a complete script, forcing the cast and crew to work long days. That, paired with a main cast member Barbie Ferreira walking out could cause some tension between the cast and crew. Maybe Levinson needs some more time to actually complete the script.

Another factor that might affect season three is the rising careers of most of the cast, specifically Zendaya and Sydney Sweeney, who have both taken on major projects over the past few months, which will likely shoot this year. The show probably wouldn’t go on without them, so they might have to postpone and schedule the season around them.

The show is insanely popular, so it’s safe to say the next season will be just as hyped up when it happens…eventually.

The Chicks are heading on the road for the first time since before the pandemic to celebrate 2020’s Gaslighter, which came after a 14-year hiatus and a name change. The trio is bringing Patty Griffin and Jenny Lewis along with them for select dates out of the 27 across the country. Find the full tour dates below.

06/14 – St Louis, MO @ Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre*
06/15 – Chicago, IL @ Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre*
06/19 – Noblesville, IN @ Ruoff Music Center*
06/21 – Cincinnati, OH @ Riverbend Music Center*
06/22 – Detroit, MI @ Pine Knob Music Theatre*
06/24 – Toronto, ON @ Budweiser Stage*
06/27 – Cleveland, OH @ Blossom Music Center*
06/29 – Syracuse, NY @ St. Joseph’s Health Amphitheater at Lakeview*
06/30 – Hartford, CT @ Xfinity Theatre*
07/02 – Wantagh, NY @ Northwell Health at Jones Beach Theatre*
07/05 – Boston, MA @ Xfinity Center*
07/06 – Holmdel, NJ @ P.N.C. Bank Arts Center*
07/08 – Camden, NJ @ Waterfront Music Pavilion*
07/09 – Bristow, VA @ Jiffy Lube Live*
07/12 – Raleigh, NC @ Coastal Credit Union Music Park at Walnut Creek*
07/14 – Charlotte, NC @ PNC Music Pavilion*
07/16 – Alpharetta, GA @ Ameris Bank Amphitheatre*
07/23 – San Diego, CA @ North Island Credit Union Amphitheatre^
07/25 – Los Angeles, CA @ The Greek Theatre^
07/26 – Los Angeles, CA @ The Greek Theatre^
07/29 – Santa Barbara, CA @ Santa Barbara Bowl^
07/30 – Mountain View, CA @Shoreline Amphitheatre^
08/02 – Denver, CO @ Red Rocks Amphitheatre^
08/05 – Salt Lake City, UT @ USANA Amphitheatre^
08/06 – Boise, ID @ Ford Idaho Center Amphitheatre^
08/09 – Bend, OR @ Hayden Homes Amphitheater^
08/13 – George, WA @ The Gorge Amphitheatre^

* with Patty Griffin
^ with Jenny Lewis

With The Batman, director Matt Reeves had a daunting task ahead of him. Not only did he have to restore the character that didn’t exactly light audiences on fire with Ben Affleck as the Caped Crusader, but by going back to a standalone universe with Robert Pattinson, he faced unavoidable comparisons to Christopher Nolan’s epic The Dark Knight Trilogy. Essentially, Reeves had to bring Batman back to his former glory while also putting his own spin on the classic DC Comics character.

After the pandemic pushed the film back nearly a year, allowing Reeves and Warner Bros. to hype up this new Batman that would be more Kurt Cobain than dashing millionaire playboy, the big question is does The Batman and its three hour runtime deliver the Bat-goods? According to early reviews, the answer is yes. In fact, several critics are already boldly claiming The Batman weaves a gothic story that surpasses The Dark Knight, long considered to to be the crème de la crème of Batman films.

You can check out spoiler-free excerpts from the first batch of reviews below:

Mike Ryan, Uproxx:

Matt Reeves’s The Batman, at least as far as superhero movies go, feels so old-fashioned that it has come all the way around to unique again. While watching The Batman, it feels like it has more in common with gritty crime mysteries like L.A. Confidential or Se7en than, say, Spider-Man: No Way Home. (A movie I like quite a bit, for the record.) The Batman is a movie fully embracing its present and not looking forward to what everything might mean five movies down the line.

Peter Debruge, Variety:

This grounded, frequently brutal and nearly three-hour film noir registers among the best of the genre, even if — or more aptly, because — what makes the film so great is its willingness to dismantle and interrogate the very concept of superheroes.

Ross Bonaime, Collider:

Reeves has made the best Batman film since The Dark Knight, with a captivating and rich world that reinvigorates characters we’ve already seen on screen over and over again. With The Batman, Reeves prioritizes the shadows of Gotham, setting up this city in a way we’ve never seen before onscreen, bringing life to the world around Batman. Instead of heroes and villains that live in black and white, Reeves has presented a city defined by the gray.

Pete Hammond, Deadline:

In terms of action, this is meant to be a slower-paced and far moodier take on the 80-year-old fan favorite but is worth the price of admission just for a midfilm car chase that ranks with the best in any previous version. The Batman might not be The Batman, but what Reeves has wrought is pretty damn good and worth a few spins in the Batmobile. In other words, this is a Batman you have never seen before.

Julian Roman, MovieWeb:

Director Matt Reeves and star Robert Pattinson have crafted a stunning noir epic that rivals The Dark Knight. The Batman is a tour de force cinematic experience that will engulf you utterly. Gotham City drips in blood, corruption, and treachery as a tortured vigilante hunts a serial killer with a diabolical agenda. He uncovers frightening truths that shatter his sense of purpose. Raise your expectations to the stratosphere. The Batman is stupefyingly awesome.

David Rooney, The Hollywood Reporter:

A brooding genre piece in which the superhero trappings of cape and cowl, Batmobile and cool gadgetry are folded into the grimy noir textures of an intricately plotted detective story. Led with magnetic intensity and a granite jawline by Robert Pattinson as a Dark Knight with daddy issues, this ambitious reboot is grounded in a contemporary reality where institutional and political distrust breeds unhinged vigilantism.

David Ehrlich, IndieWire:

While Reeves unfortunately retreats to the safety of franchise-building mode with the penultimate scene, “The Batman” succeeds in transforming the Bat-Signal into a beacon of hope rather than something to fear. Not just for the citizens of Gotham, but also for the multiplex audiences who will inevitably have to visit the city a few more times before Hollywood gives us somewhere else to go. Compared to the superhero movies that came before it, “The Batman” is already halfway there.

Alex Stedman, IGN:

This is the scariest Batman yet. Right from the violent opening scene, the message is clear: this is not your mother’s Caped Crusader. This is a creeping, angry, white-knuckle-inducing psychological thriller with a heavy dose of crime noir – and believe it or not, Reeves absolutely pulls it off, achieving a grimly beautiful masterpiece.

The Batman opens in theaters on March 4.

Mary J Blige and Method Man have made magic together for nearly 30 years, since their 1994 collaboration, “I’ll Be There For You/You’re All I Need To Get By” peaked at No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. Last night, both were honored during the NAACP Image Awards with wins in the Outstanding Supporting Actor In A Drama Series for their roles in 50 Cent’s Starz crime drama, Power Book II: Ghost as drug matriarch Monét Tejada and shady lawyer Davis MacLean, respectively.

Mary celebrated her award with a post on Instagram thanking the NAACP Image Awards committee along with 50 Cent, Power creator Courtney A. Kemp, Starz CEO Jeffrey Hirsch, and the show’s cast, crew, and producers. Meanwhile, Method Man’s post about the win touted his new negotiating power as a two-time award winner, as he cracked in the caption: “Price just went up!!”

Both stars are flying high lately, but Mary J has been on another level thanks to her recent appearance in Dr. Dre’s Super Bowl halftime performance, which she followed up with an appearance during the NBA’s All-Star Weekend performance alongside DJ Khaled, Gunna, Lil Baby, Lil Wayne, and Migos. Meanwhile, 50 Cent even made a joking reference to Mary’s Power character after a viral moment with Michael Jordan.

Congrats to both stars for their wins as we look forward to seeing what they do next.

Fox News dropped the “fair and balanced” slogan about five years ago, and when it comes to some hosts, it’s been balls to the wall in terms of far-right propaganda. The notoriety of those talking heads is so great that SNL‘s most recent “Weekend Update” segment largely went to town on Tucker Carlson, who has even been called out by Newsmax for all of his pro-Putin, Russian propaganda.

The conservative news network’s sure on shaking footing when it comes to Russia-vs-Ukraine (given the whole Trump-favoring thing, obviously), and on Sunday Night In America With Troy Gowdy, a former Trump advisor didn’t hide his bias. Retired U.S. Army Colonel Douglas Macgregor stood up for Putin while arguing that economic sanctions aren’t worth it, that all of this is NATO’s fault, and that Ukraine should roll over while every other country should stand by and let Putin do as he pleases.

Well, Jennifer Griffin (the Fox News national security correspondent at the Pentagon) was up next with Gowdy, and she wasn’t having this propaganda party:

“I just heard your last guest, and I feel like I need to correct some of things that Colonel Doug Macgregor just said. And I’m not sure 10 minutes is enough time to do so, because there were so many distortions in what he just said, and talking about the west and NATO vilifying Putin and sounding like an apologist for Putin.”

Griffin wasn’t done yet, and the Daily Beast notes that she’s had to take this on-air route more than once since Putin’s troops invaded Ukraine. Griffin noted that Putin wants to take Russia back to 19th-century imperialism, and she’s followed Putin closely for decades, given that she’s worked at Fox News’ Moscow bureau. Then Griffin came for Macgregor’s own actions, which she says helped make Putin’s current situation possible and even emboldened him to do so:

“The kind of appeasement talk that Col. MacGregor, who should know better, when he was in government, he was the one who was advising Trump to pull all troops out of Germany. That projection of weakness is what made Putin think he could move into a sovereign country like Ukraine.”

As MSNBC is noting, Trump had actually planned to place MacGregor as U.S. ambassador to Germany, but all of that fell apart when Macgregor started popping onto Fox News with an arsenal of conspiracy theories. That didn’t totally fly with Gowdy on Sunday night, but Griffin’s pushback was a lot louder.

The fallout from Omerette The Great’s “Sorry Not Sorry” continues to settle as more Atlanta notables weigh in on the upstart rapper’s declarations about who’s really from the city. After T.I. “respectfully” offered his thoughts — along with a helpful visual aid — now, another of Georgia’s rising stars, Latto, has entered the debate. Surprisingly, she agrees with Omeretta but says it’s not the scandal so many people are making it out to be.

Latto, who recently issued her own pledge of allegiance to her hometown with the single “Soufside,” posted a TikTok quoting a line from Omeretta’s controversial song outro. “Clay Co ishnot Alanna,” she wrote in the caption as she doubled over with laughter in the video. When one follower asked whether the song was “really that big of a deal,” Latto replied, “It’s not a big deal lol clay co is the south we not the city she said the truth tbh.”

Clay County, Georgia, is certainly not part of Atlanta’s metropolitan area, which seems to be the common factor in all the places Omeretta names in “Sorry Not Sorry.” “College Park is not Atlanta / Lithonia is not Atlanta / Clayco is not Atlanta / Decatur is not Atlanta / Gwinnett is not Atlanta / Roswell is not Atlanta / Forest Park is not Atlanta / Lilburn is not Atlanta,” she declares. The song went viral as people from Atlanta and the surrounding areas debated the merits of her arguments — which may have been the whole point.

You can check out Omeretta’s “Sorry Not Sorry” above.

A new four-part documentary series about James Brown is coming in 2023, according to A&E network. Titled James Brown: Say It Loud, it’ll be produced by the Rolling Stones‘ Mick Jagger and the Roots’ Questlove and Black Thought. It’ll feature tons of interviews with people from Brown’s life such as friends and collaborators, while also including exclusive archival footage.

“He was a brilliant performer who inspired me from the beginning and was deeply committed to the Civil Rights movement,” Jagger said in a statement, also stating that he’s “thrilled” to help produce it. “I have always admired James and learned so much from him.”

“The life of James Brown is significant not only to understand his immense musical impact, which inspires us and other artists to this day, but also for the deep and lasting impression he has had on American culture,” Questlove and Black Thought added. “Brown’s life is a crucial and timely story of struggle, redemption, and self-identity and we are honored to have the chance to share it.”

James Brown: Say It Loud will be directed by Deborah Riley Draper. It follows the 2014 biopic Get On Up, in which Chadwick Boseman played Brown. That was also produced by Jagger.