Author: GoneTrending

Before Jake, before Mila and Ashton, before Kristen and Dax, there was Matthew McConaughey refusing to follow traditional grooming habits.

“The women in my life, including my mother, have all said, ‘Hey, your natural smell smells, one, like a man, and, two, smells like you,’” he once explained about why he doesn’t wear deodorant. Kate Hudson was not a fan of the actor’s natural musk (“She always brings a salt rock, which is some natural deodorant, and says, ‘Would you please put this on?’ I just never wore it”), but another one of his co-stars didn’t mind it.

Yvette Nicole Brown, the Community actress who appeared in Tropic Thunder with McConaughey, was a guest on SiriusXM’s The Jess Cagle Show, where she waded into the celebrity hygiene discourse. “I remember that Matthew McConaughey said that he did not use deodorant and that he didn’t have an odor. So my first thought is, I’m going to get as close as I can to him to see if he’s right,” she said. “He did not have an odor.” Nicole Brown described McConaughey as smelling like “granola and good living,” and that he “has a sweet, sweet scent that is just him and it’s not musty or crazy.”

Brown added that while McConaughey may not use deodorant, it doesn’t mean he’s not clean. “I believe he bathes because he smells delicious. He just didn’t have deodorant on,” she explained. “Those that don’t bathe, I don’t understand.”

For a week in middle school, I was the stinky kid. It was before I was told I had to wear deodorant, so after class one day, the teacher directed me to the nurse’s office, where I was handed a bar of Speed Stick. I guess another student complained about my body odor, which they were absolutely right to do. But it was still an embarrassing moment. No one said I smelled like “granola and good living.” Celebs get all the breaks.

(Via ET Online)

LAS VEGAS — There’s a calming kindness that radiates off of Xavier Tillman, his voice is soft, direct, with a bit of a smile lilting it up and open-ended, his eyes are warm, and all of that absolutely vanishes the second he steps on court.

For the Grizzlies Summer League team, Tillman and Desmond Bane are like two storms converging. Bane, in his pushing of team pace and tempo like a gradually rising wind, and Tillman more brooding, slow-building and waiting for his moments to rumble over an opposing team’s best defensive efforts or crack back with a shot from deep, thunder and lightning both. Part of their well-paired, storming cadence comes from being the two designated veterans on the roster and what one full and occasionally discordant NBA season has taught them, but another part comes from their natural tendency to push.

In college, what Bane lacked in size he made up for in effort as an energy sparking guard who went careening for loose balls and any possible possession, ultimately adding an intuitive knack to his game for all the places he could see it heading, because he was chasing it there. Tillman on the other hand had the size, so much of it that it made all his plays look unhurried, quick cuts looked like strolls, drives appeared neatly practical. He balanced his size and strength easily, leaning into defensive playmaking with hustle rebounds and clinging screens. Both Bane and Tillman were initially drafted to other teams before they ended up together in Memphis and watching them play and ultimately make the most of such a shaky season — Bane recording the highest 3-point field goal percentage since Steph Curry and Tillman turning into a needed anchor for the Grizzlies’ bench — it’s hard not to think of their circuitous routes to winding up such complimentary teammates as fated.

But it was Summer League that they both missed out on, last year’s event cancelled because of the pandemic, and its been coming back, full-circle, to the 10-day tournament that typically works like a springboard for a rookie’s NBA career that’s given the pair a stage to reconcile the takeaways of their first season with what they want to next few to look like. Especially for Tillman, who looked markedly more comfortable shooting and became, next to Bane, a vocal leader on the floor, essential to Memphis’s fast chemistry.

“It’s been great, especially because this part is a little bit different than it probably would have been, coming at the beginning of my rookie year,” Tillman says, when asked what it’s meant to integrate his first season with his first Summer League. “Where this time, I’m trying to be more of a leader and use my voice and keep myself accountable and keep my teammates accountable. Whereas, if I were to probably come the last time,” he laughs, “I would just be trying not to look crazy out there.”

The Grizzlies Summer League coach, Darko Rajakovic, sees this time as the same developmental opportunity for Tillman and Bane on the floor as much as off of it.

“It means so much. It means so much to the team. It means so much to those two guys,” Rajakovic said after the Grizzlies wrenchingly close and well-played double OT and one-point sudden death loss to the Heat. “They can be leaders of this group. They’re very vocal, they own it and they’ve been doing great jobs so far. They did not have Summer League last year, but this is their opportunity to make a next jump in their careers.“

For some, the double rookie cohort of this year’s Summer League might feel crowded, but it’s a testament to Tillman’s growth as a leader that he’s treating it as another part of his development, noting that “helping guys just with the little day-to-day things has been great.”

For Tillman, Rajakovic specifically mentioned getting the ball into his hands more as his role expands, noting how impressed he’s been seeing Tillman turn into a confident shooter and facilitator.

“Obviously in Summer League, you’re going to have good decisions, bad decisions,” Rajakovic added, “but I think this is going to be very valuable experience.”

One of the most valuable experiences of Summer League for young players is the environment it primes to make decisions, whether they end up being right or wrong. While many of last season’s rookies, like Tillman, looked decidedly better at it, likely owing to more substantial in-game minutes in an NBA season where a next man up mentality became prerequisite due to injuries and Covid protocols, the experience of these games can be an accelerator for next season’s training.

In his role as backup center for the Grizzlies this past season Tillman didn’t wind up taking a ton of shots, preferring instead to wait for clean looks from the corner, executing them with that same unhurried precision. In Vegas, his 3-point production was up along with his confidence, often throwing up outside shots on the fly that stuck, rather than waiting for the right conditions.

“The three ball is definitely all development,” Tillman laughs. “I was not doing that in high school. I started doing it in college towards the end of my career, my sophomore and junior year, but definitely the development, just working day in and day out, and then having the staff, from our coaching staff to the video guys, just always in my ear, ‘Be confident, take those shots. You want to take the shots, we see you’re working on them day in and day out, so just be confident.’ And when I got in the game, I was just playing. So, I see a guy giving me space then I just raise up and do what I do.”

The assurance is working, with Tillman averaging the 2nd most points per game, behind Bane and tied up with two-way Killian Tillie, at 14.5 over the two games he played in Vegas. He notes that he’s trying not to overthink it, opting to correct any mistakes in film the next day.

And for his dominating size, he’s fleet-footed, toggling easily between the two to shake defenders. At one point late in the Heat game, Tillman planted his feet one second, full weight of his body behind him and daring someone to try and bully him off, only to launch into a nimble spin and slip around the defender that took the bait, lane to the basket his to float through. In the team’s first game of the week against the Nets, with under three minutes left in the fourth quarter, Bane and Tillman were the last two catches on a tidy whip-around that hit all but one of the lineup’s hands that had the Nets defense lurching. Bane drives it to the right of the paint, lifting the ball to pass across his shoulders to Tillman, waiting at the free throw line, who lifts high and lightly, toes almost delicately pointed down en pointe, one-handing a floater.

Tillman’s defensive prowess is also beginning to influence his offensive capabilities, most notably (and audibly) in his communication on the floor. More than just bringing the ball up or calling plays, his knack for communication has led him to the team’s highest assist percentage (39.2) and assist to turnover ratio. Between him and Bane there’s a steady hum of chatter, making for an intuitive in-game chemistry that flows through the entire team. Asked if he’s always been a big communicator and he nods, voice emphatic.

“Yeah, that’s something that I definitely take pride in, is using my voice. I said a long time ago, in high school, try to control the controllable. So being a vocal leader, hustling, bringing a great attitude to the game are just things that I try to do on a day in and day out basis because I know those are the things that I can control.”

Before he got to Vegas, Tillman was already accustomed to doing a little bit of everything. Memphis saw Jonas Valanciunas, Brandon Clarke and Jaren Jackson Jr. all out for stretches this past season, and Tillman became the bench’s steady ballast, providing valuable and needed defense in the gaps on the floor when stretched starters Dillon Brooks and Kyle Anderson were absent from it. In Vegas, Memphis outplayed Brooklyn and got to double OT with the Heat largely because of Tillman’s inherent defensive capabilities — yanking boards, sticking like a long shadow to his guys, cleaning up around the rim — but where the team looked best was when he would lift, assured, for three pointers, drive sanguine to the basket, or use his voice to draw up the lines not only for the team to play within, but to keep them connected. That Tillman had to wait a year to close the loop on the first season of his NBA career only means that the shape of what’s to come for him is all the more boundless.

If anyone shouldn’t have to worry about imposter syndrome, it’s Brandi Carlile, who is readying a new album, In These Silent Days, and has won a total of six Grammys. Still, the country performer is a human and therefore plenty capable of feeling a universal emotion like imposter syndrome, which tends to be followed by burnout.

“The term impostor syndrome makes sense to me,” Carlile told the Wall Street Journal in a new interview, adding, “and just feeling like if I didn’t say yes to everything, eventually everyone was going to find out how unqualified I am to be in the position I’m in. I’m going to stop getting invited, and I’m going back to the bars if I don’t show up for everybody’s thing. I was getting really tired and empty.”

In the wide-ranging interview, Carlile also went deep on how faith plays into being part of the LGBTQIA community. “The concept of being rejected, being queer but still needing my faith — so many gay people came to me and admitted that, and I don’t know that we LGBTQIA people have been allowed to be honest about how much of that we still want to hold on to,” she said. “Faith is so much more sacred to the people that have had to fight for it, not just have it awarded based on some birthright.”

There are some other great quotes, too, especially around Carlile’s forging a friendship with folk icon Joni Mitchell. “Joni often recounts a dream that she had where she’s in a room with an audience, and her skin is made of clear cellophane and all of her organs are exposed,” Carlile said. “You can see everything inside of her body–she’s more than naked, she’s utterly translucent. That basically says everything that needs to be said about Blue. But it sets a standard, too, for at least once in an artist’s career they really have to fully lay it out there.”

Read the rest of the interview here.

In These Silent Days is out 10/1 via Low Country Sound/Elektra Records. Pre-order it here.

Brandi Carlile is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Wes Anderson seems to be following in the footsteps of Knives Out 2 director Rian Johnson by casting every available actor he can find and/or with a pulse in his new movie. The latest actor to fit the bill, according to The Hollywood Reporter, is Black Widow star Scarlett Johansson.

While it won’t be Johansson’s first time collaborating with Anderson, it will be the first time we see her actual face in an Anderson movie; she previously voiced a show dog named Nutmeg in his stop-motion animation feature Isle of Dogs (2018). And no, this isn’t a part in the still-yet-to-be-released The French Dispatch which, after having its release date pushed back a couple of times due to COVID, is set to be released in October. This is the twee director’s even newer film, which is also presumably twee; though it doesn’t have a title yet, it will feature such Anderson mainstays as Bill Murray, Adrien Brody, Tilda Swinton, and Jason Schwartzman. It will also mark the Anderson debut of a couple of big-name newbies, including Tom Hanks, Margot Robbie, and Rupert Friend.

Like most Anderson movies when they’re in the making, there aren’t a whole lot of details known about what it’s about. What we do know, according to The Hollywood Reporter, is that it’s already filming in Spain. And if film history tells us anything, it will undoubtedly scratch that twee itch.

(Via The Hollywood Reporter)

We all have that one show we completely binged through during quarantine. Some of us, myself included, might even have our… let’s just round down and say ten. However, for Made for Love and How I Met Your Mother star Cristin Milioti, Hulu and chill got a whole lot more inspiring when she finally settled in with FX It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia.

In an interview with W Magazine, Milioti revealed herself as a “huge Sunny” fan before delving a bit deeper into her 14 season-long rewatch. According to Milioti, it was the first time she had sat down with the show to properly watch through a season of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia since her hectic schedule caused her to drop off around season 7. Milioti says she started at the beginning, watched every season, and found the show “wonderful to revisit” before adding “the cast is so brilliant.”

Kaitlin Olson—have you ever seen that episode where she does a pratfall into a car and slams her head against the car door? I hadn’t seen that episode in a long time, and I remember thinking, You can’t fake that. She must’ve just thrown herself. And it is so funny. She’s incredible. Her character is deeply depraved. I would say maybe Dennis [Reynolds] is the most depraved, because he’s a straight-up psychopath. He’s a sociopath. But they’re all pretty depraved, which I also like.

However, when it comes to which castmate stands above and beyond to Milioti, the actress revealed she was nearly in awe of Danny DeVito’s performance as Frank Reynolds on the show. According to Milioti, DeVito’s actions as Frank are “almost avant-garde in their rancidness:”

I also think that Danny DeVito’s performance in It’s Always Sunny is one of the most demented performances I’ve ever seen. The things he’s doing are so almost avant-garde in their rancidness. I don’t know if you’ve seen the episode where he sews himself up into a leather couch completely naked at a Christmas party, to spy on someone. It’s one of the funniest pieces of physical comedy I’ve ever seen.

Luckily for actress and physical comedy connoisseur Milioti — and all of us, really — It’s Always Sunny shows literally zero signs of stopping anytime soon. Just last December the series was renewed for four more seasons, taking its total number up to 18 and making it the longest-running live-action comedy series in American television history. While the show has admitted to perhaps making some comedy missteps in the past, the FX show is known for continuously growing and its biting social commentary, making it an absolute quarantine must-watch for those seeking a bit of depravity.

In the months since a trio of COVID vaccines were made widely available to Americans, there are still tens of millions of people who refuse to take them. This leaves the U.S. in the very vulnerable position of having a vaccination rate of less than 50 percent nationwide. Meanwhile, new variants of the virus are popping up, leading some areas to see record-high rates of COVID-related hospitalizations. Which means that hospitals will continue to be so overwhelmed by the number of unvaccinated COVID patients occupying their beds that they can’t provide the necessary care for patients suffering from other issues, such as strokes, heart attacks, or cancer. But one doctor, Seattle-based lung and public health expert Dr. Vin Gupta, has a novel solution for this novel virus: No vax, no medical treatment.

As Raw Story reports, Dr. Gupta appeared on MSNBC on Monday to discuss his bold proposal with Joy Reid, and specifically made the point that his idea is not as unprecedented as it sounds. Using the example of a patient in need of a liver transplant—”You can’t get a liver if you had been drinking in the last six months”—Gupta believes it would be in the best interest of the public (and public health policy) to apply the same protocols to individuals who refuse to be vaccinated against COVID… then incur tens of thousands of dollars in hospital bills each if and when they develop it:

“I’m concerned about the winter ahead… Will you in certain zip codes, Joy, be able to get the care you and your family—speaking to all of your viewers out there in the zip codes in the southeastern United States—will they be able to get the care that they need and deserve if they need ICU level care…

Also what we’re noticing is the rise of other health threats are real and emerging in a big way. Respiratory virus, a big virus that can affect kids, usually December to February is causing children’s hospitals across the country to fill up with RSV patients.

So, this is a really critical time here for us to rethink, well, how do we think about care rationing in the ICU? Especially how might that motivate the unvaccinated to get vaccinated? This is where these types are key.

Gupta, Raw Story points out, is not alone in his thinking—though in some cases people are considering the financial burden. In an op-ed for MarketWatch, Jonathan Meer, a professor of public policy at Texas A&M University, wrote that:

“Hospitalizations for COVID are almost entirely confined to those who are not vaccinated, often at the cost of tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Who should bear those costs? Under our system of risk-sharing, it’s all of us, whether through government programs like Medicare and Medicaid or through private insurers. When someone who refuses to get the vaccine gets seriously ill, their bills currently are paid by taxpayers or others in their insurance group.

But why should the vaccinated bear those financial costs? Insurers, led by government programs, should declare that medically-able, eligible people who choose not to be vaccinated are responsible for the full financial cost of COVID-related hospitalizations, effective in six weeks. That gives time for the unvaccinated to make a choice, based on their personal preferences and a truer sense of responsibility.”

You can watch Dr. Gupta’s full segment above.

(Via Raw Story)

Country star Maren Morris is expanding her talents by trying her hand as a guest-host of Jimmy Kimmel Live!. The singer filled in for Kimmel Monday night where she took on a hilarious opening monologue, interviewed the iconic musician Willie Nelson, and even sang an educational song about weed laws.

Morris opened the night by detailing what the past years has been like for her. The singer gave birth to her first child in March of 2020, which means she spent the entire quarantine with an infant. “So, basically this next hour is a vacation for me,” she told the crowd. “I don’t care much you cry, I will not be breastfeeding any of you.”

After her opening monologue, the singer launched into a song she wrote about the various weed laws in the US. After joking that Nelson sent her some pot brownies, Morris said her song details which states people can legally toke in, and which ones they can’t:

“Even though Willie couldn’t be here in person, he did send me some brownies. So if you can’t find me later, I’ll probably be freaking out on the roof. Speaking of pot, it’s legal here in LA. But that’s not the case everywhere in America, and it’s hard to keep track of where you can and can’t smoke. So, I spent the weekend doing some research, and I turned that research into a song.”

After singing her cannabis tune, Morris chatted with Nelson about his book, Willie Nelson’s Letters To America. During their talk, the singer reminisced on the time she opened for him in concert. Morris said she was surprised to learn that Nelson never had set lists. Instead, he performed all his songs on the fly. “Well, it’s easy to do because I know all the songs, the band knows them forwards and backwards,” Nelson said. “It would be almost impossible to throw them a curve because we’ve played together so much, they know what I’m going to do. It’s pretty easy to do it without a real set list.”

Watch Morris’ cannabis song above, around the 8:40-minute mark and see her conversation with Nelson on Jimmy Kimmel Live!.

As fans eagerly await the release of Drake’s highly-anticipated album Certified Lover Boy, the Canadian superstar himself has continually pushed it back. Although the initial delay could be attributed to his knee injury in late 2020, further delays have frustrated fans. However, it seems that Drake may have had a good reason for putting it off, as he casually revealed that he contracted COVID at some point over the past several months while defending himself from a fan account’s brutal assessment of his haircut.

After a fan account on Instagram posted comparison pics of Drake’s now-infamous “heart part,” commenting that in the more recent pic “that heart is stressed,” Drake himself replied in the comments, attributing the funky growth to a bout with coronavirus. “I had Covid,” he reasoned. “That sh*t grew in weird, I had to start again.” However, he promised, “It’s coming back don’t diss.”

The photo in question is several weeks old so it’s possible that he’s already mostly recovered physically and follically, and as he told Sirius XM’s Sound 42 show Fri Yiy Friday, “[ Certified Lover Boy]’s ready… album’s cooked, looking forward to delivering it to you.” It may still be a while until it’s released, as there are usually last-minute details to be worked out, brand partnerships to solidify, and tour dates to arrange before an album drops but hopefully, Drake can use that additional time to repair his broken heart.

Austin lo-fi heroes Hovvdy have shared a pair of new singles today, “Junior Day League” and “Around Again,” both of which come with music videos directed by Hayden Hubner and Adam Alonzo, respectively. Both tracks are set to appear on the duo’s forthcoming fourth album, True Love, which arrives October 1 via Grand Jury. “‘Around Again’ lyrically shifts between big reflections and small memories,” said Hovvdy’s Will Taylor. “The simplicity of the music and words really helped define this song for me. I’m thankful to have had help from Charlie and Andrew expanding and finishing it,”

Taylor also opened up about the mellow, late-summer jam “Junior Day League,” noting how it’s “about being in a daze on a fast day in a new town. Falling enamored with the people you’re with and the setting you’re in. Letting things move around you, rather than trying to control them.”

Opening up about the album’s title track, “True Love,” Taylor said last month, “It’s about resiliency and appreciating the little moments, even when the big picture can be daunting. I’m proud of how we let the songs and the feeling of the record do the work for us. Even in somber moments, the joy behind the music is noticeable, and that’s what makes it special to me.”

Watch the videos for “Junior Day League” and “Around Again” above. True Love arrives on 10/1 via Grand Jury. Pre-order it here.

As The Crown gets ready to dive deep into the headline-gripping era of Princess Diana and Prince Charles‘ rapidly dissolving marriage, Netflix has unveiled a first look at Elizabeth Debicki and Dominic West who, respectively, step in to the royal roles for Season 5. While West does his best to embody the look of Charles, it is obviously Debicki who’s the uncanny ringer for Princess Di.

According to Variety, the fifth season will tackle the royal couple’s very public marital troubles and infidelities, which were not confined to them as a couple:

Season 5 will likely see the family through the Queen’s so-called “annus horribilis” in 1992, during which three of her four children separated from their partners — including Prince Charles and Diana — as well as the public revelation of Charles and Camilla’s affair and the publication of Prince Andrew’s wife Sarah Ferguson sunbathing topless with a male friend.

There’s also a question mark around whether this season will portray Princess Diana’s fatal car crash in 1997, or if that will be saved for the sixth and final season. Of course, navigating Charles and Di has put The Crown in hot water, and that was when the show was only beginning to scratch the surface of their scandals. Season 4 was plagued with calls for the Netflix series to include a disclaimer that clearly denotes the show as “fiction.” However, Netflix and the show’s creative team pushed back at the mounting pressure from British sources connected to the royal family.

(Via Netflix on Twitter)